Good times with Grandma

We all had a great time having my mom visit. The kids played games, games, and more games with her. They read many a story to her. They showed off everything they made, did, or had. It's great to have someone around who thinks everything you do is the greatest! Here are some of the pictures of the fun we had.

Ally really is a cutie! She loved all the extra attention she got from Grandma too! Maddy has been waiting forever for grandma to be able to help her sew a fleece hat. Last year our stake did a "Fleece Help the Children" service project and sewed tons of fleece things. They had a pattern for a hat and Maddy wanted to make it sooooo bad. The directions were confusing for me; I am not a seemstress like my mom. She was THRILLED that grandma let her sew the straight seams. Can you see the ellation on her face?!

Here is the finished product. She loved it! She wore it everyday everywhere. (Notice she is wearing it at night in the pictures of us playing games!) One day she was walking home from the bus in a short sleeve shirt wearing her new fleece hat. :-)
It was beautiful park weather!

Jacob took a break long enough for a picture and that was about it. If you look closely, you can see Bryson's cute face peeking out of the tunnel window.
We all love Grandma!
I thought I needed a picture of my mom and I before she left.
Here are the kids with one last snuggle with Grandma! Of course there were several hugs and kisses at the airport too.
Thanks for the great visit mom!

I have a few more decorating things to finish up and then I can do a post of our newly decorated family room. Thanks to my mom I have a new window box and curtains behind the glass in the doors to the office. As you might remember from earlier in the post, I'm not the world's best seamstress! Thanks for all the help mom! We had a good time shopping for the room too.

Valentine Fun

Happy Valentine's Day everyone ( a little late!)!

Don't the kid's look cute in their new Valentine shirts from Grandma and Grandpa! Travis's mom and dad always send the grandkids a new Valentine's Day shirt and some yummy treats. The kids always look forward to the package!

Here we are at Jacob's class party. He was soooo excited that Grandma was able to come too!
Here is Maddy at her party.
I took a picture of Maddy's teacher's "babysitter" (as she calls it) before we left. Maddy's teacher says "the kids are crazy anyway, at least this way, they stay somewhat calm while enjoying their goodies!" :-) I can't say that I blame her. The kids all seemed wrapped up in Finding Nemo. I had to pull Bryson away to go back to Jacob's class.
We hope you all had a great Valentine's Day too!

I've really enjoyed having my mom here. We've been really busy shopping for things to decorate my family room. We're making big progress now - I'll post pictures after we have the curtains done. It's hard to believe that my mom will be leaving this Thurs. It seemed like she'd be here for a long time and that we'd have soooo much time to do sooo much fun stuff, but time really flies! We'll just have to continue to make the most of the rest of the time she's here. We'll all be sad to see her leave. Not only is it fun with mom/grandma here, it's also a lot easier! :-) Two people cooking dinner is faster and easier than one, I have a grown up to talk to during the day, she helps with all the stuff that needs to be done like laundry, floors, kids etc., homework is easier because the kids can read to grandma while I help the other, and when I got a stomach bug last Fri., there was someone to take over while I spent most of my day in the bathroom or bed. Moms are the BEST!

Fun with Grandma

My mom is visiting for a couple of weeks and we're trying to show her a good time. She is definitely enjoying our beautiful weather and getting out of the snow! We went to a local wildlife preserve this afternoon. Here we are getting questions answered about a hawk.
We got see some Big Horn Sheep. The one on the left doesn't have as big of horns as the oldest sheep in there, but he was in a good spot for a picture.

The kids enjoyed being up close and personal with the mountain lion. Too bad the glare on the glass made it hard to see it. You can see it better in the next picture that we took in the open.
GO COUGARS!!!!

They had fun digging for fossils. The rocks were really hard and the kids were determined to find one. Travis ended up hacking at the rock for a good 15+ minutes and we ended up bringing home a "fossil" of hexagonocal coral. Thanks dad!

Here's our token picture of Ally. I feel bad that I always neglect to move her into group shots. We might go to the zoo next weekend and I'll do better. She is alway so good when we're out that I never have to worry about her. What a cutie!