Odds and Ends

I've been a little bit "blue" this week. Being on this side of our trip to Texas is always a little rough for me. I've been looking through all of our pictures and decided to post a few random ones. They are a little bit out of order, not intentionally, but Blogger will not allow me to move any around right now ... so it is what it is!
You have to love this embroidered sign, don't you? Rachel pointed it out to me when we were in one of the many shops we looked around ...

We've actually seen this sign (above) in many places throughout Texas, even at Fort Bliss in the PX! Yikes.

And this picture of Lottie was too cute NOT to post ...

We tried to take a few pictures to remember the vast difference between Texas and Michigan ...

These pictures remind me of an old western movie, with thirsty cowboys running out of water in their canteens, etc.

Let's see ... oh, when we got to Ft. Bliss to see the kiddos, I pulled these weird nose/glass disguises out of my bag. I told Matthew, Ems and Chris to make weird faces at me and I would take their picture. They thought it was SO hysterical!

Here's Matthew getting all serious about the Playdough ... he takes his playing VERY seriously sometimes ...

And I'm not sure which of the kids had the idea to make a long train first ... and then which of them decided to make it an animal circus kind of train, but both Chris and Emma worked very hard on this!

One day, we had about ten minutes when we were waiting for the grown-ups to get ready to go somewhere, so I was playing a little animal guessing game with Emma, Chris and Matthew (just to make the waiting more bearable). I would make a sound, and they would guess which animal I was imitating ... and then it was their turn to make a sound. We did all of the regular animals, but then I told them to try to make the sound of an UNusual animal, so it would be more difficult to guess. So Christopher said, "Ding, ding, ding. ROAR!" (and Christopher's ROAR was an extremely LOUD one!) Emma guessed a lion. Christopher shook his head, NO! Matthew guessed a Tiger. Christopher shook his head, NO! We guessed every single animal we could think of and then we gave up! Christopher, very straight-faced said: "A dinosaur snowman makes that sound!" Well! Christopher certainly isn't lacking in imagination at least!

This is how Emma looks when she is proud of something she has done ... I love this look on her face and I love to do art work with her.

Emma and I were talking on the last day I was there about how far Texas was from Michigan. Emma was saying she was concerned I would forget about her. I was alarmed to hear that, so I responded: "Emma! I could never forget about you. You live right in Grandma's heart. I take you everywhere I go!" Ah, but Emma was NOT going to let me get away with an error so huge as that. She said, "No, Grandma. JESUS lives in your heart. I just live in Texas." Hmmm. Out of the mouth of babes ...

This is one of the shops in Bandera ... I like that last line: Stuff You Need.

And here is Nicolas getting smooshed by Nia and Nathan in the hammock ... now that's the good life!

And little Nia who had apparently gotten a bit carried away with an orange marker earlier that morning ... but Grandpa didn't care one single bit ... she is precious.

Lottie enjoying a relaxing moment in the hammock ... ah, peace and contentment.

And here is Queenie enjoying some ice cream the night we had she and Nathan's birthday party.

And here is Mr. Nathan waiting for us to get ready to go shopping in Bandera ...

I noticed we didn't get quite as many pictures this time around of any of our GRANDSONS and I feel very disappointed by that ... I've decided it is because they are TOO FAST for us. By the time we get our cameras ready, they have moved on to the next thing ...

Jackson still enjoys trains ... but he also builds really well with LEGOS and is very good at all kinds of puzzles too.

Jackson and Karis both painted with me for awhile, so I'm glad to have this picture of it.

And Karis stuck to me like glue ... and I enjoyed her very much. We were driving in their van one day ~ me in the way back, and Karis in her car-seat in the middle, and this was our conversation.

Karis: "You know what, Grandma?"
Me: "What, Karis?"
Karis: "I LOVE you, Grandma!"
Me: "Wow. I love you too, Karis. And mommy loves you a ton!"
Karis: "You know what, Mommy?"
Sabrina: "What, Karis?"
Karis: "I LOVE you twenty-eight ... NINE ... and ONE!"

This is Karis's bunny. I think she looks a little bit sad. Me too, bunny. Me too.