Grandkids on an Easter Egg Hunt! ... and a little of this and that ...

Easter Sunday David, Angela and Avery came over and shared Easter with us, Douglas, Ashley and DC.  Ashley and Angela hid the plastic eggs outside in the front yard and then we had DC and Avery come out and find the eggs! It was so cute to watch these two cute little cousins get excited each time they 'found an egg'! They were almost done before they decided to sit down and see what was 'inside' the eggs. When they found out it was chocolate candy what a surprise!  I didn't have any 'after' discovery pictures. We were caught up in the cuteness of watching them!

 

Later we had a wonderful dinner! Yum!

 

DC finding an egg!

Grandpa watching Avery.

The grass was taller next to the house and Avery 'would not touch' the grass. Her mommy had to lay the grass back and then Avery would pick up the egg!

Sharing riding toys.

DC getting ready for a church.

DC's daddy, Douglas,  put the train track together for DC. I love this Ikea wooden train! It has 3 sets put together!

Avery and DC watching a cartoon movie.

 

When Lisa and the girls were here Lisa put this together with all 96 ponies!

A different set up. LaRue, Matilda and Adelaide loved what Lisa made for them!

One dozen beautiful roses from Neil to his sweetheart, me, for Valentines Day! :o)

 

My fast 54-hour trip to Utah - Zachary's Baptism!

I flew down to Utah on April 12, 2013 to attend our grandson's, Zachary Ward, baptism. Dad and I left for the airport at 4:20a.m. I had a 7:00a.m. flight to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Julie picked me up around 9:30a.m. Woo hoo! What fun! She had Zachary, Braxton and Ivy with her in the car. It was so fun to see those little kiddies!

 

Julie and company went to Costco to do some shopping for refreshments to serve following Zachary's baptism the following morning.  That was fun shopping with them! We got back to Julie's and unloaded things and then Michelle came over and picked me up and took me shoe shopping. Ug!  I don't like shoe shopping but I was desperate for some shoes! White shoes in particular! Why do I dread shoe shopping? I have picky feet! I have a high instep and if shoes don't hug the high arch I get arch pain! We went to several places and ended up at Shoe Carnival. I had never heard of them. What a stroke of luck! I found two pairs of shoes and was elated! What joy! Mind you I only got on the airplane with my purse and a tote about 15x12x12-inches! I was only going to be gone two nights and I could do this traveling light! A true feat for me! Now I had to add two pairs of shoes in that tote! I did it!

 

I spent Friday night with Julie so we could go straight to the baptism the next morning.  We also had to prep the food we were to serve after the baptism.  That night Quintin practiced giving us his talk on the Holy Ghost for Zachary's baptism. Wow! He did great!

 

Saturday morning, big day! It's April 13th and Zachary's baptism.  Zachary and another little girl, Amelia Christopherson, were getting baptized.  Amelia's grandmother gave the opening prayer and her mother gave the talk on Baptism. Quintin gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. I lead the music and Zachary's Aunt Karla played the piano, quite well too! When Quintin gave his talk, you could have heard a pin drop.  It got very quiet and very reverent. He gave an excellent talk! He prepared it all by himself.  Quintin is 15. (He turns '16' on August 1st.) You could really feel the spirit!

 

Next, the baptism for Amelia and Zachary. Both did terrific!  Bob baptized Zachary and did wonderful! Julie was in tears, happy tears! Brynnly, Zachary's sister had a soccer game and heard Quintin's talk but just missed seeing him baptized. She was very sad and in tears. She really loves her siblings!

 

We all left for a park close by to serve refreshments and let all the kids run around a play.  It was   cold! The wind was blowing a little and it was 43 degrees! The kids didn't notice as they were running around and having a ball! There were so many ducks! It is a beautiful park!

 

I went to Michelle's after the baptism and spent that night with her and her family. It was so fun seeing all the kids again! I wish we didn't live so far apart! Later that night, around 8:00pm Julie and Michelle took me to the Waffle Love, a truck that makes Belgian Waffles with toppings and real whipped cream that are to die for! They are supremo-delicious! Lauren was babysitting her two sisters for a school project, a planned activity doing babysitting without pay. She did a great job! All the adults had to leave! Thus we went to the Waffle truck. Chris and Tyler went to a Sports store to get new football shoes and then later who do we see pull up two cars away from us? ... Chris and Tyler getting their waffles! Ha! Ha! Ha! Fun!

 

Michelle, Julie and I went to Julie's and chatted until 10:30pm!  We headed back to Michelle's. She had to take me to the airport at 6:30a.m. the following morning. I had an 8:30a.m. flight and a  layover in Portland for two hours. Neil and Kirsten picked me up at the airport around 12:30p.m.  I was so glad he brought Kirsten because I missed her so bad! I missed everyone! I never leave Kirsten so I really missed her. 

 

The trip was all too short but it was so great!  I really enjoyed seeing my two girls, Michelle and Julie, and their sweet families! Thank you for the great time! ♥

 

Tyler, laughing! What a fun kid!

