Family Reunion Time

We enjoyed seeing some of our family tonight who have traveled here from Virginia ! My Aunt Lea and Uncle Bill , my cousin Debbie and her husband Lyman all came to visit Arizona ! We hadn't seen them for 9 years , so we enjoyed hosting them all for dinner tonight.


Here are the 2 sisters, My Mom and Aunt Lea ( this one is blurry but was so good, darn !)

Mom took a minute to play with Ethan, the boys were here this afternoon and were napping when they all came.

This is my cousin Debbie and her hubby Lyman.

Debbie had Ethan warmed up to her right away ! He's having a pretzel.

Aunt Lea brought this beautiful teapot all the way on the plane to give to me. It belonged to a very dear friend of hers whom has passed away and that ladies son lived in Germany and had given this teapot to his mom from there, he in turn gave it to Aunt Lea when his Mom passed since they were such wonderful friends. Now she wants me to have it. It's just beautiful and has this bottom piece that you can put a candle in for warming.

Here is Uncle Bill

Debbie and My Mom

We actually got a group shot !

It sure was fun seeing them and getting to visit , wish it could have been for longer, families are the best !

quilt is hung ! yea !

Ken helped me hang this quilt this weekend. I blogged about it on my last Thornberry quilt meeting post and now it's in it's new home. It may be a temporary one as this is the wall that needs to have a TV in our bedroom, but there doesn't seem to be one in our near future so the quilt will occupy that wall for now until a TV shows up ! It's on it's 3rd year as a UFO so it's nice to have it done and hung up ! It was started as a demo sample at the shop for shop hop a few years back, with all the stars in the border and this is what it evolved into.

Cold and Crunchy Dessert

Here is another favorite recipe of mine. A dessert that you can make ahead and everyone loves. This one came from a very special lady named Linda, a very dear friend who passed away a few years ago. She always brought a dessert to our Thornberry quilt meeting so this one came from her. I always think of her when I make it.

Cold and Crunchy Dessert

2 ½ cups rice Krispies
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 stick butter, melted
¾ cup brown sugar
½ gallon vanilla ice cream softened
Mix rice krispies , coconut, pecans, and melted butter in a long shallow baking pan ( jelly roll pan worked well ). Toast at 300 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add brown sugar to hot mixture and stir well. Put half of mixture in 9x13 pan. Spread ice cream on top. Add rest of topping. Cover and freeze. Serve cut into squares with caramel sundae topping.

Garretts Halloween quilt is done !

Well just a few more days until October. The cats are making sure Aiden's halloween quilt is good enough... Emma helping me get Garretts ready to quilt...

And it's DONE ! Yea ! This is still all that fabric that Ellen gave me, so out of that bag here is quilt #2 ! ( Ethan is going to have to wait for his until next year....but he really doesn't care !)

Another project and fabric OUT of the sewing room ! YEAH ! I'm hoping to give the boys their quilts this weekend so they'll be ready for October !

12 months old and ice cream cones !

We had a fun morning going to the outdoor san tan mall today, Of course we had to make a dairy queen stop and Ethan sure did show us how you eat an ice cream cone !

First you are very happy to have it !

Even if big brother got a chocolate dipped one, you really don't care when you are 12 months and get your very OWN !

And Grammy snaps away and ends up with so many good shots that now you have to see them all !

You figure out there is a bottom...And how fun when that paper comes off...It was the best !

We also found a fun fork lift, just like Papa's so Garrett thought that was fun while we waited for his hot dog on a stick !

And there are always the toys to climb on !

Thanks guys for the fun morning !

Little Boy giggles !

I had a fun day full of little boy giggles ! Ethan and I ran to Walmart during preschool and then home for a nap. Garrett and Amy got to come for lunch after preschool and join us for a bit of relaxing playtime before heading home. Here is Garrett doing his "work" with the card shuffler ! He said when he pressed the button that it was his" saw" . Very intent... Then there was this little charmer... He sees you with the camera and then grins and then starts this funny little blink....waiting for the flash he knows is coming !

Ethan you just make me smile !

My first Great Nephew is here !

Meet this darling little bundle ! He's my first Great Nephew ! He was born this week and his name is Connor Daniel. My niece Kimberly and her hubby Brian produced this sweet little boy but he wasn't so little....9 1/2 pounds ! You can get to Kimberly's blog off mine if you want to see more of this darling little boy. But we are so happy he is here ! Welcome to the family little Connor ! We can't wait to meet you !

A finished Book !!!!

