Things my kids made.

I did this once before in my other blog, but this is a shorter version. I love children's art work. Maybe I will show off some drawings that I've saved later in the month.
So.....
Since the theme is saved:

Clay bowl by Sean. Some of the tentacles came off.

Three little almost pigs. One is missing his snout, one is missing
an ear, and one isn't really a pig and not made by one of my
children, but I love it anyway.

This one was contributed by a grandchild.

David's pencil can. I've been meaning to replace the missing eye,
but it's obviously not a huge priority. I could kill whoever tried their
pen on it, but the culprit never 'fessed up.

I love this little booklet and picture story of our family. I especially love the yarn hair on each of us. David and Jack really were blond when Jeren made this, although neither is blond anymore. I love how he is separate from the rest of the kids. He was the youngest and, because of the 4 year gap, spent a lot of time alone while they were in school.

A few of the clay things. A trivet by Keri. A tow truck, camera and pickup truck by Sean.

Clown by Sean

I love this little man made by Laurie. I like that he looks like a piece of folk art. He usually hangs on the wall by the computer or in my sewing area.

Happy Birthday, Sean!

I had this tiny little bundle 29 years ago, today! Sean weighed in at 4lbs, 12oz, 17 inches long.

At one week, with his dad and big sister, Laurie.

Laurie and Sean playing.

His sister's were playing house and Sean was their doll.

All grown up.

Playing house.

Today's prompt:

Tell us about your first kiss.

Tommy McCormick
Fort Sill, Oklahoma

We were 13. There was a pup tent set up in his yard. I had Steven Barbee, the neighbor's baby and we were playing house with some other kids. He and I were "married" and Steven was our baby, haha! I was sitting on the grass, pretending to make dinner and he leaned over and kissed me. I still remember all that! LOL.

Now it is raining again...

I guess we only get one day of sunshine every other week this year. So tired of waiting and waiting to have a few nice days in a row. When I was younger I didn't let the rain stop me from doing things. I just put on my boots and went out and got the things done that I could do. Now that I am older it just doesn't seem inviting anymore. I remember when I used to walk five miles a day, six days a week. It didn't matter what the weather was like. The only weather that could make me skip my walks was snow on the ground, because it was too hard to get any traction.
I have been editing and organizing photos. I have been cleaning up things inside. I have been wasting time on the computer playing games. All this is fun and good, but what I really want to do is get started on my outdoor stuff. We did get the straw bales set last night. They are a little angled across the spot they are sitting, but they are there. The rain helps me with this project because I am supposed to soak them for about a week before planting them. I will go buy my plants later this week so that I can plant them next weekend.
I ordered a new camera today. It is not a DSLR. I really want one of those, but decided to upgrade my Fujifilm first. I love my Fuji camera and now I'm getting one with even better features. It actually has a "smile detector" and waits to shoot until the smile is detected. This should be great for the Logan and Daelin, who both try to thwart my attempts at pictures of smiling children and babies! I'm so excited. It should be here in a week. That means I can give my current camera to Keri. I can get a new door for the camera I already gave her and fix it. I can then give that one to David and Nikki. Jeren is disappointed because he wanted my camera, but I want Keri and David to be able to take pics of their kids. I told Jeren I would look for one for him. I think I can pick one up from ebay at a reasonable price and that can be his birthday present.
I was going through pictures and forgot about these ones of Logan at last year's BBQ. Maybe one of these days summer will come and we can have another BBQ.


This one is not at the BBQ, but I thought it was funny. He was wearing my plastic bowls as a hat.



Trying to start the tractor.



Chasing the kitty!



Smart kitty ran behind the fence.



Caging the marshmallow.

Happy Easter

My blogs seem to be picture heavy, lately. It could be because I'm spending so much time with my photos lately in an effort to get them organized, labeled, tagged, and edited. It could also be that I'm just feeling a little lazy about writing. If a picture says a thousand words, then I'm doing some pretty long essays here. I will put the short version above each photo.
These are all from when we used to do Easter in California. Oh wait! The first two pics are from up here in Washington.