Lauren with her new shirt from her shopping trip with her friends!

 McKenna with her two best friends.

 

Brooklynn  having a great time playing outside!

New chickens added to the homestead!

Two cute bunnies!

The chickens they already have.

Roxie, wishing her gate was open!

Bob and Zachary, baptism.

Ivy inside Zachary's blow up ball. What a fun ball!

Zachary and Braxton just prior to leaving for the baptism. Zachary was sooo ready for his baptism and sooo excited!

Braxton climbing inside the ball Zachary and Quintin waiting to roll it around.

Happy Father's Day!

We were in Utah in mid-June to visit our two daughters Michelle and Julie and their families. Jordan and Lisa were also down visiting as well. Perfect time to take family pictures! We were able to have Chris' niece take family pictures for us on Father's Day.  Above-Bob and Julie Ward-Julie holding Ivy, Brynnly, Quintin, Zachary and Braxton.

Jordan and Lisa Newby-Jordan holding Adelaide and Lisa holding Matilda, LaRue.

Chris and Michelle Gleed, McKenna, Brooklynn, Tyler and Lauren.

Neil and Diana and Kirsten.

Grandpa and Grandma with 12 of their 14 grandchildren.

Adelaide and Lauren, Brynnly, Grandpa Neil, Grandma Diana and Ivy, Tyler, Quintin. Zachary, Front row-Braxton, LaRue, McKenna, Matilda and Brooklynn.

Family-(minus our two boys and their families.)

Back row-Brynnly, Bob & Ivy, Julie, Dad/Neil, Mom/Diana, Michelle and Chris.

Middle row-Braxton, Quintin, Zachary, Kirsten, Tyler, Lauren.

Front row-Lisa with LaRue and Matilda, Jordan with
Adelaide, McKenna and Brooklynn.

I want to 'thank' my family for pleasing their mom by everyone wearing red and jeans.  I made the younger granddaughters matching t-shirt dresses, the babies had red onsies with matching skirts and the older grandkids all had red shirts.  Michelle and Chris gave dad the aloha shirt he is wearing in the pictures. Thanks Chris for wearing yours too!

David and Angela with Avery. Taken outside their home in Washington.

Thank you David and Angela and Avery for wearing red and jeans for us!

Douglas, Douglas, Jr. (DC) and  Ashley at home in Georgia.

Thank you Doug and Ashley and DC for wearing red and jeans for us!

David wanted to do something special for his dad for Father's Day. We wanted to make a brick patio and had all the brick but dad never got it finished. David started but was not able to finish by the time we got back from Utah. Jordan and Lisa and their girls spent five days with us and Jordan helped David finish the patio.The bricks are set on a thick bed of level sand. David pounded every single brick in place!  Dad supervised and helped them pour a concrete curb to encase the brick in a frame.  These pictures were taken a week later after it rained. Dad finished the edging this morning with the dirt berm which will eventually fill in with the grass.

Dad really liked the patio and was very happy David wanted to do this project!

They did a great job and I love it too!  I made a plat of how I wanted the brick laid. If you look close it has a hop scotch pattern in the middle.  Jordan and Lisa's girls have already tried it out! We all love the patio!

I planted these flowers just after Mother's Day and now they are all filled out just in time for July 4th! I love the patriotic colors!

Another view of the red, white and blue petunias.

Just one of the other planters I filled with color. I love it!

Bob & Julie's family gave dad this Perplexus Ball for Father's Day. Everybody had a fun playing with it!  It's hard to keep that small steel ball on the '23 feet' of track in that ball!

A closer look at the ball.

Jordan and Lisa gave dad some Disney World trinkets from when Lisa went to Disney World this past January.

Kirsten and Mom gave dad the DVD 'Hatari' with John Wayne.  Neil got himself the 50th anniversary DVD and book of the Seattle World's Fair with the Space Needle and I also got him the movie 'It Happened at the World's Fair' with Elvis Presley.  Dad had a great Father's Day!  Thank you kids for all that you did for your dad! He said that he had a great Father's Day!

Spring - Blooming flowers...part 2

I replaced this rose bed with this dahlia and  two geraniums.

These replaced roses.

These also replaced roses.

I have this blank area in that corner. It doesn't get much sun. I haven't decided just what to put in there yet so for now it's empty.



Spring -Blooming Flowers!

Red, white and blue petunias. Hopefully when the flower bed is really full it will look patriotic.

I put this new flower bed in today. I pulled all the rock back and put in the brick border to keep the rock back. 

I love dahlias! This bloom is bigger than what this photo looks like. I'm excited to see how all my dahlias will grow and how big they'll get!

These are orange dahlias and you can see the lavender one next to it.

I love these purple flowers. I had roses in this planter and the ice storm this past winter killed the roses so I took all my roses out. I'm done with roses for awhile.

Note to self:

I really dislike Blogger's 'new' format....arrgghh!