Valentine's Tea

Wednesday, February 8, 2012 Amy, Natalie & Aleah came over for a Valentine's Tea.  It was Aleah's (and Amy's) first tea at Nana's.  Since we were going to be gone to Arizona for Valentine's Day, they got their Valentines early.  

opening their Valentines

M & M's! 

Tony & Amy got a card and some homemade buckeyes.

sharing a buckeye with Sissy.  Natalie loves to feed Aleah these days.

The girls' "tea" this time was chocolate milk. 

"Ahhhh"  Aleah's new reaction to taking a drink lately.  so cute.

The M & Ms were more interesting than the chocolate chip scones.  :) 

Amy found the perfect picture frame to add to our collection of Nana & Papa photos.

Here is the rest of the collection on our dining room counter.  Amy made the Love Is picture for Warren for Father's Day last year.  The girls contributed the "hearts".  The next photo is Warren and Addilyn last October when we visited them, and after that Warren with Aleah, and Warren with Natalie.

We wish you all much love and happiness.  Take time to celebrate your love each and every day with those so special to you.

Our First Tea Party

I have the most wonderful memories of tea parties with my Grandma Ruth when I was a little girl.  They weren't fancy.  We didn't dress up and have a fancy tea set.  But I loved them.  We had such fun!  Grandma's kitchen had floor to ceiling cabinets with great pull out cutting boards positioned at different heights.  One was just a couple feet off the floor and the perfect height for a tea party table.  I don't remember what we drank, probably fresh milk or whatever other drink was in the fridge - ice tea, lemonade or water.  It didn't matter.  (oh, another memory - she always kept water in a glass jar in the fridge.  I don't know what kind of jar, but it had a funky shape.)   Grandma did a lot of baking and usually we enjoyed whatever she had made.  She always said I must have a special radar because when she was baking, I usually showed up at the door.  What can I say!   We would set chairs by the little pull-out board, have our drink and snack, and visit away.  What a special lady. 

For years I have been looking for a special tea set to use for tea parties with my granddaughters.  This started well before I ever had granddaughters, and I was just hoping for the day.  All the sets I found were either too cutsie, too foofy, or just not right.   Recently my friend, Patti, gave me a tea set, and it is exactly what I would have picked out if I could find it!  Its perfect.  It reminds me of Fiesta ware with its rich, fun colors.

Today Natalie and I had our first Tea Party!  We had planned to do it a few days ago, but the weather turned too cold.  Today is much warmer with beautiful sunshine.  Amy has been preparing Natalie for the big event all week.  We were both pretty excited.  : )  She picked out a soft, fluffy scarf from the dress up basket, picked out one for Nana, and off we went to see what goodies we were to have for our party. 

First we had to pick out our cups and saucers.

having our tea and snacks

we only had a couple of spills

thanks, Papa, for coming in to take some pictures and have a bit of tea with us.

love my girlie girl!



Heidner Family Photos

Here are the Nelson Heidner kids:

back row: Loren and Dale

front row: Ken, Marilyn Hilkemann, Tom

birth order is Tom, Don (my dad, who has passed away), Dale, Karen (who passed away as a baby), Loren, Ken and Marilyn.

Siblings with spouses:

left to right:Ken & Jane Heidner, Loren & Marian Heidner, Arlen & Marilyn Hilkemann, Dale & Irma Heidner, Tom & Margaret Heidner.

Tom & Margaret Heidner family (sorry, I don't have a pic of them with all the kids & grandkids together)

left to right: Les, Jay, Margaret, Tom, Susan, Vivian

Don & Velma Heidner family

 left to right: Rhonda, Greg, Kayla, Dave, Judy, DeeDee, Warren, Natalie, Amy, Aleah & Tony

Loren & Marian

Ken & Jane Heidner family

left to right: Madalyn, Kelly, Esther, Lori, Ian & Paul Lynch,   Ken & Jane,   Bonnie, Corbyn, Natalie, Steve, Galen & Brendan Heidner,  Naomi, Moriah, Olivia, Jeff & Toby Heidner

Arlen & Marilyn Hilkemann family

left to right:  Nicky, Mike, Holly & Mason Hilkemann,  Arlen & Marilyn,  David, Callie, Silas, Dawn, Anna, & Sadie Hilkemann,  Michelle, Jaycee, Joel, Ryan & Zach Hilkemann

My apologies if I messed up some names.  We loved seeing everyone who was at the reunion, but greatly missed those who couldn't come.  Hope to see you next time. 

