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! 

November 2017

We started November with our family camping trip.  This year Jason and Jennifer were involved in getting their house ready to sell so they didn't come.  Hannah and Michael weren't up to camping with a baby so they didn't come.  That left Jimmy, Rachel, Lilly, Lucy and us.  The first night, there was a power surge at the campground that damaged Jimmy's camper so they ended up having to take it to be repaired.  That left us.  The others came during the days and we made the best of it.  On Saturday we had a campground birthday party for Lilly, Lucy, and Jimmy, who all have November birthdays. 

Rachel, Lucy, Phillip, and I hiked the historical trail at Kings Mountain National Park.  

We began a new Thanksgiving tradition this year.  We all signed the tablecloth.  For the babies, we traced their hands.  I wish we'd begun this years ago. 

Catherine and Thomas

Jennifer and Abram

Hannah and Thomas

Jonas, Abram, Lucy, Catherine, Lilly, Thomas