Christmas 2008.... Grace chats with her Papa soon after they arrive.

Caleb gets comfy playing with the dogs, while he waits oh so patiently to open presents!

He concentrates really hard to get a good grip on this package so he can take it to his dad. He loved playing Santa's helper.

"Here, Grace......a present for you!"


"Ok, Grandma, I'm ready to hand out some more!"

"Are you sure?? This one is really for me??"

Grace loves her Curious George doll. It lights up and plays music.

"Say it isn't so........that's ALL the presents?"


Chrismas 2008 is now a part of the past. It was a really nice one in this household. We really enjoyed having the kids come down and getting to spend it with them, even if we did wait til Saturday. It was well worth the wait. Caleb had a wonderful time playing Santa. When I'd hand him a gift, he'd give it to whoever I told him it belonged to, and if I said, "This one is for Caleb", he'd plop down and start unwrapping. It was adorable! Grace just kept an eye on all and enjoyed the fuss and attention.

Mark and Me at Tantara Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks. His work puts on a huge production of a Christmas party there every year and as we walked by this Christmas tree in the lobby, I insisted we have our picture taken!

Way to shop! While we had the kids for the weekend, we decided to take them to Bass Pro to see the animals. Caleb had a hard time seeing anything from the stroller, so we "elevated" it by setting it in the cart. You can see he was comfy! This shot was taken while we waited for the elevator so we could go upstairs to shop.

Gracie and I pose in front of the big bear.

And I just couldn't resist sharing this picture of her! Just makes you want to pick her up and HUG her, huh? Her little personality is coming out and she's so much fun. We really enjoyed having them that weekend!

New Pics.. Daughter sent me new pictures of the babies today. I made a collage of them for my desktop. I love it! I am so looking forward to this weekend when they are coming to stay with us for 2 nights. Haven't seen them since Halloween weekend, so it's been to long!

Today, she called and told me that Caleb had pointed to the phone and said, "Grandma".(comes out more like mamaw). She asked him if he wanted to call Grandma and he said YES......I LOVE it! He wanted to tell me about seeing Santa Claus yesterday. If you ask him what Santa is bringing him, he'll tell you, "BIKE"... Today, when he told me that, she said she couldn't believe he remembered, since they hadn't even mentioned it in several days. He's no dummy! He even tried to give the phone to his little sister to let her talk to me, too! Ok, enough gushing! Wait til next week, I'm sure it'll be worse! hehe

Black Friday.... Well, today was Black Friday, and I didn't buy for anyone but ME ME ME!! I think I counted 33 or 34 FQ's. They were only like 79 cents each, so I just went thru and picked out the ones I liked! I also bought the side winder bobbin winder. Am anxious to try it. My friend said she bought one for her Quilting Machine and loves it. I like the fact that I won't have to rethread my machine all the time. We'll see if it was worth the $17 I paid for it.
I'm also stocking up on rulers and every time they have them for half price, I've been buying another one til I have one of every size. Batting was half price, too, so I picked up this 80/20 cotton blend just to have on hand. Another thing I buy when it's halfprice just to buy. SHAME on me!!
Have to admit, though, I was kind of glad hubby wasn't home when I got home, so I could get it all in the sewing room and snap this shot before he did get home! I'm baaad. Not that he really says much about my spending $$, but he does think I have to much fabric! Well, I think HE has to many old toys and stuff, but I dont' say anything when he buys more! Besides, is there such a thing as TO MUCH FABRIC?? Not in MY world!

My New Purse.... Quite a while ago, I won some crazy quilt blocks in our guilds block of the month drawing. They've just been laying around til I decided I needed a new purse, so decided to just make myself one. I went to make it and thought these would look great! I love it. I didn't make enough pockets on the inside, but does ANY purse ever have enough pockets? This was just a first run and I made it "on the fly" with no pattern or anything. I just decided what to do as I went. I think it turned out pretty good, myself.

Calebs Quilt. Here is the quilt I made for Caleb for his big boy bed. I have it all basted together and ready to quilt. I guess you could say now I'm just procrastinating! While I had it laid all out, I thought I should photograph it. Now I just have to go finish cleaning off the kitchen table so I can bring the machine in there and quilt it. There is not enough room where I sew in the sewing room to quilt a quilt any bigger than a baby quilt size.

SMILE...... dontcha just love it when babies first start learning to smile? And she smiles with her WHOLE face! I guess she was to upset to smile for Grandma over the weekend, but I got these pictures from my daughter last night and wanted to share.

On the quilting front, I need to take a picture of the quilted purse I made myself this week. It's already full of junk, but I will take a pic and post it soon.

All is well..... All the cultures came out ok, and Grace is just fine. After a nightmare of a hospital stay. It took them 4 times to get her iv in the first time. Then, it came out on Friday afternoon, and here is the witch who put it back in her foot.(it WAS Halloween lol)



and here she is just hanging out trying to get some rest. It wasn't an easy task with all the going's on. We finally got her to sleep and laid her down in the crib and she was sleeping good, when what happens, but the cleaning staff comes in to clean the bed next to her so they could move another child in.

