Holiday Season! Family updates!

For those of you who have not heard yet, Kelly graduated from College!!! Yea, yea, yea!! The official graduation is Sat, Dec 19th, but she is not going there. It has been a long, long struggle for her and she has worked so hard to get there (including her computer crashing the day before her senior computer science presentation). She is finally done! She will be working on getting her new business started (kitchen and bath design). She has a space in Virginia she will be using for her 'showroom'. Travis will help her get it ready (he's laid off and so is Andy).

Kelly and Travis came over last night and after being there a few minutes, Kelly took off her gloves and showed off her 'ring'! Yes, Kelly and Travis are engaged! We are all so excited! They are thinking next winter (maybe Jan or Feb) and it will be an 'all-inclusive' in maybe Mexico. Travis' brother did that and it worked out very well. Travis built a fire-pit down one of their path's this summer and he built a fire there, put up Christmas lights and had music set up (he borrowed Mark's generator a couple days before this and asked Mark for his daughter's hand in marriage). He had a bottle of Champagne and told her it was a 'graduation celebration' and then got on one knee and asked her. Very touching. They are both very excited! It took him (at least we think) a long time, but he finally made the decision! They are going to his parents (about 5 hours away) for Christmas and will be back Tues after Christmas. We are doing the Jukich Christmas that night at their house.

Also, they will be here Jan 1st. We are having a get-together at our house on Sat, Jan 2nd about 3:00. Just snacks and lots of visiting, so if you can stop over please do! My mom and dad will be there, too, TCS & family plan to go to Bentleyville about 6:00, so please come before they have to leave.TCS  is so cute and getting so big!

With Ben making the major league, Kelly graduating, Kelly and Travis getting engaged, Danielle and I getting to babysit TCS, Rye and her family coming home for a visit, Mom and Dad coming for Christmas, Andy moving out and being on his own and Danielle finishing another semester and doing so well, we are really blessed this Christmas! I hope things are well for all of you, too and if not, I hope you can find blessings in the little things this time of year!

Happy Holidays to all!!


Hooray . . . for so many things!

Kelly and Travis - Engaged!

TCS is so cute - I love that smile and those dimples!

Merry Christams! Happy Holidays!

Here are some pictures of Bentleyville and the lights downtown.  For more Christmas lights you can go to my flickr site here and you can see even more of other people's Christmas lights here.  

Just for fun - actually, I thought the camera was done taking a picture, so I moved it, but it wasn't done, yet.  

This one I did on purpose - I set the camera up, clicked the shutter and then zoomed in and back out before it was done.  

Thanksgiving 2009

Danielle and I went to New Hampshire to babysit TCS while his parents took a little break.  We spent Thanksgiving with him.  We had a wonderful time with him.  He had fun with Auntie Dani and G-ma Wendy.  It was so fun to really get to know him.  Danielle was there for 5 days, I was there for 8.  We got to see them on the first and last days.  TCS was a perfect little guy!  He took naps and went to bed so easy - you follow his routine, he lays his head down on his pillow and you leave the room!  He is learning to talk and says quite a few words pretty good.  He tries to repeat new words, too.  He loves it outside and it's sometimes a challenge to get him back in the house.  You can see more pictures of him at my flickr site.  

For a slide show of more TCS pictures, click here.