Happy Birthday, Zachary!

Just thought I'd pop in from Canada and make sure everybody knew/knows that today is Zachary's birthday!

The family celebrated it last night (as they would not all be able to be around today), and we (Valerie and Heidi) got to join part of the celebration via Skype. It was great to be able to "see" everybody again, and also to "watch" Zach as he opened his presents, "see" his expressions, and "hear" his comments.

Well, I expect that the rest of my family back home will give the full report that I am not able to offer, not having been there quite "first hand".

Here is a picture of the birthday boy from August of '08.

~Heidi

Can't Be in Two Places at Once

Between Granddad & Grandma's birthdays (his birthday is the same day as Willie's, only 81 years earlier), we managed to squeeze in a weekend trip to Iowa to celebrate our grandchild's 1st birthday. Hopefully, Grandma Carter will forgive us for missing her 80th party so we could be in Iowa. We were able to celebrate with them on their actual birthdays.

Well, you know, Willie was named after Papa Mueller, so it was only fitting that we be there for his 1st birthday party if possible.

The little "Birthday Prince" was not much interested in wearing his crown for his party. Becca said he enjoyed it earlier in the week - the novelty must have worn off. He was happy to sit upon his new "boggan" throne from Aunt Julie though & let himself be pulled around by the younger aunts.

Hardly seems possible that a year has gone by already!

Becca did a great job on Willie's cake - fit for a "Birthday Prince"!

The castle was chocolate on bottom & strawberry on top.

Willie & Aunt Julie at Nana & Papa Barta's house

Momma Becca relaxes a bit after a couple of long days - Kimberly is great for those neck rubs & foot massages when Becca's all tuckered out - She's got it made when Kimberly's around!

Grandma's 80th Birthday

Just three days after Granddad's birthday comes Grandma's.

This year it was a BIG one - her 80th! Alan & Jill hosted a lovely party for her on the 17th in their home, but these pictures are from our family celebration with her on her actual birthday, the 19th. As is family custom, she was asked to choose one of her favorite meals & desserts. Turned out Kimberly headed up the crew to cook it up because Mom was down with a migraine. Glad that doesn't happen often & glad it let up, for the most part,

just in time to enjoy the meal with the family.

Here's the birthday girl - pretty young looking for 80, don't you think?

Here's the crew just as we were about to sit down to enjoy the meal. Aren't they sweet! Grandma chose butterscotch pudding pie - we had a couple other flavors as well.

The kids did a great job - all was very delicious!

Granddad's Birthday

We had the privilege of celebrating Granddad's 82nd birthday with him on Friday, the 16th of January. He was asked to choose one of his favorite meals and dessert - it was all delicious!

Granddad takes a really BIG breath before blowing out his candles.

We gave him 8 and 2 because 82 would be a fire hazard.

Looks like he got them all in one breath - I guess all of those years playing tuba still count for something!


He chose chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream frosting - we added the sprinkles. Yumm!

Of course the important thing is to be sure you serve Granddad's cake "lefty" style on his plate - that way he gets frosting in every bite (or so I'm told).

Snowflakes

Thanks to Valerie's project up in Canada, the children were inspired to cut some snowflakes out of paper. They came up with some that are really intricate & beautiful! I can tell you they are not nearly as easy to do as one might suppose. To think that our God makes millions upon millions of snowflakes for each snowfall & not one of them is the same as the next - what a creative God!

Curiosity finally got the best of Sandy - she decided she had to give it a try. The large one is hers - not too bad for her first attempt I guess. Kimberly made the small snowflakes. I don't know how she cuts all those tiny places!