A Happy Halloween Happening...

We had three different times we had to dress up...the fall party at the church, Kathryn's last Halloween party, and Halloween itself. Here are some pictures from those three events.
The Fall Party at the church:
Lady Kathryn!

Angela, the Cute Witch!

Lauren, the Beautiful Oriental Lady!

The girls right before the ward fall party. Angela - the cute witch, Lauren - the beautiful oriental lady, and "Lady Kathryn".

Hayden dressing up for the ward Fall Party...He wanted to be a ghost so he can "scare all the children's". Before Make-up
Hayden After Make-up. Scary!!!
Aaron was playing his football game during the fall party so I thought I would add a picture of him! Pretty cute guy!

Kathryn's 4th Grade Halloween Party:

Walking with Ms. Murphy and her class in the costume parade @CLES
Getting ready for some snacks. Everyone who saw Kathryn complimented her on her costume and told her how pretty she looked. She told them that she was "Lady Kathryn DeBurg from "Sense and Sensibility". ha.

Kathyrn's pumpkin book report - Charlotte's Web.

Our third party was Halloween itself. All the kids and grandchildren were here so we got to go Trick-or-Treating together. It was so fun being together.

What a cute group of Trick-or-Treaters!


Things were really buzzing around our house with two bee's...Aaron holding Macy. So...CUTE!!!

Babies...Babies...Babies...They Sure Make Life Grand!

Lauren's 17th Birthday -
She celebrates by holding all her neices and nephews
(Alli doesn't come until a few days after this picture is taken)

Kathryn is loving being an Auntie!


Macy and Mia
Meeting for the first time.


Mia Meeting Alli


What a wonderful and joyful year this has been. We added three more babies to our family...

~Mia Rynae Jackson~
(Pictures to be added as soon as I can download them from my husband's computer)
Starting in August - the 14th- Ami delivering Mia Rynae at 7 lb. 11 oz. She delivered the day we were returning home from our vacation. Richard had woken me up with a phone call from Ami who was wondering if her water broke. I was up with her off and on all night as she ended up going into the hospital and they admitted her. I hoped we could get there in time but before we even left Indiana, she delivered baby Mia that morning sometime around 8 a.m.

~Macy Elizabeth Amrine~

Then Rachel was due to have Macy on Sept 5 but ended up having to be induced on the 11th and didn't have Macy until around 11pm on the 12th of Sept. Macy only weighed 6 lb. 11 oz. So cute! I was privileged to be in there to help Rachel with Dan. It was a WVU football game day @ home. Just before she was dilated to a 10 the game got out! It took the doctor almost 2 hours to get to the hospital. Crazy! Thankfully the baby and mommy were ok!


A Joyous Family Celebration!

~Allissondra Elizabeth Waldron~

Jessica was induced a week after her due date on Oct 8th. It was also the day Richard and I were on our way home from Palmyra, NY for a CES conference. We stopped in to see her at the hospital as we drove into town. It was sometime around 8 pm or so. It was going to be a while. They had had some challenges earlier with regulating the baby's heart rate. They had stabalized her before we got there and everything seemed to be going well. We decided to leave so we could go say hello to the rest of the children at home. Low and behold, we got a call from Nathan almost as soon as we walked in the door that Jessica was being taken into emergency surgery. The baby's heart rate had plummeted. It was scary. After saying a prayer with those who were awake, we drove back to the hosptial and walked into the room where Nathan was just waiting for them to call him back After they came and got him, it was some time after that that we saw him again. My mind has a terrible imagination but thankfully i have a logical side to my mind as well...and that reassured me that there is a lot of things that happen right after having a baby so just RELAX. Then pretty soon after that, Nathan walked in and announced the news...Mommy and baby Alli were both doing fine. She weighed 7 lb 3 oz. born at 11:13pm.







These three little baby girl cousin's will have so much fun growing up together. We are now looking forward to February when Amanda will add yet one more little one to our family.

Swim and Gymnastics Lessons.!

