Lifegroup Christmas Party

Our church Lifegroup has been together for several years now. In fact, the twins were just born when we started our group. The party was at our house this year. We did heavy appetisers and a white elephant exchange where everyone brought something they wanted to 'give' from their home.

Here is Blake with the twins watching the gifts unfold.

Emily had this cool set of blocks for a brief moment but later got something much better - a lava lamp.
It is Alea's turn and she is trying decide...hmm...

They are all thinking - that is worse then what I brought. :-)

Turns out the puppy bed was pretty comfy for this guy.

Merry Christmas!

Girl Time

Every now and them, Emily and I like to turn on some music and dance - just she and I. Not sure how she thought of it but she was trying to make a homemade strobe light. I remembered Jim having one so I got it out and we had a blast. I was thinking what a silly sight - Emily and I dancing to Christian Rock and a strobe light. But we had fun!

Thanksgiving with My Kids

Here I am in Grandmahood. Awe - I now understand what a joy it is. I had all three boys, my sweet little girl, my daughter-in-law and my precious grandson in for Thanksgiving. Cody and I cooked a feast. We watched movies, took pictures, hung Christmas lights and went running. The boys also did some chores for me - what good boys. Just an absolutely great holiday. Thank you God for all your blessings!


The picture says it all. What a good boy he is.


It's never a get together without the boys comparing their 'guns'. Cody has them all beat this year.


My Kids!


What a great mommy!


Da Kids!


The Crew and Kru :-).

A Visit from Tony, Rikki and Kru

I must tell you, it is like traveling back in time looking at this beautiful baby boy - my grandchild. Again, it feels like such a miracle - God's creation. He looks so much like Tony around his forehead and eyes. The lower part of his face looks like Rikki. It is just the coolest feeling. He is very aware, smiles and is very strong. Emily fell for him as soon as she saw him and was so glad to get to hold him. Normally her baby dolls are all girls - well, Jennifer (her latest doll) has become Max. It is cute to see her baby talk to Kru.

It is such a joy seeing Tony and Rikki as parents. I watched Tony give him a bath. Wow! Tony and Rikki are such a great couple. I am so pleased that they found each other - best friends - and now a family. If all goes well, on Wednesday, Cody will be cooking Thanksgiving and all three of my boys and Emily will be here for Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to having them all here very much. Hopefully, I will be sending out family pictures on my Christmas Cards.

Trick or Treat

Yes, I know, it is the middle of November and I am just now getting around to posting. We went with a friend and her daughter trick-or-treating - probably one of my most enjoyable Halloweens. The weather was perfect. We walked while trick-or-treating to the Rejoice Trunk-Or-Treat. There was so much candy. I had never been to a trunk-or-treat. What a great idea!

This is Emily's friend Jessica. Jessica helps me about 4 days a week for an hour and a half. Emily absolutely adores her. Jessica was dressed up a Katora from The Avatar - a show they both love.

Emily and Olivia ready to trick-or-treat! Olivia got lots of great comments on her hair. It was too cute.

Of course, we always have to buy a costume for Emily's dog Jessica. She is very hard to catch on camera.

The end of the night. I love taking pics of Em when she is sleeping. Here she is with Lindsey the Orca, her Manatee from Sea World and a host of other special friends.

God's Many Gifts

Kru Patrick Grisso

Weighing in at a hefty 9 lbs. 11 oz. and 20" long and arriving at 1:26 Pacific Time is long awaited Kru Patrick Grisso. Mom and Dad are exhausted but doing well. Here are a few cell phone pictures. More to come. He is just so cute.

Still No Baby

The hostpital finally took Rikki in for induction at 10:00 last night. I checked at 5:30, she is still snoozing. My plane leaves at 2:35 today so I may not get to see my grandson before I leave. :-(

Thursday - Baby Day

Well, the little guy is being stubborn so tonight she is being induced at 6:00pm Pacific time. I would like to see him before I leave for Dallas. Pray that all goes well.

Happy 8th Birthday Emily!

My sweet little girl is 8 years old today. She has celebrated with her classmates by bringing cookies to class, she celebrated with a party at Incredible Pizza with Rikki's extended family, and today she went to Sea World - just she and I. We had a great time. And at this moment, she is with Tony and Rikki and their pet boxer Winny at PetsMart. Apparently Winny and Emily share the same birthday.

She has been such a blessing to me. She has so much of her Daddy in her. We have grown very close, not that we weren't close before but now we have this really close bond that is hard to describe. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Oh, and we still have no baby.

