Family

My handsome eldest son came for breakfast at his sister's apartment on Saturday am, after Steph and I got back from buying a new tire. Then we all went to see some cousin, uncles, and aunts at a baseball game in Provo.  Now you have to understand that Jonathan loves being outside, and he loves his family, but he was being a pretty good sport to accompany us to Utah Valley for a baseball game to watch someone he has never met.
It was a marvelously beautiful day.

 You've go to admit, the setting for the BYU campus is just about as pretty as any you've ever seen. This time of year it is especially amazing with the white snow against the blue spring sky. Seriously a beautiful day.

We were driving in on the Parkway from the freeway when we stopped at a red light and Stephanie started honkin' the horn of her sweet little Honda. "There's Megan," she yelled as she rolled her window down and started shouting. "Megan, Megan, honk, honk." After a long 15 seconds or so, Megan looked around and saw her cousin(s) and Aunt VK madly yelling at her. ( I didn't really look, but I suppose that at this time Jonathan was not madly yelling, but instead he would have been laughing at his sister and mother about then.)
(I put in too many parenthesis, don't I?)
We told M that we were headed to a baseball game where Aunt C, Uncle B and 2/3 of their offspring were going to be watching their friend play 1st base, and hit the ball.
She came.

We all had a good time in the sun. I met a cute little great niece and nephew.

Then after it was all over C and B took me with them on the 4 hour drive home to Grand Junction.
And here I am. Thanks for the rides Steph , Aunt C, Uncle B. You guys are pretty good company for a free ride.

As you can see, I'm using my fathers Picasa for picture downloads and I'm learning how to do quick and easy collages. I don't travel with my computer, just my camera.

Road Trip

       I am in Colorado

I left on Friday and traveled over to I-80 and stayed right there for over 700 miles on that very day. 

This picture is along I-80 approaching the Nevada border. Still a lot of snow up on them there mountains.

My Stephanie driving merrily along. She's just finishing a week of spring break and we are driving her car that she is buying from us back to the finish up her senior year of college.

She has finished in 4 years like her sister Kathryn a couple years ago and we are proud of them.

We traveled slowly (about 82 -83 mph) through Nevada and saw all the beautiful sites.
They actually are quite cool if you look at them with non-judgmental eyes. It isn't green and lush by any means, but the mountains and sage brush, pinon pines and dry ground are actually all quite beautiful.

Crusty salty ground all around for miles and miles. The artsy tree in the middle of nowhere is always interesting to see.  We are getting closer to our destination.
We arrived in the Salt Lake Valley as night was upon us. Stephanie driving again as I sat in the passenger seat finishing up my knitting project du jour. As we went passed the air port something happened to us that I have failed to take any pictures of. You would like to see me change a tire too, right?

 Well, Stephanie had to direct the car off the side of the road when the thing BLEW. She did great, and I was glad we didn't have a jam packed car. We just unloaded the trunk, took out the tools and tire, jacked the car up, started unscrewing the bolts on the tire, watched the car fall off the jack (as I was standing 6 inches away from it), called The Hubby to find out where to place the jack, got grease on my hands unfolding the jack, jacked the car back up, released bolts, replaced tire, tightened bolts, took jack down, and drove off.
It took us about 25 minutes I'd say (Stephanie, you could make a comment and correct me if I'm wrong)
Notice that I do have to ask people to make comments because I have about 3 followers who participate.
We had a very nice trip across the west. Arriving in SLC to Steph's apartment and still with enough energy to shop and watch a really cute movie before bed.

That's a terrible download, but I'm done. The show was "Up."
You should see this movie if you haven't already. Don't walk out the first 8 minutes. Just hang in there.

Babies Are A Blessing

Yesterday was the special naming and blessing of our new little grandson. At this point he's our one and only grandson, and he is growing healthy and lively. His proud daddy blessed him with continued health, good example, and bright countenance. It was a sweet blessing.
We had a party at our house in the afternoon after the service.

Here is little Luke saying hi to Gramvi. We made a bunting/banner that has his name on it, and ordered some cookies from Cookies By Design.

I knitted him a little vest in the colors his mommy chose. Little argyles are so cute.

... And he looks so cute in them. He looks like such a little man with his polo shirt, kackie pants, and little penny loafer knock-offs. (you can't see the shoes, but trust me they look so adorable)

Here are some of us making little individual pizza's for our dinnertime experience. (Little Lena is wearing the dress I made her last week. The bows on the socks keep coming off, so I need to fix them. I probably need to put on a bigger snap, cause the weight of the ribbons is too much)

The cookie centerpiece turned out to be a highlight. With Lunardi's assorted ice cream they were yummy. I think the Butter Pecan Carmel was the fave.

All in all a pretty nice day with the family in celebration of this wonderful new addition.

Sadies

Seems like girls and boys like to dress up no matter how old they get.

