Lacey's Surprise Baby Shower

Dina and I knew we were cutting it close to Lacey's due date, but it was the only date that was good for so many of us, so we went with April 25. I told Lace we needed to go up to the Oregon Golf Club and have lunch before the end of the month in order to satisfy our quarterly food allowance at the club. So everyone was already there when we came and she was surprised! We went with the "Monkey" theme that she was using in the nursery. I made some cute little boxes and had blue and brown M & M's and mints that were individually wrapped that said "baby boy" for a little party favor for everyone. Dina got little cupcakes with brown and white icing and we had a cute little stuffed monkey sitting in the middle of the cupcake platter! Kim, Teale, Joan (Dina's mother-in-law) Chris (Aaron's mom), Great grandma Elsa (Scott's mom), and two of my friends, Mary and her mom, Marie came to share the afternoon with us. We all had such a great time laughing and telling stories, it was a very good day!

First Communion for Ellie

April 19th was a big day for Ellie, she received her first communion. It was a beautiful warm day, in the high 70's. She looked so beautiful in her new white dress that her other Nana bought for her. Her veil was actually my wedding veil that my mom made for me! Wasn't that special? Papa Ben came, Papa Bill, Great-grandma Elsa, Papa Scott, Nana, me and then of course Ellie's parents and Lily. Jalen stayed home with Jamie's sister! After the service we went back to Dina and Jamie's house to share a meal and eat some delicious cake. I made cake balls that everyone raved about! What a great day and I am so proud of Ellie!

Easter Celebration

We all went to Lacey's house for the Easter egg hunt and to have dinner. We all brought something to the table! Jalen and Addie had so much fun looking for the easter eggs that Aaron hid for them. They had really good eyes spotting those eggs. Because the day was very rainy, he hid a lot of the eggs in their garage. He has a elk head with a rack mounted on one wall and he has a couple of big quads also. So he hid the eggs in the elk's ears and on top of his head and the little ones had no trouble spotting those eggs! He hid eggs inside all sorts of cracks and crevices of the quads - like the muffler and such. Addie would take eggs from Jalen's basket, but then he would take from hers, too, so it was all fair. What a great day with the little ones. The big kids had fun, too.

More Birthday Celebrations!!

We are loaded with birthdays this time of the year. Dina starts us out in February on the 19, Scott is the 23, then mine is March 5, Jamie's is March 8, Aaron's is March 17 (Yup he is a St. Patty's birthday!) and Elsa is on March 29. We like to group the birthdays together and celebrate many at one time, not that we don't like getting together often, it just seems like we do anyways! So all those birthdays in Feb and the first part of March we did together. Then we just celebrated Aaron's and Great-grandma Elsa's birthday. It seems to get harder to have group pictures taken. So I just have a pic of the great-grandparents (celebrating Elsa's 86 year!!) with Caleb and Addie. Lacey was kind enough to host us for dinner at her house. I made the baked ziti, salad and garlic bread, she made both a lemon merangue pie and a banana cream pie! The Snooks were absent from this festivity as they made their way to Seattle over Spring break to see some friends. We missed them, but enjoyed the company of everyone else, including my dad. We are so lucky to have our family near to us and still able to get us all together.

Birthday dinner with good friend and her Mom

My good friend, Mary and her mom Marie took me out to dinner for my birthday! We went to a restaurant in Lake Oswego called Manzana's. She surprised me with a slice of cheesecake which I insisted we all share. The reason this is a special celebration with my friends is because Marie is 96 1/2 years young. Can you believe it? Doesn't she look fabulous? And all she needs is a walker to help her get around, but get around she does. Mary takes her to the track every day that is nice and she walks two times around the track. Don't we all just hope we can do all she does when and if we make it to 96 1/2 years old! On occasion I help Marie get into those compression socks when the regular person cannot do it. Those things are very hard to get on, I remember my mom needing to wear them after one of her times in the hospital - she had surgery and got the colostomy at that time. They were buggers to put on and nearly impossible to do it by oneself! Anyway, it was very special to have a dinner date with them and celebrate my 59th birthday. Marie is a very special lady and I love both these two dear friends. Mary is responsible for getting me back into the knitting bug. She knits the most fabulous baby blankets and sweaters and dresses. She is going to be ready when she has her first grandchild!

