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!!

Birthday poses and Others!

Lots of stuff happens this time of the year, we start off with Valentines Day then Dina's birthday on the 19th, so I have a picture of her and Lacey at a restaurant in Oregon City that we went to for lunch. When Lacey and Addie met us at Dina's house, Addie walked in with sunglasses on..she was looking like a movie star strutting her stuff!! I grabbed my camera, but by then the glasses were off her and on Jalen, so I quickly snapped a shot of him. I couldn't get Addie to put them on for me.

And then there is Ellie, the Jumping Queen!! She had been staying after school for a "jump start" program, and now all she does is jump, jump, jump. And she is pretty darn good. She squats down and can manage to jump the rope...she can jump in backwards, forwards, she spins when she jumps, she can do one push up while two of us turn the rope...and the best is she can do triple jumps, which means she jumps once and turns the rope three times!! She is fabulous. And now because she does so much jumping, Lily has really gotten into it also...she only jumps in forward, but really likes to stand and then jump (that is when Mommy and I are both turning the rope!) And then of course, in walks Jalen who really tries to jump, but barely gets his feet off the ground!! Fun times with the fam!!

Sunday we celebrated all our birthdays with the great-grandparents present. I made lasagna and homemade breadsticks that were very yummy, a salad and Lacey made Scott's favorite dessert - Lemon Meringue Pie!! A delish dinner and wonderful memories with the family.

Making Progress!!

The stone arrived for the interior of the house and the mexican stone masons are putting it up, now it is getting exciting. Scott says by the end of the week all electrical will be done! (I will believe that when I see the paper signed off by the county inspector!!) I wanted to get a quick picture and post it here for another milestone in the progress of this house! We have a really awesome mantle, it is covered to protect it from the cement, but it is a pine log that Hal, our master wood craftsman who is building all our cabinets had and gave to us, he buffed it up and put a coat of varnish on it and it looks super. So come back later and I will have a picture of the finished work!

Ellie's Poem Reading

Last night Ellie was having a big Second Grade School Presentation. She invited the great grandparents to come watch and listen. So then I invited them to have dinner with us before going to the school. Actually my dad had made a lasagna and insisted I take some of it for our dinner, it was naturally, delish! And I had some left over mexican lasagna, so with a salad and garlic bread, we called it good! Now Ellie's poem was called, "Sick" and she memorized the whole thing and said it with such inflection in her voice, it was amazing!

This is the poem read by Ellie Snook:

SICK
"I can't go to school today."
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more -- that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue --
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is -- what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is.....Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Now are you amazed too that she could remember that whole thing? Wowie Kazowie, she needs to be an actress! I understand that Lily's kindergarten class will be doing a "Three Little Pigs" presentation sometime in April and when I asked Lily about it, she said she might be the wolf!! Another memory to look forward to!! Aren't grandchildren wonderful???

Remember to: Hug the ones you love.......