Jane, Jonathan, and I ran into town to do some shopping and left Chris and Sarah to do the cooking. When we returned, the house smelled of a wonderful italian smell!! They made brushchettas for dinner and they were absolutely delicious. Here are the famous chefs just prior to the "feast".

We had quite a fog Christmas morning and Sarah snapped this picture of our most photographed Maple tree in the side yard.

A new member joined our family. His name is Oliver (after Oliver Twist). Jane picked him up as an abandoned cat near a gas station in Lexington. He's warmed up to the family..and the family has warmed up to Oliver. I just hope he's another good mouser!

Sarah (the hardworking chef of the day) was exhausted after baking dozens of cinnamon buns late into the night. Her boyfriend stood anxiously by to see if any scraps would fall to the floor. He looks exhausted too!

I woke up today and the house smelled wonderfully like cinnamon buns!! That means we're getting close to Christmas! Of course we'll need to deliver dozens of cinnamon buns to family and friends before we come home to enjoy a few ourselves:)

The happy chef! Doesn't she look happy?!

Sarah and Jane baked dozens of cinnamon buns for the holidays. I helped...just a little.

The front porch was not too hospitable during the storm:)

Froppy's bird bath won't be bathing birds anytime soon. Yes, that's close to 2 feet deep of snow!

Two feet of snow and it's a winter wonderland. Sarah, Titus and I took a walk to enjoy the beauty of it...and get a little exercise. This is taken while crossing our little creek.

We really enjoyed our visit with Lowell and Sharon Swartley, just hanging out on the front porch and enjoying some rich deserts.

Troop 72 Visit

Troop 72 (Matthew, Jonathan, and Christopher's old troop) came to visit our property and helped with clearing a number of trees on the north hill. Quite a few boys got the Paul Bunyan award as a result. We sure enjoyed the visit...and the super chili and venison stew they left!

We had the family here to visit for Thanksgiving and we gave thanks for Mom and Dad's lives and faithful years of marriage. What a blessing to have them as our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. We love you two!

We had a wonderful fall day with a nice visit from Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop, so we decided to gather on the front lawn and snap a picture. This was not long before Matthew and Carly left for Japan

Family photo. There are some beautiful women in this family!

Fun with Chris and Ned

Long time friends Chris Breslin and Ned Davis came to visit with their lovely wives (Laurie and Janet) for the weekend. We simply enjoyed their warm company and lots of laughs. The weather was perfect clear and cool fall weather.

Here you can see a picture from the downstairs bathroom. When we pulled up the floor to replace with new, we found rotted boards. We later peeled back the walls to find more rotted boards. They have now been removed and replaces, but much work will follow to finish the bathrooms. Stay tuned!

Jane and Liam found a few pumpkins in the garden. Not too big, but a good sign of the season!

We celebrated Jonathan (September 2nd) and Anastasia's (September 4th) birthdays together. Notice she got the big bear and he got the small one:)

We celebrated Matthew's birthday of August 7th with a GI Joe cake. We later took the guys to see the movie!

We had a few peaches this year. Sarah took this picture with her new Canon camera.

Alan Weekly bricked in the outside of our old dining room doorway. He did a wonderful job of "toothing" in the bricks to the existing wall. He also closed in the big opening where we had pipes freeze the last few winters in the cellar.

We removed the old door from the dining room and have bricked in the area. We will soon insulate it and add dry wall inside.

A beautiful sunny day at the "farm".

Looking to the north mountains from the back porch

House mountains from the front porch.

Looking south from the side yard to the House mountains.

Christmas Day Family Time

We had a fun Christmas day with family and took this picture toward the end of the day.  Liam got lots of new toys and had a ball playing with them for all to see.

Jane fixed a fantastic meal and everyone enjoyed cinnamon buns made by Jane, Trudy and Sarah!