Gracie's 5th Birthday

Yesterday was our grand daughter, Gracie's fifth birthday. She still is such a little peanut it is hard to believe that she is 5 years old now. Julie had invited so many friends and family that the party was planned for our house. When Gracie arrived she was mesmerized by the cake Gramma made for her.


Gracie chose to have a Ladybug themed birthday because she has been wanting a ladybug pillow pal so bad. Guess what? She got one!! Along with a bunch of other fun presents

Doesn't she look pretty in the crocheted hat from Gramma and Grampa?! Time to blow out the candles - she blew them out one at a time - savoring the moment I guess.

After everything was cleaned up it was time to get dressed for Trick-Or-Treating Tyler chose to be Batman this year and Gracie dressed up in her Raggedy Ann dress and pinafore that Gramma made her last year (she finally grew into it)

They had a lot of fun gathering all the candy, but were ready to stop when they got tired and cold. Look at their stashes...

Looks like Gracie's favorite was the airheads that Gramma handed out. I always love handing out the candy (and we get a LOT of trick-or-treaters) because I like to hear the comments from the kids. We handed out a variety of candy like Smarties, for the little ones and one little boy was so excited he was running back to his dad saying "Dad, we got SMARTIES" as he is waving them in the air. The older kids got airheads and one kid said "wow! I'm coming back to your house next year!" and then another one said "This is the second best treat of the night!" When I asked him what was the best treat - he told me someone handed out full sized Snickers. Not sure who that someone was, but my grand kids didn't bring one home in their bag. When the kids dump out their stash I get right in there to see what their first pick is going to be and which one they plan to share with Gramma (tehe). Tyler was very quick to say that I could have his individual bag of mini carrots. Who gives carrots to trick-or-treaters?

What will this next year hold for our little Gracie? We are seeing some gradual changes with her in school now. She is willing to write her name now because Teacher, Mrs. LePard taught her how. What am I?, Chopped liver?? I have been trying to teach her for the last year, but then I remembered how our Joey refused to put his own coat on until he was five. Once he had his fifth birthday he could do all kind of things - including putting his own coat on!! Amazing how they can have such a strong mind set. We pray that Gracie has a growing desire to be more like Jesus every day.

Christi

Tuesday Tasks #3

This week's Tuesday Tasks did not turn out as originally planned as we had non-typical West Michigan wind storms. Several of the schools closed in anticipation of the bad weather, and it WAS VERY WINDY! Tornado watches and warnings all over the area. It felt like we were living in the windy city of Chicago. Needless to say I didn't get back out to the shed to finish that project. On the other hand I was able to accomplish cleaning and organizing the computer room.

These are the BEFORE/DURING pictures...





And here is an AFTER pitcure ...


I even found some "treasures" a photo of my mom's eighth grade graduation.




I helped Christi wash all the area rugs (thanks to the new washing machine we had to buy), and... over the course of a few days I hooked up the TV to receive the NETFLIX movies through Christi's subscription. Sadly I had trouble with that one and had to call the tech guy in to figure out where I went wrong.

I guess that is it for this week-since I don't have pictures to show the couple hours I had to go into church to help the Creation Theatre guy and the couple hours I spent at my sister-in-laws trying to fix their computer. Hopefully I can get back to that shed soon because that means I can clean the garage and FINALLY get my car parked back in there.

Dale

OOPS!

Oops! I posted my Tuesday Task under Christi's blog so if you don't subscribe to her's and didn't get a chance to see it hop on over to http://christicreativecrew.blogspot.com and check out what I did this week

Dale

"Tuesday Tasks"

What a beautiful day it was today so I thought "why wait for Tuesday to accomplish a task?" This task was actually one I needed to do not only for ourselves, but our neighbor asked me to thatch his lawn for him. We had a beautiful rain this week so it was the perfect time to do this task for him.




While I was slaving away on two lawns, Christi was tending her second craft sale of the fall at Grandville High School. Last night we packed the van and got her ready to go for an early departure. (I got to sleep in!!) We're getting pretty good at this packing business.


