Two Family Birthdays This Week!

My step-daughter, Sarah turned 28 on Tuesday of this week. It's hard to imagine that I've known her now for 10 years! I watched her graduate from H. S., and then she was off to college...earning her L.P.N. and finally her R.N. She married Brad a little over 4 years ago, and they live in northern Minnesota. They are enjoying their life together with their dog Buster, and waiting on God's timing to be blessed with children. Happy Birthday, Sarah!

The other one with a birthday this week, is my son Joel. He turned 26 yesterday. I was due to give birth to him on May 19th...but he was evidently not too eager to come into this world, and hung around for an extra 29 days! He was not my biggest baby...but he was close. He weighed in at 9 lbs .5 oz and was 22" long. He is now somewhere around 6'4" and probably weighs close to 200 lbs. He is living and working in a town just about 30 miles to the west of us. He's still single, but maybe one of these days he'll meet the right woman...and start working on a family too. Hey...I can dream, can't I?

This is Joel on his 4th birthday, with his new Big Wheel. Do you think just maybe he looks a little bit like his nephew, CJ in this picture?

This is what he looks like in a more recent photograph. Happy 26th Birthday Joel!

Depending on what time of the year it is, we either have 2 girls the same age and 2 boys the same age...or we have 4 of them in row. Now that these two have had their birthdays for the year, our childrens ages are 30, 28, 27, 26, 25, 21...and 12.

A Little Catch-up Blogging

Because it's been awhile since I had a fully functioning computer at home and a working digital camera, I've decided to post a few random pictures I've taken recently. Here ya go~

Here's one I just had to take of Ray and his son Dan. They almost look like they dressed alike on purpose. Nope. They just accidentally wore very similar shirts that Sunday. Can you see any other resemblance between the two of them? Ray has recently lost almost 50 lbs, and apparently Dan has been enjoying his wife's cooking lately, because he's not the skinny kid he was when he left for Oregon a few short years ago, which makes them look even more alike.

This one was taken at the Olive Garden. Ray's kids, Dan and Sarah and her hubby Brad, decided to take us all out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. Also pictured are my daughter Molly, our grandson, Hayden (in the high chair), his daughter Ruth and her new husband, Dan D.
Here's a close-up of Hayden at the end of the table. As you can plainly see,

he was showing everyone that he was "so big"! What a cutie-pie.
These two are at my dad's birthday party last Sunday. We had planned on going on an old fashioned hayride. But alas, the weather did not cooperate, so we just partied in the garage as usual. Maybe we'll reschedule the hayride one of these days when it's nicer out.

The last picture here, doesn't do justice to the brilliant red color of the leaves on the tree in my front yard. I just thought it was interesting that of three maple trees in the same yard, one was bright yellow, one looked like a flaming torch of yellows oranges and reds, and yet another was still green. God is such a talented artist, isn't He?