The chill factor ...

The temperature has dropped and it truly is winter conditions!!!  We have tempts in the teens and a little bit of snow on the ground.  I am so glad and blessed to have a warm house to hibernate in on these cold days!!!

Matthew was away all weekend and he is usually the one that bundles up and goes in the snow.  He gets Ashlyn all talked into freezing together and building snowmen and throwing snowballs.  But, because he was at a cabin with his friend Christopher and David, it was up to Ashlyn to go out on her own. 

Matthew had a great time with these boys!!!

 

No snowmen were created.  Not yet.  Only cups of snow where brought inside to eat.  :)))  However, Hunter came over for awhile and these two ventured outside!  They play great and love to be together!!!

Always gotta do a silly picture!

She loves snow.

 

She filled up a cup of snow for her and Austin and then they ate it!

 

The winter sport for our family is basketball and volleyball.  Matthew had another game on Friday night. 

Austin was cheering and clapping for Matt!

I am becoming a bird watcher!!!  :)))

 

We had the Riehl's Christmas dinner yesterday.  It was another day of emotions and tears because now we are without Daudy Riehl!  All the great grandchildren gave roses to their grandparents.  We sang lots of Christmas and heaven songs.  Of course, the food was fantastic and the house was packed out!!!  I am so blessed to be able to call these wonderful people family!!!

 

 

Here our forecast for this upcoming week!!!  Freezing and then warmer tempts!!!  How will I not get Spring fever on Thursday!!??!! 

I made my first visit at Speckled Hen on Saturday.  I needed to drop things off at Fashion Cents and because I've wanted for a long time already to go to this little coffee shop, I stopped in.  I ordered my first London Fog!  It was good.  Tea in a latte!  I will get this again!!!

With all of our Christmas gatherings now over and winter has settled in, I am ready to sit down and read my Magnolia Story book.  Drink more coffee and tea.  Study more scripture!  (I ordered myself another Bible and it will be in the NIV version.  I love, love, love my KJ version Bible still.  I've had it ever since high school.  I have many notes and highlights in it.  But, sometimes I wish for another version.  I'm excited to have my new Bible shipped to me this week!)  Listen to relaxing music.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll get my scrapbooking out!!!???!!!  I have a puzzle waiting for me too!  Plus, two little kiddoes here at home with me today, two in school (well, three on some days), laundry to constantly be washing and folding, a house to try to keep clean and basketball games to attend!!!  We are wishing for more snow in the near future and Mike and I can't wait for winter date nights and outings together!  (We had a great time on Friday night celebrating John JR's 40'th birthday!)  Winter time is usually my longest season and I'm always VERY ready to have Spring arrive but somehow I'm getting the feeling that this winter will go by quickly!!!

Let it snow!!!  Let it snow!!!  Let it snow!!!

Family meeting in 2016.

Every Thanksgiving Day, we all sit around the table and discuss some family goals.  I always make some notes and because I print out this blog into a book each year, it's so much fun looking back at our plans, goals, photo's and life!  So, I'm going to share some thoughts of our annual family meeting. 

THANKFUL FOR:

Mike - Another platform to do what's right in our country.  Freedom.  So that we can be able to shine our light wherever we are freely!!!

Lori - Health.  For without healthy bodies, EVERYTHING changes.  Our daily routines.  Our attitudes.  Food.  I'm so grateful that we all are healthy!!!

Hadassah - Thankful for the people who help us.  Teachers.  Minsters.  Police officers.  Parents.

Matthew - For our whole family.  Family gatherings. 

Ashlyn - Mom & Dad. 

Austin (with a little help from Ashlyn) - Parents.  Blanket & Nuk.

GOALS:

1.) Daily scripture reading!
2.) Family Fun Night.
3.) Do more for others.
4.) Speak kindly to each other.  It's amazing how the atmosphere stays so much more peaceful if we just talk in a kinder manner to each other. 

The last goal has me in the spotlight!  It's so easy to start barking commands at the kids when they know to hang up their jackets.  Not just throw them on the floor.  Or to put their shoes in their drawers and not to let them lay in the laundry area.  Or when the toys need picked up.  Or the table needs to be set for supper.  I find myself way too often just sternly enforcing these things, when really, all I need to do is say it in a nice way!

I'm trying!!!

It's good for us to talk about goals as a family!!!  We need reminders.  We need to encourage each other.  It makes a stronger bond between the kids and parents!!!

Winter-ific!

The snow arrived for us this winter already!!!  And we are excited to have it!!!

