Grandpa's Here!

Grandpa arrived here yesterday, and the kids immediately put him to work pitching baseballs :)

And then they fought over who could catch them :)

It was a friendly war at least :)


The baby slept through the whole sports event.

I love this little outfit - makes him look like a gnome :)

Sweet Baby Smiles :)

Pardon the messy face. These pictures were taken when he still had residue on his face from the stickers that held his oxygen tubes in place. Right after this, I gave him a bath and used baby oil to rub those sticky spots off. It worked really well. He does have quite a few scratches from trying to pull the tubing off, and is also developing a pretty bad rash - we're not sure if it's exzema or a different rash, but it is harmless enough. Just doesn't look real pretty :( But still, I got some cute smile pictures and had to post them :)

Don't you love the mohawk?


I have a lot of these wide-eyed pictures :)

Almost missed him here, but LOVE the tongue!

He was making happy faces like this...

And as soon as I snapped the picture, I got this pout.

Silly boy! He's been in a much better mood since he's been feeling better. Today he had another chest xray and we will get the results tomorrow. We're hoping the pneumonia will be all gone. Then we can go back in a week and a half and finally get his first set of shots. The doctor didn't think it was safe to do them yet, and I whole-heartedly agree. I want to make sure he's doing well before we do that. I am a little leery of shots anyway, so I was glad that he was of the opinion that we should wait too.

Who Says 2 Year Olds Can't Play Pinochle?

The other night we were playing pinochle. Okay, so every night this week we have played pinochle. Got to get practiced up. Grandpa's (aka, the card shark) coming tomorrow ;)

We have a very talented 2 year old - ha. He loves to play pinochle. At least he thinks he's really playing.


He was in trouble here because he kept trying to pick up his sister's meld. He just knew she wasn't supposed to show people her cards. :)

He's also a talented hair stylist. He told me, "I'll fix it."

Or maybe he's just the distraction :)

See him trying to sneak his brother's cards?

He certainly does make the game more fun :)

Embroidery Progress

In the last few days, I've made a lot of progress on my Birdie Stitches block of the month blocks. I didn't find this series until August, so I've got some catching up to do. I have July done (that's where I started ... in August) and then I went to working on the stitch sampler for the contest I had entered. That is done now, so it's back to the monthly blocks.

This is how far I got on the September block while we were out at the lake. Well, Saturday and Sunday, really.

I finished the September block yesterday morning.

And started the January block, trying to catch up. This block will be done in all blues and greys.

I have to make myself a plan when I do these stitcheries. I didn't plan very well on the September block and I'm not thrilled with the colors in the tree. I usually write out the areas I need to stitch, then pull the colors I want to use, and take a picture so I can refer back to it when I'm stitching. I try to make sure I can see at least most of the numbers on the skeins so I have a reference - as many of the colors are very similar.

Okay, I've got to run. The baby has his check-up this morning and will be having another chest xray, which will hopefully show his pneumonia is cleared up. He's been off oxygen for two nights now, and seems to be doing well with that. So hopefully he's better :)

A Day at the Lake

Sunday afternoon, we went out to one of the local lakes and did a little fishing and a whole lot of playing. My daughter was playing with the camera again, so we have "portraits" of everyone ... except for her (just one self portrait with the two year old, and a picture of her feet - ha. And the baby didn't have any pictures done since it was chilly and very windy, so he slept in the truck while everyone played. When he finally woke up, I just stayed in the truck with him. He hates wind. So the pictures of him are from home.

Don't you love little footprints in the sand? The two year old's is on the left and my 18 year old daughter's is on the right.
Brothers having a good time. I think there was a story involved.

I sat on the beach stitching on my embroidery blocks, watching the boys play in the sand and water, and listening for the baby, who was in the truck behind us.

Here are the only pictures of my daughter that we managed to get out of the day.

She worked so hard to get good pictures of everyone else. I've grouped them by person. I'll warn you. There are a lot of pictures in this post, and they will probably only be relevant to family...

Now, here are the best of the pictures of the 20 year old...





The seven year old (who spent most of his time IN the lake) ...






Isn't this a sweet note? He wrote it, then brought me to it to show me :)




The star of the show, and winner of "most photogenic & yet most difficult to photograph" (think moving target), the two year old ...





His favorite things were the sand (he was laying in it), sticks and rocks.

He did get his toes wet, but that was it. And he didn't get back in after this either.


Love those little footprints :)


Here are the only pictures of the baby taken on Sunday...

"My, what big eyes you have"... "better to see you with, my dear!"

This was right after church. Daddy was trying to burp him. I took a quick picture, then moved him so he wouldn't suffocate ;)

Here are a few of us...







This one is my favorite. We didn't know she was taking pictures then - thought she was just getting into a different position. I used to hate having my picture taken, and usually erased the pictures of me that I didn't like (usually all of them) but then I read a blog challenging mothers to include pictures of themselves in their blogs and in the photos for the children's sake. I read on to find out that after writing to encourage other mothers to do so, and leading by example on her own blog, that very mother was killed in a car accident. It meant so much to her family that she had constantly included pictures of herself with her kids. It made me realize that even though I hate the way I look, my kids still love me, and still want to remember having a good time with me. So I've loosened up and allowed them to photograph me. And I try to cooperate and not complain about how I look in the pictures. It's the memories of the event that are important anyway.