Happy Anniversary....

to my son, Dallas and Selena. It was one year ago we were all buying chains and heading up to Big Bear for your very special day! AND what a gorgeous day it was...lots of snow and the sun was shining...everything glistened brightly. Congratulations on a great year and may you have many more happy and fun years together. I love you both!!

One year ago in California....

One year later in Colorado celebrating their one year anniversary by taking a snow mobile ride!

What's On Your Wall Wednesday

I'm participating in Barb's What's On Your Wall Wednesday event.  She's the fabulous blogger at Grits and Glamour who has great style and check out her new front porch!  I want to go visit and sit on her front porch with her!  
This is a water color that my son, Dallas painted his senior year in high school that I kept and just recently framed and I love it.  It reminds me of our farm heritage.  My mom grew up on a farm in North Dakota.  This is on my wall in my computer/hobby room that I recently cleaned up.  I posted about it a few posts ago.  

Have a good day ya'll!  I just got back from Texas and have that southern drawl now ya'll!

Sad and Happy!

Please pray for travel safety as Dallas and family travel to Colorado tomorrow! Thank you!

It's been a tough month as we've decided to close our small business after 2 years and our son who ran the business for us has decided to move to Colorado. WOW!!! A lot of emotions and tears and joy and sadness....I am one out of control girl and if you know me....I like to be in control. So what does this all mean...once again, I acknowledge that God is in control and is walking with me through it all. It makes it easier but not easy to go through it.

So...Dallas, Selena, my precious Bella and sweet Dylan are moving approximately 986 miles away. I realize now that I was fortunate to have all of my children and grandchildren within an hour from me and having Dallas and his precious family in town was an absolute blessing. I am saddened but excited to see them go. I was the one that moved away from my family to experience life for myself and our family. So I understand Dallas' yearning to explore. He and I understand each other and love to travel and see and experience different places. He has always loved fishing, camping and shooting guns. He is so looking forward to doing a little bit more of the outdoor activities. And once more God shows us he is in control....Dallas got a call today that he has a job and starts next Monday. Dallas had been applying for jobs here in southern California for the last 6 months to see what was out there and never got one call or followup. In one day, he got 2 calls to follow up on applications he had placed in Colorado online. So I am sad and happy for my son and his family and will miss them terribly. Some good news...I get to travel to Colorado, a place I've not been in a long time. So I'm excited to make plans to visit Bella and Dylan in the near future (and of course, their mom and dad!).

The business closing will be a blessing too and a big relief. Another not easy to go through experience but I feel such a relief not to have to continue something so stressful at this time in our lives. I want to thank Lisa at Sharing Life with Lisa for her blog that encourages me always as does Lisa with her kind comments left on my blog. God is using her mightily! Check out her blog here and join me in knowing that Jesus is enough! I don't know how I would make it through the trials in my life without Jesus. Today I am looking UP even though my emotions are all over the place!! AMen! JeSus Is EnoUgH!!

The Hat!

Isn't he the most adorable Amish baby ever??

The Adorable Amish baby's parents

The Adorable Amish baby's grandpa!

My crazy son loving this hat!

It was my hubby's birthday recently and we all gathered as good Amish families do! Sorry that's another story cuz we are not Amish.  I am intrigued by the Amish and enjoyed seeing them in real life a couple years ago when we took a trip to see relatives in Pennsylvania.  

Now back to the real story...D3 got this hat as a gift from his friend and it's too small.  D2 found the hat recently when were all gathered together and decided to put it on.  We all cracked up when he made this face and thought he looked like the Amish so he went with it.  He made all kinds of funny faces and just had a blast.  He is the life of the party and our family.  And that boy has always had the biggest smile on his face!  Then everyone tried on the hat, much like Cinderella (that's another story too!) to see if it fit them any better.  Hubby had a turn and then little Dylan had a turn.  Isn't he the cutest?  I could not get a smile from that little one.  He is so serious most of the time just taking everything in.  He's not a talker yet.  He turns ONE in a week and we'll have more pics of that to show ya.

Hope you enjoyed our fun.  I miss you all and hope to be back blogging more regular soon!  Bye from the Amish grandma ( sorry no hat photo).  Maybe I'll do that for ya sometime soon.  Have a good week! 

We had a wedding!

On Sunday, December 28, 2008, my son Dallas remarried Selena(the mother of his children-Bella and Dylan).  They planned it, invited their family and a few close friends and they had their wedding.  It was in Big Bear, CA.  We all had to buy chains the day before because they have lots of snow in Big Bear at this time of year.  We didn't need the chains and it was a beautiful, warm winter day.  The bride was beautiful, Dallas was all smiles and Dylan and Bella were perfect.  Hubby and I pray that the Lord blesses their marriage,  that they will grow old together, always laughing and making memories forever with Christ as the center of it all!  Enjoy the pictures!

Pumpkin Patch Adventure

I laid low for a week after my surgery and finally had to get out of the house.  This was my first trip to a real pumpkin patch.  Living in the city, all we have is a set-up on a street corner with the hay, pony rides and the blow up slides for the kids and the pumpkins already picked and placed around the lot for you to pick one or two.  This year, my son and I thought we'd like to take Bella to a real pumpkin patch.  We found one in a rural area about 25 minutes away.  I never knew there were so many different types of pumpkins.  Here's a few they had under a canopy for us to choose from:

Wow!  Dallas saw his favorite!  :)  That's Dallas for ya!  What can I say????

So here we go!  Bella was leading us out to the pumpkin patch.

  I love this picture of her.  Of course, she is my favorite photog subject anyway.

Bella and her daddy, Dallas looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Baby Dylan, getting sleepy looking for pumpkins.  He and mommy found one though!

Dallas and Bella picking her first pumpkin.  We didn't know that pumpkin vines

 have little thorns or thistles so you have to be careful.  They had to 

twist the pumpkin to get it off the vine.

Bella and her pumpkin.  It ended up being a bit heavy and daddy had to help her hold it!

Aunt Danielle came along too!  Baby Mason is due in 3 weeks!  

Grandma and Bella found a little pumpkin for Dylan.  Isn't it cute???

I found this large flat pumpkin and told Bella to sit on it.  She gave me a strange look and then I told her it was a pumpkin chair.  She said "OK".  Isn't she so cute??

Daddy and Bella with our pumpkin haul.  All $80 worth.  Pumpkins can be expensive in California when you pick them yourself.  Hey Nina....your 12 pumpkins for $15 is a bargain!!

Taking a little break!  My favorite subject again!

Then we were off to the petting zoo which was really a pen of goats that we could

feed.  They attacked us before we even got in the gate.  

Selena had one of the goats trying to eat her shirt and another jumping up on her.

We think these were alpacas.  They were shaved and pretty ugly.  Dallas felt sorry

for them and gave them a little to eat.

Bella feeding the baby goat.  He was so cute!

This one jumped on this rail and basically said "Look at me!"

Bella is just not sure of the big goats.

Aunt Danielle playing with Dylan.

Bella feeding more baby goats.

Taking a break on the pyramid of hay.  Bella and I climbed to the top!

This is the picture I got of her on the top of the hay bales.  I love it!

Dylan looking over the top of his daddy's shoulder.

Dylan got so happy touching the big pumpkin.

Trying to take a family pic wasn't as easy as we thought.  This was a cute one!

We had a great time even though it ended up being hot....97 degrees!  We all thought it was supposed to cool off.  It did that night.  We had to wear sweatshirts to the softball game.  

I am hoping for fall weather this weekend.