On the rare occaision...

Since Christmas we haven't been just hibernating in our cave...although, with the frequent snow storms this winter past, it was a tempting thought! We did get out to do a few things.

On November 18, 2007, as part of Trevor's birthday celebration, the boys and I went to the Van Andel to hear the Newsboys. They were on tour with New World Son and Kutless. That was one fantastic concert! We have a few pictures to share from that:

The Newsboys do a great job keeping the concert exciting with confetti, lights, special effects, some pyrotechnics, and a neat little stunt where the drum platform elevates, tilts, and rotates-while the drummer is performing! Pretty cool...the other bands were great, too. Everyone at my house loves Kutless. New World Son is a newer group. They have a more funky, jazzy sort of sound. Good stuff.

In January, instead of the traditional Super Bowl party, Tyler and I opted to go see Lou Diamond Phillips in Camelot at the DeVos Performance Center. We went to downtown GR early in the day to look around, eat at Friday's, and check out the ice skaters at Monroe Center:

Lou Diamond Phillips was fabulous as King Arthur. The entire cast was wonderful. You can sure tell the difference between a Broadway production and a local one! The sets and costumes were so elaborate-it was worth going just to see that! I haven't seen Camelot since middle school but it's surprising how much I remembered about the play and the musical pieces. This was the first time I had been to DeVos Performance Center. Beautiful. Note to self: take in more cultural and artistic events. Both Tyler and I had a wonderful time. The down side-a terrible snowstorm hit while we were in the play. Driving home looked like the opening scene from Star Wars with all the little white specs flying at you!

In February, Tyler, Trevor, Courtney and I went to see the Blue Man Group at the VanAndel Arena. I loved the show this year. It was much improved over last year's version. The musical pieces are fascinating to watch and done with a lot of playfulness and humor.

We entertained ourselves with trips to Deanna's Playhouse with Jayden, trips to the Children's Museum, and our all-time favorite, Meijer Gardens. We saw the butterflies twice! We also got in on the Bonsai Society event again this year. I know it sounds like a big YAWN but the art of Bonsai is really quite intricate and fascinating. Let me tell you, these people are passionate about their little trees!!

Tulip time came and went. The only event I attended was Kinderplaats with Jayden. I did take some pictures and will hopefully get those posted before Labor Day!

Mother's day was nice. I got a bike rack and helmet as a gift, went out to dinner, and to see the new movie, Iron Man starring Robert Downey, Jr. That was a fantastic movie if you like action types and movies of the Batman and X-Men ilk. I thoroughly enjoyed it-worth going to see!

Took in Echoes of Pink Floyd at the Intersection this past weekend(May 17). This was a great cover band. They did three sets and had good video backgrounds, lights, and pyro effects to add interest to the music. I was amazed at how many people were there who were older than me! I saw a lot of parents there with their twenty-something kids. This is definitely a group whose music has endured and captured several generations of listeners. For the last set I went up to the stage and it was fun standing there watching the band-all of whom were young. So many of the younger people there knew every word to every song-amazing-even I, a die-hard Pink Floyd fan-could not accomplish such a feat.

That's pretty much it for now...stay tuned though, I am jumping into my pre-year(49) with both feet! You'll see what I mean when I do my birthday post!

Mom and Dad's 90th Birthday Celebration

February 9th,2008, the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gathered to honor the 90th birthdays of Oliver and Lillian Baker. Oliver was born on January 27th, 1918 and Lillian on February 14, 1918. Oliver and Lillian have known each other since the age of 5 and have been married since age 20-they will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary on July 15th,2008! The gathering took place at the home of Randy and Gina Naranjo in Clackamas, Oregon. As usual, the food was abundant and the fellowship was joyful and warm. This family has truly been blessed to have the patriarch and matriarch for such a span of years. God-willing, there will be more celebrations yet to come! To see the entire album of photos, click the sidebar of this blog that lists Picasa Web Albums or go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/baker.lana9

Baker-Glazek-Wiedewitsch Christmas 2007

Ho!Ho!Ho!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!



