Rowen's birthday January 21

We have the best husband, daddy, and grandpa in the world in Rowen. We are thankful for him and for another time to celebrate his life. Here are some recent pictures of him with his three grandchildren.
Rowen and Quil

Rowen and Micah

Rowen and Charissa


We went to Cracker Barrel to celebrate Rowen's birthday on January 18. A kind customer took this picture of us. The rest of us did get some food to eat a little later! :)

Hinkle Christmas Singing

This is old news, but it got neglected in the other holiday postings. On December 3, 2011, we participated in a fun, enjoyable Christmas gathering. Mathew and Nicole Hinkle, dear friends of ours, organized an evening of singing Christmas carols and playing string instruments at a church in Loveland. This is their family. Mathew plays the viola, Nicole the cello, and Phoebe the recorder. Ethan has not yet chosen his instrument! :)

Here is Emily playing her violin. Mathew was so kind to us to give us our caroling books early so Jason and Emily could practice their sight reading! The book Mathew compiled contains all the usual Christmas carols, but also many that are not as familiar.

This is Jason playing his cello.

We had finger foods to eat during a break in the music.

Emily and her violin. She is wearing a dress I made for myself when I was 23!

Part of the fun of the evening were the costumes some of the guests wore.

Picture of Emily all dressed up after the singing.

Jason and Emily

Jason--he cleans up well! :)

We enjoyed the fellowship with old and new friends, and the words and sounds of the songs of Christ's birth. We used the caroling books again on Christmas Day to sing and play together with all of our family.
Here is a video of one of the carols.

Awakening Book Review

Awakening: A New Approach to Faith, Fasting, and Spiritual Freedom
By Stovall Weems

I selected this book to review because I am interested in personal revival. Weems is the pastor of a large and growing church which encourages a 21 day Awakening--prayer and fasting season every January. Many have benefited from the concentrated time of surrendering to God, rediscovering passion for God, experiencing God’s goodness, and making room in their lives for God to fill.
This book is all about having Christ first place in our lives, and doing that through commitment to reading and obeying the Bible, fervently praying, and fasting. Fasting is explained; there are many ways to fast. Activities can also be fasted, besides food.
Most people are familiar with a reboot or reset action for their electronics, but never think of the need for reboot or reset in spiritual terms. This book will enlighten people to that need.
I cannot say that I agreed with every idea or belief mentioned in this book, (I am not a Charismatic), but I believe there is much good that can be absorbed. We all need to focus on God and make space in our lives for Him to be our number one priority.
This book contains The Awakening 21-Day Plan and a Small Group Study Guide.
I definitely recommend personal revival and this book could be used to start a person on that journey.
Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Busy, Fun Tuesday January 3, 2012

Sunrise on Tuesday, January 3 was spectacular! All of our windows and curtains were glowing with the light. This is how it looked from the window:

The next two pictures were taken from our deck, looking east, then south-west.

We had the special blessing of having Alia and Kara over for the morning to play and renew acquaintances. I babysat Alia from when she was about 15 months, and Kara from her infancy. Now they are 9.5 and almost 8. We haven't babysat them or hardly seen them for a couple of years, and wanted to have them over before they went back to school.

We had a tea party with them and their mom, Cindy, at lunch time. Beth got a tea set from Christmas we wanted to use, so we had a nice tea and visit.

Tuesday evening, Carmen, Mary, and Ephraim Cruz came over for supper and for games. We rarely have this opportunity with the girls being in Florida for school most of the time. So it was fun to get together before Mary went back to college. We played Things and Taboo.

Other pictures from the Albertson Christmas togetherness

Charissa Joy, 6 week old daughter of Tim and Brenda, was the center of attention this year!



This is how my hair is coming in, so far.

One day Micah and Jeffrey wore matching shirts!

Tim and Randy updated their ABE Painting websites: ABEPAINTS4STATES.COM
and WORK4ABE.COM while they were here.

Joy and Quil

Rowen and Charissa. She slept through the opening of presents.

Jeffrey's new school logo wear

Quil and Micah worked together to open the gifts.

Jeffrey and Jason

Beth's teapot

Emily and Corelle for her hope chest!

Brenda and Tim, Emily and Quil

We had a wonderful time with all of our family here!

Family Pictures on Christmas Day

For the past few years, it has been a family tradition with us to dress up and do formal portraits at home. This year the girls made semi-matching jumpers for the occasion and the guys were to wear blue or green shirts to go with the girls. We moved furniture and took everything off the north wall and this is what we got! Not exactly studio quality but good enough for our blog...

Here are the Albertsons who still have Johnstown as a legal address. (Though Jeffrey tells us he is a Cincinnati resident now.)

Rowen and Janet, with and without wig.

Jeffrey, age 20

Beth, age 18

Emily, age 13

Since Jason's pictures had too much glasses glare, he got a special one with the baby!
Jason (16), Charissa (6 weeks)

Randy and Joy

Brenda and Charissa

The traditional "stand in order of height" picture. Janet made it to the bottom of the heap this year.

Original children in order of height

Original Albertson sisters

All the Albertson Girls, so far

The unmarried Albertsons

Randy, Joy, Micah, (almost 3), and Quil (4.5)

Rowen, Janet, and grandchildren: Micah, Charissa, and Quil

Tim, Brenda, and Charissa

Emily and Charissa