Merry

Christmas!

Love

Becca,

Bizzy,

and Charles

LOOK AT THOSE CRAZY KIDS DANCE!

Becca points to junior high students decked out in costume at Lincoln's Monster Mash Dance, held Oct. 30 at the school. Becca ran into none other than her friend Cameron S. from daycare. Cameron's dad and Becca's dad both had to help supervise the dance. These two hung out and talked and boogied to the music.

Most of all, they were amazed by all the costumes that turned out at the dance. Oh, and tractor boy and little girl on the prairie were a hit among the junior high kids who thought they were just sooooo cute!

LAST DANCE AT THE MASH!

Becca finally convinces her buddy, Cameron, to have a final dance as the lights come up. Sadly, though, Daddy and Becca couldn't go to the Dairy Queen with Cameron and his parents following the Junior High Monster Mash dance.

Maybe next time, Cameron!

COMPUTER TROUBLES FORCED HIATUS

I wanted to let all of you know that we had a slight problem, er, somewhat major problem, in that we had to purge some bad things that found their way into our computers. Put simply, our Norton expired and we didn't renew right away (Charles forgot!) and a worm found its way into our hard drive. We purged it, at the expense of some files, including our address book. So, we have been trying to put it back together, but many of your email addresses have been lost. If you haven't heard from us, please send us an email so that we can update our files.

Thank you for your patience and we hope that you are enjoying the blog!

CAN I GO AGAIN?

On the first day (Friday) of the Blueberry Festival weekend, Becca and Daddy hit the Kiddie Carnival. After going round and round on the motorcycles, Becca eagerly requested to go again.

And again. . .

And again . . .

Actually, she rode the other rides and had a blast while Mommy shopped the more than 500 booths splayed about Centennial Park in Plymouth.

WANT TO GO RIDING WITH ME?

While hanging out at the Blueberry Festival during Labor Day weekend, Becca took advantage of the kiddie carnival and rode EVERY ride!

More than half a million people/families show up at the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth over the four day Labor Day weekend.

THE LONG LAST JUMP INTO THE LAKE

Becca takes one last jump into Bass Lake and into Colton's waiting arms (That's Nicholas standing behind him). Only a few days before Colton left, he and Becca spent some time swimming in the lake, getting in those last strokes before calling it a summer.

A note or two about Bass Lake: Yes, it's that shallow, yes, that's Becca being that brave, and yes, Colton did, though partially, catch her.

Becca spent the summer learning how to swim, and as this picture testifies, becoming quite the lake jumper. She has learned how to hold her breath under water for about 10 seconds, and can swim strokes when she pushes off the bottom of the lake and practically swims like a fish. We think next year she'll be swimming without the aid of floaties.

After this picture was taken (by Grandpa, who just happened to catch the frolicers at the right second) more rain poured in at the end of August and the lake rose about 8-10 inches and came right up to the bottom of the pier. Even though the water looks dark, Bass Lake filled up with so much water this year, it's actually been the cleanest in several years.

The boats are out now, and by the time this gets posted, the pier will be in and the shore keepers will be readying the lake for winter. The year-rounders (1 in 8 lake residents) keep watch and people come and go, even on the weekends, and theft of equipment is a rarity (much of it is too hard to carry off).

As the weather cools, so goes the lake Rats. Mom and Dad have left, returning to Arizona, and we're spending our days pulling out the winter gear, rooting for the Rockies and Notre Dame football teams (Plymouth is up two wins more than ND, but are struggling just the same). So, we're looking forward to another quiet winter with, hopefully, a sunny respite in December.:-)

"I WANT TO RIDE!"

Becca, not one to be left behind, hitches a ride with Grandpa in his new speed boat. Of course, this picture was shot by Biz who was tagging along. Becca has become quite the brave little water Rat, riding in boats, tubing with Mom, riding on the PWCs, and learning how to swim. Now that Summer is over, we can't wait until next year, so we can go swimming in the lake again.

WATER SKIING - BASS LAKE STYLE!

On the day prior to leaving, Colton decided to get one more trip around the lake on water skis. He's spent the last two years learning how to water ski, and on this particular day, he decided to try the single board. With Grandpa's new SeaDoo Sportster, water skiing (and tubing, dude!) are more fun now that the speed boat can actually pull you up out of the water.

THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

Just before Colton went home, he spent time in the lake with Becca (not Abe, the little doggie he's holding!). The two cousins spent many hours in the lake this summer. Oh, and that's Grandpa's 14-year-old Pontoon boat in the background, as much a fixture at Bass Lake as the pier and the swimmers.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL?

