Graham Cracker Houses & Hannah's Birthday

Ready and waiting. Steve spent two evenings putting the little houses together.

 

Tis the season for our annual graham cracker house decorating with the grandchildren. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Steve picks up the grandchildren  (all but Bryce & Janae this year) and brings them to our house for a fun day. We always begin with each of them decorating a graham cracker house that Steve has previously built for them.

The children are ready to begin!

Lydia works on her roof while the rest watch Awstin.

Awstin tried to reposition his roof and of course it came off. He didn't mind though. He just decorated the inside as well. I think he put a little fireplace in it.

Mark patiently holds his candy on and waits for the icing to dry 

Hannah concentrates on getting the icing to come out just right.

Grandpa helps Clara

Alexis and Hannah were the last to finish. Hannah even came back to hers later and added a few more things.

All finished and lined up for the adults to guess who decorated which house.  Jeremy won and guessed 5 of the 6 correctly.

Clara

Hannah

Awstin

Mark

Lydia

Alexis

They did a splendid job with their houses and each year we see a difference with how much time they spend on them. The older they are, the more attention they pay to detail. It was fun to see them work together and talk about what they were doing. It was cute how the younger ones would copy the ideas that the older ones came up with.

Earlier in December we celebrated Hannah's 6th birthday which is actually on the 21st. She is such a sweet girl who loves to talk and never runs out of things to say. Hannah is not as impatient as her siblings. Usually when we celebrate birthdays, the child can't wait to finish the meal, get the birthday cake, blow out the candles, and then hurriedly move on to the gifts. However, Hannah just patiently waits for things to transpire and seems to savor each moment. I love how each child has their own unique personality.

Smiling for the camera

We sang Happy Birthday to her, but instead of immediately blowing out the candles, Hannah just enjoyed looking at them while all of us encouraged her to blow them out!

Then she did blow them out!

On Christmas Eve, Jay & Kristen's children sang a song for us. I was videoing it until Bryce spied my phone and made a beeline for it :) He is quite the character. He had already managed to dump a cup of sticky punch over him which is why he is walking around in his T-Shirt. Enjoy!

We can certainly say that the year 2020 was unlike any other year that we have ever experienced thanks to the COVID-19 virus. However, for us it was mostly a good year, as we were able to put closure to the past 4 years. Moving  into our little apartment was the highlight and we are so enjoying being here. Let's see what 2021 brings for us. Happy New Year!

Home Sweet Home

After years of planning and anticipation we finally moved into our new home on Thanksgiving Day. The house that we are now living in which also includes the store, is bigger than the one we moved from, but our actual living quarters in the apartment upstairs required quite a bit of downsizing. It is absolutely perfect. It it small and cozy and yet has an open layout which makes it seem quite roomy and gives us more space than I had in my old kitchen for family to gather around the table. We tucked in an upper room for the grandchildren to play and get away from the adults and the icing on the cake is the gorgeous view we enjoy every day. 

There is still much work to be done around the property, but some will just have to wait until next year. The back of the house outside still needs sided and painted and the deck finished, but as we focused on the apartment, we had to put that on the back burner. I know it is hard to envision exactly how something looks from pictures, but I wanted to put them on my blog so I can reference back to it.

Property when we first bought it in 2015

Same view and how it looks today. Still needs some trim and siding but you get the picture.

Back of house before remodeling

Back of house now. Still needs lots of work but its getting there. Steve redesigned the yard and moved the steps to the deck.

Gutting out the apartment. The steps came up in the middle and we moved them to one end

Same view as before picture

Getting ready to join the dormers and make a small room upstairs

We were glad for the help of a local Amishman to do this project

.

Ready to put back together.

When working on an upstairs apartment it is very handy to have a lift.

We were glad for extra help. L-R Steve, Shawn, Dave Gochnauer, John King

Filling in the gap

Trusses!

Working on the inside. I didn't take many pictures of the inside work.

My niece Kendra did most of the painting for us. We were so thankful for her! 

Kitchen space

My brother Lester installed the kitchen. What a huge blessing!

"Living room"

So much room for my table. It is wonderful how far we can stretch it out when family comes.

Bedroom/bathroom -- we also have a small bathroom for guests to use.

My office - So happy I was able to keep the desk I got from Steve's parents estate. I love this desk!

Steve's office - Yes we each had to bring our own desk :)

Different view. The far door is where you enter the apartment since we moved the stairs out of the middle.

Upper room. I am so pleased with how this room turned out. It is small but the grandkids love it.

Bryce playing

Peek a boo!

Our view. That is the Susquehanna River in the distance and on clear days you can see the windmills at Turkey Hill Dairy.

It is so good to be settled in our new home. There is still plenty of work to do, but it is nice being here and not having to run back and forth. Living right above the store is wonderful and maybe too convenient :) I said to Steve that I don't need a pantry since I have a huge one right below me! I am glad I can now put my focus solely on the store and I am thankful to close one chapter of our life and begin another.

Baby Shower for Megan!

On Sunday we had a baby shower for Megan. Baby Kreider is due to make his entrance around the 1st of February so we wanted to "shower" Megan with gifts to help her and Jeremy welcome him into the world. In this COVID era that we are living in, we weren't sure about an in person party, but decided to go ahead, using what we hoped was some sensible precautions. This was not a surprise and Megan helped to plan it. The invitations were sent out the beginning of October.

Front of Invitation

Back of Invitation

Beautiful mum!

Table display with baby pictures of Megan & Jeremy

Food table! Megan's mother-in-law Sandy brought plenty of goodies to eat.

Setting up the gift table

Opening gifts. Lydia and Hannah enjoyed bringing the gifts to Megan,

Janae enjoyed the party too :)

Mother and daughter (and baby)

We can't wait to meet you little boy Kreider!