More Fun in Arizona

While Scott and Jamie golfed nearly everyday,(until Jamie threw out his neck and back and couldn't turn his head), Aaron was looking for the more adventurous activities. He hit the jackpot with a Gun Club in Scottsdale where he used a machine gun!! And my 9 1/2 year old grandson, Caleb also was allowed to shoot a gun! Can you believe it? Papa Ben watched for an hour while they had fun shooting at the target! It was definitely a high light for Aaron! Next the Prueitt family went to a Go-Kart track, and we are talking high speed super duper go-kart track!! Aaron said it was awesome and will go back there again. Caleb thought it was awesome also!

After the boys were done shooting, we all went to a place for lunch called Meatballz. Yummmm, my dad had Pasta e Fagioli, he said it was just like the kind his mom used to make! The rest of us had meatball sandwiches or penne with meatballs! Lots of good food!

Both Jamie and I celebrated our birthdays while we were in Az, so we went to a Mexican restaurant for Jamie's birthday. Scott and I had a quiet dinner at Mirabel and then came home and had dessert with the family. There were 12 of us down there this time, it was a bit hectic, but we love the chaos. My dad particularly loved being around all the children and got such a big kick out of Jalen and Addie, those two little toddlers are full of mischief and funness (not sure if that is a word, but they are fun and keep us laughing with their silly faces and manners of walking or running or climbing). My dad said yesterday after we had been home a few days that it sure was quiet at his house, and he misses the noise! It was so good for him to be with us and so good for us to have him. Even the girls (Dina and Lacey) said it sure was good Papa Ben was there to watch the little ones while we were getting lunch ready or packing up to go to the pool, Dad was always keeping his eyes on the little ones for us.

Now the older kids had so much fun going into the desert and finding "rocks" -- special rocks, ones that shined or had sparkles. I wasn't sure there were many rocks left in the desert after they brought bags and bags full of them into my yard. Then they had to wash them and lay them all out. The worst was when it was time to come home and Ellie and Lily wanted to bring them all in their bags!! Lily's favorite rock was this big rock at least 6 inches long and 3 inches wide. She had a major meltdown about that "favorite" rock and we would not let her bring it on the plane! We finally settled it with having her bring three smaller rocks in her bag. Phew, that was a very big deal for her!

The last few years we have had the pleasure of seeing the Great Horned Owl have a nest in a Siguaro Cactus and we have even seen the little babies owls after they were born (cute little fluffy white things). This year, the owl was sitting in the nest, and I took a picture of her (or him! not sure!) Unfortunately, we will probably not be down there again to see the owl eggs hatched.

Just before we came home, we managed to get a picture of all the kids with Papa Ben! He is holding Jalen who will be 2 years old on May 20. Lily (5 3/4) is holding Addie (20 months). Ellie is standing next to Papa Ben (she is 8 on July 1) and then Caleb who will be 10 in September!! Lacey's little baby boy is due around May 6, she will have her hands full then!

Well, to sum it up, we had a great time with the whole family, loved to have my dad down there with us and share in the laughter, chaos, tears and good times. We hope we can have many more years all together.

Arizona in March with the Family

Scott, Dad, and I went down to Arizona on Monday, March 2. We had a couple of days to ourselves before we were invaded with 5 young children and their parents!! On Tuesday we went down to Old Town Scottsdale and met up with Rich and Jan Stanford for lunch. We were delightfully surprised that Gerry and Julie flew into town just to have lunch with us also. It was great to visit with them, we had not seen them since the service for their mother, my Auntie Dot. Rich gave us a bag full of oranges, grapefruits and lemons. Oh, they are so sweet and juicy, just delicious to eat over the sink!!

The kids had so much fun swimming in the pool at Mirabel. Little Addie is a little fish. Aaron would throw down some rings and then push her down to the bottom and she would pick up several of them while down there. Jalen loved the water, but wanted to be a bit closer to a parent or his big sister! They all loved the hot tub with the bubbles! Caleb and Ellie got a little creative with the lounge floaties and put it between the bars of the steps and used it like a slide until Papa came along and said that was a No No!!