Rebecca, you're just way too cute. Her birthday cake was an un-iced angel food cake (at her request) and we had cut outs from fruit roll ups for decoration.
Nothing like having a birthday meal with the family!
And the most exciting part of all......lighting the candles!
Old age setting in; I forgot I had uploaded this picture already!
Peggy, from Houstonia, sent with me, not one, but two delicious blackberry cobblers for Christmas for Mother and Dad. What a treat and what a special gift from a friend.
Mother opening Christmas gifts.
Dad checking out his new Grace College cap.
First of all, Kayla is wearing her KU cheerleading outfit Aunt Bem & Uncle Steve gave her. If you ask her about her Jayhawk, she calls it a "Hayhawk!" Second of all, Uncle Brian had been chasing Joshua and Kayla around "the circle" and they were both giggling so hard they could hardly breathe. "Blessed is the house that hath a circle to run around" :)
Ryan enrolled Tuesday at K-State at Salina in the Aircraft Mechanics Program. Can't believe he wore his KU sweatshirt without any hesitation! 
I often laugh when I do a new post because when I was being taught how to blog, I was encouraged to make my "title" humorous or catchy. My titles are usually pretty basic and nothing "flashy!" Our family celebrated Christmas on Sunday night before Christmas and we had such a good time. We opened stockings before we ate. Lots of variety this year, from paint brushes, to beef jerky, to snow globes, to kitchen utensils, and of course, candy!
The biggest "hit" of the night were Kayla's classy sunglasses. Not only did she constantly wear them while we ate, she sang "Twinkle, Twinkle...." with all her heart (over and over and over).
It's just not Christmas without taking the posed pictures before opening the gifts.
Ryan, Rebecca, Brian, and Lisa (Stephen and his family were in Germany this Christmas with Freya's family.)
Merry Christmas from Bev & Richard
Merry Christmas from Brian and Ryan
Merry Christmas from Rebecca and Stephen
Merry Christmas from Stephen, Freya, Max & Henry
Merry Christmas from Lisa, Bryan, Joshua, & Kayla
We had such a fun Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day Richard and I were in DeSoto with Mother and Dad and Stephen, Freya & boys stopped by on their way to Kansas. It was beautiful weather and we had such a good time. On Friday we hosted the Varner Family Thanksgiving
Grandpa helping Kayla pitch the balls.
Brian giving Max some shooting pointers.
Auntie Rebecca entertaining Henry.
And you are wondering what this is??? A week ago we got a call from Richard (while he was on the road) from a "foreign" number. He had a slight mishap with his cell phone. The forklift driver must have driven over his cell phone. Richard operates on the premise that everything can be fixed if you just work with it, so we were all wondering who he was going to ask to "fix" his phone. When he got home he brought his pieces in a Burger King cup and had faced the fact that this was beyond help!
Happy Birthday, Brian! We waited until Rebecca was home for the weekend from Denver to celebrate Brian's birthday. Nothing like dinner with the "fam" after church.
Not quite 24 candles on the cake!
A picture of Joshua and Kayla from the church Fall Festival. What a fun evening!
Bev, Lisa and the children started on Thursday and we spent the evening and night with Grandma and Grandpa Smiley in DeSoto. 
Kayla and Great-Grandpa spending a few moments in the porch swing. The rain followed us all the way there and we would soon find out would follow us all the way to Indiana. (Thanks to Hurricane Ike!)
Finally.....we arrived in Bremen and the cousins got to spend time together playing.
Janelle and Doug at the wedding reception.
I had to include this picture showing the huge bouquet of flowers. We have been following the journey of growing these flowers all summer and they were beautiful. They were even picked in pouring rain.