Kissing Balls!

Kissing balls are a fresh green decoration that is hung outside. Apparently they are named that because women use to get kissed on the cheek under them. We made them on the snow day. They were originally made to sell at a FFA fundraiser, but it got cancelled. We were able to sell them to a friend's husband.

Neola with her kissing ball before it is finished.

Jay's kissing ball out front at our house.

Jay with his kissing ball. Shows how big it is.

Cool huh?

Snow Day!

The weather forecast called for a huge storm to hit the Grand Valley. We had no idea what that meant having not lived here that long. It started snowing Monday afternoon, Dec 7th. We woke up to 8 inches of snow on Tuesday. "Snow Day" no school! Jay was thrilled. John of course had to work. He walked across the parking lot.

Out the front window.

Backyard.
Jay shoveling snow.

Vehicles

Neola taking pictures and Jay shoveling. What we didn't was that the afternoon the yard people shovel snow. They came by in the afternoon and finished what we started.

The next day after the snow the below zero weather came and it was wintery cold! Weather we haven't had since Idaho. Clear blue skies and cold! 2 weeks later we still have snow. Our street was never was plowed so it is rutty and icey.

The week of Thanksgiving!

It was so cool to have all the kids at our house on Thanksgiving!! Luke visited for the first time since we move here and Jessica got to be here also. A big thanks to her parents for sharing her with us!

Of course having the kids home meant that we had the camera's going and taking pictures. I'm sharing a few of what we took the week they were home.

Jay, Jessica,Luke, John, Neola
Mark and Chubby

Jessica took us on a "field trip" to see the Alpaca farm in Loma, Co.

The Alpaca were friendly and liked Jessica.

Mark even convinced Jay to go rock climbing with him.Mark

Jay


Mark

John and Luke managed to fit a round of golf in at the Redlands Mesa Golf Course in Grand Junction, CO
Luke
John

We took the kids up to the Colorado Monument to show it to them and get a few pictures for the Christmas card. It took several shots to get the ones we liked!

Jay was the camera man and got some interesting "between the pose" shots.
It was a real blessing to have them all home for a week!

I'm so thankful for family!

The Annual Pumpkin Fest!

It all began on October 31st. Halloween! John, Jay and I carved our pumpkins in anticipation of the trick or treaters coming. I bought 2 huge bags of candy at Sam's and was prepared... new house, new neighborhood.. the unknown but need to be ready.

We had 4 early trick or treaters before we got the jack-o-lanterns going and that was it!

Needless to say we ate way too much candy!

So I turned the pumpkins around so the good side faced the road. My "fall decorations" and waited for the boys to come home at Thanksgiving to preform the annual pumpkin stabbing/throwing sharp objects at and baseball.

You can see the pumpkin guts flying when Luke connects with a chunk of pumpkin.
Brothers and pumpkins!

They did a great job of cleaning it all up out of the front yard.

Not Yet!

We had a great time with the Mark, Luke and Jessica here for Thanksgiving! Miss them already!

We looked at a bunch of house before they got here. Then took them to what we thought were our top three choices. Then looked some more. Decided to show them the house that we had been looking at that was way over our budget. On a wild stab thought we would make a low ball offer and see what happened. Well they didn't like our low offer and came back really close to the asking price. It made that decision easy ... too much...

.... John got out the Christmas decorations and we put up lights on the outside of the house... meaning we will be here for Christmas......

... not yet... still looking!

Looking for a new home

Our Phoenix House officially closed on October 23rd!! Praise God!!!

Now we have begun the challenge of finding a new home here where the market prices are much higher. After seeing almost all the houses in the area within our price range and specifications we are narrowing it down and evaluating the choices. Luke and Mark are at college, Luke and Jess getting married in May and Jay a junior in high school. I gave all that info because we are in transition as a family and trying to decide what type of house we really need. Of course it would be great to have a big house with 4 bedrooms and an extra living space... but do we really need it. Especially this far away from family.

It would be really nice to be in our new home by Christmas.

Pray for us as we embark on finding the place where God wants us.

Moscow Trip!

John was hoping to go up for Dad's weekend at the U of Idaho, but it didn't work out with the boys schedule. So instead we planned to go up a couple of weeks later. I went with him. What I didn't realize was that we were doing it in 3 days. Friday to Sunday = total of 1960 miles and many hours in the car. But it was worth it to visit the boys.Luke and John at Applebee's.

Saturday morning Luke took John golfing at Circling Raven in Worley, ID. Luke has been working there since June. They had a great time, while Mark and I hung out and bought groceries. We met up at the Vandal game. We attended the tailgate party before the game and got to see several friends from the Payette area. It was fun.

Neola, Mark, John and Luke in the Kibbie Dome after the game. Vandals won..

More posing at the game.

They have remodeled the Kibbie Dome. This is the west end of the dome. It really lightens the dome and gives it a better look.

Getting the "look"

Friends at the tailgate. Two generations of Vandals.

Hilary,Kathy,Neola,Luke,Teresa,Mark, John, Brett,John

It was so much fun! Glad we went even if it was many miles and hours in the car.

Go Vandals!

First Visit!

John's brother Wes and wife Joan came to visit. They were on a long road trip visiting family and seeing the sights. It was very exciting to have them come to visit. They spent a couple of days with us. We were able to visit and to show them a few sights of our area.

John showed Wes the construction of the hospital. They went all the way to the top and Wes got to stand on the Helipad for the Helicopter,

Wes on roof of hospital.

Jay, Joan and Wes.

Jay was involved in a teen court class. The night they were here he actually had court. Jay was one of the prosecutors. We were allowed to go watch court. In Fruita they have an opportunity for students that have had trouble with the law to go through teen court which is real court but if sentence is served then it will be taken off their record. There is a judge that oversees the court. The kids prepare for the case in class. They assign kids different positions in the court, some are lawyers, some are jury etc... Then on the night of court they go through the actual court proceedings. The jury decides what they will receive as a sentence.

John, Joan and Wes

We took them to see the Colorado Monument.

Wes, Joan and Neola

Wes and Joan

It was so much fun to have them come visit and spend time with us.

Pears and Pirates

We have a pear tree in the backyard of our rental house. Weird pears.. not sure what kind they are and they didn't ripen the way the pears we have had in the past. The tree was loaded. They would drop from the tree and we tried to keep them picked up. But Chubby loved them. He would bring them to the back door just like a cat would a mouse. Then he would proceed to eat them. In pieces... this also created an ant problem. If we were gone for awhile we would come home to many pears laying around partly eaten. Here are pictures of the culprit!! I had to sneak around the house to get the pictures as soon as he would hear you he would leave the pears and come.

We had to cut back on the amount of dog food we feed him ... he was putting on weight eating all that sweet fruit!

Luke and Jessica got this Pirate antenna thing for Jay at Disneyland. He proudly has it on his car. He is a Pirate through and through.

Jay

Fall in Colorado.....even saw a moose!

Saturday, John wanted to go for a drive and see the fall colors. We were actually a week behind for the colors at the top of the mountains but the lower levels were beautiful!

What is a trip to the mountains without John fishing!

John and Jay with a fish.
Jay and I weren't into the fishing like John was so ...free time and a camera..... notice the sunglasses.....

Another fish

Jay taking pictures.... of course we never go anywhere without one or two cameras.

We spent a week in Yellowstone and never saw a moose. Here we were about 30 yards from a male, female and a young moose. It was cool you could hear the sounds and see them eating from trees.

Digital has changed the way we all take pictures!

It blurred but we still liked it.

Overall it was a fun day!