Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving had come and gone and the boys had gone back to college and Jessica back home. We were trying to decide how much we would decorate the house because everything was in storage and we were still in our rental house. It was hard to get into the spirit of Christmas so John pushed and we decorated. We put up 2 trees, got out the Nativities and decorated "Gus" the goat. John even put up some LED lights outside. He is changing over to the LED because they are so energy efficient.

Early December it snowed a bunch... we got over 9 inches in 2 days. The locals tell us that it isn't normal... whatever that means. Then it turned cold! Dropped below zero and stayed cold. In Grand Junction they don't plow side streets, so we have ruts and snow and ice on our street. When the boys came home, the worst road of the trip was our street.
At least we had a white Christmas:))

The picture of John and the boys was taken on Christmas Eve... we went out for Chinese food. Even with the sun shining and Luke and Jay dressed for warm weather it was only about 20 degrees.

Christmas Eve we went to Church and then came home and of course had to take a family picture. When the boys are home we always play games. Great family time!
We gave the boys their yearly Christmas book. It is always a special time, now they take turns reading the story.

Christmas morning

Mark and Jay in their hats from Jess and Luke.

Mark got Luke a football for Christmas so they convinced their dad that he needed to go throw with them. The only place where it was clear enough was the hospital parking lot right behind the house. Needless to say they didn't last very long....they said the ball got too cold and hurt to catch. I think it was just cold!

We were very blessed to have Luke and Mark both home for Christmas. We had Luke for almost a week before he flew out to spend time with Jessica in CA. He flew out on Christmas Day evening. It was hard have him go but glad that he could spend time with Jessica and her family. He will fly back into Boise at the end of break and Mark will pick him up there and take him back to Moscow.

My boys are growing up! Life keeps changing, I treasure the moments!

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 They were originally made to sell at a FFA fundraiser, but it got cancelled.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.