Well many of you know about "the book" but I couldn't say a word about it on here since it was a " big secret" ! But hopefully by now "the book" has been opened and absorbed and reflected on. This is the journey on how "Gene's book" began ! It all started last June when I got another one of my crazy ideas to make Gene a book in honor of his 80th birthday ! We got to planning a family reunion which is taking place in October so that everyone could get here. So I thought what better way to celebrate a person also but to honor them with a book, so off I went to the scrapbook section of Joann's and came home with this nice little black album and a nice collection of paper.... ( why are there always cat parts in my photo's?)Envelopes to and return all set to go to the family members with instructions to have fun honoring a great man and to please return them in August .And now in September the book is done with pages in the back to still add a few. Everyone did such a fantastic job on their own page honoring their Dad, Grandpa and Great Grandpa ! ( aka Grandpa the Great ! ) One was finished the morning of giving it to him, another arrived the day before with a $17 postage for "fast mail" ! But it just told me how important that was to be included in the gift to one very special person! So here is just a brief peak at a few things it contains.

And page after page from each person of heartfelt wishes and photos old and new.
Gene has it now and so it's fun to be able to share the finished project !

Happy Birthday to Gene !

Today is my father in law's 80th Birthday! What a milestone that is ! I've always loved this picture of him taken at my nephew's wedding. If you ever look up the definition of a wonderful man you'll find Gene's name in there !
Happy Birthday Gene we look forward to more celebrations with you in October when the family is all coming together to honor you !

Birthday Lunch

After enjoying a nice morning today with coffee and a bagel and seeing some of our "kids" Ken went off spraying doors at the shop and then we went to enjoy a nice birthday lunch with Gene and Delores as a pre-birthday celebration for Gene's 80th Birthday on tuesday this week.
80 years is an amazing thing ! We'll be celebrating more in October with him when a family gathering is planned to honor him. Today tho we treated him to a great steak !

Here is the gift he received after dinner containing a little project that's been in the works. I'll be blogging about it later after it's been opened ! For now it's just a neat little wrapped present !

Birthday breakfast with Thursday Club

Thursday club got together today to celebrate Kathy's birthday. We had breakfast at Crackers and it was YUM! I had to eat and leave as I had to get to work but it was fun to catch up for an hour and celebrate Kathy's birthday ! I had a yummy chicken breakfast burrito with fruit ! Work was nuts, it was the first saturday of shop hop and it was fun and crazy ! I'm so glad we can at least get together yet at everyone's birthdays and holidays. We used to meet every thursday at someone's house and do craft things and have lunch, the kids would play. Judy's craft was sometimes folding socks ( for 10 kids) We'd do and make all kinds of projects and talk and solve everyone's problems, then kids all went to school and we'd still get together but then it seems we've all gone to work again so it's lucky we can at least snag b-fast or dinners to catch up. We seem to find each other at weddings and get togethers so we can all sit together, everyone stays in touch for major things in life....true friends even when we don't get to talk every week !

This is L-R Judy ( the new bride) Kathy( the birthday girl), me, Mindy and Cindy.

cute little kids !!!!

Well today all the preschoolers turned into dogs and cats ! Is that cute or what. You should have seen the grins on the parents as they picked them up with noses and whiskers on their faces ! Of course Amy had her face painted too so their pet unit is off to quite a start ! ( one little girl is missing as she was having a "thinking moment") I just had to show you this little doggie !

And of course this little dude had a great nap and thinks he's pretty cool now to be able to get on and off the preschool chairs !

Proud as punch with our soda cracker, he waves bye bye so cute now and goes running around, then comes back to hug your leg and off and running he goes again, just makin sure you are still there ! Ken and I took them all to the library on sunday while they were over for the day and Ken was in charge of Ethan as the other 2 and I found books to check out, whew ! You just try and keep up with him ! ready set go !

A day at the zoo !

Amy and I took the boys to the zoo this morning, what a fun time we had ! We did see a few animals, put lots of penny's into the twirly dish...

Ethan had fun discovering things no one else would notice, but he did notice the animals this time so that was fun ! Of course he wore his little giraffe shoes !

The best part was the splash pad, it's the best ! It's got a huge cave, water falls, fun slides, little puddles and streams and even a poster of things to hunt for. Aiden really loved the learning and discovery of that this time, finding all the hidden things. We got soaked but it felt so good as it was getting hot ! Garrett took a break and thought he hit paydirt with the strawberries all to himself ! Ethan had a bottle while Garrett chowed down on almost all the strawberries... his fav !

We had a great picnic lunch, shared by all the ducks !

Then we wandered over to the other fun play area that was very shady. Ethan got to try the slide out with Amy at the top and me at the bottom !

There is a great little stream so the boys had a relaxing time working together moving rocks to build a dam.

And Ethan puddled around too...

By noon we were hot and tired so we left my car parked at our meeting spot and went straight to our house to jump in the pool ! We decided to have a bit of shaving cream fun first so played outside so the table and chairs got good and clean !

Ethan got in on the action since he'd had a bit of a nap on the way home.

Snacks and rest time with little bear on the TV and then it was time to go fetch my car so they could go home. What a fun day !