Family Photo Shoot

In preparation for today's photographic extravaganza, Paul had me practice my smiles...

 I call this The Charlie.

He tries to get as close as he can to camera so he can immediately see the pic.

Here are photos from our time of being professionally photographed this afternoon.

I was trying to catch images of what we're really like

when we're not all standing still in a group and smiling at a camera.

 Steve and Coleen being sweet

and very well coordinated.

 Practicing for our 'couples' shots.

 Pete helping wrangle the Charlie.

 Samuel was doing his best to annoy Paul

when Paul got him with a surprise attack.

 Oh, you have candy?

I'll be cute for candy.

 Getting some wiggles out.

 Eight kids all looking (preferably smiling) at the camera will be...

There's no way.

Steve and Coleen feeling awesome that they aren't managing any children.

 Two-year-olds and photo shoots...

uh-uh.

Absolutely not

and no way.

Try to give commands to a two-year-old,

Ha.

Charlie refusing to smile.

 When we told Charlie to smile he would blink both eyes

with much force and exertion.

This is me 'smiling' too.

Peter's 10th Birthday

Maybe you know about Peter and Paul's tradition of going down to the cafe (there's only one in town) and having breakfast on Peter's birthday.  Paul also 'surprises' Peter with a gift or two.  After eight birthdays in this cafe (which has had almost as many different owners and unique names), it's more of an expectation than a surprise.  The cafe's current name is The Laughing Cow.  Serious.

The opening of the gift.

A pocket knife.

Paul did not tell me about this gift because he thought I would disapprove.

Ask forgiveness instead of permission I guess.

Well I fooled him when I showed zero disapproval.

But as it goes with ten-year-olds and their pocket knives,

Peter's was confiscated (by Paul) within the week.

On to birthday pancakes with a candle.

And now the gift he was really hoping for.

The newest in Lego.

The cafe doesn't seem to be too busy.

On Peter's list of things to do before we move

was to go to Chic-fil-a.

So I suggested it for his birthday.

What he doesn't know is that it was my ploy to avoid a Chuck E. Cheese birthday,

which was also on his list.

Being naturally indecisive and easily influenced,

Peter was all for a Chic-fil-a birthday lunch.

Uncle Steve met us there.

And Nana and Papa.

Then we went to Nana and Papa's house for a third helping of birthday food.

Since we are moving and taking very little with us,

his cousins gave him great gifts of his favorite foods that he can eat before we go.

Great idea.

This is a giant cookie,

just like his Dad requests on his birthday.

And now he's ten.

The Last Bit About CA

The last of the magical winter trip to California with every family member except my husband...  Everyone!  All my siblings and all their families.  My heart overfloweth.

 Poker Night #2

I love the generations here.

 Rube conquering the playground.

Necessary trip to In-n-Out. 

I'm doing the advanced maneuver of eating with a 26 pound unconscious Korean in one arm.

 Doesn't my dad look great?!

Leukemia, what?

Granny and Granpa with 3/4 of their grandkids.

Three Hermans in the back seat.

 Saddest picture ever:  Saying goodbye to Granny at the airport.

 Those of us who are two quickly recovered and became very excited about being on the airplane again.

He's got M&Ms to count.

 Reuben's latest style is buttoning ALL the buttons.

And now we're all home cherishing the memories, 

and preparing to make more.

Dad's 100th Day Party

Paul's at the bar tonight, two boys are in bed not sleeping, and Peter's playing a video game.  So I get to blog!  Here are unpublished pics I found on my camera from our last trip to California - January 28 to February 5th.  These all show our day at Sue and Paul's where we celebrated my Dad's 100th day since his stem cell transplant.  Lots of extended family.  It was fabulous.

The Sisters (my dad has four of them) gave my dad a bag of presents

that his new DNA would really enjoy.

His sister Jo was his perfectly matched donor, so now he has her DNA,

or something like that.

So naturally he would like to read about Will and Kate.

 And he would want a framed picture of Jo's dog.

 And he needs a little purse to carry the dog around.

 Sister Carly with my next niece, Charlotte.

Brother Craig

And then my dad gave a touching speech about being thankful to be here.

We are all abundantly thankful too.

My three sibling are in here along with our cousins who all live in So Cal.

 This is Max, my cousin's son and platelet donor extraordinaire.

He entertained Charlie a long time.

It was a nice break for me.

Paul wasn't on this trip, remember.

And then it was time for the 49ers to win the Super Bowl.

Except they didn't.

We all hung out here, watching a TV you can't see in this picture.

Aunt Cheryl and Charlie

 Granny making the most of the thirty-minute power outage during the game.

Chase and Charlie in their private lounge.

 Peter helped Aunt Jo keep track of the score.

 The Niners must have scored at this point

since Dave is kissing his moneymaker.

Brody and Charlie saying good-bye.

A Letter to my Brother

My younger brother emailed me today.  And I emailed him back.  And then I thought I could post that email here so you could have a glimpse of what's going on in my small life.  Because I can't get to this space very often these days.  Twenty-seven days until a jet plane swoops us away.  A new blog will be started once I come up with a catchy name for it.

Hey David,

I hope your apricots were tasty.  Izzy is known for its fig production, if you ever happen to buy some figs.  We had an amazing, powerful time at a conference in AZ last week.  Met about a 150 people who are interested in Chickens like we are.  I loved hearing Chicken believers share from their hearts.  We pray for the spirit to use us and guide us.  I have a lot of peace about moving, even though we are still homeless once we get to Izzy.  I met a woman in the bathroom at the conference who said she'd take care of finding a place for us to stay while we look for a permanent home.  Workers in Chicken are pretty awesome about helping each other.  I'm hoping Mat Kearney makes a return trip to Chicken AND lets us know about it.

Paul's last Sunday is this next one.  Then we're appearing/meeting with tons of folks at our big supporting church a couple states over, then a Sunday off, then preaching at G'castle Church, then we leave 2 days later.  We have lots of dinner/lunch appointments with friends and family in the next month.  Our house is pretty bare.  I'm having a hard time letting go of children's books that I want to bring.  Homeschooling requires a lot of books, but books are heavy.  Paul keeps telling me I have to move more of our learning to online, which is true, but I still think a love of reading is encouraged by having books around.

We had a neat encounter with a Korean worker who wants to plant blueberries at her retreat center an hour from Izzy.  She offered us land to plant them.  I hope to write about it on my neglected blog.  I have much to write about, but I'm in a tired funk.  But!  Tonight a 70 year old lady in our town invited us for dinner and she specifically fried chicken livers for us - for the sake of my iron needs.  Ha.  I ate three, yes I did.  So I'm looking forward to much energy tomorrow.

How do you add a search for Izzy on your news feed?  That's such a great idea.  I check their weather about everyday.  It's warmer than here.

I miss you tons.  Thanks for writing.

Stacey

The Cousins

Let's revisit California for a moment.

Here we have all the west coast cousins.

Riley, Gigi, Peter, Reuben, and Brody on the fence.

Cade holding Cadence, Charlie crying behind the tall grass, and Hallee wondering what's wrong.

What's wrong is that just a few moments before this picture was captured in my parents' backyard,

Charlie was like this...

I moved him here from here...

He hasn't quite built up his stamina for California fun. 

Here's how Baby Cadence prepped for the photo shoot.

Fixing up her pedicure and stretching her hamstrings.

Multi-tasker in training.