Cuddles

Cuddleing with Selah and Joel…Wow! look at that “dried bean burrito” hand!  You have to love the honesty of youth! 

Christmas Eve Snapshots

Molly, Eric and Micah came a few days early for a nice Christmas visit.  Thanks for the time! 

Then came the Smiths (thanks Chad for putting up with the pics…painful for his migranes) They added a lot of energy to the day!

Add the Meiers to the mix and we have a houseful!

This was a “home-made” Christmas.  Mima made the grandkids all little magnetic white board bags with lots of magnetice toys.

Joel draws amazing happy faces on his!

Steve made cherry wood replicas of a wooden nativity puzzle he made years ago for our family

Here are some other “home-made” samplings.  Kari used her expert garage sale skills to nab a couple hand painted saw blades for her dad’s new shop.  Jodi (and Chad) sewed us each potato/tortilla bags for the microwave, Ian drew a picture of the guarane (sp?) indian that eventually killed the 5 missionaries in Ecuador, along with Ecuadorian stamps from his grandfather’s collection of each of the 5 missionaries!  And Molly put together an awesome Stanley family cookbook with some of our favorite recipes. 

Chad made Steve a wood rolling stand for his shop…very creative ideas all!

Then of course the yummy ham dinner, movies, singing and lots of fun!  Thanks for a wonderful day guys!

Steve’s Christmas stocking….funny, because he went in the closet in which this guy was hiding….and didn’t even see it!  Just saying the observation skills are lacking!  I know, he was focused on his task at hand

ZOO lights!

Micah all decked out to see the lights!  Here we go…..

 

We got there in time to go visit some of the animals before they went to bed.

 

A lot of kissing going on …maybe trying to stay warm!

 

Selah rides the stone camel…the kids all had a fun time (and the adults had their work cut out keeping track of all 8)

 

A little bongo drum action…must be in Africa???

 

What are you showing me Kari?  Your kid’s favorite lion behavior?

Off on the safari jeep!

 

Elijah climbing the highest mountain and of course jumping off!

 

Alright…time to go line up for the train ride…only an hour wait!

 

Joel and Essie get Polar bear hugs while waiting and Steve and Gabe brought us all hot chocolate and elelphant ears…nice!

 

Finally!  We are on the train…stuffed all 14 in one car…how fun is that?!

 

It was a fun night…and Chad had dinner waiting for us when it was all over …Thanks all!

 

 

The Little Drummer Boy!

Joel was the cutest drummer boy ever…so his Mima thinks   Was our delight to watch the Meiers family bring praise to Jesus this Christmas!

The rest of the family did a great job too…as some one commented  ”The Von Trapp Family performs again!”

Merry Christmas to All!!!

As we approach the day we remember that Jesus came to earth to become like us in the most humble of ways, we are joyful that the awesome, transendent, most holy God chose to become approachable and make a way for us to be with Him! 

 

 

On a lighter note, I was given this delightful Christmas ornament by one of my students…the Oregon State mollusk (well sort of…the banana slug is probably more popular here  

 

Cookies anyone?  Come stop by!!!  Love, Steve and Ginny

Remembrances of Christmas Past!

Every Christmas morning before the festivities began, our girls put on a Christmas pageant…of sorts!  It was always the highlight of the day as far as Mom and Dad were concerned.   Thanks for the memories

More “characters”  with the Harmons involved! 

Recordings would be nice to go with these pics!

I’m gonna guess:  “Angels We Have Heard on High”

Help me out here…claymation version of “We Three (4) Kings”?

Not sure …but it came complete with tumbling acts.  Nice choreography, girls!

Ahh, we are looking so grown up…good-bye to those giant glasses…hello contacts!

Cousin Laura comes to spend Christmas with us and Jamey lives with us for a few years and joins the fun!

Our final picture…those were wonderful times.  We enjoy being entertained by the grandkids now!  May the HOPE of Christmas remain in all our families!!!

Megs LOVES horses!

Lela and Megan surprised us with a visit while Ian was off on a training.  We walked up to Laura’s house and Megan got to ride her horse.  She was excited to say the least.  Kept telling Lela to go bye-bye (so she wouldn’t make her get off, I think!)  Thanks Laura!

Welcome Home Veterans!

The girls put on a wonderful meatball sandwich lunch for Dad and Grandpa!  We are all glad they made it home!

All the kids and grandkids made cards for them…and got Steve a recorder to tell his stories for posterity…of course he was overcome with emotion

He had all the grandkids captivated with his war stories while the girls and I hit the Harvest Moon Bizarre!  What a good grandpa!

Oh, and a cute picture of Meggie and Joelie dressed as twins

Soccer Boys!

Steve and I spent the last three week-ends going to soccer games for Jodi’s boys as all three played at the same time!  Craziness!  First we went to Levi’s game…he was way more into the social / treat /part of the game, but he had fun and we had fun watching him

 

The second game was Josiah’s.  The older kids have a much longer field and a lot more competitiveness.  Josiah has enough enthusiasm for his whole team.   He made two goals…one for his team and one for the other   Way to go Josiah!

 

Finally we went to Elijah’s game.  This boy has talent!  I don’t think he was fully awake today, but there is a lot of potential waiting to explode!  Nice work, Elijah!

Fall Finale at the Pumpkin Farm

We had a gorgeous fall day in Spokane to visit the pumpking farms with Megan and Micah…take a deep breath!

The corn maze made a pretty picture, though was way to expensive to try out

Megan really liked the dirt…and Micah liked the “balls”!

Peabox …makes for a slippery walk, but fun for the dumptrucks.

Petting zoos …

Megan went to horsey heaven! No fear here!

Thanks for the fun my little punkins!