Recital, Grand Prix and Dirty Dogs

Piano Recital

JoAnna played Rocky Top with her piano teacher.

Lydia played the beautiful Casting Crowns song LifeSong as one of her pieces for the recital. She was so nervous, but she did wonderful - as usual.

AWANA Grand Prix

Here is JoAnna with her pencil car, ready for the Grand Prix.

JoAnna watches her pencil car come down the track. It was one of the only races she won, but she had fun. I tried to get a shot with the cars in it, but I guess I failed.

Dirty Dogs

While running around town today the girls and I left the dogs on their tethers in the back yard. We told Caleb he was in charge. When we came home the dogs were locked in the bathroom and upon opening the door we found this sight. Apparently they found a muddy spot behind the pergola where Caleb couldn't see them. It appears that they enjoyed their "free time".

Haircuts

Our Bichon Frises are cute, but by the end of the winter their fur, no matter how much it is washed, starts to take on that 'doggy smell'. Bichons have a thick under coat that sheds off and is trapped by the top coat, thus they don't leave dog hair all over. We have to brush their thick curls to pull out the trapped hair, or they developed large matted areas. I don't have their fur trimmed in the winter b/c they need the warmth...but come spring we are all ready for them to get their fur thoroughly washed and cut. Today was day for those haircuts.

Before- I call them wooly sheep dogs

After - all clean and spiffy

Now that the days are getting warmer, we have enjoyed exploring more of the outside of our new house. The other day I took my camera out and took some pictures of the girls on the trampoline.

Lydia thought Maia would enjoy jumping, too. She didn't.

We laughed at Lydia's pose in this picture...we thought she looked like she was going to squish a monster sized bug.

Lydia and JoAnna enjoying a warm spring day.

Lydia is a Teenager

For a little over a year Lydia has been acting like a teenager and now she has officially stepped into that time of her life. She had a party with a couple of her friends.

Lydia chose pulled pork BBQ and homemade cheesy onion rolls for her birthday party. The rolls were hot out of the oven for lunch...oh yum!! When I saw this picture I REALLY saw her daddy in her face. She is becoming a young lady her father would be proud of.

Lydia made Maia a birthday party hat and made her wear it for the party.

Lydia wanted to decorate cakes with her friends. She made the cakes and then crumb coated them with buttercream frosting. I made marshmallow fondant (MUCH better than the store bought stuff) and they colored, rolled and decorated. The creative juices were running strong.

Lydia with her cake. It just dawned on me that she is much like the butterflies depicted on the cake. She has grown into a beautiful young lady and she is starting to stretch her wings. One day she will fly from home and hopefully into a life that honors the Lord. I am praying for the wonderful, godly young man who will come into her life.

Snow

One Friday, February 5th a snow storm moved into our area. We were predicted to get 9-12 inches of snow. This picture is the front of my new house on Saturday morning - it was still snowing and continued to do so until Saturday just after noon.

Here is a shot of the backyard during the storm.

After all was said and done I had 12 1/2 inches on my back deck.

The dogs really don't appreciate the snow. If they are out too long they get little snow balls (which turn into big snow balls if they are out toooo long) stuck to their fur.

Here is Maia with snow half way up her back...making outdoor "stops" a little interesting. : )

This is a picture of the woods in back of the house, after the snow stopped and the sun came out. Right after this picture the snow started falling and it wasn't quite so pretty. I think the Lord gives us these beautiful sights to tell us He loves us.

On Saturday at 2:37 pm the power went out. Which meant that we didn't have heat. We braved it through the night and by morning it was down to 55 degrees in the house. My neighbor has been plowing for me, so we waited for the driveway to be cleared - but it didn't happen. (Found out later that he tried, but the snow was just too deep for him to get through) By Sunday evening it was 52 degrees in here. At this point I have to explain that my parents are visiting so they were blessed to experience the outage with us. We all just wanted out of the house, so I started calling around and found a friend who came to plow us out...thanks so much, Jason!! We ventured out to some friend's house and watched a movie and warmed up. On the way home we encountered the AEP truck looking for the reason for the power outage in my little neighborhood. At 10:36 p.m. Sunday night the lights flicked on. The furnace ran for a couple hours to get things warmed back up. The picture above is my driveway after it was plowed. My driveway curves to the left and then it curves back to the right and along the edge of those trees and it continues off the right side of the picture.

