Fun In The Sun

On Sunday we went to John and Janice's for brunch after church. They have a beautiful yard and we were able to eat on the patio before the winds started. Kaiden had a great time playing with different toys.

Mom even got in on the fun

As well as Dad

I Wonder

Kaiden is fascinated with my Shark and my broom. He finds them and drags them around the house. I wonder if he will be this fascinated when he is old enough to clean with them?

He moves so quickly it is hard to focus on him.

My New Favorite Photo

A Walk With Kaiden

Last Saturday after supper, Kaiden and I walked to the mailbox. The mailbox is 2 houses down from us and just around the curve you see in this picture of Kaiden and Nathan walking. When we got back we were asked if we took the long way or maybe went around the entire block. We didn't, but walking with a 15 month old is an adventure. This is what we did...

• The kids next door were outside, so we stopped and see them.
• Their dog was outside, so we stopped and see her.
• We stopped to feel the grass (several times).
• We stopped to pick up a rock.
• We stopped to see the bunny in the yard next door.
• We followed the bunny across the grass.
• We arrived at the mail box.
• We picked up our mail.
• We stopped to see the bunny.
• We followed the bunny until it went under a bush.
• We stopped to waive bye-bye to a passing car.
• We stopped to feel the grass.
• We stopped to touch the tree.
• We stopped to waive bye-bye to another car.
• It was a very busy walk.
  

Tita

My mother-in-law was here the last ten days. We had so much fun, but took very few pictures. With her first born

and her great grandson.

She went back to California today and we miss her!

I Can't Believe It!!

It certainly didn't look like this around here this morning. We had about 3 inches of snow and expect more tonight. I am hoping we will have warm weather after this storm. This corner is near my office and I think it is so pretty. I just love tulips.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and didn't take a single picture. I can't believe I did that. I do have wonderful images in my heart.

My mother-in-law came in on Friday for a visit. It is so good to have her here and see that she is doing so well after loosing her dear Johnny last October.

The kids all came on Saturday for dinner.

Kaiden had his first haircut - he looks so cute.

Kaiden loves to push things and really liked helping Tita pushing her walker around the house.

He also loves to push or drag my Shark (carpet sweeper) around the house.

We went to a birthday party Friday night for our friend's son who was in town from Florida. Nathan and he grew up together. It was so good to see some on the other kids that grew up together (most of them have kids of their own now).

Our friends live in the country and have chickens. Kaiden loved them. He called them Icca. Their cat's name is Ricca and he calls all animals Icca.

Nathan, Stacy and Kaiden brought me an orchid corsage to church on Sunday morning.

After church John and Janice came over for brunch.

I worked in the yard in the afternoon, but didn't plant flowers because of the prediction for snow today. I usually don't plant them until the end of May. I have had to go out too many times to cover them.

I can't believe I didn't take pictures!

I'm the Mom

This is so much fun. I actually saw her do this at a Women of Faith weekend in Denver. They brought an oxygen tank onto the stage and told her they were betting on whether she would be able to get through this in the thin mile high air.

Enjoy!

Quilts and Doll Clothes

Continuing remembering my Mama this week before Mother's Day, I wanted to share some of her handiwork. She was always sewing - made all of our clothes on a treadle sewing machine. All three of us girls learned to sew on that machine. I can remember the frustration of learning the rhythm of the treadle so it didn't break your thread. It was so easy to sew when I took Home Ec at school and there were electric sewing machines. I have her sewing machine and could probably still sew on it if I had to, but use my trusty Kenmore I have had for almost 40 years. The quilt at the back is my baby quilt. The one at the bottom is the quilt my Mama made when I was married. She made all of us a quilt and crocheted a tablecloth for wedding gifts. There are many memories in this quilt because of the fabrics. There is a block with the fabric from the dress I wore the first day of school!. The two smaller quilts were made for my dolls.

These are some of the clothes she made for my dolls. I received them as a Christmas gift one year. I never appreciated the detail she put into these until after she was gone. Look at the scalloped collar and border on the purple dress. The square dance dress has tiny rick rack sewn by hand and a rhinestone on the color. The coat is fully lined.

She must have loved me very much!

Doilies

I have posted this picture of my dining room wall before, but have a story about my Mama and two of the doilies (its actually a story about my Dad also).

My Dad worked for the Great Western Sugar factory during the winter when there wasn't as much work on the farm. Sugar bags used to have a sown strip across the top and you would pull the string to open the bag. This was done on a machine at the sugar mill. When the spools of thread would get down to a certain point where there was not enough thread left to finish a run, they would be changed out and discarded. During World War II when so many things were rationed, my father would pick the spools up and bring them home. My Mama used this leftover string to crochet doilies like the one in the upper left corner.