Here she is with her friend, Sue, who is such a big help to Christi. They are both Stampin' Up! demonstrators and enjoy this time together. They were in the midst of packing things up when I arrived to help. They said they did "OK", but decided to skip signing on again for next year and perhaps persue some of the other options that have been coming their way. I whisked Christi away for dinner out after a tiring day and when we got home look what was waiting for us...

The neighbor gave us this pumpkin pie because he was so thankful that I not only thatched his lawn, but I also picked up the leaves from his yard afterward. He will have plenty more leaves to rake as the fall season progresses. In fact, his tree shares many of it's leaves with us (haha).

Tune in later...

Dale

Tuesday Tasks #1

After the big kitchen redecorate/remodel job was finished we were left with a VERY messy garage, but Dale said he wasn't going to clean it out until he cleaned out the shed to make room for all the scrap lumber, etc. SOOOOO....I asked if he would take Tuesdays off after the wedding until he ran out of vacation days for the year OR until he couldn't take off due to events in the church. YEAH!! This past week was his first Tuesday off and thanks for his regular Mondays off that gave him two full days in a row to get to work on necessary home projects.

This week he cleaned out the van from all the little fern leaves from the wedding (sorry no pic). Sounds simple but it was HUGE for me to have him do this. He actually took his leaf blower and blew the leaves right out the back, then he put the benches back in. Thanks Babe!


This is the gate he installed at the base of our steps that lead to the upstairs. Charlie is just one little guy who needs to be confined. It was hard to find a gate to fit this area so we have been procrastinating, but I am thankful - so very thankful - to have it installed and not have to watch the climbers like a hawk. He had to shorten our railing then add a piece of wood (which meant cutting and staining it), drill a couple holes in the post for the eyelets and now the kiddos are safe - Thanks Babe!!!

He began his work on making the holder for his wood in the shed

The day started out chilly so Dale started out with a sweatshirt on but by the end of the day we were in the 80's. doesn't he look so buff in his tee shirt?!

He also got the remainder of the tomatoes picked so we could enjoy a final BLT wrap of the summer. Didn't have great success with our tomatoes this year, but thanks to my dad having a garden at my uncles house and a co-worker of Julie's we had plenty of tomatoes and thanks to my mom who "needs something to do" we got several jars of canned tomatoes and celery sauce. I should be all set for a few years now. We also enjoyed fresh green beans from my dad's garden which were sooo yummy! Thanks for sharing the fruits of your labor, Dad!!

Tune in next week to see what other task Dale will have accomplished on my never ending "honey-do" list.

Christi

Wedding Day

What a beautiful day Jeff and Jess had for their wedding.  In fact, the entire week was gorgeous, making it possible for them to get so much accomplished before the wedding without the hindrance of bad weather.

With an 11:00 AM wedding it meant early to rise – shave shower and shine – and get to the church on time.

When I arrived, Jess was already in the midst of getting her hair and make up done The little blue flower in her hair is for the the “Something Blue” in the traditional wedding poem…

Something Borrowed

Something Blue

Something Old

Something New.

Soon Gracie arrived to get dressed in her Cinderella Lattice Dress. 

She went from this… To this…  And then it was time to get her hair done too. What a little princess!  She was so patient and sat so perfectly still, enjoying every minute of the primping.  Perhaps Gracie is already planning out her own wedding – MANY years from now (you know how we girls are)

Here is the beautiful bride!!  Check out the cute sandals she wore – perfect for the sunflower themed decorations they had throughout the wedding. One of the most precious moments, I thought, was when her dad stepped in the room to see Jess for the first time in her wedding dress… This is Jess with her mom. This is a table they had set up on the platform in honor of the grandparents and one special uncle to Jess who have passed away, but would have loved to be a part of this special day.  Another unique thing they had during the ceremony was that they had the signing of the marriage license.  It was so cool to be able to witness this special legal document.  However, we were reminded that they are not entering into a ‘contract’ that can be broken if both parties agree, but they are entering a ‘covenant’ that can only be separated by death.

