Here's a family shot taken by Becky. And, then here's Bill, Becky, Phil, Jared & Briella. We had a fun afternoon at the Maynard's. Superb food, wonderful friends, fun games, beautifully decorated table w/ really cool napkins by Sarah, other people to play with my kids, etc.

We had four kids in the song time: "Run, Peter, Run!" Later Dan sang in the choir & Marci played her violin, but I couldn't get a good shot of them. We had our new Pastor fly up from Florida to preach. We are excited about their move and helped clean the house they will stay in for a while.

Will try again later on the video... 3 attempts is enough for me!

Last Saturday we celebraetd Shannon's shower at Aunt Terrie's. Grandma Ree was looking good with freshly painted nails and all! Shannon was the most adorable, of course. Aunt Terrie and girls had a wonderful spread of food. We shared lots of laughter and met some of A. Terrie's dear friends of many years. Got to see the boys too, but no photos of them. The girls enjoyed the trampoline, as always.

We watched a bit of TV Land with Grandma before heading back home. Here's a quick photo of my girls!

We celebrated Marci's 12th birthday today. Usually we get to celebrate with family, but this year we had 6 girls over to commemorate the day. (Turn your volume down when watching the sledding movies!) We started the day with games in the living room. They liked the secret signal game & trying to guess who had the signal. It worked better with adults, but you should see the way Titus raises his eyebrows & wiggles his ears! After game time we gather for lunch with Marci's requested menu: cheese soup & frog-eye salad followed by strawberry cake. The girls liked the soup, but were a tad suspicious about the salad because of Jared's description of how they caught all the frogs. After food, we opened gifts. Marci loved all of them! Then, for the best part... s l e d d i n g! Marci had been praying for snow and just overnight we got some fresh powder perfect for some outdoor winter fun. Like I warned you, turn the volume down:

The only "downer" was that Emily was feeling sick most of the day. She perked up & ate cake for supper this evening, so she's on the mend. Unfortunately, I'm feeling very worn down. I think it must be going through the ranks. Dan flies out to Iowa tomorrow, so he's trying to stay away from all of us. Have a great weekend!

The best part of opening gifts for me, the mother, was when Briella gave him one of her old toothbrushes. It was such a genuine token of generosity and she was so pleased with her gift to him. When he opened it, we weren't quite sure if it was used or not. Then she proudly proclaimed, "And I gave Titus one of my old toothbrushes!" I could not contain the laughter as I hugged her tightly. She loved that toothbrush ... and she unselfishly gave it to her little brother. Fortunately Titus had a visit from the dentist at Story Hour the very next day and was given a brand new toothbrush!

Grandma Jody gave Titus the "Little Man of the House" t-shirt. The clothes fit perfectly & Titus certainly lives up to the tee. He loves the pick-up & trailer because it matches Daddy's. He hauls his little tiny CAT on it ... just like Daddy. I had to chuckle to myself that night as I looked over the arrangement of toys before bedtime -- he had everything all lined up & that CAT was on the trailer. The next day he was in heaven playing with his new airplanes from Grandpa Verlin & Grandma Jane ... and filling them up with gas whenever they ran out. At least it was free gas! Thanks for all the generous gifts from all :)

Titus had a very yummy chocolate cake made by his big sister, Marci. It was the recipe off the Hershey's chocolate cake box and boy, it was good!

Titus talked on the phone to Grandpa & Grandma just before the gifts were opened.

This weekend we had the Luce's over for dinner. Mrs. Luce brought a chocolate cake, so we sang to Titus. We had planned to sing to Ben too since I had his birthday marked as last Wednesday, the 13th. I called him & everything thinking he was certainly teasing me by saying, "Hey, it's not my birthday!" How did that get recorded on my birthday list last fall, Benjamin!??

And, then Christie helped Briella get rid of that last front tooth!! So, she's got the cute toothless grin now :)

This evening we took the youth group to serve at the Scranton Rescue Mission.

Testing out a scrapbook page.

Look! I’m 40!!
Come celebrate with me!
Wednesday June 13th 5-7:30pm, Liberty Park
We’ll have hamburgers, hot dogs, cake, etc. Wear your creek-playing clothes! Fun games for all!
R.S.V.P. 967-0976

We drove over to Kessler's Tree Farm for a Christmas tree today. Unbelievably warm weather, so it didn't quite seem like "Christmas weather." More importantly, it's not suitable for hunting deer. Today was opening day for rifle season, so the orange could be seen throughout the surrounding woods. Dan was lamenting the fact that there was no snow and that the deer would not be about, but I saw a dozen on my jog up the road and about nine on the way back down. Who knows?!? What would you do to cool the meat down with temps in the 50's?
Tomorrow we hope to get some lights & ornaments on the tree. Our deck has some lovely clear lights decorating the railing. I love cheery lights! The more the merrier!

Thanksgiving 2006. We had such a nice, quiet day at home -- just the seven of us. Wednesday I spent a good portion of the day in the kitchen making jello, cranberry bread, pies, sweet potatoe souffle, etc. It would make the next day more restful! Wednesday night we attended the Thanksgiving Service at church where we looked at Deut. 8. This passage was in my Beth Moore study. It would come up again during the 30-hr Famine. Was the Lord trying to tell me something or what?!?
The girls played with their American Girl dolls. The boys played nicely as well. I was able to get some photos in an album before 11:00. Then we started to work on mashed potatoes, fresh bread, setting the table and baking all of the side dishes. The turkey was smelling GOOD! We ate about 1pm. Later that day we enjoyed a game of dominoes. Briella was excited to make her own train and she ended up winning the game! Daddy followed with a close second and Jared came in third.
Although we desparately missed being with family, it was restful and relaxing to have a quiet day at home.

Biography Dress-up Night was Monday, November 13, 2006.


Here we have Johnny Appleseed, whose favorite book was the Bible and favorite place was being alone in the woods; Marie Curie, the scientist who invented radium and the first woman to win the Nobel prize;
Johnny's big sister Elizabeth Chapman who took care of him when their mother died while the two youngsters waited for their father to return from the Revolutionary War in NY; and Willa Cather the author who spent her formative years in Red Cloud, Nebraska.

Briella's cast is removed! Nov. 10, 2006:

The latest in fun at the Rose house : "Rock-n-Roll in my car jammies!"

Haven't had much time for keeping you posted. Here's a quick photo from a family camping trip with several friends from Iowa. 

Jared's birthday bash was Friday afternoon. He didn't want any presents except for a cap gun. He wanted all of his friends to come over for a party. So, we went all out on a great big guy party. Look for all the photos on dotphoto.com. In the meantime, here's one of the guys at the mess hall. If you are looking through dotphoto, you might wonder what in the world is happening with Marci & her friend, Olivia. Well, Drill Sargeant Daddy decided to take the new recruits out in the woods for a search & rescue operation. It was great fun for all, except when one of the rotting pieces of wood snapped & the rescuers nearly dropped the rescuees! The boys had fun on the tire swing to close the festivities. It was a great time of visiting, playing, and eating for all! Grandpa Nelson, you'd be proud to know that we baked apple pie instead of cake again this year.

I let each one choose a favorite activity outdoors for picture time. This caused Emily to have to think hard. Daddy finally found something for her to do outdoors! She LOVED it, of course.

What beautiful faces, eh? Okay, I'm just a little biased :) It's a great time of year and we finally got a sunny day, the mowing was completed and it was a fun time to romp around to each child's favorite spot for a photo. Next, look for each one doing their favorite thing...

Back to school photos! Here's the first happy student :)

Okay, here are the rodeo photos!