Pre-Christmas in Marietta

I went down to Marietta for a quick pre-Christmas visit. We spent the afternoon making twice baked potatoes and  peanut blossoms for their ward party. The family also performed a Christmas song and I got to sing, too.

Every Christmas since they moved to Marietta,  Wendy's family  have had a live tree, but this year they bought a huge pre-lighted artificial one. They had to buy 100 more ornaments because it is so huge.

Elyana, 6 years old is wearing a skirt that I made each of the girls this year.

Riley and Dallin spent Saturday at a Lego Invention competition. They came home with a medal! Riley, Dallin and Allison earn money cleaning their Dad's office at 5:30 in the morning 2 days a week. Good practice for seminary.

Allison, age 8. We had lots of fun with the little min-bean bags I brought. Austin learned to juggle in about 15 minutes. Allison and Riley are both great singers and were thrilled to go with the whole family to a professional production of Fiddler on the Roof this last week.

After the party, we took in some of the town's decorations. These windows are always so popular with the kids.

Allison and Sam doing farm chores. Because of the rain--it was a mud hole. The red mud of Marietta stains everything

T-bone's mother died of an infection, and so now they feed him 2 of these huge bottles 3 times a day. I am still in amazement at the animal husbandry skills of Wendy.

This morning, he gave Allison a fat lip, when he pushed up on the bottle and it hit her in the mouth. Good thing I took the picture before that happened.

Happy Thanksgiving

 We enjoyed beautiful weather as we spent the day with Dan, Shauna and family in Dayton.

This was Shauna's first time to make a turkey dinner. It was a wonderful meal, complete with delicious pies.

 We were also joined by Dan's parents and his cousin Melissa, holding Charlie?

 After dinner, Dan blessed the babies.

Charlie is giving me a big smile. The twins are 10 weeks old!

Helping out in Dayton

The twins arrived on September 5, but I wasn't able to go down to help until this last week. Here is Shauna taking a quick cat nap on the couch with Jack?  I think he wore brown that day.

Benji was trying out his monkey Halloween costume and enjoying a snack with his new brother.

Two peas in a pod. Shauna can tell them apart easily. Jack is just a little bigger and his face is fuller. I think Charlie is on the right...but I'm not sure.

Post bath, we put the boys in the crib together. The difference between a 3 year old and a 3 week old.

Shauna's Baby Shower

 With the twins due in about a month, we had a shower at Pat and Jim's for close friends and family. Jean made this cute diaper cake and the tastiest breakfast casserole.

 The boys had a fun time helping Shauna open all her presents.

 Shauna tries on "My Brest Friend" a twins nursing pillow.

 It doesn't really fit over her belly. We had some good laughs as she told us about all the rude remarks she gets from women about the size of her tummy.

We were excited that Wendy and Riley were able to come up for the day.

June busts out with family visits!

 Ginger met us for a late lunch, when she was in Columbus this week. Den finished the quarter at school so he is all smiles. Shauna, James and Ben had fun, too.

 Wendy and family came for a quick visit this weekend. Here is Benji with Riley and Allison.

M

 Shauna is due in the middle of September with the twins. Wendy, with Max, who turned 2 in March.

                                                       Max and Benji

 Sam, wet from water baloons
Best buddies, Elayna and James

Dallin, Austin and Dan who brought water baloons and fireworks!

Gender Reveal Party

For those of you who didn't know, Dan and Shauna are expecting twins. Due September 23rd, we know that they are identical. Jean and Melissa threw a gender reveal party so we could learn the news together.Melissa called Suzy on Skype so she could join in the fun. It was 4:30 a.m. in Okinawa.

Shauna had another ultrasound yesterday and then called the bakery to let them know what color the frosting in the middle of the cake should be.Blue frosting or pink...what will it be?

We were supposed to wear blue if we thought they were boys and pink if they were girls. Pat and Jim were the only ones in pink. (actually, Jim was in red...apparently he doesn't own any pink:) Jean and Melissa wore purple to remain neutral. After consulting the Chinese birth chart, I went with blue.

THEY ARE BOYS!!!!!!!

Easter in Marietta

Benji, James, Elayna and Dallin.

Easter in Marietta

We went to Marietta this weekend to celebrate Easter, Allison's baptism and birthday.

Wendy and Austin had just complete painting their living room, what a job with these high ceilings.

Allison had a party at the local skating rink. She got a prize for the limbo.

Shauna and family came, too. She and Den are helping Benji skate.

Early Spring

I actually took these a couple of weeks ago. This is the earliest blooming ever, as we never really had a winter.

Love springtime in Ohio

The whole neighborhood looked beautiful.

Found this out in the barn. I thought Den was being funny and making the owl decoy into a bunny with this rubber glove. Turns out there are some robins in the barn trying to build a next. Since the owl was not deterring their efforts, he made this scary mask to scare them away. It did not work, either.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Benji and James with their leprechaun crafts.

We had a treasure hunt to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Playing with Granpa

Dan and Shauna brought the boys over so that they could go skiing together. The boys have skied with their Dad quite a lot this winter.

They tried on their helmets for me. Dan has created a video of their skiing adventures.

The boys love playing with Granpa Den.

Benji is such a fun kid to play with.

They brought 60 Hot Wheels cars!

Mom's Funeral

My Mom passed away last Tuesday morning in Farmington, New Mexico. She was in the hospital with pneumonia and cellulitis. She wasn't doing very well, but we didn't think that the end was this close.

Pallbearers were Graf, August, Christian, Ryan, Austin and John, all grandsons.

The funeral home blew up pictures of Mom for the calling hours. This was her senior high school picture.

She was interred at the Kirtland-Fruitland cemetary, where her father, Alvin Warner has a family plot.

My Mom loved wild crazy jewelry. We each wore a necklace to the calling hours, which out west, is called the viewing.

This was taken last August, when I came to New Mexico. She had been living at an assisted living center since her brain surgery in March. We were thankful that we had this time to say goodbye to her.