I AM READY FOR THIS--Feast Your Eyes on a Bit of Spring

Dreary-Ohio-Almost-March is not my favorite time of the year, so I thought I'd re-introduce a bit of spring from our yard last year. First the back yard…
And Now the Front…

AND just for fun, here's ANDY at 8 weeks. ^o^
Love, Kathey

ANDY, VALENTINES, Look-Alikes and a Fun Concidence

HERE'S ANDY!

He is 7 weeks old here, and just keeps getting cuter by the minute. ^o^
And here's a drawing that his big sister, Kate (age 4) did of her daddy for his birthday earlier this month. Kate says he is holding a pet snake.

WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?

Here's Andy on Valentine's Day. This bib is one of a set his Aunt Karen made for him. ^o^

Kyle gave flowers to Barbie and Hazel for Valentine's Day.

Miss Hazel is now 4 months old, and this was her very own bouquet!

I got flowers too. Jim gave me the Gerbera Daisy pictured below. I LOVE Gerbera Daisies. I sincerely hope I don't kill it. I'm not very good with house plants, and I'm especially not good with outdoor plants that happen to be inside. I noticed that this one doesn't currently have any more flower buds. I plan to feed it a very mild solution of banana peel water to see if I can encourage it to produce more buds. It worked extremely well with the geranium I tried it on outside last fall, but it was too late in the year for the flowers to bloom. (It died after I brought it inside.) We'll see how this works. But as I said, I hope I don't kill it.

LOOK-A-LIKE GIRLS

Barbie recently posted pictures on her blog of Hazel at 4 months. She mentioned that Hazel's face looks older and has really filled out lately. That's her pictured on the left. I thought the shirt she was wearing looked familiar. We have a picture of Peter's daughter, Elizabeth, at about 6 months wearing the exact same shirt. Now that Hazel's face is fuller, she looks much more like Elizabeth (on the right) than she did before. I think it's really fun. ^o^

A REALLY FUN COINCIDENCE

Yesterday Jim and Kirsten and I went to a baptism at our church. The President of the Columbus Ohio Mission, Robert F. Jensen, was there. I was interested in meeting him because his last name is Jensen, which is my maiden name. I found out that his Jensens are from Denmark, and his family settled in Idaho. I told him that our Jensens were from Norway, and settled in Chicago in the late 1800's. I also told him that Jim and I are converts to the church. He asked when we joined the church and Jim told him we were baptized in 1967. He asked where, and when Jim told him Lompoc, California he told us that he was a missionary in that mission at that same time, although he never made it to that part of the mission. We asked him if he knew Elder Douglas Fuqua, and Elder Adrian Gauntt, who were our missionaries, and he did! He said he knew them well, and that Elder Fuqua was quite a legend in that mission. I would love to know where they are now and what is happening in their lives.

It's a small world. It was so fun talking with him.

ANDY UPDATES AND A BLESSING

Here's Andy at four weeks. He gets cuter by the minute. At five weeks he's still a tiny little guy, but he's growing fast. His mom said: Andy's newborn-size sleepers are getting a little harder to put on. I guess we'll be moving to the 0-3 month size soon.

Jim had a very quick trip last weekend to visit Helena's family. The pictures that Jim took didn't turn out very well, so I am going to blatantly plagiarize Helena's blog. Andy was blessed on Sunday. (Here's a brief explanation about blessings.)

Grandpa and Andy hadn't met before.
Andy wasn't so sure about this big man who was holding him.
And here's Kate too. What a delightful lapful. ^o^

Barbie made this blessing outfit for Andy. She made the dress that Kate, and cousins Elizabeth and Hazel were blessed in too. (See pictures here.)The outfit was a bit big on him, but it worked out just fine.
Isn't he just the cutest…?At the church after the blessing: Doug, Andy and Jim.
I wish the rest of us could have been there too.

Mama and Andy.
That evening they all went over to Doug's cousin Lonnie's house for a grilled trout supper. Yes, I definitely wish we could have been there. ^o^ This picture of their family was taken at Lonnie's. I really like it.

Jim left early Monday morning and got home safe and sound even though 2 of the 4 planes he was scheduled to fly on were broken and had to be substituted at the last minute.

We're planning to get everyone together this next summer so all 4 cousins can meet each other. Won't that be a blast!?

BABIES, BIRDS and SNOW!

THREE BABIES AND A BIG SISTER

I thought it would be fun to give some updates on the grandchildren. Andy, Helena's newest addition, is three weeks old here. He looks as if he has something very important to say.Hazel is the next oldest. She belongs to Barbie and Kyle, and is now almost 3 1/2 months old.

Here's Hazel again. She loves her bouncy seat.

Peter and Karen's daughter, Elizabeth is now one year old. Yay, Elizabeth! One of her favorite Christmas toys was her Fisher-Price Nativity Set.

Elizabeth as a sweet little Santa.

