Christmas has come & gone with some great memories of the family. All the kids were home for most of the three days, even had Doug & Brenda come over for a visit an dinner.

Started with Amy, Andy & Abby going to Christmas Eve candle light service, then the kids went sledding before the rains came on Christmas, just enough snow for a good time.

Christmas Day was a full day with family here for gift exchange. Santa s

ure was good, I am not sure he checked his list for naughty or nice.

We saw Ella & Abby make a bake their first birthday cake together, it was a cake for Jesus.

Yes, Marilyn baked allot of cookies, however as normal the kids didn't eat all of them so the most of the cookies are still here so "WE" will have to eat them. Most of them will go to the freezer to be eaten thru out the first of 2010.

We sure do look forward to this time of year to spend with the family an it always takes so long to get here a then it is gone. However photos & memories will remain with us for a life time.

Cookie Time

Its Monday and we get Ella & Ben while Jen is working. Ben comes in, sits in the chair an states this is how the day will go folks. He is funny and you can see big changes on how much he is progressing toward crawling & getting around. He is on a mission an he will full fill that mission one way or another. Just don't get in my way folks.

When Ella walked in the door she was ready to make cookies with grandma, she could hardly wait. Grandma has not been feeling well for the past few days so the amount of cookies and frosting would have to wait for next week. However they did make one. Ella did have fun putting everything in the pan, grandma said that chocolate chips that dropped outside of the pan she could eat. Well, there were many that found its way out side of the box only to Ella's desire.

Pre Girls Night

Marilyn & I watch Ella & Ben on Wednesdays at their house while Jenny works, yesterday was an exciting day because Jen & Ella were having a "GIRLS" night out. Ella was looking forward to it but didn't want to take a nap after lunch. Both kids were good during the day. Ben is not quite at the crawl stage however I have been doing the "boot camp" process when they are at our house on Mondays an I can see that he is just about there. Ella was going from the living room to her room showing Ben how, but not yet. They did have a little "loving time" as shown in the photo. Ella is so gentle with Ben.

Crafts

Marilyn's friend JoAnne Hazel came over today to do some crafts with Ella. Ben would have been happy to be involved but he is still to young so he had to watch.

Overnight stay

We had Ella for a sleep over last Monday, Jenny works Mondays so she brings Ella & Ben here while she works. Of course we enjoy having the opportunity to have the kids for the four - five hours, lunch, naps and what every time is left to read books, play-doh, card games, puzzles, run outside (Ella just loves to run down the hill), go to the park.

I had put Ella down for a nap, she had about 3/4 hr when Scott arrived on Tuesday to pick her up. She didn't want to go home, she wanted to stay longer. Not enough sleep. I was glad to hear that she wanted to stay longer but mom, dad & Ben missed having her home. I am sure we will have more sleep overs.

Ella gets most of the play time, but Ben will be getting involved soon, he is such a team player and he wants to be in the there doing the same thing. I can't wait to have both of them running and playing together, Ella has such a good time with Ben, will that continue once he can walk and get into the same things that Ella wants, we will see.

Its nice to see Ella warm up to Josh, previously she hasn't seem him very much so she was shy when he was around but lately she has seen him allot and that has made a big difference. She spent time with him watching TV or doing puzzles by him.

Hunting Season

Marilyn & I wondered how the deer in our area have made out so far during the hunting season which started last Sunday an extends to the end of the month. We have seen as many as 13 deer in the yard at times, well this afternoon Marilyn said that we still have deer an I counted 7 walking thru the back yard. I followed them around the house an found them in the front yard with one of the older ones looking at me. I am sorry that the photo is not better but I had to take it thru the front window an with the flash you always loose the clearness. If you double click on the photo you can get a better look at the deer.

I take Ella to her gym class today. When I arrived at Jen's house she mention that Ella didn't look real good but as it became time to leave I figured we would still go to the class. The warm ups didn't go to bad but when we got into the gym for the tumbling and other activities Ella didn't appear to be active with these activities, so I ask her what was wrong and she said that she felt sick so we left early. She was not too sick to have a McDonalds. I guess her throat was bothering her. I still had fun being with her for the few hours today. It isn't very often that I have had the opportunity to have Ella all by herself.

