ONE GREAT KID!

Let me introduce you to one GREAT kid. 

This is Matthew, my grandson.  He has been riding quads since he was three years old.  This last summer he got to ride Grandpa's Banshee quad for the first time, he was so excited and thrilled to get to ride it by himself.

 He is a really smart young man, he is currently reading the fourth Harry Potter book. 

He wrestled for the first time this year and is making wonderful progress, each meet he gets better and better.

 He is also a great cousin, he is holding his baby cousin Dawson, (how many nine year old boys would want to hold a baby?). 

Matthew is also my game player, we have one particular game he and I play all the time.  It is Skip-Bo with a twist, we call it Turbo Skip-Bo.  We have tweaked it so that we play continuously until our piles are gone, not stopping to take turns, just full on and fast.
He is also a great Banana Grams player.  He can come up with some great words, frontier for one.  He did get one of the words wrong just because I told him it was right, I looked it up later and I was wrong.  The word was forfeit which I said was right as he had it at 'forfit'.

I love this guy, he is one awesome kid in my never to be humble opinion.  Any grandma would be proud  to have him as a grandson, I just happen to be that lucky Grandma.

MOTHER DAUGHTER TIME

One of my favorite things to do is to go visit at my daughters house and help her do mini makeovers.  It is something we do occasionally to help get a new look going when things get blah!  She comes to my house and does the same thing.  It is so nice to get someone elses ideas.  We rarely buy anything new, we just rearrange what we've got.  We pull things from all over the house to make these changes.

Here is Maria up pulling things down that have been up since they built their house five years ago.  She was getting that ho hum, blah feeling about her kitchen. 

(Bad photo, the settings on my camera were not set right but this is the only picture I have of the before.)

This is what we came up with for this area.  The chicken picture was taken from the dining room, the apples used to be in a large jar on the upper shelf but we stacked them on a wire pedestal thingy then added some cookbooks (you can't see them behind her) and a cute chicken feeder made from a Mason jar.

On the upper left ledge she added a crock and an old butter churn she got from her husband's grandmother. 

The wooden horse was a nice touch, it was something that Maria's great-grandmother gave her.

Overall, I think she was happy with the results.

(Photo courtesy of her son goofing around with my camera.)

GUN CONTROL...BEING RESPONSIBLE

I came across these photo's on my son-in-law's brothers FB page.  The two boys are my grandsons, Spencer and Matthew.  They went target practicing on New Year's day where responsible firearms handling is taught at a young age in their family, which is how it should be.

Here is Spencer getting a good look through the scope.

Matthew taking his turn.

And this is their grandmother, does she look fierce or what?

BABY UPDATE

That's one thing that babies do best, they pose for pictures well.  (OK, maybe it takes quite a few shots to get the right one.)

Dawson was kinda sleepy in this one but she did manage to melt my heart.

William, the sweetheart, was talking up a storm when I took this one.

He loves to coo and act like he is in a deep converstion.

Here is a photo of all eight grandchildren.  I think I need a new camera, this is the best shot I could get of them.

Look Who Came For A Visit

We had two very special visitors last night.  What little angels they are. (Of course I don't have to tell you that.)






William James with a look on his face like he is pouting but he wasn't really.

 


Such a little love bug.




Dawson looking wide awake for the camera.



"Oh, that camera flash was bright", says Dawson Rosalie.

The Stork Made Another Delivery

Our very own Mister William arrived this morning at about 9:30. Here he is getting his first bath, he was only about 20 minutes old. All fingers and toes were accounted for and he is a very healthy little guy.Here is William's mama just last night getting very anxious to have this baby. She was scheduled to be induced this morning at 7:00 but began contractions around 10:00 p.m. and they headed to the hospital around 3 a.m. She did really well but is very tired.

By the way, he was born right on his due date, what an obedient little guy he is.

Little Miss Dawson Has Arrived

Meet our newest grandchild, Dawson Rosalie. She was born 9/18/2010. Hmmmm, it looks like she has discovered her fingers already. Here she is just 12 hours old. Stay tuned for more photo's...plus another grand baby will be here sometime on Tuesday.

