Happy Halloween

Today is Maddy's one week birthday! Happy Birthday Maddy, we are all celebrating your life today with gratitude and prayer. Your little life has had a rough start. Grandma can't wait for her chance to touch and hold you. Bless you and your parents today and every day.

What do you want to be for Halloween? I'm thinking Grandma and Grandpa's littlest and newest Princess is perfect as you won't have to change a thing!!! No surprise that Jaiden will be Cinderella again this year. Can you guess what Ethan will be? Pictures soon! Grandma and Grandpa will join Aime and the kids at the Tacoma Mall for some trick or treating after they visit Auntie at the hospital.

Here is Jaiden at Thursday nights swimming class. She is doing so well! More relaxed in the water with each lesson and she walked across the pool on her own this time, WOW!

It is with much gratitude I thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support.

Auntie and Mommy with Maddy

Every 12 hours they remove the cold cap to massage her scalp and check skin integrity. During these few moments some of the equipment is moved for a better view and the ability to kiss her soft head. She is just precious and know you agree!

Drum Roll Please...........

We have a baby girl! YAY! Madeline Renee has arrived!

I suppose you notice she is a rather busy newborn with lots of extra equipment, right? Right. A beautiful sight none the less!!! She has the newest and latest in fashion hats, the "cold cap", which is keeping her brain chilled. The plan is to remove it Tuesday morning and move forward with neurological testing. She remains on the ventilator for oxygen support but doing most of the hard work herself. Her heart is handling things quite well, she must have her mother's. She pees and poops, both terrific things to see and I GOT TO CHANGE HER DIAPER LAST NIGHT! She moves her arms and legs and in fact extubated herself at one point early on in this game of life roulette. Yesterday she opened her eyes several times for us and it made our hearts sing. Her parents, her aunt and Gene and I are able to sit with her in the neonatal intensive care unit and touch her, talk to her and sing to her. The staff is awesome!

A few vital statistics?

Madeline Renee

Born: October 24 at 2:37AM

She was 20 3/4 " long

Weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds 10 ounces

More pictures and updates on my Facebook page as well as links to the proud parents updates. We want to thank each and everyone of our friends and family members who have added Maddy to their prayer chains as well as supporting us all through this traumatic and difficult time. Jennifer is recovering well from the C-section required and already up and walking. She was blessed to be given the clearance to transfer to the hospital where Madeline was taken so they ae now just one floor apart :-) Dad made it through in one piece and they are going to make awesome parents and meet whatever challenges come their way. Continue your prayers and when I can update here I will. Things are kinda busy in our neck of the woods!

Will she ever arrive?

When is that new grandbaby going to arrive you ask? Well she is officially 5 days late now! What's with that?! Doesn't she know her grandma and auntie were on time with all their children? Humpft. Little Madeline is showing her stubborness, ha! I have done some sewing and knitting for her and thought I'd share a few more of them.

There were a few more burp cloths and the Aran Afghan is still in progress, ho hum. There might even be a surprise or two yet to come................... shhhhh.

Jaiden and Ethan are growing and changing so fast we can hardly keep up! I downloaded a coloring program onto my iTouch for Jaiden and without any instruction she began working it! I was amazed. Ethan has the brightest smile that lights up his whole face and his vocabulary is growing. His bestest word is GRANDMA of course. He is on the move, all boy and definitely going to be all the girls heart throb when he's older.


I just love Fall and it has certainly arrived to our neck of the woods. You wouldn't know it today though with the mild temperature we are enjoying. But with the onset of a new season I had to make a new tote with a yummy Moda charm pack. It's more the size of a purse than a tote though. Then I also completed a small purse our of a floral I fell in love with! The little purse has 2 zippered pockets as well as 3 others!



Bored with show and tell? Okay I'll give you a break, LOL! Last night I made a little Happy Jack wall hanging (12") from Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting Sept/Oct 2009 issue. It's so adorable. When I find "eyes" for him I'll share a picture.


Cross your fingers that Maddy comes soon. We don't want her mom to need inducing :-(


Hugs to all..................

Old news? New news!

