June, July, August 2018

This has been a difficult, amazing summer for our family.  It started with Phillip and I celebrating his 69th birthday with a trip to the beach.  The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed ourselves.

Sam's 11th birthday was on June 25. Jaclyn, Daniel, and Sam came from Virginia the weekend before so we could celebrate. They made a giant Kerplunk game that was the hit of the birthday party. 

Daniel, Sam, Lilly

Sam

We were excited about the birth of Hannah and Michael's little girl on July 14. In early June, they learned that she had a complex and very serious congential heart defect called TAPVR. She would need to be delivered in Charlotte and have open heart surgery soon after birth. Because of other issues with the pregnancy, the decision was made to deliver on June 25 (Sam's birthday). They are the only birthday twins in our immediate family.

Violet Cheyenne Worley

Michael, Hannah, and Violet in the NICU

Violet had open heart surgery when she was 8 days old. She was discharged on August 27 but has been readmitted twice. She is still in the hospital. Her major issue now is pulmonary hypertension. A heart catherization is scheduled for September 5. Hopefully this will give her medical team the answers they need to get our sweet girl home to stay.

Thomas, Hannah, and Violet at home

 Violet and Phillip in cardiovascular icu

Catherine celebrated her second birthday on August 22.  Watching her grow into an active little girl has been a delight. She is just as sweet as she looks! She had a rubber duck themed birthday party at her great-grandfather's farm.  

Catherine

Catherine and Abram

April/May 2018

April began with Easter Sunday.  It was fun having the little ones to celebrate with us. Lilly and Lucy enjoyed helping them with the traditional egg hunt.

Thomas celebrated his first birthday on April 1 as well.  He has grown into a happy, handsome little fellow.

Rachel's birthday was April 2. Jimmy got a huge candle that sparkled flames and played "Happy Birthday" continuously. 

Lilly and I enjoyed a morning together.  She had her hair trimmed and fixed.  It's hard to believe how quickly she's grown up!

We celebrated Jonas's 7th birthday with a family camping trip. 

Phillip always replants pineapple tops and this one has made a pineapple.  He's anxious to see if he has a harvest.

Catherine can cover a lot of ground with her walker.  Thomas was very interested in it.  

Lucy had her sleepover weekend with us. She loved the flowers at the garden center.

An unfortunate blacksnake got tangled in the bird netting that Phillip puts around his blueberry bushes.  He was actually a fortunate blacksnake because Phillip worked and worked to rescue him.  

Jason graduated from Gaston College in May.  We're all proud of his hard work.

We also celebrated Jennifer's birthday but I didn't get any pictures. I'm sorry, Jennifer. 😞

February/March 2018

We've been waging a long standing battle against fire ants.  On the Mother Earth News website, we have finally found a concoction that works well.  The magic formula is 1 1/2 ounces of orange oil (which we order from Amazon), 3 ounces of Dawn, and 1 gallon of water.  We check for new activity about once a week and respray if we see anything, but it seems to work better than anything else we've tried.

We were able to go to Jonas's school play about outer space. He did a great job.

Abram had a good time watching his big brother.

Emily and Jon moved back to Gastonia and we're enjoying have them close by.  

Thomas tried his hand at climbing the rope ladder.  He can't quite manage it yet but it won't be long before he'll figure it out.

Phillip enjoyed helping Jonas use his power tools. 

Jonas wasn't too impressed with the old-fashioned hand tools.

January 2018

In January

my glasses broke.  Thankfully, Walmart had the exact frames so they were able to put my lenses in new frames.  

Jonas lost a tooth!  Isn't that a wonderful smile!

It snowed.  How nice it was to have Jason here to help with the shoveling!

It was fun watching Jonas and Abram play in the snow.

Everything was beautiful.

December 2017

We had a little snow in early December, not enough to be an inconvenience but enough to be excited about.

Look for the snowflakes on Thomas's little bald head.  It didn't bother him at all.

Our backyard at the beginning of the snowfall.

We went to an old-fashioned Christmas at the park in Dallas.  It was cold but we enjoyed it.

We made s'mores around the fire.

The kids got to see Santa.  

Thomas

Lucy

Lucy and Lilly had fun in the one-room schoolhouse.

Jimmy, Rachel, Lilly, Lucy

Hannah, Michael, Thomas

We celebrated Laura's birthday.

We visited our Virginia family for a Christmas party.

Sam

Jack

Jaclyn

Caleb, Daniel, Emily, Jon, and Catherine were there, too, but I failed in picture taking.

Hannah and Thomas went with us, and Thomas had his first McDonald's playplace experience on the way home. He seemed to think it was just a fine idea!

We had our family Christmas party.  I didn't get lots of pictures there either.

Bobby and Thomas

Laura, Hannah, Camille

Michael and Thomas

Christmas Day

Jason and Jonas

Jennifer and Abram

Lilly

Lucy

Hannah and Thomas

Hannah

 Michael

Jennifer

 Rachel

Jimmy

Jason

Thomas is growing up too fast!  Perhaps he realizes that he's going to be a big brother in July. This will be our 10th grandchild!