New Year's surprise!

New Year's Day the kids came running in to my room to tell me it had snowed overnight.  Not so strange, right?  Wrong, because we live in Arizona in an area where it snows only every couple of years and no more than 0.25" when it does.

We had about an inch and it stayed until early afternoon.  The children loved it!

LJ's very good day

If running errands with Grandma Kate is a good day, LJ had a good day.  We started off the day at library story time.

We stopped at the bank to get a copy of a money order the State of New Mexico Vital Statistics says it never got.  Found out it had been stolen and cashed at a "speedy loan" kind of place.  Guess that's why I never got the birth certificates I ordered.  LJ was remarkably good-natured during the long wait.  Like those blue lips from the bank's free DumDum?

Next we went to the county sheriff's office and found out we needed to go to the city police station instead.  That shows about how much police contact I typically have, i.e. NONE.

We finally got to the right police station and waited outside after pushing the button, then calling through the little round microphone thing that amplifies the voices through the glass.  I guess it was turned on inside after all.  Happily, there were lots of toys in the waiting room.

Our last stop before home was a stop at Costco where I managed to keep it from becoming not the "dollar store," but the "hundred dollar store" for once.

Finally, lunch and a nap.  What a morning!

Good bye, sweet grandsons :-(

When I got up yesterday I didn't know it was my last day with Holly and the boys. Her dh and mother-in-law came to get them in the evening. It's a long drive and I appreciated their taking it on.

Little LJ has spent more than half his life at our house. He was 3.5 weeks when he came and a few days past 2 months when he left.

Zachie got a buzz cut when he arrived (from Holly), so I asked her if I could give him another one before he left. He looked so cute with his little blond head and short short short hair.

The picture above is the best of four I took of the boys with their great-grandmother (my mother).  Lots of action on the baby's part and a slow camera response on mine.  I'm glad to have the picture though.

We miss the three of them already.  We hope they come back soon.

About the same age as his mommy

LJ is just about the same age Holly was when I got a call one morning from the social worker telling me he had a girl with red hair waiting for me.  She was about 5 1/2 weeks old--LJ is almost 7.  So many similarities in their appearance.  The same hair color (although Holly had more), same eyes, same eyebrows, same stork bite under his hair in the back.  What a gift beyond price she was (and is) to me.

Have you tried to photograph a newborn recently?

Oh well. [That's my freckled arm there.]

More of my Sweeties!

This picture . . .

. . . reminds me of this picture taken about 3 years ago.