A Busy Saturday - Still No Baby

Today we went to the apple orchard. The kids made their own gallon of apple cider from picking the apples, washing and extracting the juice to packaging it in a gallon jug. It was a lot of fun watching them. Of course, there was fresh apple pie. Yummy. Emily got to do some knife throwing. I think she made 1 of 7 hits. We then went to John's Incredible Pizza and celebrated Emily's birthday. She has had such a great time playing with the kids. She got some new Pokemon stuff. Rikki's cousin Sawyer (10) is staying the night at Tony and Rikki's. Her and Emily are now playing Pokemon. We got a lot of great pictures. Tomorrow I am running the local Race for the Cure. Running for Diane, Elayne and Robin. Love you girls!! We thought Rikki would have had the baby by now and Tony could take off work to run with me but not so. Kru insists upon taking his time. Pictures to come....

Where's that Baby?

We are in California awaiting the arrival of my grandbaby boy. Today is the due date. Rikki spent most of the day in the hospital yesterday because her blood pressure was high. We were hoping they would induce her especially since she was already checked in and all but no such luck. Emily and I are staying across the street with a neighbor that volunteered his extra room to us in lieu of staying at a hotel. A little odd feeling but I am sure we will get used to it. We both slept great. Got up and went running then walked 2 miles with Rikki, her St. Bernard - Gus, her Boxer - Winny and Emily. They live in such a beautiful area near Lake Elsinore. The dogs enjoyed playing in the water and of course, Emily enjoyed playing with them.

Rikki, Emily and I walked a totall of 4 miles - still no baby. Rikki's cousins age 8 and 10 came over. We took them to a Pumpkin patch thing with rides and blow up toys. They had a blast.

Branson Trip

We took Taylor, Emily's friend to Silver Dollar City with us. Those girls had a blast.

This is one of my favorite decorations they had. It was huge. The girls loved all the pumpkins. SDC (Silver Dollar City) knows how to decorate.

This was a demonstration on how to milk a cow. The girls were captivated as well as I. Great demo - they told us all the specifics on taking care of the cows and their milk.

The Teacup ride - not something I would ever do. The girls loved it.

Emily couldn't go on the big roller coaster because she was one inch short but Taylor did. I do believed she was relieved although she acted very disappointed. Taylor loves riding the rides. Emily is not big on rides but rode several because Taylor wanted her to. I think she actually enjoyed the ones she went on.

This is the girls on a swing inside Grandfather's mansion. This is Emily's very favorite exhibit in the park. She will go through this one about 5 times before moving on.

The swing ride - Emily enjoys this one. Taylor likes them all.

The splash area and the 5 story ball place is a big hit especially when they are told to try to keep dry.

I thought this would be a fun picture.

The three of us.

Sunday Afternoon

If you have ever seen me try to take pictures of Emily, you would know it is like nailing jello to a wall. But today, after church, I took her to the park and took a few pics.

Sunflower Field

Emily and I visited a sunflower field and took pictures.

Summer '08 Vacation

What a vacation! My son, Cody, Emily and I drove Jim's truck to Tony in Lake Elsinore, California. We stopped at Grand Canyon on the way. Next we drove to Campland on the Bay and stayed a couple days with Dave and Barb. Nice family vacation spot - Lots to do, right on the bay, lots of activities. Dave and Barb are just super fun to be around. Emily made a friend while she was there and found 2 other girls that liked Pokemon. Her and Jake entered the sand castle building contest with a live crab to live there. I got to wakeboard with really big wakes.





Tony and Rikki joined us for the last day. We then went to my brother's house, visited and went to dinner. Next stop, back to Tony and Rikki's. Rikki is 6 1/2 months pregnant and absolutely beautiful. My grand baby - yeah!! We went to her baby shower. The beach theme was a hit. She talked her brother into doing a hula dance with her and my nephew Chris and his wife, Heidi, came with their little girl.



Next we went to San Juan where Jim's sister Carla and her family stay during the summer. Wow, what a place. We rode in a sea plane to the island. Had a great time. Emily absolutely adores their daughter Lindsey. I got to do a six mile run that was just wonderful. San Juan is beautiful - very peaceful and restful. We picked cherries and made a pie that night. We played spades. That was fun. Emily put up with me taking pictures of her at the Lavender farm. We also got to watch some guys harvesting some of the crop. Our last day was spent on the boat and a couple of islands. Carla and Chris are quite the hosts and very enjoyable to be around.





Jim would have loved the whole trip. Everywhere we went, I could just picture what Jim would do or say. It was really hard to only choose a few pictures, we took a lot of really nice ones. Enjoy!