Happy 23rd, Zachary!

My baby is turning 23 years old today. It seems like just yesterday I was bemoaning the fact he was turning 22, and the day before that he was born! Happy Birthday, Zach. Dad and I are so proud of the man you've become. We love you more than you'll ever know!

Random Stuff

Thunder attended Grammy Daycare yesterday alone. He is just so anxious to walk. He moves around the house on flat feet and flat hands with his bottom up in the air. It looks so uncomfortable. He pulls himself up on the furniture and on any toys big enough to support his weight. He babbles constantly and shakes his head "no". He is a friendly little boy and almost always cheerful. His favorite person at my house is Gramps, followed by Rascal. I come in a distant third! He is all boy and it's fun to have some boy stuff mixed in with all the girl stuff.

Bananas, Raspberries, and Grilled Cheese Sandwich - yum, yum!

Buster was neutered yesterday. 

He's recuperating at Grammy's house for 24 hours.

The summer vignette in my window seat keeps evolving

Mother's Day Weekend

On Saturday we took my folks to IKEA for Mother's Day. They had never been. My mom really enjoyed it. She came away with a blue bag of goodies and a piece of furniture. Of course, we came away with a blue bag of goodies too! As part of our Mother's Day IKEA adventure we ate lunch there. Zach, Ashley, and Skye came over to join us for lunch.

Grammy and Skye

Me and Zach

Ashley's 2nd Mother's Day

The moms

Gabe had to work on Sunday so we met Katie and the kids at Olive Garden for her Mother's Day lunch. As you can see, warm weather has officially arrived in the Phoenix area. We're in the low 100s for the foreseeable future. We had a great lunch and I got a very cute card from Sunny and Thunder.

Happy Mother's Day

Turn off the music at the bottom of this blog before clicking the play button. Thanks!

Laura over at Decor to Adore posted this today. It is just so good that I had to steal borrow it for my post. It will bring tears to your eyes.

To everyone who is a mom, dreams of being a mom, had a mom, mothers and mentors "children" you didn't give birth to... Happy Mother's Day!

Oh, the Fun We Had!

Sunny and Thunder are back with their parents today. Katie and Gabe picked them up yesterday afternoon having spent a fabulous week in Hawaii! 

The long visit went better than I had hoped. We weren't quite sure what to expect having them for that long. Sunny did not get homesick until yesterday. I think it's because she knew they were coming back that day. Thunder did great the whole time. I already covered Buster's behavior in a previous post so I won't repeat it here. I will say, though, that the Veggie Tales CD on continuous loop worked like a charm and he did not bark, whine, or howl Friday - Monday nights. Yippee!

Here are some photos of the past few days. Now I need to go take a nap...

Bouncing on the bed

Playing with Buster

Playing stickers with Gigi

Papa and Thunder

Gigi and Thunder

Pool time

Ready for a ride

Swimming

Bath-time fun

Donuts for breakfast - yummy!

Week 17 - Stitching Update

No photo today. Just as I thought, I did not get much stitching done this week with two grandkids here 24/7. I'm still working on Katie's stocking and hopefully will have a picture that actually shows some progress next week!

This Week at Grammy's

Whew. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I am exhausted. In a good way. But still, completely exhausted. The culprit is not who you probably think it is. It's not the grandkids. It's the grand-dog.

Sunny and Thunder spent the week at our house. They're gone tonight and tomorrow night to spend time with a family friend. Then it's back to our house for two more nights.

It's actually gone much better than I could have imagined. We have managed to keep busy. We haven't gotten bored yet. Sunny is not completely homesick as I worried she would be. Tia Jessica and Tio Adam came over one night for dinner. Gigi and Papa came over the next night for dinner. So, the kids have had some variety in grownups to play with.

The reason I'm exhausted is Buster. Don't get me wrong, he's the sweetest little dog. He's a very good boy. But, he's a puppy. He is driving Duke insane. When he bothers Rascal, Rascal growls and snaps at him and he backs off. When Duke growls and snaps at him, he just keeps going.

The problem is at night. Katie said Buster is used to sleeping in his crate all night. Great! The first night we put him in the crate and after whining for several minutes, he settled down and slept all night. We were thrilled.

The second night we put him in his crate and he whined. He howled. He barked. He work the kids up at 1:30 and I had to lay on the couch with him the rest of the night. I got no sleep.

The third night we put him in the crate. He whined. He howled. He barked. Dan finally got up and went to lay on the couch with him. Buster fell asleep. Dan, not being comfortable on the couch, decided to leave Buster out on the couch and came back to bed. Sunny woke up to go potty at 4:30 am. As I stumbled down the hall in the dark... well you're probably way ahead of me... I stepped in a puddle. Dan's comment was "I thought it would be easier to clean up a mess than to get no sleep." My question "easier for who?" After mopping the entire hallway and all the paw prints in the living room, I couldn't go back to sleep.

The fourth night. We tried a different approach. We put his crate in the laundry room and closed the door hoping he wouldn't wake the kids up if he howled. He was quiet. Hallelujah! He was quiet until 12:05 am when Duke needed to go out which woke Buster up and the howling, barking, whining began. Of course, he woke Thunder up. Great. After taking care of Thunder and getting him back down, I was up and down the rest of the night determined to NOT take him out of his crate. I'm exhausted.

Since the kids are gone the next two nights, I'm going to put his crate in the playroom at the front of the house, close the door, and put on the Veggies Tales Toddler Tunes tape in continuous mode all night. Hope it works.

Here's some photos of the fun we've had so far this week:

Fun at the park

Buster and Thunder

Look who's standing!

Cookie time

Tia Jessica dropped by to see the sun visors Sunny and I made