Happy Birthday Grandma!

My Grandma turned 85! She is a wonderful woman. She loves her family and grand, and great-grand kids. She's also very active. She exercises regularly and even finds time to go on dates every weekend where most of the time dancing is involved. We love you Grandma! We're so glad we got to spend time with you in AZ!

Making Milestones

Roswell has turned 7 months old!

Here's a few things that he can do already:

- sit unsupported

- scoot across the floor forwards & back and sets up to crawl

- says ma ma (he actually calls for me and smiles when I respond)

-says num num when he wants more food

-waves hi and sort of says hi too

I thought it was a little early for him to really be saying things, but I guess he'll be an early talker like his brothers. He's growing too fast and before long he won't be a baby anymore. I'm trying to enjoy each day and keep a record of it so that I can remember it later.

Arizona Vacation (Part 2)

CAUTION: Another long post ahead.
After we spent some time with my family, we spent the second half of our trip with Dan's parents.

Roswell and Elliott playing with toys

Papa Earl reading truck books to Donovan

Our friends Ty and Christina and their boys were nice to come up to N. Phoenix to play with us. We had fun. 5 little boys and 0 girls makes a lot of testosterone!

Thanks for coming to see us!

Papa Earl helping the boys eat their lunch.

The next day was nice and sunny with a cool breeze so we decided to play at the park that was down the street from Nama & Papa Earl's house.

Papa Earl

Papa pushing Donovan on the swings.

Elliott on the slide.

Roswell just hanging around watching his brothers.

Monday evening we had a reunion at the Black Angus so that we could see Dan's relatives and let them meet Roswell.

Cousin Mary dancing with Ros while Irene (Dan's mom) and I chat.

Cousin Mary Mc and Stephanie (18) (carrying Dono) and Alexandra (14) (carrying Elliott). It was nice to have the girls' energy. With the restaurant not being that busy, the girls gave piggy-back rides to the boys. Ross even snuggled with Stephanie but the picture didn't come out that well.

Our tables: (sorry, the dark seemed to make the pictures fuzzier)

L-R: Irene (mom), Rosemary, Mary Mc, Dave (dad), a moving Donovan, Dan, and Elliott

L-R: Tony, Mary, Stephanie, Alexandra, Uncle Tom, Aunt Stacey, and dad's good friend RuthAnne. (I didn't realize until later that I should have taken another picture when RuthAnne's husband John came, sorry).
We had a very good time with good food and it was nice to visit with everyone.

Tuesday, we were invited to play over at my friend Emily Campbell's house. It was just like our mom's group of the past. (I know they still do it without me, but it was fun to be invited.) Dan even came. He was going on a man lunch date with Travis (Emily's hubby) to our favorite Rock & Roll Chicken Fingers. I was jealous, but was happily visiting with my girlfriends. I neglected to take pictures of my friends (I can look on their blogs if I wish to see them, so I didn't feel too bad) but Stella (Dibble) was just so cute. She snuggled right up to me and says "Can I hold Ross now?" I just had to take a picture. She and Donovan were good friends born only a month apart. She'll be a great little mommy. I think she gets her love of babies from her mom (Whitney).

This was our ride home to Nama & Papa Earl's.

Donovan sittin' solo in the back.

Elliott chillin. We think the poor kid had allergies, to what we don't know, but he was a trooper even though he didn't feel great.
And Roswell slept.

Nama Earl and Roswell

Colleen (sweet neighbor) and boys

We had a fun stay in AZ!

Look what we came home to!

Dan took this icicle off of the roof gutter. Later we discovered one three times as thick and much longer. I'm glad we had a warm break when we did. Thank you to our Elliott and Earl families who made us feel so at home! We love you!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Happy 42nd Anniversary Nama & Papa Earl!

We hope you had a great day and wish you many more happy years.

Arizona Vacation (Part 1.5)

There are a few things I left out of the 1st part of our vacation. Dan and I were able to meet up with some more of our friends while staying with my parents. Dan got to go out to lunch with his sushi buddy Shawn. Dan was also able to go with his friend Elliot to go to the temple and we went together later as well. Then my friend Whitney invited me to go to my old book club. I have so missed my old book club! I love all the friendships we share. I was amazed to get the book before I left in our small town library. It was a great but sad book. It's called "Left to Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagiza.

