Grandkids!

We've been blessed to have three of the grandkids over a few times this past week. Our time with them is always so precious! Here's a few photos:

Sunny reading a book to Thunder. She can sight read about a dozen words now and is so proud of herself!

Thunder, Storm, and Sunny enjoying another viewing of "Frozen"

Storm and Thunder had a play day at Grammy's house. Thunder wanted to be sure that Storm had enough toys to play with!

Storm loves this toy!

A Fun Finish

Over the years one of my favorite stitching projects is Christmas Stockings. I have stitched Stockings for each person in my family. In addition, I've stitched a second set of stocking for my kids and their families. That way they have one at my house and one at their house. 

My son and DIL, JD and Janel, have cats. A few years ago I stitched a little stocking for their first cat, Nym. This year Nym has a new sister, Piper. And yes, as you can see in the photo above, I have a stocking ready for Piper! 

Since I currently have four grandkids and ten grand-pets, I just want to state right now that I will not be stitching stockings for ALL of the other grand-pets! And if JD and Janel decide to have children, my pet stocking stitching days will be over! haha

Birthdays

Dan and I both celebrate our birthdays in August. Every year I think that I'm going to find a BD background to use on my blog and every year I lose interest. For some reason this morning it occurred to me that I only have 16 days left to use a BD background. Doesn't it look festive?! Hope you enjoy it...

58!

 I turned 58 years old this past Sunday. Katie had us over for dinner. She and Jessica surprised me with the kids in these terrific shirts!

What a great gift! Katie, Jessica, and Gabe provided a great meal of enchiladas, homemade salsa, and Spanish rice - yummy! Katie baked a cake with purple frosting (purple is my favorite color); and the cake itself was rainbow colored - it was so pretty!

On Saturday we went down to Mesa to see Zach and Skye. After playing for a while at their apartment, we headed out to lunch at Portillo's. We'd never been there before. The food was good and the atmosphere was such fun. As we ate lunch, Skye directed us to all hold hands and then she proceeded to lead us in a round of the Happy Birthday song in my honor. Awww, that's the kind of thing that just melts my heart.

Here's a few more photos from my special day(s):

Gramps, Skye, Grammy

Thunder thought Gramps needed a trim before dinner

He also thought it was time to take Gramps' temperature

Love the purple frosting!

I managed to blow out the candles - quite a feat at my age, haha

See those vibrant colors - beautiful!

I love the way Sunny and Thunder are both holding on to Storm

Yesterday was the first day of school in Jessica's district and she had to go in to teach her AP class so Storm came over to spend a few hours with Thunder and me. Here's some bonus pictures of the boys watching Frozen.

Watching Frozen

Almost ready to laugh!

First Day of Kindergarten!

We're so proud of you, Sunny! 

Storm: Official Two Month Photo

See how he's grown!

We celebrated Storm's Two Month milestone with his first sleepover at Gramps and Grammy's house. We had a blast! Storm thinks Gramps is so funny; he was trying to laugh at him, but he can't quite get it yet. He slept from 11:30 pm to 6:15 am which Gramps and Grammy were both thankful for! Even though we had a fun time, he was very happy to see Mommy and Daddy the next morning. 

Kindergarten

We are in the midst of Back to School season here in the Valley of the Sun. Some of the schools on the east side of town started on July 21st. The districts around us are starting this week and next Monday. Usually I don't pay any attention to when school starts now that my kids are grown. But this year is different.

Sunny starts Kindergarten on Wednesday.

Kindergarten!

Where has the time gone? I'm excited for her to start school because I know she's ready for it. I can't wait to hear what she's learning. To hear about her new friends. To watch her blossom socially. 

But I know that starting school is also the start of her life filling up with lots of other activities. This is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. I will miss spending several days a week with her. But, I will find other creative new ways to spend time with her.

Next week it will be back to just me and Thunder two days a week. I enjoy the one-on-one time with him. We will have many adventures of our own this school year. I will treasure every moment because next year it will be his turn to go off to 5-day pre-school, and then on to Kindergarten the next year.

They truly grow up so fast...