Fabulous Fall Fun

I've just lived through the second annual fall babysitting marathon. Yes, once again Blaine and Michelle left their kids with us while they went on a cruise. It was nine days full of fun for them as well as for us here at home. Every time they come I try to have a few new toys.

The kids love to dress up and Kimberley rarely wears real clothes while she is here. The boys get into dress up also. Asher is "going to shoot you" with his laser gun.

Oliver felt comfortable exploring his feminine side.

Whenever she could, Kimberley enjoyed playing girl stuff alone.

Before Blaine and Michelle left on their trip we enjoyed their presence for a day.

My favorite dress us item...

Groucho Marx glasses.

Michelle's friend Naomi took Evie for the week, so although we missed her, we were able to actually survive the week.

Bims' favorite thing is to color and cut and create fun decorations for the room.

Most of the week, our walls were perked up with happy pumpkins.

Even Ollie had his chance to color.

It's fun to play camp out in a play tent.

No October is complete without a trip to the pumpkin farm.

This year my friend Betty came along to help. I could never have done this trip without her.
Thanks Betty!!!!

I couldn't get Ollie to look at me, he just kept looking at the ground. I'd say, "Ollie, look up!" and he would just look down.

They had lots of animals to visit.

Play equipment and bouncy room were great fun.

When we got home we painted our pumpkins.

The next day we made rice crispy treats.

The day after that we went to Springville for a play date with Justin and Jenny's kids.

Her we have: Kimberley,Asher,Ollie,Michael,Wesley and Francesca.

While in Springville we called Grandad and visited the ducks near his office...

...and enjoyed a treat at McDonald's.

After a hard day of playing, the boys enjoyed getting clean in their favorite shower.

Uncle Grant was more fun than me. He could throw the kids up high then toss them into the bean bag chair.

Again this year, Bims designed the pumpkin which we carved.

Spooky!

Since Halloween was on Sunday, the kids went trick or treating on Sat.

Julie and her kids were here and we had a super cute bunch of kids.

Asher, Olivia, Oliver, Eliza, Kimberley and Grandad is holding Evie, who came home to us on Saturday morning.


Eliza as Belle.

Oliver as Superman.

Olivia as Tinkerbell.

Asher as Buzz Lightyear.

Kimberley as Cinderella.

Unfortunately, it began to pour down rain so the outing was cut short.

Sunday morning we had the special treat of having Evie's blessing at our home.

Michelle forgot to pack her blessing dress, so she was resplendent in her apple green dress.

Much thanks to Naomi for taking taking of Evie all week. That was a lifesaver for me.

Grant and Julie. (Possibly the nicest young woman, ever!!)

The real reason Evie wore green was so she could match her Grammy.

We are very proud and grateful grandparents.

It doesn't get any better than this!!

Decorating the new house and such.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been blogging much. Here's my latest attempt to catch up.We've had a couple of barbeques out on the deck. There's no view of horses, but the deck is great.
We seldom see Grant. He has a girl friend and he's always gone. He's very happy and that makes us happy too. (And we think his girl friend is nothing short of wonderful.)


Here's a few pictures of our house and what I've been up to.


There are wood floors all through the main living area and we really needed some rugs. I had a hard time finding a rug that had the colors I wanted, but when I found this one I really got lucky.

Cubby has had to try out every single new thing. This rug is one of his favorites.

I've bought several things from the consignment store. This pink bench was one of my finds.

I had it reupholstered in a cute decorator fabric and now I love it.

This chair was the right size and shape and was in good condition.

I refinished the wood a dark walnut color.

I had it reupholstered in my new favorite fabric.

I think it turned out really cool.

Recently Kevin helped us to hang some pictures.

I forgot to take a picture of this next chair before I had it redone. Let's just say the transformation was amazing.

Note the pretty white rug in the corner of this picture. It is the rug in our living room and it is sooooo soft. A really cool thing about it is that Cubby's hair just blends right in.

Today I finished my bed skirt project.

I hot glued some velcro to the box springs. Then I sewed velcro to the bedshirt (I cut out the whole center part that covers the box springs) and voila...

A removable bedskirt!! My mattress is so heavy that it was such a hassle to take the
the mattress off in order to wash the bedskirt. Now I'll never have to worry about that again.

I'm glad to have some of my projects done so that I can think about something else for a change. There's still lots of decorating to do, but I plan on trying to do something else for a while.

What a summer!!!

What a summer it has been. In my next post I will cover our move (yes, we've moved). For now I will just share pics of our trip to Denver for the birth of grandchild # 4.Ken went with me this time and it was so great to have him there. We started off with introducing the kids to silly string.



Michelle is looking while we play outdoors, not realizing that she would give birth that very day. Her C-section was scheduled for Aug. 23rd, but she went into labor and had her C-section and the baby a day early.

While Blaine and Michelle were at the hospital, Grandad and I took care of the kids.

We had snacks in the yard...

...played "wishy washy" in the laundry basket...

...played in the backyard.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Michelle was doing an amazing work.

Welcome to Eve Elizabeth.

Grandad stayed at home with the boys while Kimberley and I got our first look at Evie.

Michelle and Evie were at the hospital for a fews days. One of Grandad's jobs was to assemble a new stroller. Of course the kids wanted "rides" in it.

A couple of days later Mommy and baby came home and each of the kids had a chance to hold their new baby sister.

They all loved her and wanted to hold her.

They were all so sweet and gentle with her.

Since Blaine works pretty much non-stop, Ken was mister handyman while he was there and did all of the odd jobs Blaine hadn't had time for.

After 1 week, Ken had to return home.

I stayed with Michelle another week.

Evie had her first doctor's appointment and she got dressed in real clothes for the first time.

After a very busy week with the grandkids, I had to say goodbye.

I tried to get one last picture of the kids before I left. Asher is into really big grins which makes his face look all squinty. Very funny.

Bims has the whole head tilt thing down pat.

Evie slept through my departure.


One last picture of the new mommy (with wet hair and not happy to be photographed).

The traditional picture of Grammy with the kids.

Corinne and Kevin came to get me at Michelle and Blaine's and we drove home the scenic route.

This is Steamboat Springs.

Estes Park, a tourist town just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.

America the Beautiful.

Once again, I had a great time. I have beautiful grandkids and great friends. I am so blessed.