playin' in the snow

Sisters

Evin
hanging off the sledding ramp

skiing

Bethany's Bachelorete party

Thursday before the wedding we had the bachelorete party. We had fun playing a game, watching movies and doing our nails.

~Rebekah (the bride for my team:)

The game we played caused many laughs. The object was to see which team could make the nicest wedding dress out of toilet paper

~Aunt Penny
She was the winning bride.... complete with gloves, earrings, long train, flowers, hair piece, and a short mini skirt style dress

The three brides

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt

Jake and Bethany's wedding

the bride

the bridesmaids

the groomsmen

cont. J and B's wedding

putting on the shoes

sisters
Rebekah and Bethany

The Mothers

Grant and James

2008 Do it yourself Messiah

Last night I went with a bunch of friends down to Chicago for the do it yourself Messiah.

The opera house as always was beautiful.

It is such a terrific combination of beautiful surroundings and wonderful music. It really is a memorable experience.

Then of coarse there is always the train ride to and from Chicago. Which in its own way very fun.

everyone passes around snacks, talks, and laughs

On August 22, 1849, Austria launched unmanned balloons carrying bombs with time-delay fuses against Venice. It was the first use of aircraft in warfare.

two years to the day...

Yep...today our family is celebrating Gotch'ya day. It has been two years since Eleanor, Erik, and Maggie joined our family.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

philippians 3:13-14

thanksgiving @ grandpa and grandma s.

Some of the grand kids (all the ones that were there that day)

talking after dinner

picture time....smile

I only got 1 picture... but we played games, did a puzzle, along with talking, eating and more talking :o)

Sisters...Grandma and Aunt Helen talking and putting the finishing touches on the kitchen after dinner

Pie lots of pie

Aunt Helen and Cousin Darcy cutting pie

Turkeys, courtesy of Aunt Marlyn

Benjamin with his roll

Logan and Soren talking. (in the 90 degree room...grandpa likes a warm house:)
Soren is an exchange student from Germany. Who is staying with Logan and his family.

Uncle Joey reading to Maggie and Aden







There is nothing that bring a family closer together than cellphones :-)

Swapping and sharing ring tones, blutoohing pictures...and listening to music

playing with cousin Darcy's iPhone..(playing the trilling game squish the pig)




family gathering would not be complete without Grandpa bringing out his accordion.

This time he let some of the grand kids try their hand at it.

~Soren

~Mariah

~Stuart

~Logan