Good-bye to June

Can you believe tomorrow is the last day of June? I can't. It seems like each day just passes in a blur right now. The hours at Grammy Daycare are chaotic this summer. Some weeks I have them two days, some weeks one day, this week I had them three days. I am tired. Here's a few pictures of this week's fun!

Tuesday: pretending to be asleep

Wednesday: playing with cars

Friday: I guess they called each other regarding their outfits for the day!

Only 188 Days 'Til Christmas!

Yes, I can hear all those moans and groans out there. Yes, I know it's June. Yes, I know summer officially begins today. Yes, I know that it's 112 degrees here in the desert. Yes, I know we're not even to the 4th of July. Your point is?

Christmas. There, I said it. Christmas is coming. Hobby Lobby has a limited amount of Christmas ornaments and ribbons displayed on their shelves. I have received my annual Christmas cross-stitch book in the mail. I have pre-ordered my Hallmark KOC ornaments and will be picking them up the second weekend in July.

And yes: I HAVE BEGUN CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!

Many of you may think I'm crazy. But let me assure you there is a method to my madness. I want to enjoy a stress-free month of celebrating the holidays in December. To that end, I am totally ready for Christmas by Thanksgiving. Every year. For the past 15 years.

And you can be ready too. Check out my Christmas blog and click on the tab for "Stress-free Christmas Countdown List" at the top. I will be sharing my tips for having a stress-free Christmas. And they are guaranteed to work!

TUSAL Update

This is the sixth TUSAL (totally useless stitch-a-long) update for 2012. I have so many large projects to work on this year that it feels as if I'm making little progress. But I know that I am advancing stitch by stitch!

If you want to learn more about TUSAL, check out this post on Daffycat's blog. It's open to anyone and you can join at any time.

Happy Birthday, JD!

My oldest son has a birthday today. He is now 27 years old. We love him. We're proud of him. We miss him all the time. We literally count the days between visits. We can't wait to see him face-to-face again.

Happy Birthday JD! We love you...

Week 23 - Stitching Update

The annual Christmas Cross-stitch book arrived in the mail this week. Yippee! There are several patterns in here that are going into my "to do" pile. In the meantime, I'm making slow progress on Katie's stocking. The bottom half should be complete this coming week. I hope to finish it by July at this pace.

Jessica and I are going to get together on Wed. for some movie and cross-stitch time. We're hoping to do this several times this summer while she's on break from teaching. We figure the fun of stitching together for a few hours will keep us motivated during the week. I hope so... I have a lot of projects I need to finish and even more than I want to start.

Happy Father's Day

Since there are now three dads in our little family, we try to tailor the celebration for the younger men. This year we all met at Dave & Buster's. Dan and I had never been there. It was fun! There were 11 of us. Only JD and Janel were missing. (And by missing I mean not only were they not present, but they are SORELY missed!) The grandkids are all such a fun age. Two of them can run around independently and one of them wishes he could.

I'll not bore you with wordy descriptions, I'll just let the photos tell the story.

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!

Katie and Sunny

Jess and Adam

Ashley with Thunder

Zach and Skye

(I finally got a picture with him smiling!)

The old people - me and Dan

Grammy and Skye

Opening gifts

Telling a secret?

(I know this one's blurry, but I just thought it was so cute!)

Tia Jess with Skye

Gramps with Skye

After dinner, Katie asked Skye if she she wanted to 

push the stroller with Sunny inside...

... next thing we knew they were taking off!

Gabe, Katie, Sunny, Adam, Thunder, Jess, Dan, Skye, Zach, Ashley

A proud Dad

The boys

Papi with Thunder and Sunny

Ashley, Zach, Skye

Adam and Jessica

As we were walking to the car we came upon live music. Dan and Sunny couldn't resist a quick dance...

... including a fantastic dip! I told Gabe I had a flash forward to 20 years from now, Dan and Sunny dancing at her wedding!

Week 22 - Stitching Update

Progress on Katie's Stocking was very slow this week. I decided to try to catch up on some scrap-booking instead. I really want to finish this stocking. I think it will look gorgeous when completed. And I have several other projects with deadlines looming that I need to get going on.

scrapbook distraction

progress on Katie's stocking

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sunny

Today is Sunny's birthday. She is three years old today. She is such a joy to us. She will always be the child who first made us Gramps and Grammy. She is sweet, funny, smart, kind, and friendly. She is precocious. She is not perfect, and is downright annoying when she follows me around the house saying "hey Vickers, your name is Vickers, right Grammy?!" Uh yeah, NO! She does it on purpose just to push my buttons. But in the next moment she is in my arms declaring "I love you more, Grammy, I love you more" or standing with her arms around Rascal declaring "I love you, Rascal, you're my best buddy".

I called her this morning to sing Happy Birthday to her. When I was done, she squealed and said "blow out the candle, Grammy". So I blew into the phone and said "I did it, I blew it out". To which she replied, "OK, I want to talk to Gramps". (sigh)

Happy Birthday Sunny! I love YOU more...

Our first official photo 2009

Official One year photo 2010

Official Two year photo 2011

2012 - turning Three years old!

The Bunk Beds

Dan's grandfather made a set of bunk beds for his boys. Dan's dad and his brother used them. Dan and his brother used them. All four of our kids used them at some time. Now Sunny has them.

We took them over to Katie's house on Saturday and Dan assembled them. He pointed out all of the historical features of the beds. The carvings made by prior users. The stickers attached by her mom and the other kids. He told her the history of who has slept in those beds.

Most of that went right over her head.

What she was thrilled with was the fact that her mattress is up off the floor and that she can be trusted not to fall out of a real bed! She tried to climb up on the top, but she can't do it yet. We loaded the top with her stuffed animals, hung her butterfly quilt over the end and the bed was ready for its new occupant.

I know that Dan is thrilled to see a fourth generation use the bunk beds.

I'm just glad they're out of my garage...

Stickers placed by my kids still decorate the bed

It's only 11 am, but she's willing to take a nap on her new bed!

Let's Have a Party!

Sunny's 3rd birthday is on Wednesday, but we celebrated a little early with a party at Peter Piper Pizza over the weekend. Here's a glimpse of the fun:

Gabe and Thunder waiting for the party to start

Sunny greeting Skye

Cousins riding the carousel

Friends - Brody, Kat, Quinn

Conquering the play structure

Ready for pizza

Kat, Sunny, Isabella

Tia Chantell, Thunder, Tio Vince, Gabe, Roberta, Robert, Tia Erin

Grammy and Abuela

Gramps and Skye

Kissin' cousins!

Grammy and Skye

The cake!

Yummy...