Long time....

Wow!! I am like the worst blogger ever these days!! Perhaps I should give up on Facebook and pay more attention to my blog! .... NAH.... ;-) I'll just try harder to keep up the blog!

So let's see... it's been roughly two months since I posted. That's not so bad considering I spent most of that time packing my house, finding a new house to live in, moving over 1,000 miles away, and trying to unpack my house! Plus trying to spend as much time as possible with family and friends before moving!

September was pretty uneventful. The grands all got settled into their school routines and the ones not in school got used to the silence at their house. :-) Baby Kelton has grown by leaps and bounds and is now working on cutting some teeth. His smile can certainly light up the room!

October brought handsome hubby's FIFTIETH (yup...the big 5-0) BIRTHDAY! Sadly there was no big party since we were seperated by over 1,000 miles. I think we may try and throw something together during Thanksgiving though. I mean really.... we can't let such a monumental birthday just pass into obscurity...

We got to sneak off to Cheyenne and see the grands there for a quick weekend over Labor Day. It was great! I drove and Blaine flew into Denver and we met up there and went to Travis'. Travis moved into a really nice place and the kids love it. He is doing all he can to keep things stable for them and give them a good home. We hope and pray it all works out soon and we can put this all behind us.

I will try to update with pictures soon and will more than likely just overload the blog with them! Afterall, I know you who actually read my blog (all two of you!) are more interested in seeing the grands than reading my babbliing! The pictures on here are what I have on my work computer. I stole them off of facebook and Tama's blog so more pictures will come once I find the box that has my hard-drive to my computer in it! Right now the house looks like an episode of "Hoarders"! (and I even got rid of a ton of stuff!) Just need to glean more junk out!

I took this picture in my back yard in Idaho. It turned out so cute!

Until next time..... keep your face to the sun and bloom where you're planted!

Blessings

The Lord certainly watches over us!


Ever since about May, Blaine and I had been struggling with our jobs here in Idaho. Neither one of us was very happy in them, but we tried to make the best of it and hung in there knowing with today's economy, now is not the time to look for a new job.

A few months ago, Blaine was working on a building at the cheese factory in Nampa and it was getting close to being completed and his bosses were not saying anything about any new jobs on the horizon. So he started looking again to try to avoid the two month lag between jobs we had before. We got busy and sent out resumes all over the place and one day I was emailing resumes out and had the impression to "send an e-mail to his old boss and see what's shaking back in Arizona". So I told Blaine and he said go for it. We sent them an email. A few days later, we received a phone call from his old boss saying, "I have a church here I need you to come build for me". Wow!


We prayed about it and asked for guidance and decided it was the right thing for us to do. Blaine called him and told him he would come do it. He intended to go to work the next day and give them his two-week notice. When he got to work he got a call from his boss to come into the office. So he went to the office and his boss said, "I have some bad news, we don't have any more work and have to lay you off. Today will be your last day." Well, that just testified to us that we made the right decision so Blaine told them that he had some GOOD news. He just got a new job so it was all good.

We went to Wyoming for 4th of July and saw family. We brought the Shoopman grands home with us (via Yellowstone Park), and then Blaine headed for Phoenix the next day! 4 adults, 6 kids (8 and under) and a dog for over 12 hours in a 28 foot "older" motor home! What a wild ride! But it all worked out just fine and we managed very well. The kids all had a great time and as far as I'm concerned a motor home is the only way to travel with kids! (Or even without them!)


We don't know yet what our future holds but we do know we will face it together! I have been hanging in Idaho and working to pay off some bills and be in the right place financially before I give up my job and move. I gave up my job TODAY. October 22 I will bid farewell. There is a lot to do between now and then. I'm thinking I will go back to temping in Arizona so I can have my "grandma time". It's a good job and I enjoy it. It's not very reliable income, but it gives me the freedom I need to be more of the grandma I want to be. I spent a month running Camp Grandma this summer. It was a total blast and I can't wait to do it again!! I want to be the Grandma that leaves all the fun memories!

We will be getting a moving truck on the 28th, loading it up on the 29th and heading out. We will be unloading on the 30th at our new place in Arizona. If you're in the neighborhood or want to come 'visit' that day let me know! I'll send you the address! On one hand, I am excited to go back to AZ, on the other, I am devastated to be moving away from our grandkids! (and, yes, to be leaving our two girls and son-in-law here too!)

I've tried to time the move just right so I can return to AZ before snow flies here in Idaho, but after any chance of heat stroke in AZ

We shall see....

Rules at Camp Grandma??

While Camp Grandma was in full swing this summer, the grands all had a great time. They were very well behaved and only needed a few 'reminders' once in awhile. Some of these 'reminders' had to be repeated so often that the three older kids took it upon themselves to write some rules down and post them around the house

"to help the OTHER kids remember".

