Christmas time

Lana sent this out this morning, she suggested that it was posted, so here it is.

Yeah, it's early but David asked me about Sibling Christmas Exchange, so I decided to email all. Dan may want to post it because I don't know if my emails are current. 2008 (it is that strange year that the person giving also receives)

David gives to Charlie

Deborah gives to Dan

Michael gives to Kristi

Charlies gives to David

Dan gives to Deborah

Kristi gives to Michael ( a thoughtful gift would be all expense guided trip to Chile)

I have anything wrong let me know. I am going by the card I keep in the recipe box.

Mt Rainier in the backyard

I wish Mt Rainier was visible from my yard but it is a short drive or walk away to where we can see it. I came home from a business trip on friday night and Rainier was being lit up by the sunset. It was an incredible sight to drive home with. I had the idea of going out to take pictures saturday night. Katie went out with me and had her own camera to take pictures. Alas the sunset wasn't nearly as cooperative on saturday as it was on Friday and the pictures weren't nearly as dramatic. Katie and I had fun watching the mountain and then watching airplanes land at the small airport by our house.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday and/or thursday! Be prepared for some cool weather!

Happy Birthday Jaqui

Jaqui had two parties (what is it about Libras ... we can't have just ONE party?!) On her actual birthday (Oct 9th) we took her dancing in Bethesda where we had a blast until waaaay too late on a work night. And then the next night her family came to the MV house for cake, potato soup (of course!) and present opening. We didn't know it was a Peruvian tradition to smear the birthday person with cake, but we found out when Jaqui's extremely polite and sweet grandma grabbed a fingerful of frosting and smeared it all over Jaqui. You can see how much fun her grandma had (below). Jaqui had less fun with the tradition, especially when the frosting got under her contacts. Ouch!

Jaqui, Jaylin, Jaqui's cousin Milu and her baby Talia eating potato soup. Grandpa Oscar and Jocie are in the background. Jaylin (who might be made out of potatoes her mommy and daddy love them so much) likes potato soup too.



Jon, Jaqui and Jayson at Sacos in Bethesda


Cathy (Jaqui's sister), Milu, Jaqui and Deb at Sacos ... one of my favorite things about Jaqui is that she teaches me to dance ... what do you think Jaqui, it's only been what 5 or 6 years of lessons. Am i getting any closer :-)

Jaylin is ONE!

Little Jaylin is getting very big. She knows how to walk and can say some words ... "go" "mama" "da!" .... she's also very talented at getting what she needs - not that it's hard when you have 12 aunts and uncles, two parents, four grandparents and seven great grandparents and great great grandma all at your disposal!

Jaqui's sisters threw a wonderful first birthday party for little Jaylin (this was the BIG birthday party - Jaylin also had one in South Carolina with her friends - and their parents and one at Chuck E Cheese. Here are some pictures of Jaylin on her big day(s).

E gives Jaylin a big kiss ...... Jon and the boys clean up at Chuck E. Cheese ...



Jaylin with her pretty mommy .. all dressed up for the birthday party.

With uncle Joe in the moon bounce

The cake the Ward-Anderson family (and several of the kids friends) made for Jaylin. The first cake is Peru, the second is Dora (the theme of the party was Dora the explorer) skiing in Utah, the next cake is Maryland and the Chesapeake where Dora is sunning on the beach and the last cake is the Carolina's all dressed up in camouflage like daddy wears to work. Dora has on her red, white and blue.

Jaylin says, "please drive me in my new car uncle Clay ..." they drive around the yard then back to grammy Deb for another bite of fish. Life is good when you are Jaylin.

Nate and Jaylin catchin' some rays.

Jaylin and Tia Jocie on the slide at Chuck E. Cheese. If you could only hear the laugh ....

Snuggle up with uncle clay ..

A pretzel is ....

A pretzel is ..... "knot bread!"

If you say this aloud to your children they will argue with you until the cows come home with the rationale that pretzels definitely are (as you have pointed out) bread.

:-)
Thanks for the warm welcome home. I'm very glad to be here!

Why the black background?

Dear Blog administrator please loose the black background.
Thanks,
Sore Eyes

Hey now.

Hi Y'all ..
I'm back from MS and almost human again. I found my camera yesterday in one of the boxes, but only AFTER Jaylin's 1st birthday party. No worries - her daddy and mommy took 1,382 pictures so we'll get some up soon.


In the meantime - i have a question:

What is a pretzel?

I'll post the answer in a day or two .. but i wanna see your guesses in the comment section.

Fun at the Science Center on Stacey's blog

Here is a link to Stacey's family & Dan's family at the science center together: http://ihavenogreaterjoy.blogspot.com/2008/10/fun-at-science-center.html

Hard to believe..........

He has been fighting it for years, he even stayed 50 for 10 or so years, but some how dad has made it to 70 years old today.

During all those years, he has had a lot of adventures and has enjoyed most of them with the people pictured above. He is a proud parent of 6 kids, 20.8 grand children and one (hard to believe someone so young) great grand child.

Some times those kids and grand kids have pulled a face or two, but he is has put up with us and kept taking us along on his adventurous life.

Dad has climbed mountains with us (a few times even paid someone to make sure we were being safe). Taught most of us to fish, ride a bike, drive a car (some of us did not wait for our first lesson, that was a lesson for those younger to wait).

It is hard to beleive that you are 70, but based on the number on last years cake, you must be 70 this year.

Dad and mom are on to the big adventure that retirement will bring, and that they are really enjoying. I am very grateful to have a dad like you!!!

What a cute picture to end this post on.... Happy birthday dad, I Love you and look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Michael

Happy Birthday Chas!!!

Chas turned 7 October 2nd. Chas lives his life with great enthusiasm. He is almost always the first one up in our family and we love him so much.

We made Chas wait until his birthday to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa so he was up nice and early on October 2nd.

Some facts about Chas.

He has more muscles than teeth right now.

He is named after Dad. This year Dad turned 70 and Chas turned 7. (as a side note, Dad is twice as old as me) Dad wanted Chas to wait until his birthday but like usual Chas wasn't going to wait for anyone.

Chas is an excellent reader and loves to sound words out.

Dahlia Farm

Last weekend Crystal took us to the Dahlia farm that she had found. I had never heard of a Dahlia so if you haven't you can check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia

The flowers were falling off the plants so we had some fun with them as we walked through the farm. They let you walk through and see what varities you like. They mainly sell cut flowers locally and Bulbs over the internet.
There were a million pictures I could have put up. This was the family favorite. It is called Cheyenne. We loved the orange and yellow. There were ones named after Katie, some that looked like big golf balls. I had never visited a flower farm before. It was fun!

If there are flowers laying around on the ground you might as well juggle them! These flowers were very firm and stood upt to the ordeal pretty well.

We spent about 90 minutes walking through the flowers and oohing and ahhing over the colors and varities. They only grow Dahlias at this farm but it was amazing to see how many different types, sizes and shapes they had.