Where we stayed

Any one feeling the call to teach should check these accomodations. This is the home on the church property.

Eating breakfast in the dining room.

Valerie getting breakfast.
The master bedroom

One of the two living room areas.

Sooo relaxing.

Vacation down south for Doris

While we went to South Carolina and W Va Doris stayed with Jim's (and Doris') brother, Keith and his family.

We stayed in Ben's room on the way down south as he was away at work. Here he is returned and getting ready to go again. Thanks for the bed, Ben. :)

Kyle was in cyber school. Here he is "in action".

Tyler (on break) and Sue (in the back row) then Keith and Marcos . Doris is in the front sporting a broken shoulder. Thanks Keith and Sue for helping out and for letting us stop in and sleep each way . We enjoyed the short stays.

GBS Quartet

This is the morning the God's Bible School group left. Cold and Snowy. They did a wonderful presentation with their music and testimonies.

Jonathan is standing by the PR man who spent the night in our home.
The pianist stayed here also. She and Valerie are checking out the computer possibilities.

Knights

Jonathan and Jeff enjoying some horseplay while we opened Christmas gifts.

Picking and grinning

Grandpa is always trying to find ways to entertain Victoria. He is showing her a video clip of herself.
No, Grandpa. I think this one sounds better. Let me try it.

Major Moments and Brewers' Benchmarks at Brewers' Blog

We were able to see Larry, Sharon and Laura New Year's Day. Here they are looking great.

I had some video clips of Victoria, etc. but am having trouble getting them to load. I hope to share those soon.

Christmas pictures

Bowling

Since we used 2 lanes (one for boys and one for girls--make the competition fair) sometimes Mom and Dad were both up to bowl so Grandpa got to entertain the little pumpkin

Victoria checking out the scores (actually she was probably watching for Mommy)

Doris holding a colorful bowling ball just for fun

Jason waiting for the ball to return

Sheri doesn't even want to know what it did.

Got everyone smiling.

Car igloo

I opened the van door to get the windshield scraper and this is what I saw on the other side.

Cross stitch.

I made these little snowmen ornaments for Jim to give to his guys at work.

I FINALLY finished Jason's wolf for Christmas. I worked on it off and on for 2 years. Jim found an excellent frame and matting for it. If you click on it to enlarge it, it may show the detail better.

Ransom letter

We wanted James to come home for Christmas but he has an aversion to driving. Valerie tried to tempt him to come home by holding some of his gifts hostage. The price was a trip home. I guess we will have to mail the rest to him (or charge him storage-hehehe).

Open house at work

It was hard to get a picture of the llama as it kept wanting to move a lot.
Valerie getting her hand painted (candy cane design) instead of her face.

Jim doing the "child's identification" packet. (fingerprint, pictures, etc. in case a child becomes missing)

There was an open house for the families of WalMart at Jim's place of work (warehouse). We went and got free balloons (standard policy wherever there are kids), door prizes, pizza, donuts, and a petting zoo.

December's Memories

He looks like he is enjoying this way too much!

Jason's Birthday ~ Christmas Eve

Gifts and cash for computer. Of coarse Victoria is not far away. We try to celebrate Jason's birthday early since Christms eve is a bit busy. This year's celebration date was Dec 3rd.

Sheri and Valerie decorated the cake.

Christmas Cookies

These went into the freezer.

These pictures are all backwards--sorry. Valerie and I spent 4 1/2 hours baking cookies the other day including clean up time. :) We've only done this about 3 Christmas seasons. We froze the bulk of them to pull them out as we eat the ones in the cookie bowl.

Doris sampling the end results.Lemon Squares before the powder sugar topping.

We kept a few of each kind out to eat.

Getting ready

Mixing the dough

Finding toys for Victoria

Here Victoria is loving Val's bear.

Toys for Victoria

Since we haven't had little ones around our house for a looooong time, we had to be resourceful. We ran the mouse through the dishwasher so she could chew on it

Valerie's "underwear"

This is the hoop skirt Val made with a sheet and pvc pipe--(or is it pcv???). Any way, it took her and her father long enough to figure how to connect it properly for a skirt.

Funny new face!!!

Victoria has discovered a new face. We think maybe she is feeling her new teeth on the inside of her mouth. She now has 4 of them--teeth, not mouths. Hehehe! It cracks us up every time she does this.

Visiting Grandpa at work

Victoria is giving (see the co-operation) Grandpa a thank you for his help in siding their house--a computer--actually the box description. The gift was at the house waiting for him to get home from work.