Time for a New Post

Here is the picture we promised Honey. We replaced the counters and tiled the back splash. Thanks to Patti and Ben for the new hood and stove. We love them. Thanks all of you for the Valentines too.! We moved the microwave over by the fridge. It's great there and seems to give us more counter space. Now we need to paint. We love you all.

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's - Part 3

This is for those of you that requested to see the curtains and also the downstairs. It's kind of hard to see how the curtains sweep back because it is at night but you should be able to see the lights from the deck through the windows.

It was so fun to have John and Mindy and Johnny, Maggie and Josie her after New Year's. We left the Christmas decorations up. Johnny and Maggie enjoyed playing with the village.

Here are John and Johnny demonstrating the finer techniques with the Wii Sports. I love bowling. I would never get anything done if we had one. It is so fun.!

This is the way the downstairs was decorated this year.
Have I promised any other pictures and forgotten to post them? We put the other counter in the kitchen yesterday. The side with the sink. We just love them. We will post pictures of the kitchen when I get the tile back splash done. Love you all.

Blake and Grandpa

Blake loves to play the guitar and sing using Papa's microphone. It just reminds me so much of Clay only he doesn't say "I need a pick". This day Papa played with him. He looks so serious (which is usually not the case when he provides 'concerts' for Manny as I sit on the couch). Check out the profiles. Notice he is a 'lefty'. Later on he was really wailin' into the microphone as he made up songs about Papa, Manny and Fraidy. So cute.

5 FOOT icicle!!

With all the snow and then the melting during the day and the cold weather at night it has made for some pretty spectacular icicles hanging from the deck. We took this picture just before we crashed it to the ground. It is 38 degrees today so it would have gone by itself real soon anyway. Love you all.

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's house - Part 2

We had the Barclay's over for Christmas Eve dinner. It was so much fun to have them. Reecy and Eric and Blake were at the Allen's and the Barclay's and us were the only other ones left. We had a great time feasting. We even used the real china and crystal. (Not so many dishes with only 10 of us!)

Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma's house - Part 1

This was the night of the nativity. It was great fun. We also did the 'white elephant' gift exchange after this. We did one for the kids and then one for the adults. That was lots of fun too. We missed all the rest of you. Love you all.

Lots of snow . . . still not as much as Honey and Ryan!!

These are from some of our early snowfalls. I was talking to Brackon and telling him how much snow we had so he suggested taking pictures and posting them. They are just a little late. It is still very cold here. Definitely the coldest winter we have had here - but not as cold as Canada. I think my blood has thinned out. I have become a whimp! and the ground is still covered.

We had a beautiful pink sunset the other night but I was about 3 minutes too late with the camera.

Grandma and Grandpa Lowry Christmas 2006

Here are Grandma and Grandpa as you would have seen them if you had been able to come to Canada with us on Boxing Day - Dec 26th. Grandpa is ever the wonderful host and is making his yummy pancakes for us for breakfast. Grandpa is a great cook. And Grandma was right down the whole time we were there. She had very painful gout in her foot. It lasted for weeks. While we were there we were able to make arrangements for her to get some "Aids for Daily Living" that sure make it alot easier for her to get around. She is loving her new walker now. She does have terrible pain in her back that has been just awful for her. Kept her awake all night one night. Grandpa is having cataract surgery in Feb. I told him we would remember him in our Feb. fast. Both of them. Thanks for all your prayers in their behalf. They sure do love all of you and so do we.

And last but not least for today . . . Dad got all the patio poured!

We have had such a mild fall that Dad was able to complete pouring the cement patio under the deck. He worked so hard. We are so excited. It will be so wonderful to have. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of him and the big digger taking away the hill under the deck. He did a great job. The machine was so big it was like doing brain surgery with a chain saw but he did it!!!! And had a lot of fun too. You can see the wall he built. We still have to put away the cement mixer, etc. and put the stairs back up but it is so fun to have done. Now in the spring we will parge or stucco the walls and put in lighting fixtures. It will make such better use of the space than the ivy was. Thanks Dad and Grandpa. I got a great picture at Thanksgiving that I will include.

Christmas at Thanksgiving???

Because most everyone was going to be away for Christmas we decided to ave Christmas the night before Thanksgiving. It was a big hit with the Grandkids. It was lots of fun. It was mostly just a gift exchange. Grandma actually had all the presents purchased and wrapped. Thanks to Micki and Mindy the upstairs tree got decorated. They did a beautiful job. Thanks guys. And thanks for all the wonderful presents. You are all so good to us. We love you sooooooooooooo much.

Then the next day after the Thanksgiving feast we had the fish pond. It was lots of fun and everyone seemed pleased with their 'little' presents they 'pulled out'. The next day when everyone was over Emma said, "Grandma when are we going to get our presents". When I reminded her that she already had them she just said "oh". I can't blame her for thinking that we had a good thing going. She is such a sweetheart.

Thanksgiving Feast

It was so fun to have almost everyone here for Thanksgiving. We sure missed having Marcie and Brackon and Kennedy, Morgan and Emree here. We know they had fun at home with Grandma and Grandpa Curtis. It was so wonderful to have John & Mindy and Johnny, Maggie and Josie here and Honey and Ryan and Rylee, Clayton, KC and Lucy here. We miss all of you so much that are far away. And we love all our close family. It is such a blessing and treat for us to see them all the time. We just love all of you and are so blessed to have such a wonderful family. Cassy took pictures of all the couples. (We had John and Mindy's friends - Kendra and Michael Anderson and Dallin and Ella with us too.) They are far from family too. I was a little late in getting pictures of everyone seated so you can see that the kids have mostly left the table. We had 36 for dinner. It was great.

Presenting . . . after almost 2 years of sitting in the Garage and the Basement

Can you believe it!?! Grandma finally got the couches done!! YEAH. We really enjoyed them at Thanksgiving. Now I am excited to finish the other wing chair that has been waiting even longer. (We'll see how the New Year's projections go this year.) I've included a before of the loveseat. The couch was worse but I forgot to do a picture. Grandpa was so excited to have them done. It was so fun to do it especially when he was so complimentary with the results. We love you all.

Halloween? How late is that?!!

All of the 'Masterpieces' are all in a row. (I wonder if we'll have any stray seeds that grow next year.)

You can see Grandma with the "talking Pumpkin". It is so fun to do each year. Blake really liked to talk to it. When he came back after Halloween was over but the pumpkin was still out he couldn't figure out why it wouldn't talk. He would say 'no working'.

We had so much fun at our Annual Pumpkin Carving/Soup Potluck! I like Ben's name for it - "Soup and Scoop".

Everyone did a great job of their pumpkins. Uncle Spencer's were very intricate and turned out great. We love you all.

Almost the whole Family . . .

. . . For those visitors that would like to see. This is the latest family picture that is almost 2 years old so we are missing Blake Allen, Josie Livingstone and Lucy Hunt not to mention that Reecy (Allen) is expecting in March and Marcie (Curtis) is expecting in April. We love our family. We think they are the best. Love all you guys.