Happy Birthday, Rebecca!

 We celebrated Rebecca's birthday with a family dinner that Jonny made for us.  Yummy!

 Rebecca blew out her candles and just look at all the smoke it made!  Some of the candles just wouldn't go out for anything??  They must be trick candles, or something!

 Jordy having so much fun celebrating his mommy's birthday!

 Miss Kayla giving the dogs some attention.  Don't you think the Nelson's need an indoor dog??

 Kayla is showing Grandpa the fine points of playing a game on someone's phone.

This, my friend, is what it looks like in the living room when we are preparing for our Fun Fair this week at Sparks.  Let the games begin.

Each sack represents a game that can be set up ready to play in 2 minutes....literally.  It's a big night; the kids have a blast; and Lisa and I say "Hooray....another Fun Fair in the books!" 

I've Almost Caught Up!

 Happy Birthday, Joshua!  I realized I had never posted pictures of Josh and Kayla's birthday.  How did Joshua all of a sudden become 8 years old??

 Ummmm....this is for the guys in the family.  We've never had a forklift on the frame machine before, so we needed to document this bit of history.  I'm not sure what all they had to do, but Ryan did a lot of welding on it (enough that he burned a hole in his jeans and got sunburned on his face.)

 

 For all the years we have lived in this house, we have had a squeaky back door.  It was great because I could hear the teenagers coming in at night.  Well, this week as I was carrying in water bottles, I heard the door squeak one too many times. I got my trusty can of lubricant and worked magic!  It is almost eerie that the door can open and shut, and it is silent. 

 Kayla looks so grown up in this picture.  Celebrating her 6th birthday in November.

Kayla is always ready to help Mr Tyler and be a little "mommy" to him.  I'm sure he was anxious to help her open her presents.

Birthday Celebrations!

 We no sooner finished our Christmas celebrations, and we moved right into birthday mode.  It really began with Freya's birthday the day their family arrived in Kansas, but as usual, I didn't think to get my camera.  Westin turned 1 year old December 28 and he had a lot of family to help celebrate. 

 

Yum...chocolate cake to celebrate the big birthday.  Westin wasn't lacking help in opening his birthday gifts.  Everything was checked out to make sure there were no defective toys!

 I included the next three pictures for a particular reason.  What are the chances that out of nine grandchildren, that three are left- handed.  So here is Max, then Tyler, then Lena!

 A couple of days later, we were celebrating Miss Emmy's first birthday.  I have never, ever used red icing on a birthday cake, but Freya found bargains galore with after-Christmas deals, so we made use of the bright red icing :)

 Even though Rebecca has a little boy of her own, the kids still ask for her to sit with them.....you know....she is just their age!

 This picture speaks volumes.  Tyler - "I really don't want to do this."  Westin - "I want my Mommy!"  Kayla - "I don't have room."  Emmy - "Hold on to me, Max; I'm slipping!"  It's a hoot to get a group picture.

 Here were the mothers preparing plates of food for the kiddos.  It was such mild weather that I actually grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for the evening meal.

 Westin was getting introduced to the wonders of a purple popsicle.  He thought he liked it, but had a hard time deciding.

Freya just partied too hard.  For whatever reason, in the process of getting the kids ready for bed, she ran into the wall and put a pretty good size knot on her forehead.  It hurt enough she was ready to put some ice on it.

More Christmas

I wish you could hear the audio portion and catch the excitement!

After the older children had opened their gifts, then the three little babies opened their gifts. I wonder if we will always refer to Emmy, Westin, and Jordy as the three little babies!

Grandpa helping Westin show off his new "Snap-On Tool" bib!

Lena and Kayla admiring each other's presents.

What a difference one day can make. Henry was feeling much better the following day and ready to play with his "Marble Run" toy with his daddy.

Grandpa with Emmy and Max. Max took his turn of not feeling very well a couple of days later. We just kind of had the "gift" that we all kept "sharing."

