Our family had a great, big year! Two weddings, a birth announcement, and two more sons joined the military. But let’s begin at the beginning. Last January we celebrated Garry James birthday in Olympic Valley. Garry and Christian enjoy snowboarding, and the Sierras were full of snow a year ago. I’m happy to report this year is very snowy as well and we will be returning to Tahoe soon to celebrate Garry James’s seventeenth birthday. It’s hard to believe our two youngest boys (the only ones left at home) are already teenagers.

Winter went by too fast. In the spring, both Joey and John left for their bootcamps, Joey to Georgia and John to Missouri. Joey rode horses with Lacy and hunted as much as he could with Opa before he had to go. Our family has had buckskin horses for years and we were anxiously awaiting the birth of a foal, hoping it came before Joey shipped out in April. Our mare Heart is a bay quarter horse and the sire Arrow, (Heart and Arrow, cute, huh?) is black, so the chances of getting a buckskin foal was like winning the lottery. But I was praying for a buckskin colt and told Joey if Heart had a buckskin colt he had to return home after his five-year Army contract to ride it. “Heart is having a brown filly,” Joey predicted. Here he is riding our old buckskin Reno before leaving.

Our whole family was betting on the gender and color of the coming foal. “If Heart has a buckskin colt promise me you will return to California and build your life here,” I pleaded. It was Joey and Emilee who’d wanted a foal out of Heart. They became a couple after graduating 8th grade and enjoy horses and country living. I hadn’t foreseen Joey joining the military, he became an EMT after high school, and was working at a hospital before signing on with Uncle Sam. I was struggling to let Joey go. Joey said, “If Heart has a buckskin colt, I promise I’ll come home.” I bawled hugging him goodbye. The foal arrived exactly one week later on a Sunday morning.

This little buckskin was exactly what we needed to get us over the hump of Joey and John leaving for basic training. Emilee came over often to make sure Tivo bonded with her. I still call Tivo “Buddy” because he was our little buddy when we were all hurting over the boys going away. Tivo has also become our livestock guardian dog Ragnar’s best buddy. It’s so cute watching them play in the pasture. Ragnar guards our farm, is very protective of our family, the horses, kitties, and chickens, and is especially watchful over the grandkids. He’s such an amazing dog. We no longer have coyote problems, and the mountain lions don’t hang around with Ragnar on patrol. I feel much safer in the orchard with Ragnar.

The grandkids are usually racing in all directions, and Ragnar tries to round them up. Very rarely do I get them all in one place for a picture. Here at Easter the little cutie with the Minnie Mouse basket is actually a cousin to these cousins. I adore Easter because we all get together at Oma and Opa’s for a big Easter party and the kids hunt eggs. Lacy’s youngest Isaac is doing awesome after his traumatic birth, and you can see he is a big healthy hunk in our arms. Actually, he’s now running around and looks just like Garry James did at that age.

The girls and their sweet families are doing fantastic. Cami and Drew both began new jobs in 2024, Cami working for Brittan School in Sutter and Drew working for MHM, an engineering firm in Marysville. They are very happy and having a blast raising their beautiful girls, Kara and Abby.

Jake and Lacy also nailed down a new gig in 2024, landing their dream job running a duck club. Lacy continues to work parttime as a night nurse at the hospital caring for new moms and babies, and we are so blessed Jake and Lacy’s little ones are healthy, happy, and growing up in a land full of love, adventure, and wildlife.

Speaking of love, before John left, he and Skye married on a pebbly beach in Carmel. It was a small, intimate affair with Scott joining them in holy matrimony as waves rolled onto the shore. Their reception was held at The Mission Ranch in Carmel, owned by Clint Eastwood, and one of our favorite getaway spots. It was a beautiful evening with the ocean in view during our dinner on the patio. To our delight, John completed basic training and returned to California in November. He is now stationed in Monterey. He and Skye are happily settled into base housing, and they can hear the ocean from their backyard.

After our bittersweet spring, summer brought harvest season and Oma and I did our best to kick butt and take names as Opa likes to say. We were chasing names because we faced numerous challenges. I spent half the summer emailing people at night trying to work through our issues so we could continue selling our fruit to grocery stores. California has rules and regulations for everything under the sun now and small family farms are being buried in bureaucracy, but I’m happy to report we overcame the problems. We even ended up on the cover of a national magazine. Had I not been emailing different folks trying to keep our fruit business going, I would never have met the UC Davis agriculture professors eager to help small farmers, which led to the magazine article.

Scott made the news this summer, too. He actually was on the nightly news weekly during fire season with Sac Metro Air Operations either putting out fires around the city or making water and mountain rescues. He absolutely loves his job with Metro and is now also flying parttime for Capitol Helicopters on the days he doesn’t fly for Sac Metro.

Scott taking on two flying jobs has been a big adjustment for the boys and me but when we do get time together as a family, we run off to the mountains. Christian loves to fish and has gotten really good at diving for crawdads in alpine lakes. He’s also become quite the chef in the kitchen and with the grill and continues to amaze us with his survival skills and animal whispering abilities. He’s definitely made for the outdoors and took good care of me when Scott wasn’t able to go to the mountains with us because he was flying most of summer and fall.

