GrableWorks

ETHAN

2011-07-25T16:09:00.005-05:00

Winter in Missouri

2011-03-08T15:09:00.004-06:00

Our Play house

More Family Pictures

2011-03-06T20:37:00.008-06:00

Winter never stops the mail

Abby

Alana and Jordan

Jordan in the kitchen.

Not To Shy to smile

Famly Pictures

2011-03-06T20:20:00.004-06:00

Budding Photographer

2011-03-01T20:20:00.003-06:00

reflection in a mirror

Jordan Ezra Grable

2010-05-31T10:14:00.008-05:00

We give thanks to God for the gift he has given us in our new little boy, Jordan Ezra Grable. Jordan was born Sunday, May 30 at 8:36. Weighing in at 8 lb 6 oz he is the largest Grablet so far. Jordan is of unconfirmed but average length. Juanita is doing great and enjoying her one day belated birthday present.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We have been so blessed by our families and friends and now by one more little blessing in our home.

Monky business

2009-10-16T23:54:00.008-05:00

It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, tree climbing is no invention of my own but necessity did push me up a tree when a broken branch was identified hanging precariously over our car port. Not wanting to pay someone else to fix our problem I decided that I would figure out a way to do the job myself. The good thing about doing a job yourself is that you end up learning new skills which sometimes turn out to be downright fun. This certainly holds true when it comes to chainsaws and climbing as even my kids can now attest (speaking about climbing, not chainsaws). The other nice thing is that you realize that you can do things that you never imagined you could. Here is Alana way up in our tree. She is climbing the rope without any help from Dad.

Anna still keeps here adventures on the ground. She is walking but not quite ready for tree climbing.

Pictures

2009-08-08T10:37:00.009-05:00

Juanita's Birthday at the park

Grandpa Grable examining a turtle

Grandpa and Grandma Grable come to visit

Grandma Grable's birthday party

Uncle Vern, Aunt Linda, Grandma and Grandpa

Ethan and Bridger having fun on Tablerock lake (Branson, MO)

Aunt Kim and Abby

Bridger turns 4

Getting ready for Bridger's birthday dessert...smores.

Grandpa and Grandma Vis at the Zoo. (Lots of monkeys in the trees here.)

Abigail attacking the rock wall.

Ethan on edge

Bridger learning the ropes

Alana's life on the line.

Abigail at the egg production facility.

Ethan and Dad strategizing.

Jon Building the new kitchen

Domestic duties for Mom

Alana and Miss Rebecca Serven on the piano

Baby Anna

Happy Grable kids

Stuck in Molasses

2008-07-05T07:31:00.018-05:00

Everything is moving forward at the Grable house but it sometimes seems like a snails pace. Juanita sometimes wonders if we're stuck in Molasses to which Jon's respose is, "We got all the time there is Caroline." :)

Jon came home with some baby chicks a little while back and suprised all the kids. It has been fun for all of us to watch them grow. Jon is firm on the fact that these are not pets, these are farm animals, and someday they will be dinner. Still, the children found delight in assigning names to our large flock of three. By the order of the peck they are, Lilly, Joanna and Michaeleen.

Alana holding Lilly

We got so excited about Spring that we decided to put in a garden. Juanita is in charge, of course, and is struggling to recall everything her students taught her back when she was teaching at the Baldwin Park Community Garden. The kids all have their own little piece of real estate wherein they planted the various seeds and plants that they picked out at the store. Oh what fun!

Juanita preparing the soil for the garden

Jon's primary responsabilities include bringing home the bacon and making sure that we have a home to bring the bacon home to. Jon has been unusually busy with his day job as his company is shortstaffed in their Kansas City office. Gratefully, the company just hired on a new guy which should put everything back in balance.

Jon continues to work on our home renovation project in the evenings and on Saturdays. We had to square away some plumbing and electrical problems and now we are working on drywall. We also decided to extend the oak floor into the kitchen and have installed much of it with some help from a friend. We hope to be painting soon.

