FAMILY PICTURES

As a Christmas gift to me, my kids took us all down to the photographers to have a family portrait taken. Needless to say, I am quite proud of it, and wanted to share it with you. The kids also had family pictures done, and I'll post those here, too.

Here are Lisa, Charles, Jack (15 months) and Faith (3 years):Here are Stacy and David, Rhys (3 1/2 months) and Brody (2 years):

Baby Rhys had his first professional picture taken -- what a cutie! I can hardly believe he is 3 1/2 months old already!

I am so proud of them all!

DAVID'S HOUSE

IT IS ALMOST FINISHED! We spent quite a few days over the last few weeks helping David and Stacy put the finishing touches on their new home. Over Christmas, we started painting for them. Mike did some electrical work, and Stacy's parents have been a huge help, as well. Now it is beginning to look like a home. They are hoping for a move in date sometime this month. David has been working furiously to get the flooring down, and he has been installing plumbing fixtures, hanging doors, installing can lighting, and trying to figure out how to put a railing down the stairs. Here are a few pictures before the color got put on the walls:

This is their backyard -- aka "huge trash pile", at least for now!

This room will be Dave's pride and joy -- the theater room. It will have theater style seating, and a huge screen to watch movies on.This is the "great" room upstairs -- they call it the "Hemingway" room. Stacy has plans to decorate it accordingly.This is Dave and Stacy's bedroom:

...and the front of the house:

All the walls are painted now, and the kitchen cabinets are installed. Next time I go I will take some new pictures so you can see how great it looks!

Endless Christmas

Wasn't there a Beach Boy's album by that name? OH! That was endless SUMMER? In the words of Emily Litella -- "never mind".

ANYWAY.....we had a fun, fabulous, chaotic Christmas season, but I am glad it is over. Now I can go back to work and get some rest! I should digress. Mike arrived home from Switzerland on the 15th of December, and spent the next two days putting up the Christmas lights. The next week was a flurry of activity as we got ready for the myriads of people that would be arriving over the next week. We took a short break from the preparations and saw the Radio City Music Hall Rockette's in "Christmas Spectacular!" What a great show. The Christmas music is so good, and all the dancing is fabulous. They ended with a living nativity, and a reading of "One Solitary Life", which is about the impact Christ has had on our lives and our world. It was a perfect ending to a great show, I thought! Our FIRST Christmas celebration began on Christmas Eve afternoon and lasted 3 days! Charles' brother, his wife and their 6 kids arrived and stayed with us until the Wednesday after Christmas. We rented a bounce house, opened presents, had huge meals, and played a lot of games. Charles' family is a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed having them. Those kids are so well behaved! The next day, we had Christmas number 2. David, Stacy. Brody, Rhys, Mike's mom, and Mike's aunt all came out for the 2nd round. We had a big roast dinner, and yummy monkey bread for dessert. Friday we had "off", except for the fact that we were busy preparing for Christmas number 3. Saturday brought a crowd of about 25 people -- various family members all shared the day with us. Ham, turkey, two different kinds of potatoes, lots of presents, all of the usual Christmas cheer. Yes, even spiked eggnog! We were really happy to have my sister's son, David Albaugh, join us that day. Here he is with his girlfriend Setareh -- they are intensly playing the XBox game, "Guitar Hero". With lots of grandbabies around, Christmas is a blast! It is all new and fun again, with lots of laughing, excitement and playing. I was so blessed to have them all with us this year. That was my FAVORITE Christmas gift! Another blessing was that my brother's kids were here from Texas. I had to share them with their grandparents, of course, so we didn't get to have them all the time. It was good to see them! Here they are opening their "group gift".We all made gingerbread houses one of the days they were here. I think more candy got eaten than placed on houses. Yes, I am guilty. Here is Billee helping Faith with her creation: And...the finished product:'Round the table are my brother's kids, Faith, and our other nephew, Ryan (Mike's brother's son), all making their candy houses. Here are a few more pictures from our celebrations...I especially like this one of Faith and Brody on their new Radio Flyer spring horses. Ride 'em, cowkids!Here they are again, standing by the Christmas stockings I made for everyone. Well, that's not really true. I made all but four. Mike's aunt made the needlepoint ones for Mike, me, Lisa and David a LONG time ago We had 10 stockings on the fireplace this year!Jack-Jack LOVED his new toy from Grandma and Grandpa:

Baby Rhys did a fine job of looking extra cute in his Santa hat!Brody and Faith were quite hungry by the time we ate Christmas dinner. It looks like Brody is about to take matters into his own hands and get that turkey carved! We thought it was quite cute, of course. Faith doesn't look as sure!As you can see by this picture, David was quite happy with his new Pirates of the Caribbean "At World's End" Blu-Ray disc.All in all, what a GREAT holiday season! It will be hard to beat! Next post will be about David's new house...it is almost finished!