Happy Birthday Courtney

Today is Courtney's birthday ~ we celebrate you Courtney. What a blessing this girl is to so many people. The Cassada family has been "down" with the stomach flu for two weeks and they are so thankful to be healthy. Yesterday, Courtney, Joshua, Bailey, Hannah and I had lunch together to celebrate her birthday. What a fun time we had! Courtney, may God bless your year ahead.

We love you Courtney! Enjoy your day.

Cherry Blossoms

One of the many reasons we love living in our nation's capital is SPRING! We love each of the seasons this area provides. This time of year the Cherry Blossoms are gorgeous. We make an annual trip downtown to see the beautiful array around the Tidal Basin. Enjoy! Thank you God for your incredible creation.

Brittany ~ a teenager!

Happy 13th Birthday to Brittany ~ our granddaughter!

What a lovely young lady Brittany is. We are so proud of her and who she is.

Brittany is quite the basketball player and was selected to the All-Star team.

They played their first game yesterday.....unfortunately lost, but they will play next weekend for 3rd place. Phill is her assistant coach. How fun! Alden and I went to her game yesterday and he got to do the clock, so here are the guys together. Love it! Wow, did it bring back memories of our own kids playing b'ball.

Go Shooters!

Happy Birthday Brittany! May God bless your year ahead.

You are loved!

Spring Break

What a blessing to work at a school and get the week off before Easter. I just can't tell you what a 50 something lady thinks of that ~ besides fabulous! Alden and I went to Myrtle Beach for a few days of R & R and what a great time we had. We walked, talked, read, had beach time and simply enjoyed being away from the routine "to do's" of life.

We even got to see Courtney, Pat and the grandchildren one day.........as they were vacationing near by. What a treat for us.

On the way down to the beach, we stopped in North Carolina to see two of Alden's aunts, Shelby and Shirley (his mother's sisters). What an incredible blessing that was to spend some time these two wonderful ladies. As I told a few of you, the first 15 minutes sitting there with them, I had to keep swallowing the lump of emotion, as I felt like I was sitting with Alden's mom. It was so fun to get caught up with these dear ladies.

We drove by Alden's mom's childhood home......we spent some special times here with family through the years and sat with his grandmother right here in this house as she left this earth to meet her Savior.

Family ~ simply precious.

Happy Birthday Steve!

Yahoo ~ it is Steve's birthday and we're celebrating!

We had a relaxing day today ~ Steve, Hannah, Alden and I went out to breakfast. Yum! We all did errands, then met back up for a great dinner and some basketball on tv. Here comes March Madness! We're loving it.

Last weekend we celebrated Steve's birthday as a family.

At Steve's request we went to none other than: Chuck E Cheese!

It had been years since we'd been there and wow what fun we all had.

We're still enjoying our friend Tammi with us and she joined the party as well.

We love you Steve! We pray God's blessing on the year ahead.

Hannah Home!

What a pleasure for us to have Hannah home for a while. She is completing her last semester at JMU and as a part of her nursing program, she is working at Fairfax Hospital in the Oncology Dept. It is bitter sweet for her ~ as she loves her nursing and Fairfax Hospital, but she would love to be at JMU this last half of her last semester of college. Graduation at JMU is May 3.

We have had some fun days with her home and she has completed her first week at Fairfax Hospital.

Resting ~ 12 hour shifts!

Signs of Hannah's presence: her pickup

Two guitars in the family room ~ Steve and Hannah's! :)

Praying for your Capstone Hannah ~ time at Fairfax Hospital

Happy March ~Catching Up

Happy 40th Anniversary to Susan and Richard ~ dear sister and brother-in-law and our best friends. You are something to celebrate!

Susan and Richard were high school sweethearts.

Brittany, our grandaughter.....is quite the basketball player. We enjoyed her final game of the season this past weekend ~ wow, did she play good. It sure brought back memories for Alden and I watching our kids play basketball over the years.

Very fun for us to be a part of all our kids lives.........AND of course the grandkids. We are blessed to be in the same town with them all.

Brittany was chosen to be on the All-Star team and we are so proud of her! We can't wait for that game.

Courtney is due with her fourth child in mid-July. She had a sonogram last week and look at our precious grandchild....just precious!

Courtney showing Joshua and Bailey their new little baby "brother or sister".

I love their amazement......and Bailey's perplexity......"ok I see the baby, but where is it? You took a picture of "him/her", so where is the baby?" Adorable.

We had the privilege of going to an anniversary celebration of our friends, Bob and Cyble this past weekend. It was a surprise event, planned by their two sons (friends of our Phill and Steve) and both boys' fiances. They had dinner, put together a video show of Bob and Cyble through the years and we just enjoyed a fun night visiting together. We loved being a part of it!

Spring is just around the corner .......this is in front of our house......the daffodils and tulips are soon to make their appearance!

Happy March to you all!