Christmas 2012

The "blog" format changed on my computer, so I've been trying to figure out how to post my pictures, so this first entry, is my experiment. We had such a good time with family during the Christmas holidays. We had our family Christmas on the 23rd, so before we opened our gifts we read the Christmas story. Kayla and Lena were my only "takers" of dressing up as one of the nativity characters. Kayla was Mary and Lena was an angel.....somehow didn't get a picture of her. They both acted out their character with enthusiasm. I wonder back in the days of Sunday school pageants, if the boys were as reluctant to dress up as my dear little grandsons are??

Even if you don't want to dress up, we have these wonderful masks to make the Christmas story even more impressionable. Poor little Henry; he was feeling pretty punk that night.

Okay...it's finally time to begin passing out gifts. The children were so patient and excited at the same time.

Rebecca and Jordy watching the action.

The older children all sat side-by-side and took turns opening their presents. What fun!

October Fun

 Yes, Folks, this is homegrown corn on the cob on October 12!  I really didn't think the second planting would mature, but the summer was hot, and I irrigated lots and lots.  We had corn everyday for about 10 days!

 

 It's a Saturday night at Grandma's and we're watching a video downstairs before bedtime.  Wait.....where's Tyler???

 

 Tyler was more interested in playing with "little people" instead of watching a video!

 

 Carly, Brian and Westin. 

 

 I made this jumper for Kayla while I was in Denver.

 

 Lisa and Ryan.  Ryan cooked lunch for our family on Sunday.  It was yummy....BBQ meat and veggies!

 

 Mr. Westin with his daddy!

 

 Jordy.....our little super hero!!  He's ready to take his mommy and daddy trick or treating.



Happy October!!

 I just loaded these pictures absolutely backwards, sooooo, we'll start with the most recent and work backwards!  Today is this little guy's daddy's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Brian!  Born 11:11 am in Pawnee City, Nebraska.  And this is Mr. Westin, just ready for the party to begin.

 

 Jonny is doing the babysitting time with Westin and Jordy.  Seemed to all be pretty happy for the moment.  Perhaps....just perhaps.....Jonny will get his cast off tomorrow!!

 

 Richard, Lisa, and Rebecca enjoying tacos.

 

 Bryan and Brian.  Happy Birthday, Brian!  #28!

 

 This is my poor knee after I wiped out on the driveway on Thursday.  My foot rolled, and so did the rest of my body.  Wow, it really did hurt!

 

 Last week Jordy and I accompanied Rebecca to Denver while she taught classes for the bank.  The first three days were beautiful and Jordy and I enjoyed a lot of outside time.

 

 On one of our stroller rides we passed these decorative rocks and I had a sudden "flashback."  This is for my sister Susanne.  Remember the trip to Colorado and we began picking up pretty, decorative rocks?  We got caught in a flood and spent three days in Lamar, Colorado, spending the nights in our car.  Every night Dad threw out a few more of our souvenir rocks!

 

 Beautiful 83 degree days!

 

 Over in the distance you could see the mountains.

 

 We were in Denver the week of the 1st presidential debate.  This is I-25 that was closed from 5-10:00 for security purposes.

 

 Checking into the motel.  Of course we couldn't make more than one trip.  It's all loaded on the cart....except for the sewing machine.  I hand-carried it!

 

 Now this is how you get down to business and tighten the base of a carseat!!

 Before we headed the Denver, we celebrated Dad's 97th birthday with him in DeSoto.  It was a special weekend and ALL 21 great-grandchildren were there.

 

Here are the three babies and their mommy's in our family:  Carly and Westin, Rebecca and Jordy, Freya and Emmy.

 

 Susanne, Marilyn, Dad, and I with his birthday cake.

 

 Dad commented several times, "Real nice afternoon!"  Yes, Dad, it really was!

 

 Richard and I with our 9 grandkids.  Being a grandparent is pretty grand!

 

 Ryan and Emmy. 

 

 It was pretty special seeing different ones spending some one-on-one time with Grandpa.