12/17/15. Hailey's 12th Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Hailey who is 12 years old today.  She celebrated at Applebees with Bruce, Melissa and Ally. 

Evan loved Papa' Christmas Hat

Isaac loved Papa's hat too!  He's trying to keep it on his head while it' moving

Isaac, Evan and Peyton

Peyton and Evan had fun with the train set

By the Christmas Tree 2015

Peyton did this pose for me.  Afterward she came over and sat by me and told me she loved me.  She is such a sweetie

Isaac showing me he still has his school smile.  So cute and funny

 Got up and called Hailey at 7 a.m. before she went to school.  She is 12 years old today and is our miracle girl.  She is such a gift to me from the Lord!  Kimmy got here at 8:30.  We ran to target and I got a couple of Christmas presents and she got some stocking stuffers.  Came home and Vikki came shortly after we got home.  The girls worked on knitting their lambs.  They are so cute.  I knitted dishcloths.  Melissa a little later and dropped off Evan for me to watch.  She visited a little and then she went to have lunch at school with Hailey for her birthday.  She came back and visited more and we watched a DVD called United we Stand with songs from when the girls were young.  It was fun watching the singers singing them and seeing how much older they are now.  After the girls left, we were getting ready to go see Wes and Kenzie stopped in.  She had a ham sandwich and visited for a while and then we all left.  Wes was doing great and sitting in a chair when we got there.  Praying for Jack as he is at Ginny's coughing and she can't get him to stop.  Called Melissa and they are deciding what to do.  Have our church praying for him. He had just been walking all over.  Came home and ate sandwiches and watched the news and then a movie.

12/16/15 West had his knee replacement done today

Wes as they were taking him to surgery for his knee replacement

Wes when he got back to his room after surgery.  They had him all bundled so he would stay warm.

Bill went to the Sportszone.  When I got up I got ready and when Bill got home we went up to the hospital to pray for Wes and wait with Gayla.  We ate lunch in the cafeteria.  The surgery went well and he did great.  Now let the competition between him and Bill begin.  They will both try to out do each other if Gayla an I are guessing right.  After Wes got back to his room at 3:15, we visited with him a short time and then we went to Covenant Harrison to visit our friend Bill married, Deb Schaefer.  She has cancer and needs a miracle.  We are believing with her for one.  She is so sweet.  Came home and ate and got ready for my kids class.  Chuck and Sue called and wanted to meet me at church to give me something they got us.  I met them there and it was 2 yummy huge cinnamon rolls.  They wanted to have me have them because they knew if they dropped them off to Bill he could eat mine.  Ha Ha   Boy do they know him.  Took cupcakes and tree shaped peanut buttercups.  Gigi got me a box candy and Sienna got me a cute bottle top magnet.  The kids earned their grooming awards.  When I got home Bill and I split one of the cinnamon rolls.  We will spit the other one tomorrow.

12/15/15 Care group Christmas Party

I drove Hailey and three friends from her school to Horizons for this choir and bell concert for Bethlehem.  

Hailey looked beautiful and sang so pretty.  She did a great job! So proud of this granddaughter of mine

Chrystal wanted to take a selfie.  She is so sweet and so much fun.

We surprised Emily and got a cake to celebrate her birthday which is on Dec 22.  We don't have care group then so celebrated early.  I accidentally put 4 candles that don't  blow out on it.  Poor girl.  She sure was sweet and cute about it.  I thought I threw all of those candles out the last time. They are gone now.

Some of the yummy food we had.  Vikki and Jeff sent the edible arrangement and surprised us.

Love this sweet couple.  Roy and Marie are the nicest couple!

Amy and the two Dennis's.  

Marie, Connie and Lil....Connie drove Kay because she just had shoulder surgery and Lil is in her 80's but is taking good care of Kay in her appartment.

Emily and Derek got her a little late as her cheesy potatoes took longer than she planned.  They sure were good!

Love the smiles on these three faces.

Roy 

Ron, Bill, Dennis, Olivia, and Dennis

Marie, Roy, Lil, Kay and Connie

We had fun singing Christmas Carols.  

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Took a panorama picture but after all that work, Dennis wasn't on it.  After some help from Sam, I finally got Dennis in there (took the shot below just in case I couldn't fit him in.

Here's the full panorama view!

Bill and I in our red flannel shirts we got in Auburn Hills

Got up and took my shower and had a bloody nose in the shower.  Yuk.  Went to our breakfast and had another bloody nose.  Came home and got more stuff ready for tonight's party.  Left at 12:30 and went to Hailey's school to drive the kids to Horizons.  Was happy to see Chrystal and hang out with her.  Then it was nice to see Ginny.  We left to get in our cars.  Hailey didn't want to sit in front so she told Amber she could.  She was quite a talker!  Joy and Keleigh rode with us too besides Hailey.  The choir and bell ringers did so amazing.  They sounded so beautiful.  I sat at a table with Ginny, Chrystal, and two other ladies.  Took them back to school afterwards and called Melissa as before I left the parking lot.  Got done talking to her and had another nose bleed.  Was I ever glad it didn't happen while I was at Horizon's or driving the girls.  Stopped at Vikki's so it could stop, but she was at Kimmy's.  It slowed down so I just headed home.  Got home and got more things ready.  About a half hour before everyone came, my nose started bleeding again.  What a pain!  I never sat down all day except at Horizon's and was lifting heavy stuff so that's probably why.  Everyone came and we had delicious food, fun fellowship, great caroling and a good study too.  Cleaned everything up and chatted with Melissa on the phone for a while.  