These kids all dressed up as "Celebrity Couples" and so M and his girlfriend  are Jay Z and Beyonce. Wrong color, but what the hey.
M had ordered bling for his ears. A magnetized 8 mm set that he paid extra postage for to get here on time for the dance.  They didn't come.
I got two packages from the UPS man today and M was mad at me 'cause he didn't get his 1. So we got resourceful and went to Affordable Treasures. One of our favorite junk stores just right here in our little town.
There I found a belt made out of blingy glass. I cut out 2 of the big fake diamonds and glue them to his ears with glue dots. Worked perfect. I also bought some fake gold chain that is made out of plastic and weighs about 1/8 of an ounce.

Dressed up buddies from grade school.
Have fun guys. Not too much, but fun nontheless.

Make Your Picks

My extended family loves the game of basketball.  We've had lots of good players go through the ranks in the cousin category, my oldest bro. was a smooth shooter for BYU back in the day, my older bro. was a D2 college coach for several years, my Dad was ... well, it's in the blood anyway.
Several years ago we started having a end of season NCAA bracket challenge within the Kelly Klan. Brought to you by one of the cousins inviting us to all join in the fun, it has evolved into a yearly fun time that most of us look forward too. The oldest bro and sis-in-law as well as the original parentals haven't been dragged in to participate, but nearly everyone else and spouses has a great time of it.

You should try it. It keeps us in close contact for the next few weeks, watching the games, brackets and jibing comments from the group. A lot of bantering back and forth on the ESPN web site. In the end a neato-jet prize is sent to the current winner for safe keeping until the next years winner is "Crowned". (I wonder if I can find that cool prize back in my photo catalog) (anybody else find it?)
 Go here to create your own bracket and invite others to join your challenge. (I hope that doesn't put you into my signed in entry) You do nothing to add the points up, just watch and see who wins and looses. ESPN does the rest. You also can see how the rest of the country is doing on their picks.

In addition to the extended family bracket, we also in our immediate family, make a bracket challenge.
First we print up as many brackets as there are participants, then fill them all out.
We pick different winners in this game, because we get more points for the lower seed winners. If a 16 seed beats a 1 seed in the first round, the winner gets 16 points. If a 4 seed beats a 1 seed in the 3rd round the 4 is multiplied by 3 (third round) for 12 points. It makes you choose the winners differently, but it is obviously more of a gamble that way. I think it makes it kinda fun.
The Hubby gives a monetary prize to the winner in the end. What if The Hubby wins? He gets to take us all to dinner.
teehee - lucky him.

Crawling to Kneeing to Walking

My little Granddaughter has been walking for a month or so now, but I'm afraid I'll forget the transition in between the crawl if I don't write it down.

She stopped crawling at all, but didn't really want to walk most of the time, so she just started walking on her knees everywhere she went.

Here I come Grammy. She used this means of transportation for a couple weeks non-stop.
Finally on this day she decided to get up and just use the feet like a regular person.

Woo Hoo here I come. Watch out for the speed demon.

Good job Ellery!

Old Fabric, New Dress

My friend Christa decided a few months ago that she wanted to learn how to smock, so she asked me if I would help her in that task.  We set up a time to meet and she brought fabric for her project.
I have hundreds of patterns in various magazines and books that I've accumulated over the last 20 or so years, so I had chosen some simple ones to have her start her first project. Truth be told smocking is a very easy form of stitching, far easier than most embroidery or other handiwork. I think if I had to compare it to something else that had the same scale of difficulty, I'd have to say cross stitch. Yes, cross stitching is about as hard as smocking, and that is pretty easy.
After our first session/lesson she went home and finished the hand smocking portion of her project and then we met back at my house a month later with our sewing machines for a lesson in dress construction.
I will post my friends finished project later on when I get a picture of it, but for now I'm going to show you what I made alongside her as I was showing her how it is done.

The solidish pink fabric is the smocked section of the dress. I did some simple waves in the same light pink tone, and some accents in the brighter pink and blues that are in the body of the dress fabric.
The bow up on top will be for the little girls (Lena's) hair, and I made matching ones for socks if her mom wants them. I made some for baby socks a couple weeks ago, and although they might be too much for some people, I really think they are cute, so I made some more.

Here is the finished size 2 dress laid out on my couch. The little sleeve caps are in the "Angel" style, because I honestly ran out of fabric for the sleeves. They'll still be cute.
Oh, I didn't tell about this fabric. I bought it to make a quilt for my DIL before she was married. I think the main fabric for the dress was supposed to be the back of the quilt that would not be seen much. There are a couple of other small pieces of matching fabrics that go with it too, but I think it turned out nice as a dress. And ... already paid for is a pretty good price.

The hem is done with a contrasting fabric in Madeira Applique. Nice finishing touch.

The dress from the back  with The Hubby making adjustments for me. He is my photography cheerleader.

My Firstborn Son

He's 30 years old today. It is incredible to me that I've been a mother for that amount of time, and that they are all pretty much adults and making all their own decisions.
Our Jonathan was such a perfect baby. He slept well, ate well, grew well and progressed through all his milestones like a champ.
Such a happy baby turned into a happy toddler.

