We're Proud of You!!!

Our daughter Melissa and her husband Jason graduated from Indiana University Saturday...Melissa received her Master of Arts in Speech and Language Pathology and Jason his Master of Arts in Latin with a Teaching Certificate. We were so happy to be there to share in the joy of this accomplishment they have worked so hard to acheive.



Good job guys...we're really proud of you!

I'm Still Here...

I haven't posted on my blog in so long I have almost forgotten how :o) Our schedule has been abnormally hectic and then adding decorating and cookies and finishing (starting) Ella's stocking,hosting some holiday get togethers etc, etc, etc, leaves no time for fun things like blogging. I did get some cute shots of our sweet girlies on Monday and thought I had better get them posted for the Great Grandma's to see!

This might be my very favorite...our pretty, red-haired girl

Sweet little Ella smiles all the time

Where's Grandpa???

Olivia and "her brother" Puppy

An interesting way to watch Mickey's Clubhouse

Sweet, mischevious smile

This one is just sweet

I love this one two...they are best buddies and partners in crime

Grandpa's Girls...love how Ella is looking at him

A little holiday cheese...

Playing with the camera and got a good pic of my favorite Santa that Melissa and Jason brought us from Russia

Finally got all the decorations up, now to find the time to sit and enjoy them!

The Best Decision I Ever Made...

Thirty one years ago today, we pledged our love to one another forever. We believed in love and each other and the faithfulness of God. We were so young and had so much life yet to experience. Life filled with ordinary days, with moments too wonderful for words, and a few days almost too difficult to bear. I can truly say not one day has passed in these thirty one years that I have not thanked God for so wisely choosing you for me.

Today we are much older and hopefully much wiser and still believe in love and each other and know much more fully the awesome faithfulness of God. I love you so much more today than I knew was possible and can't wait to begin thirty more years of tomorrows...

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

WoW...what an eventful week. My sweet hubby went to bed one night last week feeling great and woke up in the middle of the night in intense pain. We ended up in the ER and then admitted to the hospital with a great big kidney stone. The offending stone has been crushed and will hopefully be history soon! Tom and Jen brought the girls up to see grandpa in the hospital. To prepare Olivia a bit so she wouldn't be freaked out they were talking about the hospital. It is the same one where she was born and where she came to visit her little sister Ella and her cousin when they were born.

You have probably already figured out where this story is headed :o) Naturally (to a three year old) she asked her mama if Grandpa Andy and Grandma Terry were going to bring a baby home from the hospital too!!!

NO DEAR GIRL--WE ARE NOT bringing a baby home, although Grandpa Andy thought his pain was comparable to giving birth.

Some Halloween Fun

We had plenty of Halloween fun at Grammy's house the last week or two. Olivia is not a fan of costumes of any kind, so it has been challenging. We worked on some fun crafts like a pumpkin face and she really enjoyed making her own tiger mask.

Grandpa and I hadn't done a Jack-o-Lantern in quite a few years, but decided it would be fun to have one for our porch and fun for our adorable little helper.

Scoopin' out the insides

Someone's having fun...or plotting mischief--which do you think?

Is it clean enough yet?

Grandpa, Olivia, Puppy and Smiling Jack :o)

Olivia told me that puppy wanted a picture with Jack...

We washed up the pumpkin seeds to roast. They were washed and washed and washed and washed--I'm pretty sure this was Olivia's favorite part.

Here's the cutest little monkey who came to call on Halloween night showing me her paws and best cheesy grin. We didn't get to see little Ella in her costume, she was pretty worn out by the time they got to us.

Our other favorite girls who stopped by for a litte Boo to You fun. Jaclyn the beautiful witch and her adorable kitty cat sister Julia.

We had lots of trick-or-treat kids this year...they pretty much cleaned out the candy and that is a very good thing for Grammy.

Sunday Dinner

Oliva and Grammy made lasagna today for Sunday dinner with the family.

She was heavy handed with the cheese...I say you can never have too much cheese. I am pretty sure Olivia consumed as much as she put in the dish. She was a great helper.

Can't wait till tomorrow. I think it will be the best ever...it was definately more fun cooking than usual.

A Happy Day with the Grandgirls!

I haven't been around the blog for way too long. We were gone for a week on vacation (someday I'll get pics up). The week before was spent working like crazy to get ready to be gone a week and since then I have been playing catch up. However, things have finally come back to our normal, somewhat crazy routine. We had our sweet girlies today and I got some cute pics to share.

