The View from Here..

When I arrived home from work today the snow was
blowing around our house.. Brrrrrr.....

Two hours later Dale said it looked like a snow lake out back
with the sun shining on it.. I had to take a picture.

This would be the 'snow beach'. I thought the wind was
making neat designs in the snow, just like the surf coming
in on the beach...

Jordyn and her family visited with us on the cold and

snowy Wednesday night for chili and Andrea snapped

this picture of Jordyn with my new camera..

Music - Friendly Competition - FUN!!!

Our adventure with friend 'Bev Ward' in 2006... was
great FUN!!!! We started in Tonopah, Arizona and
experienced many sights and activities from Sedona
to the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas... Here Bev and
Cori posed with the CocaCola Bear!!

At the FAO Swartz Toy Shop Cori and I loved the keyboard..
Here Cori experienced what it would sound like if there was
a keyboard at home plate when she Scores at softball!!!!
Hear the crowd ROAR....



Cori and I tried to play a duet but it was much harder than
it looks...


Here I tried 'tickling' the ivories... well.. I'm sure it was
more than a tickle.. LOL

The Swartz toy store was a mecca of games which both

Cori and Bev enjoyed. Here Cori practices her game

shots before taking Bev on in competition..

As Cori and Bev took their Best Shots I thought it was

interesting that their timing was about the same...

Cori enjoyed this picture because it looks like the

elephant was spitting on my head.. This was taken

after we attended the musical "Mama Mia" which

was great. We had front row seats.

Right now I'm looking forward to the 'warmer' weather

as we are being hit tonight with another snowstorm...

Oh me, oh my!!! That is the reason for my topic

selection today... remembering how warm (hot)

it was on our vacation compared to today's COLD,

COLD and more COLD!!!

Cori Lyn...

Before finally receiving my NEW Rebel camera last Friday
Andrea allowed me to use her Rebel on the trip to Illinois
two weekends ago... Here I got to play with the camera
taking some pictures of Cori... I like this picture - I
hope you do too!!!

"LauraLee Riley Plattner"

Because I don't have a lot of time to post 'many' pictures
today, I chose one of LauraLee that I took while we were
in Illinois, January 15th. Isn't she adorable?? The
answer is "yes"!!

Illinois Pictures Continued...

Yeah!! I found the picture of Iris and Doug I wanted to post..
Aren't they cute???

Paul and Vicki sitting in front of the fireplace where we stayed.
We had many good conversations around that fire - didn't
we Vicki??
Saturday afternoon we met Sheila in Rockford at the 'Machine
Shed' for a delicious lunch. I'm so glad we were able to stop
for lunch and conversation with Sheila. We got to catch up
a little bit on what the Davis family has been up to...

I couldn't post one of the pictures of Cori, Sheila and me because
we were laughing so hard when Mark took it. I wanted a picture
mainly of our faces and told Mark 'chest up'. What Cori did
when I said that sent us into spasms and the picture didn't
come out...so the picture below has to do.

Riley Family Picture Diary - January 2009

Thursday morning (1/15) Mark, Dale and I left at 7:30 am on a
bitterly cold morning to travel to Freeport, IL. The sun was just
coming up and fog was rising off the snow to the north of our
home... The roads traveled were not that good but we made it
to Chicago O'Hare airport by 2:00 pm to pickup Cori on the way...

Aunt Edith (on the right) with her two sisters: Florence and May.



Vicki with her sons: Chip and Scott. Doug with Iris who live in Baltimore, Maryland... I have a better

picture but couldn't locate it so this one will have to do for now....

Aunt Edith with sons, Bobby and Doug and daughters,

Vicki and Pam. Dale Riley's family with Mark, Cori, LauraLee and Chad with

their six children: Jesse, Javan, Jared, Jolene, Jubilee and
Jonas. At Christmas they announced God has blessed them
with a seventh child to be born around Labor Day!

Curt and Pam's family from Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Donnie with sons Jim and Donald. (Marcy is Jim and

Donald's mother and Uncle Bob and Aunt Edith's daughter).

Marcy passed away when Donald was less than a year old...

It was GREAT to visit with the Riley family since we don't get
to see many of them very often. The time we spent laughing
and enjoying each others company was fantastic. I'm sure
if Uncle Bob was looking down from heaven he was very
pleased with the gathering that took place at his home
going. God Bless you everyone!!!

Uncle Bob Riley and Aunt Edith..

Uncle Bob was born in September 1924 - and left this earthly
home and went to be with the Lord on January 10, 2009. He
will certainly be missed by all his extended family, friends and
especially our 'Aunt Edith' who has been the caretaker for
several years.

I remember when he had shared with Dale about this young girl
he saw working at Kable Printing and that he thought she would
be someone Dale should ask out for a date...

One evening at the White Pines Roller Rink Dale and I met and
Dale asked me to skate. We got to talking and found out that
Uncle Bob had told Dale about me.. Dale asked me out on our
first date and we ended up at Uncle Bob and Aunt Edith's house
and 'surprised' Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob always greeted me with
a kiss when I saw him. We have enjoyed many family gatherings
together as all our families have grown over the years.

Many of our favorite memories took place out at 'the farm' of
Charlie and Anna (Dale's Mom and Dad).

We will miss him dearly... Cori, LauraLee & family as well as
Mark will join Dale and I in Freeport, IL to honor his memory
this Thursday and Friday.

Cousins ENJOY Warm Weather..

Saturday (Dec 27th) the 'cousins' played outside
and enjoyed the 60 degree day and sunshine.
Here Jonas enjoys riding his scooter with
Jubilee and Ben also riding in the background...

Jolene pretends to take Ben for a ride on Grandpa's
4-wheeler...

Jared and Javan road one of the 4-wheelers around the

garden and boy did they stir up the mud!!

Nathan found another way to get a ride - in the bed of his

dump truck..

I found Jared, Nathan and Jesse in the backyard by Dale's

lumber pile and old tractor.. looked like they were up to

something here and I caught them by surprise. Just maybe

they were trying to AVOID Grandma's camera?? No -

no way!!!

What a crew... everyone but Jordyn was outside playing

that day for at least two hours... Good Times!!

Handmade Christmas Gifts...

This year I attempted to actually hand make aprons for my girls...
The last time I sewed a Christmas gift was probably when Cori and
LauraLee were in grade school and I made blue flannel nightgowns
for them with candy canes at the hemline. Since I have an apron
with a quilted top I wanted to make one for LauraLee too. Since
I don't quilt I found placemats at the Amish Flea Market in Berlin
and planned my project. As you can see below LauraLee's apron
has 2/3 of the placemat and the girls shared the other third.

Here's LauraLee and her girls: Jolene and Jubilee modeling their
new aprons. (Maybe next year I'll need to make a 4th apron.
LauraLee??)

Cousins...Dec 27, 2008

The cousins were waiting for the pizza to arrive at
Aunt Andrea and Uncle Mark's house... The only
cousins missing from the picture are Jonas and
Jordyn...

In the picture are Jubilee, Ben, Jolene, Jesse, Nathan, Jared and Javan.