A Very Good Reason

I have a very good reason for missing the last few days of posting here. On Wednesday noonish we found out that our offer on a house in Phoenix was accepted, but the inspection had to be done within a week. Have you ever tried to get a flight anyplace during Spring break??? It's just not going to happen. So, Lloyd and I enjoyed the lovely lobster meal Sara had flown in for us from the east coast for our 37th anniversary, for lunch, and at 5:00 we headed out, by car, for Phoenix - a 25 hour drive (5000 miles round trip).




We stopped in Lethbridge for half an hour to visit our newest grandson, Alexander Lloyd MacKenzie, and then kept on going to Great Falls, Montana, where we spent the rest of the night (8 hours of driving).

On Thursday we drove for 17 hours down the I15 through Las Vegas at night, across the Hoover Dam, and got as far as W...something, a small town about an hour north of Phoenix. We saw some gorgeous countryside and I even took a few pictures.

On Friday we were into Phoenix by 10:00 and went to check out our new house (picture above) and meet with the inspector. Then we spent three hours with the pool designer and got the pool designed and ready to be made as soon as the property sale closes. That was a fun experience.

Then by 10:00 Friday night we were on the road again, and managed to get three hours north of Phoenix. We drove all day Saturday, up the Hwy 89 this time to see different scenery - it was absolutely amazing. We stopped Saturday night in Butte, Montana. Sunday morning saw us on the road again through the mountains. We stopped to stretch our legs in Great Falls and headed for the border, where we got stuck in a 3 1/2 hour wait. It's not a good idea to travel back to Canada at the end of March when all the snowbirds and spring breakers are heading home. Luckily I had a couple of scrapbooking magazines with me so that helped pass the time.

By then it was too late to stop in Lethbridge to see baby Alex again so we drove straight through, finally getting home at 11:10 last night (Sunday). I sure wouldn't want to make the trip that fast again...but it was a good trip and we got a lot accomplished while we were down there. I can't wait to go back, but maybe we'll plan ahead a little bit, use Air Miles and fly down.

I can't seem to figure out how to place the pictures and text precisely where I want them so this will have to do. Top picture is me with Alex, next is our new house in Surprise, AZ, then Lloyd with Alex and Kenny. I'll post more in the next few days.

Cupcakes

This is Emily's contribution to Easter dinner - yummy cupcakes - chocolate and marble with candy, coconut, cherries, chocolate chips, sprinkles - everything delicious. They were a huge hit.

A New Addition

As promised, Alexander Lloyd MacKenzie was born this evening at 6:15. He weighed 7 lb. 15 oz. Not sure how long he is - Mike gave us the information before there was much information to be had. Kenny seems happy enough with the little brother. We'll be going down to Lethbridge first chance we can to welcome Alex ourselves. These picture came courtesy of Avril's sister Afton.

The Youngest Cousins

Five of our kids, their spouses and children, plus Lloyd and me, (25 people in all) got together for Easter dinner today. Lots of food was eaten, lots of noise and commotion was tolerated, and lots of pictures were taken. This picture is one of our three youngest grandchildren (until tomorrow, that is, when Mike and Avril's 2nd son is being induced). These sweet babies are James Quist (3.5 months), Aidan Woolf (8 months) and Eloise Hardwicke-Brown (9 days older than James)...such sweet little people.

Expressions

This is actually yesterday's picture that I forgot to download last night. Lloyd and I were taking care of Aidan for an hour or so. I see quite a resemblance between grandfather and grandson in this picture, apart from the blue eyes that are so predominant in our family.

Twilight Shadows

I didn't take any pictures today so looked through my computer files to come up with this all time favorite. I wish I could take credit for this picture but I can't. Daughter Sara took it a couple of years ago. It's my two oldest grandsons playing in the waterpark in Fort McMurray at twilight. I love the silhouette effect, shadows and sparkly water here. The boys were really having a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Mike

This handsome young man is my second, and youngest, son Mike. Today is his thirtieth birthday. He's having a good day with his wife and almost 2-year old son at their home in Lethbridge. Lloyd and I called to sing Happy Birthday to him. All my kids expect that I'll sing to them on their birthday...so I humor them...it's a tradition I like, even though my singing voice leaves a lot to be desired. Mike's second son is going to be born on March 24 so we're all looking forward to meeting the new little MacKenzie boy. Happy Birthday Moike!!!

What's On Your Fridge?

I used to like putting the kids' artwork on my fridge and kind of missed it after they grew up. Now I'm back in the loop again with my grandkids...and some stuff of my own that I just like seeing there.

The top right-hand corner holds three magnetic backed pictures of Lloyd, Emily, Sara and me taken 8 years ago at Niagara Falls, and one of Me, my sister and mother taken 5 years ago. They've been on my fridge for years. Other stuff there includes a postcard from Oliver, BC, a personalized white board with Charlie's picture and drawing of me on it, a notice of the scrapbooking retreat in Jasper that I'm going to in April, magnetized Tupperware measuring spoons, a scarecrow Kenzie made in school, and on the bottom half, Kenzie and Layla's 'art' creations they worked on while I was scrapbooking this week.

Fun stuff, showcasing a life surrounded with love. Good stuff.

So, what's on your fridge?

Junior Scrappers

I was determined to do at least one layout today, in spite of granddaughters dropping in throughout the day.

