Hawaii...Here we Come

Shopping at Aloha Stadium.

On the way to the airport we attemptedPearl Harbor

This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. We stopped on the way to

the temple to a Shrimp place on the side of the road. The Garlic Shrimp were

unbelievable.

Mitt Comes through in Ohio

The whole family joined in on a fund raiser with the Linder Family on February

20th. It was a fun experience to meet Mitt and give him our support. On super

Tuesday he came through in Ohio but not without some nail biting. Too close

for comfort, but a win is a win!

Ashley Sarah Beck Arrives on Her Due Date!

After leaving Hawaii we stopped in Salt Lake in hopes that our 15th grandchild

would be born. We arrived on Sunday morning and still no baby. We had until

Tuesday morning when we needed to get on a plane back to Cincinnati. A tender

mercy from the Lord happened when in the early morning hours mom & Dad headed

for the hospital to deliver their first little baby. It would actually happen on her due date.

Ashley was born at 5:25 a.m, weighing 7.3 lbs, 21 inches long. She not only

had l-o-n-g fingers like her dad but also basketball feet and a long legs.

Look how big her feet are!

You actually have to see them to believe it.

Papa gets his turn too!

Ashley had 4 face times with her cousins in Cinti the very first day!

Nana & Ashley getting to know each other.

All the grandma's and grandpa's were there to welcome Ashley that day.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Russell are the ones in the picture

She is a real cutie and we are so glad to have her in our family.

Welcome Ashley Sarah Beck

Birthday Celebrations

We are celebrating multiple birthdays this week.

Happy Birthday to Halle, Gavin, & Bill!

New Beginnings

It's taken me six months to get back into the swing of "home life" again since returning from serving our Mission in Arizona. As you can tell, I seem to have abandoned my previous blogging for a brief season. But it's back to work to give you an update of the last six months since we returned from our mission. Life is quite a bit different than it was 7 months ago. I've traded big kids for small kids and busy days for equally busy days. Paul has been seen playing "Sorry" with the grandkids instead of conducting zone conferences with missionaries since our return home. We have added another grandson born in October to Tiffany & Michael and Tyler and Sarah will present us with a baby girl any day now. So with 15 grandchildren under 12 living around us you can picture how busy our days can be with kids coming in and out. But it is a good busy and we have loved being around them. That was a big miss for us while serving our mission. Now we are making up for lost time. We decided that in order to get a little one on one time with them we would have "Nana & Papa Dates". Each grandchild picked a number out of a hat and when their turn comes around they choose an activity, and a favorite to eat, and then most of them end up with a sleep over. We've done some things we probably wouldn't have done without their ideas. It has given us some one on one time to develop a relationship with them that just doesn't quite come when they are all together.

He are some of our outings........

A trip to the Newport Aquarium with Jordan

We had quite the experience with Halle in Chuck E. Cheese. I thought her

50 tokens would never run out. But observing her decision making process

in choosing the games, was worth the price of admission.

We took both sisters, Isabelle & Katelyn to Totter Otterville.

An little world of creativity for children. Papa even participated

as the girls made him their patient.

Eli chose to go bowling and to play cars with Papa.

He also made cookies with Nana.

Brandon chose to go to play Lazer Tag. This was a foreign game to me so I just

pretended to walk around knowing what I was doing while Papa ran

through the maze with Brandon shooting people with the Lazer gun.

We went to see the movie "Happy Feet" with Gavin and then

ate at his favorite spot, "Gold Star Chili".

Abbigail

Both Emma & Abby chose to go with Nana to get their nails done and have

a pedicure. Papa joined us for dinner afterwards, followed with a sleepover.

Nicholas had a Nana & Papa date playing miniature golf dinner and a

sleepover afterwards

So as you can see we have been busy getting reacquainted with our grandchildren and

having a wonderful time doing it. Here are some other fun pictures of activities we have

had as a family over the last six months.

Nana has lots of helpers when it comes to making rolls. Everyone wants to make

their own little dough balls smothered in flour. They like to roll out the dough and

then shape and then reshape. Not to sure how good they taste in the end but

the are sure proud of the end product.

There are some days it gets awful hectic in the kitchen with all the

little hands in the dough.

The kids love Nana & Papa's bathroom. They call the shower the car wash because

their is lots of room to move around and play.

Izzy & Abby are enjoying a real live bubble bath.

It is fun to be a part of the creativity of the grandkids. Nicholas, Ethan and

Izzy create their own tea party using a moving box and treats front the kitchen.

Lots of drama with Nana's little girls. They are quite entertaining!

I has been fun to cheer on our Cincinnati Red's Team as a family. Celeste

Hensley was so generous to share the suite with the family after our return home.

In the mission our Saturdays were packed with baptisms that we tried to attend

with our missionaries. Now our Saturdays are packed with games. We try to hop

from one field, or court to another to cheer them on. Recently, we attended

5 basketball games on one Saturday.