Here's our cheesy snow globe that we put our presents around. Yes, it is one of those yard decorations. We adapted it to indoor use as a Christmas tree substitute. This all got started the year that Mieke had her kittens. That was in 2004. The kittens were born in August, so by December they were at that adorable stage where they would climb in the tree and perch in the branches. It was a Kodak photo op. Everyone was highly amused when they came to the house and saw that our Christmas tree ornaments were actual cats! The next year, the cats were full-grown AND there were 8 of them! The first few times that the tree fell over, we dutifully propped it back up thinking that sooner or later the cats would anticipate the tree falling over with them in it and be frightened by that, or at the very least, tire of having their climbing wall collapse underfoot. Not so...we were the ones who grew tired of picking up the tree and repositioning it day after day! Each day another section of the tree would go dark as the lights became too battered to shine. When the lights began to blink-as in short out-we decided to unplug the dang thing and just go without lights. Finally, we just left the pitiful pile of green floof laying on the ground with a note that read "DON'T ASK"-just incase someone was thinking about questioning why our tree was lying on it's side on the floor with presents around it! The tree went in our garage sale that summer and we have not had a Christmas tree since! The first year without a tree seemed very weird and we just threw a decorative Christmas throw over the piano bench, placed it at an angle in the corner of the great room, put the gifts on and around it, and made do. Not very satisfying. The following Christmas I tried to use a little Creche but somehow that didn't quite capture the essence of the traditional icon we had learned to depend upon. Two christmas' ago I bought the snowglobe. Somehow, for our family, that worked. The cats love to watch the artificial snow blow around inside the globe-as does Jayden. Neither cats nor kids seem to be able to cause harm to said snow globe. At last, another Christmas tradition is born.

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is to drag out the Christmas dishes. Somehow, food just tastes better on these plates! Each year I collect the latest Christmas glass from Arby's. I try to get 12 of each design since they do a new one every year. When the kids establish homes of their own I will give them each a set and one for each of the grandkids later as well. Jayden will get first pick of course because he's numero uno.

The three guests of honor at this year's celebration were Courtney Rogers (Trev's girl), Linda Glazek(Jayden's mom), and of course, Lewis Wiedewitsch, dad to Tyler and Trevor and Paw-paw to Jayden.

The star of the show was none other than Jayden Alexander Glazek. There's nothing quite like the sheer delight of a little one on Christmas day! It made us all young again to watch as he
opened his gifts.

Courtney works her decorating magic with a blue bow atop Jayden's head while Granny tries to convince Jayden that Elmo knows what he's talking about when he says, "using the potty is cool!"
Educational toys were big on the list this year with books and puzzles coming in first. Jayden reminds me of Tyler at that age. Very into puzzles and mechanical things.
Tyler has obviously developed more advanced interests other than puzzles at this stage in his development....Truthfully, Tyler is a very talented cook and has a great interest in how to make all kinds of eats and drinks including BEER!
About a month after this photo was taken, we sampled the first batch that Tyler made. It was really very good for a first attempt. I have tasted beer I liked less at some of the local microbreweries. Way to go, Tyl!

Then, we have the perennial lovebirds! They always seem to choose the right gifts for one another. Unlike the shotgun, chainsaw, and tractor that I have received in Christmas' past...right Lew?
Lewis and I went together to buy Tyler a car for Christmas and we outfitted Trevor with a new amp for his guitar and some other music related items.
The greatest gift of all was, of course, celebrating the reason for the season-the birth of our dear Lord-and the time we got to spend together as a family.

Thanksgiving 2007

Jayden Alexander Glazek

Lana and Lewis

Here are our long awaited pictures from Thanksgiving. It was an especially nice holiday. Trevor went to Courtney's family early in the day so we had our celebration over supper. Seated at the table this year: Lewis, Lana, Tyler, Trevor, Courtney, Linda, and Jayden. After a nice meal, we gathered downstairs in the family room for a rousing jam session on the Wii-Guitar Hero, of course.

Turns out that the old folks, Lew and Lana, both got booed off the stage. Everyone else was asked for an encore...obviously the kids have put in some considerable practice time! It was very fun and at the end of the day we all realized how blessed we are to be healthy, to be together again, to have a roof over our heads, work to do, people who care about us, our needs met, and we know God and God knows us.

Jayden with his "Unka" Trevor