Small fix turned into big project due to water damage.

Replacing joist hanger board and siding

Jon got sidetracked with making a home for the chickens. We decided that they have to have a home of their own as they were making a mess of our house not to mention the fact that they stink. If you've ever had chickens then you know that these little beasts grow up quick. Jon went out of his way to make sure the chickens have a happy home. His explanation, Happy chickens are tasty chickens."

Kids love animals

Chickens grow fast and so do children. They heal fast too as is evidenced by our little Bridger who is back to bouncing and running around with nothing but a memory of the time when he had a broken leg. His cast was on for six weeks though he was back up walking even before that.

God's gift to kids...MUD!

Kids practicing to join the Circus on

the rope swing in our backyard.

Brothers

Sisters

Juanita's tummy is getting bigger. Jon is rooting for twins but the midwife thinks it unlikely. The current ETA is November 10ish.

Walk in the park

Rolling with the punches

2008-03-23T15:53:00.003-05:00

Bridger on the go on his three wheeled cart.

An important lesson we learn from children is the value of resiliency in heart and spirit. Bridger isn't waiting around for everything to get back to normal. A new normal is here and Bridger is moving forward dispite the obsticles. Bridgers spirit exemplifies what we tell our children, "Grable...a little git of GRrrr and a whole lot of ABLE."

We were all thrilled when we learned that Grandma Vis (Juanita's mom) was coming to visit us and help us out. She arrived last Wednesday and will be staying until next Friday. Here the girls enjoy a ladies tea together on Saturday morning.

Our Saturday was spent working out in the yard, triming trees and preparing the soil for our spring garden. At the end of the day we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows over the fire.

Here in St. Louis they have a saying, "If you don't like the weather just wait ten minutes." It is funny how much truth there is to that statement at times. Here we are, Easter Sunday afternoon, and just a little bit ago it was clear and sunny outside and the girls were riding their bikes in the yard. Minutes latter the sky was all gray and snow was falling like crazy. Now the sun is starting to peak back through and the snow is all starting to melt away.

Well, the time has come for me to start getting myself ready for some early birthday festivities this evening as we celebrate our April birthdays while Mom Vis is here.

Jon

P.S. Baby Grable #6 is on his/her way:D

2008-03-14T22:00:00.006-05:00

Broken Bridger

We had an unexpected visit to the ER last Saturday night. Bridger ,who loves to work with his daddy, was helping to hang some dry wall at around 9 at night. A sheet of dry wall fell on him and he must of twisted his leg as he fell under it because he ended up with a spiral femur fracture. We spent two nights in the hopital and he came home with a spika cast. He is a trooper, and handled the whole thing very well. He knows the cast is his friend--it keeps his leg from hurting. He 'll probably get the cast cut down to one leg and a waist in about a week and I presume he'll have that on for another 5-6 weeks. Bridger now spends a lot of time on the couch playing with toys and looking at books. Fortunately, his siblings keep him entertained, and every night he asks if he can go upstairs to watch his daddy work.

Fun in the Backyard

Jeremiah gets the royal treatment as he is led around the backyard.