Last night, as I was sitting in my recliner checking emails and Instagram, I clicked on my weather app to see the upcoming forecast.  Mike's been saying that it's suppose to be so cold and freezing tempts all weekend.  Well, he is right!  But as I looked on my phone screen, it said that it was snowing outside!!!  I whipped my head over to look out the window and sure enough, it was!!!  I shouted out the fun news to the kids and they were happy to go see for themselves!

It snowed most of the night!  This morning I was wishing for a two hour school delay but it never came true.  It was OK though because it got us all up to see the sun come up and shine on the freshly fallen, gorgeous snow!!!

I've said so many times, "If it's gonna be cold, it may as well snow!"  I'm sticking to my quote!  Winter is the longest season for me and so having fresh snow adds so much beauty and splendor!!!  Now, I'm not the one that gets all excited about dressing up warm and head out to play in the snow.  I mean, I will if I have too.  No, I would so much rather just watch from the window and hope someone else shovels the driveway!!!  :)))

Here is our winter wonderland!

Ashlyn was excited to finally be able to wear her snow boots to school! 

Brrrr!

Hadassah called me about 20 minutes after they all got on the bus and said that the bus was freezing up and they needed to let it sit for awhile.  Only a teenager would then ask to have me come pick them up!!!  I listened but didn't fall for the trick.  I'm sure the bus driver got it under control.  But on the other hand, I'm not surprised that the bus was freezing!  It's freezing cold outside!  I texted her about thirty minutes later and they were on their way again!

I just can't believe all the pretty birds right outside my kitchen window!  I love birds but never took much of an effort to feed them because we always have cats and the birds just never seemed to come around.  Until now!  I put out some homemade suit.  I have worms out for the bluebirds.  I just love watching them eat and perch right outside my kitchen window!!!

Gorgeous!!!

Watching the snow from the kitchen this morning was wonderful!  I have a candle burning.  The laundry is getting done.  And I'm still listening to Christmas music because I never get tired of it!!!  I hauled our Christmas tree out the back door the other day and set it in my flower beds right out back.  I'm hoping it will be a place for the birds to perch!  Now, with all this pretty snow on it, it's so pretty!  I'm also happy to have no more pine needles on the living room carpet!!!

I decided to bake a batch of cookies today.  I didn't get to making soft ginger cookies over the holidays and plus we had plenty of other sweets around.  But now the smell of baked ginger is lingering in the house and the cookies taste great!!!  Just ask Austin!  :)))

Go away runny noses and colds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then they all got dipped in white chocolate!!!  So yummy!!!

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Mike and I got to watch a Flyers game in Phillie the other night with the King family and our 50's party friends!!!  (Is that a new title for us?  Maybe???)

Uncle John got us all tickets and we met him and Kathy at the Flyers game for a party for Kathy!!!  (Four couples all going to a Flyers game in one van is a joy ride of it's own!!!)  Their kids were there in the suite too and it was so fun!  It's been years since we were at a hockey game and even though I didn't know any players anymore, I still know the game!!!  Hockey brings back so many fun memories for Mike and I!!!  I watched plenty of games in my teenage years as Mike played goalie!!!  I loved every bit of it!!!

Happy Birthday, Kathy!!!  We are so blessed to be friends and family!!!

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The forecast is saying cold and wintry for the upcoming weekend!!!  It sounds good to me and what fun to be indoors drinking coffee and tea while the outdoors displays God's beauty of winter!!!

Starting out a New Year!

We started out the New Year with a blast!  We had Matt & Lena and their boys over for pretzel logs and oyster soup!!!  After we ate we played a few games of our new game of Marble Chase!  This is a game that the kids can help us play and we had a blast!  Then we decided to dress up crazy and go spy on Mike's parents!  Every year they go to Joney Jays to play Rook.  This year we crashed their party and made us all laugh!!!

Dear Austin was already in bed sleeping for the night when we carried him out to the Yukon.  He did OK once he was awake a little.  He went right back to sleep after we got back home!

Ashlyn got the biggest kick out of wearing my silly glasses!

Crazy folks!!!

Hadassah wasn't feeling the greatest and by midnight she was ready for bed.  She was brave enough to watch with us the ball drop in NY City.  I am so amazed at how many people go to watch that!!!  By 12:30, the kids were exhausted and Matt's went home.

Donuts from Beilers were for the next morning.

