update

Happy Birthday in October to Olivia, Lucy and Austin! Liv's birthday was on the 1st of October. She turned 10! Two whole hands old! Lucy's birthday is also on the 1st. She is 4 and I can't wait to go and see her. We will go birthday shopping! That will be fun! Austin turned 7 on the 26th of October. Can you believe how old they are getting?


Olivia and I had a fabulous time birthday shopping. She wanted things to decorate her room and bed. How do you think we did?

great mirror, don't you think?

Liv is a great shopping partner. I can' wait to go with her again!

austin and I also went shopping and it was great. It was a totally different experience with him than with Liv, but one just as satisfying! After shopping and lunch, Amy put on an amazing party with 20 of Austin's closest friends.

As you can see, it was quite the group!

everyone was singing Happy Birthday so loud, Austin had to cover his ears!

I love being a grandma! It is so fun to take the kids birthday shopping. Having them one on one is a treat for me.

And now I am off to Omaha to visit Holly, Aaron, Noah, Grace, Lucy, and Jacob for a week. Then to Austin to spend a week with Jeff, Brenna, Jackson, and James.

Watch for my travel journal. I will let you know where I am and what we are doing!

I think Mel wants me to blog!

It has been such  long time since I have added anything to my blog!  I think Mel is trying to encourage me since she tagged me.  This one is a thinker.

8 favorite TV shows

24

Prison Break

Fox News

Turner Classic Movies

Western channel movies

and that's all I know about that.

8 favorite restaurants 

Arid Club

Columbia Tower

Olive Garden

California Pizza Kitchen

Chapala

Quiznos

Mr. Bird's Kitchen (rack of lamb)

Cold Stone

8 things on my wish list

to have my party house done

have it be 4th of July week again

all my children and grandchildren lived in Boise or Donnelly/McCall

my husband would retire in Donnelly

my hand would never go to sleep

my parents were still here.  

I could eat anything and never gain weight

I had a convertible  

8 things I look forward to

5 feet of snow in my yard

Mel coming to see me for both Thanksgiving and Christmas

sitting in the hot tub in the middle of a snow storm

seeing the Ogdens and Bird's (Jeff) in a week or so

going to the temple anytime!

taking my grandchildren birthday shopping

Friday nights because that's when Dad comes to spend the weekend

french toast on Sunday mornings

eating breakfast while studying my scriptures

8 things that happened today

I worked out ( upper body)

cleaned bathrooms

mopped all the wood floors

did laundry

talked to Mel and Amy on the phone

went to the post office

found a cow and calf in the yard

packed to go to Seattle

I tag:

Grace

Noah

Ethan (with Mom's help)

Ty (with Mom's help)

Brenna

Jeff

Thanks Mel for helping me get back to my blogging.  I will try and do better!

it was over WAY to soon!

Having my family at the cabin all together is one of my favorite things!  Thanks to all of you for putting up with cramped sleeping conditions, the flu bug, and sleep deprivation.  I hope it was as fun for all of you as it was for me!  Since I gave a copy of all my pictures to all of the family, and since the cabin internet is so slow and hard to up-load pictures with, I will just tell you all to visit each other's blogs and see all of the amazing pictures of our great time together.  Thank you for sharing your pictures with me!

I loved Wendy's top 10 things she loved about being at the cabin all together.  I decided I would add the grandma's perspective with my personal top 10 in no particular order.  I also had to add a few extra...because I can!

#10   Noah's baptism.  Way to go Noah!

# 9    Hearing about the frogs and fish (and seeing them) from Austin and Ty

# 8   Jake kisses and James hugs.  what cute boys!

# 7   Watching Lucy dance

# 6   Seeing Stuart lead the jogging group in the mornings with his sun glasses, hat backwards,

         and medal on; with Jackson close behind

# 5   Watching Grace swim.  She is amazing.  I can see why she loves swim team!

# 4   Seeing what Bryton and Ethan can do with a pile of legos!  Amazing!

# 3   Listening to Whitney play the piano while Liv played the violin.  They are good!

# 2   Sara's smile.  It can and does melt my heart

# 1   Having Mason just see me...and run to me...he gives great hugs, arms tucked and           everything!

I also loved the soccer game.  It has to be my favorite sport to watch...especially when it's my kids and grandkids playing!

The high jump was great, as were all of the events in the Bird Olympics.  The ball toss with the left arm was quite entertaining as well as the double dutch jump roping!

And then there was the parade.  Well, with Mel on music, and all of the kids with grandpa on floats, and with Great-grandpa as the grand marshall...what more needs to be said?

It is fun to have a swimming pool again.  I heard more than once how great the pool is because you don't have to apply sun-tan lotion or bug spray!   And just wait until it's cold and snowy! We are really going to love it then!

I am already counting the days until we can have another party!  Come any time!