This Doesn't Happen Every Day!

Okay- so I just had to post these pictures of my pantry.  Usually it is a jumble of "stuff".... Jim sometimes uses it as his bullet/knife/gun cleaning stuff storage...  when I find that kind of thing in there I take it out and put it in his "gun room"-  then, I am notorious for just shoving food in wherever I can fit it...  then I let the kids and Brooke just rifle through at their whim... anyway  ((sigh))- last week we discovered one of Jim's water jugs (he has tucked/stored them all over the house and garage) had been smooshed and cracked and had leaked... probably slowly over a period of time.  So there was waterlogged boxes and well, just a mess.  I ended up spending several days pulling out everything, cleaning up and salvaging what I could.  I washed the shelves and walls and floor with a water/bleach solution and then reorganized.  These pictures are the result and a strict vow to keep it this way- rotate food, treat it like a good little pantry and strict orders to Jim reminding him this is NOT where bullets/knives/gun stuff go! Ha Ha!  

posted by a tired, but kinda "pleased with my work" gramma!

Some Precious Moments - Oct. 2011

Just thought I'd post a bunch of pictures from my last trip to Pocatello and Idaho Falls.  The hardest part is picking which ones to post.  And I want to post so many, I made collages- yup-again!   

Baby sitting River while Brady and Jade move to a new apartment.

Hangin' out playing with the Barlows.  

 Heather canned a bunch of fruit (I helped peel the pairs!)     

                    

More playin' around with the kiddos.

Had a blast with the girls and Tommy.

They're showing Gramma their tumbling tricks.

Mailei and Gramma- oh how I love this girl!

I'm pretty sure she loves me too!

It was so fun to see Blake's football game. So shocking

to see how tall he is!  Sheesh!

Celebrating Carter's 8th birthday.  He was so funny.

Blake told me he already had a lot of the same art stuff

I bought.... but one color book was different!  he he he

Mailei's 2010 Halloween costume and just a pretty pose.

River in 3 different costumes... so far... who knows what she will actually dress up as on Halloween.

Molly and Maddy in their princess dresses from Gramma. 

Evie is a crazy crazy girl!  We were laughing so hard while taking all these.  Every time I aimed the camera, she jumped in front. Then had me do close-ups of the others too- even a silly dolly. 

Excited for my next post- in a couple of weeks - Carter's getting baptized!  

Posted by a Gramma who never gets tired of having fun with the kiddos! 

Rock-N-Rollin' at Gramma's House

We just love it when one of our kids and their families come to visit.  This weekend we had Jim's 4th child - Josh and his wife Tringle with their kids- Kyriahna-12, Jolanna-11 (this month), Kaldon-9, Malaya-7, and Taron-6 (this month).   They were here to participate in a Karate tournament in Meridian on Friday and Saturday.  So after they were competing Friday, they came out here to sleep and to visit.  The first thing the youngest said to me was, "we haven't seen you in a long, long, time, Gramma"---  "I know," I said- "the last time was for Eliza's baptism in July.  And boy has Grampa & Gramma been missing you all,"  Then  Malaya said it takes "FOREVER" to get here... about an hour.  I laughed cause it is actually about 4 hours from their house.   We had a lot of fun!  Friday night the kids and I hung out playing and laughing.  Malaya and Taron found a toy guitar and toy rhythm player upstairs along with a big plastic microphone. So we spent about an hour playing like we were a rock-n-roll band.  Jolanna found my flickering reindeer headband and put it on and joined the band.  Grampa took pictures of us.  I tried to get a video of the kids playing, but Jolanna got a little shy and very quietly was singing... "bop"  "bop"   "bop"     We thought we were hilarious!

We also celebrated (just a bit early) Jolanna and Taron's October birthdays.  Jolanna cracked me up- she got frustrated trying to gently pull the tape off the box and when she couldn't get it, she resorted to biting it off... I'm all..."just rip it open!".. he he.   Taron ripped his open immediately!  

I have once again put together collages cause it's too hard to just pick a couple of pictures...even with the collages I only use a fraction of what I take....  so I try to put a variety together to capture the moment and the  atmosphere of each visit or event.    I have to say this time, my favorite collage has to be the rock-n-roll collage of pictures.  We were having a blast.  Kaldon and Kyriahna were NOT enjoying the noise..er...I mean the music we were making.  I had to chase them to try to get them to participate and all they did was cover their ears and duck away from us.  They wouldn't join us for all our pleading.  ha ha ha!

Here's the little video I was talking about!

I am so grateful that Josh and his family came to visit.  It means so much to Jim- to both of us-since Jim can't travel much at all. He worries all the time about his family.  I know that his prayers were answered this weekend indeed!  I haven't seen Jim so happy and excited for a long time.  

Posted once again with gratitude and joy.... by a rock-n-rollin' Gramma!