Thanksgiving 2008

Well, it's Saturday afternoon and the nest is once again empty. The guys came over Wednesday and spent a few days here with us. Last night Nikki came over and we all enjoyed a big pot of homemade chicken stew and finished off the
pumpkin roll. Followed by a fire, popcorn and a movie, Ironman. A nice relaxing weekend :) Now Chris and I are getting ready to go run off the pumpkin rolls. We have several miles to do today :)
Here are our pictures from this Thanksgiving at my parents house~
Kristy & Sophie

Thanksgiving 2008

Kristy & Sophie

Mom & Dad
Matt & Jessica
Aunt Suzie & Popcorn :)

Joe & his mom, Divini

Jessica and her girl ~ Sophie

Future basketball player !

Uncle Chris with his Great Niece

Sophie feeding her new Cabbage Patch Doll.

Great Grandma :)

This is a picture of a portrait my sister Cheryl had made of TJ & Sophie

Kevin & TJ

TJ just started playing basketball so Tim was giving him some coaching tips.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year. We went over to my parents house around noon for the Turkey dinner, visiting, playing outside with the kids and desert!
We headed home in time to watch the Cowboy game and although we are happy they won it was kind of a boring game. We spent the evening getting caught up on "The Office" TV show that we were about a year behind on. Tommy & Angie, we now know who Holly is :)
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Happy 21rst Birthday Nikki!

Minich In Training :)

Nikki & Matt are the only two that have riding double on the jet ski down.

I believe this was Nikki's first time knee boarding!

Mom & Dad congratulating Nikki on her engagement to Kevin.
Relaxing at Bee House :)
Meeting Leonidas.
The picture tells it all~ so much fun!!
All the little cousins love Nikki!

Family, movies and Football are a regular here and we enjoy it every time.
Nikki~ we have loved all the times we have shared with you and are so excited that you will be our first daughter! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pumpkin Roll Recipe~ Chris and I make Pumpkin Rolls every year and many of you have asked for the recipe, so here it is! Great for Thanksgiving or Christmas desert. Please let us know how yours turns out :) Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pre-heat oven to 375
Line cookie sheet with 2 pieces of wax paper, butter or spray the top piece with cooking spray
Mix the following ingredients together;
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of canned pumpkin
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pumpkin spice
Pour batter on wax paper,spread evenly
Bake @ 375 for 10 minutes ( be sure batter is cooked in the middle)
Remove from oven, let cool some but not completely, then roll into a roll and set aside to cool.
Prepare filling when batter is in the oven
1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese ( soften the cream cheese in microwave)
1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsp. butter
3/4 tsp. vanilla
Unroll the roll and spread filling on top, then roll the roll back up
Wrap in saran wrap first, then foil. Put in fridge to chill or freeze.
Enjoy!!!!

Gramma Doris 1915-2008

We will miss you Grandma Doris but rejoice that we will one day see you again~
Love your grandchildren Chris & Elayne and great-grandsons~ Tim, Kevin & Matthew

Doris E. Willard
Doris E. Willard Lansing Born on November 17, 1915, slipped the bonds of earth into the arms of her Savior on the day after her 93rd birthday. She was met by her parents, Anna and Haskell Bundy. Doris graduated from Lansing Central High School in 1934 and was married for 34 years to Carl Minich and to Louis Willard for 25 years. Preceding her in death was her grandson, Jim in April 2007. In her working years, she worked as a bookkeeper for many local businesses and she will always be remembered for her sense of humor right until the end. Doris was a member of Delta Mills United Methodist Church and the Waverly 39er's Bridge Group where she played every chance she was given. She loved bingo, bowling and buying Estee Lauder at the Lansing Mall. She was an accomplished painter and many of those paintings are being enjoyed still. She also enjoyed playing the piano, which she played until the last year or so. Surviving are: children, Carl E. (Lois) Minich, Judy (James) Byington and Noelle (Ellis) Clark; grandchildren, Robin, Mark, Greg, Mike, Chris, Carla, Bob, Dave, Kimberly and Randal; 29 great-grandchildren; and 8 great-great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at the Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel, with the Rev. Willie Miller officiating. Interment will follow in Deepdale Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends for½hour prior to the service on Thursday at the funeral home. Memorial contributions, in memory of Doris, may be made to McLaren Visiting Nurse and Hospice. Arrangements by the Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel

