Elder Jiang

Elder Todd William Schwieder, or Jiang yung guang Zhang Lao, is coming home from Taiwan on Tuesday February 24. We are so excited. Todd has served two years in the southern Taiwan mission. We are so happy and pleased with his dedication and hard work. We love him!!!!
Todd will speak in the Iona 3rd Ward Sacrament meeting on March 8, 2009 at 9 AM. All friends and family are invited.

Happy Valentine's Day

THE VALENTINE PHANTOM STRIKES AGAIN!
What a surprise to come home and find our tree decorated for Valentines and President's Day. Brett and Leslie were very sneaky about it and we were totally surprised.
The Christmas tree is still up awaiting Todds return (in 12 days!!!!) so Leslie thought it would make a very nice Valentine / Presidents tree. We agree.

Charles Montgomery Schwieder the third

Charlie is our dog. He is a little big, but the grandkids are getting used to him. (and he's getting used to them)
Charlie is 10 years old this year and has been a good dog for the kids (and I even like him most of the time). We got him from the humane society when he was just a pup. We were told he would be a small dog so we trained him to stay in the house. Well, he didn't stay small, but he is still mostly a house dog. Being a social animal, now that the kids are gone he sleeps in the bedroom with David and I - but NOT on the bed!
Don't you love those big brown eyes. You can tell when he has had a haircut because you can see those brown eyes. When he hasn't had a hair cut for a few weeks, we call him our walking carpet.

Christmas pajamas

Our Ward party this year was a ride on the Polar Express. We were invited to wear our pajamas. The Ward members enjoyed it when the Bishop showed up in a matching nightshirt and cap.

Victorian gingerbread architecture

This is the gingerbread house we made this year. David, as usual, was the architect. The kids did the roof, chimney, gazebo and some other things here and there. This house took us 5 weeks to complete.

The inside was also totally decorated with stockings hanging from the chimney, gingerbread cookies on the table, and a train around the Christmas tree among other things.

My Grandkids

I have the seven most fantastic grandchildren. The three girls all belong to Kyle and Tiffany. The older two boys belong to MiKell and Kyle Flamm. Mark is Brett and Leslie's first child, and Elden is Shanalee and Josh's first. They are great!!! and Grandma loves to have them visit (or visit them).
We have 3 more grandkids coming in 2009 - ALL in June. MiKell and Tiffany are due on June 25th and Tammie is due on June 27th. We are going to have a busy June!


Mark
Elden
Eric
Zach
Hailey
Addie
Katelyn

The Chocolate dippers

Rob and Tammie, Kyle, Brett, Leslie, Tiffany with Katelyn

At Thanksgiving, when all my kids were here, we spent a day dipping chocolates. Everyone got into the act (or tended kids while we were doing it). I was surprised how well some of them did. I guess you can tell this has been a tradition in our home for a lot of years. Yum! Yum!

Kyle and MiKell, David, Shanalee and Josh