December 23rd...Christmas Adam

Season's Greetings from all of us! Thanks to Guy and Melissa for hosting this year's celebration. We had a fabulous dinner, program, gift-giving, and Bunco Tournament! What a night it was! We missed all of you! Scroll down and watch our video...

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

We gathered at Melissa and Guy's for the Big December 23rd Festivities! We missed you not being with us...so, we sang to you!! You will notice the person holding the camera (that would be yours truly) is not seen on this video, but DEFINITELY heard! Youch! Sorry, I did not realize that I was singing that enthusiastically. We had a lovely evening and wanted you to know we were thinking of each of you and wishing you were here to share what has turned out to be a very WHITE Christmas here in Washington!

Saturday night....more snow

It has been snowing for 4 hours now and the snow is really piling up!!! These were taken with my night setting on the camera...the tree is out back on top of our rock wall. The wall stand about 4 feet high and is nearly covered with snow. Unbelievable!! I like how the light shines through the snow piled on our light post.

And more and more snow...

I took these last night with the night setting on with my camera

Winter Wonderland in Mount Vernon

Actual live footage of our blizzard! What an amazing thing technology is!! And now, for your viewing please...

What do you do on a snowy day??? Bake bread!!

And I have finally found a receipe for 100% whole wheat bread that I like!! Here it is in case you want to give it a try. The recipe makes 2 large loaves. Combine 4 C lukewarm water and 3 T of yeast. Let yeast dissolve and add 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 C potato flakes, 1/3 C oil and 6 C. wheat flour. Beat this mixture with cookie beater in bread mixer for 5 minutes. Add 1 T salt and 2 1/2 to 3 more cups wheat flour. Let rise (it rises quickly!) Punch down and form into loaves. Place in greased pans and let rise again. Bake at 350 for 30 - 35 minutes. Brush with butter for a soft crust. Fabulous with butter and honey! I use hard white wheat. But red works also.

Yup, that's Courtney under there somewhere!

Courtney loves the snow and when she and Pat took a walk today she decided to walk under any tree branch that could give her a good dusting of snow...hence the snow-laddened head and grin!

Winter Wonderland....

Here is what we awoke to this morning!!!

I just love these two little girls!

These two little cherubs are too adorable and fun! Rylee towers over Claire, but they seem to get along fine. The only trouble is there is only one of me and sometimes that caused a little competition! Claire often refers to me as "my Gail" and Rylee is definitely Nana's girl. Lucky me!!

Courtney's Band Concert

Courtney's skills at playing the flute continue to improve and expand. She participated in her band concert this past week and it was wonderful! She now jumps back and forth between the piano and the flute at home. It is fun to see her stretching herself and letting her creative side explore new styles of music. How nice to be able to play two instruments...

Ready or not, here comes 52!

So, it had to happen....another birthday. This time we combined my birthday with our family caroling outing to Retirement Homes...I maintain I was secretly scoping them out for future reference. You know, checking out the food, the quality of the help, the cleanliness of the surroundings, etc. We had to negotiate our way through the 'parking lot' of walkers outside the dining room doorway! They come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Some with four wheels, some with only two. Again, I am checking out all of this equipment now in the event that there arises a need later. Always good to plan ahead! The residents smiled, sang along and enjoyed looking at the children singing. It was very fun!!

Claire and Rylee, again

Here are our adorable two year olds together and playing in the play house. Rylee (Miss 'I'm the Boss') was in charge and Claire was her willing helper. They were so cute together!

Brother and Sister....Pat and Linda

Pat's sister, Linda, joined us on our excursion to Retirement homes to sing Christmas Carols on my birthday...we were so glad to have her! She is an excellent soprano. She even joined us for dinner afterward. It was a very fun evening.

Katy and Kelsey unite

Two beautiful women...
When did they get to be such beauties
When did they grow to be so tall
Wasn't it yesterday that they were small?
Paraphrasing Fiddler on the Roof...
They are lovely!

Mom and Daughter...

Kelsey and I on my birthday

Ahhhh...warm sheets!

Rylee bundled into sheets fresh from the dryer after a morning bath...

Gingerbread houses 2008!

So, here we go again!! Another successful Gingerbread House party! Each year the numbers increase, but as the children grow older, the task is more enjoyable and less daunting to the adults! They created masterpieces with candy and frosting. Each different, each darling...

Rylee loved to play with the one remaining hamster, Princess. And Courtney accomodates her with horsey rides around the house.

Daddy-Daughter Date!

What fun we all had at our recent annual Activity Day Girls Daddy-Daughter Date. We had dads doing girls hair and nails. That was interesting. Pat needed a little help from a father-of-five-girls dad to put the ponytail in Courtney's hair! I served up a 'gourmet' meal of sloppy joes, tater tot, corn and brownie sundaes. The girls shaving dads (brothers) was a riot! (they left the plastic blade covers ON!) Everyone had a lot of fun and there was a lot of laughing going on! The men were so cute with their daughters.

Two musicians hard at work...

Spencer and Courtney took a few minutes before church to play a duet together. It was lovely! What a sweet sight to behold...

Octoberfest, Slesk Style!!

Thanks to Spencer and his photographic talents for these adorable pictures! He takes great pictures and interesting angles. We had a blast, thanks to the Slesk's Hospitality. Pressing apples, playing together, working together, and best of all...eating together!!

Brit and I with the flower display. Courtney and the trained parrot-amazing! You point your finger and say 'Bang!' and he falls back and plays dead. Too funny!

Thank you, Spencer and Brittany, for coming up to spend a weekend with us!! We had a blast! Friday night and Saturday we went to Seattle. The lights on the water are fabulous. Thanks to Spencer's great eye and camera, we have some lovely photos. That would be why we do not have any photos with Spencer in them.