Isn't this the cutest giraffe you ever did see???





At the hospital, there was a gal that came around and handed out the little halloween baskets that you saw by Grace's head in the previous post. In this basket were little odds and ends, including these vampire teeth. Sara was playing with Caleb with them, and as you can see, he wasn't so sure about them!

He loved the little bottle of bubbles that was in there, though!

Then, later, while he and I were eating our supper, I asked him if he wanted to take a bath after we got done eating. He nodded his little head and said, "Bubbles?" So we had a bubble bath. Don't you just love the beefaroni on his face! He was trying to put bubbles on his head, so Grandma helped him! I hated the reason for my having to have made the trip up there, but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Caleb and with Grace and Sara too, even if it was in the hospital. Still Thanking God all is well, though.

Our girl ran a fever yesterday, so her mama called the Drs' exchange. They told her to get her to the nearest ER ASAP. So, daughter called me on their way to the hospital. I offered to come up right away, but she said lets wait and see what it is. Caleb had a virus last week, and we were sure that's all it was. But they ran all kinds of tests on her, and ended up putting her in an ambulance and sending her to Childrens Hospital at Barnes(in St. Louis). Her fever broke before they even got her there, but they are insisting on waiting for the cultures to come back before releasing her. I headed up here this morning, after Sara called to tell me this.

Meanwhile, she seems to be fine, other than not being able to sleep. She's a light sleeper and with all the noises and goings' on at the hospital, she got only a couple of short(REALLY SHORT) catnaps today. Daughter talked to them and got them to move her to a room which had no roommate, so maybe things will be quiet for them tonight. Son in law is working nights and I'm here at their house with Caleb. His Grandpa took him trick or treating. By the time he brought him home, he was not wanting to get his pic taken in his costume. I'll post a picture of that when I get back to my own pc and can edit his gpa out of the picture. I really don't want to post pictures of him without his permission.

MASS CONFUSION!!! So, today, I found myself with a day where I had very few obligations(doing Mother in law's laundry was the only one), so I decided to sew. One of my sewing machines is at her house, where I will stay sometimes, just so people see people in her house. I have a quilt going there for Caleb. I don't have a picture of it in any stage because I didn't have my camera with me. But......it is all cut out, one block completely done, all the stripsets sewn, and about half of them are cut and in various stages of completion. I don't work well when I have to do the same thing over and over and over again, so I change it up a bit and work on this a while, then that........as you can see from the pictures above! This morning, I decided to work on more crazy quilt blocks to go with the ones I won in our guild block of the month drawing a while back.(top picture). I have 5 mini blocks (3" finished) done and ready to trim up, as you see in the 2nd picture. The third picture shows my 2 tubs of scraps I pulled for this project. They are sitting on the floor right beside my chair. The next photo shows my papers all stacked up and everything ready to sew. Well, I sewed 2 6" blocks together and they are ready to trim, then I decided a crazy quilt is not what I wanted to make for my mother in law! So I decided to work on tote bags. I have had this pattern a while, so I cut out diamonds and couldn't find my flannel board, so I laid them out on this quilted board I have. I sewed them all together, then trimmed them up and they are ready to put with the strips to make a tote...THEN I remembered the fabric I want to use with them is up at MIL's.....lol........sooo.... back to the crazy quilt blocks I was drawn. I quilted 2 of them with a backing and cut out boxing for the sides and bottom and will make tote bags out of these blocks. Imagine how nice it will look when I go to the store and have my own fancy bags and can tell them to keep their plastic! Now I just need to make about a half dozen and remember to keep them in the car for shopping days....(then I'll probably realize I need 1 1/2 dozen instead of 1/2!!! ) Talk about a case of mass confusion. I couldn't make up my mind WHAT I wanted to do so got a whole lot of nothing done! OH wait, I did get some towels sewn to potholders.....I still have to add the buttons, will show you that later, am going to try to get the buttons sewn on tonight. I may not have got a lot accomplished(finished), but it really felt good to spend the day in the sewing room again!

Newest Baby Pictures... These are the latest pictures of my beautiful grandchildren! I have actually been sewing, too, but not photographing it yet! Will hopefully have some pictures soon, though.....stay tuned!

WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! Look at the early Christmas gift I got today! Yes, I realize it is only September, but my very good friend and neighbor wanted me to be able to wear this before Christmas, so gave it to me tonight! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and her for making it for me!

6 days old...... and isn't she lovely? Caleb hasn't shown any real signs of jealousy til tonight, apparently. I ran out for a while, and when I got back, he was in his bed crying(it was bedtime, but he normally goes to bed without a fuss), and they said he'd got upset when his mama was feeding the baby. Maybe he just missed his grandma.....but I do have to go home this weekend, so he's going to have to get over it! I love him to death, but like all big bros and sis', he'll have to learn to share Mom and Dad and not have Gma to run to!