Anniversary Party

Finally the day arrived for the Anniversary Party for Ben and Angie, and all went fantastic. The day offered pleasant weather and everyone made it to Michigan with no problems.

Jess and Jen helping Angie into her dress before the service.

Riley and Brenden getting ready too!

Janna and Jen waiting to go into the church.

I didn't get to take pictures in the church. But hopefully some will be given to me to use. So you will be able to see all of the guys and girls together.

At the reception, getting ready to say prayer before the meal.

Dustin giving a toast, as Best Man.

Jess giving her toast, as Matron of Honor, and she had everyone tearing up with her comments of Angie being there and she was there for Angie while their husbands were deployed to Iraq.

The cake, very elegant with the Willowtree cake topper, and it was very delicious!

Ben helping Angie cut the cake for their first taste!

Feeding each other the cake, nice and neat!!
Then the battle began. Not sure who got the worst end of the deal,

ANGIE or

Ben!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BEN and ANGIE

Hopefully there will be lots more pictures to follow.

We all enjoyed a great time at the reception following the

Amy's Baby Shower

We were finally able to hold Amy's Shower for her on Saturday.

Even though the weather was a little tricky, we had it as planned and the turn out was pretty good. Thank you everyone who helped make this a special day for Amy and Little A.J.

The cake and the cupcakes. Whinnie the Pooh is her theme so the cake was done in the classic Pooh colors.

The food table. Thank you Sonya, Savannah, MJ and Elsa for helping set things up for us. Sonya got a little more than she bargained for when we had to shovel snow out from the door so we could get in the building, but she volunteered to shovel so a BIG THANK YOU to you.

Amy talking to everyone about a game to play, with her Mommy-to-be Banner on.Everyone listening to directions for a game.

Some of the guests.

Co-workers and friends.

Dawn really getting "into" the dirty diaper game. They had to determine what was in a diaper by looking, smelling or whatever means they could come up with! The gift table

Amy opening one of the gifts
Amy very tickled over something that was said. She received many nice things that will definetly be put to good use in a few short weeks. Thank you everyone.

Preparing for the Baby Shower

Well we were hoping to have pictures of the babyshower to share by now, but because of the weather we had to cancel it last Saturday and it will hopefully go on this Saturday!

We were getting all the decorations and party favors ready the last week of vacation, Riley was still here so she was helping get the things put together.

Look at that intent look on her face! Well I guess Amy has a pretty intense look too! They were both concentrating pretty hard!

We got all of the table favors filled and ready to go, now we just need Mother Nature to cooperate with us!

Hope to see everyone this weekend!

Happy 2009

Happy New Year, Everybody!

No she hasn't partied too hard, she was just being silly showing off her headpiece that she made at Nana's house!

Brenden being so seriouse about the toy he's checking out.

They made paper airplanes, they called "fliers" and were testing how far they could go. Riley showed Brenden how to hold his so it would fly instead of just go thunk on the floor.

Riley posing for her picture, she gets in a "take my picture mode" sometimes and you have to do it right. She told me, no don't hold the camera that way, hold it this way. I couldn't hold it sideways to get a closer shot!

She was very engrossed in making her card for mommy and daddy, we brought some things upstairs for her to do because it was pretty cold in the basement to work down there.

Her entense work on the headpiece that she made. She's threading the beads on the string with a plastic needle.

Finally, pulling the bead all the way to the end of the string.

And welcome to winter, again! We got about 10 inches of snow since Friday at noon. And it is still snowing now at 7:oo p.m. Saturday! The poor tree in the back yard doesn't even look like a pine tree!

Here's our table outside the back door, it looks like a fondont cake on a cake plate. But that it about 10 inches of snow on the top. Thanks to all of that snow we had to cancel Amy's shower today, and reschedule for next weekend. It's supposed to be cold, but maybe not so much snow!!

Another Christmas Celebration!

Merry Christmas III

Angie, Ben and the kids got here on Sunday so we celebrated Christmas with their family on Sunday afternoon.
Jeff, Sonya and the girls were here to help celebrate, and the girls helped Riley and Brenden open their stockings. Riley really loved her very own flashlight that was in her stocking!

Angie spotted her Mickey Mouse bag right away when she was sitting on the couch!

Dad helping Brenden open one of his gifts.

Riley looking at the Great Michigan Snow she was expecting to get to play in at Nana and Papa's house! Before they got here the temperature set a record high of 65 degrees, and guess where all that snow went?!

Oh well, I can stomp in this I guess!

Brenden thought he'd try it out too for awhile!
Then she decided the scooter was a better thing to play with since there was no snow to "Stomp" in!

August and Uncle Joe even tried a little soccer out in the back yard for awhile, it was pretty cold so they didn't play long, but they had fun.

If you look close enough you can get a peak at the puppy in August's lap. The black puppy wrapped up in a black blanket makes it hard to distinquish where one starts or ends!!!

August and Jackson hamming it up for the camera.
We have been having for the last few years a Christmas Day Breakfast for the family. That gives them time to have their Christmas at home, and still come over for while to visit Nana and Papa.

Joe helping fix the kids some things for breakfast.

August fixing the pancakes, she wanted to stir the batter, then she wanted to actually put it in the pan so she ended up making the rest of the pancakes for everyone. They were very good, August. And thanks for the help too.

We had a very good time and enjoyed a good breakfast too.

Christmas, Continued

Don's mom enjoyed her gift from us too, a solar porch light. She thought it was very cute.

We had another member of the family join us this year, a 4 week old puppy that Jeff, my son, got for his birthday on the 21st, from his wife and kids. Her name is Kia, and she is just the cutest thing, and so soft and fluffy. But she will grow into quite a large dog, it's a Lab!

August was part caretaker of Kia while they were here today. She loves her animals.

The three youngest Gabby, Jackson, and August, who were here today, pose for a picture just before opening one of their gifts today.

Savannah checking out her books from Aunt Gigi, she liked them alot.