Sad Days, Fun Days and Exciting Things

Seems that life has been busy with normal, abnormal, unplanned and unexpected activities recently. I guess I will let the pictures do the explaining their more interesting anyway! (~:

The sad an unexpected was the sudden death of my sweet Grandmother last Friday. The unplanned sudden trip to PA to prepare for, kept my thoughts at bay until we got there and I saw her for the first time since our visit in July. Lots of memories came flooding my mind and I have to say I only have good memories of her. She is going to be greatly missed by ALL of us and many others!

All but 2 of my cousins on my Moms side of the family

Some of the 36 great-grandchildren

We experienced some real PA winter weather with ice and snow

Some belated Christmas presents from Grandma Heisey made for a second Christmas

I fear some day when we move and have room we will be required to get some horses!

When the kids heard snow was in the forecast, I hoped for their sake it came because words would not describe how disappointed they would have been after 3 or 4 YEARS of waiting! I knew school was definitely off for the day! The lack of snow suits and boots make for wet cold kiddos pretty quick! At one point I found them out in flip flops cause they were out of dry shoes!

They were quite proud of their snow "Midget" as my brother called it

The kiddos enjoyed ice skating with our homeschool group

Well for the exciting, this is "Poppy" our very much anticipated baby expected to come sometime around July 28! The name Poppy was given because that's how big baby was when we found out I was pregnant. (~: We told the kiddos at Christmas and they literally screamed with excitement! They've been praying for this baby (actually for twins) for a year! I was anxious to tell them cause I was so sick and since they didn't know why, they were quite concerned. After 5-6 VERY LONG weeks of feeling beyond gross, I think I'm past that part and can actually function again!

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas

I Hope y'all had a good Christmas! We did although it was a different one. We stayed home this Christmas. We did really miss seeing family at Christmas, but we did have a nice day here. I was struck this year with what a blessing family is, I think it came from being far away from dear family, but what a blessing my own little family right here in my home is too. It's more than some people have. I was reminded of this when we made our Christmas Eve cookie deliveries to a couple neighbors. Neighbor #1 is right across the road, so the girls walked them over. They came home and said how sad it was, he was all alone, no Christmas decor, watching tv. His wife and step kids left him a couple years ago and being from England, he has no other family around, so sad and lonely! Neighbors # 2 are an older couple with no kids, they stop in the Summer quite often to check out my garden and get some produce. She was away working night shift, he was at home watching tv in a completely dark house. From what Ive gathered if they have family, they don't see them often, they moved here from Philadelphia. The cookies sure brightened up his face! I couldnt help but wonder how many other of my neighbors that I always wave to, but never met are also alone and sad!?

We also went Christmas caroling with our church. We havent gone for a few years so it was pretty new for the kids. It made quite an impression singing for widows, especially the one who weeped at how lonely she is the year. The kiddos made it a priority to pray for her over the Holidays.

On November 15, Jennifer turned 8! I must confess to being embarrassed to have a picture of her cake that did not turn out the way I envisioned! Its supposed to be a cupcake, but looks more like a bushy flower. But, she liked it so that's what was important!

Birthday gifts are always exciting, especially ones that come in the mail from family afar.

Not only did Jennifer have a date with Daddy at Longhorn, she got to ride with him for the day in his hauling truck!

The girls had a blast being in a Thanksgiving play with our homeschool group

The homeschool group kids

For Thanksgiving again this year, some of David's family came for a couple days. Playing Monopoly seemed to be a favorite pass time, as heated as the games did get! (:

Meeting new baby cousin Carter was fun!

Jennifer had another birthday celebration with Grandma's cake

After our traditional meal at Mi Rancho, there was a chilly game of mini-golf

On Christmas Eve, we left the kiddos open the gifts that came in the mail from family. These are from Summy family

These are from Aunt Lynette. She made the hats, when I found out it took her about 20 hours a hat, I'm almost afraid to let them wear them! The kiddos are looking forward to a second little Christmas when Grandma Heisey's gifts arrive!

I guess you can't tell how excited Trey was about his new shirt, for Christmas, that looks like Grandpa's dog Pepper! (:

There much anticipated treasures

I forgot pictures of cookie decorating, but this was their project/snack they made to take to Christmas Caroling at church

 

Photo Shoot and Other Things

Well, I hope this finds each of you doing well, and not stressing too much that the Holiday Season is already coming upon us!!

School is still going well, three more weeks and we are half way finished! I don't have much to say, so I will let the pictures tell you what we have been up to...

September found me doing lots and lots of applesauce, 79 quarts frozen and 28 canned! I did have some willing helpers though (:

Treyton helped by eating the cut apples

I stumbled across some trees nearby that were growing a fruit I never seen before. After research, I learned they were Persimmons. I did more research to decide what to do with them and came across a recipe for Apple Persimmon Butter. It was alot of work. We had to brave the fire ants to steal their much desired fruit and to get two cups of pulp, well that took awhile. The fruit was the size of a golf ball and each one averaged 6 almond sized seeds, so it took awhile to get much of anything...

David and I had a fun/funny date getting to go see the comedian, Mark Lowery.

Treyton about picked my flowers bare by happily bringing me flowers quite often. How could I reprimand him for destroying my poor flowers? Well, I couldn't, so I didn't (:

Rissa was excited to bring me her "New Little Buddy" that she rescued from the death clutches of our cat! (its a lizard)

October brought some exciting job changes for David. He has officially become self-employed, hauling storage buildings. He really enjoys his new work!

When he gets a building that is 14 ft wide he needs an escort who happens to be me! Our first one was a struggle as part of the roof blew off and needed repaired before we could continue on /:

Jennifer doing one of her favorite things, drawing.

My little 'Pilgrims'. It was an art project of Rissa's

Treyton's version of hauling Storage Barns

The next few photos are my attempt of a photo shoot, so enjoy...