Christmas Season

The DeLeeuw's came up after Christmas and spent the Holidays with us.

The boys putting together a rack for their van.

Love this face!

I had a basket of activities the kids could do.

Eric working on homework as always.

Some serious game playing going on.

Christmas Memories

Christmas 2016

It's our family tradition to do a Mexican meal Christmas Eve to remember our heritage.

 Putting the tamales into steam.

 dishing up the delicious food.

 Sitting down to our Mexican fiesta!

 Gathering as a family Christmas Eve for stories and reading in the Bible the birth of the Savior.

 Checking out the Stocking Christmas morning.

 Opening presents

 The joy of Christmas is in watching the excitement of the little ones.

 We had a white Christmas! 

 The Keyes family

We had a lovely day sharing this time together.

Birthdays!

Since the DeLeeuw's were here over Thanksgiving Zachary wanted to share his birthday with Keith.

 They blew it out together.

Just enjoying being together.

 Such fun to have our grandkids with us.

 Checking out Birthday presents.

Eric gave Keith a lego set they always wanted as kids and would try to build it with pieces they already had.

Texas trip pt. 3

We had a fun trip in Texas. Joseph enjoyed walking Christine to school each morning. We went out for good barbecue, although I was disappointed they changed their pinto bean recipe. 

 Joseph helped Christine and Jacob make a pie.

 What's more fun than getting to eat the pie.

Watching a movie together.

Texas trip pt. 2

 While in Waco we also went to the riverfront and the zoo.

 This was once the longest suspension bridge in America.

 Enjoyed ourselves at the zoo.

 We went back to Waco when Christine could come and went to the children's museum. 

Christine shopping

Jacob waiting to check her groceries.

 A frontier room.

I was very impressed with all the different learning centers and activities they have.

Texas Trip pt. 1

In November of 2016 we went out to Texas for a week. While there we went to the Silo's

(Magnolia Market). It was fun to see what they are doing with the area.

 These are the Silo's.

 Angela, Jacob, Debra and Joseph

 Mom and daughter

 Jeff and Jacob

 Joseph standing in front of a barn that was brought from Canada and turned into this pavilion.

Enjoying the cupcakes from the Bakery

Windstorm

We had a storm come through that had tornado touchdowns just north of us in Washington Terrace. We lost one of our maple trees in the front yard from it.

Joseph cutting up the tree.

Lots of trees went down in the area. 

 The biggest tree we could afford to buy.

 Our neighbor Todd Ricks helped Joseph plant the tree.