January 4, 2013 Cats

Not so easy to figure out what to take pictures of.  So here are Calico, Cleo and Garfy (short for Garfield).  They have their place on top of the entertainment center in the basement.  Before we got Gnarly, they were upstairs cats.  Garfy slept with us.  Then Gnarly showed up, and the cats took off for other parts.

While we kept them isolated downstairs since, we have recently started leaving the door open so that the cats can come upstairs.  I have seen Calico, Garfy, Cleo and Cream all upstairs.  They have knocked things off the counters and tables,  They have upset plants so that I'm cleaning up potting soil.  But they have not caught the mouse that is in the kitchen somewhere.

And every morning, when I get up with the dogs, the cats quietly go back downstairs and to their respective safe places.  The dogs know where those places are, and try to climb into the back of the entertainment center to get to them.

In fact, when I go down to clean the cat boxes and feed and water them, Rosie and Gnarly race each other down the stairs in the hopes of catching them.  The dogs are very optimistic that they will catch a cat, but since Gnarly and Rosie sound like a herd of elephants stampeding down the stairs,  the cats are out of reach, and look distainfully at the dogs, as if they were fools.

Maybe I can get a photo of the dogs doing their thing downstairs.

January 03, 2013 and a big day for Rosie

The third day of the year. And a big one for Rosie! Well, maybe she doesn't think it's such a big day. She had to go to the vet. It was her day to be spayed.

 Here she is this morning, looking all soulful and pleading "Please, PLEASE, feed me!" But we know the rules, no food after dinner last night. Such a sad thing!

Rosie was six months old on December 29, so it was time for the big trip to the vet. Besides the spay, she got her chip so we can always find her, and she had her nails trimmed (a very calm trimming this time since she wasn't awake). Now she just has to recover, and we can go to puppy class. And believe me, we need the training!

January 2, 2013

One of the things that we do at this house is decorate the windows. Ever since I found Crayola Window Crayons. The kids love them, and we write on the windows for special days. Birthdays were the first, but now each grandkid gets part of a window to color. Here's Cordelia's window for Christmas.

The one thing that I believe in, is to let the kids explore with crayons, pencils, and yes, even paint! Anything goes, and they can do as much as they want.

I like color, especially bright colors, and I can see Cordelia and Molly liking that too. That's why I keep them supplied with paper and whatever.... Just to let their imaginations run free.

New Years Day 2013

Today is the first day of a new year. What's going to happen this year? How will it look? What am I going to do this year?


This is not a resolution post. Well, except for attempting to post a picture a day for the entire year, this is not a resolution post. I have decided to take on the Project 365 which is to post a picture a day. They have suggestions for topics, and for today it is "resolution", which I'm not doing, except for this.


Father Time (aka Grandpa Clyde) making lemon blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

See you tomorrow, hopefully

The Quilt that Mom and I made

While I was in El Paso, my mom and I made a quilt. This is from material I bought last year in Grand Junction when Bekka took me to the quilt store there. It's waited an entire year to be put together, but I thought it was the perfect project for us to make together since my mom is a superb quilter. This was a two day project, with both of us working on it.

The Cat

This in my bathroom sink. All ready to be used:








My point......

This is my bathroom sink when I want to use it:





Furby makes himself right at home!!!

Very long holiday post

I have been totally remiss in updating this blog. So, here's 3 or 4 blog posts in one. If nothing else, I am efficient.

Blog 1:

We had the kids help with the decorating. So, this is not one of my cheapo, buy the tree on clearance on Dec. 24 trees. But is wasn't terribly expensive, and it sure was a full, squatty tree. First we made a Gingerbread house. (We also made a Gingerbread train, but that didn't turn out as good!). This is one of those kits that you can buy at WalMart.



Let me tell you, they are not as easy as you would think. And the icing sets up like concrete--it can take days to get if off your counters!!

Next we have the kids decorating the tree. CJ first. It was easy to tell where he put his ornaments, front and center at the bottom of the tree, 2-3 ornaments on a branch!!



Next up is G. He's older, so he has the concept of decorating a tree pretty much down. He can even get the back of the tree so from the outside of the window it has ornaments!



Next up is Miss M. She's getting older, and really likes to decorate the tree. She had to have all the glass balls to put on the tree!.



And somehow I missed a picture of the tree, which really looked good, especially when we had all the presents under it.

Blog 2:

This year, I decided that the girls' Fancy Nancy needed a new outfit. I made three of these outfits for three different Fancy Nancys.


Blog 3:

After Christmas, for the first time since I have lived here in the Springs, we went to the Electric Light Parade at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Great lights, lots of animals out (but my favorite, the grizzly bears, were hibernating......Bah!!), and not too cold. We all went, five grandkids, daughter, two daughters-in-law, and one son. Oh yes, and Grandpa and Grandma.

Goofing off.

One red tree, I really liked the lights!

A sunflower by the Big Backyard exhibit, taken diagonally on purpose (in case you were wondering......no I hadn't had anything to drink!)


And this one that I especially like. Those lines of light in the background are the city lights framed by the zoo lights. It was a magical view!!



The youngest, W, in his stroller. Only way to stay up with this one!!



Outside the zoo, CJ starting to climb a tree.



Blog 4:

We still have snow in our backyard. There has been no warming to melt this stuff, so it's the same stuff that fell at the beginning of the month. Miss M in all her winter glory:



We took the sled down into the gully behind the house in the hopes that the snow was deep enough still to sled. It was, knee deep at the bottom. So we did some sledding. W was really into this, I don't know if he had done any before, but he really wanted to go.



Miss C helping her brother go down the hill:



And Mom had to get involved. She did remark that sledding with a 2 and a half year old was a lot of work!



Miss M thought this was a lot of fun!



And Miss C was really getting into it!



Mom and W on another run.....look at that look on Mom's face!!



CJ thought it was fun too!



And W at the bottom of the hill....



Miss M and CJ at the bottom on the last run:



It was a busy day, and the hot chocolate we had afterwards was really yummy!!