Jess and her two little Cinderella’s

A special moment between Uncle Jeff and Gracie

Now the beautiful bride and the  handsome groom – are no longer two,

but one            They were so very happy, they only had eyes for each other and their smiles were as wide as an ocean.

Standing up with Jess and Jeff from left to right are Jess’ sisters, Bonnie and Melody, her best friend Brooke, Caleb and Dave, friends of Jeff since jr/sr high school, Joey – Jeff’s younger brother and our youngest son.  The two little Princesses Gracie (our grand daughter) and Abby (Jess’ cousin) Cutting the cake and enjoying their reception.  

The bells were at each place setting and used to see the new couple kiss. The bride and groom danced to a recorded song of Jeff and Jess singing together.  What could be more special.

Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dance…

It was a BIG DAY!! but what a blessing to be able to share this special occasion with all our friends and family.  Thank you for joining us on our week long blog adventure.

Tyler and Gracie sitting on the big rock outside the church saying goodbye to Uncle Jeff and their new Aunt Jessica.

So For Now…

Happy Ever After!!

Christi

Wedding Week Day 5

A BIG day today!!!

Jeff, Jess and I spent the morning decorating the auditorium for the ceremony, and finalizing the decorating in the Ministry Center for the reception. What an exciting time to be able to share with these two. The afternoon was spent in 'normal' cleaning of the church that will all have to be redone after the wedding tomorrow. We also set up for the rehearsal dinner which we held in the lobby under the sky lights.


The gal who catered the dinner did a fabulous job. We had Stuffed Shells, Chicken Alfredo, Baby Carrots, Garlic Bread Sticks, Caesar Salad and then Cheesecakes for dessert. YUMMY! But I am getting ahead of myself.... Christi had a big day too, I'll let her tell you...

Dale

My week has been FABULOUS! I was able to sleep until 7:30 and head into my days rested which I REALLY needed as today was DECORATING DAY!!
Every good cake decorator needs the tools of the trade...


So I'm armed and ready to go at 8:00 am. I started with the cake for Jeff and Jess so Dale had to snag a photo before he headed off for his day at church.
By 1:00 I went from this... to this...

Knowing that I had to be to the nail salon at 2:00 and still had to grab a shower, I was hoping the kitchen fairy would come and "poof" clean up the horrible mess I leave in the wake of cake decorating. She didn't show up last night, but guess what? She showed up today !!! Thanks 'Fairy' Melissa - you came right when I needed you. By the time I was done getting my mani-pedi - "poof" my kitchen was CLEAN! including the floors - Gotta love the kitchen fairy!!

There were 8 of us that met at the salon - including Jeff - to get our nails done. My sister Judy, Daughter, Julie and Jess' Mom
Jess' little sister, Bonnie Jess, having her hands waxed

The rehearsal went very smooth and it was so fun to see Jeff so totally happy. Here Jeff stands beside Jess' pastor Kelly, soon to be Jeff's pastor as well. I am sure they will both be used according to their gifts and talents as they serve together.




Our grand daughter, Gracie, and Jess' cousin, Abbie had to be coached just a bit to know it was okay to drop the leaves down the aisle. I can't wait to see them all decked out in their Cinderella Lattice Dresses tomorrow.

Jess' matron of honor made her this fun 'faux' bridal veil that she wore through the whole rehearsal. One unique thing is that they will sign their marriage certificate as part of the ceremony. Julie and Jeremy did that too, 11 years ago, but it is not something we see at many weddings.

One more thing to share before we get a good nights rest is the gift that Jeff and Jess gave us at the dinner. Jess is an accomplished calligrapher and they framed my favorite Bible verse that Jess wrote out. Also, what is special, is that the card they gave us was made using a photo of a sunflower that Jeff took.
Looking forward to the BIG DAY tomorrow!!

Christi