Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Lily's first Christmas






Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! We've spent the past week in Corpus Christi, with Ashley's family and we've had a great time. We wanted to share a few of the pictures from Lily's first Christmas with you all.

Love,
Luke, Ashley and Lily

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!


















We finally got some measurable snow this past weekend,raising our hopes of a white Christmas,only to be let down by the latest forecast for Christmas day... rain/ice mix with a high in the 40's. Major bummer! The first snow fall of the season (in reasonable amounts)is always exciting,especially at Christmas time!
Josh and Veronica brought Caleb and Sean over to play in the snow with Nana and Papa. While Sean loved the sledding and kept asking for "more, more",Caleb seemed to just enjoy walking through the snow and watching Charlie bounding about.
Wishing you all a very Merry and Blessed Christmas! We love and miss you!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend in Pittsburgh







Josh with his boys
Great Grandpa and Sean
Showing off Lily and Sean
Philip's sling is protecting a broken shoulder bone.
A wonderful time was had by all. We truly enjoyed our time with all of you.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving in RI















We really missed everyone yesterday on Thanksgiving. Wish we could have been there! I'll post some photos of our Thanksgiving here, and hopefully you'll all post yours. Then we can pretend we were all together.

Love, Chris
This last one was Kelly taking artfully interesting pics of my behind. Such a nice daughter.





















Sunday, November 8, 2009

North Shore Pittsburgh

After strolling the park we had a lunch at Jerome Bettis' restaurant there.
This is a new statue honoring Mr. Rogers. It's on the river near Heinz Field.
Dad and I had a pleasant morning a couple days ago when we drove down to the northshore of Pittsburgh. (It has become a very nice park area along the Allegheny including areas in front of the Steelers stadium and the Pirates ballpark.) Two ships, replicas of Christopher Columbus's "Nina" and "Pinta" are on the Allegheny River for touring. We went on board but didn't get to see them under sail.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Lily's 1st Halloween!

Baby Bumblebee
Daddy and Lily
Mommy and Lily
Our pumpkins!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Family Get-Togethers in Late October






We had dinner with Sue and Larry, Josh and Veronica and the boys this past Sunday. Josh and Veronica had taken the boys to a local pumpkin farm earlier to go on a hayride, check out the pumpkins etc. Caleb had a pumpkin painted on his cheek there - cute.

Tuesday we drove to Carlisle for a short but nice visit with the Carlisle Rowaders. Nurse Kate stopped by after her afternoon's classes for a visit and dinner with us. Then we went with Tom and Val to Geneva's fall choral concert at the high school, followed by a her strings orchestra concert. Both were very nice - it's a pleasure to hear Geneva play the cello.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Nice day for a run




Here's Brett running cross country for his middle school. He ends up around the middle of the pack, usually. We're just glad he's out there getting some real exercise!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009


For those of you not on facebook, here is a cool cake that Laura made for her coworkers. awesome Laura

Monday, September 28, 2009

Photos from Providence

Photo of the front of the Stevens new home.
Brett in his First Class Scout uniform withChris.
My requested photo of Kelly showing me her softball trophies.
Inside the Gilbert Stuart birthplace.
Brett with his pal, their kitty Evie.

(See how I'm improving by blog expertise!!) Love to all from Mom

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Visit to Providence

Dad and I had a very pleasant visit to the Stevens home in Providence last weekend. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed it very much. Thanks Chris, Herb, Kelly, Brett!

I think I'm going to need some help downloading photos - they are my nemesis, though I try.

Dad had fun golfing with Herb and Brett on Saturday. Chris, Kelly and I went to the birthplace of Gilbert Stuart, the Colonial portrait artist, and enjoyed a tour there. Then we checked out Kelly's girl scout troop, who were camping and canoeing nearby at one of the local scout camps. Next we went to Wickford, local very nice tourist-type town, and had a late lunch on a restaurant patio.

On Sunday Chris and I drove Brett to a meeting of his boy scout jamboree troop. They are planning a trip to a national jamboree in Virginia next summer. Kelly was working at her part-time job at Dave's Market, and there were 2 losing football games on the TV for Dad and Herb! We managed to find a yard sale in the neighborhood somehow and couldn't pass up a few good buys!

So those were most of the highlights. Our first visit to their new homestead. Love to all from Mom

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Hanna in Syria

Greetings, all -

Hanna has started a blog to post pictures and stuff about her time in Syria. Here is the URL:



There's not much posted yet, but I'm sure she'll have more soon.

Mary asked on my Facebook account - what is she doing there! The logical answer is that Hanna wants to make a career in foreign affairs, and she has been finding that spending time overseas is pretty essential to the resume. She had a start from her university time in Israel in the Middle East, and Damascus, Syria was recommended by a colleague she met while on her internship at the Carter Center in Atlanta, a girl from San Diego who is Syrian and spent most summers there with family.

The answer lurking in the background is that she just wants to travel and see more things, and it seems the more exotic the better!

So she is going to live there for at least 4 months, and study Arabic, and possibly teach English or find another job if that possibility comes up, although for now her visa is strictly student status.

I've talked to her via email or cell phone every day, and she is doing well, although with a huge case of apparent jet lag. She left on September 2nd - how long will that last!?!?

Dallas Visit
















Sue and I visited Ashley,Luke, and the adorable Miss Lily, down in Big D last weekend and thought you all might enjoy some pics from our trip. We had not seen Lily since her baptism in April! Of course the baby of our memory was not the baby we beheld! She has grown so much!
She is such a sweet and personable baby. She loves to interact with people, and really enjoyed Nana and Papa's visit. Ashley caught a severe cold and unfortunately passed it along to Lily, who even though she was not feeling well,was for the most part a very cheerful little girl despite her affliction.
Luke and Ashley treated us to a wonderful dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant, Joe T. Garcias in Fort Worth. Margaritas...Muy Bueno!!! If any of you visit Dallas I highly recommend!!





Sunday, August 30, 2009

Getting ready for the Season




Hi Everyone! We did a little photo shoot today getting ready for the Steeler's season! We just got Lily her first of many Steelers outfits! :-). She's going to be six months on Wednesday, which is hard to believe! We hope everything is going well for everyone!
Much Love,
Luke, Lily, and Ashley