This picture of Elizabeth was taken a few months ago, but it's a favorite, so I just had to include it here. ^o^And then comes Kate. Helena and Doug's oldest just turned 4. She got a baby brother for her birthday, right on her birthday. Of all the pictures of Kate and Andy that Helena has on her blog, this is my favorite: Helena said: Monday was Kate's four-year checkup and shots. They had us fill out a sheet of developmental questions--physical and cognitive stuff. Some of Kate's answers were a real hoot. One section had questions like, "What do you do when you're hungry?" ("Eat food!") and "What do you do when you're tired?" ("Go to bed!") But for "What do you do when you're cold?" she said, "Play in the snow!" Ha. There was also a section of defining words. I remember her explanation of "curtain" was "You open and close it to see the sun and the sky and the whole world!" and for "banana" she said, "It looks like a moon and you eat in your oatmeal."

Way to Go, KATE!

BIRDS * BIRDS * AND MORE BIRDS

We have had a lot of feathered visitors at our bird feeder lately. I
took these pictures through our back window. Some of our
Square-Foot Garden boxes show in the background.
I really like woodpeckers. As far as I know we have only one pair that visits our yard.
I also really like the cardinals. Currently there seem to be three pairs of them that come to our backyard restaurant . Usually they feed on the ground under the feeder, but occasionally they will come to the feeder itself. When they do, it's usually at the bottom like the one shown here.
The next picture shows one of the female cardinals landing on the feeder along with some house finches.

This is my favorite cardinal picture so far.

And So IT SNOWS!

We had snow on the ground, but then the weather decided to change a bit yesterday and give us sleet for about 6 hours. After that it snowed much of the day. This is what we saw out our back window. There is quite a bit of snow accumulation on top of the bird feeder.

The world was closed yesterday (over 500 closings were listed on TV), so Jim and Kirsten were both home. Jim went out to clear the sidewalk and found an inch of ice under 6 inches of snow. Other areas got as much as 12 inches. It took Jim over an hour to scrape the ice off the car windows even with the heater going.

We have a fair number of icicles, and tree branches are coated with ice.

Towards twilight I noticed a bright patch in the sky, and thought it would make a cool picture.

This is my favorite picture of all.

PICTURES OF ANDY

Helena's baby made his appearance last Saturday. We're so glad he's here and arrived safely. Betsey said she just knew that he would be born on Kate's birthday. :-)

Here is Helena's short version of the birth story: Anders Alfred, born at 2:18 AM on Saturday, December 27th, 2008; 6 pounds 5.8 ounces, 19" long (probably). Yes, he was born on Kate's birthday. I'd mentioned how similar the timing was with the two pregnancies, and we knew they were going to be close, but somehow I hadn't really considered that he might come on the same day. Hopefully they won't mind sharing a birthday!

We're calling him Andy. Anders is the Scandinavian version of Andrew (that's with an "ah" sound as in "father"). We have Anders(es) on both sides of the family. And Alfred is for Doug's dad, of course, who passed away just two months ago. For her longer version and more pictures click here.

And here is more about this sweet little boy:

Welcome little man.
What are you thinking?
There seems to be such wisdom in those eyes.
What can you see that we cannot?
What do you remember that we have forgotten?
What could you tell us if you could only speak?

Getting acquainted with Big Sister Kate.
Little brothers cry sometimes…

Tender Moments.

Goodbye for now, little one. We hope to see you soon.

THE FAMILY BLESSING--Dress That Is

Someone asked me if Barbie made Hazel's blessing dress. The answer is "yes" but she didn't make it for Hazel. She actually made it back in 2004 for Helena's daughter, Kate. Barb made it with the intention that it be passed around the family, and indeed, that is what has happened.

Tiny Kate initiated the dress in December 2004
Peter's daughter, Elizabeth used it next in February 2008.
(I had to include this picture of Grandpa Jim. He's cute too.)

Here's a good picture of the whole dress. Elizabeth is lying on a quilt that Barbie made for her.

And Hazel wore it most recently, in December 2008. Barbie also made her own dress.

Well, we wonder how many others in the clan will end up wearing the dress over the years. Only time will tell.

He's Here!

My cell phone rang at 6:45 this morning. My first thought was "I wonder if Helena had her baby! Sure enough it was Doug with the good news. He said that Helena was holding a baby boy. (I cried, and put the phone on speaker so Jim could hear too.) His name is Anders Alfred, and he was born at 2:18 a.m. PST. He weighed 6 lbs. 5 ounces and is 19 inches long. AND he was born on Kate's birthday. (Dec. 27 was not a due date for either of them, so I suspect the kids decided on that ahead of time.)

I asked Helena if he looks like Kate did when she was born, and she said, "Yes, all splotchy and purple!"

For just a second yesterday I remembered that Helena had an appointment with her doctor at 1:30 that day. I also knew that at her last appointment he told her she was dilated 2 centimeters. He said, "See you next week if not before." The idea occurred to me, briefly, that I ought to call and see what the doctor said this time, but then I mercifully forgot, and didn't think about it again until the phone rang this morning. Why do I say mercifully? Well, I suspect that Heavenly Father knew I would worry the whole time, so he just let me forget. :-) I am SUCH a great worrier you see, so if you ever need any worrying done, call me…

Well when she went for her appointment the doctor said she was dilated 3 cm. and was 80% effaced. He couldn't figure out why she hadn't had the baby yet. (I know why. He was hanging on until his sister's birthday as pre-arranged.)

