The 3 of us

Every now and then people will post a picture and say it doesn't do the subject justice. This is one of those times. I finished this page yesterday. It is a picture of Nicole, Andrea and myself which was taken on the cruise. I really like the picture. The colors are good and we all are looking happy and, yes, attractive.

I used October Afternoon Poppy paper and embellishments. I got this paper about a year ago in Denton when we made a field trip to Michael's. I had been afraid the paper would turn into one of those pretty things that never find a use. However, this paper suits this photo perfectly. The layout is really quite simple, the colors do all the work.

BoBunny Waterfall Book

This is the BoBunny waterfall mini album I will be teaching at Scrapbook Garden on March 20th. In the past I used to make these albums for display and demo using the exact themes in the instructions. I have found that very few of the people taking these classes do the same theme, so this time I completed it with a topic useful to me after the class. When I am done with the class I will give the book to Nicole. She has little time to scrap any more, so this will give her an album in addition to the photos on her computer. I also added some handmade paper flowers to the book that I will show the class how to make. BoBunny is neat in that they used both sides of the paper to make these albums. I like this a lot and I think everyone who takes the class will enjoy it too.

A whole lotta shakin.....

Nicole brought over this little piano for Andrea to play with last week. Andrea is really getting into banging on the keys. I showed her how to sit on the little stool and that was just the best thing she could have done. She was playing away, and was so into it that her foot had to go up and help her hands out. Shades of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Afternoon Drive

This afternoon was one of the nice winter days we have in Kansas when the sun shines and the temperature climbs up in to the 50's. It was time to get both the kids out in the fresh air for a while. Wyatt is always ready to drive his jeep, so we suggested that he take Andrea for a ride. Both of them piled into the jeep and off they went around and around the front yard. Andrea was just tickled as all get out to be riding in her brothers jeep. You could hear her laughing above the noise the jeep makes. Wyatt is quite the driver. He still gets distracted, but does not run in to things any more. We figure the jeep will be totally worn out by the time he is done with it and there won't be anything to hand down to his sister.

Grandchildren doing cute stuff

Here is a picture of Wyatt wearing a mask and snorkel we had brought up to take with us on the cruise, then didn't. The Picture of Andrea is of her sitting in the toy basket. This was the first time she had ever crawled into it.

Kaisercaft projects

I normally post class projects before the class, but I never did take pictures of this wood tabbed album and ribbon box I made for a class at Scrapbook Garden. I really loved both of these projects, they were something different from the classes I normally teach. The class was full and everyone said that they really liked them as well.

Easter Eggs

Today is Fat Tuesday. Lent starts tomorrow and we are turning towards the cross and Easter. One of my friends Amy is having a lot of fun making different Easter Eggs and she reminded me of these two eggs I have on my shelf in my scraproom.

Lenka Skorpilova, our exchange student from Slovakia gave us these eggs. They are blown out, tea dyed and wrapped in copper wire. I have only tried very simple wire work, so these are very impressive to me. Sometimes we forget that the simplest things have great beaut.

Caribbean Cruise 2010

The wait staff adored all the children. Here Suprawata is holding Andrea and Wyatt is dancing.

It was cooler than we would have liked this trip. The hot tub was actually the lukewarm tub, but the kids enjoyed it.

Suprawata made origami animals for the kids and other animals out of napkins.

Ercgen and Andrea at dinner. The servers all doted on the kids. They would carry Andrea around in their free moments at dinner.

Papa and Wyatt at Chankanaab on Cozumel. This was after Wyatt pitched a major fit about going in the water.

Wyatt and Andrea under the Palapa at Chankanaab.

The whole group at the entrance of Chankanaab park.

Wyatt and Ray in our cabin. Wyatt loved his bunk bed and sitting in the window.

Wyatt and Funship Freddy.

The two of us on the beach at Progresso.

Nicole, Nick and Andrea after dinner on board the ship.

Wyatt jumping into his sand fort at Progresso.

This year we went on a five day cruise with the Blombergs. This was the first time we cruised with kids and it was so much fun. We had Wyatt in our room with us and he loved having a bunk bed. After the second day, he looked up at me and said "This was the best day ever!" He didn't want to go home when we got back to Galveston, but then we didn't want to go either. We went to Progresso and spent the day at the beach. The beach was not that great, but the water was calm and Wyatt loved it. At Cozumel, the water was so much better, but Wyatt didn't like the lack of sand on the water's edge and wouldn't go in, but loved playing in the sand. We had a great time on the ship and are looking forward to going as a family again.

Wyatt and Papa at Progresso on the pier.

News, but not mine

Nicole was offered a new job with the Mental Health Association just before we left on the cruise. She is going to be a group home team leader. She had explained what it all entails, but I am not going try to explain all that. She will be working second shift, and four day weeks. What that means is that I won't be having Andrea full time anymore, but I will have both Andrea and Wyatt for three hours in the afternoon. I have to say I am sort of excited about having more time, but having both children is going to be fun too. All of this will happen the second week of March. I hope this job is what Nicole is looking forward too in moving her career forward.

Update on Andrew

Everything seems to be going according to plan with Andrew's leg. He went back to Columbus to see Dr. Flandry and the doctor was happy with the way the leg looked. There isn't anything definitive going on with the bone yet, but everyone seems to think that the bone will knit together this time.
The photo is of the rod and the screws that were taken out of Andrew's leg when they did the bone graft. He now has a plate and screws. He will not be able to go through the metal detectors though even with these taken out.