Be kind to one another and watch out for the little guys...

When the boy twigs were just little tiny guys in toddler beds, 

we picked out this fabric to make bedspreads. 

My beautiful little blue-eyed mother 

and my sister Marti 

quilted them for us - so very nice of them! 

As often happens with little ones, 

the boys got attached to their blankets 

so a few years later when they got twin beds, 

they weren't excited to part with their favorite blankets.

We decided to make a shower curtain out of one blanket 

and move their Noah's Ark decor to the bathroom. 

It worked great for years 

and was often a conversation starter 

at bath time because of messages like these.

This past spring we decided it was time to bid a fond farewell 

to the Noah's Ark decor 

that served us well for so many years

and update the bathroom. 

The Mr. picked out the shower curtains - he loved the red! 

My dad loved red and would have agreed whole-heartedly.

I hope we'll always remember the ark rules of 

being kind to one another

and watching out for the little guys. 

<3

Snail mail...

Do you love snail mail? 

My beautiful blue-eyed mother 

used to send us snail mail. 

It could be anything she'd come across 

like a joke from the Readers Digest or an article about Veterans. 

She was so fun! 

When Zac was on his mission 

sharing the message of Jesus, in the Carolinas, 

I thought he might enjoy a little snail mail each week.

You know, a neat picture with an encouraging scripture or quote

on a postcard. 

Zac kept the postcards he especially liked 

and taped them to the wall in his mission apartments. 

He called it his "wall of inspiration". 

How fun is that! 

His "wall of inspiration" got pretty big.

I saved the postcards on the computer that I made for Zac

and have been sending one each week 

to our New Hampshire missionary, Hunter.

After receiving a few postcards, 

Hunter wrote back and asked if it wasn't too much trouble, 

could I please send a postcard to his companion each week too. 

I love that man's kind heart. 

Once a month I make all the postcards

 so they're ready to send out 

each week. 

Snail mail and missionaries...

my favorite!

Thanksgiving with Alex and a thorough beating...

The Thanksgiving break was too short for our University attending nephew 

to make the long trip home so he came and celebrated with us instead - win win.

The twigs worked hard to get homework done so we could play

and play we did!  :)

We played Carcassonne till the cows came home. 

This guy beat us over and over and over. 

How did he do that? 

He didn't know - beginners luck he said?

My beautiful little blue-eyed Mother loved to play games too. 

She was clever and quick and thought it was good 

for kids to lose - pretty wise of her.

Here

Alex played the Mr.'s game with him too. 

Did you know the Mr. invented a game?

It's called Black Box +.

It's a hexagonal version of an old favorite game called Black Box

 that he played with his buddy, Brad, in High School. 

The Mr. contacted the original game inventor, Eric Solomon, years ago and told him 

about this hexagonal version. 

Mr. Solomon said it had been tried dozens of times 

but he would take a look at the Mr.'s idea. 

Next thing we knew it was in production and royalty checks started coming in. 

How neat is that?

This guy played lots of fetch when he wasn't watching us play games. 

I'm thankful for family and friends and furry creatures.

Especially I'm grateful for my God. 

God bless you all.

:)

Let's play...

While driving her to school on Friday, our girlie was telling me her favorite quotes. One of them was from a ski movie we saw at Snowbird. George Bernard Shaw was quoted; "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

(That's a frog those boys have in their hands.)

I'm glad our girlie loves to play.   :)

My Mom and Dad were good at playing! Mom told me many times that kids should be played with. She said it taught them how to be good losers!!! Hahaha...
I thought that was so funny! I also thought that was a little mean! In hindsight, it's pretty wise.

I'm grateful that mixed in amongst life's hard times, there is time to play.

I'm also grateful there's time to sleep.    ;)

Duck hunting and cattail clouds...

To earn extra credit in Biology, our girlie was to photograph and identify ducks and geese in our area. That was the perfect excuse on our Christmas break, before the snow flew and the temperatures dropped below freezing, to go duck hunting. (It was a beautiful afternoon - no filters.)

 

We really had to hunt to find them! We didn't even know we'd seen northern shovelers till the pictures were on the computer and we could zoom in on these two. 

 The girlie caught these mallards in flight on a phone camera - nice timing girlie!

When I was little, my mom showed me how to explode cattails. It's a blast and the twigs love to do it as much as I do. My girlie and I were walking along this road, hunting for ducks, when the next thing we know Hunter had snagged some cattails and was having a heyday exploding them just upwind of us!

I was too busy screaming, laughing, and running from the clouds of cattail seeds to get a picture, but the remains of the cattail clouds were all over the road. Duck hunting with the twigs was my kind of "homework."