Oh, the beauty of fall! And high school football! Garry James had a ton of fun playing varsity football and we loved watching him and his team make it all the way to the section championship. Sutter lost in the final seconds of the game at Sac City College to a two-point conversion but what a game! And what a season! We can’t wait for this year with most of Sutter’s varsity team returning. We have a really good shot of going all the way to State in 2025. Stay tuned for Garry Jame’s senior year!

Christmas arrived before we knew it, and with it came a sweet miracle. Scott has doggedly prayed for years for a baby girl to join big brother, Cameron who turned seven in the fall. Every morning Scott and I have coffee together and we pray for our family before he leaves for work. Or if he’s away flying a fire somewhere, we pray by Facetime. Without fail Scott has prayed for Luke and Alex to have a baby girl. He’s prayed so long we both were beginning to doubt it was ever going to happen. But when Luke, Alex, and Cam came home for Christmas, they surprised us with this amazing little gift we hung on our tree. Can you spot her here?

Luke, Alex and Cam live on the East Coast now, so it wasn’t hard for them to keep their secret. Scott cried when he opened the gift Luke handed him, the ultrasound picture taped to a T-shirt. We now pray every morning for baby “Scottie” due in May. Camila Scott Bicknell will be her name, Mila for short. God is so good! We love her so much already!

Never stop praying! God loves babies for Christmas! Luke knows since he prayed for a brother for Christmas twenty-two years ago, and got John, and then three more little brothers after that! Luke led his little brothers into playing soccer and football and now is leading them into military service. Luke makes everything look cool. Even a mustache!

The goodness of God overwhelmed me when the kids lined up last week in our walnut orchard for wedding pictures. Joey and Emilee married on New Year’s Eve. Though it had pretty much rained all of December, the sun came out for their black and white wedding. The stormy weather cleared just in time for their afternoon ceremony in our backyard. Scott choked up again as he led Joey and Emilee through their vows. Sitting in the front row, happy tears ran down my face. It’s hard to believe five of our children are married already and the grandkids keep on coming! We have high hopes for many more grandbabies. Love is a beautiful thing!

We are so thankful Joey and Emilee’s winter wedding turned out so beautifully. Emilee did an amazing job planning it all while Joey was training in Georgia. And the best news is they will be stationed on the West Coast by this coming spring, which is much closer than Georgia where Joey is stationed now.

Tivo tried to steal the show when the photographer wanted to take some pictures in the front pasture with the horses. He was fascinated by Emilee’s long veil. Tivo is a known photobomber but outdid himself during the wedding. I’m sure he would have danced the first dance with Emilee and Joey if they’d let him. He’s quite a colt.

Emilee and her dad built the dance floor and Garry and Emilee’s brother Logan helped paint it. If you have forgotten how to dance just channel your inner five-year-old, sugared-up self and nobody will keep you in a corner. Baby, you will dance! I danced for several hours with our grandkids and later our older kids, Scott, and even jitterbugged with my dad. My legs hurt for days (should have removed my heels when dancing) but it was worth it!

With everything going on, I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done in 2024, but did have a short story come out in Chicken Soup for the Soul. I’m hoping to finish a new book this year. I have several manuscripts in the works and am waiting to see which story overtakes my heart. Usually, several books are developing in my head at the same time. I have to fall in love with the characters in a story to get a whole novel written. Words and stories are a powerful thing.

Did you pick a word for your year? Scott chose Mercy and I picked Love. God’s love never fails. Human love may fail from time to time but God’s love never wavers. We are so thankful the Lord has kept us in love and has blessed our family so abundantly.

We weren’t able to get all our big kids to join us for our annual walk to gather our rocks in the ravine after they’d stayed up late dancing, but I carried a handful of stones back to the house for them. The grandkids love our New Years’ tradition of words, rocks, and our walk, and it was so fun this year because our older grandkids can write their own words now.

Their words give me hope for our world. The interesting thing is the girls didn’t want to take their rocks home. They tucked them in the sand. “We want them to stay there, Poppy,” one of the girls told me when I reached down to pick them up. “Okay,” I said, snapping a picture instead. Their innocent child’s trust in letting their rocks go hit me hard.

I need to let go. I need to embrace this new season for our family. A letting go season where some of our kids move to other states and all of us being together is rare and precious. Maybe some of you are in a “letting go” season too. If you need to let go, I’m sending you a little prayer. I know it hurts.

Last year my word was RISK, which scared me. I thought this word was about me, but in the end, I see it was foreshadowing our sons and Scott risking their lives for others. Scott has always been a protector and a rescuer. Our family joke is, “Dad has saved so many lives,” but it’s no joke. Scott is always the first to dive in the water to rescue people from drowning. He was a lifeguard in college and has saved so many kids in lakes and the ocean we’ve lost count of them all. He puts out fires. Twice he has smothered women’s long hair that caught fire due to birthday candles, blistering Scott’s hands, and appalling the rest of us at parties. Fires happen so fast. He puts out fires with a helicopter now. He’s saved choking victims and lost hikers and has raised brave sons just like him.

Being Scott’s wife is a gift and a concern. As he protects others, I pray God protects him. I’m praying angels around our sons in the service too. The world has become a war-torn place and feels on fire right now. Thankfully God is in control of all things. If the word you’ve chosen scares you, remember, “There is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear” 1 John 4:18. Though nothing seems certain anymore, ask God to protect you and your family. Ask him to, “Bless and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace” Numbers 6:24-26.

Happy New Year, friends. I hope 2025 brings you peace, love, and happiness.

Warm hugs, Paula