Monday, May 4, 2015

Jewelyn's first birthday

Sunday, April 26 was Jewelyn's first birthday.  After church, she played with Grandpa Albertson and tried to be patient, waiting for dinner to be ready.  
 She thinks her grandpa is pretty special!
 Jewelyn with her birthday balloons.
 Her birthday cake was really cupcakes.
 It was her first time for chocolate icing and she liked it!
 It was her first time to have ice cream, homemade ice cream! and she liked that too!
 Jewelyn and her daddy
 A sandwich kiss from her mommy and daddy!
 Opening presents
 She is already learning to like books!
 Joy's 28th birthday was two days later (April 28).  She is holding the card that Emily made for her with a cute sketch of a girl on it.
 Jewelyn put her doggy to bed in the dolly basket! :)
We are so glad we have gotten to be around Jewelyn a lot the first year of her life!

Gardening in Spring 2015

Last spring, we had our Linden tree cut down in the front yard.  It had been damaged very badly by snow when it was leafed out.  So since then, we have had this stump in the yard.  We have talked about making a flower bed that included the stump and decided this was the spring to do it.  Rowen started by installing this cool edging, then digging out the sod.
 This was after the digging that Elizabeth and Emily both helped Rowen with.
 Then Rowen and Emily bought some dirt and spread it into the new flower bed.
 The flower bed was ready.  We consulted the Almanac and decided to plant on the day we had available that was one of the recommended planting days.  April 23 was the earliest we have planted, but we did it, and prayed that the seeds and plants would do well.
 We have two peonies and one lily, new to us, and we transplanted day lilies for around the edge.
 Everywhere else, we planted seeds:  wild flowers, four o'clocks, and gladiola bulbs.
 Someday, hopefully the whole bed will be as beautiful as this lily already is!
The same evening, we planted our garden.  These are rows of green beans and beyond them, the zucchini.
 Cucumbers will have the fencing to climb on.
 We have "always" put marigolds around the edges of the garden, but "according to the Almanac" petunias also keep pests away.  So we opted to try the new thing and plant petunias this year.
 Elizabeth, planting the cucumber seeds.
 Rowen, installing the fencing
Our milk jugs, or tomatoes--we are doing an experiment this year with small plants, in the jugs, and larger ones (Bonnie brand) to see what grows the best.  On the south side is radishes and on the west is lettuce.  They are already coming up, and we've seen one bean plant, so far...
Emily helped plant also, but she is our main photographer, so she doesn't get in many pictures herself!

Sewing projects

Joanna comes up to spend time with us at least twice a month.  Sometimes when she comes, we do sewing projects for her Home Ec class.  This particular time, she and Emily made pieced pillows.
The previous project was making Quillows, which is a blanket that folds into a pocket and then looks like a pillow.  In the picture below, the pockets were pinned onto the backs of the blanket.  We don't have a picture of the finished projects.
 This is a Dresden Plate quilt top.  It was started early January and completed in April.  It will go to the quilter in May.  It was the hardest thing Janet has ever done, because of the tremendous amount of hand sewing involved in it.  After all the blocks had the Dresden plates appliqued onto them, the rest was really fast to put together.  She has declared she will never do another one like it because it was so much work!
 If you click on the picture below, you can see the light fabric better.  It is not plain white like it looks in the picture above.
The latest project is trying to finish the quilt Jeffrey made back in 2003 and he and Janet hand quilted most of it but it was never completed.  

Easter Sunday pictures

These are pictures taken on Easter Sunday.  These taken in Johnstown were in the afternoon, later than the ones that are farther down in the post.  
Emily and Elizabeth

Janet and Rowen
Elizabeth, Emily, Rowen, and Janet
Emily, Janet and Elizabeth

 These pictures are taken at Randy and Joy's house in Federal Heights.  It was a bright, sunny day, and it was hard to get everybody smiling at once!
Quil, Micah, Jewelyn, and Jonathan
 Jewelyn

 I told you it was bright out there!

 Emily with the niece and nephews
 Joy with her four blessings
 Joy and Quil
 Joy and Randy
 Joanna with Jewelyn
 Emily with Jewelyn
So thankful for the reason we have Easter Sunday.  It is not only about taking pictures.  It is the fact that Jesus died for our sins, but the grave could not keep Him.  He rose triumphantly and still lives today!  He is the reason we can have joy and peace in life!

Missionary visit from the Manners

It has been one of our great privileges through the years, to have missionaries stay with us on their way through Colorado.  On April 1-3, we were thrilled to have Byron and Melissa Manners stay with us.  They usually live in Taiwan, and very seldom are home for deputation.  We loved getting to meet them and spend some time with them.  
The first evening, they gave us our own private missionary service with pictures of their ministry in Taiwan.
 The second evening, because of the cold, snowy weather, they (being used to winter in Taiwan being much warmer than that) decided not to drive to Denver for an Easter Passion Play, and we spent the evening playing Ticket to Ride, Mexican Train, and Chicken Foot dominoes.  We had such an enjoyable time and were sorry to send them on their way the next morning.
 God bless the dear and good Manners!!!  :)

Jeffrey's College Senior Portraits

Since Jeffrey is so far away from us in Cincinnati, Ohio, Emily was not able to shoot his senior pictures.  A God's Bible School and College student and friend of Jeffrey's, Rachel Pohl, took these pictures of Jeffrey.  She did a good job!
 Rowen likes this picture best because of him having his backpack on--he's ready to go and do the next thing for the Lord.
 The next thing is Summer Institute of Linguistics in North Dakota June 4-August 1.  It costs a lot of money, but we are trusting God will provide all that he needs.  In these classes, he will gain understanding of how to acquire other languages.
 He will be graduating mid-May.  If the Lord lays him on your heart to give a gift or to pray for him, it will be appreciated!
 Jeffrey's degree is Bachelor of Arts in Intercultural Studies (Missions).
This one is Emily's favorite!


 This one is Janet's favorite one!
Congratulations, Jeffrey on all your hard work the past four years.