Layla, Kenzie and Sydney wanted to do the same kind of work I was doing so I set them up on TV tables, gave them free access to my scrap paper drawer, markers, stickers, and scissors (see how Layla is holding hers - a bit awkward but it worked for her). Kenzie (middle) has quite a knack for cutting, pasting and putting 'cards' together, Layla likes to cut and Sydney just likes to draw with the markers. They're 5, 3 and 2 right now. Maybe in 20 years or so they'll get together and work on scrapbooks :)

PS: I did manage to get one layout finished.

Cuddling With Layla

Layla is visiting for a few days. After her bath tonight we put Shrek on and cuddled down to watch. Her dad snapped pictures of us.

Layla's quite a chatterbox, constantly asking "why" so, instead of falling asleep during the movie, she kept up a constant flow of chatter and questions. We ended up watching all of Shrek and some of Shrek 2 and she still didn't fall asleep. At that point I turned her over to her dad to do the honors.

Brooklyn

This little sweetie is my oldest son, Rob's, daughter Brooklyn. She's 4 years old.

She came to visit me this afternoon while her Mom went to work. Don't let her sweet quiet shy looks fool you. She gives that impression for the first little while and then she opens up and and runs and squeals and teases just like the cousins she came over to play with.

Brooklyn has a strong resemblance to her handsome Dad...and is wearing her big brother's socks to keep her little feet warm.

Two Little Girls in Blue

My sweet Woolf granddaughters - Kenzie and Sydney - ready for church in their new Easter dresses - eyelet cotton - very sweet and feminine. They were supposed to save the dresses for Easter Sunday but they were so excited about them that their Mom let them wear them a couple of weeks early.

Kenzie loves having her picture taken and is always ready to pose. Sydney likes having her picture taken too but does funny things with her face when she sees the camera. These are the best of a series of pictures I took.

The Tacky One

OK. This is the last of my clock entries - though not the last of my clocks. This golf clock/lamp was given to Lloyd at an award night as a gift of appreciation from his staff. I guess they knew what a golf fanatic he is and wanted to give him something 'personal and appropriate'. Hmmmm. So why did it end up in my living room???

Mickey and Pat

After not scrapping together for over a month, Mickey and I made up for lost time this weekend by spending all afternoon on Friday and all day today at the work room at Scrap-A-Lot working (playing!) at our scrapbooking. It was a great time to catch up, reconnect, and get some good scrapbooking done.

Thanks to our friends at SAL, Kim, Shirley-Ann, and their wonderful staff, for letting us set up in their work room and do our own thing.

Cupie Doll

Aidan's mother has taken to putting a cupie doll curl on top of his head...a flashback to the 50s when all babies had the little stand-up curl.

In my opinion (and I'm merely the grandmother!), he's cute enough with his bright blue eyes and chubby cheeks (weather chapped though they are) that he doesn't need the little curl in his lovely auburn hair.

Aidan is 7.5 months old and bears a strong resemblance to his big sister Kenzie - see yesterday's blog entry.

March 4 - Kenzie's Scrapbook

Before Christmas, my 5-year old granddaughter Kenzie took a lot of pictures around my place. She loved using my little digi and took some very good pictures. I printed them out and put them in a mini scrapbook for her. She took it to school for show and tell and just brought it back home today.

Here's a couple pictures of her showing some of her favorite pages.

She shows promise of being a scrapbooker herself...loves to play with my papers and stamps and inks.

Monday, March 3 - Who's Cuckoo?

When I was 12 Dad (a career soldier) was transferred to Germany and the whole family went with him. While we were there Mum bought a cuckoo clock from the Black Forest and I really loved it. I don't know what ever happened to it. I know we had it after we got back to Canada.

When Emily went to Germany as an exchange student for three months in grade 11, she went to the Black Forest with her host family and bought me my very own cuckoo clock. It doesn't have a cuckoo bird that pops out every hour, instead it plays Adelveiss and the wood chopper 'chops' the wood and the mill wheel turns. The pendulum is a girl on a swing who bops up and down on her spring as long as the clock is running. I love it, and the grandkids are fascinated with it too. It is one of my best treasures.

March 2 - Jammers and Family

James Anders Quist (Jammers) is three months old now...doing really well after arriving a month early. His nickname, Jammers, as well as a short form of James Anders, is also a word Jenn created from the first initial of each of my seven children: Jenny, Amy, Mike, Mary, Emily, Rob, Sara.

We had a nice visit with them today - always so nice to see Jenny and her boys. Her husband, Anders, is over six feet tall and is on his knees in the picture so looks a bit out of proportion. Besides Anders, Jenn is flanked by Jonah (11), Micah (2), Nathan (6), Sam (9) and James, all in their Sunday best.

March 1 - Westminster Chimes

I've had this clock longer than any of the others. It was a Christmas gift from DS1 and DD1, Rob and Jenny, in 1989. It plays the beautiful Westminster chimes on the hour.

Lloyd and the kids used to get frustrated because I always seemed to know what they were getting me for Christmas and they couldn't figure out how to keep me from knowing. They didn't realize that I picked up on things they said and questions they asked me, and was able to guess correctly most of the time.

That year Jenny was so sure I would have no idea of what she and Rob were getting me. She kept it in it's box and wrapped it up very nicely. Then she brought it upstairs to put under the tree, showed it to me and said "you'll never guess what this is". At that very moment, the clock, still wrapped and in its box, started chiming the hour. Jenny was so mad. She thought she was being so good to put the batteries in and set the correct time, but she forgot that the clock itself would give away her secret!