Merry Christmas!

And to all, a good night!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just part of the winter norm up here in VT....

...a nor'easter. :-)

Looks like we'll be having a very white Christmas!

Jacob coming up from the fieldRenee
Shoveling!!!

Dad must have gone out 3-4 times to keep up with it!

the grill

Kurt making sure Dad gets up the driveway in his little car. That was a riot to watch! It seemed like the snow came half way up the car!!!

Kurt again

The van in mid-morning....

and in late afternoon.

I'm not sure if you can make out the shoveled path, but the walls are high! We got about 2 ft. over the weekend. That's a lot but not as much as we got on Valentines Day last year. That was around 3 ft and in just 24 hrs.!

Grandpa Walton's Christmas Message

What is Christmas? It is a time when some of your dreams come true. Every year it roles around and takes you by surprise some of the time, especially when you’re as close to a 100 years old as I am. You think...it can’t be time for another one, but there it is with all it’s hope and joy and the promise of the wishes granted. I bet you wonder what I wish for. What could an old man wish for? Maybe you think I would wish to be young again. I don’t want that. Being young is a painful thing. Being young and in love to boot, which most young people are, is even more agony. I’ll tell you what I wish. I’d wish for the power to return some of the love that’s been given me. I’d wish the time and place for all that giving could be commemorated like the heart I carved on the tree around your Grandmother’s and my initials. I wish too for more days to my life. Time...time to give to children some of the beauty of this Earth that has been revealed to me. A drop of water is a wondrous thing. A spade full of earth is a kingdom in itself. A cloud is worth watching as it passes from one horizon to another. A bird building its nest is as wondrous as men building the Pyramid, and any green thing that grows is proof that God exists. It all comes into focus at Christmas. It is a tender time. We grow cautious because we open ourselves to love. We exchange gifts, but what those presents really say is "I love you." It makes some folks uncomfortable to say or hear these words. Maybe it’s because they’ve never learned the secret of the given heart. There are more takers than givers in the world. People, communities even countries spending their time grubbing and rooting for the goods of this earth like pigs after acorns in the Fall of the year. This is a country with a given heart and I pray it will always be so. It’s a good country and it’s part of our strength, something that we brought with us as pioneers that we can share with the fellow who is down on his luck, with those who suffered calamities: with the loss of their homes or land or their hope. This is a family with a giving heart. You children may squabble and bicker among yourselves but you’ve been taught to love and to give, and that’s the greatest present your Momma and Daddy could have given you. So take pleasure in the trappings of Christmas. Be merry like the songs say. Revel in the tinsel and the glitter and the sparkle and sing the old songs for all the joy that’s in them and the memories they bring back. But to touch the real Christmas, to feel the true spirit of the season, look to your own heart and find all the secret treasures that they’re there to give. There is one wish that I make every year. I never said it aloud before, but I’ll tell it to you now. I wish for all the seasons I have known, endlessly to come and go; the dogwood Spring, the watermelon Summer, the russet and gold of Autumn. I wish for Christmas to come again and for each of us to be here again next year at this time...together, safe, warm and loved as we are at this moment.

-- Blue Ridge Publications

photo software

While at Kelly's i used some pretty neat photo software (Microsoft PictureIt!) they had on their computer to make a birth announcement for Derek and that heart shaped picture collage of Ivanya that I posted awhile back. I put the software onto a disk to bring home and put on my computer, but it wouldn't load onto it. So I searched the web for a download of it....couldn't find it, so I downloaded one called PhotoScape. It's pretty neat, but doesn't have some of the features that I wanted that were on PictureIt!. Then I got some great news! Kel and Dan got a new, used computer and while going through all their stuff found the original disk for PictureIt!! As soon as they get it onto theirs they're sending it to me so I can have it as well. And I'm real excited about that! :-)

But here's some things I've done with PhotoScape.

