Winter Stuff

   We had a nice snow on Sunday, only the second real storm of the winter.  When we lived in PA the first six years of my life, snow always meant a snowman. I was quite puzzled the first winter we lived in WI and the first snow could not produce a snowman "because the snow is too dry," said my dad. Huh? Snow was wet, evidenced by the fact that it soaked your mittens.
   Yesterday the temperature was warm enough to make the snow perfect for creating a snowman. I figured we had better take advantage of the snow while it was the right consistency. We might not get another chance until March. Clark was working from home because the roads were slick. So I promised Benny that when Asher went down for a nap, he and I would go outside and make a snowman.
   And we did. It was lots of fun. I hardly ever get outside right now, with it being winter outside and a small baby inside. I haven't made a snowman in years. The funny part was that I was expecting the snowman to be about my height. I remember when snowmen used to be built over your head. It ended up rather smaller then I envisioned, but any bigger and I wouldn't have been able to lift the various sections. And it was way over Benny's head. The weird part was looking at Benny and suddenly realizing that I was building a snowman for my son. Son! When did this happen? I remember my mom playing in the snow with me, but she was, of course, lots older then I am now... Ha!
   It got cold last night, and so Mr. Snowman is likely going to be staring in my window most of the rest of the winter. I do hope I don't freak out some night when I'm walking through the house to mother hen my babies, as he turned out looking kind of creepy.

And here is a picture of the wee one. He's almost double his birth weight, which makes me super happy.

He's smart and intelligent and the greatest baby in the world of course. :)

Picture Update

Here's a few pictures for those of you that are begging for some.

Asher at one month.

Brothers. Benny loves Asher to bits but it takes lots of diligence on my part to make sure Asher doesn't get annihilated.

"Oh makin' a cookie"

Eight weeks old

Smiles!

"Gwen and Benny. Singin' a song."  About 15 years from now they'll be really good.

With Grammy Graber

"Benny peek-a-boo"

   All captions in quotes are from Benny. Having two keeps me busy! We're finding a schedule I think finally. Asher has been a very good baby and sleeps well at night. And that's all from the Grabers!

Merry Christmas!

God Bless Us Everyone!

I've been busy with my two kiddos the last weeks, so no pictures going out in the mail this year. But here's The Grabers, edition 2012. Merry Christmas!

In the Bag

               I love the way God works things out. We needed a new bigger vehicle, and we didn't want a van. Old people drive vans. Besides I wanted 4x4 and towing. Through my research I decided to go for a jeep. Jeeps are tough. I looked and looked. Worried, fretted, and looked. The faithful old Grand Prix is beginning to sigh with age and it has just rolled over 300,000 miles. The tires up front are beginning to wear really funny. It is beginning to run rough on cold mornings, and the power windows are dying one by one.Such is the state of affairs with it. Oh, and we just had a baby and needed something much more reliable and a little more roomy. I actually lost some sleep over it. I would find a deal only to have it taken away at the last minute. By the way why do we do this to ourselves? Anyway last night I found an older Jeep with only 126,000 miles on craiglist, and it felt right. Still I could not help myself but look at a newer one today before I finally went and got this one. (Stupid me)
       It was a young man and his wife just like us. They were church going people with three children. I looked at the vehicle for about 15 min and decided it would stupid to leave with out it. When I shook his hand and told him my prayers had been answered, he indicated he felt the same way. Lo and behold he had been laying awake at night wishing it would sell. In retrospect I realize why all those other deals fell through and the cool part is we have money left in savings. God knows what He is doing even if we don't. He not only answered my prayers but answered the prayers of another in the process. Isn't that cool?!?!

I haven't found any rust on the paint.

.... Or Scratches for that matter.

 Anyway till later

Clark

;
         

Asher James Graber

For all of those who wanted to see pictures.

The Details

Sucking his thumb or picking his nose. Not sure which.

So Peaceful

Introducing Brothers.

Sleeping.

Awake

Big yawn.

So Tiny.

I hope to get a better hands picture than this.

I think it is another yawn.

In mommy's lap.

Looking

Get that camera out of my face, I want to eat!!

That is all for now!!