Yep, there's a granddaughter coming in the next month. Her name will be Madeline, Maddy for short. Her mommy is holding a darling outfit at the baby shower. The booties and hat are what I knit for her and we are all counting the days to meet her. They are setting on an applique quilt.......... will share it when the binding is sewn down.

This has been the busiest of Springs and Summer. Our cruise followed by a trip to Idaho. Then to California for a week with a family emergency. These things followed by a vacation at the beach and another quilt retreat the end of August. WHEW! I've been a busy girl.

While I was at the last quilt retreat my wonderful hubby installed new flooring in my sewing room. I'm trying to slowly put things back in a more organized fashion, toss what I just don't need or use and get things better condensed in there. It's a huge job, LOL! I take a break now and then to actually sew a little here and there though. Can't peek yet! I'll share later.

Next on the big change around here I'll be rearranging the guest room and cleaning out that closet. We're very excited that my sister will be coming to visit for a few weeks in November and through the holidays. I want to be sure her room is ready with places for all her treasures. Her sewing equipment, etc. will have its own place in my sewing room! I told you I was working hard, LOL. I think I've even managed to empty a few drawers in my roll arounds for her to use. No small feat let me tell ya, hahaha.

Meet YAHTZEE! This is my sister's new 5 year old rescue Corgi she'll be bringing with her. Isn't she cute?!

I have a wonderful quilting friend who is quilting some of the quilts that have been just sitting in the closet waiting to be complete. As I get bindings on them I will get pictures up. Meanwhile I'll continue to sew on this n that :-)

I hope all is well with each of you and that I can get back to the blog before another month passes me by.

We're at the beach!

Friday Jennifer and I brought the RV to the beach for a week + of quilting/sewing. We set up the screen room as our studio and put the foot to the pedal, LOL. Wednesday night Aime and the kids came down so we've switched gears to fun in the sun here at the beach. Last night when I commented to my granddaughter how happy I was she'd joined us at the beach, she told me we weren't at the beach, we were in the parking lot, ROFLOL! Yep, the RV park just looks like a parking lot to her, ggggggg. There's grass and trees everywhere but lots of RV's, ha. Today we managed to hit a great 40% off sale at the local quilt shop. Guess the business is for sale, wish I could own a quilt shop, ho hum. Hit a few local touristy type shops and stopped for our annual ice cream cone with the kids, this was Ethan's first one. 2 years ago it was here that Jaiden had her first one too! Jennifer and I each got a quilt top finished, she's working on binding of another quilt, I basted a table runner ready to quilt and made a hat for Ethan. Jennifer has also been working on a really cute Christmas project and made good progress. I'll post some pictures when I get home. I'm sure grateful to be at the beach rather than home where the temperatures have been in the 90-100's and that's just toooooooo hot for me!

Home again

July 8th I received a call from my sister while at work that my BIL was in the hospital and not expected to live. They live in California so I left work and flew out that evening. He has been ill for a long time and my sis has been his full time caregiver. He passed away on the 10th and we buried him on the 15th. Gene flew down on the 14th for the service and we both flew back together Thursday evening so I could return to work yesterday. A whirlwind of emotions, time spent with extended family I hadn't seen in many years, an opportunity to be present and hopefully supportive for my sis and the kids (who are all grown adults of course, just kids to me, ha). The service was lovely and the words spoken heartfelt. It was terribly hard to leave my sister with so much left to do, but my nephew is staying another week or two so she'll have some needed company and help getting things done. Then we're hoping she'll come up to spend some time with us when she's ready to get away.

Being there meant I was able to meet my Great Nephew Harmon!!! He is 8 months old and just adorable!! I managed to bonk his lip on a table, hit his head on his car seat and poke his leg with my thumb nail. I think I was forgiven in the end but I wasn't making too big a hit, LOL! Just have to share a picture of the cutie pie!

The puppies stayed with Aime once again and no doubt were spoiled rotten, ha! What a wonderful daughter to keep them for us when we needed the help.

Jennifer is 6 months pregnant and getting the nursery decorated. Grandma is starting to feel the pressure to finish knit items and quilts, LOL.

Eventually I will try to catch you up with pictures of this n that :-) Meanwhile I am off to catch up on YOUR blogs!!