The Worleys

We are so blessed to be able to take Ava out to dinner with us almost every week! Here we are at Joe's pizza in Euless. Ava and Elmo entertained us all! Here we are playing "where's Ava." This is the point where she says "Here I am!." Ava surely loves her Elmo. And she loves to hug Elmo ! Don't you love this picture?! What hams they both are! Jenni and Ava have lots of fun together! This was breakfast one Saturday at the Raven. She came in wearing sunglasses. Love those hair ribbons, too. She is quite the movie star! Here she is hamming it up at Spring Creek. One of the few times I remembered a bib for her! She loves to wipe her hands on her shirt, and apparently on mine if I get too close! Ava seems to have the hang of balancing a spoon on her nose. I think Sarah can actually do this. I can't. The spoon falls off every time! Hard to believe Ava is 21 months old this week! She is growing up so fast! She talks up a storm. She is a b...

Isn't she cute?!! Here we are, at breakfast again! With Ava and Elmo. She loves Elmo! She has more than one. She has Elmo bibs that she likes to put on, too. She has Elmos socks, Elmo jammies, Elmo shoes, and an Elmo blankie, among other things too numerous to mention. She gets excited about Elmo and Abbe in books, too. Did I mention she likes to feed Elmo? Here he is, enjoying a big bite of Biscuit! So, Elmo asked us to give Ava a lemon! We do get together a lot to eat, so most of our pictures are going to include food. Ava was finished eating, so she decided to climb on her high chair. And we let her. Anything to keep her entertained. Then she found Grammy's finally very organized purse. I bought a purse organizer 'cause everything kept getting jumbled up. So, it was very easy for Ava to find things to play with! Moving along to our next meal with Ava. Jay and Sarah were going to the Stars game, so we got Ava early. She joined us for dinner. Doesn't...

Sadie, in her "The Water Bowl is Empty" pose. I have spent the whole day alone! Well, Sadie and Belle are here, too. My goal was to sleep late, catch up on laundry, and read through March 4th in the Chronological Bible. I am happy to report, I have met all those goals! I felt a little bit like Mary or Martha today, depending on my activity. I would work some, read the Bible some, eat and drink something along the way. There was some praying occasionally, too. I have been in the book of Numbers today. One of my favorite hymns comes from this chapter six of this book (I am still trying to learn the alto part!): 22 Then the L ord said to Moses, 23 "Instruct Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing: 24 'May the L ord bless you and protect you. 25 May the L ord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the L ord show you his favor and give you his peace.' Of course, one of our greatest blessings is Ava. She is getti...

We are so blessed to be able to have Ava over at our house! She is a delight, but is she every busy! She is too cute not to share a few pictures! Here she is in her Valentine jammies. I gave them to her the night before Valentine's, so she could wake up in them on Valentines Day. A few from the rear! I think the back of the jammies are so cute! They are tailored! And she has such a cute little tummy now! Looks like a yoga pose! Tonight, Ava came over while her Mommy and Daddy went to dinner and a movie. Ava is sitting on our couch eating her dinner off a TV tray. She is wearing a bib I made for her Daddy when he was about her age. We propped her up with pillows. We do not have a high chair or booster seat, so we figured this was the next best thing. We also covered her lap and the couch with a napkin to protect the couch. We thought we were being clever, but we still made a mess. She had a kids' organic meal with beans, rice, and a quesadilla. She loves to dip her...

Rod's birthday was February 8. His first birthday in the United States. We celebrated very simply. Rod wanted to have dinner at Logan's Steak House. So we gathered there and took turns throwing peanut shells on the floor. Good food, good fun. We had cake and milk at Sarah and Jay's. Hence the picture above. There are such varied looks on the faces in this picture. It will be one of my favorites! Thought I would throw in a picture of Ava playing in her Baby Einstein Play Station. She is really too big for this now, but still loves it. She and Rod had fun playing with the toys. A fun, relaxing evening. My family is a gift from God! "And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life-- that is indeed a gift from God." Ecclesiastes 5:19

So far, Jenni has been scared by a lizard in a drawer, and a bird on the floor in the house. Could she have any more fun? Apparently! Jenni and Rod live in an interesting apartment complex. Today, they were riding bikes in the complex. Jenni sees a rabbit come running in front of her bike, and before she knows it, a bobcat crashes into the back of her bike. Yes, a bobcat! The bobcat was focused only on the rabbit. No harm done to Jenni or Rod. Jenni managed to slow down the bobcat's pursuit! The rabbit hopefully is now sitting somewhere in hiding singing praises to Jenni! To end the exciting times, a baby bobcat comes strolling after mom. Rod managed to get a picture of the baby bobcat with his phone. We have decided Rod needs to follow Jenni around with a video camera! "So be strong and take courage , all you who put your hope in the LORD!" Psalm 31:24

Currently, I am afraid of my front door. Although Jenni and Rod put up all the Christmas decorations in the house, I keep forgetting to change the front door arrangement. It is now February. It was the middle of January before I really realized the front door was still Poinsettas and ivy with Christmas packages. Luckily, you can't really tell that from a distance. The next morning, as I was leaving the house, a bird flew out of the door arrangement. That was a little startling. Later that night, when we headed out, TWO birds flew out of the door arrangement, causing Mike and I to duck. We knew one headed into the house. We searched the house high and low (literally), but could not find the bird. I slept a little fitfully that night, wondering if the bird was going to light on my face during the night. Rod and Jenni came the next day, and the bird miraculously appeared and flew out the door. So we thought this episode was over. Did I change the door arrangement? Of course...

