It's been a very busy two months here at our house. Rather than explain too much in detail, here is a quick pictorial history of our lives in the past couple of months:

In October, Lizzie attended her first formal homecoming dance with Josiah Tognazzini. They made quite the gorgeous couple.

On Halloween my granddaughters dressed as a duck and a dinosaur! (Gracie on left, Alana on right.November found John still working on getting the house ready to sell. Here he is drying paint with a hair dryer on a cold day.In November Amy and I took the girls to Disney on Ice. We had a spectacular time!

November was also Gracie and Alana's birthdays, so we celebrated with a joint party this year.


December was Silas' first birthday.

He REALLY liked his birthday cake!
Silas and his mommy Alli. I love this picture!

We took the kids to my office Christmas party, and they got to visit with Santa. Silas seems quite comfortable with him!
We celebrated an early Christmas as a family because the granddaughters were going to be with their daddy on Christmas. Here we are after cracking open the poppers and ready to have dinner. From left to right, Allison, me, Lizzie, Josiah (Lizzie's friend), John, Chad (Amy's friend), Gracie, Alana and Amy. Christopher took the picture.
On Christmas Day my whole family gathered at my parents house for dinner (except for Amy's girls). We make quite a group now.

With all the activity around here, the holidays, and getting ready to sell the house, I haven't gotten as much stitching done as I would have liked, but I am almost finished with stitching of another design and then I can get a couple more leaflets ready for publication.

John is doing much better these days, and seems to be back to being himself except for some intermittent memory problems, such as remembering a name or a word he wants to use. I am thankful that his personality has returned to the "old John" and we are hopeful that the memory problems will heal themselves with time also. We are so pleased with his recovery from the stroke and thankful that he has made the progress that he has.

I am studying for the final portion of my General Insurance Designation exam this winter, it will be so good to have it all finished. This is something I am doing for my personal development at work, and not a work requirement. I have a great employer who puts a high value on personal development!

I hope everyone has a blessed New Year.

*****I spend so much time on Facebook now that I often forget to update this blog. I must get better at that! If anyone is interested and would like to friend me on Facebook, my user name is Connie Kirkman Dunton.*****