Gotta love eggs colored by children!


I don't know which expression sums this picture up!



Gotta love the squinty face!



Like any hunter, Jeren is proud of his catch!



Power to the almighty EGG!



Another expression essay. Is she smiling or plotting?
Is the other one frowning or squinting?
Only the hairdresser knows for sure! haha.


Showing Isaac how to hunt for eggs.


Helping Mikaila and AJ hunt for eggs.


Rhyan finds an egg!

Daelin's getting big. (Relatively speaking)

He's still small, but he's getting so big!

Nothing to do with ties. At all.

Every time I look at this picture I laugh. They look like they are on a mission. They probably are on a mission to find the two older boys that were also at this party and make some mischief. You know how kids are! haha.




That's all I have today because I kept falling asleep.

Fairy dress.

Cheryl and I got a late start today for breakfast and went to lunch instead, so I don't have time to compose anything too involved. The theme this month is ties which I don't have, but I do have these two pictures of the Fairy costume I made for Mikaila when she was little and it is made of (expensive) ribbons, among other things and you can tie ribbons into bows. So I guess that is close enough! haha.
As a side note:
Mikaila used to love to dress up. She loved silky fabrics and when I would take her to the fabric store she would pet all the silky fabrics and beg me to buy them for her. I did occasionally buy remnants for her. I hate sewing on silkies so I would make a cotton yoke and attach the silky to it and we were both happy. She only wore them around the house anyway and when she tired of them I just cut them apart and put the silky away and attached a new one. She loved to dress up, which is why I decided to make two of these lovely Fairy dresses, one for her and one for Rhyan. (I will try to find the pics of Rhyan in hers and post those on another day.) Mikaila loved this dress, but she told me in the most sincere voice a three year old could muster, "I can't wear this dress, Grandma, because it isn't real clothes."
She did like to go look at it everyday, though, and pet it. Kids are so weird! LOL.
Excuse the poor picture quality. They didn't scan well on my old scanner and I haven't scanned them on the new one, yet. They are just snapshots, anyway. I obviously didn't try for an uncluttered background and such. It's my mom there on the phone. haha

The choke hold and other favorites.

Here are some of my favorite, however-not-that-great photos.
I have a lot of these. We seem to like the choke hold for getting children to hold still for photos in our family.

Here you have Jeren holding Isaac.


Isaac is a fast learner and immediately tries this technique on his cousin, Mikaila.



Rhyan using the technique on Mikaila the previous year.



Mikaila using a modified version on Trenton.



David trying hard to keep me from using the technique.
In the process he uses the technique on himself. haha.



And here are a few more of my favorite less than photogenic moments.
I love these.

Trenton squinting at the camera.



Isaac holding the snot away from his lip.



One of my all time favorite pictures. This is a picture
of Alex and Derrick wrestling. Where are they? I don't know.
They were there when I started the picture, but in the
old days of digital there was this time-lapse between pushing the
shutter button and it taking the picture.



One year we made feather masks while we were down in Stockton
visiting Keri and the kids. If Rhyan looks like she is unhappy,
it is only because she is. She hated our last day there every time
we came and went.



I love this picture of Isaac helping Jeren to carry his door
back. When Jeren was little he couldn't stand the door shut.
I just took it off and got it out of the way. Now he can't stand
his door open. Thank Goodness. His room is awful.


And there you have it. A nice little medley for my NaBloPoMo day 18, which also happens to be my granddaughter, Mikaila's 14th birthday. I love and miss you Mikaila, in case you happen to be able to see this.

Scanning pictures is like going back in time.

For some reason the boys thought sleeping on the floor in
their clothes was a treat. Keri was just there for a little bit.

Licking the bowl clean.

Like a deer in headlights.

Caught messing with the Christmas tree.

Not sure, but I'm sure it was a game of teasing the baby.
I'm thinking maybe he didn't like the feel of the koosh-ball.

Jeren hiding in the fabric box.

I have no idea why David has a black eye in this picture.

Tired after a long day as a flower girl.

Maybe one of the girls knows what was going on here.

Jeren reading the Sunday ads.