HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today was fun! Dad's birthday started out with him walking into the kitchen this morning to find a gallon of chocolate milk, yummy donuts and orange juice on the table! It wasn't until later on in the day that we found out that Joe and kids had been over early in the morning to delivered the treats. It was fun for dad to call Ryan to wish him a happy birthday as they share birthdays. After Dad, Jeff, Grant and Matt Shinall went to the 11:30 a.m. showing of "I Am Legend", Joe and Allison took Dad and I out to lunch. It was fun to try Japanese food. We liked it! We had an afternoon birthday party, some nice visiting and then a wedding reception in the evening. Driving there with freshly fallen snow on the ground brought back memories of Jana's reception!

Jeff gave Dad one sox! Guess he'll have to wait till Christmas to get the other one! Hum...where have I seen that done before?!!! Tradition!!!!

Dad got an age appropriate ornament: the ROCKING chair says Grandpa on it. It was nice to see Matt Shinall. He spent the afternoon with Grant. He lives about an hour north of Julie.

The kids love to sing along with the cowboy Santa Aunt Jean sent. Santa's rope lights up and his mouth opens real wide as he sings about keeping "those reindeer rollin'- tonight" to the tune of "Rawhide". We are all looking forward to Christmas...we're about 90% ready! The snow mostly melted and I decided we probably wouldn't be having a white Christmas...until this afternoon. Dad was out shoveling the driveway again....we are excited Julie will be coming. She flies into Pullman Christmas Eve! Yeh!! Now if the rest of you would hitch a ride here on Santa's sleigh, we'd be REAL happy!

In the lane...snow is glistening

Considering all the cold and snow we've been having, it's time to realize it really is December! The days are flying by and it will soon be Christmas! We have had a fun month thus far....This week, Joe and I went to three Christmas parties. Decagon's gift exchange was fun as usual. Joe's office party was classy as it was at the director of the Entrepreneur Center's gorgeous home half way up Moscow Mountain. The Ward Christmas party was "Traveling to Bethlehem". And of course we enjoyed it as Jeff and the grandkids were part of the program!

Joe, Jeff, Joey, Hans and Austin met Derek and Aubree in Grangeville to pick up a car Derek sold to Joey. They had a great visit and enjoyed lunch together.

Oh my! Look what happened when Jeff, the boys and scotch tape got together.
Jeff got made a ward missionary. We have some neat elders in our ward for him to work with.
Jeff and the boys had fun at the ward Christmas party. Jeff was part of the Nativity scene and the boys sang with the other Primary children.

The boys each dug a tunnel in the mound of snow...their tunnels met in the middle and they sure have had fun crawling in and out of them!

Joe and I went with Angela and Brent to Spokane to see Manheim Steamroller. On the way, we stopped at a house that had great decorations and got a few pics. The concert was OK. We actually like the tape we have of them better than the live performance.

The Singin' Sons

This will make you SMILE!!!!

(Be sure to start and then pause it long enough to load some of the video so it won't stop on you as you watch it.)

Turkey Trottin' Time...

How could we have ever danced after our Thanksgiving dinner? Somehow, we did and did and did till we couldn't anymore!!

....and here's the rest of the story

Here we all are bowling at Zeppos. Dad was the adult winner and Joseph the kids'. We had so much fun. The little boys got strikes and spares too. Lots of high fives and cheering going on at our two lanes!

I forgot to mention the program the little boys put on Thanksgiving day. We LOVED their Thanksgiving poems, jokes and Cub Scout songs like Boom Chicka Boom. As soon as I learn how to post movies, I'll do it as we got lots of video of the day and then you can enjoy "Oh ya, a-huh etc." too!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was sooo much fun. The day before, I was on the phone with Aunt Jean a lot sharing ideas of what to do to make a fun T-Day. So...we did a lot of the same things with our families! We had Julie, Joe and Allison and kids, Uncle Harold, Aunt Trisha, Nathan and Margaret here.

Grandpa and Jennabee always have sweet times together.
Jennabee was sooo fun! She and Margaret would take turns making the whirlie-gig fly and after Jennabee's turn, she would clap her hands and squeal, "I won! I won!" The whirlie-gigs were the prizes for drawing a Thanksgiving picture . We displayed them downstairs by where we ate for part of the decorations.
Of course, some of the family went gun shooting. Even though it was really cold, the lead flew anyway!

