Christmasy Pictures

I am not feeling great today so I just uploaded some photos from Christmas time and put captions. Also, be sure to watch your The Middletown News January 24 issue for a full page pictorial article from Joey about the twins (page A-7).

A large church was added to my "Christmas Village" collection. Thanks Kim!

Grandma Sue with Addison and Audrey.

Bobbe holding Matthew, Justin and Valerie on Christmas morning. Bobbe and Justin are planning a May 3rd wedding in Athens, GA. She defended her doctoral paper this last Wednesday so just has to find a job before she graduates in May. In May, Justin will also finish his masters degree in managing non profits.

Cousins Audrey, Lucy and Addison on Christmas morning.

Andy reading to Matthew and Jonah before bed one night.

Valerie holding Lucy—Lucy biting Hannah's finger.

Justin holding Audrey while she waits for her bottle to warm. She has her bib on and is ready.

Matthew getting ready to "shoot for pop" at a basketball game at Shenandoah.

Pre-Christmas Stuff

Here is a picture of how I displayed my Christmas books and videos this year. Usually I put them on the front hall table with the nativities but I have acquired so many nativities in the past few years, I needed to find a different solution. I remembered that when I was selling Usborne books I had a book rack. Well, it ended up being overly full so maybe I will have to buy another rack by next year.

One night in December we took the twins to the basketball game at Shenandoah. Drew is holding Addison while Joey is holding Audrey. It was early in the month but they had so many Christmasy outfits that they wore them all month just to make sure the clothes got used.

Coming from Athens, GA, Bobbe, Justin and Matthew arrived on Sunday night, December 16 to stay with us until the day after Christmas. I don't have a photo with Bobbe and Justin until after Christmas so you will have to wait to see them. Here is a photo of Michael after he and Matthew fixed grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Matthew sat on the stool for a better view of the process while Michael did the cooking. This meal is a favorite of Matthew's as he doesn't have it at home.

Hannah, William, Valerie and Matthew in a "pyramid" on the futon.

During communion one Sunday our pastor decided to relate the gift of communion with his sermon and he passed out these compact, one-piece communion packets. The "bread" is under the top foil cover. The "wine" is under the next foil cover. By the way, it tasted really badly. Drew didn't partake but instead kept his to take home as an oddity. Well, here it is.

Jonah will celebrate his birthday with a party in Lafayette tomorrow (Saturday) so I posted today (Friday) because I plan on attending his party at my scheduled posting time. I also updated some of my lists to the right. See you next week and maybe we will get out of 2007.

November and Early December

We had some early snow in November so Valerie and William were busy playing and shoveling. Valerie built this little snowman and brought it in the News office to show me. William spent many hours shoveling the snow for us as well as most of the downtown area. He loves to shovel (and sweep).

Hannah has been babysitting for the twins. They often dress alike but we can tell them apart as they aren't identical. Addison had developed a hernia so she went in for surgery the first week of December. The doctor also repaired her belly button hernia. Audrey continues to have her belly button hernia but it is getting smaller; the doctors say many preemies have them and they generally go away by age two. Audrey is on the left.

Drew and I decided we needed to replace the 17-year-old faucet in the bathroom. As these projects seem to always go, we ended up doing much more. I said if we got a new faucet I thought we should also get a new sink because it was un-cleanable. Since the job we envisioned for the bathroom seemed to be more than a one day job, and would mean we had no sink at all, we decided we had to replace the laundry tub, too, so we would have an acceptable place to temporarily brush our teeth. Sooo, we have a new laundry tub & faucet and a new bathroom sink & faucet. By the way, neither job even took a whole day. Thanks, Drew!

Here is Drew holding the twins during one of our babysitting nights. Since Carrie (their mommy) works 3-11 p.m. each weekday at the hospital, their relatives and friends have been assigned certain days to babysit. Our family babysits them every Wednesday afternoon and Joey (their father) usually eats dinner with us, too. Joey keeps the girls each evening from 5-11:30 p.m. On Wednesdays he is on call for the ambulance and can't keep the girls until after 6 p.m. If he gets a run after 5 p.m. he is usually gone until around 7 so he needs us to be available. Usually the girls stay at their own house with relatives and friends but on Wednesdays they come to our house. We have lots of helpers (Michael, Hannah, William and Valerie and of course Drew). That way, even if one or two of us are busy, someone can be here with them. We have lots of fun. Addison is on the left.

Some Wednesday evenings, the kids, Joey, and Drew get together and play a game. They went through a season of playing an old game from Drew's childhood, Hit the Beach. They also like to play Stratego, euchre, and now the Wii (oh, that is for the blog entry for Christmas).

Valerie bought a gingerbread house kit and built it all herself this year. She took this close-up picture of it when she was done. Next week I will tell about Christmas and we will be closer to catching up with real time. Talk to you next time.

I'm Back!!

Well, as you have probably guessed, I returned from my visit with Kate and her family but I didn't keep you posted on my whereabouts. Life has gotten in the way of blogging but I have made a new resolution to blog and add pictures every Saturday afternoon at 1 o'clock. We'll see how that goes.

I am going to jump back in time and catch you up on the trip to England and then slowly wend my way into the present.

Logan in his bee Halloween costume. He put it on after Halloween to show me what he wore. He even had his jammies on under the costume the night of the candy giveaway. Kate said he didn't trick or treat but he helped to hand out candy.

Logan and Lily posed for me on the couch. Logan was really happy to be holding the TV remote. It is one of his favorite banned toys.

Kenny, Kate and Logan posed for me before Logan went off to bed.

Lily posed, too. She was in her carseat inside her pack 'n play.

One day we took the kids to the indoor playground. Logan especially liked the mirror.

Lily went to bed wrapped up like a little burrito. By having her hands down at her side she slept better; she stayed warmer by having the blanket attached to her, too.

Kate and I didn't travel much this time but one night we decided to take a short trip the next day to Norwich (about 1.5 hours away to the east) and then go on to the coast and see the North Sea. Our plans changed as there was a surge wave coming toward that area of the coast the next morning. It actually was calmer that they predicted but there was flooding and the wave was about 6 feet tall. We did visit Norwich but not the coast; but it was very windy and cold. Above is a picture of the library in Norwich. You can see the reflection of the cathedral behind me. We visited the large indoor mall (they don't have many).

Logan feeding himself banana pieces and peanut butter sandwich bites.
Instead of a high chair he has a booster with a tray.




Kate and I installed this pot hanging rack while I was there. It wasn't easy but we did it.
I guess about a month later it fell down and Kenny had to re-attach it.




Before I went to Kate's I attended a home ec club meeting and we were taught how to make photo albums for Christmas. They fold out like origami and are really neat. While I was with Kate we made 15 more to give as gifts. Here are a few of the ones we made.




One morning Kate found Logan up on this chair; he hadn't been able to climb up on anything before, not even the couch.
What a growing boy.

Happy New Year!!! My hour is up so I will be back next Saturday.
Love you all.