(This is Ivanya at the O'Connell reunion this year)

What I did was focused on her and darkened all around and then reflected the whole picture.

Alls I did to this one was reflect it. I think it's the best reflection. It really looks like the chameleon is at the edge of a puddle.

Here's Gracie on Thanksgiving

After doing red eye. I turned it from color to sepia. Then used one of the antique filters to give it an older look.

Madeleine's 6th Birthday

Too much excitement to keep in!!!

Sisters....sisters!!

purple slippers

a purple angel

(have you figured out that she loves purple???)

:-)
Birthday Girl!!!!
decorating her chocolate cream pie with Kissables

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2 years ago today…

…we were at Philadelphia airport saying good-bye to Kevin, who was heading to Ghana, W. Africa for 2 years, to teach English to village children and minister to the surrounding villages.





Dad praying over him during the send off at Charity in PA

At that time 2 years seemed like an eternity! And tons of questions ran through our minds, “What will happen while he’s gone?”
“How much will change?” (so much can!) “Ivanya won’t remember him, but will Gracie?”, “Will any of us go over and see him?”, “Will Mom have another baby?“ etc. 2 years is SUCH a long time!!! Now it’s amazing to think that we’ve hit that mark and in less then 2 months he’ll be home!!! We can look back now and see the answers to all those questions. Yes, a lot has happened and much has changed.

Here’s a glimpse at that:

Ivanya, who was 9 months when he left is now the age Gracie was when he left. And Gracie has admitted to not remembering him, but knows him through our stories and pictures and talking to him on the phone.

These 2 pictures were taken the day he left...

...and these 2 were taken today. Exactly 2 years later!

Kelly, who was just a few months pregnant, now has 2 boys for Uncle Kevin to meet! And now lives in NM.
We left the church over the mountain and are now in a home fellowship. We’re dressing differently. Have met new friends. There’s been changes with the house. And the list goes on. It will be an adjustment on both ends when he comes home. For him, getting use to the changes and living with a big family! And for us, getting use to having him living home again! It was weird not having him around when he left, but having gotten use to that it will be weird having him home all the time! :-)

But we’re all so looking forward to being all together again!…sort of.

We’ll miss you Kel , Dan and boys!!!

This was taken about a week before he left

and this was taken this Summer

January 16th!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-)

That day I also had to say good-bye to a real close friend, Lysanne. She also was one of the 6 GES workers that went over. It was hard enough saying good-bye to a brother that day, but also one of your closes friends too???!! Ouch!!!! Thats was not an easy day! Since they have left, the rest of Lysanne's family has moved to Ghana for an indefinate time, But Lys is coming back for Charity's Mission Conferance in Feb. YEAH!!!!!! :-) I can't wait! Emails are nice, but it's nothing like a long talk, right Lys?! :-)

The GES team

standing - Kevin, Lysanne, Lauren and Lucas

kneeling - Nate and Justin

2 more weeks!

COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!

My Ivanya

Photobucket has some nice features..these being some of them. The sepia color, blurred edges and old photo look.

Pictures from New Mexico

watching the sunrise somewhere between Albany and Chicago

These are the mountains right behind the apartment

playing around at home while waiting for Derek to be born

watching a movie in his new chair

all tuckered out after a trip to the hospital

dancing to my music

Ci talking with his hands

eating Daddy's dinner

A new nephew!!!!!

Derek John Dunn

October 27th, 2008

12:47am

8 pounds, 6 ounces

20 1/2 inches long

What a cutie!!!

In Daddy's arms not long after birth

sleeping by Mommy's side


Caiah LOVES his new brother!!!!
As soon as he saw him his face lit up,
"Ah!!!!" :-)
...and he wanted to kiss him. And kiss him again and again.
Pretty soon Derek had hashbrown crumbs and sticky lollipop on his cheeks and ear. :-)

Later that day

Dan keeping Caiah happy by blowing up the rubber gloves like balloons

:-)