2010 Cousins Meet

Finnley meets Ashley, Brandon and Daniella for the first time on 12-16-10. Finnley is a little over 2 weeks old. Brandon can't believe how little she is. Ashley is a natural holding her new cousin.

2010 Grandkids Christmas Programs

During the month of December 7 of our 8 grandchildren took part in the Christmas cantata at our church Desert Gateway Baptist Church. A few days later, 3 of them were in their school Christmas program Klinkenschnell the Christmas Bell.

All of the kids did an excellent job. You could really hear Cadence & Tristan singing their part. Ashley had the only solo in the cantata and did a wonderful job singing about the Saviour.

Great Aunt Sandee and Uncle Jim came from California for a visit and got to see the school program.

Our 8th Grandchild Is Born - Finnley Anne

November 30, 2010 at 6:40 p.m. Finnley Anne Shainman safely entered the world. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. and is 20 inches long. She has long skinny feet just like her Papa and her Mommy. She has some dark hair and blue eyes.

She was 3 1/2 weeks early and is doing well. They are monitoring her lungs to make sure they are working okay.

She is our 8th grandchild. Add another girl and now the boys are outnumbered!!

Casey's 8th Birthday Horseback Ride

Casey has always wanted to ride a horse, so on her eighth birthday we went to the OK Corral in Apache Junction, AZ for her first horseback ride. The weather was beautiful and the in 60's.

We traveled through the Superstition Mountains famous for a hidden gold mine. We saw saguaro cactus, cholla "teddy bear" cactus, hohoba bushes, palo verde trees, octotillo and prickly pear cactus. Casey even saw a jack rabbit scurring through the brush.

She rode a horse named Buster and Nammie rode one named Hammer. His name sounded scary, but he was a very gentle horse. We spent an hour on the trail and Casey loved her birthday adventure.

Baby Shower for Finnley

On Saturday, October 16th we gathered at Melissa & Steve's home for a baby shower for the newest addition - Finnley.

Everything was pretty in black, pink and white with all the decorations matching. There was a buffet lunch and Zachery, Cadence & Tristan helped open the presents for their new sibling.

Daniella's 4th Birthday at the Phoenix Zoo

Nammie & Papa took Daniella & her friend Evan along with Daniella's mom, Erica to the Phoenix Zoo to celebrate Daniella's 4th birthday on September 19, 2010. We saw lots of animals, but the kid's favorite part was watching a mama tiger eat her lunch - a dead very large bunny rabbit.

The snakes were scary and the prairie dogs were very cute and hard to find when they started burrowing in their holes.

The temps were over 100 degrees, but the zoo had misters to keep us cool.

Daniella also loved looking at all of the turtles in the ponds at the entrance to the zoo.

Summertime Sleepover With the Grandkinds

The grandkids have been looking forward to spending the night at Nammie & Papa's house so they could create a tent to sleep in and roast marshmallows in the fire pit and create smores. (Yes, it was in the 100's, but we still did it!)

They swam all day and into the evening and just when it got dark, Rod fired up the pit and the roasting began. As we all do when working with marshmallows on the end of a wire hanger, a lot of them caught on fire and went into the pit. They had a blast. I can't believe each of them ate two huge smores. (They are going to be up all night!) It was a good thing we roasted when we did, because not a half an hour later, but a huge monsoon thunderstorm rolled in and kept all of us up most of the night. We had a non-slumber party. The only one that slept through the whole thing was Daniella.

Casey played around with one of Cadence's loose teeth and pulled one out. It was the 1st tooth Cadence lost.

Papa & Nammie's thoughts about the evening: these kids really keep us young!