It was a very inspiring book about a young woman's survival story from the Rwandan Holocaust. I remember hearing about it when I was in high school over Channel 1 tv. I now know that I didn't realize how bad it was or why the U.S. (or UN for that matter) didn't step forward sooner to help those poor Tutsi (and a few Hutu) people. You'd have thought that the human race would have seen from even the WWII holocaust that this sort of behavior is wrong and dispicable. What makes me feel even sicker is that genocide is happening again even as I type this in Darfur. These really are the last days where evil is an everyday occurance everywhere. I don't really know how I can help except to help others to be aware what is happening in our world. I really liked this book because it helped open my eyes to what is going on beyond my sheltered home. I think I'm going to propose this book for my MI book club as well. Thanks for inviting me Whit, and thanks for hosting Stacy!

Arizona Vacation (Part 1)

CAUTION: Long post and lots of pictures!

We took a trip back to good Ol' Arizona. We left Michigan with a temperature of -13. BRRR. We were definitely gonna enjoy this upcoming warmth. The only long pants I packed were for the trip home. As we landed in AZ, Donovan looks out the window and says "Ahh, the sun is so bright here in Arizona, it hurts my eyes." How true, we found out (will mention later). I look out the window and think, "Boy is Arizona brown!", but a lovely 73 degrees give or take.

Some of the valley mountains.

We first went to stay with the Elliott family where EVERYone was waiting for us. (Oh, I didn't mention, our flight was late because our plane took forever to get de-iced before take-off. Better safe than sorry.) My sister Vanessa and her family came in from New Mexico the night before so that we could have a family reunion. It's been almost 2 years since everyone has been together. It was great to have all the cousins (and sisters) together. They're growing up way too fast! This was also the first time my sisters and their families were able to meet Roswell.

First thing was to get our family pictures taken. We had to do it the day we flew in because Vanessa and Stephan had to head back home the next day. We had an appointment and because of traffic and 13 people to get ready, we were a little late. We get there and they're CLOSED! WHAT!!!! This was our only chance to get professional pictures! We look at their sign and they had set our appointment for the same time they closed. Who does that? We were so ticked and tempers were already hot, so we headed back to Mom and Dad's house to eat dinner (a very scrumptious dinner!). The next day (Sunday) we got ready for church early and had a neighbor friend come over to take a picture of all of us.

We were totally facing the sun and Donovan was having a COW! I can laugh about it now, but it was quite frustrating. He would have his hands on his face or screaming, we took a million pictures because he kept freaking out. We figured, this was the best it was going to get. My poor children are the only ones not looking at the camera. :( Oh well. Maybe our next reunion will give us a better picture.

The cousins giving pj hugs. L-R: Donovan, Elliott, Grant, Zoe

Elliott and Zoe who are only 3 months apart.

Zoe was always wondering where Baby Ross was.

Nama and Papa's new toy. They professionally organized the patio and got this super fun air hockey table. Grant and Dono were always either playing it or begging to play on it.

Roswell playing with Papa's whiskers.

Vanessa with Roswell

The cousins Zoe, Roswell, Grant, Elliott, Donovan

Nama with her grandbabies

On Sunday night (every 3rd Sunday is dinner with all the family that can come at Grandma's house) we went to my Grandma's house to enjoy and see my cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course Grandma!

Grandma with her family famous delicious lemon cake!

Elliott making Alisa dirt (mud) pies. He took pretending a little too far and actually scooped some dirt into his mouth. Maybe he thought it would really be pie? Thank goodness someone was by him and saw it and hurried to wash it out of his mouth. MMMmmmm tasty!

I didn't realize it until I looked back at these pictures, but we seemed to be gender separated. This was the boy (well, men) table. Jake, Dan, Uncle Darrel, and Herb (dad). Dad gets very cold these days, so most of my pictures have him wearing a blanket.

Going around the table L-R: Toy, Barbara, Marianne, baby Rachel, Nicki, Jared, Alisa, Christie (somewhat hidden), Grandma, and Lori (mom)

The next day was MLK day, so Alisa had work off and Jake took a sick day. What did we do? We played SCUM! It was so much fun. Later that night we (Dan, Mom, and I) went for a dip in my parents' new hot tub. It's really not that hot because of my dad's diabetes, but boy did the massaging jets feel good. We went a couple times. I was enjoying it too much to take a picture.

Tuesday, my best friend Kelli came over with her two cute girls to play. Donovan has talked to Maya a couple of times on the phone but was very excited to have her come over and play.

Elliott, Donovan, Maya, and Eden (sitting)

Kelli and her girls

Nama and Papa Elliott with their Earl boys

Jake and Alisa and the boys

Elliott with his metallic wig

Donovan with his metallic helmet

Elliott became quite the pro at the sit-n-spin

Great-Grandma and Roswell

Uncle Darrel and Aunt Barbara

Papa Elliott and Ross

Papa Elliott and Elliott

Papa Elliott and Donovan

Donovan took this picture of Dad and I. Dad's walker got in the way, but he made sure that he could see our faces.

Three generations.