Garden Box

I work for a vinyl fence company and have some of the best bosses ever. If you remember last summer I got to go to Alaska and stay at their fishing lodge...one of my favorite things ever. This year I asked if I could have a couple of garden boxes made and here is one of them. I just love the way it looks. My other box is smaller and I don't have it planted yet. I will post a picture when I do.
I actually work the division of the company that does all out of state sales and military bases. When I asked for a garden box the brother that owns the Arizona portion of the business offered to make my boxes. I am blessed to work for such a great family. In this box I have tomatoes, several varieties and some squash. My dad told me that I need to thin out the squash that I planted with seeds but I just can't make myself pull any out yet but it all is growing so fast I will have to soon. The strawberries you see there in front and a couple of smaller plants sitting inside the planter are actually going to go into the smaller box...next weekends job. Thanks Lindblom family...I love my job!

Easter

What fun Easter celebration we had with all the kids. We decided to do it on Sat. night...I really wanted to do it at night so we could have a glow in the dark easter egg hunt. More on that later. Anyway we started out grilling hamburgers. I know that doesn't sound to much like Easter but it sounded good so we went for it and Brett did a great job of the grilling...they were great. Above are the goodie bags they all went home with along with the little bunnies each got at their place setting. I tried to put these at the end but for some reason they just won't move so here they are. The girls really loved the bunnies but the boys could just see the sucker they are made with. After everyone had eaten all the little ones were ready for egg coloring. If you notice most have their shirts off...no that was not a requirement but they all had new shirts so their parents didn't want egg dye on them so they all took them off. So I guess we had shirtless egg dying.

Shirts or no shirts they all had fun and came out with some really pretty eggs. We had 5 kiddies and 5 colors of egg dye so everyone got to do one egg and then passed their color of dye to the next person. This worked great for a while and then everyone started to grab to get their favorite colors until the eggs were all colored.

As you can see Hunter was really concentrating to get just the right shade of blue. Funny how some were patient enough to get bright colors and some were more impatient, they ended up with the pastel colors. Either way they were pretty.

Now onto the "glow in the dark" egg hunt. I had seen the idea on Pinterest and really wanted to try it. So I found some glow in the dark bracelets and talked Julie and Carrie into stuffing them into the eggs. They really had to shove them in to get the eggs to shut. While the kids were busy coloring eggs they went out and hid the glow in the dark eggs. I tried to take a picture but since it was dark the flash went off and you couldn't see the eggs. Take my word for it tho, it looked really cool. The kids loved it. Down side to it all tho, we noticed some of the liquid in the glow in the dark bracelets started to leak since they were stuffed so tightly into the eggs. We decided to be on the safe side we needed throw them all away. The kiddies were pretty disappointed but better safe than sorry. Of course later on we found the dog eating some of them and it didn't bother her.

I had another game to play after the egg hunt but unfortunately it was getting late and the parents were ready to get the kids home so that they could get to bed for the Easter Bunny to visit them. Maybe next year. Fun was had by all tho. I think the glow in the dark egg hunt needs to become a tradition at Grandma's house. Oh by the way...I hear I could have bought glow in the dark eggs at Walmart. That probably would have been much easier. Next Year.

Birthday Quiet Book

This weekend this cute little girl turned a year old. She is Avery my "great" niece and is one of the happiest babies that I have ever been around and just soooo cute. I wanted to come up with something special for her birthday and of course like I always do I started trying to think of something that I could make her.
I have always wanted to make thoses cute little quiet books but felt like maybe Avery wasn't quite old enough for the one with all the different activities in them. So I went to Etsy.com and typed in quiet book patterns and came up with this pattern by SW Designs. It happened to be Feb. 29th...Leap day and they were having a sale. I love sales so I ordered this cute toddler quiet book called "On The Farm". Best yet it was sent digitally to my email so I didn't have to wait for it. This picture was the book after it was all put together.

I sat down one day when I really should have been doing several other things to look at it and start organizing fabrics etc. and found it rather addicting and was finished with the whole book in no time at all. It was so easy. Here is a set of the first pages.

And here is the set of the last four pages. The chicken and the cow were my favorite and after this picture was taken I added a bow onto the cows bell.

