Birthday Boy!

 Cain turned TWO!

 

Brother Colt is a sweetaholic...

 

 

...and an Evel Knievel in the making!

 

After a great catch by Dad, he said, "Wow! That was too fast. I'm not doing that again!"

Time Flies!

 Don't you just love this charming old house?

With the red nandina bushes touched by the sun as it settles towards its nightly rest.

This house has a history...

located just east of our public library it is a Henley family home and now owned by Don Henley of The Eagles...

Sam and I were blessed to spend a few days with the grandson while their mother was out of the country with her job.

Read Colt's shirt. Every shirt I found had "Grandmother" or "Grandma" or "Grammy." NONE had "Granny." So...I broke out my trusty embroidery machine and made him one.

OH! Sam with the cutting boards he made for Brook and John for Christmas. Jonathan is in a camper and has no room but I think he's put in an order for a knife block.

Isabel turned THREE! She wanted a pirate party and her favorite color (of the day) is yellow. Guests were encouraged to dress in their pirate finery. I hoped Sam would agree...then one day he asked if I'd make him a big shirt. WELL YES! It even has 3 inch lace at the cuffs AND he has on a pierced-look hoop earring. :D

I dug in the back of my closet...found a dress with a denim skirt. Unbuttoned the skirt and pinned the points at the waist. I had a yellow gingham skirt from old-fashioned day at church about 25 or so years ago...had to add some elastic to the waist. I was going to make a corset and decided that would be too time consuming. Would you believe you can buy a brand new made-to-order corset on eBay for $10???

A few yellow sashes...Jonathan's rubber band gun for my pirate pistol and Sam made a wooden cutlass for his weapon. Arrrgggghhh! Matey! What colors be ye a flyin'?

Well...birthday girl preferred to run wild through the house. When I nabbed her for the photo, she went limp. Me thinks this pirate has been in the rum and needs keel-hauled. ;)

Jonathan's storage unit was robbed. Two weeks after the last time he was in the unit (locating his big shirt that I made for him to wear to Celtic and Renaissance festivals), I found the lock gone. One big plastic foot-locker type tub held his dad's stuff...Jonathan was just shy of his thirteenth birthday when his dad died.

We were both scouring Facebook resale/man cave sites. I was checking eBay and Craig's List a couple of times a day. Jonathan found one of these knives for sale...

I scrolled down and found another item that belonged to him. When I clicked on the thief's FB page...he had no privacy settings. He bragged about his dumpster diving and about stuff that people threw away...photos of three more of Jonathan's belongings were posted and mention of a fourth. Law enforcement was contacted. Thanks to his non-existent privacy settings, a warrant was served, he was arrested, many - probably most of the stolen items were recovered.

But not all. My first husband's memorial book from the funeral is gone as is my son's first best friend, Freddy. ;)

Many other items are gone as well. Jonathan will be making a list so that the judge will know what is still missing...including his toolbox and tools...



Christmas with the Grands

 Christmas Eve morning - cocoa for everyone!

Cain found the perfect place to sit. ;)

Isabel wore her haute couture dress made by her very own designer (with help from a vintage pattern).

 Colt playing with one of Cain's gifts. After all, everyone knows that little brother's gifts are the best!

Trees, Food, Grandsons

 I was sitting in the Tahoe between lab/doctor appointments reading my Kindle when I looked out the window. LOOK at the coloration of this tree trunk! Trees are not just brown!!

In preparation of going to stay with the grandsons while there mother was out of the country with her job... (Poor thing went to Naples, Italy!) (Poor thing, this was the first time she was away from her sons for that length of time!) ...I bought some sausage made at the local locker plant. Their seasoning mix has no nitrates which is something the grands' parents are trying to stay away from with their food. I kept telling them that you could find something that tasted better and had a better texture that the chicken weinie sausages that they are feeding my grandsons.

This is the proof.

While we were keeping the grands, Sam and I ate a hamburger at a local place. This apron is so me! :D

Of course, little boys will be little boys. LOUD. So I took them outside to blow off some steam. (Sam watched television almost the whole time we were there.)

See!

The first night I made the mistake of feeding the boys early. 

John had his arms full trying to eat dinner.

Later, at home...Sam made beef stew. He started it in the slow cooker, but the electricity popped off. After about 30 minutes, he put it in the Dutch oven.

DELICIOUS!

Happy Halloween

 Grand niece Addi

 

Grand niece Bri

 

Grandson Cain

 

Grandson Colt

Granddaughter Isabel 

Grand nephew Ty

 

Grand niece Rilee

Niece Lacee

Grand nephew Tanner

 

and

 

Me!

 

The Judge knew I was dressing in Harley gear, but she was out most of the day. When she walked in and saw me, she just shook her head. She said that in one of her meetings she saw one of the district judges. He told her a tattooed biker chick was running her office. :D 

October to-date

The photos did not load in order...so I will be hopping around.

Cody, Brook, Isabel, and Jonathan all came to the family reunion. I had to be careful at the reunion and watch what I ate because Brook had notified me that if it was okay she wanted to cook supper for us. Well YES! She pounded chicken breasts and rolled up around basil and mozzarella and seasonings...popped in the freezer to firm for a few minutes...then the flour, egg, bread crumb process and baked it then topped with a red wine mushroom sauce. I had the salad fixings: mixed greens, kalamata olives, pepperoncini, feta cheese, and a homemade vinaigrette. My homemade bread was sliced, buttered, seasoned and toasted. For dessert we had cannoli pie (cannoli filling in a baked pastry shell. MERCY!

Isabel and Jonathan played. He said that her idea of taking turns stacking dominoes and knocking them down was for him to stack them and she would knock them down. Then he would tell her that it was her turn. She would lay down one domino then tell him that it was his turn! ;-)

I made a couple of things for Isabel...a jumper...

...and a corduroy jacket. When Isabel saw the jumper, her eyes rounded. When she saw the jacket, she immediately hugged her arms and said, "I cold." She needed it Saturday evening and definitely Sunday morning! Isn't she such a cute model?! Yes. I think so too.

Sunday morning breakfast with a bacon grease face.

Sunset one evening...

We never had more than four hummingbirds. Then we got down to only two. The other night we had FIVE! They must have made a pit stop on their migratory trip. There's one on the other side of the bottle...the fifth was too busy flying in and out.

At the reunion, Isabel was the youngest...Bill Ray the oldest at 97...he will be 98 next month.

She did not know him so was not too happy to be that close. I was holding her, but it was still too close to him to suit her.