Byron's Memorial Service

Chris and I went to our friend and neighbors ( Byron Mote) memorial service yesterday. The service was absolutely beautiful and was such a celebration of Byron's life. It lasted 3 hours but did not feel like it was that long.
Byron was retired but had served most of his life in ministry. He was a pastor for 13 years close by here until they moved across the street 8 years ago. His service was done by his fellow pastor friends and his family.
I wanted to write about some things that really stood out to Chris and I. When Byron was diagnosed with cancer he began journaling his thoughts and what he would want his family and friends to know. His daughter read some of that to us and it was just so powerful. He loves the Lord and people. That was evident when you spoke with him. He wanted all of us to know to always have hope, put the unimportant things aside, forgive and as his son Mark said " just give me Jesus".
While Byron was in the hospital they recorded audio tapes so he could leave a special message his son, daughter, wife and each grandson of which there are 6. We got to hear his message to his children ~ yes, we are all being scraped off the floor by now :) But what a beautiful, everlasting gift for each of them to have.
Much of the service was a worship service, which we learned that Byron loved praise and worship, old hymns, everything. Seeing his family on their feet worshipping and praising God was so awesome. Isn't that the way it should be?
I have to be honest, I learned a lot about Byron yesterday that I did not know and it made me ask myself are we REALLY " LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS"? I was so fortunate that God allowed me to have some very special moments with Byron in these last 4 months. I wish there had been more. The last time I saw him, he was doing well. Chris and I were out running and he was in the car with his daughter. They pulled up and he was so happy that I had just received very good test results. His family told me that when he saw me doing well, it gave him hope. After talking to him for a few minutes, I gave him a hug and told him when he gets better we will run together. He said "I'll take you up on that". Well, I am still running on the streets of Corinth and Byron is now running on streets of Gold ~ and he is healed!

The times with him and the blessing was mine ~ thank you for that Byron!

Family week~

This week was full of visits from family members. Many that we have not seen in quite a while.It was great to see everyone and I enjoyed the time visiting.

My aunt and uncle, Dena and Harvey were in town from Connecticut for a wedding they attended with my parents over the weekend. They all came to my house from the airport and we visited for a while. Then we met Tim at Chili's for lunch. It was a great visit with lots of good conversation. We actually get to see them often considering how far they live away, which is nice. Dena and I keep in touch through e-mail and I enjoy that :) Thanks for lunch Dad and Harvey!

On Sunday, my aunt Suzie, uncle Burt, cousins Michelle, Jeff and Little Matthew all joined us for church and a BBQ. They all seemed to really enjoy the music and pastor Bruce's sermon. Chris was playing guitar this week so they were able to see him play with the band and choir.We were able to introduce them to our Pastor and some friends. Kevin and Nikki spent most of the weekend with us too, which is always fun!

We came back to our place and hung out, had a BBQ and got "caught up". It was so much fun :) Aunt Suzie & Uncle Burt told stories about some of the weddings Burt had performed as a justice of the peace. They are hilarious, you two should really consider wring a book :)


We had been trying to plan a get together for over a year and finally it all came together. Little Matthew is a great little guy and I even had some cool toys in the attic that he liked playing with. Little Matthew, Nikki and uncle Burt watched Prince Of Egypt while the rest of us hung out and tried to keep warm :) Michelle, Jeff and Matt got a new puppy named "Popcorn" that they brought with them. She is adorable~


Thanks for coming out everyone, enjoyed the visits!

In His Fathers Arms~

I am sorry to write that we have lost another friend. Many of you had been praying for our friend and neighbor Byron. He was diagnosed with cancer 4 months ago and spent his first day in Heaven yesterday. We will miss seeing and talking to Byron, however we know where he is and that he is no longer in pain. I feel very honored to have been able to sit and visit with him a few times over these past few months. Please read the note below which was on his family's blog and written by a family friend~

Thank you for all your prayers. This is Pam writing on behalf of the Mote family.

Byron's homecoming was at around 11:00 am today. Jennifer and the 4 oldest grandsons were there anointing him and praying over him. He took a deep breath and fell into the Father's arms. Joni Vaughn and I arrived moments later. It was very peaceful in the room. The family was able to spend several hours in the room saying good byes. Friends arrived to visit with Byron and pray with him and were told the news. Many shared what a wonderful friend and pastor he was. He was loved much in this life, and he loved his family deeply and he loved his friends.

This is just a "see ya later."

There will be no visitation or viewing. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days. A public memorial is being held tentatively on Saturday, November 15th at 2:00 pm at Glory of Zion Church in Denton. Another message will be sent with the definite plans.

If you would like to leave a testimony about Byron or send the family condolences, you can do so on blog.byronsfight.com.

Please forward this to anybody that would want to be contacted about this.

Continue to pray for Jan, Jennifer, Marc, Meredith and the 6 boys.

Anybody that is local and would like to bring food for the family, send an email to Ellen Samek at ellen@sameks.us

Our Fall Camping Trip!

October camping trip

Evening Sunsets at the beach~ each night we went to the beach area to watch the sunset. By Kayak ,this was definitely the best~

We walked down there one night~


And Biked one night~




We love to hit the trails on foot or bikes. We found this one part of the woods that had lots of pine trees ~ smelled like home in New England and Oregon.


Usually as we are exploring we come across a preserved historical area. I am always amazed as we stand there, imagining that a very long time ago this was someones home. Probably a small cabin that only has the fireplace remaining. Here we are in 2008 riding our bikes through what was another families home long ago.Can't help but wonder what their lives were like?


Good Morning after a VERY cold night. We have a heater in the camper but the door opened up during the night and we did not know it until morning. It was cold!
Chris is making us garden omelets for breakfast :)


I am literally under 5 blankets here ~ I did not want to get out from under the covers :)





We got another campsite on the water so we were able to have our morning coffee and kayak time~ "Life is Good" :)





Hot chocolate and a campfire each night~





we played our "every camping trip" game of scrabble and as you can see from Chris's intense concentration that this was more serious to him this time and he did win :(

We had a great time and look forward to our next trip which will be a winter camping trip!