Christmas Day

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..." Aunt Jinny's fantastic family calendar is to the right of the stockings. Hoppy's picture makes an excellent cover.
Jason, John and I enjoyed Christmas morning at home and then headed to Mountain Lakes.
Jason shows 2 of his favorite presents: a Yankees World Series winners t-shirt and a Yuengling beer shirt which we purchased when we toured the brewery. I'm holding our new phone and one of my many new CDs, and John's holding his new boots from Cabela's.
Chrysanne had fun playing with Trenton at Grandma's. Trenton's showing how Spiderman shoots webs. He was adorable in his cape. He ran all around Greatgrandma's house with the cape flowing out behind him!
Oliver wasn't feeling well but Grampack got him to giggle while they were birdwatching.
Here we are ready for our feast. Thanks, Mom, for another wonderful dinner. We all brought items but Mom had to drag the big ham in from the car on a little wagon!

Carolyn enjoyed spending time with the boys, too. Her boys are virtually all grown up!

Oliver and Trenton play with a new sock monkey jack-in-the-box.

Time for delicious desserts - cookies and the highlight of any dinner at Mom's - her raspberry/applesauce Jell-O dessert!

The family matriarch.

Mom's new artificial tree was a complete success.

Christmas - Winding Way

Jim, Sheryl, Trenton and Oliver arrived on the 27th to celebrate Christmas with us here. Trenton was thrilled to receive this poetry book. He enjoys books tremendously and we enjoy reading to him.
It was wonderful to have them here overnight, too. Grampack and I babysat while the young folk went to Jonathan's party. Oliver loved his new squeaky giraffe teether toy, in my left hand.

Trenton's into Transformers now, just like Jason and Jim were.

Oliver loves to touch the deer.

A Visit to Howell

The lighting was so interesting on this picture I had to include it even though the subjects aren't looking at the camera. John, Jason and I had fun in Howell on Thursday. We were even able to visit with Jim for a while in the afternoon. Sheryl left around 4 pm to attend her class at Monmouth. From there she was going to a party. I'll bet the ladies enjoyed the homemade truffles she brought. Daddy Jim was in charge.

Oliver climbs on his toy and bounces. He climbs on everything. We were thrilled to see him take a few steps!
Trenton and Oliver play quite nicely alongside each other. The house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Oliver is fascinated with the tree.

Trenton's dancing along to "Monster Mash". He is learning a lot at preschool and having fun, too.

How about this picture - 4 guys fishing :-) !!!!

An Unusual Buck

This fall we saw a most unusual buck out back - he had 2 antlers on his left side! We've never seen a deer like him, even at Cabela's! Our camera was broken at the time and we were unable to get a picture. Luckily someone from John's club, the Farmers Sportsmen's Club, was able to take these pictures.
The two antlers are clearly visible in this picture. His antlers would have been spectacular even without the extra beam!

Deer and Snow

We call this little deer "Short-face". We've never seen one like it before.
It stays near its mother most of the time.
The deer come out of the woods behind the house and go to the neighbor's across the road. They've worn a path along the side of our property. The pictures above were taken on 12/4, the pictures below were taken on 12/5 - big change!
Short-face likes to have a lick of salt, a drink of water and a bite of pumpkin in our back yard.

Saturday was cold and snowy. Our weather changed quickly - on Thursday I was outside doing some yard work with no coat on!

As day turned into evening, everything became weighted down with wet snow.

The pumpkins became white blobs.

The tree branches hung low.

Dawn brought some sun. The snow was so wet it clung to the fishing line that holds the suet feeder!

Thanksgiving Celebration

Jim, Sheryl, Trenton and Oliver joined us for a feast on Saturday.
Oliver crawls all around. He looked at the deer in the backyard and said, "Woof"; he looked at the fish on the mantle, pointed and said, "Fsh"; he played with a stuffed bear and said, "Grrrrr".

The weather was nice enough for us to be outside before dinner. Jason, Jim and friend Jon played basketball. Trenton, Grandma and Grampack looked for worms. We found some beauties!

We enjoyed pumpkin, cherry and apple pies at lunchtime and had our feast at dinnertime. That's the way to do it, right? Eat dessert first.

Trenton loves this Incredibles book.

After bathtime, story time.

Thanks for a wonderful day.

Babysitting again

Mandatory for grandmas - baby spit on your shoulder :-)

Oliver's counted cross-stitch birth announcement is finally finished!

Jason and I played with Oliver and Trenton while Sheryl was teaching. Oliver smiled and laughed a lot. He laughed hysterically when Trenton pulled on the cherry tree branch out back. Oliver sought out his Uncle Jay and stuck like glue to him, which was very enjoyable for Jay.

Oliver loves yogurt. He and Trenton are incredibly good eaters; they eat all kinds of healthy food.

Trenton builds the tower and Oliver knocks it down. Can you see that the blocks form a redwood tree? We bought the nesting blocks at the park in California.

Reading Jeff Foxworthy's children's poetry book to Trenton.

Oliver's First Birthday

Oliver's first birthday celebration was combined with Halloween. He was the cutest bumblebee you ever saw. Sheryl was the flower! Trenton was a fierce pirate and Jim was a spooky skeleton.

Oliver had this entire panda cake to himself. You can tell how thrilled he was by his big smile!