Thursday, December 31, 2009

Multimedia message

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANN ... BIG OLE 63....



















and it seems like yesterday that we were riding our new bicycles through the streets of Stillwater enjoying our youth, thinking of our future together, or standing in the the backroom of the Shoe Department of JC Penney's downtown visiting about this and that, not a clue in our heads of the wonderful things to come our way...

And now, here we are, another milestone for us to share together.

My wish to you is that you enjoy this day with family and friends to it's fullest. I wish to you wonderful and complete good health (since we both know that under this stupid healthcare bill the "morons from foggy bottom" handed us, we will not receive that in our years to come). I wish that every wish you wish for today comes true, except the one regarding my early demise!! HAHA wink wink!!!

Happy Birthday Ann.... with much love, forever and a day... S
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

having lunch with birthday girl a day early....


early at Nagoya's Hibachi Grill in Stillwater... Mummm Mummmm good... steak and shrimp and California Rolls... and 'fried cheese cake for her special dessert!!

From my friend Ryan Reid

"A little consideration of what takes place around us every day, would show us that a higher law than that of our will, regulates events; that our painful experiences are not necessary. A believing love will relieve us of a vast load of care. Oh, my brothers, God exists!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Monday, December 28, 2009

Phillip posted new photos....

Phillip posted some awesome new photos of Christmas 2009 - check them out, kids are cool....

Sunday, December 27, 2009

We have more than outgrown the room in our home that we have Christmas in ...


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We built our home and moved into it in Jan of 1983, and had our first Christmas in it in 1984. We all, Ann, I, Phillip, Heather, Jonathan and Jake,  gathered with room to spare ... in our front room.

Now 25 years (yes, this was the 25th Anniversary) later... we filled it, and half our living room now with the growth of our family! What a wonderful blessing, that for a short time we are so cramped for space!!

What a wonderful family we have. How wonderfully Ann and I are blessed by our children and their spouses (our 4 children grew to 8, each addition equally and wonderfully adding to our already bountiful and overflowing basket!) and with the addition of 6 grandchildren, our joy is boundless, our happiness is unmeasured, and our days are full of wonderment and excitement as each finds and clears a new hurdle in life, a new accomplishment, a new skill, or a new idea (even that "David Payne lies about the weather"!)!

And Christmas 2009 was another family milestone passed! Our 25 Christmas together as a family celebrating the birth of Jesus and giving thanks for His birth and for our many blessings and sharing our life together, even for such a brief moment in time, it seemed like a complete page in Ann and I's life.

Phillip, Tammy and Austyn, along with Paul, Heather, Andrew and Madison stayed and we watched the movie GI JOE... together. That was a wonderful moment in time as well...

To each, thank you for your thoughts, for the awesome gifts, and to Paul who was still assembling the chairs and table from their family well after dark (it did not go unnoticed!) thank you from Ann and I.

The Joy each brings to the table is unmeasurable and unending. As we have watched through the years, YOU each are our best gift ever! The joy you bring to our lives is beyond belief.

Mom and Dad