First Abbie decided she would "remind" everyone not to run in the house (complete with a picture of a girl running with a X through it):

Then Kolby decided the girls were being too loud in the house and made a sign to "remind" them (what a helpful boy!):

Then Abbie placed this note in the bathroom: always a good reminder....

Not to be outdone, Baylee made her own reminder for bathroom duties and the reminder she taped to the back of the bathroom door was the

best reminder of them all!!

(if you need help with the translation it says "wipe your butt".

Camp Grandma was the most fun I've had in years!!

I love my grands!

A day at the zoo (back in March!!)

I just found this draft post that never made it to the blog! My bad! This was a day we spent at the Boise Zoo with the Idaho Turner Syndrome support group. We had a great day!


Abbie enjoyed the giraffe slide....



What a beautiful girl!

Meow....

Kallie thought the slide went a little too fast! :-)

My what big ears you have!

The better to hear you with!

I love giraffes.... they're cool!

Lazy lion...

Look, a two-headed crane! oh, wait... false alarm, it's just one standing behind the other! haha

Pretty girls in the bamboo hut

And then my brothers showed up!..... hahaha!!!

Playing dress up .... with Kelton!

Kelton had his blessing on August 8 and it was wonderful. He had both grandpas and seven uncles there to be a part of his special day. His daddy gave him a wonderful blessing!

Afterwards, we decided to have him try on Uncle Travis' blessing suit....

While it was adorable, there was no way it would button under his third chin to hook the bow-tie. Not to mention those thunder thighs of his! We had to leave the last snap on the sides of the pants undone. And all this time I thought Travis was a big baby! Guess he wasn't as chubby as his nephew! HOWEVER, Kelton is two months old. Travis was only a couple of weeks when he wore the outfit.

Next up was Papa's blessing outfit....

It fit him nearly perfect! I don't know how old Blaine was when he was blessed, but he was a chubby baby too! It was fun to see Kelton in his Papa's blessing outfit.

Then it was time for some pictures in his OWN blessing suit. His Grandma Stucki is a wonderful seamstress and makes all the blessing outfits for the family! It was perfect!

Don't you just love the little bow-tie!

And that adorable little vest!

Look out, there's a new Sheriff in town!!

This is just a cute outfit I got shortly after we found out we were getting another grandson. It is an all one piece cowboy outfit complete with Sheriff's badge.

Kelton is the cutest little boy and I can't get enough of kissing on those chubby little cheeks! I have a nick-name for all our grandkids and Kelton is no exception. I haven't stuck on one yet, but Kallie thinks that "Apple" would be a good one for him. Haha. I'm leaning more toward "bubby" right now. Although I do call him "chub-a-lub-a" quite a bit, I don't think that would be a good one to stick him with. :-)

Until next time.... Keep your face to the sun and bloom where you're planted!

What's been going on you ask? Well.....

Kelton has been pretty serious....

NOT!

Our newest grand, Kelton, is growing and eating and growing and eating! He is starting to smile and is so stinkin' adorable! He had his first out of town trip over the 4th of July weekend when we all piled in the motorhome and went to Wyoming via Yellowstone Park. He is such a great traveler! He also went with his mom and dad to Portland. He is quite the little traveler.

Kallie has been so busy this summer! She was in swimming lessons and did great! The very first day, she wanted to know if she could jump off the diving board. She has also kept us laughing the summer away! I made some jell-o awhile back for Sunday dinner. We didn't eat it all, so I put it back on the dinner table Monday and then again on Tuesday. Apparently, this was too much for Kallie. She asked me "Dwama, WHY is there ALWAYS Jell-o on your table?" Needless to say, there hasn't been any jell-o since! She also likes to take care of my dog, Gypsy. She has put herself in charge of feeding Gypsy but I didn't know she also put herself in charge of Gypsy's outside habits. One day she put the block in the doggie door while Gypsy was outside. Her mom asked her why she put that in the door and told her that Gypsy wouldn't be able to come in. Kallie told her, "because I think Gypsy needs to go poop. Then she can come back in" Well, then.... :-)

Taylor has been staying plenty busy and having a great time this summer. The Shoopman grands got to come home with us after the 4th of July and we had a blast! Taylor has really grown and is so beautiful! She still has her sweet attitude though. One night after I put them to bed, I could hear them talking and stopped to listen. I heard Taylor ask, "Do you think Grandma plays with the toys when we go to sleep?" haha! Of course I do!! Taylor is also a 'take charge' gal. We were upstairs watching a movie one night and had the window open and could hear some girls walking by and singing and laughing. Taylor very casually gets up out of her chair, walks over the window and yells, "KEEP IT DOWN! WE'RE WATCHIN' A MOVIE!" then she just as calmly walks back to her chair and sits down like nothing happened. We were laughing so hard at her we had to rewind the movie! What a hoot she is!

