Houston in November

My sister has been harassing me because I haven't update my blog in such a long time so I'm going to try to catch up a little.

Sandy and I went to Houston for Thanksgiving week.  The weather was very nice - almost too warm for November - while we were there and we really enjoyed it.  The first day we were there Alyssa, Lichar and Kaiden went to Challenger Park to have some photos taken.  We decided to tag along and take a few photos of our own.  We weren't quite ready when they needed to leave so we arrived at the park after the photo session started.  So we stayed out of sight and it was a good thing.  The instant Kaiden saw his Poppy he ran straight to him!

 Ahhh - so sweet!

 Kaiden and Poppy running together

 One of Kaiden's favorite things was to "fall down."

 Love this one!

 Had to include one of Kaiden's mom and dad - for those of you who didn't know we are going to be blessed with another grandbaby in late February.

 Hmmm - what is he thinking?

 Not the best pic of me but I love the look on K's face.

 Can't you just see the mischievousness coming out here?

 Another favorite thing to do is "jump" and I caught him in the air.

 I can't exactly remember why but K decided he didn't want to walk with us so he stopped.  We just kept on walking and he just stood.  Then Lichar said something to him and he turned around and ran the other way.  Lichar took off after him!

 Aw, dad - I just wanted to go that way.

Poppy's shoulder makes everything better.

 K found Uncle's guitar and wanted to play - what a serious look!

 Rock star

 Another one of K's favorite things is to have someone do exactly what he is doing.  Here he has a pen and gave one to his daddy and showed him exactly what to do.

 

 K put out his shoe several nights while we were there for Sinterklaas and 

this is one of the mornings he found his surprise.

 Sinterklaas often left chocolate and guess who loves that?

 What a cute little reindeer!

 His laugh makes me laugh!

 

Family Life Group

We have the BEST family life group - aka small group from church.  We meet once a month at someone's house for a Sunday evening meal.   I was fortunate enough to host the group in November and December so I took some pictures.

 Debbie J., Linda P., Lisa H., Ray M., Judy R.

 Judy R., Gaye R., Ray M., Pam P., Debbie J., Linda P.

 Dick J., Steve R.

 Stan M., Chris P.

George R., Sandy H., Dick J., Steve R.

 Gaye R., Serena D., Lisa H., Linda P., Dick J.

 Stan M., Ira P.

 Clint D., George R.

 Chris P.

 

Gaye R., Gay H., Serena D.

We are really a family  - some of us have been together as a group for at least 15 years.  We've raised our children together and loved each of them as our own.  Sandy and I couldn't ask for a better group of Christian friends.

 

You: Create - One More Time

I LOVE to crochet - especially baby afghans!  I almost always have at least one such project in progress but over the summer I had slacked off crocheting.  There are a couple of gals who are going to have babies in the next few months so I got busy crocheting.

I actually finished this afghan about three weeks ago.  Melanie's shower was this morning so I decided I needed to post photos and link to Gitz's You:Create blog post.

The pattern I used was a filet type of crocheting with seven rows of hearts.  While I was crocheting the third row of hearts I got the idea to put the baby's name in it.  So I searched for a filet crochet alphabet and worked on exactly how I could get Lainee in the space I had.  In my first attempt the letters were too small so I ripped it out and tried another way.  After ripping out about five times I finally got it looking like I wanted.  I originally thought I'd have three rows of hearts below the name and three rows above the name but it got to be too long.

All week I had planned on crocheting some baby shoes for the shower also.  Finally last night while I was watching the Texas Rangers win the ALCS, I did crochet these three pairs.  It took me about 4.5 hours to completely finish all three pairs.

I can't wait to meet Miss Lainee Ann and see her wearing her little shoes!

Kaiden and his new trucks

When we were in Houston recently, we bought Kaiden some new trucks.  Of course, I took lots of pictures of him playing with the trucks!

Then today I learned how to use Shape Collage!  This is the letter K.

 

and this is a heart!

 

Another Week of You: Create

From my previous post you may know that another blogger, Gitzen Girl, is having a You: Create project on Thursdays.  Her father passed away suddenly right after my last post and it has been a very trying time for Sara - she could definitely use your prayers.  Her link this week is some things her dad created shortly before his death.

I've been working the past week or so on a digital scrapbooking project as a surprise for some friends and intended to share a sneak peek on this week's You: Create. Instead I'm going to share a photo I took today. (Actually I took this Thursday but we have been on the road and have not had very good Internet connections.)  I've been working on trying to be more creative with my photography and this picture is one of my better attempts at creativity (at least in my opinion.)  It is straight out of the camera without any editing.

The picture was taken at a rest area on I-35 in Iowa (ironic since Gitz lives in Iowa) as we were traveling to International Falls, Minnesota. There was some beautiful scenery off to the north and east so I grabbed my camera to get some pics.  There was also some beautiful flowers so I snapped quite a few pics.  I tried to upload some more but Blogger isn't cooperating for me right now.  Maybe I can later!


There is a very interesting story about our stop at this rest area in Iowa.  As we got out of the pickup, I commented on a motor home that was parked next to us - saying it was about the size we would need.  After we took care of our business, I walked back to the pickup to get the camera and noticed that this motor home was from Jack Sisemore Travelland in Amarillo.  About that time a gentleman stepped out of it and I asked him if he was from Amarillo.  We started to visit and found out we had quite a few things in common including that our daughters graduated from the same high school in the same year.  Turns out the girls know each other because they both ran track in high school.  Such a small world!