Cairney Christmas

 Drew, Nick & Zach ~ Cairney men dishes duty

 family basketball after lunch

 Cassie, Grant, Dawn, Elly & Greg

 Doug, Kate, Ben and I 

 Jack, Drew, Lynne, Joe & Jeff

 Zach, Brian, Suz, & Nick

 Grant, Uncle Jim & Drew

 Papa, Gramma and the grand kids

From oldest to youngest: Nick, Drew, Grant, Jack, Zach, Cassie, Joe, Elly, Kate & Ben
This year the Cairney Christmas celebration was special for so many reasons. Every time we have the opportunity to get together with family, it is wonderful no matter what time of year it is....however, we were all preparing to say good-bye to Grant and wish him well as he left for the Marine Corp. on January 2nd. Many tears were shed as we said our good-bye's but we are all so very proud of him and can't wait to see what God has in store for this amazing young man and this journey. We also welcomed 2 girlfriends to the holiday weekend (Nick brought his girlfriend Emily and Grant brought Natalia) so that was nice getting to spend time with them too.

Cairney Christmas

The annual cousins pyramid

 the Pella Cairney's + 1 (Elly, Natalia, Grant and Cassie)

 Drew with his Olaf "Mr. Cool" t-shirt

 Ben and Kate admiring their hand painted Christmas cards from Grandma Cairney - they are so beautiful!

 Papa and Gramma opening their family tree

 Ben and his Big BEN lego set

 Gramma Cairney's hand painted cards for the grandkids

 Cairney card games 

Kate enjoying some piano time on the baby GRAND

Beautiful Cairney cousins - Kate, Elly & Cassie

Decorating

Every year Doug LOVES to help put the lights on the tree (-;  We are still smiling at this point, and the kids managed to capture this moment in a quick picture.  Let the holiday season begin!!! 

Thanksgiving

Aunt Wendi and Uncle Jon graciously hosted all of us over Thanksgiving weekend and we had such a great time. SO much to be thankful for!

We laughed so hard at each other during our game of  headbands "act out"

Ben loved his time with Brooks and Scarlett 

the weather was perfect for a game of basketball with Jonny and William

LOVE my sisters

Ben trying to get the dogs to cooperate for a picture ~~ too funny!

Both Ben and Brooks hate telling their Papa good-bye after such a fun weekend  )-;

Fall fun

 beautiful trees in our neighborhood

 Who's hiding in the leaves?

 sweet Mr. Ben

 A perfect Fall day for an afternoon bike ride

We have been blessed with some beautiful weather for a few days and we have taken advantage of those moments. I could not resist taking a solo bike ride one afternoon either....just too nice out to stay indoors.

Happy Halloween

For the first time, I did not have any kiddo's dress up for Halloween to go trick or treating or "beggars night" (is what they call it here). Kate had basketball practice and Ben opted to just help us hand out the candy. Of course, I still needed put on my traditional witches hat for the candy duties and Kate was kind enough to take a picture with her Mom before heading to practice.

Football Season for Ben

 Teammates

 High five from his coach after a great run -- Nice work Ben

 Getting the mouth guard in place, ready to take off!

 Juke to the right, to the left, explode!!

We had a great time watching Ben and his teammates play flag football this Fall. Cold weather, rainy mornings, etc., but none of it ever seemed to phase him. He loved it! Proud of you and how hard you work out there Buddy ~~ nice job!!!