Thanks

The month of gratitude had me pondering what I am thankful for – and at the top of the list is my husband, my rock, my love, my eternal companion.  He has always been there to do anything I need, but recently he has had to do more than ever.  He likes working in the yard with power saws, but trimming bushes has never been high on his list.  But he is now willingly doing it with me giving him direction!  Love him for that!

After 40 years, the grapefruit tree is dying.

So grateful for birth mothers who love their children so much they find the best family to raise them.  Without the love of these awesome women, we would not have the opportunity to love three of our grandchildren!!  This picture is blurry of Cam, but I love that he wanted his picture taken with the wood creation he made.  It’s me!  And he even drew glasses on with red marker!  Love, love, love this kid!

Totally surprised he made me – Papa is his main guy!

It is a blessing to be able to attend special functions of the grandchildren we have in the valley.  I love seeing them in sports and school activities.  So grateful to have so many close enough to make many of their events!  This month we got to see Caitlin perform with the Higley High School marching band – that’s her in the middle, by the flute players!!

So happy that, when Kevin comes to see Bremen, he stays at our house because then we get to spend lots of time with Bremen, too!

The biggest blessings in our life, though, call us Papa and Grammie.  So thankful for every one of our grandchildren – their unique personalities and varied talents and interests will ensure we never have to be bored if we don’t want to be!

The ones that live near….

...and the ones that live far.

Fall Fun!

Fall fun started out with an echocardiogram!!  Yay…not.  This was the first test of the day at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital.  Dave faithfully goes to all my appointments with me and waits patiently.  They let him come in while they did the echo but they didn’t let him come in for the Pulmonary Function Test. 

 

My pulmonologist referred me to a specialist in the field of lung disease.  That’s why I am having to go through more tests.  When you get instructions in the mail with this return address, you know you’re dealing with people who ought to know what they’re talking about!

After spending half the day there, we headed over to the Mom’s to take her to lunch for her birthday!  Mimi’s Café is one of her favorite places – she loves the corn chowder.  I sure won the lottery in the mother-in-law department!  Love that lady and can’t imagine life without her!

Stuart, Teresa and Jack stopped by to wish her a Happy Birthday!

We’ve been staying with Kendal, Kenna and Kaytie during the morning of the first Saturday of the month while their Mom and Dad have to work.  It is a pretty sweet deal!

The girls were excited when they came over to our house and saw what was in the play room.  Cathi no longer had any use for the doll house she had and gave it to me for our granddaughters.  Kendal LOVED playing with it at Cathi’s.  When she saw it in our playroom, she squealed “NO WAY!”  Poor Kenna got relegated to feeding babies by her big sister.  She’ll have to come over by herself to get time with the doll house!

Snuck in some fun times with this little princess!  She is such a happy baby!

Our anniversary was the 14^th – we celebrated 26 years!  I would not trade this man for anything in the world!!

Then we headed up north for the big Kaibab hunt .  When we arrived, this is what I saw sitting in the truck waiting for the guys to fill the trailer up with water – rain!

With that kind of elevation, I was sporting my O2 look the entire time!

We did a lot less actual “cooking” this time and a lot more “heating up” meals.  The prepackaged beef tips and vegetables from Costco wasn’t bad!

And we celebrated Dave’s birthday while we were in the woods!

We played games, as usual!

Cathi and I also colored!  She got us adult coloring books and colored pencils and we relaxed while creating pretty pictures!  Then it was time to go home.  It sure didn’t seem like we had been gone 7 days!

We got home a few days before Halloween.  Here were our only Trick-or-Treat visitors!

The soccer games and T-ball games were still going strong! 

I just can’t get over how dang cute Cameron is in his uniform!

Kendal is still gettin’ after that soccer ball!  A tough competitor disguised as a sweet little girl!

While big sister was dominating the field, Kenna was practicing her skills.  She has the skill of being cute as a button perfected!

Hunter had an awesome game and had some great fans, too!

There was even a break time where Cameron supplied Hunter with some Nerds for energy!

And let’s wrap this one up with a couple of snagged pictures…..

Here’s Jack in a Jack original outfit – ready for school and apparently any cold weather that may be headed his way!

Logan and his Mom at his band concert!  Excited to be able to go to his Christmas concert!