Peek A BOO

Playing peek in the mirror is so much fun. Some are asking for more pictures...so here they are!

Views from our window - STORMS!!!

The storms are coming every other day....SO BEAUTIFUL... Love that we don't have to go ANYWHERE IF we don't want to.:) It's sleeting as I'm writing this....

The SIZE of Jeans!!!

I was hanging up the clothes and thought this was so cute... There's Keith's (Papa's) jeans and little John's jeans - how things come around...I remember hanging jeans for the boys not too long ago..Ha. Yes, John's jeans look pretty long...he's about 28 1/2 inches long.

Annual Dinner with Friends- Dec.9th 2008

Harry, Karen, Tom, Loraine, Keith and I decided several years ago to get tog. around Christmas and have a dinner tog. It's so much fun to get tog. and look forward to the "travels" in our RV's for the next year. Keith made turkey steak, "his" wonderful brussel sprouts, and garlic noodles. Karen brought warm rolls.mmm Loraine made a DARK choc. cake with DARK choc. icing....my favorite!!!

We're so blessed to have GREAT FRIENDS!!!

Our Thanksgiving FEAST !

Clancy, Mindy and Sam.... I'm so lucky to have such a great sister and her family come to dinner.

From left.Stu, Holly, Clancy J., Clancy, Mindy, and Samantha...what a great family!

O.K...everyone is asking why I'm not in any photos...well, someone has to take the pictures..Ha.

Mom at the island and Stuart over at the "meats and gravy" area..:)

Here's my Uncle David and Keith enjoying their meal.

Took this photo from the livingroom looking into the diningroom...We brought the picnic table inside - that worked out great since there were only 11 of us this time.

He's going to kill me when he sees that I posted his kitchen in this condition...he's so very particular about how it looks - but hey, when you're cookin - it gets messy! How Keith got this kitchen....well, after 5 years of catering in the up-stairs kitchen, it was destroyed.. We found this Vulcan Stove and work table and I got a new kitchen up-stairs:) It was a snap to make Christmas Cookies (when we did lots of them) .I could hardly keep up mixing the batches since the ovens hold 2 full sheet trays with 3 dozen cookies on each tray. I'd be up-stairs mixing and the boys would be running up and down putting them in the ovens.. It was quite an operation!

This is Keith's baby - the VULCAN - 10 burners - 2 ovens... He does some major cookin' and baking in his kitchen!...

starting at the top : Potato Filling, candied sweet pot., bread stuffing, apple betty, lima beans, string beans, corn and beets. there just isn't enough room on your plate!

This is the area between my stove top and sink...Mom's turkey in gravy, in the crock pot and her ham on the right...and the "famous" Turkey fried by Keith!. mmmmm

This is the island (4 ft X 5 ft.) before the meal...it's always covered with food...every part of the kitchen is used for food and drinks...

Oh Baby It's COLD OUTSIDE!!!!

Well everybody....TODAY I"M 5 MONTHS OLD.....and I never had to wear all this stuff before.....I can't move...so I'll just sit here real still until someboby takes me out of this...

I'm not used to this COLD....! AND...I never saw that "WHITE STUFF" that keeps falling before either..it sure is pretty tho.

Well, these are backwards but you'll figure it out:) I made the pumpkin pies - Brad's favorite!

We tried to get this cute onesie saying on the photo, but John put his hand over the last part...It reads...Gobble til you Wobble...and I think we did!

From left to right - Steve - Brad and Keith.

From left to right - Keith - Di - John - Steve - and Vivien... I just wish you could smell and taste !!!

Early Thanksgiving with the "KIDS"

Sat. - Keith and I were up early to get ready for the noon time meal with our kids since they're headed to TN and MD on Thanksgiving... The table was set......

I baked the bread......

And...Keith had the turkey in the deep fryer outside.... It was a sunny day but about 18 degrees first thing in the a.m... The smell of the turkey frying is just wonderful!...I never get tired of fried turkey...

Oh that smoke just floats thru the neighborhood....mmmmmmm Keith's got this down to a "T" - he has done hundreds of turkeys over the years... Hey, not everyone has a "Chef" for a husband ..!!! I'm really really lucky.
More photos to come......

Learning to Eat Cereal

It's not as easy as you think...eating cereal for the first time! Yest. we were visiting the kids and it was time to feed John his cereal... A GREAT photo op for me. Thought these were some of the best - The photo above is Steve feeding him at 7 p.m. and the one below is Di feeding him at 3:30 p.m. Think he's doing a pretty good job of mastering the spoon...and it sure is fun to watch.

