A New Christmas Tree For Us!

 Yes, we finally did it.  After many years, we bought a new Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving Photos!

The title says it all - we took lots of photos before the Big Feast!

Enjoy!

And then we tried to photograph the two dogs, Willie and Chloe......

This was the best we could do after about nine attempts!

Great photos, everyone!  Good memories!  💕

Thanksgiving 2020!

 What a wonderful Thanksgiving week we all had!

Courtney and Dennis drove up from Huntsville and we had a marvelous time together!

Dennis is an electrical engineer like Joe, and has also been working on  his pilot's license so they have a lot in common!

Here they are going through Joe's builder scrapbook for the RV-4 that Courtney had put together for him years ago!

 

Here Courtney is showing off her typing skills, which are legendary within 
the family - about 99 words per minute!  WOW!  

She hasn't lost her touch!

The always anticipated game of "LIFE"!  Joshua won! 

 

 Courtney and Dennis also helped us get up the "Family Wall of Photos" in the basement, which we had been putting off for awhile.  

They got it up in record time!

This is about halfway done - the Carey side!

We went out to eat on Monday and Tuesday.  Once to introduce Dennis to a

Nebraska  institution, "Runza", and then to our favorite Mexican restaurant,  "La Concina".

On Wednesday, Courtney and I started making a few Thanksgiving foods ahead of time.

We also took nice walks up the country lane!

Thanksgiving Day was beautiful and sunny!  We all have much to be thankful for!

In usual Isaac fashion, he consumed more food than any of us could possible imagine.

This is serving one of three, not counting dessert!

Post-meal photos!  Ha Ha!

Earlier in the day, before the meal, Joe, Dennis, and the boys all tackled the yearly

weed growth around the lagoon.

Getting this done was a huge help to us!  Thank you, Dennis!

Chloe, the dog, had fun watching all of the activity and running around

on the acreage!

That evening, Courtney and Dennis gave the boys a very fun gift - a "grow your

own bonsai tree" kit!

They had fun soaking the seeds and then planting them.  We'll see how long it takes them

to start to grow!

We had a marvelous time, and they made it back to Huntsville in fine shape!

We truly had a blessed Thanksgiving Week with them here!

First Snow of the Year!

 The first snow of the year is always so exciting!

We only had about 1-2 inches, and it was gone the next day.

But it was certainly lovely to look at!

I love looking at this beautiful blue spruce!

Willie, the dog, had lots of fun frisking around in it!

The boys were desperately hoping that their sled would work, but there just wasn't enough snow.

In less than a week, the temperatures got back up into the 70's, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the warmer temperatures of a true Indian Summer!

Little House in the Big Woods!

 When we bought our house in 2019 it had been very neglected.  We loved the almost 100 trees on three acres, the smaller floorplan, and the location was absolutely perfect.

But the house?  Bleh.......

But as our realtor reminded us, you can change the house, but you can't change the location or the large number of mature trees.

So before we moved in we had the interior of the house completely redone.  It's amazing what new paint, flooring, windows, kitchen cabinet doors and drawers, and a lovely new granite counter top can do to improve the look of the house!  We were thrilled at how it turned out.

Getting the interior all reworked allowed us to move in and start living there.

But the outside?  Dark brown paint that was peeling in a variety of places.

The back of the house.

New, lighter color going on!

Half and Half!

The west side, where the walkout daylight end is, was the absolute worst!  

Lots of sun damage.

What a difference THREE coats of paint makes!

The weather was very lovely for Scott and his crew, up until the last day or two when it

got rather nippy.  But they got the job done!

Now we are deciding whether to put black shutters on the front or not.......

We are so happy with the way it all turned out!