Seven Months Already?

Boy, I have been lacking in the blog department recently. I wanted to add this picture of Nathan. He is 7 months old today. Where does the time go? If you can read the small orange print on the picture.....I sent this in for a baby who has been hospitalized for over a month. He has been critically ill and he has more challenges to meet. There have been many ups and downs for little Stellan. I sent the picture in for "Wear Orange for Stellan Day". If you are interested, you can learn about baby Stellan's difficulties at: http://www.mycharmingkids.net

This family's situation has really tugged at my heart strings. The Mom is a great blogger and the family is beautiful. They have faced many struggles with their youngest baby. Stellan reminds Katie and I of Nathan. I have found Stellan to be on my mind often and I have been in fervent prayer for this family.

We have been so blessed to have such healthy and happy grandchildren.

We LOVE each one of you......
Gillan, Gracie, Joshua, Andrew, Nathan

Happy "7th month" Day Nathan!- April 25, 2009

Oh, did I say?..........."I love this pot and the daisies in it"!!

Happy Easter!

We anticipated today's Easter Sunday weather and jumped into coloring and hiding Easter eggs on Saturday.
Below are a couple of pictures of Josh taken by his Mom several days ago.

Nathan was really kicked back here.

The boys were seriously in to coloring "real" eggs.
As you can see the eggs did not all take the color well.
I boiled the eggs early in the morning and put them in the refrigerator...mistake.....
it has been so many years since I colored eggs.....you know, we now have those wonderful plastic ones....anyway, I didn't remember that the eggs needed to be warm. Oh well, it was the experience and making memories that counted.

The Easter Bunny!

On the Hunt!

Nathan enjoyed the sunshine.....

And the beautiful blue sky!

Get it Andrew....get it!

Nice rubber boots....the boys helped with cattle earlier.

Happy Baby!

Brothers in their blue Easter shirts

Family Retreat - Part III

Andrew loved the stairs.

This wasn't the sun rise, but I did get the sun through the trees this time.

We all had a very good time at the cabin, but the cousins especially enjoy getting together.
Gracie is showing us a cup trick below.

Wouldn't you love to hear what they are saying?

They seemed to enjoy the woods as much as I did.

The pine trees were just totally awesome.

The rye grass was really green and I am sure attracts the deer.

Saturday night we grilled steaks and enjoyed some entertainment
from Gillan, Gracie, and Rudy.

Nathan rolled himself up into the action...and was enjoying the music too.

This is a shot from the front, upper windows of the cabin.
I loved the view of the trees from all of the windows.

The kids were the first to jump into the hot tub.



The line up here is from the stairs leading up to the loft.
The master bedroom and private bath with whirlpool is up there.

Family Retreat - Part II

Saturday morning we made our way to the park area and we all rode the train except Grandpa.
We thought the ride might be a little too bumpy for him because of his recent surgery.

Rudy and Christy seem excited about our train ride.

Craig, Katie and Nathan were ready for the ride too!

These boys are fired up and ready to go!

These two get really excited about everything.

Gracie is searching for the deer and other wild life usually seen on the train ride.
We only saw a couple of deers from a distance.
We did see a really big bird....Josh thought it was a woodpecker and Gracie thought it was a bird she had seen in her "Bird Book". We weren't sure who was right.

The two pictures above and the two below were the start of a "real adventure."
Rudy wanted to find this great nature trail which was to lead to the largest oak tree
in Oklahoma, the U.S. or world, or some such place. No matter, he was determined to find it.
After all, he had the map...the map, the map, the map.....sound's like Dora the Explorer, huh?

We walked and we walked. We followed this body of water, and we saw trees, yes.
We saw the woods, yes. It was a strange trail, yes. It seemed to lead to no where.
Grandma eventually lost faith in her son and veered off alone....to find a bathroom.
It looks like Andrew took care of his problem somewhere on the trail.
Looks like Gracie had experienced enough and the others were wondering aimlessly.

Nathan seemed to have a great ride. But, by the time Grandma found her way back to
the main road, she was soon trailed by the whole bunch.
NO GIANT OAK TREE FOUND....but, such fun!
Rudy and I decided the tree must have died in the 1800's or so.
Awe, but togetherness....making memories.
Part III will soon follow if I can get the pictures to cooperate.

Family Retreat - March, 2009

We all went to Beaver's Bend State Park for a little family time during spring break.

This cabin is appropriately named "Cozy Corner". It was so cozy, relaxing, and peaceful.
The surroundings were just beautiful, too!

It was with great difficulty that we were able to get this picture of all of us.
There was no one available to take the picture, so we tried out the timer on my camera.
The fun part (funny, actually) was watching Katie and Craig run for their positions for the pose.

Rudy had the fire pit going when we arrived, so after grilling hamburgers and hot dogs,
we had to have Smores!

It was hard not to over char the marshmallows!

I was the first one up on Saturday morning--and I rushed out to the balcony from our bedroom in the loft to take a picture of the sunrise.
As you can see, the sun did not shine for me.

After a pancake breakfast, the kids and I took a hike.
All of the little roads led to more cabins.
I have an adventurous group of grandkids.

We arrived back at the Cozy Corner unscathed.

Eight pictures is enough for one blog post.....to be continued in the next post. I have way too many pictures...but, I am at least trying to give an account of the trip, somewhat in order.

Swinging in the Sunshine

I was gone today when Katie came to visit with David and the boys played in the back yard. Katie really took some cute pictures.....sorry, I got hold of them first to post. This was Nathan's first time to swing on the swing set...Whee!