Welcome to the new Tri Valley Gym!!

Mike and I were excited to attend the Open House for the new Tri Valley gym this past Sunday! You know what big "dawg fans" we are! We weren't disappointed. The gym is amazing! Hope to see you all at the first game this Friday night!

Enjoy the tour!!

Ryan and Missy Smith coming through the new entrance into the lobby area! I told her she would make the blog! As many of you already know from past blog posts Missy is a good friend of Valerie's and she is now the TV cheerleading advisor! Not to be forgotten, Missy's husband Ryan is a great guy too!!
Beautiful trophy cases in the lobby....
It includes trophies from Frazeysburg Red Raiders and Jefferson Jayhawks!
New student section....The Dawg House!
Mike sitting in our seats! The new steps are very short and narrow....very different from the old ones which were very deep & hard on old knees. Even with the new rails and steps, please be careful!
The scoring and announcer's tables......nice!
Speaking of annoucers.....It's...AAANNNDDDYYY WAAAALLLLCCCCUUUUTTT!!
View from the Dawg House.....
Just outside the gym are the Walls of Honor...


See you Friday at the game!!! Go Dawgs!

KOPS Sang Sunday!

KOPS (Kids Offering Praise & Songs) sang in church this past Sunday. We did an encore of "The Party's Here!" We had lots of fun with the song as we dressed in our New Year's hats and held up party signs! It's a party everyday with Jesus in your life!!

It's a girl!

Madison, Grace and I decided last Thursday that Chloe cat needed a playmate! We headed to the Coshocton Animal Shelter on Friday and Grace picked out Zoey! Grandpa Mike wanted to hold Zoey and Grace is just waiting to get her back!
This shows her unusual coloring....
It's cute this year but it probably won't be as cute next year when she's bigger...especially not in this tree with my glass ornaments.
But, oh my......this is a Christmas card! Chloe is slowly but surely getting used to the new addition after several days of hissing.

Christmas at the Miller house...

This wasn't at the Miller house but it's so cute I had to share it! This is a picture of the grandchildren at the church Christmas Concert. The girls sang and Andrew helped behind the scenes.
Grace and I were watching the video of their Christmas morning!
This is a picture of the new family piano. It's a classic and the sound is so crisp and clear! Madison could play Jingle Bells in her sleep!
I was talking to Val and out popped Kali from the tree!
This was actually at our family Christmas on Sunday and we started out with a Gingerbread house contest. We were in 3 teams! Uncle Chad judged the finished houses and everyone won something! Val has the pictures of the finished houses. We got them on the video camera and forgot the digital.
We gave the Millers a family gift this year. It was a Wii game system. I had no idea how much fun it would be! This is Uncle Chad's bowling form....
Keri's bowling style was close to the ground!
Grace had a fast bowling swing...she didn't waste any time!
Mike had a L O N G approach! There were a couple of times when I thought he was going down the lane!

I'm waiting on Val's pictures. We did more video taping this year and not many digitals.

Christmas Eve....

Matt and Val had to work so the kids came to my house for the day! Everyone that came to my house on Christmas Eve had to ice sugar cookies!!Grace did a beautiful Christmas stocking cookie
Andrew would ice an entire plate of cookies then sprinkle them all at one time! He's so smart!
Madison loved mixing her colors. This was a colorful snowman!
hmmmm...Chad seems to be eating all the cookies he is icing!! Keri had a wonderful icing technique....no icing down the sides of her cookies!!
At Grandpa and Grandma Hood's Keri and Mike are waiting for presents!
Madison is showing Logan her new dog from Gma and Gpa Hood. It's just what she wanted!
Chad and Mike hanging out on the garage couch
Valerie and Tayler
I don't know what happened to this close up of Ida and Mike...I must have done something wrong!
We were almost late for Christmas Eve Candlelight Service because of the euchre game!
Chad and Keri ready to get into pajamas and wait for Santa! I have more Christmas Eve pictures from niece Heidi and Valerie but I haven't downloaded them yet. Watch for more Christmas Eve pictures! I'm on a roll today!

Our 3 trees....

We had three Christmas trees this year and I loved them all. They will come down this weekend although I have threatened to turn them into Valentine trees then Easter trees...Memorial Day trees, 4th of July trees...you get my idea!!This is the family room tree full of my Get Well cards! I just wasn't ready to store away all those beautiful cards. You can hardly see any of the branches....just a slight glow from the white lights. I didn't have room for all of them! What a blessing each and every card was to me and my recovery.
This tree was in the playroom and was decorated with the hands and ornaments made by the children. It turned out so pretty! I have the hands of children I babysat back in the 90's!
This was the living room tree filled with my glass ornaments. I love the Christopher Radko ornaments as well as all the bulbs & ornaments that bring back wonderful memories!
I treasure a good memory!

Conner's Night!

Conner Crabtree is a wonderful little boy who I babysit. I've watched Conner since he was 7 months old. It feels like he and his sister, Cortney are a part of our family. Conner was recently diagnosed with a brain condition and will be having surgery on January 8th. His story and prayer requests have traveled through our community and we discovered that Tri Valley basketball player, Josh Butler, had the same condition and surgery when he was 8 years old. Josh is now 17 and one of our most talented and exciting basketball dawgs! We know Josh's family and were thrilled to take Conner to a home game so he could meet Josh! The night turned into "Conner Night" as he was presented with a basketball signed by the team and a t-shirt. He had his picture taken for the local newspaper and was invited into the locker room, which we hear, according to Conner, is very messy! It was a night that none of us will ever forget. Josh is an exceptional young man and has himself a new #1 fan in Conner!



Please keep Conner in your prayers. His surgery is a week from today....9am at Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio
Conner's family has set up a blog site. You can follow his progress at

http://connercrabtree.blogspot.com