Guess who came to visit? Bennett!!

Oh how fun it was to meet Bennett in person after seeing him on his mommy and daddy's blog! In fact, many of us watched throughout the many months of his mommy's pregnancy and waited - oh, so anxiously! - when mommy went to the hospital to give birth. I just remember not being able to leave the computer because I kept checking on the blog for the big news!

Well, here he is in my home - almost three months old and as cute in person as he is on the blog.

I quickly hauled out my infant bouncy seat and other infant items and, of course, my camera!

We had fun taking pictures and then we decided to try to take our own picture together - Bennett, his mommy Shannon and me. It's kind of silly but I just had to put it on too!

Shannon and Bennett, thanks for the visit!

John, M.B.A.

It was a perfect graduation day on Monday, May 14th as John was awarded his Master's of Business Administration Degree from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Here is the proud graduate and his happy and supportive wife!

The guest speaker for the graduation ceremony was Steve Forbes, C.E.O. of Forbes magazine.

He was a great speaker.

We had great seats; quite close to where John was sitting actually. Here is our boy walking across the stage to recieve his degree.

There was quite a crowd outside following the commencement. We also enjoyed a reception at the Carlson School of Management building.

Finally, the proud parents. (Can you see my third corsage?) I never realize how short I am until I see a photograph - who is that short gal?? Oh, me!

Three for Three on Mother's Day

Wow, who would expect three corsages on Mother's Day - certainly not me - though I have three sons - but what a nice surprise to receive a lovely corsage from each son this Mother's day! I only wore one to church, then two to the picnic, and the third one I saved for the following day for John's graduation. Some of you may know that on past Mother's days I would purchase my own corsage and make our dinner reservations myself to insure the proper Mother's day outcome.... so, does this new change in attention to mom come from my sons' age and maturity...... or from the fact that they are all married now and have their lovely wives to encourage them to buy mom a corsage? What is your guess?

We enjoyed a lovely warm sunny day in Eagan celebrating Mother's day and, more importantly,
John's upcoming graduation. Here is precious Hannah examining the feel of grass...












Luke is well-trained for offering a great smile as soon as he sees the camera. Good job, Luke!

All smiles!

This morning was Brooklyn's Preschool program - as you can tell, she was tickled pink to see her family proudly sitting in the audience to watch her!

Here are God's little lambs singing for us!









I love this picture - four generations - Ruth(great grandma), Meghan (mom), Brooklyn (daughter) and Rae (grandma) - aren't they all attractive ladies? I sure think so.

From birds to blossoms..

Wow, what a perfect day - the blue sky is flawless and the cherry tree blossoms and the crab apple tree blossoms smell wonderful! Too bad there isn't a way to add "smell" to this blog!! I just couldn't resist grabbing my camera to capture a few pictures for those of you who stop by!

Faithful friends of faith...

For quite a few years now eight couples have met on Sunday evenings at our home for a Bible study and great friendship bonding. As a group we have gone through a very long list of sorrows, joys and concerns. A very long list, in fact. So we have grown quite close and know we can count on this group to support any member at any time and in any circumstance. What a blessing God has given us in the fellowship of believers! We cease meeting for the summer months so we had a cook-out Sunday evening prior to our last study. However, we don't cease our friendships and our growing faith in God's guidance in each of our lives!

Like clockwork...

I think it takes a lot of faith to believe in no God. I mean, just look at nature - birds, for instance. These birds return every single year almost the exact same week. I think it is hard to think that is random- that life just started somehow by chance and things managed to get this predictable - just by chance? Wow, that takes a lot of faith to believe in chance. As you can guess, I believe in the design of our creator God - but beyond that I believe in His personal interest in us. That is truly amazing. God loves us!

Here is the first oriole of the season at our feeders! Right on time! Also arriving today was the hummingbird (he's too hard to capture in a picture!). We also have one beautiful red cardinal, many bluejays, goldfinches, woodpeckers, mourning doves, grosbeaks, chickadees, nuthatches, red winged blackbirds, sparrows... oh, I can't get anything done but watch the birds!!

Mr Bluejay is sometimes rather pesky but none-the-less quite beautiful, don't you think?

Right on schedule - rain or shine!

I was going to try to not load this blog up with bird pictures, but every year I get so excited when "my" birds return! Just last evening we said to Norman & Martha (who were over for dinner along with Daniel, Meghan, Brooklyn and Preston) that the grosbeaks should arrive any day...we have been keeping record of their arrival in our bird book since 1989! Well, the first thing I saw this morning when I looked at the feeder was Mr. Grosbeak! As you can see it is a rainy day - but that didn't keep them from their arrival. They may have a better on-time record then the airlines! (There are 3 grosbeaks in this picture - two on the tray feeder and one in the tree - can you spot them?)

This fella is waiting his turn to get to the feeder. The male is so colorful - his female counterpart is brown and rather modest in comparison.

The birds are coming back!

This is a great time of year in our backyard - the birds put on a great show - and wow, do they eat a lot of sunflower seeds! Today the brilliant yellow goldfinches are enjoying lunch on us. There were about 14 of these beautiful birds on the feeders. I am anxiously awaiting the return of the hummingbirds and the orioles. We had a cardinal yesterday - they are not as plentiful here as in NJ. You can see just the start of the green buds on the trees in the background - and the light blue is the river in the distance. That view will be gone once the leaves are full.