This is our silly little Ella's new trick. She's crawling like a pro, and pulling up to a half-stand. It is adorable and she does it alot. She stays and plays this way for a long time...cracks me up.

I think Ella may be the happiest baby ever

She smiles and giggles all the time.

Olivia and I broke out my new Cricut paper doll cartridge today. She LOVED it. She made a get well card for mommy and a farm picture. She told me Mommy would feel better when she saw the farm. She also told me Mommy was sick because she didn't brush her teeth :o) Who knew you could get the flu from not brushing!

She was very specific about how she wanted to make her farm picture. It needed a red barn with green tractor like Uncle Dan's. It also needed a daddy pig, a mommy pig, a big sister pig and a baby pig :o)


Here Olivia is showing her creation to her most appreciative audience.

Explaining to Grandpa how she cut the grass with the really cool scissors

I should add a picture of the way my room looks tonight after a day of 3 year old crafting. She is definately a messy crafter just like grammy :o) Better get to the clean up!

Quick Pics

Just time to post a couple of quick pics of what's been going on around here:
If you couldn't tell, this little sweetie has won his heart...

Giggles for grandpa

Olivia found Aunt Melissa's Barbie stuff, she thought it was pretty cool.

Reading stories to his favorite girlies

This is a coat tree we made for a friend who just had a baby...jungle theme nursery. We've done a ton of these with different themes. Maybe we need to come up with something new.

It's way past time to get off the computer and get to bed--if the Bears will just hurry up and beat the Packers so it will be safe to go upstairs ;o)

Too Busy to Blog...But Not Too Busy for Some Football

Not sure how things got so crazy all of a sudden, but I boy have I been busy. This Tuesday starts our fall women's Bible study. I am very excited to have nearly 30 ladies between the morning and evening groups. We are doing Priscilla Shirer's One in a Million and so far I LOVE it. Got some stuff left to prep for Tuesday...better get busy on that!!! We started a new small group tonight that met at our house. I think it will be a great group. I just finished a week long marathon scrap project for a friend's baby shower. Unfortunately I finished so late the night before that I didn't get to take any pics. I took the day off Saturday to attend the Beth Moore simulcast, it was so good. One of the best ever and was worth every moment!

One thing we almost always find time to do is Friday night football. We are die-hard fans, at nearly every game. We have sat through some really crappy weather over the years but this year has been BEAUTIFUL so far! A friend took this picture Friday night of Grammy and her favorite 3 year old! I love it!



Time to stop playing on the computer and get to bed...two sweet little girlies come early in the morning and grandpa is going on a business trip so I'm gonna need all the rest I can get!

Hog Days...It's Time to Come Home Again

We went to my hometown of Kewanee, Il for the big Hog Days celebration held every year over the Labor Day weekend. The town's claim to fame is being the Hog Capitol of the World...seriously.

The highlight of the celebration is that most of our family gathers there...but the pork chops grilled in the center of town are a close second.

Mmmm good!

Don't ask me why, but my family has always parked in the funeral home parking lot several hours prior to the parade and had a pork chop picnic. Olivia pulled up her chair and chowed on a pork chop sandwich of her own. Everyone loved the pink piggie cupcakes too!

My nephew Noah's creative kettle corn bowl

And a creative use for a lawn chair while we waited and waited and waited for parade time

Gotta have a little cotton candy too!

Finally time to raise the giant flag so the parade can begin. Olivia really liked this huge flag.

The parade finally begins

There was alot of flag waving...especially by this cutie!

Loved the old fire truck

What's a parade without a Shriner or two (or twenty)

I always love the bagpipes

We're still watching and waving. Surprisingly I don't have any pics of tractors or princesses. My daughter-in-law kept count--44 tractors and 60 something princesses or queens. Sheesh!

This was how Olivia watched some of the parade. She said: "I will just cover my eyes". Then she would peak through her fingers.

This is an example of some of the things she did NOT want to see

She did however like the bulldogs dressed like pigs. Only in Kewanee :o)

Sweet baby Ella did great too! No pork chops yet, but she liked the parade (at least the part she didn't sleep through!)

One of my favorite pics of the day...this girl already knows how to take in a parade!

It was a fun family weekend...already looking forward to next year!