Entertainment at our house

Keith took this photo of John laughing out loud - having a ball in this exer-saucer. We put him in this and he just plays and plays. It seems like he's changing every single day...growing faster and faster. He's quit the little man.

RaTaToooooie!!

This little guy THOUGHT he was going to take up residence in our outdoor gas grill....Keith went out and lit the grill and came back inside til it was hot enough to put on the burgers... He looked out the kitchen window and called for me to come see this. He grabbed the camera and got this shot. Ratatoie ran back and forth on the handle - jumped up on top of the grill and realized that was not a good move...then finally, jumped off. Keith made EXTRA sure that the grill was very hot as not to find any other meat in there...

Wedding Cakes by Vivien

This is another special request cake by the bride and groom . Hope you can see the "topper" it's very different.

This wedding was held at Blue Falls in the Glass House Reception Area... Just think about the transport problems you can have with this slanted cake... I know Brad was on the phone with Keith - but looks like it got there just fine...Vivien, you did another GREAT JOB!..

And here's a close up of the cake and the base - Keith cut the base and Brad put the legs on. Really looks neat!

This was a gorgeous cake...wish you could have seen it in "person"..:) The wedding was held at the Sterling House. Sorry, I don't remember what flavor the cake was..

RV in STORAGE!!!:(

You don't need to see another photo of the RV ....we put it in under roof storage last Oct. 30th, about 25 miles from our home, in Mertztown. The people are farmers who have this storage as another business and they're so very nice. Reminds me of my grandparents, both had farms and I have nothing but fond memories of spending time there. It just seemed so strange emptying out the RV and leaving it there.. knowing that it will be in storage til April. I'm already counting the months til we can go to Hershey again. So all you traveling friends...enjoy this winter and think of us now and then....send us some sunshine please:)

Mr. Blue Eyes!!!

How can you resist these BIG BLUE EYES?....they are so beautiful... Thanks to Michele for taking this shot:)

My niece, Samantha and her mom, Mindy below were really funny, play fighting over John...they each got their turn:)

My sister, Michele and my Dad with John. Everyone wanted their time with John....he was really passed around that day. You'd never know it tho, he was the best little boy. Just slept when he was tired even with all the noise. He slept from 9:30 that night til 5:30 a.m..took a bottle and slept til 7:30. Now that's a good boy!

Here we are just before the party started...it was from 10 a.m. til 5 p.m. It was so much fun...like we were catering again...but only for ONE JOB..Ha. About 38 people came. Steve and Di were so happy with how it went...so relaxed and smooth...

Here's my Uncle Brad and God Father....and Aunt Vivien too...I love them so... Thanks Aunt Vivien for my GREAT cupcakes!

Open House Party for John's Baptism

Vivien make the cupcakes for John's Party and not only were they beautifully done - they were DELICIOUS!!!
Since it was an open house the cupcakes were perfect...the last people didn't see a "cut up cake". Everyone loved this idea.
I'm having trouble putting more than 2 photos on the blog at a time so you'll have to bear with me:)

This is what the cupcake pyramid looked like....The cupcakes with the "shell" on them are handmade choc..mmmm The ones with JGR on them are put on 1/2 a choc cookie... the icing was made to look like sand. The "shell" was the theme for the baptism and a real shell was used to baptise John.
More photos to come:)

Oct. 23rd...RV off to the Garage

Well,,,,this is the first time we've had the RV winterized in 5 years... the first time for this one. Yest. we took it from this place to the garage to have the safety check and oil change before we take it to the "under roof" storage....:( Spring is JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!! hehe.

Baptism in MD. -Sunday Oct. 19, 2008

After the service we all went back to Di's parents house for a delicious buffet...Can you tell John loved getting out of that outfit and into some comfy clothes? We arrived back home in Pa. at 7 P.M... a very long day!

Sorry these photos are out of order:( This is after the bottle... Oh, and didn't say that the 6 month old outfit JUST fit - actually, the back buttons opened during the service.. One more week and he wouldn't have fit into it!

Our little redhead!

Ah, now this is what I needed after that long morning...Great Grammie had just the ticket! MMMMM

It was a glorious day driving the 2 1/2 hours in the crisp fall air looking at the beautiful colored leaves with the sun shining all the way to a little country church in MD. It was a long morning for John but he did great! The pastor was afraid to put the water on his head fearing that he'd cry...she doesn't know our John..she could have poured the whole basin over his head and he wouldn't cry, he loves it! What a great day!