Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas Present

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Nathan and Stacy's.
Kaiden is showing me all the ornaments.

After the candlelight service at church, Kaiden had to make sure the candle was blown out!

Christmas brunch at our house, stocking stuffer game and gifts. I think the toothbrush was his favorite! It was a good Christmas.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Past

Nathan's second Christmas, he was 14 months old. We gave him the unbreakable ornaments to hang when we were decorating and then told him to not touch after we were through.

I would find him moving the ornaments and saying "Don't touch". Parents can be so confusing sometimes.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Boys and Their Toys

Helping Tito put the track together

Putting the engine on the track

Look at it go!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Its A Different World

Kaiden and I were reading a book the other evening when his mother snapped a picture.

He immediately wanted to see the picture. I couldn't help but think about how things have changed since his father was this age or when I was growing up. We didn't get to see the pictures until the roll of film was used, then taken to be developed and wait until the pictures came back. There wasn't one hour developers then. It could be weeks even months before you could take the picture.

A couple weeks ago when the kids were here, someone was wondering the name of a movie Diane Keaton had been in. One of them took out their phone and looked it up. Someone else wanted to know how late a store was open on Sundays. One of them took out their phone and looked it up. The phone we had growing up only made phone calls and it was a party line. When we first moved to our town 37 years ago we even had a party line because there were not enough lines available. Can you imagine anyone accepting that now?

I can not even imagine how things will change by the time Kaiden is grown. I only hope that in this world of instant everything, he learns that fast and convenient isn't always better; that you can't always get everything you want that's okay; that some of the old ways of doing things are still the most fun and the anticipation of waiting for something is part of the joy.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Penguin

I have a penguin that dances around and sings

Last year, Kaiden was quite sure about this crazy penguin

This year

He's got it figured out!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Tradition

We have always had a relish tray for Thanksgiving.
There are always olives.
Someone always puts them on their fingers.

The tradition lives on.



Except when the bowl went around the table, he made room for it to stop on his tray. We had to hide them before he ate the entire bowl.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Happy Birthday, Tito

We got together with the kids yesterday to celebrate Tito's birthday. Auntie Carrie made ribs, which these two guys enjoyed immensely. Happy Birthday, Tito. I love you.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Nite, Nite

Guess who spent the night at our house?
Mom and Dad went to a birthday party last Saturday and Kaiden spent the night. We had such a good time. I had forgotten how happy and playful toddlers are when they first wake up.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Gram

He said Gram! My heart melted!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Happy Anniversary

We all look a little shell shocked in this picture! We had no idea what was involved in blending a family, but we made it! What a journey the last 18 years have been! Happy Anniversary, Tito! I love you!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Tickle, Tickle

His new favorite thing - tickling everyone.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

We got together on Saturday to finally celebrate Stacy and Nathan's birthdays as a family and
posed for a family picture

carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds, ate yummy food and laughed alot.


From left to right - Spongebob by Stacy; Boo by Nathan; Old School Jack by Dave, Free Form Cat and Stars by Carrie and ??? by David.

Tonight, Superman came to my door, and said "Bag" as he showed me the trick or treat bag I made for his father 29 years ago

He did say trick or treat, but after he had been in the house for awhile.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Few of My Favorite Things

Another list of things I want to remember... How he goes all around the house naming everything - chair, pillow, ball, book, banana, etc

How he looks when you say "Can you say please?" and he nods his head yes, but won't say it

How he meticulously uses his spoon to get all the soup broth out of his bowl

How he says "It's hot" for all his food. (I think since everyone has been telling him that for months when he is given food - he associates hot for food)

How he studied the neighbor's Halloween display and called the ghosts - monkeys

How he names all the people he knows - MaMa, DaDa, Tito, Carrie, Hat, Josh, Becky, Shari, Emmett, but no Gram yet

How he put this pillow on the floor, put his head down and said Nite Nite.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Saturdays

I am the youngest of 5 - quite a bit younger, my siblings are 22, 21, 19 and 12 years older. So for the most part of my growing up years, they were married and not living at home. Most Saturdays, one or more of them would visit with their families. I have several nieces and nephews close to my age and always looked forward to having someone to play with. I now think my parents enjoyed these visits as much as I did. It is wonderful to have your grown children come home. Most Saturdays one or both of them call and says "What's for dinner?"
Sometimes we just sit around the table and talk.