Baylee is still the cowgirl of the family! It was all I could do to get her to give up her jeans and boots for shorts and flip-flops at Camp Grandma! She humored me though and wore the cooler clothes but she still maintained that she was in no way, shape, or form... a princess! Oh the horror!! And she is not 'cute' either, she is 'pretty'. She had a ton of fun playing with Abbie and they were joined at the hip most of the time. Baylee also is growing up and lost her first two teeth while at Camp Grandma! She accidently swallowed the second one! The first one was so loose she could fold it all the way back, front and practically twist it! She kept saying she wanted Uncle Karlo to pull it and when she finally got brave enough, I called Uncle Karlo and he came over at 10:30 at night and pulled her tooth. (More like caught it as it fell out! that's how loose it was!). She was very excited to get a visit from the Tooth Fairy and was impressed that she knew where Grandma lived! The second tooth was quite loose as well and apparently fell out during lunch one day. But we wrote a note to the tooth fairy and told her what happened and she left a nice note to Baylee back with some $$. The tooth fairy rocks!

Abbie has had a busy summer as well. She also did swim lessons. She is such a fish! She absolutely loved having her cousins here to play with and boss around! She has also been losing teeth this summer. She pulled out one of her top front teeth and then the very next day, pulled out the other! She has the cutest smile and lisp now! I love it! She also took the big step of getting her ears pierced. She was so brave and didn't shed a single tear. She loves her earrings and loves for her mom to pull her hair back so she can show them off. It's a good thing it is summer time and she can wear shorts all the time. I don't think her mom could keep her in pants as fast as she is growing!

Kolby has been a complete joy to have this summer! He has been a huge help with the others and he is so thrilled to have a boy cousin finally! He dotes on Kelton and even likes to hold him. He says he is going to teach Kelton how to drive when he is 8 and Kolby is 16. Great! He is always telling us all the things he is going to teach Kelton how to do. Kolby has such an interest in science and machinery and things. He was so excited to go to Old Faithful and was amazed at it and the fact that it isn't turned on by some spout somewhere! When Old Faithful erupted, Kolby was in awe and turned to me and said, "Grandma! Are you getting pictures of THIS!" Yes, Buddy, I sure did! He got a science experiment book from Aunt Tama and was absolutely over the moon with excitement! He reminds me so much of his dad that I had a very hard time remembering not to call him Travis. He told me it was okay though since that's his middle name. :-) He has become great friends with our next door neighbor's boy. They are the same age and have a great time together! They went to cub scouts and learned about fishing and then Micah's dad took them fishing that evening!

We had a ton of fun activities. We went to Yellowstone Park on the way home and took time to make a couple of stops along the way. The kids loved it. They saw, Old Faithful, the bubbling mud pots, a bald eagle in a tree, lots of buffalo, elk, deer, and chipmunks. Baylee was sad she didn't get to see a bear though.

They spent a lot of time in the yard swimming and playing on the slip 'n' slide. Kolby could play on that thing for HOURS! He has the bruises to prove it! We made a lot of trips to various parks, which they enjoyed; had a lot of picnics; played a lot of games; read a lot of books; went to the library; spent the day at the lake; and just had a great time.

One weekend, Papa and Uncle Karlo returned home from working out of town and Daddy came to visit so we all went to the new bounce house in Meridian. What a blast the kids had! Yes, even the BIG kids had a good time! Karlo and Travis got in the sumo suits and wrestled around. That was hysterical to watch! Then they put on the velcro suits and stuck to the wall! Another fit of laughter! I think everyone came out of there with some sort of rug burn or bruise from all the bouncing and obstacle course!

It was certainly a fun time at Camp Grandma this summer. We are hoping to do it again real soon!

It's time to get back on track....

I have about 4 posts typed up (so far!) and ready. I just need to add the pictures. So much went on this summer and we had such a wonderful, busy time with the grands and running Camp Grandma. There is no way I could have done it without the help and support of my girls (and Karlo!).

Amber and Tama kept the kids entertained with fun crafts, trips to parks, pools, library and various other locales, and just plain busy playing with cousins and creating great memories! Karlo enjoyed taking Kolby with him several times for some "guy time". He also had the job of fixing sprinklers, building fires, and pulling loose teeth. He is also a wonderful stand-in as priesthood leader of our home while Papa is gone.

Like everything though, all good things must come to an end including Camp Grandma. My house is now quiet, the dog (and Grandma of course!) is lonely, and the groceries don't disappear nearly as fast as they did!

We had a wonderful summer and tons of fun. There were also a lot of trials, but those will work out soon we hope.

Stay tuned for the updates!

Wordless Wednesday... from Camp Grandma

Stay tuned for posting overload.... Camp Grandma is winding down....