This past couple months Angela and Kathryn took classes through WVU. They have had a great time. In the beginning I signed Angela up for gymnastics on the same night as Kathryn's swimming, thinking it would be great..I would do both on the same night. Well, when I brought Angela in and she preformed the way she did, they told me she was too advanced for that class and needed to be put in the Thursday night class that was a half an hour longer and cost more! Ugh...but it was good. Angela LOVED it! {Pictures of Angela will be posted asap...on Richard's computer.}



On the other hand, Kathryn loved her swim teacher and wanted to stay going on Tuesdays...she can now float on her back, swim the back stroke, the breast stroke, learned to dive into the pool, etc. She LOVED it as well.



We are sad because the classes are now over but they were so worth it!

3rd Time is the Charm...

Well, that is how many totalled car accidents we have had in the past year and a half. Yup, our insurance was already high but now it is going to be soaring...but not to be negative...things are good and we feel blessed.

The most recent accident happened a month ago. Jonathon lost control of our family car and rolled it. It was one of those moments parents have nightmares about....when you get that phone call and find out your son is in the hospital. Thankfully he was able to walk out of the car while it was upside-down. And thankfully the worst of his injuries was breaking his mandible...his four bottom teeth were knocked loose but not out. He had to have oral surgery that same day. They tried two different efforts to keep his teeth from moving. The second one took. They ended up having to wire his teeth at the root area- in the fleshy gum area - to hold the teeth in place. It sort of looks like braces below the teeth. So far so good.






It has been hard to loose our family mode of transportation but after seeing the car and knowing that Jonathon was ok, you realize that cars can be replaced but Jonathon's can't! So, we feel blessed to have come out of this one ok...hopefully we will be getting another car soon.

Jonathon's Eagle Court of Honor

Jonathon and Nathan Edwards shared their court of honor.



Jon with Mom and Dad


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Jon and Aaron in their uniforms.



Friends and family came out in the snowy weather to support the guys.



Coach Pastuch came and spoke. He coached Jon in wrestling and Nathan in track. It was a priviledge to have him there.


After all the holidays were over we finally got together with the Edwards family to have a double Eagle Court of Honor for Jonathon and Nathan. It turned out to be a wonderful evening as we recognized these two young men and their accomplishments. Both fathers had put together nice video/slide presentations of each guy when they were younger. There were also tables set up for each full of memorabilia of their lives and accomplishements. Many of friends and family came even though the weather wasn't so great. Coach Pastuch was able to come and speak as well. Between Nadine and I we provided some yummy treats afterwards. All in all, it was a good experience.

Family + Love = A Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve we had all our children here with the 3 grandsons. (~ Good news ~ Ami's due with her 2nd baby Aug 09!) It was an evening filled with good times, good food and lots of people making me realize that our house must be shrinking! Not really, we have just added more members to our family - Jessica and Dylan and Dan just a month before last Christmas. After an attempt at a program with music and scriptures, we had our gift giving. Christmas Eve the kids always exchange gifts to each other. Nathan and Jessica decided to give gifts to everyone! Oh my...that was so nice. Some of the children got together and bought Richard and I an I-Pod and player and some See's candy. It was such a wonderful gift that was totally unexpected! Then Richard really surprised me and gave me a ring to replace my wedding band that had been bent out of shape and eventually misplaced. I felt so thankful!



Ami and Chris and Eli



Rachel and Dan with Ami in the forfront



Uncle Andrew with Hayden and Eli



Amanda, Nick, Hayden and Dylan



< Nathan and Jessica



Benjamin and Lauren.



Jonny giving Ami a big hug -she had his name...



Lauren...



Aaron with Chris who had Aaron's name...



Angela with Amanda


Kathryn with Andrew who gave her a baby doll.



The crazy boys...

A Grateful Thanksgiving

I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It is truly one of my favorite holidays. I love being with family, and preparing and eating yummy foods! This year I made 5 pies and a ton of rolls. Jonathon helped me make the crescent rolls. I guess it is sort of a tradition that I didn't realize we had until this year. He has loved helping to do this since he was young. Another tradition is the guys playing in the Turkey Bowl. It was very cold and snowy but they loved it. Talk about traditions, another thing we do is to go around the table and allow everyone to say what they are thankful for. It is always a sweet experience to hear all the grateful comments. We invited Jim and Louise Amrine to join us for dinner. Louise brought the mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegi platter and plastic plates! It was great not having all the dishes afterwards. We really missed Ami and Amanda's families.