Recently, Becca's Aunt Kasey sent several beautiful dresses she had found that had belonged to her daughter, Anjelica. When Becca opened the package that arrived by mail, all she wanted to do was try them on.

Her mother, sensing an opportunity, had Becca try on the dresses and took her outside for pictures in her newly remodeled back yard flower garden. Becca sure got into the moment, posing for us with the flowers as her props.

At 3 and 1/2, our daughter sure is coming into her own as a beautiful little girl. It's just amazing to see her personality develop and wonder at how quickly she is growing!

CAN ANYONE SEE ME?

One of the dresses Aunt Kasey sent was the beautiful blue floor-length gown that Becca thought was so cute! She was so cute in fact that her mother took her into the flower garden in the back yard for a series of shots, including this one that has her peeking around a tiger lily.

Her father feels that she should pull that shoulder strap up.

I HAVE A SECRET!

As July is the month of Independence, Becca models this beautifully crocheted patriotic dress with matching purse, made by her Aunt Kasey. Notice the teddy bear is sporting a matching outfit? Well, Aunt Kasey crocheted that one a couple of years ago when Becca was an infant. We felt it was appropriate to model the two side-by-side.

OLD FASHIONED LACE AND BLOOMERS!

Among the many dresses sent to Becca from her Aunt Kasey included this lace-bordered red dress with matching bloomers. Becca adores this outfit and has hung it in her "to wear" closet. Her mother and father will adore the dress when it gets colder this winter.

CAN I TAKE HIM HOME?

Due to a recent misfortune, this little critter that Biz is holding lost its mommy and daddy. Barry Sanders, Biz's cousin, rescued him from the clutches of the family dog and have been taking care of "Rascal", as this raccoon is called. Biz got to hold him the other day and we were amazed at how so like a house cat he was, purring and clinging and all that.

Unfortunately, Barry and Crystal say that "Rascal" will have to go in a couple of weeks when he grows teeth.

STILL HAVE A FEW YEARS YET!

Trevor (at wheel) and Ethan (center) Sanders take Becca for a ride, er, that is, try to take Becca for a ride in Biz's new car. Due to the rising costs of gasoline, Biz and Charles traded in the old Caravan for this 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid back in March.

We chose the Civic rather than the more popular Toyota Prius because the Civic feels like you're driving in a car. Depending on in-town or highway, we're averaging between 41 and 48 miles per gallon. It also has a smaller tank (9-gallon overall), so it's not costing us a fortune to fill it up. We're getting anywhere from 360 to 440 miles to the tank, depending on when we fill up (Charles likes to top off when the gas gauge hits 1/4 mark; I guess it's just too many times of running out of gas!).

IT GOT POURED DESPITE THE RAIN!

After delaying the pour five hours because of rain, which threatened for a day and a half, our contractor decided to chance it and pour the eight and a quarter (8 1/4) yards of concrete. Then, when the rain threatened again, they put plastic down to protect the concrete, which set up in several hours despite the rain drops. The pad has now cured out and after a couple of 95-degree days, our porch has come out beautiful.

The concrete also wrapped the house on three sides and after a weekend of showers, very little water has seeped into our basement - yeah! We've put on the patio furniture and displayed Bizzy's Mother's Day present - the new grill!

One problem that "surfaced" during the pour - the concrete truck was so heavy it rutted our soft asphalt driveway, which has now led to Charles calling asphalt contractor's for more bids!

THE CONCRETE IS DOWN!

This is looking from the driveway across the patio toward the mud porch. After the concrete cured for three days, we set the fence back up. That metal stand in the middle is our 50-foot television antennae, with which we can pick up South Bend and, sometimes, Chicago. The only problem - birds sit atop the tower and poop all over the brand new concrete!

TIME TO POUR THE CONCRETE!

Our contractors discuss how the concrete pad is going to be shaped. To give you an idea of how much concrete is going to be poured, the pad will be flush with the bottom step coming out the back door. Oh, that's the mud room that served as the break from outside to inside. It has served us well during this past winter. In fact, after the pad was prepared, Charles crawled under the mud porch and insulated the floor. He plans to enclose the bottom once the concrete is poured.

BEFORE SHOT!

This is how our yard looked before the concrete was poured. Along with pouring the concrete, we had our contractor dig around our foundation and treat the basement outside walls with waterproofing.