After getting it all put together I decided it needed 1 more page...a back cover I guess. So early the same morning I was to pass it onto Avery I put together this flower page. You can't see it but around the flower I wrote...Made for Avery with love by Aunt Mindy...Happy Birthday and then the date. Avery loves books so I hope she enjoys this one too as much as I enjoyed making it for her

My story should end here but much to my surprise when I received the email copy of this pattern Shelly Wallace, the author, said that if I post this onto my blog I will get another one of her quiet book patterns for free. You can't ask for anything better than that for a good deal. Thanks Shelly...now the hard part...which one? If any others of you out there are interested you can find all Shellys cute quiet book patterns in her etsy shop at www.shelleywallace.etsy.com.
Happy 1st Birthday Avery!

Season End

Hunter and Connor finished a successful baseball season this past weekend. They both were really fun to watch. You could see alot of improvement in Hunters team by the end of the season. His games were fun to watch and starting to look like real baseball. The boys learned so much.

I love this picture of him watching the ball. Great game Hunt!

Connors team was fun to watch too. He always had a smile on his face when he played. He had a little different strategy as he ran from one base to the next...he usually did a loop or two into the outfield between bases. Didn't really matter because the little guys on the opposing team usually were still struggling to get the ball and figure out where it goes next by the time he would reach the base. They were so cute to watch.

So it's time to say goodbye to baseball. Time for a short sports break before moving onto spring football and soccer. These are busy boys! Good job guys!

Crafty Weekend

Oh wow, here we are almost at another weekend and I am just now getting to last weekend...where does the time go. Last weekend I got to spend it with this crafty little girl, Reagen. She came to spend the night on Friday and stayed until Sunday evening. We had a great time together...watched a few movies, went to her cousins t-ball games, did a little grocery shopping and alot of crafting.

Reagen pulled out her sewing machine and worked for a bit on a quilt that she has been working on for some time. She pulled out a box of her scrapbooking stuff...didn't really make anything with it but reorganized it all. She also wanted to go to the fabric store. I wasn't sure just what for but you know I am always game for any store that carries fabric so off to Hobby Lobby we went.

She picked out this fleece and came home and tied this little blanket for herself. She did it all on her own...measured, cut and tied. While Reagen worked on her projects I worked on a few of my own.

I had seen one of these banners on Pinerest made with old book pages. I picked me up an old book at Goodwill's half price sale the week before so I decided to give it a try. The one I had seen had buttons on it so I decided to go through a jar of old antique buttons that I had and found some real interesting things in there besides buttons. I know its hard to see but there is an old zipper pull (it's the aqua color on the middle one), an old snap, some sort of hook thing, an old safety pin with thread wrapped around it and several other things that looked neat but I don't really know what they are. Anyway I really liked how the old buttons and things made it turn out. I gave this one as a gift but must make another one for myself.

Another idea that I found on Pinterest were these hangers. I have been into crocheting lately so I decided to give them a try. I thought they turned out nice and gave them along with the banner to my Sister in Law, Kristy for her birthday.

OK, maybe I am hooked on Pinterest because that is where I found the idea for these cards. Had to make some of them to go along with the above gift and of course had to make some extras too for later. It's always a good feeling to go back to work on Monday's when you feel like you have really accomplished a few thing during the weekend. Humm...tomorrow starts another weekend, will I get anything accomplished? I'll have to let you know because I never know myself until the end of the weekend. I always start the weekend with alot of plans and alot of times things just happen and nothing gets done. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another productive weekend. Might even start painting my bedroom.

What else have we been doing?

What else have we been up to?

Well Jessah played on the soccer team of her school.

Reagen was on the cheer team...

Thane played on a basketball team. To bad the game Grandma went to got cancelled so no action shot.

This boy got to play on his first t-ball team. Connor loved finally getting to play instead of always watching...even if he did sit down when he was playing outfield.

Hunter is playing Coaches pitch this year. He just hit the ball here.

All are keeping busy and active.

And last but not least...

No I didn't forget little Faithy...what's new with her you say? Well Faith had a birthday last month and got a new big bike. Shortly after she got it she got going a little to fast and fell off and broke her arm. She has been a real trooper about it tho. She even has a cute smile laying in her hospital bed waiting for her cast.