I seems to me that when Kate was born we all arrived at the hospital only 2-3 hours before she did, so you'd think that Helena might have a clue that she ought to get to the hospital pretty fast once things got going… Well, to make a short story shorter-- they walked in the door of the hospital about 1:45 a.m. and he was born at 2:18. (I'm actually glad I wasn't there this time.)

This is the only picture we have so far:
She was 38+ weeks along. Aww-w-w-w, what a cute bump. He looks just like…

ABOUT LITTLE MISS HAZEL--AND OUR TRIP TO UTAH

Barbie and Kyle's first addition to their family, Hazel Christine Mills, made her appearance in 19 October 2008, at 4:47 a.m. (It was a long night.) She weighed 7 lbs. 12.5 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long.

We went out there to see them December 4-8. Some of the pictures here were taken by Barbie and Kyle before we arrived. While we were there, Kyle downloaded the pictures from his camera into ours so we could have them too. I didn't know it was possible to do that. Isn't technology wonderful? ^0^

Little Miss Hazel at 2 weeks. This Sweet Little Lamb apparently has some growing to do to catch up with her mom & dad. She not only regained her birth weight at 2 weeks, but she weighed in at 9 pounds. She's also 1.5 inches longer.

"Working out" in her gym.

Here she is a month old. At the one month mark she was 10 pounds 10 ounces and a whole 23 inches long. Her height is off the chart, and her weight is near the top. I guess that's what happens if your mom is 6'2.5" and your dad is 6'8."

A week later it was Thanksgiving. Barb and Kyle celebrated by going over to Kyle's parents' house. Hazel is about 5 1/2 weeks old here.

Hazel celebrated by spitting up on herself and on Kyle's dad!

This family picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving, so Hazel is just shy of 6 weeks old.

The Thursday after Thanksgiving we flew to Utah. Jim, Kathey, Kirsten and Betsey all went. This was our first time to meet Hazel.

Hazel's Aunt Betsey made this counted cross stitch to hang in her room. While we were there we took it up to Bev's Framing in Ogden so Barb could pick out a mat and frame that she liked. They will stretch out all the wrinkles, put it under non-glare glass and have it ready to hang in the nursery shortly after Christmas.

And here's what Hazel's nursery looks like.
They did the stenciling on the walls and Barbie made the gorgeous curtains.

BLESSING DAY

Hazel was officially given a name and a blessing at church on Sunday, December 7. She was seven weeks old. Uncle Peter also flew in to take part in this special occasion. We're sorry Helena and Doug couldn't also be here. (Helena's baby is due in just a few weeks.) Here are Peter, Betsey and Kirsten with Barbie and Hazel. (These pictures were all taken out in the hall after church.)

And Here's Aunt Betsey with Hazel.

Kyle nicknamed Jim "Poppy" awhile ago, so here are Poppy and Hazel.

If he's going to be Poppy, I've decided to be Nana.

Precious Lil' Angel. I loved the bow and the bracelet.

Three generations--back home again at the end of a perfect day.

TEMPLE SQUARE

While we were there we also went to see the Christmas decorations on Temple Square. It was fabulous, but very cold. Barbie, Hazel and Kirsten waited for us in the Conference Center while Kyle, Betsey, Jim and I went to see the lights. Jim wheeled me around in my chariot. I was glad I had it. The air is a little thin out there in them 'thar hills.

Our trip to temple square had some unexpected highlights for us. Jim and I had never been in the new conference center, even though it's not so new any more. Betsey said the conference room is just as huge as it looks on TV, and I really wanted to see it. Yes, we got to see the conference center, and the unexpected bonus was that we lucked out in that we got there on the night the Tabernacle Choir was practicing. Practices are open to the public, so we got to go in.

As we walked in Betsey exclaimed, "They're not wearing their clothes!" I just had to laugh. The only time we ever see the choir is when they're performing for General Conference, or for Music and the Spoken Word on TV, and they wear their performance outfits. Here they were looking like ordinary people just wearing ordinary street clothes. The picture is a bit blurry, because the camera wasn't set right, but you get the idea. They were practicing Christmas music. It was SO fun to be there.

Here's another view of the conference room, with some other spectators.

Well, that's about it. We had a fabulous trip. It was wonderful to meet sweet little Hazel and to reconnect with Barbie and Kyle. It was also great that Peter was able to be there, and have a bit of bonding time with some of his siblings and Kyle. It's hard when we all live so far away from each other. Kyle has lots of family in that area. Lots of cousins, and Aunts & Uncles came to the blessing. His grandparents were even there. Everyone went to Kyle's parents' house afterwards for a wonderful brunch. It was a perfect day.