-Clark-

Things I Am Going To Do When I Get Big (and other stuff)

  1. Be the head chef at the hospital. I will cook good food from scratch. None of this boxed, canned junk. Yuck! After all, the patients are supposed to be recovering.
  2. Have an interior design business. Because I think it would be fun.
  3. Have a fabric store in our local town that sells a variety of nice, pretty, wearable stuff that all generations would like. And you won't have to pay an arm and leg for it either.
  4. Have a clothing store. With nice good quality clothing for all ages that's pretty. And reasonably priced. (I had a rather unsuccessful shopping trip (s), can you tell?)
 o 5. Have a coffee shop with pretty decor, quiet soothing music, and private little corners and booths. I'll serve cheesecakes and other dainties (Affordable pricing of course. I will not charge you $5 for a tiny, little bowl of soup.) Oh and I will have a parking lot!
  6. Have a quiet little corner somewhere in my house that's all mine! Coffee and reading and thinking and writing to take place there. This is likely the only one on the list that will happen someday.  :)

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   In other news, we are on countdown. It's hard to believe we're in sight of the end. Yay! I've forgotten all about being up and nights and the dead tiredness, and stuff; I just want this baby OUT to look at and hold. Ah well, reality will strike soon.Nesting has been very bad the last several weeks. Poor Clark was afraid he would come home some evening to find the living room disarrayed and half painted. Fortunately I firmly told myself if I could feel like doing something big and ambitious like that, I could do something more practical like clean a corner.
  Benny is doing all the normal two year old stuff. He has no clue how soon or how badly his little world is going to turn upside down. It's not going to hurt him either. After a few weeks of horrible grouches and bad behavior I took him off milk again. Seems he does fine with cheese, yogurt, butter, and with milk in foods. He can even have milk in his cold cereal or muffins. Just not sippy cups full.
   And that's more or less our life right now. We are shopping for a vehicle but so far haven't met with success. If one vehicle leaves you sitting beside the road on a test drive, and another needs to have the battery charged before you can test drive it, well, let's just say you know for sure you don't want those. 
   And that's our life right now.  Very likely the next post will happen when there is a family announcement to make. :)

A Long Overdue Post

So our computer crashed and went to the repair shop. And we've had it back for a long time, but some how the blogging didn't happen. So here are few pictures of our summer.

  Father-Son Campout 

  

 Where big boys catch big fish,

 And little boys turn into fish.

A short work weekend at the cabin.

With time for friends too.

A picnic at a local park with the Grabers one lovely Sunday evening.

Family times in our yard. 

A weekend with the Hess family. And this is about the only people picture of that weekend. 

A little boy that celebrated his second birthday. Where did the time go?!

Youth night.

And lots of regular family life at home. This by the way is a "toot train". Lots of imagination going on. He inherited honestly from both of us I'm afraid.

And that's a really swift re-cap of our summer. Next I want to do a post on life in the last week.

A small update

Our computer crashed several weeks ago, so I am trying to do this on my Tab. It's not working very well. Imagine typing with one finger. Skype wouldn't cooperate with Blogger.
   So this is just to say we are healthy and happy and our summer is progressing nicely. The weather has finally cooled off, ans we can live with the windows open instead of the A.C.
   I've been dreaming of lots of interior improvements, but I have a feeling they will wait until after baby time. I have a million other things that need to happen before then
   So anyway, that's what is happening in our corner of the world. You all enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

Our Saturday Project

We live by a busy highway. Think loaded logging trucks. We have a busy two year old that moves, fast! And even though he informs me, "Road no-no," he is not to be trusted outside by himself. So, our solution.... a fenced in play area. We collected the materials and recruited help.

This is before we started Sat.  Clark had worked on it some by himself two other days. 

Mom came down in the morning as we got started. Benny was more then happy to "help" (hinder?). 

I could sit on a chair and help hold pickets in place. :)

The rest of the family trickled in over the course of the day. Lance cut lots and lots of pickets. Brad mowed the lawn. 

 

I didn't really help that much. 

 Abbey found a flower bed to weed. Francis helped her and Lance by turns. Amy found a house to clean. 

The neighbor came over with a wagon his children have outgrown. Benny was delighted with his "cuk" (truck).

And we got it finished! 7 1/2 hours of hard work. And it was hot that day too. 

We just need to make the gates yet.  Many many thanks to the family for helping.  

It looks really nice the way it is now, but I want to paint it sometime to keeping it from deteriorating. 

Clark's comment after we were done, "I feel like I got my summer back now." Yay! Maybe we can go fishing now.

PS. Photo credits to Clark and Mom.