Back from Curacao!

Dad and I arrived back about 12:30 am from the beautiful island of Curacao! (It's pronounced Cure-a-sew.) We had a fabulous, refreshing time, even better than what I expected. I'm all worn out (no laying-on-the-beach trip this!) so I'll post more about the trip itself later. For now, here are some pictures of things the Lord delighted us with.

It's a pretty dry island with lots of cactus, but there were lovely flowers as well.
The outdoor floating market in downtown Willemstad.
Boats come in from Venezuela with fruits and veggies.

I'm amazed by all the different varieties of palm trees.
This one has red "bark" on the trunk! It was at our hotel.

Dad and the clear blue water. Watch your step! ;-) - GJ

Happy Birthday Grandma Sisson

Barbara Jane and her mother Cleota.

Barb and her sister Pat.

Barb and Grant
Mom and Dad
Grandpa and Grandma

Goodbye Gingerbread

We've made various gingerbread dwellings for years now. This year it was the delight of the younger kids to have their turn. We tested two different gingerbread recipes as you can tell by the color. We also tried a couple of new house patterns.







This is Haley's church. The steeple is a bit crooked now. We theorized that it "accidentally" was rearranged by a rubber band. Hum. Actually we found that someone did bump it with their arm. The rubber band group is vindicated!
















We've really enjoyed our houses. To everything there is a season and it's now time for them to go.










Since this was Matthew's first house, he decided that it needed an honorable discharge. He took it outside and lovingly destroyed it with rubber bands.

I guess there is more than one way to enjoy our gingerbread creations!

Matthew Made Supper !

I asked Matthew in the morning what he thought we should have for supper. Sloppy Joe's was his immediate response. Why not teach him how to cook them himself?? We got a delicious recipe from the Betty Crocker website for home made Sassy Sloppy Joe's. [We omitted the hot sauce and added a bit more ketchup.]

He said, "Wow it takes longer than I thought. It was my first time chopping onions! I can take a full onion and stick it by my face for a long time. But cutting it, NO WAY. "

[I don't think that he'll make fun of his sisters when they are crying over onions again!]

Now for the taste test????

What do you think? Want one?

No really they were very good. He just wanted to do a goofy picture for everyone .

Morning Fun

I ran Najah to the train early yesterday morning and decided to stop and pick up a few groceries while I was out. When I got home the family was in an uproar!

Nugget, our white lab, decided to roll in undesirable material when she was out for her morning constitutional! She accomplished her desired effect in that her own scent was well disguised. We, however, were not about to let her in the house with us.

She got to have her semiannual bath a bit early this year!
She hates it!

She's finally back to her normal color, and smells like a clean wet dog now. That's an improvement! Now we have to keep her from shaking all over the place.

Our second reason for excitement is that our cat had kittens. Two of them survived and seem to be doing well. One of her kittens is totally black and the other gray and striped. We're looking forward to watching them grow. There's nothing like having kittens around.

Happy 1st Birthday!

It's Leslie's first birthday!


Oh Boy! Tearing paper!







What a pro. She patiently looked at each card.







Watch out, she snatched that flame so fast.
Not hurt though.






Now for the good stuff. Cake! After all that delicious frosting, the first bite of chocolate cake was spit right out. She got into it eventually and really enjoyed feeding herself, even the cake part.

Leslie

Our sweet niece is turning ONE this week. It's hard to believe that a year has passed. Gregg and Sharon are such great parents!






What a blessing she is to our whole family.









Leslie is a true people person. She lights up whenever she sees a smiling face.

Nothing as Good as Homemade

Last Saturday we had a pizza and movie night. We girls had not yet seen the movie "Facing the Giants". (The guys had gone to see it in the theater and didn't mind seeing it again.) We started the evening with our family's fabulous homemade pizza. Haley's pizza crust was out of this world! We had a variety of kinds including olive pizza. Yum!

We really liked the movie and look forward to taking it over to Grandma and Grandpa Lainio's for a viewing.

"Facing the Giants" is the second movie made by this group. Their first was "Flywheel". After discussion our conclusion was that we liked "Flywheel" better than "Facing the Giants". If you haven't seen it, be sure to find a copy and enjoy. Make some homemade pizza to go with it!