Panama City Beach

Returned home after a week at the beach, & I think we chose the correct week because hurricane IDA is on its way to the gulf coast. We hung out with Patricia & Jamie during the week. Brenda & Doug stopped by on Sunday & stayed until Tuesday AM, had lunch on the Pineapple Willy's on the pier, good food. Monday went to the local fish market an purchased shrimp for dinner, very good.

The week was spent relaxing in the sun. Took a ferry trip to downtown Panama City on Wednesday. Had lunch at Bayou Joe's. The photo at the left was taken there.

Had some neat sunsets all week. It is always great to go on vacation but extra good to get back home, HOME SWEET HOME.

The problem of returning home at this time of the year is all the leaves have fallen an now I have two or three days raking them up, good thing I had a week to relax.

Would enjoy having the family join us for a week, I will work on taking the granddaughter's with us next year, need to do this before they start school.

Pumpkin Patch

Ben didn't get a pumpkin, so I guess he will have to share with Ella this year. I don't think that next year he will want to be left out.

We went pumpkin hunting for halloween.

There were sooo many to pick from but we finally found a couple that we could take home.

Abby wanted one from a display rack so Andy had to climb up to the top to get it down.

We had to party after supper, it was grandpa's 70's birthday & grandma/grandpa's 39th anniversary.

We thank Brenda & Doug for sharing their northern home for the week end. Before we leave on Sunday we will go to Lake Michigan to look for rocks.

The little park is where we use to go when we came up here with the kids when they were small. It sure was a great weekend to have all the family together for some quality time. The kids were fun an they had fun playing. Ben didn't get into all the action, but next year he will be ready willing an able, watch out girls.

Torch Lake

Arrived today an the first thing was to turn on the heat, it didn't work. Called to have the heater man come to fix it. I was mowing the yard when Andy came out to tell me to cancel the repair man because there was another thermostat in the hall way, furnace was working. Yea.

The boys were playing with their toys. They are getting ready for the circuit. It might take some more time with working together an I don't know how well they will be accepted. Do they have high hopes?

Amy had to work in Grand Rapids so she will arrive here late.

Gym class

I took Ella to gym class today. The class starts with stretches and then they go into the gym for other activities. Miss Julie keeps the kids moving, however as I have know from working with young kids their retention period isn't very long. She has the obstacle course to start with and then some running from wall to wall, some are going backwards.

Today she used floor hockey for the kids to play. Pucks and small soft balls were used.

Ella didn't do to bad, I had to keep her mind on how to hold the stick, it was similar to how she handled a ball bat.

Ella was having lunch so I had some special time with Ben. He sure wants to sit up and I don't think that it will be very long before he does.

Jen fixed some solid food for Ben and did he ever wolf it down, I don't know where he put it. Scott & Jen just purchased a new fridge but I think they will have to

get a bigger one soon.

Abby Grand Rapids

Amy was called into a couple meetings scheduled with Zondervan on Monday & Tuesday so I am here watching Abby.

Amy & Abby arrived after I did on Sunday night an Abby was wound up pretty tight an she didn't go to sleep right away, however she didn't wake up until 9:45 AM. Abby remembers very well an she mention Sunday night that she wanted a waffle at breakfast in the morning. Well, we missed that. We did some activities in the room an then figured we should get something to eat seeing how we missed breakfast so we headed for pizza @ Costco's. Went back to the room and Abby took a long nap.

Abby wanted to go to the park so we ask at the desk about playgrounds and they mention the mall had something inside for kids. Well, I figured there had to be some schools in the area, we found one a couple miles away. Hey, Wheaton, Ill has the best play areas for small kids that I have seen lately. There were two areas one for small kids an the other for kids in the 5 to 6 grades. Abby didn't play on many of the items as she would have at the purple an orange park at home. She did swing on big kids swings. Actually most of the time was on the swing.

Amy mention that it might be around 8 PM when she would get done, so we stopped at Mickey D's for a sandwich. We had just gotten into the room when Amy called to say that she was on her way.

