Merry Christmas!

The fire is burning, Christmas music is playing and we are thanking the Lord for the real Reason for this season. May God Bless you all and may 2009 be especially blessed!

Chris and family Xmas card

Isn't this great!

Vietnam!

Dan and April are on a mission trip to Vietnam, they are now about 3 hours into an almost 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, then on to Vietnam. They will be there until the 13th, returning to Louisville on the 14th. We have the twins until then, pray for them to be fruitful, and for the boys to do well, while separated from them.

Pillow heads!

 

 

This is our version of the Coneheads!!

A frosty November morning in Illinois

In the mountains

Chris and family hiking at the Garden of the gods in their new home state of Colorado

Slide show

My son the photographer!

One of Chris's photos from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Don't you love the cool effects?

And here is the photographer himself, I stole this picture off his facebook - isn't he handsome!! I wonder who took the pictures?

Seed pods

The rain is falling, the trees are close to bare, winter is upon us. I got out the other day and snapped some pictures of these seed pods. Click on the image to enlarge it, they are really intricate works of art! This is the whole purpose for the plant, the flowers are beautiful, but the plants whole goal is to reproduce itself, so it is storing up its energy to produce seeds. These are all from different clematis plants around my yard, these feathery looking clusters will seperate and be carried away on the wind, to settle in a different place, and if a bird does not devour it, it will sink into the ground and next year it will be a new vine, growing toward the sun, giving off a beautiful display of flowers and then the final goal to produce seeds! Reminds me of myself, given life from the Son, allowing Him to make me beautiful from the inside out, with the goal to show forth Him so others will come to know Him, planting seeds as I go.

Fire!

This is my first fire of the season, I made a big pot of ham and beans and yeast cornbread (a new recipe I found) and we enjoyed it all! I spent the other part of the morning cleaning out my closet and dresser of my summer clothes, they are put in the top of the closet until spring - bring on the sweaters!!!

Quilting!

These are all the blocks for my Underground Railroad Quilt, now I just have to put it all together!

Just sat down and played this morning with this Poinsetta Wreath block, not sure what I will do with it, maybe add 2 more and make a runner, we'll see.

I feel loved, my birthday was last Friday and received numerous cards, gifts, phone calls and many well wishes for a good day and year - thanks everyone!

New link

I posted the wrong link for the pictures, try this: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1486308106#/album.php?aid=2006414&id=1486308106 Just copy and paste.

Fall in Illinois

Yesterday we spent the day traveling down along the Illinois River to the place where it and the Missouri River converge into the Mississippi River. We stopped at Pere Marquette State Park and then onto a little town named Grafton - this little town of 650 people (according to the sign) was bumper to bumper traffic, all the restaurants had long line as well. Check out all the pics at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30094117&l=06e4c&id=1486308106 have a great Monday!

Cassie and Daphne

Their 2008 Jack - o - Lantern and a gingerbread haunted house - isn't that cool!!!

Goblins

Uncle Fester (????), She devil, the Cereal killer and little Frankenstien - Too much fun! Happy Halloween

The good little witch!

Priscilla said she did not want face make-up because she is a good witch!

Fall Pics

Today was a perfect fall day, sunny and a bit cool - in the 50's, so I visited 2 different parks here. The first pictures show the architecture of a small gazebo in Community park, followed by a picture of a larger Gazebo ( I accidently got them out of order when I loaded them) The larger gazebo has been the scene of many a wedding in this town! The picture of the small gazebo appears later.

Larger Gazebo

Smaller Gazebo

The Canada Goose population has grown in recent days!!

New family pics from Dan and family

Franklin St in Louisville

Way too cute for words!

Too sweet!

2 years old!

Dad worked on the bedroom accessories, mom made the cupcakes - how cute is all this! His Grandma and Grandpa Eaton bought the new Kitchen/grill - that was a real hit!! I made them pillows with snaps, buttons, zippers, velcro and lots of pockets filled with toys for them to learn to do their fasteners! How 'bout them cupcakes, April worked all morning on them for the Jungle theme - they were adorable and delicious too!

Jack'o lanterns

Here is their finished product!

Kim is here..

Kim came to visit for the weekend, the kids have a long weekend due to the Columbus Day holiday. I bought pumpkins for carving, so here they are! Of course Paul , (Nicks friend since they were 3), spent the majority of the weekend with us too.

Fall scenes

Fall is falling! Everything is giving their last bit of energy to finish the season!

Monkshood

My Monkshood is blooming, that truly means the end of summer is here!

Blanket Flower

I planted this Blanket Flower from seed in the spring, the flowers are similar to the coneflower, but you can see in the end it is a ball shape, the plant did very well as you can see from the size, hopefully it will winter well and I'll watch it grow again next summer.

New Christmas Fabric

I bought this Christmas fabric in a quilt store in Shreveport when I was visiting the kids, I am looking for a pattern, anybody have any cool new patterns they would suggest? All but one of the fabrics are part of Nancy Halvorsens "12 Days of Christmas' collection, the one with the little trees is from Diane Knott "Dear Santa"

Nick and his date, Brooke, homecoming 2008

What a good looking guy!

And a good looking couple!