February~the Frozen Month of Love & Other Stuff

Every February 1st the world anxiously awaits the appearance the next morning of old Punxutawney Phil the Ground Hog, or Agua Fria Freddie the Gila Monster, or Radar the Weather Dog depending on which part of the country you live in. Here in our house though, we sort of forget about the predictors of spring and focus on the Master of the house. He was born on 2/1 which is kind of a cool birthday! He was out of town this year on a recruiting trip on his birthday so we celebrated on 2/2.
  It would have been fun to give him a tutu...get it?








We sent him this photo as a teaser and made him wait until the afternoon of the 2nd, after he had arrived at the airport, after church was over, and after Brittany had a chance to join us. He was such a baby! He wanted to open his big present so badly!

 

My husband loves hot cocoa. He wants to marry hot cocoa he loves it so much! He had a "Cocoa Motion" cocoa maker that sadly broke this fall. He was so sad. We went deluxe this time!

 Here he is checking out the spout and scheming the making of his first batch!

 Valentine's Day was............

 Lucas sent us a darling valentine with his thumbprints. It said "Thumb-body loves you!
 



 As usual Roxie was eager to eat-- umm,  help with the decorations.

 Don't give me that "sorry" face young lady!

 Dee and I ate a yummy lunch a Zupa's and I even pulled off making sugar cookies.
 OK, it was really late when they were done but I did it!

 

 We had a little heat wave in February! It was awesome! Notice, no coat?I am stopped at a red light here, I promise!

Does Roxie lok a bit blurry here? It's because she was! She had her annual dental  cleaning and was coming out of general anesthesia. She was very loopy and could hardly hold herself up! Notice her cute little hospital collar? Yeah, she wanted that thing off ASAP!

 Lucas asks his Mommy quite often if he can Skype with us. He climbs up into the chair and pats the computer. On this morning he showed me his amazing yogurt eating skills. What you don't see is his Momma's face moments later when he tried to feed her!

For the second year in a row I have been blessed to be able to travel with Dee and the BYU Swim & Dive Team to Los Angeles for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. Last year I wrote about my train journey and my four day visit to Diana and her family here.

This year I stayed in LA with Dee and My grandson came to me!

 Here he is opening our little gift for him, Megablox guys to add to his collection, and enjoying them while we waited for our dinner.

Later at the hotel he wanted to try on Pa's swim goggles.             

 

 The next morning I sat outside and read my book while I waited for Nick, Diana, & Lucas to arrive from their hotel. Did I say I was outside...in flipflops?!! Yeah, yeah, I now all of you people in AZ and St. George are not impressed, but I was giddy with happiness!

 Soon enough my kids arrived and we went on jolly adventures with the boy. He loves fireplaces, calling them "hhh-ot". There were two "Hots" in the hotel so he was busy going back and forth between them!

                 Outside "Hot".                                                                                 Inside "Hot".

We waited for the team to return from prelims around noon, then we spent the day together until Dee had to go back to the pool in the late afternoon for finals. Nick and Diana had a proposition for me. They had been given gift cards to have dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant inside Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Since they hold resident passes they can go in at any time but didn't want to have their restless, squirmy son along. I don't blame them! It's kind of romantic in there! So...

I got to babysit my grandson! We had dinner together in the hotel room and played with anything and everything he could find! It was a busy, busy time. Did I mention that this kid has no hips? His pants are always coming down!

He had to try on the goggles again.

 Next he helped Gramma crochet while we watched some cartoons.

It was getting to be Sleepy Time but the boy would not slow down, so we put on our shoes, and our pants of course, and took a walk.We explored every nook and cranny, every spotlight and flower,

 

 

 Then we came back inside, got into our jammies, and settled in to watch some awesome Olympic bobsledding!

 

 Pretty soon Pa came "home" from the night's swims and the boys watched some Dumbo together. Lucas is really into elephants right now.

If you have stuck through all of these photos until the end you are to be congratulated, or revived! I took a lot of pictures. I love this little boy SO MUCH!
 Next time I post I'll share all about the conference meet with you! We had some great swims!

Sharing the Love

I have some talented children! Artists, scholars, scientists, athletes, people persons. They would laugh at me and tell me I am ridiculous. I am their Mom. I can talk about them. This week I have enjoyed one of Diana's talents. She can write a fun story! I have several writers in the group. It has always been fun to go through their things from school years gone by and find the stories they wrote. Diana was particularly dramatic. They always bring a smile to my face. This week she wrote four stories on her blog. They were the real life love stories of hers and Nick's grandparents. She wrote them in the style of  fun little romance novels and states
 ~"I would like to add a little disclaimer to all my wonderful family members who might read these and say "that's not how it happened!" I want to emphasize that these are creative works of fiction based on the stories I have heard my grandparents tell. I do not use any of their names in the actual stories for that reason, and out of respect for how they might feel about this. My stories are not meant to 100% accurately reflect what actually happened (e.g. if I get the season wrong or describe a location inaccurately) but rather to capture the essence and feelings of these wonderful people. With this in mind, please be kind in your estimation of the veracity of my stories. XOXO"

If you would like some sweet, quick reads click these links:
 George & Helen

 Ken & Sharon   

 Bob & Felicia

 



Hannalore & Gunther

 Here are Nick and Diana with their amazing group of Grandparents.

 Lucas is a blessed boy to have seven living great-grandparents! My Dad is dearly missed but we feel him around us all of the time.

Each of these four couples has a sweet, fun, often amazing love story.

 Have fun reading! 

(And to Diana...Good job Honey!)

It's "Plane", I Adore You!

 

A little while ago I ran across the cutest free pattern on www.amigurumipatterns.net 

by a cute gal named Marika.

It was a little airplane with the cutest face!

I decided that I knew a little boy who would love one. 

(Or perhaps it was that I knew a Gramma who really wanted to make one!)

I took it one step further and made the little airplane into a rattle by inserting a Kinder Egg with popcorn kernels inside, into the plane's body. I like Kinder Eggs because they snap shut so nicely.

The popcorn makes a wonderful sound too!

I put the airplane into a Valentine's Day box headed for San Diego and only four days later I got a text message with a darling photo of my little grandson and his new plane.

According to his mother he loves it!

So I thought, "Why not make a few more? Heck, Why not make a whole fleet?"

 

While I was at it I made a girly pink one because who says that airplanes are just for boys?

The more I thought of little girls, the more I wanted to branch out in my rattle production.

Here is what I came up with!

The same person had made a pattern for flowers, but I did not want to pay for a pattern. I like a challenge when it comes to my hobby so I looked at the picture and made up my own. Not bad huh?

Not to take anything away from the original pattern maker. Hers are very different from mine. Only the stem is similar. She sells a lot of them and she deserves credit!

 I just like to know I can do something on my own!

 If you crochet and you would like to try out these cute patterns click on this link.

These will make darling gifts at baby showers 

and they brighten my day whenever I look at their smiling faces! 

Speaking of smiling faces...

This is the photo that Diana sent to me. Look at the smile in those eyes.

It's enough to make me ship my whole little air force squadron to him! 

I am giving you a link to some very creative bloggers this week!

Click below!