This little girl looks like she got interrupted on her way to play! Don't you wish you could be a little girl again and play all day? At work we have been charged to come up with things our Mother used to say that taught us how to act toward others, and illustrate it with a picture. Finding a picture was not a problem -- but trying to think of something my Mom used to say that fit the picture -- not so easy! This picture looks like "Stand still and smile so I can get your picture!" And it was probably taken by my father. I think the picture was taken in either Miami or Corpus Christi -- just a guess from the background. But it could have been taken in Houston, too. Things your Mom told you -- "Clean your plate!" (I really did not like to eat when I was little.) Of course, I heard about the "starving children in China" as well. There was a chicken place in Waco that gave kids a silver dollar if they cleaned their plates. One of my favorite me...

Here she is, our favorite 15-month old granddaughter! She absolutely loves Elmo. Sarah said the only Elmo pj's she could find were in the boys department, but I think Elmo pj's should be for all kids! She is carrying her new Elmo book I found at Walgreen's. Ava now runs everywhere, and I do mean run! She is very fast on her feet! The good news, though, is that she only gets her feet dirty most of the time, cause she hardly ever crawls around on the floor anymore. We are privileged to get to babysit every so often. I just could not resist taking pictures of our little Elmo Girl. However, she does love sitting on the dogs' bed! And so do the dogs! So I know this is not a proper place for a little girl to sit! However, Ava does not share my sentiment. I finally got her to stay off by saying "Shoo-ey! Don't sit on the dirty dog bed!" She associates that with changing diapers. She started saying "Shoo-ey" and got off! I am feeling prett...

This week has seen us on the couch two nights watching College Football. Monday night was great fun watching Texas beat Ohio State. I even cooked! Last night was the National Championship Game. We decided to have chili and cheese. Then Jenni and Rod came over. The feast enlarged quite a bit. First thing we had --Pebre. Like pico de gallo, only a Chilean dish. Best stuff you could ever eat when prepared by Jenni and Rod. Okay, this picture does not do it justice! Lots of tomatoes, onions, and cilantro! With regular white vinegar added. We opened the chips! Next, Rod starts making Chilean sopapillas. They put carrots in the dough! No recipe. Rod just starts mixing flour and whatever else goes in them. Then you shape them into little round pieces of dough and fry them. I just realized how cluttered my kitchen counter is! Daily vitamins, cards, and a picture of the four brothers from the first annual Worley Minnesota Reunion. And carrots in a bag! Not exactly a picture o...

We were all dressed in our orange and white, settling down to watch the Fiesta Bowl. Can we win? Of course we can! It was a very long game! We jumped up and down, we screamed, we scared the dogs a few times. We ate a few cookies, gulped some milk down, too. When it looked like all hope was gone, we persevered . We had faith in our team. Mike and I have been watching Longhorn football waaayyy too long to give up that easily. And we won the Fiesta Bowl! Maybe not great in your lives, but very great in ours! And now Mike has started counting the days until UT Football season starts again! "Fight the good fight for what we believe. Hold tightly to the eternal life that God has given you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses." I Timothy 6:12

December was quite a busy month. We had two birthdays and Christmas. Lots of fun and good eating. And lots of shopping! I re-discovered Amazon.com for shopping. Good service, gifts were all good quality. And I got to spend some quality time with my computer in my lap! The month started off with Jay's birthday. Sarah cooked some amazing beans and cornbread, and we had buttermilk pie for dessert. Had lots of fun watching Ava walk and dance around. Here is Jay on his birthday. As you can see, Christmas decorations were already up at his house, too! It seemed like every week end after that was taken up with some sort of fun activity! Once I figured that out, the shopping at Amazon began! It was so easy, I may need to do that from now on! Just earlier, so I have more time to wrap! One of our most fun traditions is taking out JABS Kids class from church caroling every year. We go to homes of our senior members or those in nursing homes. This year we gave everyone a bookm...

Christmas seems to come faster every year! It is already December 3, and I have done very little shopping. I am feeling particularly proud of the fact that our Christmas Tree is up and decorated. All thanks to the loving hands of Jenni and Rod. Mike and Rod got the tree out of the box and assembled it. Jenni and Rod decorated. We discovered that there are lights that are out in the tree, but somehow, it looks great anyway. I am continually amazed at the resourcefulness and talent of Rod. We haven't used our music box/light box with our tree in the last couple of years. The Tree already has lights in it and we could not figure out how to attach it. The plugs are different. Rod fixed the problem! So we have music and twinkling lights again! Christmas morning will be noisier again! You might wonder what I was doing during the tree decorating. Finding the additional decorations for the house, and putting up the stockings, of course. And surprisingly, cooking dinner for al...

Can you guess where we spent Thanksgiving Day? Of course, the above picture is of the END of the day. The END of the game, too. We were so excited that it did not rain! The weather was perfect! We took sweatshirts, but did not need them. We started the day by driving to Austin. We had a caravan of cars. Us, Jenni and Rod, then Jay and Sarah and Ava. Traffic was not too bad. We tried to leave early enough to arrive in Austin in time for Turkey Dinner. Once we were checked in at the hotel, we headed for Luby's. Here we are at Luby's. We started out in the foyer. HUGE line ahead of us. The manager came out and told us it would be a 45 minute wait! We decided to stick it out. And it really WAS a 45 minute wait. Ava did very well! Here we are as we start our Turkey Day Meal. I don't remember who asked for ketchup, or even WHY they would ask for ketchup with Turkey and Dressing. We ate too much, and it was our second time that week to eat too much! Did not nee...