I tried!!

Well, to those of you who get "Taste of Home" magazine.... here is my version of the fruit centerpiece in the last issue. Many of you know Kathy (French) Irvine, she is getting married in November and we had a bridal shower for her today. I told the hostess I would bring fruit and thought that fruit tray was so beautiful. However, I am NOT Martha Stewart (or Martha Bryan for that matter... :)) so it didn't quite look like the picture. But I had fun trying and it was pretty in a Vonnie sort of way. hahahaha

Pumpkin faces

Sometime about Wednesday of last week I picked up three pumpkins for the kids to carve. Andrew promised the kids he would help them carve them so I thought I would get them so they could be here when he got ready to do it. That was a mistake, because as soon as I bought them the younger ones were wanting to carve them. The twins, especially Taylor, kept asking when they could cut the pumpkins. Well, as time went SLOWLY by for them, they started naming the pumpkins, one was Sam, another was Bucky and the other was named Lori. Taylor said his was Bucky. So last night Andrew came home and we almost immediately got to carving pumpkins. As it was, I think all three of the younger boys thought theirs was Bucky. I don't guess they paid close enough attention because none of them seemed to know which pumpkin was which.Katie's friend, Catie Callahan, came and spent the weekend with us. (her foster Mom was out of town and she needed a place to stay) So, Katie, Catie and Tyler were carving one pumpkin, Heidi and Taylor another, and Drew and Grant another. I bought kits that had stencils for faces and carving knives.

Taylor thinks this is serious business.

I thought they did really good, with minimal help from Andrew.

It was fun for everyone.

Mom, I lost a tooth

Drew was eating a coffee nip (a piece of candy that tastes like creamy coffee), and came and showed me what got stuck in the candy. It is a hard piece of candy that, as it dissolves, has a soft outside and gets stuck in the teeth all the time.

You can tell by his face he is less than thrilled. The next picture is blurry but a little more disgusting, just a warning for those who can't handle gross stuff.

Ewwwwwwwww!!

Puppy update

Here are the puppies at 4 weeks. They are so adorable. You should see them wobble when they walk. So cute!!

The kissing picture

We were camping, OK, I know my hair looks awful. :)


Here we are after we got home from our "hot" date on our 20th anniversary. We had a very nice dinner and then went up on a hill where we could overlook the "city" of Fairbanks and see all the pretty lights!!

Happy Anniversary to Andrew and Me!!

Well, I tried to upload a picture of Andrew and I kissing but blogger wouldn't let me. HA!! They are having problems so I'll try to post it later. Anyway, Andrew and I have been married 20 years now. It doesn't seem possible that it has been that long. I think it has flown by. We have had our troubles just like everyone else, no one is perfect and we both have our faults... I seem to have really BIG faults. :) But we have learned how to really love one another and appreciate the good things and it has been a wonderful 20 years. I would marry him all over again, right now!! You know what he is doing for me?? He and Gale are finishing up the job in Ft. Yukon... it's crunch time, they are really trying to get done by Oct. 31st. There is alot to do to finish up the job, but he is taking the time off to fly down tomorrow afternoon and take me out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate. I have to tell you a funny thing on him, he's so sweet... :) he ordered me several new outfits while he was up there in Ft. Yukon, wanting to surprise me, but he used our home e-mail address and they sent me the receipt. So 10 minutes after he ordered it, he is on the phone with me and I asked him if he ordered something on the internet, and like a good BRYAN he lied and said "No", then I said, "Well, if you didn't we're in trouble then because someone ordered something on our name." He got really quiet and I said, "uh oh" and he asked how I found out and I told him. So the young, computer savvy guys up there have been heckling him ever since for not putting in his business e-mail address. But I told him I WAS surprised... to get the receipt and it certainly doesn't take away at all from what he bought for me. Isn't he the greatest??? I love you BABE!! You're the best, even when you don't order anything for me!!! I have to say, I feel sorry for all of you because I got the best guy in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!! :)

Sweet 16

We decided to combine a big 16th birthday party for Heidi, with a youth group function and here are some pictures of the fun event. We think we counted 56 people here at one point. Of course we invited Max and Sherry and Tom and Chrystal and family. Then we also had U. Dwane and A. Gwen and Ken and Judy Thomas and their family. The rest were young people. And I am so impressed with these kids. They all had a great time and were very respectful of our property, etc.

Wouldn't you know it snowed last night and most of the day today, so we had to alter our thinking and deal with the cold.

Here's the cook, he grilled 80 hamburgers and 40 hot dogs and was a humongous help getting things done around here.

Thad Newton, Jeremy Ridenour, Ben Glenn, Jacob Ison (behind Ben), Ted Gillson eating supper.

Thank the Lord for Andrew's shop.... it is big enough to accommodate a large group of people. I had thought that we could all eat outside but with the snow and cold it was better to eat in the shop.

We had a soccer ball pinata for Heidi. It was kind of funny because I thought the kids would all think it was too childish for them. But they got into it pretty good. Several people tried to hit it with the bat, then Renee Langworthy knocked the hook thingy off of the pinata.

So, after Renee knocked the hook off, we had Ron Hunt pitch it to Thad .......

Then all the candy fell out.....

And nobody thought it was childish at all to jump onto the pile of kids on the floor trying to get all the candy.... soooooo funny!!

Standing around eating candy.

Ooooops ..... we fixed waaaaaaay too many hamburgers and hotdogs. We had almost as many "baskets" left over as Jesus had after his miracle feeding of the five thousand. :)

I wish I had a picture of the devotional time we had around the fire. Thad talked about God's goodness, His mercy and His truth, then there were several testimonies and we sang lots of songs and choruses. These kids all really seem to have a desire to serve the Lord. Many asked for prayer in areas of their lives that they need help with. They are honest and open. It was a very precious time and I'm glad I got to be a part of it. I hope we have many more times like it.