New house happenings

We continue to settle into our new house. Here are some around the house shots.

Lydia installing the new toilet paper holder in the upstairs bathroom.

We slept in the basement for a couple of weeks and here is Caleb reading one of his school books. He is snuggled under the covers b/c there are no heat vents in the basement, so it is pretty chilly down there.

JoAnna pinking...I mean painting up her new room.

JoAnna making Aunt Stephanie's taco casserole recipe for lunch.

One morning I asked JoAnna to take the dog outside and after quite a few minutes I noticed that she wasn't back inside. I looked out and this is what I saw. JoAnna, jumping on the trampoline in her pajamas, no hat, no coat, only her gloves and boots. What must the neighbors think of us!!

Vacation to Seattle

I can not believe that 2 months have passed since my last blog posting. How did that happen? Well I'll try to explain. Since the last post we have sold a house, bought a house, spent a week in Seattle, moved and painted almost the entire inside of our new home. Phew!! I'm tired just typing that.

Lydia seems to make friends with every dog she meets. Here she is on our first day in Seattle...making friends with Grandpa and Grandma Abernethy's dogs. I call her the dog whisperer number 2. : )

This is the view from the house we stayed in...we were in the Cascade Mountain range. Breath taking and a wonderful place to sit and watch the sun rise as you read the Word before the day starts.

JoAnna and her cousin, Olivia, built these snow people, Wilson and Christina.

The kids had a great time learning how to ski. I love JoAnna's body language.

Here I am skiing. I kept going so fast and while trying to stop I ended up in several snow banks. When I asked my instructor what I was doing wrong she told me that I was doing everything right, BUT I didn't know enough to slow myself down. I had great fun, but my shoulder still hurts from the first fall.

As I packed things for moving I took Chris' box out of the closet. I felt strongly that I did not want to take the rest of his ashes with me to the new house. I knew that I needed to take the rest of the ashes with me to Seattle. When we landed in Seattle I thought, "I feel like I have brought him home." It was an incredible sense of peace. While at the house we stayed in we found this place to take the ashes. Money Creek is a beautiful place...I knew that Chris would have loved this place. The beauty and especially the sound of water rushing over the rocks...yeah this was the place.

We spent Christmas Eve night in our new house. I had the kitchen items put away so that we could have a nice Christmas dinner. Here are the children ready to eat at the island. We are still eating at the island, b/c the piano is still in the area where the table is going to go. We're slowly getting things where they belong.

Life

It seems that every year at the fair one of the 4-H groups puts together an Ohio State booth. JoAnna is putting on her best disgusted face. Her mama brain washed...er...um...trained her little Michigan fan well.

JoAnna riding "Catching Air" with the Satterthwaite's grandchildren.

MMS had a bonfire and hayride in October. We had to take 2 trips on the hay wagon. Lydia is the young lady hiding her face.

JoAnna was able to hitch a 2nd ride, she loves spending time with her friend, Hannah.

Lydia and I enjoy sewing together. We work well as a team...she is so much like me. I look at her and see me--all over again--with her daddy's eyes, chin and teeth.

JoAnna helping me make soup for dinner on one of the first cold fall nights. She loves to help me in the kitchen.

This past weekend we helped a family from church put up some wood for the winter months that lay ahead. JoAnna and I were in the storage shed stacking the wood.

Lydia worked to bring the large chunks of tree over the creek (if you live in this area of Ohio that word in pronounced 'crick').

Caleb helped with loading and unloading that large chunks of wood.

Paul and BJ were responsible for the work party. Paul and his wife, Jenni, will enjoy the fire wood this winter.