Did you have a good Thanksgiving? I hope so! Ours was wonderful . Our grand girls (ages 4,7 & 8.75) are getting so grown up!

We enjoyed every minute of our time with them.
But this year, I must confess, the two little boys, Noah (15 months) and Weston (4 months) certainly stole the show! Or, if not the show, certainly the camera! Noah was totally enamored with little Weston, and was right at his side at most every opportunity.

Noah seemed to instinctively know that he and Weston needed to stick together with all those girls around!
And of course, we did have Denali around to further add to the fun!

I did not have the camera out too much (well, except for excessive pictures of the little boys), but I made sure that I got a family picture. There really aren’t THAT many of us – only twelve – but trying to find a time that both little ones were awake, and the girls were in the house and all adults were accounted for took a little doing. I finally just started directing people to the sofa.

 It’s a start – Abigail, Weston and Hayley

 Good, there’s Ellie joining the group.

 Yes! Papa Josiah is in his rightful place.

 Yea!!! Aunt Lara has arrived!

 OK, there’s Pops and I’m convincing Noah that he wants to join the crowd….

We’re getting close – up to 10!

 At last – we’ve all made the picture! And it turned out pretty well, I think!

I sure do love these guys!

I have five very wonderful and very precious grandchildren. Five! I’m in love with them all. Today, since it’s her 4th birthday, I thought I’d share a bit of why our little Maddie has such a special place in my heart.
1. She and I are share “birth order”. We’re both the third daughter and after a lovely reign of being everyone’s baby, we were usurped by a baby brother. Not that we don’t love that baby brudder, mind you, but still. It is what it is.
2. We almost share the same birthday. Today Maddie turns 4. Tomorrow I turn the “new 40″.
3. In a family of dark haired beauties –

she’s a little blue eyed blonde! And that, my dear friends, comes directly from her daddy’s side of the family. And we take full responsibility for that!

Happy Birthday, precious little one!

How quickly you have become

the little imp that melts our heart!
We wuv you.

Today, September 3, 2011 is not only our 40th Anniversary, but it’s also our first grandson’s FIRST birthday. We feel honored to share our special day with this special guy, so here’s a Birthday Shout-out to our little Noah!

Happy Birthday, big guy! See you in just over a week!!!

Our newest grandson has arrived! We’d like to introduce Weston Gary Conrad, born today (7/13) at 6:10PM.

Isn’t he beautiful?
And the reason he looks like he’s two months old is that he weighed in at 10#1oz. Yikes! Mama Abigail is doing great (and deserves a medal), and Papa Josiah is beside himself with joy.
Welcome to the family, little one! We’re so glad you’re here!

There is soooo much catching up I need to do. Bookkeeping, thank-you notes, journaling, blogging, bank statements, emails…..the list is long. Too long. But this post is about some catching up we were able to do as we traveled from Ontario to Ohio to meet that new grandson. Each night on the road we stopped and were able to catch up with old friends.
Monday night we stopped at a SOWER project in upstate NY -

and had a lovely evening catching up with the folks we worked with on our very first project six years ago. We’ve seen them a couple of times over the years, but not recently. It was great to enjoy a cup of coffee and some very good brownies with them and catch-up.
Tuesday morning we traveled to North Chili, NY (near Rochester) for a lovely afternoon and evening with SOWER friends, Dave and Edie. We worked with them on our third project, have seen them a couple of times since then and were delighted to be able to spend some time with them.

(That’s the Erie Canal they’re standing by. Did you know the Erie Canal is still a viable (363 mile) waterway that stretches from Albany, NY to Buffalo, NY? We were touring an historic canal barge – very cool!).
Wednesday we headed into Pennsylvania. Even though PA is where I grew up and raised my family, we were heading into totally new territory for us. My best friend from high school lives just outside of Mansfield, PA and since we hadn’t seen each other in 30+ years, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to make a little detour to catch up with her! We’d lost touch over the years and only recently “found” each other through the miracle of the internet (and a sweet mutual friend who had an old “where are they now” class list!).

Not only was Gail my best buddy in high school, she was also one of the two attendants in my wedding.

(This was a good summer for reconnecting with the wedding party for me. Back in July we spent a night at Deb’s house - remember?)

Thursday morning we left Gail’s (with great hopes for staying in touch) and continued on to catch up with another SOWER couple that we had worked with a couple of times.
They were also on that third project back in 2005 -
(that was our first “big” project – and it was lots of fun. Earlier this summer we had stopped to see another SOWER that we had met at that project, so you can tell it was a very special month!) We’re delighted to be working with them again this winter in Florida. Such a blessing it is to be part of the SOWER family!

By Friday morning we were heading to Ohio – and those grandbabies!!!!!!!

And although little Noah was (given the newness of his status – oh, and the fact he is a he) the star of the show -

we certainly had lots of fun with the girls (who actually knew we were there!).

And as startling as this may be, there are a bazillion other pictures of ALL the Conrads HERE if you’d like a peek!

Fair warning, there’s a lot of cuteness going on there!

So now it’s on to the rest of the catch-up. I think I’d better start with those thank-you notes! Or maybe the bank statement. Or maybe that new book……