Tuesday was a blah day, Abby didn't get to sleep very early Monday night so Amy woke her up for breakfast and then I tried to put her down for a nap but she didn't sleep a all.

We checked out at 2 went to the airport to watch some planes but there wasn't any activity so we stopped a Wendy's for a sandwich, just about completed the sandwich when Amy called to say that she would be about another half hour. We took our time and just arrived at Zondervan's when Amy was leaving. I came home and Amy & Abby went there way to Wheaton.

African Children's Choir

Marilyn & I went to see the Choir, they put on a great show. 21 kids ranged from 8 - 13, they were very active, high stepping and moving all the time. Music was both Religious and African folk. Concert lasted about 1 1/2 hrs. I am only sorry that I didn't take my camera to get some photos.

Visitors

I got home from afternoon bingo and was getting ready to fix something to eat and I notice the family of deer in the flower bed. So I took some photos. There was buck, lady and two kids. This photo was the best, you can see the spike horns on "buck".

If you double click on the photo you can see the spike horns. Sorry that the photo isn't better.

Jen, Ella & Ben

Jen, Ella & Ben visited today. It was a surprise to me because I didn't know they were coming.

Ella wanted to play with the play dough, well we did finally get to it just before dinner Marilyn, Ella & Jen all pitched in an made something. As usual the day went fast.

Grandma had to read to Ella but she also had Ben, he did listen for a little bit.

We did ask Ella if she would like to come back again an stay the night, she felt that would be ok. Jen called just after they left and they were talking about Ella coming back to stay at a latter date and Ella said that she would like that and she would drive her self to grandma & grandpa's. OK.

Abby, Ella & Ben

We had all the grandkids up today. When Ella arrived and she got out of the car it was a bunch of running and screaming from both girls. Time for lunch and a nap before we go to the new park to play.

On the way we stopped at Cooks for a treat (ice cream). Yummy.

First we had to go see the cows, it was time for them to be fed so a worker was taking some feed for them. Wanted to see the calfs but they were in the back of the big barn.

What flavor do you want was a big question, both wanted Blue Moon. Small kids cup was more than enough for all of us.

The park is big with a lot of ramps connecting all the structure with another, however I think I like the purple orange park in Wheaton better.

When it was time to go Abby didn't want to hug Ella and that disappointed Ella which she started to cry, we tried to get Abby to reconsider but she wouldn't. The photo to the right shows Ella trying to get Abby to give her a hug.

Just as we were getting them into their car seats Abby said that she wanted to hug Ella so unsnap them so they could give the hug a kiss, it still was a chore for Abby but she did give in.

There is a small water (wading) park but it closed on Labor Day, I didn't see any rides, however I guess we will have to check it out next year.

Grand Rapids

Aug 31, 2009

Marilyn & I went to Grand Rapids to stay with Abby while Amy was working @ Zondervan. We checked in with Amy and then she changed & off to work. We had lunch and Abby wanted to go swimming so I changed and out to the pool we went. It was a sunny day but cool, however this facility is not good for small children. No wade area and the spa had a ledge around the spa that was 3 ft. Abby, did get wet and I tried to get her back in but once she was out she didn't want to go back in.

She did go in the room a slept for about 1 1/2 hr. Drove by Zondervan to show Abby where her mother was working. Time to eat (Abby hungry). Went to Perkins, however no one seemed to want our business because we were there for about 10 minutes a no one came to seat us so we left and went to Bob Evans.

Abby ordered mac & cheese with a side of fries ate just about the whole bowl, she had one slice of my pumpkin bread.

Amy came about 8 PM

Sept 1, 2009

Jen, Ella & Ben arrived to spend the day with us.

We went to the John Ball Zoo, which is a nice small, but your are close animals so the kids can actually see the animals.

Had lunch and then went to Build-A-Bear, the girls had a great time picking their bear and watching it being filled. Abby was a little taken back because of the big machines noise.

Ella did the bath, an a brush of her bear, Abby didn't want to do this. Next was the clothes for the bears, Ella chose a soccer player and Abby a Girly purple gown.