Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Zoe's first Christmas...and the fancy dress her dad bought her.

Jess and Zoe

Matt's new hat.

Emma and Abby in the fancy skirts Santa brought them.

Christmas Party

Annual Haines family Christmas party...the one time each year we all get together.  We divided into teams and played this game...one of our favorite...which team can spell the selected word fastest.

Yea...my team won this round! 

Mike and his gift from the exchange. 

Starbucks cards...always a popular gift...Stef was happy.

Abby wasn't quite as happy with her pair of lounge pants. 

Julianne won the annual "rock, paper, scissors" tournament and the right to keep the trophy for a year.

Snow

Beautiful snowstorm...2nd of the season and more snow that normal for December.  My backyard-art looks better in the snow...especially the old lanterns I bought at an auction.

Happy mom, sleeping baby.

Learning new skills.

Sometimes, you just get the PERFECT shot!

Christmas tree ornaments

I give the girls a new one every year...these are to celebrate their love of the beach!

Zoe and Santa

Zoe's first visit to Santa...a cool Santa...a little different than most.

And here's Zoe in her Santa hat.

Honor Choir

Emma and Abby in their choir's performance at the mall. 

Christmas Tree

Matt and family cut this tree for me on their annual trip to the forest above Fort Collins.  It's the prettiest one in year...love it!  I've been collecting these ornaments for YEARS...decorating my tree is like a visit with old friends.

Senior Show

Our trio (sadly we didn't get Carol in the picture) danced to Glenn Miller's Little Brown Jug and dressed in the red, white and blue in keeping with the show's USO theme.  This may be our last appearance...the choreographer...me...is running out of ideas.

Zoe and Michele

This will be a picture we take every year...sooooooooo interesting to watch the changes.

Thanksgiving

Love Thanksgiving...yummy food (especially Will's dressing)...and spending time with family.

Halloween

Halloween with friends...Abby and her friend as crayons...Emma and her friend as characters from their favorite book, Harry Potter.

New mom, Michele with the girls.

Reading to her for the first time...she doesn't have a clue, of course, but she did seem to be paying attention.

Emma at 11

She really wanted this Hermoine costume...huge fan of Harry Potter!

Fall trip

Rocky Mountain National Park...just an hour's drive from my house...people come from all over the world to see it and I seldom drive up there.  It's beautiful...I need to go more often!!

More Zoe

This adorable new grandchild is certain to be a focus of this blog for many months...years.

Zoe!!

She's here!!!  The miracle baby has arrived...a very exciting, emotional, rewarding, happy day.

Baby shower

Yea!!!  She finally made it past bed rest and is happily up and around.  There were many days when we thought she'd never get this far...it's so wonderful!!  The theme was softball...a surprise to her...Michele's passion...she played it in high school, college and still to this day...they're having a girl and hoping she'll play.  Those are Michele's mitt and shoes.

Her friend, Betsy made these "softball" cupcakes...very cute!

 Lots of cute little girl presents.

This quilt was made by her grandma and great-grandma MANY years ago...I've been carrying it around just hoping she'd need it someday.

I made this one.