Uncle Rich's Birthday

Uncle Rich said he wanted to go to the House of Miniatures for his birthday, in addition to going out for dinner, of course.  The House of Miniatures is just that - all miniatures that were collected by one lady.  She added onto her house twice to hold all of them and finally created a museum for them.  It was very interesting and we all enjoyed it.  She is still adding collections to her museum and they said she can often be found in the museum cleaning her miniatures.  We took a little tour which gave us much more information.  There were several small houses with miniatures plus other displays.  The oldest house with miniatures in it was around 200 years old.

 

 

This violin had all small violins hanging on a line along with tools to make them.  They were all in a violin of normal size.  We were told that all of these tiny, little violins could be played and the small tools were all working tools.  I took this picture for my favorite violinist.

 

 

 In one of the rooms, they had a glass insert on the floor and a Christmas village under the glass.  I would love this in my house - what a unique, fun way of displaying a village.

 Small silver Dutch windmills....

 The small bottles of liquor in this display case had the actual liquor in them or so they told us.

 The collector lady bought this miniature gold house with all the tiny furniture, etc from an auction house on the east coast.  It was too large to ship in one piece so it had to be taken apart.  It was quite impressive.

When you all come to visit the next time, I'll take you here.  It was a fun way to spend a morning.

We went to Culver's on the way home for a treat and then went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner with Rick, Shakayla and Jaylynn.  I think Uncle Rich had a good birthday.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

Arizona

I am still having major problems trying to post pictures to my blog.  Hoping to get some help soon.  Here are a couple of pictures I took when we first arrived.  The one is looking across the street from our house.  It was a beautiful morning and the clouds were gorgeous.

 

 

 

I took this picture from my van window when I was on my way home from lunch with Linda DeBoer.  I have never seen a rainbow with such vibrant color - this picture does not show the colors as they were at all.  It was so beautiful it took my breath away!!

Dad is back to playing shuffleboard with his team again this year.  He has been winning at least one of his games every week.

 Well, I guess this wasn't one of the good ones but he just barely lost it.

 

 

Tomorrow I'm going to work on trying to figure out why I can't load my pictures easier.  Until then, have a great day.

 

Love to you all,

 

Gramma and MOM

 

At Home In Arizona

To all who follow my blog:

I have been trying for two weeks to post a new blog and for some reason, between my computer and the internet here in our park, it will NOT let me bring my pictures up.  I am so frustrated that I'm ready to pull my hair out but I'm not sure how good I would look bald.

I am sorry - I actually have some rather nice pictures.  We are almost all settled in the trailer except for a few windows I still need to wash.  By the way, I HATE washing windows but I sure like the end result.

I will continue to try to post and see what happens.  Til then, hang in there !!!!!

Love to you
Gramma and MOM

Grandma's 93rd Birthday

Just got the pictures from Maggie from Grandma's Birthday so thought I'd put them on right away.  Enjoy!!!  We missed you both!!


The kids and Grandma - had to pick this one because Uncle Glen is "almost" smiling.

Kids and Outlaws with Grandma

 Outlaws

 Grandkids that were there with Grandma

 Grandma and the newest great-grand, Weston Garry Kramer

Off to Sioux Falls and dinner out with one of our favorite ladies, Wilma.

Love to all
Gramma and MOM

Christmas is Here

 

Christmas have arrived at the Haan Household.  This little tree is MUCH cuter at night with the lights twinkling.  All done shopping and wrapping.  Just have my Christmas cards to do but they may end up being New Year's cards because I need a couple of pictures yet and you know how your father feels about having his picture taken.

 

 We celebrated Great-Grandma's 93rd birthday with a family party last Sunday.  Aunt Evelyn ordered the cake and it was really cute.  It was from Cosco and very tasty!!!  I have more pictures from Sunday but for some reason my computer won't let me save them so Miss Maggie is bringing me a disk today.

Sam has just begun playing the cello so every night while we were there, he'd practice his two songs for his concert.  He willingly practiced them and I could tell, he got much better as the two weeks went on.  His concert was the last evening we were there so we got to see him play his cello (well, actually we didn't get to see all of him  - just his head and hands.) and play the bells and sing.  Way to go, SAM!!!

 Sam loves to sing - NOT!!

 We also were able to be at Chase's Veteran's Day Program (missed his Christmas concert because of Grandma's birthday party).  They had a big screen on the stage and Chase ws right underneath it.  Luckily they put it up when the kids started playing.

 Did you know that there are four verses to the Star Spangled Banner and we sang all four of them - that was a tidbit we learned from Chase.  Their band did very well - I'm impressed with how well they sounded.  It was a very nice program.  Keep it up, Chase - maybe you'll be another Lawrence Welk.

I know I have not been very faithful in doing my blog - sorry!!!  I will try to do better but then I always say that.

Have a great weekend!!!
Love to all,
Gramma and MOM

 

Happy Day After Thanksgiving

 

Cutest little Thanksgiving maiden around!!!!

 

Spent the day yesterday at our son-in-law's brothers' home and had a GREAT time.  Wonderful food and conversation.  Thank you so much, Gary and Sally for inviting us into your home.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Peter took the kids and I out to dinner this evening for my birthday to the local Chinese restaurant - one of my favorites.  Then we went to church for their Thanksgiving service.  When we walked into church, they had pictures of the kids and what they were thankful for.  The pictures included these two terrific kids.  What fun it was to see their pictures.

 

Sam wrote:  I'm thankful for having parents and sister, dogs, food, Jesus, friends

Katie is thankfor for love, me, God, Mom, dad

Holly played "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" on her violin and we were asked to just sit back and remember and think on all the things we have to be thankful for.  It was very nice.

We wish for each of you a wonderful Thanksgiving - stop and thank God for EVERYTHING He has brought into our lives; even the warts.  We had a very nice service tonight where Pastor Koenen told us to remember to thank God even for the cancers, worries and problems in our lives and allow Him to work through them.  It's much easier to be thankful for all the good things and whine about the lousy things.

Enjoy your turkey - I know I will.

Love to all,
Gramma and MOM