Our Very Merry Christmas

All of our family was together for the day before Christmas.  We didn't get a picture of everyone all together, but we did get one of Roger and I with our four grand children.  It's a good thing someone snapped lots of pictures of us.  Out of about 20 snaps, there's one where everyone is looking forward and looking happy.  Grandpa and I....well, we just couldn't be smiling any bigger.  We were just feeling so happy and blessed to have this very special day together with our family all together in our home.

Abby and Sarah were busy checking out the presents and trying to figure out which were their's and what might be inside them ??

Amy is checking out one of her gifts....A knit kit for a Bobcat hat.

Annie's looks like she's thinking  "that looks like a lot of work, and  the colors are all wrong !"

Eva is looking so cute in Santa Claus's hat, and  packing around Amy's knit kit.

Joellyn looks pretty happy with her white tea pot.  I found it at an antique shop while shopping with family in  Kalispell when we were there for Thanksgiving.

Ash and Annie

Brad is showing us the perfect little sweatshirt for a farmer's grandson.

Abby is holding the cardboard pattern that her Dad put together so Joellyn and crew could build a house of out of gingerbread.  It was a huge undertaking.

Here are Joellyn, Amy and Annie putting the finishing touches on it.  There are a few behind the scenes stories that you can't see here.  I'm thinking Joellyn will share the rest of the story...but it has to do with two separate incidents during the project..... a falling wall and a falling rolling pin......  It's really quite amazing this house was completed!

Awfully cute house, wouldn't you say?

There are lots of other pictures I could and should have taken, but I just didn't spend much time behind my camera.  Our house was a busy place with family coming and going.  Saturday afternoon and evening we were so happy to have Uncle Jack and Aunt Jan Pierce and Kieth, Cyndee and Brandon Braaten, and Dick and Lois Benjamin and Betty and Dennis Figarelle join our family for dinner and visiting and games.  Sunday after our morning meeting, we enjoyed another wonderful family dinner when Annie's parents, Bill and Wendy, joined us for dinner and  a wonderful visit.

I hope that you all had a blessed and Happy Holday!

Linda

They came to see us.....and made a far away land seem closer

These two dear ladies were just in our home recently.  They stayed with us two nights during our time of special meetings here in Fort Benton.  Both of them have labored in the ministry in Scandinavia.  They shared some about the countries there, and while they did so, it was very evident of their love for those countries and the people there that they labored among.  Roger and I have always said, that someday we would travel to that land and visit our brothers there.  We truly hope that someday will come.

Roger downloaded this map to look at while we were visiting with Agnes and Jean.
It really is amazing how close together the two countries are where our brothers are.
Just a short ferry ride apart really....but first we must fly across the wide, wide seas
and, maybe even more daunting, overcome our fears of going to a foreign land.

While Dale was home, he really encouraged us to think seriously about coming to visit him in Estonia.

I know that Larry longs for some of his family to come visit him in Finland as well.  I believe that some
are planning to do so, and we hope that it will be in our future as well.  Of course cost is a factor, but  
not an insurmountable one.  A bigger hurdle is finding the right time and overcoming fear of the unknown.

I'd love it if some of you seasoned overseas travellers would share your experiences....anyone?

Linda

In the Lime Light

I was sadly lacking in blogging inspiration. Sure I said in my last post that I would tell you more about our shopping trip in Kalispell and my sister's gift...but then, I thought "Oh, oh!  I can't tell about all that!  It has to do with Christmas presents and stuff, and you just can't reveal yet!"  And then I said I'd share the project that brother Dave helped with, but who really wants to see pictures of my garage?  (I may still subject you to that, but my dear hubby has a few details to finish first, like window and door trim and shelves and coat hooks and steps.....)

But then.....we got to go to our Grand kids Christmas program last night. I'm sure Joellyn will be sharing too, on her blog, but I think she took more video, while I stuck to photo's.  There is nothing boring about these productions.  I'm telling you, they were a laugh a minute.  Really!

Eva was enthralled with the whole thing, watching intently and clapping with the music and laughing  out loud.  More on Eva later.  She got a few minutes in the lime light too, and she loved it!

Kindergarten kids are sooo cute!  They got to wear their jammies.  I'm thinking  a few kids got new jammies and robes a bit before Christmas this year.

You aint gettin' nuthin' for Christmas

They all told what they did that was so naughty.
I think Sarah spilled or stole her Daddy's coffee cup.

"Can you believe we really were that bad?"

Abby had quite an important part as narrator.  She has been learning her lines for over a month.  And she learned them well.  She also had everyone else's part down pat.  She had to help her follow narrator a few times with his lines.  You could see her giving him a little help now and again.  Unfortunately, the mike was in front of her and I didn't get the best pictures.  All of my photos are a little less than crystal clear.  I was taking pictures without a flash in low light conditions.  But at least I got pictures.  I love that my camera has high ISO settings for times like this!

Waiting

Co-narrators

Abby took her job seriously....maybe a little too seriously, but she never flubbed up, not even once.

Jace, he took his part seriously too....doesn't it look like it??

I loved these kids enthusiasm

Did I say there was a laugh a minute?
Jace and his pals yucking it up......

After the program, Santa came to give out candy.  So Grandpa took Eva  to the stage to go see Santa with big sister Sarah.  Unfortunately, I missed the 'kodak' moment when she smiled and laughed and faced the crowd, enjoying her time in the lime light. Bashful??  Apparently not!  