Happy Birthday today to my dear sister, Marlane!

Golden Boy

Happy Golden Birthday to Adam today.

We were happy that we could spend the day with you! May you enjoy many more wonderful birthdays!

p.s. for those of you who may not know the term "golden birthday" it is when your age and the day of the month of your birthday coincide! I had never heard of a golden birthday before I came to the midwest. Of course, I was 2 when I celebrated my golden birthday since I was born on the second day of the month. Adam had a much longer wait for his golden birthday!

Ringbearer

Friday night was a special evening for Andrea's sister Emily who married Eric. Luke and Timothy were ringbearers - and Luke went down the aisle just like planned. The flower girls were a little harder to predict, though they did finally get to the end of the aisle. Timothy had second thoughts though and decided at the last minute that this was not something he really wanted to do! Oh well, he made it in the pictures beforehand!

Emily and Eric made a striking couple - very happy too! Adam performed the wedding and Andrea was the matron of honor. Adam did a fine job too. Can you see him up front?

Here is Adam with little Hannah Sophia.









Preston and Daniel are quite a pair.

Teatime in the tent...

Ah, a girl after my own heart! I just love afternoon tea! Doesn't this look inviting? It was!

What a cozy tea in a tent for me!

And we're off!!!!!

Yup, it's official - forward motion has been achieved! Wow, this is great stuff! Here's Preston's form - four on the floor...

This is great - following this ball - it can't get away now!

Another favorite - riding on Thomas! It makes the greatest sounds!

Crawling.... backwards...

Well, here we are at 10 months old! Little Preston has a wider area of mobility - he gets around now but the crawling is best only when going backwards.... and then, what does a fella do when you hit the furniture behind you? Help me out here Grandma!

The Girl Scene

This family was full of little boys for quite some time - John, Adam, Daniel and then Ben, Justin and Kyle.... but now the tables have turned and we have girls, girls, girls. Here is a picture that taken at my mom's in New Jersey - seated on the couch from left to right would be me, my mom, my Aunt Bea and my sister-in-law Debbie. In front, left to right is Jacqueline, Alison and Stephanie. Jackie and Stephanie are twins and the daughters of my youngest brother, Jeffrey. Alison is the daughter of Debbie and my middle brother Cordell. (Cordell is my brother who died in 2004.)



My mother's grand daughters range in age from 42 to 7! Here are the three youngest gals - twins Jacqueline and Stephanie are almost 8 and Alison (on the right) is 10. (We were missing my mom's great-grand daughter, Courtney, who is 6 and mom's adult grand daughters, Jill, Robyn and Stacey.)

Here is my handsome baby brother and my little mom!

On Palm Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Jacqueline and Stephanie sing with their children's choir in church. They, along with the adult choir, sang in swahili Fortunately they added some english as well! I restrained myself and did not bring my camera to church though I really wished I could have taken a picture of them in their little choir robes. They were adorable! (Jacqueline is in the pink flowered dress and Stephanie is in the blue dress.)

Days at the farm

Here I am up on a nice gentle horse, once owned by the Governor of the Cayman Islands. My brother, standing in front with my Aunt Bea, promised me this fellow was gentle. He was correct and I enjoyed a terrific trail ride through the woods of my brother's New Jersey farm. I think I'll take some horse riding lessons and keep this up!

John has two wonderful draft horses named Sam and Barney. They have provided us with many great wagon rides and today was no exception.













Many people are surprised to learn that New Jersey is called "the garden state" and think only of the New Jersey turnpike and traffic. Here is a picture of some of the beauty of north central New Jersey farmland - even with the trees bare the land is peaceful and lovely.

Here come the Haflingers - can you see the 4 horses pulling a cart? They are a small draft horse and it was a real treat to ride up front with the driver, Dick, when we went through the woods for an outing. The horses are heading up to the barn to pick us up for our ride.

Say Hi to Donny, Doug, Dock and Dirk, - or something like that. I just know the names of these Haflinger horses all began with a "D" and how they could tell them apart was a mystery to me. Perhaps they just acted like they knew who was who - how would I know if they were wrong?

Relaxing in the little wagon behind Dick and the four Haflingers (I got to sit up front with Dick) were my brother John, his girlfriend Laurie (Hi Laurie! You made the blog!), my Aunt Bea and Dick's wife Barbara. Notice even in New Jersey that day we needed warm jackets. (It was the end of March) Looks like fun, right? It was!

Easter visit

I got home from New Jersey just in time for us to head to Eagan to John & Sara's and then on to Eau Claire to celebrate the birthdays of Timothy (4), Luke (2) and Hannah (1). We also celebrated Easter so there was lots of celebration, lots of activity and lots of picture opportunities. Here are a few favorites.

For Stacey!

Hi, this post is for Stacey, my niece who lives in San Diego! HI Stacey!

Both Stacey and I had been in New Jersey last week and this picture is me, my mom and Stacey. I don't get to see Stacey very often and I thought it would be fun to post this.

Happy Easter to all, we are heading to Adam & Andrea's so when I get back I will for sure post pictures of Timothy, Luke and Hannah!