WELCOMING HAYDEN TITUS HELM

We are excited to meet our seventh grandchild, Hayden Titus Helm, born Dec. 28 in the wee hours of the morning.  He weighs 8lbs and 5oz.  21 inches long.  Praise the Lord mom and baby are doing well.

BIRDWATCHING AND HIKING

 Michele is suppose to identify birds for a school project so we thought we would go hiking at Audubon Park, but it was closed for maintenance so we ended up at USI for the day.

 

 There weren't a lot of birds, but we saw a pileated woodpecker,northern flicker,and two red-bellied woodpeckers.

It always helps to have Greg along since he was a boyscout and knows a lot about birds.

Birds of a feather flock together. 

 We are always happy to find a walking stick.

 Scaling a wall.

School is out for the day.

CHRISTMAS EVE

 I knew I wanted to try and get a picture of all the grandkids present. After rounding them all up and wiping away the tears we snapped this shot.

 Gretchen got this idea off of Pinterest and I thought it turned out cute. We only had one left.

                                                    My brother, Matt made a good Santa.

                                                    Baby Langston comes out of the stocking.

 

                                                           BATMAN and SPIDERMAN

 

                                                 This is really a good picture of grandpa Greg and Tenley.

                                                Red is our favorite color.

                                                        DID I SAY I WANTED MY PICTURE TAKEN?????

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

Michele's Singers group sang this afternoon at the Centre for the Gingerbread House Competition.  I had a lot of fun going around and taking pictures of these works in progress. The donations went to help Aurora which help the homeless.  I wanted to share them with you too.

SINGERS

 Michele and her friend, Annebel are in North Junior High show choir.  They had two performances today.  Michele song a solo O Holy Night and did a beautiful arrangement.

We also went to Goebel Farm to pick out our Christmas tree.  I think everyone else had to same idea because we had to stand in line to pay.  We plan to decorate tomorrow.  I better check out our lights tonight to make sure they are working.

Birthday Party

Michele celebrated her thirteenth birthday with her friends Annabelle and Grace.  They had fun making pizza and brownies.  They laughed until they were silly, playing Pit. 

FEATHER

Michele wanted a feather for her birthday.  I thought it turned out cute. HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CROCHET HAT

This is the fourth hat I have made.  I made the first three for the grand babies.

CUPCAKE WARS

Michele and I love to watch cupcake wars.  She found a recipe for vanilla raspberry cupcake and wanted to test it on Kenan and Easton.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Michele enjoyed her first day at the new North Junior High.  The school is very big , but she didn't have any trouble finding her classes .  She was glad to see her old friends too.

UPS AND DOWNS

We celebrated Gretchen's twenty sixth and Greg's sixty third birthday Sunday.  Rebecca made a yummy cheesecake topped with cherries and blueberries.  Thanks Rebecca for all your hard work. We also lost an old friend.  After fifteen years of loyal service our pool caved in. We had just gotten out of it an hour before and are praising God nobody was hurt.  We had a lot of fun family times in the pool and are looking forward to a new one next year.

POOL TIME

                                       Jonathan reminds me of Big Bird sitting on his nest.

FLOWERS

For the last several years I have planted a different variety of sunflowers.  I am still amazed when I throw some seeds in the ground such a big flower grows up.  It reminds me of the parable in the Bible of the mustard seed.  I wanted to share some of my beautiful flowers with you.