Ethan at 9 Months

Ethan Is 9 months old and visited the Photo studio.

The top picture is our grandson Eric and his wife Summer holding our great grandson Ethan.

Aren't photographers great at getting children to pose so cute?

We can hardly wait untill we get to visit them in Texas.

Our Family is Growing

Our family is growing but not in numbers, just size. They grow so fast and we don't get to see this growth very often of our only great grandchild in Texas (Ethan) and our 4 grandchildren in Washington state.

This is the latest picture of Ethan whom we haven't seen since Thanksgiving.

Our oldest grandchild in Washington lost his first tooth and he called his Ma Maw so proudly exclaiming that the tooth fairy left him $5.00 and mom explained, to us, it was the smallest she had. His next will be substantially less.

Maybe another trip to see them is on the horizon.

The years first Blizzard

The weather man predicted snow flurries and since It's been a while since we had snow ,I had to record this blizzard. As you can see, the slope to our neighbors house is ready for skiing, the back deck is too deep for outdoor cooking, the birds have been snowed out of their birdbath and my car is almost buried....Oh well, I did get a little excited but I still remember the deep snows back home in Northern California. Maybe we will still get some this year but Karl hates it......Madeline...

A Botanist I'm not.

I'm no botanist nor have I ever been accused of having a green thumb. In fact almost everything I try to raise dies a quick death no matter how much loving tender care I give it. If it's a wild plant and I leave it alone it seems to do great which gave me an idea. When my daughter, Deann, gave me this poinsettia last Thanksgiving it was somewhat smaller and I expected it wouldn't last long with my brown thumb nursing it so I let it live a life of it's own and to my amazement it thrived with no care. (Ain't it Purty?) So maybe that's the secret that experts are keeping from people like me, just leave it alone.....Madeline

Adam did good

Here is Adam our grandson with the ribbons he won at theACEA state academic competition: He won 4 first place and 2 second place ribbons in English, Math, Science, History/Geography, Spelling, and Bible drill. Mamaw and Paw-paw are so proud of him.

Adam made the paper

This is a picture in the Birmingham News of our grandson Adam waiting his turn in a district spelling bee where he came in second .An eighth grader outlasted him. Adam is in the fifth. Wait till next year (smile)

Ethans' first Christmas

Our only Great grandchild made his first visit to Santa. In the other picture it looks as if Ethan is saying "I want this much".

Madeline will have Santa scratching his head and beard wondering where to put the gifts with trees in every room.

I accuse her of going crazy every year but she just gets this crazy Christmas spirit

She has at least one tree in every room including baths.

We have a old silver tree that we bought in San Francisco in the early 60s and still use it. We lucked up on a larger pom pom silver tree with revolving colored light this year.

Her tallest is 9 foot and it's quiet a job to decorate. She did it all by herself this year because I was too busy to help and she did a great job.

I don't think she wanted me post the one in her bathroom but I'm just showing off the new toilet that I installed.

She decorated the yard quite well also and I will post some pictures of that soon.

Ethan with a smile

I tried and tried to get Ethan, our first great grandchild, to smile at the camera on Thanksgiving Day to no avail. I snatched these pictures of Eric, our oldest grandchild, and Summer his wife and Ethan from his site to post it here.

I believe he's sticking out his tongue at Mamaw and Paw Paw tho. We wish Texas was a lot closer.

Turkey time

One of our favorite days has come and gone but with happy memories remaining. We finally were able to see our first great grandchild and enjoy a wonderful day with most of our family. We had 16 family members and one of our grandsons' girlfriend. Our youngest daughter and family live too far to come but we visited them in Washington state a couple of weeks ago.

The parents and grand parents of the new addition to our family are beaming with joy.

Our daughter Deann is helping put out the food as another of our grand children, Kris, tries to duck out of the way



Adam, our grandson, enjoyed playing with Ethan.

Our son Kenny keeping out of the way

Kennys' wife taking her turn holding Ethan

Our granddaughter Katie.

Our grandson Grant holding Ethan with his girlfriend looking on.

