Maine and Snow go hand in hand

Snow pictures from when we were in Maine.

There was ice under the snow and right after I took this shot, 

I went down on my rear.  Yup! I knew there was ice right near

where I was standing. LOL but my memory was off by a couple feet.

Amanda shoveling her car out after the storm.  Thankfully both my daughter and her husband had some days off to spend with us while we were there, so they didn't have to deal with this every day.

Henry loves the snow and being outside.

The backyard.

I tried to download a ton of pictures, so I could blog about them

while enjoying my next vacation, but most of them loaded upside down.

Ugh!  I really should take a class on blogging and learn a few things so it's

less of a hassle.

Well I'm now in sunny New Mexico and off to take another long walk. 

I'm sorry my words are few.

Christmas

Christmas is the time of the year when loved ones try to get together to celebrate and rekindle bonds.  It is so easy when your loved ones are near, and can be so very difficult when loved ones live far away.  This year was spent with my eldest daughter, Amanda and her hubby Derek and their three small blessings, Michael, Ava and Henry.

Ava Lauren - Christmas Day 2013

TaDa! Henry Owen age 2

Henry with his super hero's shirt

Ava with her American Girl Look a Like Doll

Christmas 2013 Aren't they Adorable

They were so excited to see all the gifts under the tree and Ava quickly became the organizing child and started reading tags and sorting all the gifts into piles.  They took turns opening gifts and I never saw a disappointed look from anyone.   Whether a big expensive gift or a small trinket, everything was appreciated and oohed and aahed over.  It was well worth the 21 hours in the car to enjoy the week with my Maine grandchildren.

Great idea for gift!

 

 Aren't these the most adorable ornament gifts you've ever seen?
They can be made of a shinny smooth bulb or a textured glittery one.
I'm not sure what type of paints were used, but perhaps someone who reads this will know or I may be able to get my daughter to ask her day care provider who made these for her last year.

They came with this cute little poem.

With their names and dates on them they make an awesome memento to your little ones childhood, for as we all know they don't stay little forever.

SNOW! Did I say snow?

 Our first Christmas with the grand kids was a huge success.  We had pretty good weather for traveling, except for a short stretch in Canada and managed to sandwich two snow storms between the travel times.  Each time they received close to a foot of snow.  So I headed out with the big kids and Henry rode in his sled.  I bought Henry the sled when he was born, so this is his third year to get to use it and it looks like it will be his last, he's pretty stuffed in there.

Ava's turn to pull the sled.

Henners is stuffed in there, but loves it.



Michael now 9 and Ava 7.

The boys on a snow bank

Snow angels, anyone?

Henry now two, loved it as you can see by his face.

I'll be sure to post the actual Christmas morning soon, so stay tuned.

;

Where was I?

We were in Maine for Christmas and that's where I picked

up this incredibly unique advent calendar.

Each of those little numbered doors open up a small

pull out drawer to place a small surprise or treat for

the lucky person that is counting down the days 

until Christmas. 

 

 

I just love the pictures painted on the drawers.

I took a couple closer shots, so that you could

see the details that have gone into it.

 

My oldest daughter, who lives in Maine took me to her

favorite store that always has the best gifts.

Believe it or not it's a hardware store, called Schachts.

I made several purchases and at half price, they were

a real bargain.  I also like the idea that everyone else around

here doesn't have one just like it.

 

Now that they've gotten the bugs out of the new blog look so

I can once again post pictures, and I've had new

antivirus software installed on my computer; perhaps you'll

see me on it a bit more often.

 

Our Christmas trip was great, I'll be posting pictures of the

grand kids soon.  We had two snow storms while we were

there and I took some cool snow pictures.

A Post without photos, is just a so-so post

A very large time span has transpired since my last post.  Now I'm back from vacation and ready to share photos and Lo & Behold they've revamped Blogger and I can't figure out how to download my photos.  Ugh!!  The frustration of it all and I was so diligent and had all my pictures uploaded to Shutterfly in record time.  I was so proud of myself I ran the disk that came with my camera, because the camera was giving me issues dumping the pictures onto the computer and I solved that problem and now this new one has cropped up.

Please be patient I promise to keep trying to figure it out.

 

Elves are so Mischievous

Remember this post from last year?  When on a yearly excursion to Bronners, in Frankenmuth I purchased the Elf on a Shelf for each of my daughter's families.  They were all thrilled to adopt an elf, but one of my grandchildren was very skeptical at first.  Michael, the eldest of the bunch couldn't understand why someone would purchase something to spy on him.  It took him quite a while to warm up to the idea.

Kelpo Sammy Whitnum's family has posted on all his mischief on Face Book and I'm not sure if I can link up to that naughty little guy.   He has been up to some pretty questionable mischief with the Barbie dolls and he's also been into the syrup (and you wondered what kept those elves going night and day).

Relf has ended up in some predicaments of his own making, like the old Pheasant under glass trick.  You can read about him here.

Fiddle Faddle, who likes to be called Fiddle for short hasn't been published, but I here he's active and entertaining the three year old at his house as well.

And the fourth elf has the youngest kids to keep track of and I think his job is the easiest. He's laying low and taking advantage of the situation, but I do believe in years to come his job will be much more difficult keeping up with the girls in the Roberts family.

I've also been seeing what Mipsy has been up to this year on one of the blog I follow.  It's fun.  Some people like to go see Christmas lights, they love the crowded malls, traipsing out in the snow to sing carols, me I'll sit by my tree filled with only bird ornaments and white Christmas lights and go elf watching.  Where is the world is the most mischievous elf?