Sunday Dinner & Wrestling With the Kids

I love the Sundays when the whole family gets together.  We don't have a scripted family home evening, but lots of good discussion, good food and lazing around.

 Gordon remembered he hadn't given the grandsons their "birthday spankings".

 That launched an all out war.  Gordon loves to wrestle with the boys.

Even Miriam was getting in on the action, not to be left out by the guys.

Yep.  Sundays are the best.

Secret "Twin Baby Talk" Language

The word is out - Ben and Laura are expecting TWINS!  This such exciting news, our family can barely contain ourselves.  It has been torture for this Baca not to say anything for the past couple of months.  Here's what they have to look forward to - and so much more:

The Star of the Show

 First family picture of Rich & Jo & their four kids. 
What a sweet family.

 So far, Miriam loves her baby brother. 

 He definitely looks like a Bird baby, but can't wait to see what unfolds.
                                     

I think he's going to be "Grandpa's Boy".

Newest member of the Bird Family!

Born this morning, March 24th at 9:42 a.m.  7 lbs. 8 oz.  21 inches long, brown hair.

Simon Sterling Bird

Welcome!

I just can't help myself

Might as well call this the Bird grandkid blog with the amount of pictures I put on here, but how could I resist this?  The boys spontaneously grabbed their little sister to play choo-choo train around the kitchen.  Their mom and dad have done such a good job with these kids - they love each other so much.

They are having a new baby brother in the next few weeks and James & Suz are having a baby girl the end of May, so even more for the blog!

Next:  The other reason I went to I.F.  and it's good.

My baby turned 19!

Last week I went over to Eastern Idaho for a couple of reasons, one being that Jessica turned 19.  I read once that your children's birthdays make you feel older than your own.  It's true.  My oldest, Richard, turned 30 this year.

 Jessica and four of her five room mates.  They are great girls, all of them.  We celebrated at Red Robin for dinner.

 When I went to Rexburg Jessica and I ate lunch on campus, shopped at a little boutique and shopped in Idaho Falls. We had a great time together.
                          
I think she had a good time - What do you think?

Love for Sendai

Gordon's heart is heavy today with news that Sendai, Japan suffered an 8.9 quake.  He served there on his mission and loves the people and places there.  All Japanese missions are reporting missionaries safe; however, all communications are down in Sendai and a count of the missionaries is not possible there right now.  Our hearts and prayers to everyone involved.

Just Dance 2

One of the many great things about having grandchildren is the fact that you have new little buddies to play all the fun new games with.  The boys love to play "Just Dance 2" on the Wii. 

 Miriam was happy to join in and I think there is a strong possibility she will be a great dancer.  I love joining in and it really is a great workout.  I feel a little less silly doing it with them than by myself.....
                          
Couldn't resist this picture of Eli playing MarioKart.  Isn't he the cutest?

Fighting the Inevitability

It happened today.  When I walked into my house it smelled like a Grandma's house.  Don't get me wrong, I love being a grandma, but my house and my body sure better not start smelling that way.

In my defense, I have been pretty much working full time these past couple of weeks.  Not that I'm complaining here...Real Estate has been too slow for too long and it's really exciting to be this busy again. 

But back to the house; as I think about what causes this smell, there are several things that it could be.  I haven't cleaned much in the last two weeks.  We don't generate much of a mess and its pretty easy to keep up with dishes, etc;  But I'm talking about mopping the floors so they smell like Pine Sol and dusting with Orange Oil and cleaning like that.  I also have garbage in the garbage can for longer because we don't generate that much.  AND - it is nearing the end of a long, stuffy winter. A cool breeze would work wonders. (Sounds like justification for the smell......but NOT).

I show lots of homes in the course of a day and they all smell different.  I am able to pick out the Grandma smell pretty quickly.  But its not as bad as the not cleaning toilets and smells like a wet diaper smell and some others. 

But for now, a healthy spray of Febreeze "cinnamon bun" on the main level and emptying the garbage will have to do.  Until I can get the deep cleaning done.  My hat is off to the women who work full time every day and still manage to keep up with things.

I won't blog about the Grandma body smell today; but soon, because it's a subject all its own but I can't wait.

No Words

These pictures really don't need any words.

Problems with the blog

I want to post these darling pictures of Miss Miriam but my link won't let me retrieve pictires from my files.  Anybody know why?  The picasa option is still available, but won't connect to my files.

Thoughts on Birthdays

The older you get, the less enjoyable birthdays are.  At least that's been my experience and it seems to be the opinion of most people I know. 

On Richard's 30th birthday last week, we had our family dinner and I decorated with a little bit of black.  Not totally black because you have to save some for turning 40 and 50 and so on.  After we sat down and began eating, he said the black confused him and that he thought I was always so positive about birthdays; "Don't interpret the black as negative," I said. "It's meant to invoke humor".  Humor is one of the best ways to get through any of life's experiences, I believe.

I've always been one to see the bright side of things, like 40 is the new 30 and then 50 is the new 40.  I didn't feel quite so humerous a year ago when I turned the dreaded 50, though.

Never having been one to dread big birthdays, I woke and found this one to be different. 

All day long I thought , "This is just so wierd, everyone asking how it feels to be 1/2 a century old.  I'll be so glad when tomorrow comes."

