Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Carol of the Bells



Please forgive the poor picture quality of this video.  It is of son C playing the prelude music before our worship service at church last Sunday.  We brought the nice video camera to record him, only to find that it was completely out of power. :(  Parent fail!  So I quickly got out my old point and shoot, whose flash hasn't worked in over a year, and in doing so missed the first minute or so of the song.  Wish you all could have heard it in person!  It was wonderful!!  How I love his piano playing.....

Monday, December 21, 2015

Happy 11th Birthday, Little Man!

We had a fun day celebrating our Little Man as he turned 11 today.  Not so "little" anymore!

Thankyou Grandma and Grandpa for this art set!


Lego Star Wars graphic novel from siblings.  It's actually really cool!


Hat from biggest sister from her mission trip to Puerto Rico last summer.


And this....no way!  Could it be???  The Millennium Falcon lego set??!!





Two hours later....making progress!


Little Man is a big Dr. Who fan, so I made him a tardis cake.  It's convenient that the tardis is a nice rectangle, just like a cake....






Little Man, we are so thankful you were born!  You add so much joy to our lives, and we love your tender heart for Jesus and others.  My heart is full of gratitude to the Lord for giving us you. :)

Saturday, December 12, 2015

End of First Semester Art Show

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go visit daughter G at her college, for their annual "Hanging of the Greens" Christmas tradition, and end of first semester art show.  All the students in every art class are required to submit pieces for the show, but they are not guaranteed their pieces will make it in.  Daughter G got TWO pieces into the show!  We are so proud of her, and so thankful that we got to attend this show.

This is one of her pieces that did not make it in.  It was an exercise in learning "values", which is the artsy fartsy way of saying "shades."  It was stunning in real life.


Here is one of her pieces that DID make it into the show.  They had to take a familiar object (in her case, a tape measure) and turn it into something else....



Her second piece that made it into the show was her exercise in "lines."  It's hard to see well in this picture because it was a pencil drawing and was under glass, but she did a fantastic job on it.





Some of the other pieces were really creative and amazing.  I loved this one.  The word in red, "life", is repeated in the background in dozens and dozens of different languages.


Son C contemplating one of the art pieces.


We all loved this sculpture of a whale breaching out of an encyclopedia!


Before the art show we enjoyed singing carols outside with most of the student body and a lot of people from the community.  I'm grateful we live close enough to attend special events like this!  And grateful that our college girl invites us. :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Picking out our Christmas Tree!


Goodbye Fall

You were lovely this year!  So many warm days, with such gorgeous coloring.  We thoroughly enjoyed you!






You did give us rain on Halloween, but hey.... we could deal.  Our dogs didn't want to stay in their costumes very long anyway.  (Darth Vader and Spiderman)


(our two youngest as Dr. Who and a Jedi knight, with two other little friends!  The teen boys opted not to go trick or treating this year.....end of an era)


Thank you for giving us such a great time, fall.  See you again next year!

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Thanksgiving Day - 2015

Our Thanksgiving Day morning tradition....eating cinnamon rolls and oranges for breakfast while watching the parade on TV.  I love traditions.



We have several football loving members of our extended family, so football watching is always a part of our Thanksgiving Day.  At the start of one game I happened to catch Little Man spontaneously putting his hand over his heart while the national anthem was being sung.  So sweet.


Settlers of Catan!


 New great-grandson.



They don't look real thrilled to be at the kid's table!



It was delightful to have some little people at our Thanksgiving dinner!  With our youngest being 10, we were in need of new littles!


New crayons are irresistible.


Brothers......still silly after all these years....



So much and so many people to be thankful for!