Sometimes we play a game.


Sometimes there is a puzzle to be worked.

Sometimes there is a Wi bowling competition
Sometimes we just let this little one entertain us.


(He was pushing himself backwards in his truck just like Tito does his chair.)
But whatever we do, I treasure these times. I know there will come a time when they have better things to do than hang around with Tito and Gram, but until that day comes, I really like Saturdays.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Happy Birthday!


The facts aren't quite right - it was 31 years ago and he didn't wake me up at 4:00 am, he kept me up until 4:12 am, but when I saw this cartoon many years ago, I had to cut it out and put it in his scrapbook.

Happy Birthday, Nathan! It has been such a pleasure watching you grow up into the man you are today. I love seeing you with your family - how much you love your wife and son.

I couldn't imagine 31 years ago how I could love you more, but I do. Have a great day!

And the threat is still there -someday I will call you at 4:12 am to wish you Happy Birthday.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Indian Summer

The flowers are living on borrowed time. They keep putting frost warnings and snow in the forecast and taking them out again, but it will happen soon. I brought in all the tomatoes last week when a frost was a possibility and now we have green tomatoes lined up on the window sill to ripen. This weekend I dug the beets an carrots and cut back more flowers. We will remember this summer as the one

  • Carrie grew the smallest cherry tomatoes we have ever seen
  • We couldn't keep up with the rhubarb, but did keep up with the zucchini
  • Nathan and Stacy planted their first garden
  • Tita, Ricky and Sarah, Roger and Lynda came to visit
  • Kaiden discovered the moon
  • Kaiden renamed Dave 'Hat'
  • Kaiden talked about balls, birds, bugs, planes, monkeys and SpongeBob

We had a very good summer






Monday, October 11, 2010

Sentences

He is becoming very opinionated - he has one and will let you know.

He is also talking in sentences. Sure they are very short sentences, but we are going to capitalize that first letter and add the period after the second word, because that is what grandparents do.

Moon gone. Have monkey. Bye,plane.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Week in Review

We made it up the mountains last Saturday and were able to see some of the aspen colors. The trees were past their peak - quite a few had already lost their leaves. But it was a beautiful day and I never tire of seeing the bright gold among the pines.

We had brunch on Sunday to celebrate Stacy's birthday. Kaiden found a bottle of bubbles and we had to go outside so he could blow bubbles. Tito and I are amazed each week the changes in this little boy.

I brought out Halloween decorations. The jack-o-lantern in the middle is one I made several years ago. It has been laying in my sewing room since last year. I didn't pack it away after Halloween last year because I intended to make one for Carrie and Stacy. Well, I finished them on Saturday night to have Stacy's ready on Sunday. Carrie - yours is sitting on the dining room table waiting for you.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, Stacy

Happy Birthday to our dear daughter-in-law. She is a sweet, funny, endearing person and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

This is one of the big birthdays - one that ends in a 0! Have a great day! We love you!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Moon

Kaiden loves to go outside and look at the moon. Sometimes he points to the sun during the day and says moon. A few weeks ago we were outside trying to find the moon. The moon was not visible, but he kept looking. Finally he looked across the back yard and saw the street light shining above his head and proclaimed it "MOON".

Monday, September 27, 2010

Picnic

Saturday was beautiful so we took advantage and went on a picnic. We only went into the foothills so didn't see many trees turning. The river is so low and everything is so dry.

After lunch we took a walk and Kaiden made a friend.

Come on Gram!

Time for a rest.