The boys spent the night but couldn't fall asleep. So, they helped Jeff do his house job...10:30 pm is a fine time to clean the bathroom! Better late than never!Thanksgiving morning started with me telling Gramma Harris' Thanksgiving story. We had nine kids on the bed listening to me tell the story. After, we had buttermilk hotcakes...Yum! The Oaks came over mid morning for their hotcakes and it was so fun to have them come and stay the day. Everyone had jobs to do to help get the meal ready...what a good time we had working together! We had a dart tournament, football game, (The Mud Bowl) and watched movies and finally the meal was ready. We ate downstairs on the ping pong table. After dinner, we put on some lively music and formed a "chain gang" to clear the table and got everything back upstairs. What a crazy fun time! It only got crazier after that with Dad leading a parade to the Air Force theme march and then everyone dancing to songs like Cotton Eyed Joe and Surf City. The energy was high with everything from line dancing to the Lindy, to headstands, the "worm", and the Twist being done. Everyone danced to exhaustion!

Friday, the kids came over while Joe and Allison shopped. In the afternoon, Joey took them to the arcade in the mall and came home in time for supper. We had Thanksgiving leftovers and had Emily and Keith Feltis over as Mark was over visiting his family. Today, Joe and Allison and family invited us to go to Zeppos for bowling and pizza and we had a blast!! After, the Harris-Campbell women got together at Aunt Judy's for a dessert to celebrate Margaret's birthday. It was so nice to all be together, we decided to make it a tradition. The Apple Cup is on right now...Angela is watching it at Brent's, Dad, Julie and Jeff are listening to it at the kitchen table while they clean their guns from going shooting. I am having fun reflecting on our very eventful weekend and feeling grateful for having such a wonderful family to make great family memories with!

Friday Night Fun

Joe, Jeff and I went to the WSU-Vandal basketball game. It was so much fun to go with the little boys. When they got into the car, they told us they had their tennis shoes on so if too many players got injured, they could go down and play for them!

Good seats, good fun and good candy!

Uncle Jeffy's bedroom is a favorite place to hang-out .

Jeff is working hard at his banjo lessons. Bluegrass is his favorite style.

We are excited for Thanksgiving next week. Joe and Allison and kids will be coming as will Uncle Harold, Aunt Trisha and Margee and Nathan. We have a full and fun day planned from hotcakes and the Thanksgiving story in the morning to the little boys reciting Thanksgiving poems and jokes after supper. Wish you could all be here!

FRIGHT NIGHT

Jeff and I had such a fun Halloween. The little boys were expecting Jeff to scare them real good but weren't sure how he was going to do it. Hans was carefully looking for what Jeff might do as he checked out the scarecrow holding the pumpkin that had candy in it. By the time the boys got to the house, Jeff and I were well practiced in what to do...Jeff was a warewolf hiding in the yard waste container. We both had walkie talkies and when he saw someone coming down the street, he would tell me. I would go to the window by the piano and look to see how soon they would be at the porch. As kids came up to the porch, I would stand hidden by the door and say "Come and get your candy from the scarecrow". There was a walkie talkie in the pumpkin so it sounded like the scarecrow was talking. When I told the kids that, that was the signal for Jeff to throw back the lid and jump up and scare kids. Kids AND parents loved it. We had kids coming back several times, parents trying to sneek up and surprise Jeff...so we were good and ready for the boys. Jeff got them good and then climbed out and chased them around the yard. It was so cute when Austin stood his ground and didn't run. Instead, Jeff starting running away, screaming, with "Superman Austin" after him.

He and his friends kept coming back for more....

At the end of the evening, Jeff decided to dress up as the scarecrow and had fun scaring a few kids when they reached for the candy. Jeff's legs still hurt from being down in the can for two hours....but it was worth it!!

fall 2007

It is hard to believe it is the end of October! We've had Angela's 22nd birthday, a surprise visit from Julie, a grandkid trip to the science center,
fun with the kids here at the house, and a kitchen remodel.

Happy Birthday, Angela!!!
Digging for bones...
Julie playing "Waterfall"

Um...smell those chocolate chip cookies! What a throw, Austin!
It is much roomier!
Hans- the master deviled egg maker!

more pics from the 4th

Here we are in Mark's shop. Lots of food and pop! Dad had a good visit with Bill Becker. Bill said that the Sengers have divorced.
Fun fireworks out front. We went to the church at the top of the hill to see the city fireworks. It was probably the best show the town has had. We listened to the music on the radio that went along with it. I really am just learning how to do this blog thing. I thought it would be a better way to send pictures. Love you all! MOM

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!

Our's started with hotcakes with Joe and family and Aunt Trish.

Then we were off to the Johnson Parade. We parked in our "used to be ours" field and it was sure nostalgic to be there. There is a pretty, new green roof on the house. The parade was great and it was fun to see Patty Druffel, Mike Shinall, the Schmidtleins and then eat at the Hoffmans!

The pirate ship was the Druffel family. I will add more pics on the next blog.