Merry Christmas 2012

  ~ Sending you all the very warmest of holiday wishes ~

 

This year I am fortunate to have my family together for four full days

beginning the day after Christmas.

 

May you all be blessed with a wonderful holiday season!!

 

Backyard upgrade

We have been in our home for 12 years and when we moved in there were 5 very well established shade trees in the back/side yards.  Through time these trees began to lose branches, trunks and stability.  The time had come to overhaul the backyard; removing the trees and making the yard our own.

 

First up we had the trees removed & stumps ground and then dear hubs removed the existing lawn

 

  We made two mounds of three white birch trees

 

We originally planted lawn from seed, but that came in so sparse we laid sod.

 

Next, dear hubs laid pavers around the perimeter of the yard

 

Finally, we prepared a square foot garden!! 

We have planted a winter crop which is currently under cover

 and we have lettuce, arugala, basil and cilantro coming up!!!

This is something that we have talked about doing for so long and is so awesome to have it finally come to fruition!!! 

We are super excited to reap the benefits of growing our own food...

 

Our patio has always been a place that we enjoy spending time in

and now can enjoy it even more having made it 'our own'!!!

 

Thanks so much to my dear hubs who spent countless (I'm sure he has counted) hours

 making this project happen...  Love him!!!

♥ - Harlow 11 months ♥

Sweet Harlow is now up and mobile, enjoying her new home

in Roseville with her Mommy & Daddy...

 

She loves having her very own kitchen drawer and playing peek-a-boo!

 

Much time is spent emptying and refilling pots, bowls and drawers.

 

♥ Harlow - 9 months & 10 months ♥

Baby girl is growing like a weed!

 

She is walking now, and is showing us all her independence early...  Her teeth are continuing to come in and she loves to clap and play peek-a boo!!!

Fall Into Fall Swap

 

 

With Fall right around the corner and Pumpkin Spice Latte making its appearance ....

Neely, Tracy & Erin sponsored this fun Fall inspired swap!!

I was paired up with Kristen who sent me this fun package!!! 

A sampling of some of her favorite things; the Fall issue of Women's Day, a wonderful Fall nail color, a bag of Brach's candy corn, a Starbuck's gift card (WOOT WOOT) and a simply lovely Fall inspired scarf. 
Thank you Kristen for giving me a peek into who you are ~

Thank you Tracy, Erin & Neely for a fun Fall Swap ♥

♥ Harlow - 7 months & 8 months ♥

Our 'baby' granddaughter is growing much too fast...

Harlow is now sitting, crawling and standing on her own, she is SO close to walking :-)

7 months

8 months

*~* Aloha Friday *~*

Welcome to Aloha Friday!!!

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is a day to take it easy

and look forward to the weekend.

I'll ask a simple question for you to answer, nothing that requires a lengthy response.

You can leave your response in my comments -

If you’d like to participate, post your own question on your blog

and leave your link here

Remember to visit the other participants!

It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends ~

My question...

What is your favorite way to start the day?

My answer is:

Call it corney, but my favorite way to start the day is waking up next to my husband of 34 years!!  What else could be a great start to the day???
We are early risers even on the weekends...
I love starting our days (ususally weekends) with a cup of coffee on our patio.  We have recently overhauled the backyard which makes this time even more special.  The hummingbirds frequent the feeders in the early mornings which I enjoy so much. 
The quiet of the mornings are so calming to me and we speak softly to keep our conversations between us - so special!

What's your answer??

Seattle!!!

We recently travelled to Seattle to visit Son and Daughter-in-Law ~

It's always a pleasure to visit family and the beautifully green State of Washington!!! 

This trip was made more special by it being our granddaughters first airplane ride. 

Baby girl slept most of the flight and arrived with smiles!!

We all enjoyed having everyone together, it had been 6 months

since Uncle Bubba had seen his niece and Aunt Little Feet

hadn't seen her since she was two weeks old!!

Baby girl immediately took to her Uncle, who had her laughing all week ♥

For the last three years part of the family has participated in a

half marathon/marathon in the Seattle area. 

This was my 5th half marathon this year and

brings my lifetime total of half marathons to 12!!!

We were fortunate enough to catch the Dale Chihuly display ~ 

Trust me when I say if this display comes to a city near you GO.SEE.IT!!!

Absolutely fabulous display of glass blowing genius...

After 31 years and 4 trips to Seattle, SIL (PC) finally visited the Space Needle!!

Our visit came to a close following a backyard BBQ

with several of our Seattle 'family' in attendance. 

As you can see the Sun made an appearance!!

Uncle Bubba feeding Baby Girl fresh fruit...

Until next time... Goodbye Seattle and all of your lovely greenery ♥ ♥

5 years later and a baby

In celebration of dear daughter and her prince charming marking

 their 5th wedding anniversary and their daughter turning 6 months,

we recently visited the site of their wedding for pictures.