California Trip 2008

2008-02-24T20:57:00.010-06:00

In mid January we Grables hopped into our family wagon and headed out for sunny Southern California. This was the beginning of a month long getaway for Juanita and the kids and the first of three round trips for Jon to California during that same time. We all had a good time visiting with family and seeing old friends. Most precious to us was the time we spent strengthening the relationships we have with our own parents and siblings. The majority of this one month adventure was actually spent without Jon as he was back in the cold of St. Louis being a responsible employee. The good news is that he came out to CA for business during the second week and we had the chance to be all together at the beginning and end of his six day trip. Once back in St.Louis, Jon spent all his spare time working on the house. This was a great opportunity to make a mess without having to worry about baby Grables living in a construction zone (ha ha ha, if you only knew). In California, Juanita and the children spent quality and quantity time with both her parents and Jon's parents as well as a brief visit to see our friends up North by San Luis Obispo though this trip was cut short when all our children got a bad cold. Jon flew back out to California for the fifth week and was glad to be able to spend time with family, most notably Juanita and our children. A special providence from God was the birth of our first nephew on Juanita's side, Able Justice Vis, born to Juanita's youngest brother Rob and his wife Leah on January 18. Another blessing was how Juanita's other brother Steve and wife Julie (who live in Iowa) scheduled their own trip to CA at the same time so we could all be together. Other highlights include time spent with Jons Grandpa Al (96 yrs old), going to the beach, wearing flip flops in January, attending our nephew Griffin's 3rd birthday party, and visiting the neighbor children from our first apartment who have become young adults. We are now back in St. Louis getting back into the groove of our life here.

Girls and coffee with Grandma Grable

Kids and Great Grandpa Al

Girls making cookies with Aunt Carol

Grandma Vis's Birthday

Fun in the sand at the Beach

Christmas Fun

2008-01-01T12:04:00.001-06:00

Christmas morning was a fun surprise for all in the Grable home. Most of us were leisurely sleeping in after a late night out visiting with friends on Christmas Eve. The master of our house(ie. Jon) awoke before us all to carry out his secret plan. He had been hiding packages that had come from our family in California. As the last of us were rolling out of bed there was some excitement when Ethan was found walking around with a present in his hand. "Where did you get that?" was the cry. Everyone followed him downstairs to find a huge mound of gifts that had been piled up on the floor. Oh what fun! Thanks to all of you who blessed us in this way this year. We would also like to say thank you to the mystery gift giver who's package anonymously appeared on our doorstep on christmas morning. We were lighted by all the things you gave, thank you so much. :)

Shoes for all the Children

Bridger loves tools!

Hats for all the children

After the packages were opened we had our favorite breakfast---baked pancakes. We then spent some time worshiping the Creator--- reading the Bible, singing, praying and talking about the way in which God has brought us salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. A very relaxing afternoon followed as we cleaned up and worked on our house a little bit. In the late afternoon we went outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. Jon made a bonfire and I had fun cutting a vine out of one of the trees on the side of our house. I'm hoping to have a garden in the spring and that vine is not my friend. The children played frontier-- walking through the trees shooting the bears and lions that were in their way.

We pray for God's blessing on all our family and friends this holiday season.

2007-12-17T09:30:00.000-06:00

Snow!

2007-12-17T05:53:00.000-06:00

Winter has arrived. The snow started falling on Friday afternoon and didn't stop until sometime Saturday night. On Saturday we attempted some homespun snow sledding using a cardboard box on the small slope in our backyard. This proved to be a futile endeavor however we all had fun romping around the yard in the fresh powdery snow. Latter that night we were surprised when after the sun went down yet a warm glow continued to illuminate the sky. This amazing luminescence continued throughout the night and we figure was the result of the lights from the city getting trapped between the snowy sky above and the snow already on the ground. Whatever the explanation, the resulting glow that filled the sky outside our window was wonderful and truly captivating. On Sunday, after a blessed time of worshiping God and fellowshipping with friends, we set up an impromptu plan for another attempt at sledding. We me our friends the Fords at a local sledding hot spot and experienced sledding in the good old fashioned way. Mr. Ford brought his sled and Mrs. Ford brought hot cocoa for all and we all had a fun filled time frolicking in the snow.

Backyard Fun

Grable Kids in Snow

Real Sledding

Hot Cocoa

Grables in the snow

Fixer Upper Home

2007-12-07T11:35:00.000-06:00

In August we purchased a small 3bd/1.5ba fixer upper in a quiet suburban neighborhood. We (along with some big help from friends) tore out all the old flooring and demolished the kitchen, master bath and anything else that seemed in need of a makeover. After the initial siege the reinforcements arrived (Juanita’s parents who flew out from Southern California) and we went to work setting up a temporary kitchen in the basement followed by a conversion of our living room into a temporary bedroom. We are now in reconstruction mode on what is definitely the largest project we have undertaken . We are excited to be working through the process and look forward to seeing the finished product.

