Grandma Ruth

I just love this picture. And my Grandma. She's a wonderful lady.

The Sunroom... An update.

 

This isn't part of the sunroom. I just think it's cute that Bailey was obsessed with playing in this grocery bag for 20 - 30 minutes. She's hilarious.

Now. The sunroom.

It has electricity. It has walls. It has a FLOOR! It's a LOT warmer than it used to be. And, we're in the process of picking paint.

Andrew. Caulking the walls. Already it's warmer.

The floor. I'm in love with it. Andrew finished sanding it today, he puts the finishing touches on it tomorrow! 

Andrew is taking the remainder of the month off so that he can finish this room completely. I'm looking forward to having my kitchen put back together, and being able to eat in the sunroom again. It has stairs leading up to the door now. Savannah helped Andrew with them.

We haven't picked paint colors yet, but we have lots of sample colors on the walls! The positive is that we know what color the laundry room is going to be...

More updates later!

This just makes me laugh

I post this photo of Margaret because it makes me laugh. I asked her to smile with some teeth. She did.

Easter Events with "Gram"

Easter events with Gram (Margaret has decided that "Grandma" is too long a word, so shortened it...) are anticipated for the entire month before Easter. The children like looking for eggs, but more than that, they LOVE decorating eggs with Gram. So... here's the photo essay (with some narration) of this year's events.

Aunt Rachel and her boyfriend, Jamie, scattered all the eggs. Some of them were well hidden so that the older children would have a harder time finding them, but all in all, it looked like the Easter Bunny exploded all over the yard.

All the colored dots are eggs. There were A LOT. and ever so fun to pick up!

Bailey. Intent on gathering eggs. Nothing was breaking her focus.

Not to be outdone, Caroline is seen here taking a break from her hunting.

That basket of LeGrand's was filled to the top!

Still more, but there's time to cheese it.

Here. I'll give you this one, and I'll have the next one. Or two. Or three...

Savannah's eggs were a little harder for her to find, but she found them all!

Margaret was a fast gatherer. She had a well laden basket.

Checking out the loot...

Savannah found the Golden Egg! And Jamie switched  the contents so it was $10!!!

Mom, this is too hot. It's WAY too warm. Can I be done?

A successful hunt! (L-R: Bailey, Caroline, Kyle, LeGrand, Margaret, Kennedy, Savannah)

And then, after all the other festivities, it was time to decorate eggs. Each child has their own dozen to decorate. Some are a little faster than others. (One year, LeGrand took maybe 2 minutes to dye all of his eggs... and they were all the same color.)

  

Waiting for the egg to turn just the right shade of purple...

Really learning from Grandma.

See! They're turning blue!

Some are faster dunkers than others - LeGrand has his two colors, Caroline her little rainbow, Savannah her creative eggs, and Margaret - still waiting for that perfect purple! They ended up making a different purple dye - the other didn't work.

Grandma. Helping with the egg dying process.

Gram did a fantastic job teaching Caroline the finer arts of getting the PERFECT color!

And here's the speed dunking champion! This year, he was still intent on one color... thankfully, Gram sits by him and switches colors.

Bailey didn't participate in the egg dying this year. She was taking a nap. Much love and thanks to Grandma Stahr for putting on a fantastic egg hunt and some wonderful egg dying! The egg salad leftovers are fantastic!

Easter Sunday

I love Easter. I love the promise of renewal that it brings. And I love the thoughts of my Savior that always accompany this particular holiday.

This year, in preparation for Easter, I spent hours (many, many hours) at the sewing machine creating skirts and a tie for the children (and a skirt for me!) And then, we stood in the back yard at Andrew's parents' house and took pictures! So... Here you have it! The latest and greatest!

This is my favorite. I love that Caroline and Bailey are so enthusiastic over spring!
Left to Right: Savannah (11), Margaret (7), LeGrand (4), Caroline (3), Bailey (1)

Our own little AT&T Commercial...

Bailey. Scaring everyone. I love it. LeGrand isn't too thrilled.

I LOVE this group of people! They all make me so incredibly happy...!

This picture just makes me smile. LeGrand was being such a stinker, and Bailey was trying so hard to help him be happy. Made us all laugh! And then there's Caroline... she has this things with her toes lately...

