He Smiles

Finally, a picture of him smiling!

Sleeping Angel

He fell asleep with a tight grip on my finger. He looks like such an angel when he is asleep. But of course he looks like an angel when he is awake!

The End of a Smile

I am not having any luck getting a picture of Kaiden's beautiful smile. He seems so fascinated with the camera that he stops smiling and looks at it. I have tried sneaking up on him, I have tried making him smile and having Tito snap the picture, but no luck. I thought I had him this time, but the camera was not quick enough. This is the end of the smile and it makes him look somewhat like a chipmunk. I will not give up!

Iris

My mother called them Flags and they were one of her favorite flowers - which is probably why they are one of my favorite also. Mine are just starting to open.

I dug some of them up from our old house and my friend, Jean, gave me some more. This is the 3rd spring in this yard and they are loaded with buds.

New (to us) Swing

When we went to church Sunday, this swing was sitting by a coat rack with a note "free". Nathan loaded it up so I could bring it home to have for when Kaiden comes over. We don't know who brought it, but Thank You! Kaiden enjoyed it Sunday evening.

Rainy Weekend

It was a rainy Memorial Day weekend. I did manage to get the lawn cut on Friday night before it started raining and I got my pots planted. I did not get many pictures of the yard though. I would finish a project and the rain would start and I didn't get back out to take pictures, but here are a few. Pots at the corner of the house in Carrie's old wagon. I would like the pots to match, but have these and I am too frugal (cheap) to buy 2 that match.

These are at the corner of our patio. I love the blue and wish the larger one was blue also, but again too frugal to buy a new one.

I moved some of my hens and chicks into shoes were some had died. I had seen a picture in a magazine 7 or 8 years ago of a boot with hens and chicks planted and told David I wanted one for our yard. A couple weeks later I came home and said I had seen a pair of old boots in an intersection near David's office but the light was green so I didn't have to stop. The next day,

David brought them home for me! Is that love or what? They are the pair in the center. He then found the rubber boot along the road a few weeks later. So we had 3 boots at our old house in the herb garden. After David lost his leg to cancer and we had many right shoes that were not being used, we planted them and gave many to friends for Christmas and expanded our collection. What can I say, cancer changes your sense of humor - you learn to laugh at odd things! Our friend, Gary, has his on a mound with other plants around it and has named it Boot Hill!

Date Night

Mom and Dad had date night Saturday and we got to watch Kaiden and they didn't even charge us! He came over after eating and in a good mood, cooing and playing with the toys hanging from his car seat - he loves his letters!

If you look closely at this picture you can see the bubbles he loves to blow. You will also note he has removed his bib - one of his new tricks!

He also likes his giraffe - he is getting good at holding items. We sat on the floor next to him marveling at everything he was doing as if he was the first baby to ever do these things! Being a grandparent is wonderful!

Columbines

I love columbines! The blue columbine is our state flower and is my favorite, but I love the other colors also. I have three different colors in my yard, Here is the purple one - I actually have this one with a white center and one with a yellow center (picture below)

It is a little hard to tell in this photo, but the center is yellow on this plant. You can see all my perennials in the background.

This is a red columbine. This plant is actually one that seeded itself and bloomed before the main plant this year.

Here is my blue plant. The buds aren't quite open but will be in a couple of days. I have been looking for another blue plant this spring but so far have not found one. This one never seems to reseed for me. After my columbines quite blooming I cut them back and some years they bloom for me again.

The predicted weekend weather is warm and sunny. For both days. It is about time! I know we needed the snow and rain, but really, would it hurt to rain on Monday?

My Mother's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day, we went to church and Kaiden set with us for awhile - he loves the music. We then went to breakfast with the kids and had a nice time. They gave me a digital photo frame. I was so anxious to get home and load pictures - but the box came with false advertising. It said it was as easy as 1-2-3 to load pictures, music and videos. They did not put in the tiny print only if you are under 35, work in a tech industry or have all your pictures on the original memory card from your camera. I had 6 pictures on memory card, plugged it in and they appeared in the frame. The problem came when I tried to transfer them from my computer to the frame. So after and hour or two of pure frustration, I packed it all up and calmly put it aside. (Okay, maybe it wasn't so calm, but I didn't throw it away! Some members of my family think I get frustrated too easily and do rash things - they will not be named in this blog). I was very pleased when it took Nathan some time to figure out how to make the transfer. (I'm not sure if it was a little tricky or if he was just making me feel good because it was Mother's Day). I love the frame! In the future I will be downloading from my memory card though. They came for dinner which David cooked and we had a nice meal. We missed Carrie and Dave, but Carrie has finals this week and was in serious study mode. Kaiden changes so much from week to week (Nathan and Stacy say they see changes daily). He is very active and talkative. He is rolling over front to back and back to front and holding his head up high. He was just about to go over onto his back in this picture.

He is focusing on objects and holding toys. He was reaching for the camera in this picture. The little stinker was smiling all afternoon except when I got the camera out. I have yet to get a good smiling picture of him.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all and especially to Stacy on her first Mother's Day. You are very special to us, you are a dear, sweet person and Kaiden is very lucky to have you for a mother. We hope it is a special day for you! Love, Tito and Gram

Memories

The album pictured is what I took to the Daughter Tea as my 'Memory'. My parents made this for me for Christmas when I was 8 or 9 years old. The wood is paneling that my father salvaged from a construction site.

It is hard to tell in the in the picture, but my mother wood burned Photograph Album on the cover and filled cut scrapbook paper to fit inside. I have always treasured this. It is a good example of a gift costing next to nothing but being priceless!

This is a picture of the first page of the album with my parents pictured in the center and a picture of their 5 children.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Santa Margarita!

Happy Birthday! Hope you and Roger are having a great time in Cabo. We are looking forward to your visit in December. We had such a good time the last time you were here..

our trip to the mountains for a picnic

the search for the cowboys


and the horse (we couldn't make you believe this was a real horse - did we ever tell you that was a manure spreader you are sitting on?)

and finally we found Greta Truda! I think she still has your glasses! Happy Birthday to the best sister David has!

P.S. If the Spanish is spelled wrong - it is David's fault, if its not - I did it all by myself!

Love, David & Helen

Daughter Tea

Our church had our annual Daughter Tea last Saturday. We call it a daughter tea, because even though not all of us women are mothers or have daughters, we are all daughters.

Our theme this year was Memories and we were asked to bring our favorite photo, old or new, formal or just a snapshot. The table above shows some of the photos.

We all brought food for the tea and our hostess, Janice, provided the tea and punch and coffee. It was funny that only one person drank tea at the tea. Lutherans are big coffee drinkers!

We then shared our photos and the memories they brought. There were photos of parents and grandparents, siblings, cousins and friends. We heard stories about each other that we had never heard before and some of us have known each other for a long time. One of the things we noticed was so many of the photos taken in the 40's and 50's were taken in front of the family car!

We had door prizes and our youngest daughter in attendance drew the names. The first name she drew was her grandmothers! She won a door prize also and is here with her new bath set which she couldn't wait to use. It was a very enjoyable afternoon inside out of the chilly rainy Saturday.

Three Months

Kaiden is three months old today!