Her first cast was pink. This is before she let everyone sign it. She is still smiling here along with her brother.

Cast #2 is purple...so girly, pink then purple. Still smiling....You don't think she is using this to her advantage. Who can resist giving attention to a poor little cute girl with a cast.

Catch up Time...

Wow how time flies. Here it is already January and my last post was way back the first part of Oct. So here is the first of a couple of catch up post. We were busy all fall doing all of our favorite traditions. There is just nothing better than family traditions. In Oct. we did our annual pumpkin carving. All the little ghost and goblins showed up. My sister Kathy fixed us a great meal and then the carving began. We had some really creative pumkins this year.

Moving on now...yes keep up, we are moving rather quickly...to Thanksgiving. Our family's master cook Kathy, my sister cooked dinner for us again. Here are my Mom, Dad and nephew Tate waiting for dinner. I should have posted a picture of her serving table, it looked beautiful and all was delicious. It's great having wonderful family and food to share the holiday's.

Now on to December and our Christmas celebrations. We start out early in the month building our Gingerbread houses at our Gingerbread party with all the gang. Everyone gets so creative. These two boys stopped long enough to let me take their picture before they went back to finishing their houses. I think they might have even eaten a piece of candy or two while decorating their houses.

One of our favorite traditions for the year is our annual Polar Express party. We have the best time with a game of Christmas Bingo, a craft, a cooking project and always end the evening by watching the Polar Express Movie. Fortunately by then end they were all asleep for the night. By morning they were all ready for our traditional waffles with whipped cream and sprinkles on top. Lucky for me I am the Grandma and don't always have to give them the most healthy breakfast. I am so glad the kids still look forward to this tradition. Here are Reagen and Connor with their reindeer antlers they got to make for one of the crafts.

And last but not least was our Christmas Eve gathering. This year since it was on Sat. all came for breakfast. We had a great breakfast and then opened all the gifts. Fun for everyone.

Best of all was being able to Skype our missionary Matthew in Wales. We got to talk to him for about an hour and a half. He looked and sounded so good. We are all anxious for him to return home in May. After our talk with him he got to call both of his Grandmothers which thrilled them both and then Aunt Kathy. Unfortunately Aunt Kathy had to much going on at their house and didn't hear the phone ring so he had to just leave a message there. Sorry guys!

So we are caught up a little now. Life gets so busy but I am going to try to get better at posting more often so that I don't have to do so much catching up. Not making any promises tho.

Cabin Fun!

A couple of weeks back I headed to the cabin with this cute little bunch of kids...Thane, Faith, Hunter and Connor (not pictured). Hunter and Connor brought his parents too.

I found them all investigating something and had to go check things out for myself.

They had found some fuzzy caterpillers. They had a blast watching them and letting them crawl up there arms. I kind of felt sorry for the poor things because these kids hauled them around like they were pets.

But one of the funniest things I did all weekend was watch this guy and his jeep. I know I have had this jeep featured on my blog before, it is definately a favorite of the grand kids, but the poor old thing has seen better days. After charging the battery and installing it the kids all jumped in and pressed the gas pedal. It surged forward about 6 inches and stalled to never start again. It has been run hard for about 6 years. This little guy, Connor, didn't care that there wasn't much life to it. He loved having it all to himself most of the weekend. If it wasn't moving the others really didn't want to mess with it but this guy put his friend in it and pretended to drive around the countryside all weekend...and I might say he talked to whole way. His poor friend couldn't get a word in.

He made sure his friend was with him the whole way. They totally enjoyed each others company. I'm not sure what all they discussed but I am sure it was important. When Connor's parents left for a bit I made his dad put the jeep inside the fence around the yard so that I could keep better track of him and he was totally insulted. He didn't like being trapped in. I don't know if he realized that when he was in the driveway he really wasn't going anywhere anyway. As soon as they returned he had his dad put him back on the open road again. He kept himself entertain (well his friend too) and was just so much fun to watch. We might even have to get a new battery for the jeep and bring it back to life.

Weekend Fun!

