New Year Eve continued

Happy New Year to all of you...

Sparklers






To much apple cider..






Toma hiding in the bag. Good idea...

New Year's Eve celebration

JD getting ready to head to work. I brought down the New Year stuff, he was digging in the bag. So I had him put on a hat for a pic. It seems lately the two older boys are always at work. They both had to work tonight. You can see that the stuff has been stored for the year. See all the dust on the HAT!!!! LOL...


Toma and Mom hanging on the couch.
Dad giving Toma whisker kisses..
Our other kid Gerald. He became part of our family, when he met our son Chris in the 6th grade. He is a great kid, well actually young man now. He came to help bring the New Year in with us. Here he is opening up his Christmas gift.
Here they are enjoying pizza and some UNO

2008 The year of Blessings....

I am wondering where another year has gone. It seems the older I get, the faster times go. Or that I just don't remember things...I believe it is both...
I was reminiscing about the past year trying to sum it up to one thing. The thing that comes to mind is BLESSING.
Despite it being a tough year. Our family has handled it pretty well. The death of my mom. The near death of my dad, our adjustment with our new girls, and my brother being airlifted. In the end, the results of all that has happened, we have been able to see God's blessings.

A few other blessings that happened through the year.. We were reunited with my nephew after 15 years of not seeing him. A dental bill that was obsolete, meaning that our dentist told me he would cover whatever our insurance did not cover. What a blessing.
My dad making it through his accident. My brother getting the help that he needs. Being reunited with a childhood friend. Restoration in relationships..

I guess that is why you can see why I call this a year that has been full of BLESSINGS.


Vacation look... Doesn't he look scruffy????




Mike clean shaven and ready for work.. Maybe...He has such a baby face..

Today is also the end to Mike's vacation. He has to go back to work tomorrow. So he had to shave. I just love when he has a little facial hair. The time off has gone fast.

Well, I want to wish all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR and many BLESSINGS of HEALTH and HAPPINESS in 2009.

Art stuff!!

I have had this for a while. I thought that Nadya would be the perfect one to do this craft. Here she is working on it. It turned out great. I now want to add some wire to it, so that we can hang it on the wall. She has such a natural ability to see things. She is very creative...

MOM! What can I do to earn $10????

Tamara and I have this thing, where we write letters back and forth to one another. It is a good way for us to keep the lines of communication open. It is something that just her and I share,that the siblings do not. I feel special that we have this. So she used our way of communication to ask about earning $10. All the while explaining what is below..

Well, she has been saving her money for quite sometime, but her saving account always has to have a $25 balance. So in order for her to be able to buy the pants that she wants, she still needed $10. She asked first if she could sell me her gifts cards that she got for Christmas. I was NO! So then she asked what she could do. I reminded her that it needed to be something, that was not one of the weekly chores.

Her choices were to wash one of the cars, some yard work with me, or the garage. So she chose the garage. Here are a few pics of her cleaning. I have to say it looks great. I did not take a finished picture, but it looks wonderful and saves me from having to do it. Here you can see her proudly showing off her new pants. I decided to throw in a treat and pick up the shirt for her too. Plus extra bonus for me at 70% off. Yahoo!!!
We had a great time shopping. We found some other great deals out there too.

Tamara thanks for cleaning the garage for me, and spending a few hours shopping with me.
Love, Mom

Christmas Morning..

This year we decided to do things different. We wanted to really teach the kids the true meaning of Christmas. So we did more of giving then recieving this year. We decided to get the kids one gift bag, it was filled with many different things. They seemed to really enjoy this Christmas as it was simple. We did not have kids that were overwhelmed with all the gifts. I enjoyed it all too. A nice relaxed day with the family. We sure are blessed. More than we know.