Happy Birthday Gramfield

My mom's mom would have been 100 on Feb 9th. My mom, sister, and I went to celebrate by going antiquing, and lunch. This is what my birthday "gift" was from my mom, an antique scale. Hill got a beaded purse and bird necklace....
My mom also found some really cool paper flowers that she bought.... As it so happened, on Sat morn when I went to my home page there was a video tutorial for them! What a coincidence....or not!

I made these this morning for my kid's teachers for Valentine's day.

PS - I also learned that Gramfield used to make ginger bread men cookies and to hang them she would tie the ribbon around their neck! Funnest laugh of the day was over that one!

AND DONE!

Before:

Using her new chalkboard wall!

I got bored with Red

I loved the red for years..... but that's just it, it had been years and I got bored. I got inspired from some bloggers who had done whole walls of black chalkboard paint. And after weeks of thinking about it just took the plunge. It's just paint right?

Before (last Christmas):

Taped:

Gotta say, I LOVE this black!!

Kids covering the whole wall with chalk. This is recommended before using the wall to write on.

A gold frame for the kids creations:

Now on to a new Gold Chandelier!!!! Pictures to follow!

PDX to LGB

Tickets purchased!!!

Looking forward to Sun, Sand and Laughter with my peeps:

With ALL these little raggamuffins too! 13 Kids under 10 years....

Pics from my Dad's and Hill's 11-11-11 birthday!

2012

My sister Hill offered to watch our kids for New Years Eve. Bri and I headed down to our favorite place in Oceanside to celebrate and reflect on our last year.

A look back on 2011:

Went to Huntington Beach, CA with Mom and Dad, Kiran's family and Leland's family
Went to Disneyland with kids (didn't even post about it!!)
Grace broke her arm before our CA trip
Avery's frog died. We had her for less than a week..
New brakes on our Mountaineer
Had a wonderful garden this summer
Avery was baptized by Brian in Oct
We went to Oceanside for a week in the Summer. Grandparents stayed with us for a day and
good friends the McIntyres came down for two nights too.
Brian coached Jake's Soccer team. Great season with only one loss, by one point
Brian coached Jake's Basketball team also
We went on a lot of Mustang rides
Brian read two of Harry Potter Books to the kids
Went to Oceanside with Hillary, Kiran and 9 kid cousins
Went to Tillamook Forestry Center a couple of times and hiked the trail
Grace and Dad went on a Valentines date
Avery and Dad went on their Christmas Date the Nutcracker and then to PF Changs, where
Avery loved the lettuce wraps!
Went trick or treating with friends, made homemade rootbeer with dry ice again
Jake had a birthday party with his new bbgun.
Avery's birthday party was supposed to see Miranda Crossgrove perform....but her tour bus got
in a wreck...so we went and got pedi's with her friends instead
Jake and Brian went to Oceanside to have a star wars watching weekend
Brian and Holly ran in the law enforcement torch relay for the Special Olympics
Holly ran her 3rd girlfriends half marathon in oct
11-11-11 Whole Anderson family together for Dad's birthday and Hills birthday. 12 adults 13
grandkids.
Went to Neskowin for the day with Leslie and all the kids
Brian had training for work in Colorado in June and December
The girls started their first swim lessons
Went boating with Nathan, Nicole, Steff and Sean
Jake and Brian went camping with Gaunt Uncles and cousins in Ollallie Lake. Jake got a pretty
bad puncture wound on his leg....
Attended the BPD Christmas party with the Shumways.

Apparently

I have always had a thing for blond hair, red handbags, big sunglasses, and accessories.

My favorite thing about this picture (circa 1978ish) though is that it reminds me of my Grams' house. This was taken on her front porch and she had this exact pictured framed in her house in a wooden frame with heart cut outs. I can still hear the clock ticking in her front room. It's amazing how you can miss someone so much that your heart hurts sometimes.

Befores and Afters

Avery has been wearing glasses for almost 7 years! She's one of the most responsible kids I know. She started asking about getting contacts last year. Her original ped ophthalmology totally nix it, "absolutely not, she's not old enough". I wanted to just try, and the answer was still NO.

Before:

A couple months later Brian saw an eye doctor here in town and told him about Avery and her wanting to try contacts. He said absolutely! We went in for an apt and guess what, she got fitted for her first pair of contacts.

After: (with her Ophthalmologist)

The first time she put them in she said, "Mom, this is AMAZING! I can see out of the corner of my eye now. " Before with her glasses, she had little peripheral vision. When she said this it almost brought tears to my eyes.

She can totally put them in and take them out by herself! It's a game changer people! No more glasses getting shoved into her nose when she wrestles around with her siblings. No more glasses falling off her face when she goes down the slide and steps on them when she lands..... the list goes on and on. I'm just really excited for her and grateful for her Dr giving her this opportunity.