So this is how my weekend went. Friday before I finished work I got a text from this cutie asking if she could spend the night plleeeeeaassee! I had a friends wedding reception to go to Friday night and a baby shower on Saturday morning but how could I refuse such a plea. So I thought "oh well I will now have a partner to go with", so I told her to come on over when I got off work. We went to the reception and then went home and started watching a movie and ate some popcorn. She said she wasn't sleeping on the sofa but before I knew it she was sound asleep right on the sofa so there she stayed. After the baby shower on Sat. morning we called these 2 other cuties and had them come over so that we could go to the park and enjoy the beautiful weather we were having. We grabbed some pizza and rootbeer for our dinner and the kids had a great time playing on the playground.

Here is our cute little Faithy...

this handsome fella Thane...

and the always beautiful Reagen.

The park was a great idea ...not only was the weather absolutely wonderful but the kids played and played and when we went home they decided they needed to spend the night with Grandma so they took a bath and fell fast asleep. Can't ask for anything better than that.

Grandparents Day

On Friday I got to take a few hours off work and go spend some time with this cute guy. Hunter's school class was having "Grandparents Day". What alot of fun we had. You will have to excuse the blurry pictures, this grandma wasn't thinking and forgot my camera and had to take these pictures with my phone...you can probably tell I don't have a smart phone. We started out with the kids all sitting at their tables and the teacher, Mrs. Ortega showed us the routine they went through each morning taking roll, doing the pledge and sitting in circle time greeting each other. We then got to start activities at 4 different stations. This shows Hunter at the beading station. I made him a beaded bracelet and he made me one. We also got one started for his Nana (his other grandma that couldn't be there) but that we didn't finish, Hunter was able to later in class.
We also had a playdough station with some fun cookie cutter shapes. Here is he and I working on some fun cookies...not edible tho. An interesting note...you might notice that our pictures don't show any of the other kids. At the beginning the teacher explained to us we would be allowed to take pictures of our own grandchild but because of privacy rules we were not allow to have the other students in our pictures. How times have changed.

Here is Hunter working on a puzzle at the puzzle center. He put together a firetruck puzzle.

The fourth activity was to color the Grandparents a card with each student signing their own name. We decided that Hunter could do this and send it to Nana too so that she wouldn't feel left out.

We ended everything with the students singing a song to the Grandparents and we all joined in on doing the "Hokey Pokey" and having a treat of cookies and crackers. The Hokey Pokey was mine and Hunters favorite. It was then time for the Grandma's and Grandpa's to go home and the kiddies were off to the playground...some with teary eyes including mine which made it hard to leave. Thanks Hunter for inviting me. I had a great time!

More Alaska

Tomorrow is my last day here in Alaska...actually half day. I leave to travel home in the afternoon and I am so sad. I could stay easily another week. I brought a few stitching projects with me (of which none got done) and a book that only got partially read but I have never had one dull moment. This black bear below is what we watched all day yesterday but I never had my camera with me when he was around to get a good shot of him. This was taken while we ate dinner through the dining room window. I had to zoom it to get a close enough shot and by the time I did all this he turned around and was heading away from me. We spotted him early in the morning, he had found some trash to get into. Even after the trash was gone he kept coming back. I guess he was hoping for more. I never saw him again after dinner but I heard he was spotted even the next morning. I am a little disappointed that I never got to see any moose...oh well, I guess I will just have to come back again.

Today we took a day cruise in Glacier Bay National Park. It is a little late in the season for the cruise and pretty chilly but we did see some whale, lots of birds, some Mountain Goats and these sea lions. There were quite a few of them and they were just hanging out being lazy. We also saw alot of sea otters. They are all over in the ocean flipped over on the backs relaxing. All you see is their head and feet sticking out.

The glaciers were beautiful and amazing. We stopped in one area where they were breaking off into the water. As we sat there several times you would hear a loud thunder and then al huge chunk would come tumbling down into the water. We went through miles of water with chunks of ice floating in it. The park ranger that was with us explained that each day now more will fall off before they would build up again in the winter, but there are many miles of these glaciers that we couldn't see so they would never disappear completely. Well at least not in our life time anyway. He did show us a time lapse diagram of how over many years they are gradually disappearing.

Altho my trip here in Alaska is almost over and I am sad to leave, I have had the time of my life. It is a trip that I hopefully will get to make again. I have enjoyed every minute I was here thanks to Carla and all of her family here at the lodge. And even more thanks to my great boss that gave me this opportunity to come.