Wicked Wire

This little wicked piece of metal caused a change of plans today.  I seemed to have hooked it into my tire on my way home from church. I had Isa and Cade with me and we were headed out to lunch, so it made me a little nervous when I had to stop the car because the tire sounded strange. The first time I looked at the tire nothing was visably wrong, but I only had to drive another few feet to know I needed to stop again. This time I could see the wire sticking out of the tire but it wouldn't budge. Since I knew I had a napping husband at home, I called Jill and Marcus and had them bring some pliers.

After Marcus removed the wire, I drove to a parking lot close by and he took off the tire so we could see if it was losing air. Yep, that little wicked wire had poked its way all of the way through. Since we were already in the parking lot, we decided to go have some pizza at a new place called Slice of Italy before going to get my spare tire aired up.  Yum! Their "creamy garlic combination" pizza was wonderful! Since we are all fans of white sauces instead of red, this one hit the mark.
After pizza, Marcus aired up the spare tire, put it back on, and I drove carefully home (and readjusted all of the dials in my car from little hands that had moved them while waiting in the car. :-)   )

Thank you, Marcus for rescuing me today!!

And thank You, Lord, for your protection and for chosing a great place for lunch and for not letting my mailbox key get stuck in the ignition (more little hands' work)!

Cuter Than...

When pumpkin time rolls around there is always a fond memory that pops up of a dear friend of ours (and best man at our wedding) who had a favorite saying of "cuter than 10,000 little pumpkins". So here's thinking of you, Mike Bentley! Sadly, Bentley was killed in an auto accident a few years after we were married. But if he were here, I'm sure he would be using that phrase to describe my grandbabies!!!

We visited the Banducci Farms pumpkin patch yesterday. Here are some pics of these Cutie Patooties! Since I was focusing on the grandbabies, I didn't get a real good pic of the masses of pumpkins that were there. I'm thinking that there just might have been 10,000 little pumpkins!!

Five at Once

We tried getting all 5 of the cousins in one picture again. There seems to be only a few seconds of a "window of opportunity" to get all 5 in one frame. By the third picture, they were no longer all looking at the camera. It probably would make a funny video to show the adults' antics trying to get them to look at us! "Say Lightning McQueen!" seemed to work pretty well.

Have You Tried These??

Just what I needed---another super-delicious chocolate snack....

In case you haven't discerned from the background, these are now sitting in the closet. I'm trying for:  Out-of-sight-out-of-mind!!   YUM!!!

9 Months Old

Nathan turned 9 months yesterday. I'd say "He's getting so big!", but it seems we've been saying that about him since he was born! He's also definitely getting more mobile. I really like watching his army-crawl. It was especially amusing this morning as he was dressed in his camoflage pjs and doing his army-crawl under all of the barstools rungs in the kitchen. He's now also pulling himself up and walking along the edge of the hearth. Hmmm...both Jen and Jill took their first steps alone at the age of 10 months 6 days. He seems to be headed for close to the same timing.

The pictures are of Nathan after he crawled into one of his favorite places a couple nights ago. 3 seconds later he was screaming because he couldn't get out!

Nursing Cover

This is the 5th or 6th nursing cover that I've made and it's more unique than the others. I read some suggestions for adding a terry cloth corner for wiping little milky mouths and a pocket for nursing pads or whatever. So both are added on the back of this one. These fabrics were chosen by my mom (who was a Seamstress Extaordinaire!) and such fun to sew on. I had hoped when she chose them that it would inspire her to try a bit of sewing again, but she asked me to go ahead and do it. I'm not giving up, though. I think I will tempt her again with fabric for a baby receiving blanket. Something that has simple straight lines. Her failing vision has her feeling defeated in being able to turn out a quality project. I was just recalling all of the things I remember her making as I grew up: all of my school clothes, bedspreads, upholstery for a VW bug, multiple coats, suits, my wedding dress, and most of her wardrobe.  This is a woman who made me 6 outfits and a coat when she first moved to Bakersfield to live near me when she was 82.

Happy Grandparents' Day!

What a treat it was to receive this beautiful platter from our grandchildren for Grandparents' Day! It was also special receiving the photos that documented the process. I heard that taking 5 kids into a shop with lots of breakables was a little stressful for the parents! ("bull in the china shop"?)

Little Sydney would not open her hand, so she had her foot printed instead. :)

Strapped down again. Mom's happier, kids are not!