 

And now a year later, I'm happy to say that turning 51 was a joy - for many reasons.  One, because it wasn't # 50, two because it marks 38 years that I get to live for my mother and myself, and three because my family made it such a special day. 

 

It was on Sunday, and Ben offered to fix dinner.  When we drove up to his house, I could see that all the kids (sans the college coeds) were there.  He and Laura put on this beautiful spread and we had a wonderful time.

One of the great things about living 1/2 a century plus one year is that the blessings get more and more bounteous.

I liked my 51st birthday.

Birthday Week

 Laura made a Boise State cake.   She does the neatest cakes for family birthdays.

 Because Gordon is 53 and Rich is 30, we put 5 candles for Gordon to blow out and then 3 candles for Rich to blow out.  I was laughing so hard I blew out most of Gordon's

 The boys really liked Gordon's old man cane that he got out to celebrate Rich's 3-0.  It has a rearview mirror and a horn.

Cam loved playing the "old man".

We really haven't celebrated mine yet; Ben is fixing me dinner this Sunday and it should be a great day.

Lots of Christmas Pictures!

                      Family Dinner on Christmas Eve

       I love this picture of Cam & Eli playing Christmas Bingo; they are so obviously in different moods.

           Little Miss Miriam wearing her animal print gloves & hat on Christmas Eve.

 It's fun to still have two "kids" home for the holidays. 
Although they fancy themselves adults, and rightly so.

        Cam gave me the honor of having my picture taken (by him) holding his prized Boise State football.

                  Eli opening a card & some cash from Great Grandma & Grandpa.

                 The boys opening their family gift; cache cookers. (Ben already had one, so we got
                 him a dutch oven table and griddle to go with his cooker).

                 Christmas is wonderful and it is so great to spend time with family. 
                 Its almost enough to get one through the Januarys and Februarys coming up:)

Brother to Brother

My oldest son gave quite a surprise to my youngest son on Chritmas morning. Wrapped in boxes from huge to smaller than ring size was a plane ticket to Georgia for the BSU/Georgia game.  Rich got them both from accumulated airline miles. 

 To say the least, Scott was thrilled!  James will be joining them too. 

Brotherly love....ya gotta love it.

Bird Christmas Party

Jess, Gordon, Scott and I made an impromptu visit to Idaho Falls on Monday for the Bird Family Christmas Party.  What a great time it was.  Grandma Bird had all 5 of her children there and it was Grandpa Bird's 81st birthday.  They are both awesome. 

Grandpa played guitar (and Scott, a little) and we sang Christmas songs.  Then he had Bishop Gordon give a message.  It was a highlight of this Christmas.

And then we came home - 24 hours later.  Two shopping days until Christmas Eve.  Wow.  Christmas is close.

But it was worth it.

Pictures to follow; for some reason it won't let me load them right now.

Bad Shoe Day?

I had a great belly laugh this morning; for that matter, the whole Dr.'s office had a belly laugh.

I had a yearly checkup today.  I wasn't in a hurry.  I wore my brown pants with a really nice brown/black/green top. 

I got to the Dr.'s office and after the nurse called me back, the first thing she did was have me get on the scales.  Of course, you take your shoes off because that can add two extra pounds.

She finished weighing me and I turned to put my shoes back on.

This is what I had worn:

They are both brown even though the one on the left looks black in the photo.  I tried both pair on when I got dressed and decided on the ones on the right. 

These wacky things seem to happen to me.  Why?  I don't know. 

But it's sure good for a laugh.

Second time around

 The Christmas village I put up every year is especially vulnerable this year......thanks to:

 This little sweetie!  She is a goer and a doer this one.  But I have to say that she is obedient too.

 We reached a compromise with her and her brothers; everything that doesn't have a light under it can be played with, including the nativity set. 

My own kids will groan at how flexible I've become with the grandchildren.  But I look at being a grandma as trying to do all of the things you should have done the first time around.

Gingerbread houses - eat them or view them?

Sunday night the family that is in town got together to do Gingerbread Houses for Christmas.  Everyone loves to make them, regardless of age. 

But the question is this:  do you eat yours or have it for a decoration?

I'm pretty sure ours make it one day, if that.

A lot depends on the freshness of the gingerbread and what kinds of candy (at least for me personally).

Both?  No way because by the time you view it as a decoration for a couple of weeks, it can't be fit for consumption.  But hey - thats just me.

Thanksgiving 2010

 Gordon got into the spirit early, donning his Pampered Chef apron and favorite ski hat.

 Notice the trees out the kitchen window.  What a beautiful sight.

 Ben getting some carving tips

 The day before Thanksgiving, I was getting three pies out of the oven; two pecan and a cherry.  The pecan pies needed another 5 minutes, so I pulled the rack out as far as I could and lifted the cherry pie. 
As I was setting it on the counter I heard a bang.  Turning around, I saw that both pecan pies had slid off the rack backwards when I lifted the cherry.  Luckily and to my amazement, they landed upright and only slightly jumbled, spilling just a little filling into the bottom of the oven.  I was very THANKFUL.
I love making pies, but find that I only make them at Thanksgiving.  I should make them more often.

 Laura doing our place settings for the table.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Birdhouse!