Austin was up twice during the night.  Why?  I don't know but he is getting his eye teeth.  Maybe that's why?  Or maybe we just disturbed him from waking him up???  He is so much fun plus a ton of work right now!  He turned 18 months on New Years Day and I love this stage.  He is trying to say more and more words.  He can tell (or try to tell) you what he wants.  His eating habits are so opposites of Ashlyn's!  He wants the meat and pushes the veggies aside.  He doesn't try new things very much.  My super picky eater.  He stills has his nuk and blanket and bottle.  At 18 months old, the other kids had their bottles and nuks taken.  I'm thinking about this for him.  Thinking ......  :))).  Anyway, late nights usually still consist of getting up early with Austin.  Most times he's up around 7 AM.  But because he was up twice and I ended up on the couch with him, he slept a bit longer.  I woke up and Mike and I were trying to decide if we wanted to wake the kids to go to church or just stay home?  Then I got a phone call from Mom.  I answered and she was crying.  I asked what was wrong.  I knew her and dad were still at the cabin.  She could barely talk because of Laryngitis in her throat.  She said that Daudy Riehl died.  (This is my dad's dad.  My grandpa.)  What???  What happened?  He was 82 years old but still in great health!  She went on to say that he got up Sunday morning and got ready to go to church.  He scootered out the long driveway and arrived at Sam and Lena's.  That's where they were having church that morning.  He walked up their steep driveway and was in their barn talking to some church men.  When suddenly he feel flat on his face.  And died.  A heartattack?  We don't know for sure but the ambulance people were saying it seemed like that's what happened.  The ambulance was called right away.  They tried to shock him a few times.  CPR was being done.  Nothing brought back the warm body temperature or started his heart again.

Now this was a shock to all of our family.  It seemed too sudden and we had no time to say goodbye.  Daudy Riehl will be missed greatly!  But, I did have to stop and think of those who suffer with cancer.  Or long illnesses.  Or need special care for years.  How awesome to be feeling well up to your natural dying moment!!!

Mom and Dad quickly got things packed up at the cabin and headed home.  Three hours of driving when wanting to be with your siblings is hard and long!  We did decide to go to church and then head down to Moses for the viewing and family gathering later that night.

Meanwhile, we had planned on eating pork and sauerkraut with Matt and Lena Sunday evening.  I whipped together a big pot of mashed potatoes and we ate around 5.  Then we left the children with them while Mike and I went to grieve with extended family.

It was raining and cold outside.  So many people came out to the viewing Sunday night and Monday night.  Then the funeral was yesterday with it still raining.  Mike and I both got colds and now with tears mixed in with it, we kept reaching for tissues!  It's always a sad day when buring a loved one.  Someone that you will miss.  Especially, since the Riehl Family is sticking with the original plans on gathering together on Sunday for our annual Christmas Dinner!!!  Daudy won't be there this year with us and we will miss him so much!!!  I really wish we would have been able to see him before his dying day.  We were looking forward to talking to him on Sunday!!!

Thank you friends for coming out and showing support over these past few days!!!  This is another chapter closed and another grandpa in heaven!!!

I found this quote on Pinterest and like it a lot!

Sunday night God blessed us with a gorgeous sunset!!!

Daudy's casket was carried to the basemet for the funeral service.  Then all the family went to Gordonville graveyard to bury him.

With many relatives being Amish, they all brought their horse and buggies to the graveyard.

Rainy day for a funeral!

Sunday afternoon I had the chance to sit down and think about the New Year.  Here are a few things I wrote down.  A few goals.  A few reminders.  A few resolutions.

Matthew is riding around the kitchen constantly on his new hover board!!!  And he plays songs from the iPhone on his Bluetooth hover board!

Mike gave me an original old fashioned bike for Christmas.  I can ride it or use it for décor! 

Lena gave Matthew a wood burning kit for Christmas.  He's been busy burning wood all through Christmas vacation!

We've never left the children or babies sleep with us in bed.  Until Austin was born.  And mostly then because when he was still a newborn and woke up during the night, I didn't want him crying and waking everyone else up.  (We were then living in the basement of Mike's parents because of home renovations.)  Austin seemed to sack it out in our bed and sometimes it still happens.  During Christmas vacation, he slept in our bed a few times.  I don't like it this way but if it means a few more hours of sleep, it's what we do.  And then one afternoon, Ashlyn took a nap in our bed!  So cozy!!!

Now today, I am cleaning up the house, taking down the rest of the Christmas décor and the Christmas tree is out on the back porch!  It feels good to give a clean, fresh look into the house again!  The kids are back to school and we are trying to get back on a better bed time schedule!  Today, I can't help but think of my aunts and uncles and my dad that are missing their father!  Heaven just got a little more closer for me this week!