And, as they say in Ukraine, Christ is Risen! In Truth, He is Risen. How grateful I am for this knowledge and the blessings that it brings to me and to my family.

Reverse Order Update

So. Since I am SO far behind on my updating (remember the post about my journal? About a year ago? Still happening.), I've decided to go in reverse order to update people on things happening. That is - I'll go with the newest event and work back to the oldest. This may mean that in July you'll hear about our Epic vacation that happened LAST July, but. Such it is.

In NOVEMBER (and yes, I'm backtracking a bit.), THIS young lady turned 11.

This particular photo was taken in May of 2009. Look how much she's grown!

As a direct result of her 11th birthday, she became eligible to attend New Beginnings, an introduction to the Young Women's program at church. I will freely admit that it was hard to admit that I'm getting older when the invitation came in the mail. I next had to endure somewhere between 798 and 1000 questions about MY first New Beginnings, which happened - oh, TWENTY-SIX YEARS AGO! I have a good memory about some things. That particular event? Not a single memory. I'm not sure it even happened. This lack of memory made it extremely difficult for me to answer any of her questions, and led to much frustration on both of our parts. Mostly  because the information sought came in the form of the EXACT SAME QUESTION over and over and over and over and over and over again.

HOPEFULLY, Savannah will remember HER first New Beginnings much better than I remember mine.

The Women of our Young Women's program do a fantastic job at making sure the "newbies" feel welcomed right off the bat. Each incoming young woman is assigned a Laurel to find out more about her. Savannah's Laurel was a young woman who took her to frozen yogurt and then asked her questions I had never thought of asking. Things like: "If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you like to have with you?" and "Where do you want to be in 15 years?" It was the highlight of Savannah's week.

The program was held at the church with all of the young women and incoming young women and their families invited. The theme? Bloom Where You're Planted. The young women had made gigantic tissue paper flowers that were amazing, and we were all spiritually well fed. Each incoming young woman was introduced by the young lady who had taken her for a special treat, and then by their parents. I got notice the day before that I should write a letter to Savannah - to be read out loud at the program. (I think my ward likes to see me cry...because there were certainly tears shed.) LeGrand's favorite part of the program was the dessert.

At any rate, it was a night for Savannah to remember - I hope 26 years down the road, her memory of New Beginnings is better than mine.

When Gramma Great came to visit

She brought with her Aunt Missy, Jordan, and Gracie. And boy howdy, did we have fun! Margaret has some strange ideas about what happens when you get older. They ALL came out prior to the visit as I was cleaning the living room. "Mom," she said, "Does Gramma know how to knit? Because isn't that what old people do? Sit on the couch and knit all the time?"

Turns out, Gramma Great didn't bring her knitting, but she did bring her "A" game to Wig-Out and soundly beat Margaret. Once. And then Margaret won. Margaret claimed that Gramma Great cheated. She might have had a little help from the Mom. But I'm not saying anything.

LeGrand and Caroline found a new best friend in Jordan, and he was such a great sport to play along with EVERYTHING they wanted to do! From pushing them on the swings, to putting puzzles together, to pretending to be scared when LeGrand brought out the Ghost Puppet. He only once came in the kitchen to hide. It was at that point that I rescued him from the extra playing by telling LeGrand that a puzzle was the better way to go than the rowdies.

Bailey spent her time doing a fantastic impersonation of Saran Wrap - until she warmed up to Gramma Great. Then she wanted to take breaks from being Saran Wrap to visit and give little hugs to Gramma. Caroline kept asking how old everyone was - she's convinced that I'm 88 and Andrew is 94. (And don't I look FANTASTIC for being 88?!) Since it's impossible for me to be older than Gramma Great, so I may be able to go back to being a mere 38.

I think one of the highlights of the afternoon for Gramma Great was having Caroline just randomly walk up to her to hold her hand. I wish I had gotten a photo of that...

Dinner was successful. Spaghetti with homemade sauce, Garlic Bread, Green Tomato Candy, and Cider. Yum. We were all a little amused by Caroline announcing in the middle of dinner, "Mommy, I'm tired" and promptly falling asleep. Jordan must have worn her out. And then we had to say goodbye.

I sure am grateful that they all came to visit though!

Fun Family Photo from the Reunion

This is actually from last Summer, but for those who haven't seen it, it's an update. I'll try to get another more current one up soon. Like maybe Easter. Please don't hold your collective breaths though, it may be a while.

