Catching up - Our Christmas Gingerbread Houses

Every year our daughter and her family make Gingerbread Houses for the Christmas holidays.  Mom, dad and big brother were working away, when I happened to glance over and see this! I guess some things are just too tempting.

This gingerbread man is suffering from "I'm 2 and it looks too good not to eat!" disease.

Why do you have a guilty look on your face?  What are you hiding in your mouth?

The finished products.  The boys did a choo choo train,

while the girls worked on "The Massacre at the Candy House!"

Or some such nonsense.

I think they did a really good job.

And I especially like these guys!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

We certainly got spoiled at this house by Santa!

(Disclaimer on the hair - she was outside in the snow, with French braids worn under a hat.   Consequently this is the results. One day I am going to do a post about this girl's wild hair!)

Missing in Action!

It has been almost a month since Bud or I have published a post.  A lot has happened so I will try to give a brief update.  As posted earlier, we had the arrival of our fourth grandchild.  I flew to Utah the first part of November to meet this new granddaughter and to help out however I could!  It is fun to see the difference in our grandson, who was born in August and our new grandbaby!

She looks so tiny next to this big boy.

They both look little next to these two big kids!

 I love pictures of yawning babies!

 It is hard to get two babies to look in the same direction

when you are trying to take their picture.

Our daughter calls her new niece a troll doll!

Why you ask?  Because her hair sticks straight up, 

just like the old troll dolls.  

All she needs is a jewel for her bellybutton!

This guy is four months old.  At his two month check up he was over 17 pounds and 24 inches long! He is huge! He has rolls upon rolls. I am sure he is over 20 pounds and much longer now.  He has the sweetest disposition, is very ticklish and has been sleeping through the night since he was 10 weeks old!

This helps with the sleeping through the night!  He loves his thumb.

This little bug is five weeks old.  (I need to get a better picture of her, by herself, from my son.) She is over ten pounds and her cheeks are getting bigger by the day.  She is starting to be aware of who is holding her, smiling . . . that is when she doesn't have her mouth open looking for food!  I think she will catch up to her cousin before we know it.

Of course no new baby picture is complete without one with the exhausted mom's in it!

Even the cat got caught in the act!

Bud managed to come over to later to meet both his new grandchildren for first time too.  I had to have some surgery during this time (glad to have it in the U.S. and not at the mercy of socialized medicine. I know, I know we are now there but it is still better here than in Europe - in my opinion.)  I also took a trip to New Mexico with my daughter's family, my daughter-in-law and baby to see my mother.  My son could not go because of getting ready for finals.  I will post more about this later but for now this will have to do!  Goodnight!

One Happy Daddy

There is another love in my life.

She was born November 5, 2010

She was 21inches and 8lbs 9oz.

For future blogs we will call her Louis. There is a story behind this nickname. When we first told my parents that we were having a baby I told my dad that we were going to name her Louis L'Amour. That is his favorite author and ever since then she has been called Louis by her Grandpa

Our Mystery Grandchild has Arrived!

Our 4th grandchild arrived yesterday!

And we didn't know if we were getting a boy baby or a girl baby.

Tell me what you think?

If you guessed a girl, then you're right.

Look at those cheeks!  

 Very proud papa!  I can't believe my baby has a baby!!

 I love you too.

 Holding hands.

 I think he has fallen in love with another girl!

 Here's that one that did all the hard work.

Doesn't she look great for just having had a baby?

We are so proud and happy at how well this tiny mama did

with her very big baby!  8 pounds 9 ounces!

 When our daughter went to check out her new niece and was looking at her in the nursery, there was another family looking at another baby.  Their teenage son saw our new baby and said, "Look an Asian baby."  That made our daughter laugh. The baby has so much hair though, we think she looks like an Eskimoo or Indian baby.

Our daughter said the wee one has a great set of lungs on her!

We can't wait to meet her!

Beautiful Birthday Girl

Our granddaughter just celebrated her 2nd birthday.

We weren't there - sniff!

But her mama sent us some pictures to enjoy.

 

 She was too shy to say Thank You but she clapped to show her delight.

 I love her expression in this picture.

 More clapping.  That in itself is a miracle.

Just hours earlier she grabbed her mom's hot curling iron.

Poor girl had blisters on her hand.

I was up til midnight on Skype trying to make her laugh,

so she would try to forget about her owies!

 I know I am the grandma, but I think she is beautiful!

 Her other grandparents gave her the best gift of all.

Doll cradle and highchair.  She wouldn't eat her cake

because she had to take care of her dollies.

In fact, my daughter finally had to remove it from her room -

she kept getting out of bed that night to play with it!

 What's this?

 Oh this is for me?

Such a cute little bug!

A little help from her brother and cousins to blow out the candles.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

We love you!

How to clean up your plate after pancakes!

There is an art to eating pancakes,

well maybe an art to cleaning your plate after pancakes.

 

 Look at your plate very closely -

what can you do with a sticky, syrupy plate?

 

Hmmm...

Maybe wear it as a hat?

Bite it?

 

Use it to shield your identity?

  

Wear it as a hat!  Of course, what else would you do!

These were taken back in back in September, 

but I thought they were too cute to pass up.

  

I've got this . . . can't wait for that!

I've got this !

He came over from Utah with his grandpa.

It has been so great having him spend a week with us.

He told me he "loves me most, more and ever.
Even more than Bumpa!"

How can I doubt that?

 He has a great imagination.  He has been talking several times

to his grown cousin Brenden on his lego phone.

He is also a Ghost Buster. 

I didn't know I had so many ghosts in my house.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT!!!

 

She and her mom are coming Monday.

Poor girl looks like her grandpa, especially those old man eyebrows!

 However, some of her expressions look like her dad - like this one.

 

Grandpa says she has her great, great Grandma Maud's hair.

Very curly, tight to her head - until she sleeps on it -

then she has Gene Wilder hair!

Here she is with her Scottish Tartan purse from her grandparents.

She was carrying her brother's underwear upside down on her arm.

Usually it was through both leg holes!  She needed a proper purse.