Their wedding photographer Randy of Borel Photography

took some amazing shots and Grandpa and I were humbled

to be included in the shoot!!

Amazing to see our Ohana growing!!!

.**Copyright released to Clent by Borel Photography**

~~* Aloha Friday *~~

Welcome to Aloha Friday!!!

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is a day to take it easy

and look forward to the weekend.

I'll ask a simple question for you to answer, nothing that requires a lengthy response.

You can leave your response in my comments -

If you’d like to participate, post your own question on your blog

and leave your link here

Remember to visit the other participants!

It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends ~

My question...

Describe the longest road trip you've ever taken!

My answer is:

Although I have been on longer road trips than this particular 8 hours to Los Angeles,

 THE.LONGEST road trip I took was following a call

we received from a teammate of our son telling us

he had been hit in the face by a ball from a pitching machine!

Dear hubs and I set out around midnight and drove straight through

to Southern California with barely any words spoken. 

We were both so focused on getting to our son's side and making sure that he was alright.

He did receive a broken nose and small fractures around his eye & cheek,

but all has since healed well...

What's your answer??

Here I am!!!

It has been a bit, but I think of you all often! 

May be a bit long-ish post, but I'll try to bring you up to date.

I, along with dear daughter, son-in-law and my friend Shelley

ran the inagural 'Running of the Elk' in our hometown of Elk Grove, CA.

This was my 3rd half marathon of the season...

 Baby girl turned 5 months!

She is just the light of our lives...

 With Spring's arrival came the return of our dove family!!

This is Momma dove's second year visiting, last year she had six hatches...

Each hatch produced two babes!

These two are her first of this season!!

 Another month passed...  Baby Girl turned 6 months!!

She is riding a rocking horse made by my parents for her Momma

when she was a baby!!!

So happy I held on to it and got these shots...

 This shot makes me SO happy!

Momma dove returned... We thought she would not ~

After the previous shot of her new babes something

snatched them from the nest :-(

We have secured a safer planter for her and added shades

to hide her & her babies from predators!!!

 A little photo shoot at a local ranch

afforded me these gorgeous shots of a wheat field.

Hope you are enjoying your Spring/Summer...  Summer vacation has begun for kids already!!

Where have I been...

Yes, I have been missing and trust me I have been busy!

We took a hike in the foothills with daughter, son-in-law and baby girl, her first real hike...  It was a 2 mile hike into the falls with a jog stroller friendly trail until the last 1/4 mile.  We ditched the stroller and carried the baby the rest of the way and were treated with amazing scenery at the falls.

I ran my 1st half marathon (13.1 miles) of the season and have 9 more planned :-) 

This run was our local Shamrock'n run for St. Patricks Day, and is very popular!!  This year the total of runners was 5,600... The run starts at Raley Field, the triple A affiliate to our local MLB team the Oakland A's playing field.  We finish the race by running into the stadium from center field and your finish is broadcast on the big screen!!  We, as runners aren't able to see it, but your friends and family are able to...  Here I am with my co-worker Shelley as we entered Old Town Sacramento.  My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter surprised me by coming out to cheer us to the finish line!  I finished with a respectable time of 2:31

We have a new car!!!

Dear hubs and I went to the dealership to look at purchasing a used car and came home with a 2012 Acura TL, my dream car...  She is a beauty and has so many bells and whistled and I feel so blessed to have her.

Ran my 2nd half marathon of the season!!

This was my first time running the River City half and almost thought we would be running it in the rain.  It rained all night the night before and on our drive to the venue.  Fortunately, by the time we made it to the start line we were able to ditch our garbage bags (which kept us dry and warm) before the gun sounded.  This was a much smaller race, only about 500 runners and we ran a portion of the bike trail that I have never run before.  I felt many times like I was out there alone as we were all so spread out.  Dear daughter & son-in-law finished in 1:53, while I finished in 2:33.

We have been watching this little one grow like a weed!!!  Baby girl is just the sweetest natured little one, she is always smiling and loves to MOVE!!  She loves to kick her feet and is so happy to be standing.  She has a walker that she sits in and is so interested at reaching out to play with all the toys on the walker.  She is definately teething and tries to put everything in her mouth.  As you can see her smile just lights up a room...

and finally, I wanted to share with you the sounds

 that warm our hearts more than I can begin to tell you...

Dear hubs watches babygirl on the days her Mommy & Daddy both work.  Once a month I have been taking a vacation day and going with him.  We have the best time taking care of her and her Grandpa can get her giggling everytime!

I hope you all have enjoyed the first quarter of 2012 as much as we have!!!

March is Endometriosis awareness month

 Approximately 176 million women and girls worldwide suffer from endometriosis;

8.5 million in North America alone.

I'm supporting my blogger friend http://www.myperspectiveblog.com/ by helping to spread the awareness about endometriosis. 

 Feel free to share your support by visiting Nicolasa and leaving a comment.