Establishing Proof of Life...

In case anyone is checking and wondering. We are all still alive and doing well. Andrew is working on our sunroom - updates to come soon: as soon as the plastic divider is down between the kitchen and the sunroom.

Children are all doing well. Since the last post, Andrew and I both had birthdays, Savannah had a Birthday (11), Margaret had a birthday (7), and Caroline had a birthday (3). Bailey is getting ready to have a birthday, Savannah went to New Beginnings for Young Women's and keeps telling people she's almost 12 (she just turned 11...), we started the completion of the sunroom.

I'm including Proof of Life with this post, so you can see that we're all doing well... This was a recent trip to the coast to take some photos. Not of us - but of some properties for someone else. Some were more excited to be in the suburban than others.

A Quick Trip to... ALASKA! week one.

O.K., So I'm really behind in posting, and it wasn't a "quick trip", it lasted an entire MONTH! But, it was fantastic. So... I'll take a few days at a time, and hopefully, get everyone caught up on our summer vacation.

At the beginning of July, I took the children to Alaska. On an airplane. By myself. It was a great flight with no hitches or bumps or glitches. All the children in their Sunday best, acted their Sunday best, and it was rewarding to see the looks and hear the compliments of other passengers as our children exceeded expectations.

My favorite part of the flight? Listening to the children laugh hysterically when we landed because it was such a new experience for them. I also really liked landing in Alaska on a non-rainy day and feeling the land of my birth under my feet again.

The next day the adventures began! We started by spending the morning with Charity and her crew, then spent the afternoon on a drive to Hatcher Pass - a gorgeous drive, and obviously exhausting for the littles... they ALL slept on the way up the pass - except Margaret, who was my little photo buddy. She took pictures all the way. Including out the window at the mountains that LeGrand kept insisting we were going to fall off of. "Is this the mountain we're going to fall off of, Mom?" I have no idea where he got that idea... no mention of falling was ever made, and we were on the highway when he made those remarks. Funny kid.

When everyone woke up, we got out and stretched our legs a little...

This picture of me was taken after the children finally went to sleep at 11:30ish PM. no flash. Getting used to daylight well into the wee hours of the morning took a lot of getting used to. Turns out, I really love the stars in the summer time, and I'm not as used to daylight 22-7 anymore. I will readily admit to staying up until the sky got dark reading more than one book. More than one night in a row.

Other highlights of our first week include spending the July 4th with Family - something I haven't done in MANY years. We went hiking at Hatcher Pass... IN THE SNOW! Not typical Alaska, by the way. It was an unusually chilly July.

The children (those who didn't spend the time shivering) enjoyed playing in the snow in July, and eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate with cousins to start our holiday; but I'm sure they were thrilled to get out of the mountains and into a little warmer weather to watch the parade! (Funny how warm 65 can be when you've been in snow in the morning!) LeGrand loved watching the tractors in the down home parade; all of the children were a little mystified that people would actually give them candy... (we don't get to may parades here in Oregon.)

Thanks, Uncle Ethan, for helping these two cuties figure out how to get the most candy! Our Independence Celebration ended with a wonderful barbecue and tons of fun with cousins.

And on... to the Reindeer Farm! In 1990, the Williams family in Palmer, Alaska, started a reindeer farm. I went to school and seminary with the Williams kids, but had only been to the farm one other time - with Andrew. Unfortunately, he wasn't with us when we went this time, but we took a tour so that we could feed the reindeer. After all, Santa might not stop if we didn't take time to feed his reindeer! LeGrand liked feeding the 4 year old moose... Boy am I glad my 4 year old isn't this tall!

Caroline wasn't as thrilled about the reindeer as LeGrand was - and I nearly was bowled over by her lack of enthusiasm more than one time. Sure was grateful for some good balance skills! LeGrand just couldn't get enough of feeding that moose!

The end of week one brought a family birthday party for my youngest Sis - Brittany. Haven't had a chance to celebrate with that many of my family for a long time, and it was super fun! From the white elephant to the Carrot Cake (YUMMMMM!!!) to the cousins playing with the Magnavox to the food, it was all fantastic.

And thus we finish week one in grand style. Week two on another day. This should be a good start to the trip!