Go west young man

Our youngest daughter and son-in-law took Horace Greelys' statement too serious and moved to Portland, Oregon a few years back and proceeded to give birth to 4 little "angels" that we don't get to see too often.We just got back from a week long stay with them in Battle Ground Washington, a few miles north of Portland, where they bought a home.

Logan who just celebrated his 6th birthday is attending Kindergarten and enjoying the challenge. He's mamas' lil helper and has grown quite a bit since we were here last. He loves his Spiderman pj's and loves to pose in them.

Drake is 4 years old and all "boy". He is quiet capable of holding his own with his older brother. He wore both of us out with his energy. This is a rare quiet time as he regains his energy for another bout with us. Copper the dog is waiting for him to drop a morsel that he will quickly gobble up.

Peyton is 2 years old and loves to look "pretty" and loves her "baby doll". She stands forever in front of the television watching cartoons in her Mermaid costume

Our daughter has her hands full but she does a very good job of raising these 4 who range in age from 9 months to her oldest who had his 6th birthday 2 days before we arrived.

We were last there last spring when her newest, Bryce, was about 2 months old and he's about 9 months old now.

Election time fun

Well it's that time again, election fever is in the air. I take it too serious I suppose but Madeline just got a cute election tidbit in her e-mail that broke me up and I thought I'd share it for others to get a good laugh.
http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/13180/HillaryCondi_HoDown.swf. If you can't laugh at this you take politics more seriously than I. Just turn your speakers up and sit back tap your foot relax and enjoy.

Gold Country Memories # 2 by Madeline

Every Fall as I watch the leaves start changing colors it brings back fond memories of the fun things I did as a child with my father and friends in my home town of Nevada City Ca...http://www.nevadacitychamber.com/
My dad made extra money by selling dried wild mushrooms to the fine Italian restaurants in San Francisco and I enjoyed going with him to help gather them and of course he taught me how to tell the good ones from the bad. We sure didn't want to poison some rich person on Knob Hill. My dad made sure we scraped them right on the spot we found them so as to leave the "seeds" so another would grow. Sometimes my best friend, Rosemary would come with us and we would have a contest to see who would find the biggest and best as we scampered on our hands and knees under the manzanita bushes looking for a raised bunch of leaves or straw indicating where one might be hiding. We got a lot of exercise along with the fun and actually found our share of fine mushrooms. My dad built an unique multilayer screen wire racks that he would place over our oil stove to dry them after we cleaned and sliced them thin. The aroma was wonderful as it filled the house and even today as I remember it, it seems as if I can still smell it. It took 10 pounds of fresh mushrooms to make 1 pound dried and we would sack it after it was good and dry and wait on the buyer to bring us some hard earned cash.
Even after I was married, Karl and I would go with him just for the fun of it. He didn't get rich doing this but did earn some Christmas money which really came in handy. Dad was the champion mushroom hunter I suppose because he found a 100 pound tree mushroom and got his picture, with the mushroom, in the town paper.

Great Grandparents Brag Too

As if we didn't already brag a bunch on our 11 grandchildren, we now have a great grandchild to begin our bragging anew. Ethan just turned 3 months old and after retrieving these pictures from Websters Dictionary under cute we are as proud as can be.
I'm sure his dad Eric, our oldest grandchild, and his lovely wife Summer are as prejudiced as us and they have a right to be :-).
The only problem is that we haven't seen him yet because he is in Texas and we are in Alabama. We were planning on a trip out there but one thing after another prevents it but they will be here on Thanksgiving day and I'm sure he will get his share of attention then.

Pool Closing Time by Madeline

It's always a sad time when we have to close the pool for winter but as the temperature begins to drop swimming loses it's appeal. How those people swim in ice water is beyond me. I miss watching my grandchildren splash and swim having taught all but the youngest 4 to swim in this pool. I would love to teach them but they live in Washington State but are here on vacation for these pictures. One picture shows 8 of our 11, the ones missing are the youngest, oldest and middle grandsons but all 3 granddaughters are present. The other picture shows my son and 2 son-in-laws and assorted grandkids. Swimming is my primary exercise during summer months, 2 dips a day, and now I have to pull out my dreaded treadmill to keep my youthful figure. : )....Madeline