Merry Christmas from all of us!

Callie recently celebrated her 11th birthday. Her favorite gift was the 5th grade clue finders software. It's a sneaky way for mom and dad to get her to work on her math! :-)

I'm also including a pic with little brother Sean... he's looking at her so lovingly, you would never know how much they fight.

Friday night.. hanging out and staying warm while Jeff is stuck late at work. Inventory is tomorrow so maybe after that we can see him after he catches up on his sleep. Here are some pics of the kids I took tonight as they've enjoyed each other's company. We got between 6 and 7 inches of snow yesterday and last night. Sherry had fun shoveling today.. not really, but it was good exercise. :-)
Have a great weekend!

We had a nice day trip for Thanksgiving this week. It was great to see most of our family. We've been busy working around here the rest of the weekend.
Sierra had a fall today and connected her forehead with the bottom of the tv. It turns our stomachs to look at the bruise. It was definitely the worst goose-egg I have ever seen... being over 2 inches wide. Here's a pic I took while she was eating. I think we are lucky we didn't have a huge gash requiring stitches. You can see the line on her forehead from the edge of the tv.

Here are a couple of pics from Thanksgiving evening.

Sean couldn't wait to go to Granny's this week. We had to run some errands on Wednesday and he thought we should just go on to Granny's afterward. I had to explain that we couldn't leave Callie and Daddy. :-)

At the right, Sean is enjoying Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving with great-aunt Karen.

Here are a couple of close-ups. Thought I'd show one without the huge bruise on Sierra's head.

Hello. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Jeff just got a promotion at his job. He is looking forward to the transition. We are looking forward to earlier hours even though it means getting up earlier. It will be nice to see him come home before dark. We have not even discussed whether we will be traveling for Thanksgiving. I think we are in denial that it is only 8 days away.

Please keep me and my strep throat in your prayers. It came back this week so I am on antibiotics again. The doctor said that sometimes it can go into a carrier state. I think it was hanging out in one of my yucky tonsils.

Have a good week!

Fall photo shoot.... we enjoyed some very nice weather on Saturday and I took some pics of the kids. We were a little behind on 1-year pics for Sierra and 3-year pics for Sean and we skipped school pics for Callie this year since they are overpriced and you have to buy before you see them. I think hers turned out great.

Sean wasn't too thrilled about sitting still for his - can you tell? He used to be such a ham for the camera but now I have to shoot him on the run to get anything. If we try to get him to pose, he looks everywhere but at the camera.

Sierra loves being outside and just loves the slide as you can see. Enjoy!

Sean loves to play outside. Here are some of my favorite pics I took the other day.

Above right, Sean is carefully examining a lady bug.

Our little trick-or-treaters....

Callie - 1920's style outfit (I cannot remember the name, but this is her ice skate show costume from a year ago last spring)

Sean - Diego (from Nick Jr.)

Sierra - Baby Snoopy (thanks, Raelyn!)

It's hard to believe it is almost November. This week has went by quite fast. I had a rough bout with strep throat this week but I think the antibiotics are finally winning. So far, no one else has shown any signs.

Here are some pics of Sean and Sierra... as you can see, our little girl likes to climb. The higher the better. So far she does a pretty good job of getting herself down.

Well, here I am... posting to a blog. As more and more friends and family are creating blogs as a means for communicating, I thought maybe I should give it a try. As a computer geek, I like to try to be up on things more than I find time to be. I believe this year marks our 10th anniversary for being "online" with the internet. A lot has changed and I am a bit behind the times on things such as iPods and mp3 players and even PCs.

10 years ago I was much more in tune with the latest technology but technology has since left me in the dust. Back then the 75 mhz PCs were so fast and we were excited to be online with our 28.8 modems. Things sure have changed a lot in a short period of time.

As for us, we have changed a lot over the years as well. I might elaborate on that sometime at a later date, but for now, I'll just give a current status. :)

Jeff is working in the shipping office at a local Japanese plant. He likes being back in the work force and is doing great at his new job. Thanks to all for your prayers for our job situations.

Sherry is now a stay-at-home mom and hopes to be one for a long time :) . In her spare time (like there is any) she is busy with her new eBay business.

Callie is in 5th grade and is really growing up fast on us. She is taking ice skating lessons and has been participating in 4-H the past couple of years.

Sean just turned 3 and is very active. He loves to watch the new show Go Diego! Go! on Nick Jr. Diego is an animal rescuer and the show teaches a lot about all kinds of animals. Diego is a cousin of the popular Dora the Explorer.

Sierra is 13 1/2 months and walking pretty well now. She is also starting to say a few words. Most recently, she likes to point at a family picture and it sounds like she's saying "Who's that?". It's like "whoozaa". She's also pointing at pictures in books and saying "Whazzat?".

Heather and Eric and their family live about 30 minutes from us. Keagan started Kindergarten this year. Clayton was 2 years old in June. Heather is wrapping up a school program where she will become a medical assistant once she graduates. We are proud of her.

Thanks for reading my update! Take care.