LOTS of Catch-up

Wow, when you only blog twice a year, there is a lot of news to pass along, so I will try to be brief. First of all, on June 3, after months and months of all kinds of tests, Daddy's Kaiser doctor diagnosed him with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Having already lost my mom's brother, Uncle Jim, to the same disease in December of 2007, we all know what is ahead. Maybe God took Uncle Jim to prepare Mom & Dad for this path, only He knows that, but we cherish every day we have him. Please pray for both of my parents at this very difficult time.

September 1, was Mom & Dad's 59th wedding anniversary!! What an incredible milestone for the most wonderful parents! The 5 of us kids were able to surprise Daddy (I had to let Mom in on it to help pick the dates) with a trip to Hawaii in mid-October. They stayed at the Outrigger Reef, the hotel where their (and Chet's & mine)favorite restaurants are: The Shore Bird and The Chief's Hut (which is now called the Kani Ka Pila Grille, but we still call it The Chief's Hut!). We were so excited to be able to do this for them, especially as the weather starts to get darker, because Daddy loves the sunshine!

In May of this year Chet & I were also able to spend 2 wonderful weeks in Hawaii. The first week we were blessed to spend on Maui with Corey, Kelsey & Paisley and our dear friends from Iowa, Emery & Sharon Killian. It was great fun watching Paisley enjoy the water and the beach, AND we got to see her all day for 7 days straight! She was an amazing traveler on the plane for the 6-hour ride over (in spite of her mommy's fears to the contrary), but she also had the advantage of 4 adults to care for and entertain her. We shared the second week with Jeff & Margaret Garrison, our dearest friends, with whom we share our August 24 anniversary, who moved to Nebraska several years ago. We had a great time visiting with them and got the bonus of spending some time with Jan & Debbie Steen, friends who moved from Newberg a LONG time ago! I don't remember having seen them for ~16 years.

The middle of June, Will & Wendy moved out of the house in Twin Falls where they have lived the past 2 years and into a house in Kimberly, about 9 miles southeast. Corey, Kelsey, Paisley and I drove my dad's truck over (Chet had to work) and worked a long, hard weekend to help them. Their friend, Jason, also helped ALL DAY Saturday. The house has 4 bedrooms, one of which is upstairs over the garage. Two weeks later Chet, Jeremy & I drove over to celebrate Ethne's 3rd birthday. Chet, Will & Wendy worked hard to build a loft bed for the girls, which turned out really cute! Only bad thing is that when they move, it will have to be completely dismantled to get it back downstairs!

I'm going to quit for now and hope to catch up more soon, especially since, so much more has happened, including the birth of our 5th grandchild, Boston! (you can check Kelsey's blog for more info at www.kelseyandcorey.blogspot.com/. Take care for now.

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June is here!

I've been wanting to post pictures for quite some time, so anybody who still happens to look at this blog will see our beautiful grandchildren and how they've grown! The 1st three are pictures from Lilyanah's 4th birthday on January 17 and Paisley's 1st birthday on January 23.







In early February Will & Wendy considered putting Lilyanah in pre-school in the fall, so they visited the school. Lilyanah was very sad to have to leave!


In mid-April I flew to Boise because Lilyanah needed crowns on several of her teeth and the dentist wanted it done in the hospital because of the number of teeth requiring crowns. While coming out from under the anesthesia, she was crying and saying, "I don't want to go to sleep!" She was having a hard time even opening her eyes. That afternoon Wendy, the kids, and I left for Newberg. They stayed with us for about 10 days.




The girls both love to sing, especially Taylor Swift songs. Ethne is very expressive!

January 2010 Update

Well, I doubt anybody even looks at this blog anymore, since it's updated so rarely, but since I like to look at the pictures, I'm going to write in it anyway! Another January has come and gone, and with it several birthdays and the anniversary of Chets dad's death in 2006. As Chet mentioned just last night in our life group, he thinks about his dad all the time, and understandably so. He loved talking to his dad, whether on the phone or in person, and he no longer has that availability. Fortunately he has 1 uncle still living, and although we don't get to Prineville very often to visit with Uncle Bob, we love him dearly and always enjoy the time we get to spend with him.

Now for the birthdays: 3 of our 4 grandchildren celebrated birthdays in January! Westyn turned 1 year old on January 13, Lilyanah turned 4 on the 17th, and Paisley turned 1 on the 23rd. We missed being with Westyn on his birthday on Wednesday, but we were able to be in Twin Falls the next day and spent Thursday through Monday with the Mathias family. Laura and her 2 girls, Violet and Hazel, made the trip with us, so there were 8 little girls (including Lilyanah and Ethne) and 3 boys at Lilyanah's birthday party on Sunday. Of the 11 kids, 8 of them were related. We had a good time!

The next Saturday, 1/23, we went to Paisley's 1st birthday party! I've never seen so many people in Corey & Kelsey's house! Paisley got lots of fun gifts, including a cut little Ariel 3-wheeler that makes lots of noises and blows bubbles!


I'm not posting this at home where all my pictures are, so I'll try to add more pictures on soon! Denise