It didn't really take too much urging to get her to take a candy cane.

Did I say that it took awhile to get all the kids through the line?  Santa took his job seriously too.  Or maybe he was enjoying his time in the lime light? He gave each child some of his time and had something sweet to say and to give to each one.

"Jace, have you been naughty or nice??"

What did he have to say to these two girls?

O.K. I really gotta run...Jace's grand parents are coming for supper, and I've got lots to do!

Till next time,

Linda

This free picture slideshow made with Smilebox It's been awhile since I could post here.  It's been a busy couple of week, so thought I'd use a slide show to catch you up on our busy time. We had company, completed a project, traveled, cooked, shopped, played.... but it was all a very special, so click on the link above and have a look. Linda

I love digital books and photography

I have gotten a little taste of doing digital photo book and digital scrap booking.  I have used  Stampin Up's My Digital Studio program.  With it, I made my first digital photo book.  I wanted to do a photo book for Ash of his growing up years and give it to him when he married his new wife Annie, in May of this year.  It required scanning a lot of pictures, because the majority of the pictures I wanted to use were before the digital era.  I planned to print one using Stampin Up's printing service and one using Shutterfly so that I could have a copy too and to compare the two print services, but .....I found out that Stampin Up is the only place that prints a vertical 8 x 11 style photo book which is how I had designed it in with MDS software.  Stampin Up's service was very fast and I was happy with the quality, however, I thought the price was fairly steep.  A couple months later, however, they reduced their prices and I went ahead and ordered the second copy from them.

This summer when we had a Benjamin Family reunion and had a lot of pictures to share from that time, I uploaded pictures to Shutterfly.  I then made a "share sight" so other family members could upload their pictures as well and anyone could view and order pictures from them.  I think this worked really well and it was so nice to share in every one's pictures and viewpoint of the family reunion.  I went a step further and created and book using favorite pictures from that time, including pictures of all the families and fun snapshots.  I made it in the 8 x  8 size.  I ordered one for myself and one for Grandpa and Uncle Dale, and others ordered it as well.  Because of my activity, Shutterfly offered me a free 8 x 8 book, and  so I created another book to commemorate Ash and  Annie's wedding.  I love all of these books.  The quality is great and the books so compact and a wonderful way to save pictures.  I have printed very few pictures in the last two years or so.  I want to make a photo book for each year.  I am a little behind, but winter is coming and it will be a great project for days when it is too cold to go out.  I also want to scan the photo scrap book that I made of Bradley's growing up years and print it in a book.  Then, I really should do one of Joellyn's growing up years, right?  The projects could be unending.  Joellyn wants to do a photo book of old Benjamin photo's that used to belong to Grandpa and Grandma Benjamin.  That project seems especially daunting, but if that is not done, what will the value of all the old pictures be to anyone in a few years?

This has gotten a little wordy, but I just wanted to share my enjoyment and appreciation for the online photo book opportunities that are out there.  I'd also like to hear from some of my readers about your experience with photo books.  What sight do you like to use?  Do you create and then upload your creations or do you use the fun and easy layouts available on your printing sight? Or do you prefer the age old way of printing pictures and cutting and pasting and decorating your scrapbooks.  I truly do admire some of your works of art (those of you who do it this way), but it just wasn't for me.  I just couldn't get it done.

I just got an idea and inspiration booklet from Shutterfly for doing Christmas and New Years cards.  There are some awesome and creative ideas available.  It has gotten me  thinking about how I will do my Christmas cards this year.  I just had an enjoyable journey through the past year, going through my old blog posts, thinking about the past year and what I might share in my card and letter. How about you....how are you going to make your cards this year and if so, how will you go about it?  I can't wait to see your creations!

Linda

Oliver

I have lots more opportunity to get pictures of my granddaughters because they live nearby.  But recently we got to enjoy several days with our grandson, Ollie, so naturally, I have to share some photos I took of him. He is full of life and enjoys life to the fullest.

He loves to eat and he loves a wide variety of foods.

He handles a fork and spoon and cup just fine...but sometimes fingers just work best!

He discovered that playing with Amma's iPad is a ton of fun!

Peekaboo barn is really fun!

What animal is hiding inside this time?

Talking to Talking Tom was good for a lot of laughs...he purrs, barfs and falls over, but the most hilarious is when he repeats everything I say.

And yes, contrary to what you might have heard, he does sleep.  Sometimes it's pretty hard to give in and go to sleep, but he takes at least one good nap a day and he sure didn't keep Granpa Rog and Amma up at night during his recent visit.  Doesn't he look like the sweetest and most innocent little angel here?

Linda

11-11-11

Happy Veterans Day 2011

A picture of Roger's Dad  in uniform

Uncle Bill Wood

Uncle Don Wood

Home of the brave, Land of the free....because of our veterans...I give you my thanks today!
A windy day is good for something....for beautifully unfurling our flags on this veterans day.

I love this picture of the grandsons bearing the casket of their Grandpa while the military honor guard stands at attention and ready to give military honors to the deceased veteran.

Linda

More Halloween

This digital scrapbooking design generated with Smilebox

I know that most of you are so "over"  Halloween but I just had to share a few more fun pictures from the fun times that we enjoyed this year.  I also thought I'd share this cute picture of Sarah from the front page of our local newspaper.

Linda