12/14/15 Bill and I went to Detroit so he could have his check up on his knee and get the rest of the staples out.

The one on the left is what Bill's knee replacement looks like and the one on the right is what Gayla's hip replacement looks like....funny to have them together so took this pic to show Gayla

Bill at the the Oldie's Diner.  Could play songs for a nickel in the jukebox

Our Waitress took this for us right after we got our shake and malt. Dad's leg was bothering him a little so I asked for a plastic bag with ice but they only had paper.  He put his cup of ice water on it for a while and that helped.

I got lots of stuff done for the party tomorrow night for care group because we are going to Detroit later and tomorrow I have our breakfast and Hailey's Choir trip to Horizon's I am driving for.

We left for Detroit at 12noon.  Bill drove the whole way down there which made me nervous, but he did great.  We listened to Christmas music on the way.  Family Life is playing continuous Christmas music until Christmas now.  We got there and the PA was amazed at how well Bill was doing.  He said you are doing amazing God Bless You to Bill.  We told him God was the reason he was doing so well for sure.  He removed the rest of the staples.  It bled a little and when we walked to the car the bandage he wrapped around it slid down to Bill's ankle.  He took it off then because it was not bleeding any longer.  He drove and we stopped at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills.  We walked the whole Mall.  We got some Christmas shopping done and bought matching red flannel shirts Bill liked a lot.  We stopped at the diner and had a hamburger, fries and I had a malt and Bill had a shake.  We had a nice time listening to oldies.  We walked the rest of the mall and then left and headed for home.  We resisted Cinnabuns because we were full and not good for Bill.

Bill drove the rest of the way home too.  He is sure doing fantastic.  We got home an I made up goodie bags for our care group people.  Watched the news and went to bed.

12/13/15 Vikki and Isaac helped decorate cookies.

Isaac was a wonderful help decorating Christmas Cookies

He kept decorating right to the end.  Amazing for a 4 yr. old

Vikki was a great helper too.  So glad they came over and helped

They really decorated them beautifully.  Designer cookies!

We went to church this morning.  Stacie was there today.  Melissa and family and Vikki and Family were there too, except Kenzie.  Kenzie was working today.  After church we went home and ate, watched a DVD from Family Life Radio with singers singing their songs from the 80's/90's.  Very moving DVD for me.  Lots of memories.  Could feel the Holy Spirit moving with all the great songs.  After that we went to the funeral home as Debbie Davis's sister passed away.  Came home and did some knitting and then got a call from Vikki who found some good deals at the thrift store....picnic/card table clips to hole tablecloth on.  They are plastic.  She also found really good hair conditioner.  I told her I was going to decorate cookies.  She and Isaac came to visit and help.  Peyton was with Grammy because Rody took her carseat to work.  Isaac really is amazing the way he decorates cookies.  I was very impressed.  At 5:30, Vikki and Isaac left.  Bill and I got ready for the worship service at church which started at 6.  It was an amazing worship service with Christine H. teaching for 15 min. on worship and the rest of the evening was worship.  Emily led and did such a great job.  After church, we invited Dennis and Amy over to sample my Christmas cookies.  They came over and we had coffee and cookies and then played 3-13.  This was the first time they played this game and they loved it.  Bill won!

12/12/15 Baked and decorated Christmas cookies today.

Cookies are baked and ready to decorate

This is how Cole and Kenzie showed up to decorate Christmas cookies. Ha Ha  They looked really nice as they were going to go to Olive Garden, but this nana was worried they would get messy doing cookies.  Below is what they wore to decorate.

Cole and Kenzie did a good job decorating cookies.  Kenzie mentioned she notices she sticks her tongue out like grandma used to do while working on something.

Isaac playing in the mall.  I had just walked in and called him

Jack did a great job singing at Macy's for Salvation Army

Hailey, Jack and friends bell ringing and singing at Macy's.  They sounded great.

Isaac had fun playing in the Mall with Peyton and Evan

Isaac, Peyton and Evan in the boat

Isaac the Penguin

Peyton the Penguine

Evan the Penquine

Isaac and Nana at the Mall

Bruce led a great group of singers and bell ringers

Hailey did a great job and looked beautiful in her new glasses

Max with his bell

Started in the morning making 3 batches of Christmas cookies.  Kenzie and Cole came over to help decorate.  It was fun and they did great and were a huge help to me.  They were all dressed up when they came.  I told them they would get messy so Kenzie got something to put on and Cole took his sweater off.  We had fun and it didn't take long.  I told them they could eat round steak and mashed potatoes with us and save money on going out, but Kenzie had her little heart et on going to the Olive Garden.  Bill wasn't feeling too good so he didn't help.  He had offered earlier. We ate and he stayed home while I went to Macy's to see Bruce, Melissa, their kids and some friends from Bethlehem sing and ring their bells.  They sounded great. What a wonderful thing for them to do.  Saw Patricia Clark in the store and she wanted to go out and see Melissa so I took her out.  Then went inside and spent time with Vikki, Rody, Peyton, Isaac and Evan in the mall play area.  Left and went out to hear one more song before heading home.