Our 2nd Nelson Heidner Family Reunion

Three years ago we had our first Nelson Heidner Family Reunion at Beacon Bible Camp.  We had a really good turnout, tons of fun visiting, getting aquainted with new members of the family, both kids and in-laws, playing games, and hanging out.  So much fun in fact, that we decided to do another reunion in 3 years. 

The time has arrived! 

This time around the reunion was held at Lustre Christian High School.  We had a good turnout again - about 75 family members.  It is a really neat mix of ages.  When I was growing up, family reunions were for the "old people".  LOL  Its so fun to see all ages gather together.  Nelson Heidner was my dad's father, so the reunion is for all of his kids, grandkids, great-grandkids.  I think I counted the right number of generations!    

my cousin, Jay, and I got people registered and signed up for activities, rooms, family photos, etc.

Each family took turns preparing a meal.  Ours was on Saturday night.  We started smoking pork butts for pulled pork sandwiches on Friday night, checking it every couple of hours during the night.  Judy, Rhonda and I made coleslaw and baked beans, Judy, Rhonda & Amy made cookies for dessert.  We also had watermelon slices, veggies and ranch, chips. 

We had some delicious meals at the reunion.  There are some really great cooks in the family, and it was like sitting down at each others' tables sharing a good meal, great conversation and "family".  Of course some great recipes were exchanged too.

Quite a few signed up for a FastFAB tour.  Tony's welding business, FastFAB, builds  hopper bottoms for grain bins.  There was a lot of interest in seeing the building process.

another activity - horseshoes!  Greg Heidner & Dwaine Wall

Whenever Heidners get together, there are always games.  Favorites include Dutch Blitz, and Grandma Ruth's favorites of Rummifun and Scrabble.  Here Brenden and Bonnie play Jenga

and usually a puzzle comes out.

Along with the fun and games, we do some serious visiting.  Uncle Dale had a video he showed one  night which included home videos from when his family and alot of our cousins were little, and also pictures and video from past reunions.  It was fun to see, and pretty special.  There are a few most precious loved ones who are no longer with us.  How nice to see them again.  Thank you, Dale.



Early Birthday Party

With a family reunion starting the next day, we welcomed Rhonda, Kayla, Greg, Dave & Judy on July 1.  We had an early birthday party for Rhonda after supper.  Her birthday is July 23, and since we all live so far apart, we take advantage to celebrate birthdays whenever we are together and a birthday is somewhat near.    The previous summer I found an artist from Sidney, MT at the Fort Peck Art in the Park.  Afton Ray-Rossol (see The GalleRay on Facebook) does beautiful art glass.  I had bought a couple mugs for myself, and got Judy a couple of them for Christmas.  When I told her about the goblets I had seen, we decided to order four of them for Rhonda.  Her kitchen is decorated in a grape theme, and she enjoys wine, so a perfect match! 

Rhonda showing her card, with Kayla beside her.

we pulled off a great surprise.  They were a hit!



cheers!

We start them young on Fast Road!

Natalie- 19 months old - June 30, 2011

Warren's dad, Harvey, built the mailbox stand many years ago.  It turned out really cute, and makes it easy to give people directions to our home!  We tell them to turn on Fast Road, you'll see a tractor mailbox!   Over the years we have decorated it, mostly with scarecrows and Santas, straw bales on the ground with corn stalks, pumpkins, etc.  Here is a layout I did many years ago.

Amazing!

We had some pretty intense thunderstorms this summer.  There has been a lot of hail in different areas, some flooding, and big winds, but Thank the Lord, we haven't had much damage on our land.   June 29 was one night with an incredible storm.  We were outside taking pictures of the cloud right above the house (see the light on the corner of our house?) when a big wind hit.  We tore into the house to slam windows shut as the dirt started blowing with a vengence.  We later learned that some of our neighbors were in their basements taking cover.  I have to admit, it didn't even occur to me...  Not sure what that means...

8:29 p.m. just before the wind hit

Here are a few more photos of the same storm as it rolled in and hit our area.

7:56 p.m.

7:59 p.m.

8:13 p.m



8:15 p.m

8:24 p.m.

8:25 p.m

8:27 p.m.

8:28 p.m.

8:31 p.m  and as it moved on...