Conversation

Conversation with Harry this morning: "It's hard living with two people who can't hear." "What" "IT'S HARD LIVING WITH TWO PEOPLE WHO CAN'T HEAR!" "What?" (grin)

AARGH!!

Cookie baking day 2

The second day of cookie baking started with a bang. Anna loves to climb up the stairs to the basket where we keep the diapers and pull diapers out. This day she decided to keep pulling and knocked the entire basket down the stairs. I probably should have yelled at her, but I told Sarah to get the camera instead. As you can see, Anna was very proud of herself. Aunt Janelle came to help us bake and it was a lot of fun having her. We finished up the rest of the cookie baking with her assistance. After we got all done, Sarah realized that we didn't get any pictures of the girls together baking, so we took another picture when we were making pancakes the next morning of both girls in their aprons. Enjoy!

Proud Anna!

Beth loves helping.

She really understands a lot about cooking. Next time she visits, I'm going to have her bake biscuits all by herself.

Janelle was a lot of fun to have around.

Sarah and Janelle hard at work.

Janelle and Anna!

Anna helping? Janelle

Sarah and Leah got a self portrait.

Here are the two of them again.

Our two little cooks

Christmas cookies day 1

We had to have two days of baking cookies this year because Pete needed six trays of cookies to take to work as well as our normal cookies for the family. The girls wanted to help a lot more this year then last, and they were a lot of fun to work with. Leah loves to cook, so she spent most of her time in the kitchen, but Beth took a break to make Christmas cards for her family. She spent a lot of time on them, wanting each one to be original and special for that person. A lot of thought went into each one. Even Leah needed a break, and there was always our nativity set to play with. Actually, there were two there because we had Sarah's out before she took it back to Louisville. The older girls loved to play make-believe with the set and Anna delighted in taking pieces all over the house. We had a treasure hunt every so often to restore them to the set. A couple were found in unexpected places, but none were lost. Here's day one.

One of the best parts of making cookies is eating the dough!

Cute Leah!

Beth works hard on her cards.

The finished products.

Anna wanted to make cards too.

Here's Leah with the sheep.

Anna is trying to decide what to abscond with next.

Leah is a big helper. She really concentrated on measuring and is very good at it.

Cookie dough takes two people to stir.

Helping sift dry ingredients.

Advent activities

We started celebrating Advent with our kids when Rachel and Beccy were preschoolers to help keep the focus at Christmas on the coming birth of Jesus, and all of them are doing the same thing with their kids. Sarah has planned several activities for the kids to do this Advent, and the first ones were at my house. Before Advent even started, they made applesauce ornaments to share with family and friends at a later time in Advent. The first night they made paper chains with 25 chains. Each day the girls rip off one of the chains so they can see how long until Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the girls and Sarah as they worked.

The applesauce dough is ready to cut.

Leah makes an ornament.

Beth is rerolling the dough to make more ornaments

Here's the finished product.

The girls loved making the long paper chains. Here's Beth.

Leah is very determined.

The finished products.

Here we are on the first night of Advent. Pete even joined us by phone.

Leah's birthday

We celebrated Leah's fourth birthday with all her family on Thanksgiving at Nini and Papa John's house. She had a ballerina birthday.

Here's Leah with her ballerina shirt and her ballerina birthday cake.

She did a good job blowing out her candles.

Here she is opening her ballet slippers from Aunt Katie!

Dad has her tutu from me.

And she will have lots of fun with the play doh.

Here is Leah all dressed up in her new ballerina clothes. She loved them right up until she tried to spin, fell and wound up in the emergency room. Thank goodness chins heal easily and blood washes out of leotards.

Blue Ridge Parkway

I have wanted to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway ever since I first saw the sign at the entrance to it when taking Beccy to college. So this fall Harry decided it was time to start doing some things on our bucket list, and this was the first one. We loved the trip. The first day out we traveled to near the north end of the parkway and started in Virginia. Since it was November, many of the stops along the parkway were closed and the trees didn't have many leaves, but there wasn't much traffic and we could see farther through the trees, so I think it was a good trade off. The first day was sunny and gorgeous as we traveled the ridge above rolling farmland with hills in the distance. We saw a couple of deer and not much else. We picnicked in the car since it was cold outside and stopped for the night at a place called Fancy Gap. It was near Andy Griffith's home town and we could see Mayberry influence everywhere. The next day was a totally different experience. The clouds had come down over the mountains, so we traveled through patches of dense fog, sometimes just crawling along. That was a good thing, because a few times deer would be in the road or crossing it just ahead of the car. It made for an exciting experience. We had lunch at a motorcycle bar at a tiny stop off the parkway that had great sandwiches. No motorcyclists, though because of the fog. That night we stayed in Asheville. We ate at a barbecue restaurant we could walk to from the hotel and didn't know until we arrived that they had live entertainment. (The name Fiddling Pig should have been a clue!) Actually, the bluegrass band was pretty good when they weren't losing the dog, wife or car. The next day was a mix of cloud and sunshine, depending on how high we were on the ridge. It was real mountain country. I did get a good picture that showed why they call it the Blue Ridge. We went through the Great Smokies National Park and spent the night in Knoxville before going home. I loved the trip, and I think Dad did too. We visited a couple of Appalachian arts and crafts places while on the trip, and finished with a trip to Berea, where Dad got me my Christmas present: a pendant made of Kentucky agate, which is red and black instead of the usual colors. I got to pick out the stone and the setting and had it made just for me! Thanks so much for the trip, Harry. It was wonderful.

We did get to see some beautiful waterfalls. Here is one that was a short hike off the road.

Dad against the mountains and clouds.

The Fiddling Pig

Blue Ridge above the clouds.

peppermint chocolate chip shakes!

Chick-fil-et makes wonderful peppermint chocolate chip milk shakes. Just ask Leah and Anna.

Balloon!

I looked out the window the other morning and there was this beautiful hot air balloon settling into the field next to our house. Of course, I wasn't dressed yet, so I couldn't go outside, but Harry went out to help them figure out how to get the balloon out of the field and into the chase car that drove up to our house about the same time. Our neighbor Lynn took a couple of pictures of it all. It was great fun for Harry to help them get the balloon over the fence and to help deflate and pack it up.

Harvest Party

Leah spent a couple of weeks here at the end of October and beginning of November. She alternated between our house and her other grandparents. While she was here, our church had their annual harvest party. Papa John brought her over all dressed up in her cheerleader costume. Nini really had her decked out.

She loved playing the games.

But she was pretty tired by the time Papa John took her back to their house.

Grandparents Day

We went up to Pete and Sarah's for Grandparents' day at Beth's school. We enjoyed getting to go with her for a program just for Grandparents. The music teacher even wrote special songs just for us. Beth loved posing by the tree in front of the school

Here we are with our first grader.

After the program, we went out to eat with Sarah and the kids. Here's Leah.

Anna is a girl after my own heart. She loves bread. Of course I usually eat mine in small bites, but she likes to get it all at once.

Beth and Anna love to play with each other.

Here is the class singing for us.