Thursday, December 3, 2009

Merry Christmas wishes to our family and friends!

Just a little sum-up of an amazing year of change for us!

To know more about any of the kids ... check out their link (on the right under OUR KIDS)! Or just keep reading the nexts posts to be filled in on our year!

Tim keeps busy working to provide for us all! He is no longer working from home, but is back on-site at Boeing. He is thankful to have a job, surviving many rounds of lay-offs! We've done a lot of remodeling/reorganizing this year, so in his "free" time his to-do list is never ending! He's happy to have bought our first low-mileage car, meaning less maintenance for him!

Sandy is happy adjusting to a life of no home-schooling, after 20+ years at it! My "job" this year has basically been as a college counselor to our two teenagers! I'm getting pretty good at making great looking transcripts and figuring out the college application ropes! We've been busy re-organizing and thinning out stuff from 31 years of marriage and 22 years in this house! I am thrilled to report that we have finally replaced our 22 year old nasty carpet with beautiful wood floors and actually bought real furniture for the first time!

Deborah and Jonah became parents in August and moved into their new home in September. OUR grandson, Owen, is now an adorable 4 months old!!!

Rachel and Clay have had a busy year with Clay completing his MBA, working on their new home and enjoying OUR darling granddaughter, Adah, who just turned one!

James finished high school, was accepted into his dream school, and is now attending the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music! We're all missing him!

Beka is left alone at home! Well, when she IS home! She keeps very busy being a full-time community college student, while finishing high school. She is usually in some production, performing somewhere in the valley. She is auditioning for colleges and hopes to go next year!

We feel tremendously blessed and so thankful for the goodness and grace of God in our lives! Just wish we could sit down with each of you to chat and catch up - hopefully someday!

Much love and we hope to hear from you!

Two thrilled grandparents...we're loving it!
...and some more family shots!

Fall Fun Highlights!

We picked James up a the airport on Dec. 8th -
He's been away at college for the past 12 weeks!
The last post was about saying goodbye ...
it's way better getting him back!
We were all happy to be together again
... especially "little" sister and "big" brother!
Our "small" Thanksgiving dinner!
We missed having James with us...
Clay, Rachel and Adah came for dessert and games later! Our first grandbaby had her first Birthday on November 19th!!!
She was so proud to be ONE!
We packed a box of fall goodies for James away at college!

The outside was decorated so beautifully!!!!
Just how a college guy wants a package to look when he gets it in his dorm!
We had fun!

Halloween with Adah Belle the "Blue Belle"!

Adah and Owen checking each other out!

Deborah and Owen spent a weekend at our house
while Jonah went to visit his family in Wisconsin!
So fun to have babies around again!

We had a night out with babies and strollers to Schnepf Farms Pumpkin and Chili Festival!

Our three BIG girls!