Day with the "Kids"

Thank you Brett & Amy for letting Tyler & Graham spend a day with "GMaK" ... began the day with a drive to Crown Center ... we were very hungry so waited the usual 30 minutes in line for lunch at Fritz's.Finally in with the hats on waiting for the "train" to bring the food! Fun time! After this adventure we entered the candy store ... now that is fun with two kids ... of course, they were full from lunch and didn't require a lot of time there. Then we went thru the Storybook setting ... lots of adventure there. The top of the afternoon was ice cream! Tyler wanted the double dip chocolate waffle cone and Graham requested the strawberry/banana hot chocolate sundae.

Belated Valentines Day

Tuesday evening we finally had a chance to see the girls and give them their belated Valentine gifts. They are growing into beautiful young ladies. There are just two granddaughters, the cute blond on the right is Jan, their Mother.

The smile on Elaina's face is that she had just gotten her drivers permit ... passed with flying colors the first time she took the test. Now if the ice would leave the roads, she could practice driving!

Jessie is getting so tall. She's holding Cottonball. Such a beautiful smile for a beautiful pre-teen. I thank my God every time I think of them. How precious they are.

Sad Day at the Office

Today was the last day for Ryan to be our Student Minister. He and his lovely family (wife, Amanda and four sons-Brennan, Blake, Cooper and Cade) all left for Houston, Texas late this afternoon. All were sad to see him move but excited about what God is doing in their lives. We pray Godspeed and blessings as they minister there in Houston.

This Cade and Graham Laxton ...they have been best friends their entire young life. I will miss Cade's sweetness and hugs. Graham is still here and he gives the best hugs!

Valentines Day

What a time we had leading up to Valentines Day. On February 4th, Mother determined that she was having a mild stroke. She was taken to DePaul Hospital in St. Louis where it was indeed determined that she had a mild stroke. Linda had just left for Washington DC and was snowed in for several days. We missed her a lot.

Mother had excellent care at DePaul ... the nurses were super and the physical therapist were wonderful. On Tuesday she was dismissed to Delmar Gardens for rehab. Since being there she is regaining her strength in her right leg and right arm. Her speech was always pretty good and is even better. She did not have any damage to her thinking or eyesight. We are so blessed and thankful it wasn't worse.

Linda has been the main caregiver since I'm in Kansas City. She has taken care of all her needs and calls me with updates. Aunt Rosie (her sister) and Aunt Joan (daddy's sister) have been wonderful in visiting with her too. Jerry has the evening watch.

Mother is a strong and determined lady and we expect her to recover completely from this bump in the road. Everyone is praying for her. We pray God's will and looks like that is getting better and better each day.

Upon my arrival at the house, Vaughn said he had to turn off things in the basement ... he always stuff running ... anyway, he came back upstairs with this beautiful bouquet. He received many kudos for that.

January Birthdays!

Jessie's birthday is first ... on the 2nd of January ...the Uncle Jeff on the 9th and Elaina on the 11th. We had a fun evening celebrating the birthdays ... and listening to Jeff describe a movie that we really didn't understand! Fun!

Happy New Year

We decided to celebrate with the group at Tan-tar-ra.










We ended up with a group that brought all sorts of party favors! These actually lit up very well.









Party Animal! He was very gracious and gave everyone around us party favors ... there were about 16 with his group. Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to another fun year!

Christmas

Christmas in St. Louis! Every year that we've been married we have traveled to St. Louis to have Christmas "home" ... this year is no different. I had promised our family that a group picture was not required since I took one Thanksgiving ... thus the pic in St. Louis.

We have been blessed in 2009 with a great family ... no major sickness and everyone loves each other. God is Good!