Our Two Baby Bumps

Here are my two cute daughters-in-law showing off their baby bumps. Randy is on the left and her baby girl it due Sept. 19. On the right is Courtney with her baby boy due on Sept. 21. All I ask is that they don't go into labor on the same day. This is the first baby for both of them so we are very excited to have these two new additions. The part I am jealous about is that neither one has any stretch marks yet.

We Survived!

Hubby and I survived the camp out. First activity was a scavenger hunt. The kids had a lot of fun with this. Next we played some games like sardines, red rover, bate the bear and the hokey pokey. Then it was time for the campfire and s'mores and singing, (although the singing fizzled the s'mores were great).

Grandpa ended the night with everyone in their sleeping bags listening to stories. Most of them were out before the second story began.

Breakfast was doughnuts and hot cocoa.

'Til next year................!

Cousin's Campout Tonight

(image courtesy of Xara Xone)
Tonight hubby and I are hosting a backyard camp (grandpa gets the privilege of sleeping in the tent with them, I will be inside thank you very much) for our grandchildren. There are six of them, a 2 yr. old, 3 yr. old, 4 yr. old, 7 yr. old, and two 9 yr. olds. We have games, prizes, campfire with s'mores, campfire sing-a-longs and maybe a few scary stories. Dinner will be macaroni and cheese and hot dogs with ice-cream cones for dessert. And if that isn't enough junk food we will be buying doughnuts from the bakery for breakfast with some hot cocoa.

Check back in a few days and see if I am still sane.

He Thinks He's A Lap Dog

This is my son Dustin with his "LAP" dog.This dog seriously believes he is a petite lap dog.

Canvas Project

I am joining the fun over at Strut Your Stuff. Stop by and check out all of the great bloggers that are sharing fabulous ideas...it is so inspiring.

I came across a blog awhile back (called Treasury of Memories) and found some great ideas usuing painters canvases. I love the idea of using so many different mediums to create ways to display photos. By using canvases, paint, scrapbook paper and embellishment and then adding vinyl lettering the possibilites are endless. There are so many really adorble embellishments that are used in scrapbooking that it only seemed natural to adapt them to other projects.

For this project I started out by paint the canvas an antique white. I then cut a piece of foam core that I painted black, glued down some scrapbook paper and then Mod Podged a photo that I printed off of my computer onto cardstock. I then added some ribbon to the left side of the photo and added a cute little metal flower.

Next I glued the foam core piece to the canvas.

I then cut some vinyl lettering and applied it directly to the canvas. To finish it off I wrapped the same ribbon I used above horizontally around the canvas and added a cute little buckle.

I also have joined the linky party at Life as Lori. Great stuff over there, check it out by clicking on icon below

PAPA

A wonderful man came into my life, or rather I came into his life about fifty-two plus years ago. He was dad, aka Lauren, Corn, Papa. Today it has been five years since he passed away so I wanted to post a little tribute to him.

He wore many hats,

a father

a husband

a friend (he never met a stranger)

a machinist

a fisherman

a hunter

a fixer of almost anything

lover of classical music

a golfer

and the most wonderful grandpa to eleven grandchildren

He was "PAPA"

These were the only pictures I was able to get my computer t0 accept. It is not the computers fault, it is the operator.
He was a big kid at heart, always up for fun.
He built my brother a go-cart when he was little,
built a tree house for the grandkids to play in,
he made kitchen knives and hunting knives,
he grew and sold raspberries,
he love spending time in Alaska panning for gold and fishing for salmon.
He loved riding his four wheeler in the deserts of Arizona.

He was not a mean person in any way, shape, or form.
Nope, he refused to make anyone feel unimportant.

He always loved a good joke,(sometimes a little off color) he seemed to always have one waiting in the wings to tell.

Was he perfect? NO
Was he loved and adored? YES!!

Knock, knock
Who's there?
Miss
Miss Who?
I Miss you Dad!