The scan through a glass framed picture isn't the best.

You can see how engaged and sweet he was as a 2 year old.
The Hubby wrote his three decade old child a letter this week, outlining these years. He was a good big brother and a kind hearted soul from the beginning. He happily traipsed through each day exploring and discovering new things along the way. Jonathan loved rocks, and balls, dancing, big wheels, walks, runs, bugs, other kids, digging in the sandpile, and his siblings as they came into our family.

On the right here, the big brother is about 5 years old. Very cute with his straight blond hair and blue eyes, a ready smile, and long skinny body and legs. (David, his little 3 year old brother, also couldn't make it 2 minutes without showing his sunny disposition.)

As he grew older he lost some of the happiness, but never lost kindness as he went through some mild struggles in school, and started to be a bit confused with the world.

Now this pic is not through a glass frame so the scan is much better. Live and learn.

Here is Jonathan at about 14 wearing his new glasses. By now we had moved twice in 4 years and it was a little tough, but he did like California. He started high school the month we moved here, and continued to be a good big brother and helpful son.
A good worker, Jonathan built fences, helped with other yard work, and learned how to do many odd jobs round the house. The neighbor had him help in the remodel of his house when Jonathan was 16, and he became good at many things. He also loved skateboarding with his buddies, and a few girls in there.

And his Mother.

Here he is at 18 with his handsome Dad.
He went to Ricks College for a year and then on a Mission for our Church to Jackson, Mississippi.
He married and he continued college in Utah where his major was changed several times before finally quitting.
Jonathan has continued to work hard at anything he does, including hard playing in the mountains, climbing, hiking and enjoying the outdoors.

Here's Jonathan at 28 with the family on a vacation.

And with his wife Stephanie. (They are currently separated.)

And with his sister Stephanie who attends school in Utah at U of U, last year. He is now working as a baker of great breads and also as a handyman doing odd jobs for people.

Last month The Hubby went to Utah for a visit with the 2 children that live there and his parents. This is the latest picture we have of Jonathan. He's still smiling and kind as ever.

Hats, Hats Everywhere

I thought I'd make sure I had pictures of hats I've made this last year and so I asked my DD to find me some pictures of her cute little one and any hats she has worn that I made.
She brought me some and so here are some cute pictures of my 3rd granddaughter in all her many hats.
I thought I'd do something different and so you don't have to scroll down through the pics, rather you can just sit back and watch them go by.  Easy as pie. (Is pie easy?)

One of these homemade hats (the light green one) is a smocked hat I made to go with her Easter dress last year. The lavender with pink detail is her little cousin Lexy's hat that I think was the first hat I made for a grandchild. If you look closely at the pumpkin hat there is a little green stem hanging out of the top. And the white hat should go with many things if  we change the ribbons to match an outfit.
She wears a hat well, don't you think?

Semi's Prove Too Much

It was a battle between the public schools and the private schools in Tuesday nights' CCS basketball  games. First Palo Alto got crushed by Archbishop Mitty and then the mighty LG got the same treatment from St. Francis.

The fans were out in force for the match up. Lots of Orange and Black in the crowd.

The captains met at center court then was the recognition and introduction of players both starting and non-starting.

Here's the Mikester shaking the opposing coaches hand.

The team listens surprisingly with intent as Michael fires them up in the huddle.  What a bunch of nice boys.

We started the game well and Michael suggested later that perhaps a forfeit after the first 5 minutes would have saved us a lot of angst. We were ahead with 13 to their 9 or 10 when we quit scoring.

We tried our darndest, but couldn't handle the ball well to their defense.

Couldn't make many of our free throws, which are one of our usual strengths.

Couldn't hit 3 pointers.

Couldn't hold onto the ball.

Couldn't rebound against their strong insiders.

Couldn't,

Couldn't,

Couldn't.

Michael did have some nice drives.

You've gotta click on this one to be able to see it well enough.

Here's some nice camera work by The Hubby. I think M's body positioning is impossible. I would be on the floor in a flash and never get back up.

"Help, I've fallen and I can't get up."

But not these kids. They have developed as good a balance as they may ever have. Nice job.

He also had some good threes. "Tres," he would say. Among lots of attempts.

Nice shot.

He ended with 17 points, and we lost pretty badly. We are all a little sad that it is over.

In the words of my friend, another mom with a senior.

It's been FUN.

Ruffles and Bows Oh My

I embellished this little onsie with iron on paislies, some buttons and a cute ruffle around the collar.

Of course ruffle BUNS was the main reason for the whole project in the first place.  Whether they are crawling or walking, these are the cutest way to see them go.

The socks have a snap on the bow to attach to the sock so that when washed the bow isn't ruined.

Then it easily is placed right back onto the sock.

Matching (larger) head bow is just the finishing touch.

I'll post "E" wearing these if the onesie isn't to small, ASAP.

Amazing ribbons purchased at Ribbons and Bows Oh My.

There's a "ruffles" contest this month 

GO FOR IT!!