Thankful for Family

The last few weeks have been filled with family events, and I am thankful to have family nearby with whom we can celebrate!  Besides birthday celebrations and Sunday evening dinners with our children and grandchildren, we also are blessed to enjoy extended family times around the holidays.  Here are some miscellaneous snapshots of Cailyn and Landon in recent weeks!

Here Grandpa is helping Cailyn dress the old cabbage patch dolls...undressing is the most fun, but Cailyn is pretty adept at the shoes and socks already!

Landon is a charmer, and has "graduated" from his doc-band!  He's cut two little teeth on the bottom in the past month, and must hold the record for the "fastest crawler" in the 9-month age category!

Mimi bought Landon a "first hat" since the doc-band, and Cailyn is trying to help Landon with the correct hat placement.  Cailyn LOVES hats, and hopefully Landon will like them too!

Cailyn in her purple leggings and pink boots....stylin'!!  She loves playing with the "gel" stickers on the windows...and Landon is loving the swing time now!!

Vince cooked a delicious turkey on the grill for our Thanksgiving dinner this year...

                                     We are thankful for God's many blessings, but the blessing of

a loving family is the most precious of all!

NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS @ THE ZOO!!

Our family enjoyed a wonderful opportunity to go to the Phoenix Zoo together!  Mike and Corissa had visitor passes for all of us with their zoo membership, and the predicted rain for Nov. 12th held off, so we were able to celebrate our November birthdays with a picnic lunch near the giraffe exhibit at the Zoo.  It had been years since Vince and I were at the zoo, so there were many new additions, including the new koi pond near the entrance. It was beautiful! Plus, we enjoyed the new orangutan and komodo dragon exhibits.

We especially liked observing Cailyn "in action" as she watched the animals and helped lead the way.  Landon was a good sport and was content in the stroller most of the time.

Alan's birthday is Nov. 8, Mike's is the 12th, and mine is the 16th!  Every year, we usually share a celebration together...

After our picnic lunch, we wandered over to see the sleepy lions and the baboons.  I don't think this guy really wanted his photo taken!!

In this photo, it looks like Landon's sunglasses are a bit troublesome for him...he is so good natured about the doc-band, but hasn't quite become accustomed to the sunglasses yet!

We had a wonderful time together and we appreciate so much the opportunity to go to the zoo as a family! Thankyou Mike & Corissa!!
Landon fell asleep towards the end of our visit, and Cailyn said a special goodbye to one of her zoo friends, "until we meet again"!

Grandchildren's visit

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to have Cailyn AND Landon stay over at our house for 24 hours!! We had lots of fun, and were busy every minute!  Here Grandpa's watching the activities while I was fixing lunch.  Landon loves all things that are round or that make noise!  Cailyn is borrowing my sudoku book, pretending to write...or maybe she's solving my puzzle??!

There was plenty of time for playdough after lunch, and again, before supper.  Cailyn brought along her "signing time" DVD collection, so we enjoyed a couple of those with her during their stay.  Grandpa and Mimi are way behind on learning the "signs"!  We better catch up!

Cuddle time with Grandpa is always fun, especially when he makes those funny sounds and faces!  The weather was beautiful so swinging, sandplay, and chalkboard drawing were all FUN.  Cailyn was good at sharing the swing with her brother, and also likes to push Landon in the swing!

Mimi found new jammies to keep at her house, so they were worn for bedtime on Saturday!  Landon gets a one-hour break in the evenings from his doc-band, so Grandpa and Mimi washed his hair in the kitchen sink before dressing him for bedtime.  He was ready for bed at 7:00...and Mimi and Grandpa were almost ready by that time too! ;-) 

Grandpa made us waffles for breakfast! Both children eat very well. Cailyn enjoyed sandplay again on Sunday morning, followed by a bath.  We were so happy to be able to help Mike & Corissa so they could enjoy a weekend away!  The smiles on Landon's and Cailyn's faces when mommy and daddy walked through our door on Sunday morning were priceless!