She did things like this all the time - taking something ordinary and making it into something special.

My Mama

In honor of Mother's Day, I wanted to tell you a little about my Mama. I was so lucky to have such an amazing woman as my mother and I am so sorry she passed away before I had children. I had written on her birthday in February that I didn't have a picture of her with me. My nephew, Gary (in the picture), posted this one on Facebook. That's my Uncle Herman on the couch with us - he was my mother's older brother.

My mother grew up on a farm with three brothers and I can't think of anything she couldn't do. She was an excellent seamstress - she made most of our clothes - we went back to school shopping at the fabric store. She crocheted and knitted. She made beautiful quilts and embroidered. We did not have a tea towel or pillow case in the house that hadn't been embroidered. She had a green thumb, canned vegetables, made pickles, jams and jellies and was the best cook I have ever met. She worked along side my Dad when they built a house, including shingling the house.

By the time I was born - the youngest of five and twelve years behind the last, there probably wasn't much I did that surprised her. She was a confident, loving Mother. She was strict and had high standards for her children and we learned good life skills and morals. She died when she was only 65 and I was 22. I still miss her, but I am so blessed to have had her as a Mother and hope and pray that I was half as good at parenting.

On a side note, don't you love my hair? My mother would roll my natural wavy hair in pink spoolies (remember those) to achieve this look. If you look closely enough you will see I have a cast on my arm - that is a story for another post.

Dear Kaiden,

We have enjoyed being able to help your parents by watching you while they were in the process of moving into your new home. You are such a joy! We love how you stand on your head, love watching you walk and discover all the buttons to push, turning the dryer on and off, changing TV channels. We love your laughter. We love the way you say "tank yu" when you give us something or take something from us. It is such a pleasure watching you learn.

Now if we only knew what you were trying to say when you point at almost anything and say "briez".

Love, Gram and Tito

Garage Recovered

My garage has looked like this for about a month. Our cars have been parked in our driveway.I won't say my garage is clean now, but we can get our cars inside today, because yesterday the kids moved everything into their new house!

They are so happy, instead of a one-bedroom 950 sq ft condo with 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 dog and 1 cat, they have a three-bedroom home.

Congratulations! May you have many wonderful memories in your new home.

And we did volunteer to store their furniture in our garage.

Tisket a Tasket

This basket made of beads and safety pins and filled with tired silk flowers was the beginning of a long running joke. About 10 years ago, it was brought to a Christmas party at my home as part of a white elephant gift exchange (hard to imagine someone parting with this gem). My friend Lori was lucky enough to be the recipient. The next day I picked up throw pillows from the floor and found that she had forgot to take it home (some might say deliberately hid). She didn't seem to be too concerned when I mentioned the oversight.

The next Easter, it found its way back to Lori hidden under grass in her Easter basket. Imagine my surprise the next Christmas morning when there was an extra present under the tree with no name tag. I opened the package and found not one basket but

two! That spring, her sons were graduating from high school and I was in need of a gift. Two sons, two baskets, it was perfect. I found put silk flowers in the other basket, added a check to each one, wrapped them and headed to their party. You should have seen the look on their faces when they opened their gifts and the adults roared with laughter.

The next year, at my 50th birthday party, I opened a present and found to my surprise

there were now 3 of them. All 3 of them had 50 pieces of what we called penny candy growing up. A couple years later, Lori and Jim celebrated their 25th anniversary. I made an arrangement of dollar bills in each of the baskets, wrapped them and left them with a mutual friend as we were going to be on vacation the night of the party. Even with the addition of the money, they were not the favorite gift they received!!

I don't remember all the times they have exchanged hands over the years - we snuck them into a closet at their home on New Year's Eve, I was the "winner" at Bunco one night. Each time they came back from Lori's there was an addition.

There seems to be an endless supply of the things out there. I have seen articles on this "art form" from the 60's in Country Living and Mary Engelbreit's magazines. Lori and her husband have an antique/collectible business and she frequents garage sales and Goodwill stores.

A year ago Lori was my Secret Prayer Sister. It is our custom when we reveal our identity at the end of the year to present a small gift. Lori outdid herself.

All of these baskets and a few more were arranged in a beautiful basket with a few other small gifts tucked in here and there. It was really a great arrangement and there is a picture of it somewhere but I can't find it.

The baskets are safely put away in my basement waiting for the perfect time, the perfect idea.