Kids and Hammers :0)

Goodbye Kitchen

Goodbye Master Bath

Trash Heap

Meal Break in the Construction Zone

Reconstruction Begins

Alana ready to hang Drywall

Jon the Engineer

2007-12-05T12:13:00.000-06:00

Jon accepted a new position last June as an "Application Engineer" with Fisher/Unitech, a distributor of CAD and other engineering softwares. Jon's primary responsibilities include giving software demonstrations to prospective buyers and training existing customers. In this new position Jon enjoyes working alongside sales associates helping people and interfacing with companies all over the Midwest. You can check out his company's website here.

Misc.

2007-12-04T22:58:00.000-06:00

Two Little Princesses

Grable pioneer children on the wagon train

Missouri Wildlife

Picnick in the Park

Hike

Cave Dwellers

(Dinner with Fords in our basement dinning room

with make-shift kitchen in background)

Sisters

(Girls in aprons from Grandma Grable)

Sacagawea Grable

(Abby in birthday costume from Mrs. Ford)

Ladies Tea

(Alana's birthday. Note chivalrous knight in front and not so chivalrous boy on left.)

Night Out

Jeremiah Lawrence Grable

2007-12-04T21:08:00.001-06:00

One of the most exciting event of the past year was the birth of our new son Jeremiah Lawrence Grable. Jeremiah came into the world on April 1 (no fooling) via a very uneventful homebirth up on the third floor of David's house in the city. Jeremiah is a delight and wonder to his four older siblings and, of course, to mom and dad too. With more than eight months already under his belt (diaper straps) Jeremiah is a big boy and is crawling and standing up.

Shhhhh.....

Happy Day

Brothers

(Ethan and Jeremiah)

Jeremiah Crawling (Paint stains on floor, not blood.)

Grables in Missouri

2007-12-04T21:07:00.001-06:00

Just in case anyone reading this didn't already know, yes, we moved to Missouri. The following are some of the details.

Back in November of 2006 we packed all of our earthly possessions into our newly aquired 1973 U-Haul truck and started out on our journey to Missouri. Of course we didn’t get out of our little town of San Miguel before we had to make our first repairs (headlights and brake lights not working). Providentially, two friends stopped to help when they saw us on the side of the road and within two hours we were back on our way. We had to repair a few other items across the course of our three and a half day journey but thankfully nothing major.

Once in St. Louis we moved in with our friend David (whom we knew through mutual friends) who was living by himself in his big 100+ year old home in St. Louis city. Life in the big city was a lot different from the small town life we knew it back in San Miguel. The city is packed in tight with lots of things to see and people everywhere. We found that it can be both a fun place and a scary place.

During the winter the city looks like a wonderland all covered in a blanket of fresh snow. We took it all in as we strolled down the street and through the city park pausing for our children to take turns sliding down a snowy hill on an old cardboard box. We also enjoyed our casual trips to the Arch and the Westward Expansion Museum (under the Arch), meandering around the exhibits while our children imagined what life would have been like as a pioneer or as an explorer like Lewis and Clark.

Not so happy memories in the city include the hit-and-run accident in a bad part of town that left our driver-side door smashed in on our Suburban. Another unhappy memory was the sound of gun fire from a homicide two blocks down the street in an attempted car theft.

We enjoyed the experience of city life but we definitely aren’t interested in making our home there permanently. Jon accepted a job last summer as an "Application Engineer" in the suburbs outside of St. Louis. We ended up buying a house less than two miles from his work and moved in August. We are glad to be in our own place with a little more space and a little less excitement. Be sure to check out our post about our new Fixer Upper Home to find out what happens next.

Loading up for an adventure

David's House in the City