Coffee Table Gift

Over the past few weeks, Papa gathered old lumber on the ranch to build a coffee table for Colter and Carly as a Christmas gift.  The finishing touch was branding it with our ranch brand.  We were pleased with the table when finished and we hope Colter and Carly like it too!

Emerson on the Ranch

We celebrated Christmas week in Tucson with Whitney's family, Aunt Mary, Grammar, and Claire's family.  Claire, David, and Emerson came to the ranch for a few days after Christmas.  Emerson loved patting and feeding the horses, riding horses with Claire, playing on the tractor, raking, riding on Bob, and walking up and down the road.  There was a lot to explore!

 

Scenes from Christmas 2011

We've been fortunate to have Grammar, Aunt Mary, Whitney and her family, and Claire and her family with us in Tucson over the past week.  We've worked a puzzle, made a gingerbread house from scratch and gave it back to nature in our backyard, played with a remote control car, gone to the park, had wonderful meals together and with our friends next door, Brenda and Newton.  We've played, celebrated birthdays, made and lighted luminarias.  So many memories made!

Thankful

In the days before Christmas, we asked each member of our family to write on three separate slips of paper, things they are grateful for in 2011.  On December 26, after our Christmas dinner, we read each one.  They included:  health of my family, freedom, arrival of baby daughter, son continues to develop into a playful and beautiful little boy, my wife is a wonderful and loving mother, family video chats and talks, my job, family gatherings, making new vacation memories with family, 

means to comfortably support myself.

Things I'm grateful for are:  the little things that are special, such as spring flowers, snow on mountains, hugs, blowing kisses... and a great life, with the ability to travel and live well with Papa!  We will celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary on January 3.

Christmas Puzzle

My Mom, known as Grammer to our girls, arrived in Tucson on Monday evening.  She is staying with us until December 29.  We took her for lunch at our favorite Greek restaurant, OPA!, 

then she and I went shopping for crucial items, such as diapers and wipes.  We wrapped 

several gifts last evening, then we opened our 2011 Christmas puzzle.  Within an hour, 

we found most of the edge pieces.  This puzzle is looking much easier than last year's puzzle, 

which Audrey termed "a white cow in a snow storm." 

Preparing for Christmas

Papa and I are cleaning our house in Tucson, in anticipation of lots of family arriving this week.  Grammar flies in this evening, Aunt Mary comes on the 23rd, Whitney and family on the 24th, and Claire and family on the 25th.  Still much to do, grocery shopping, baking, last minute gift buying...

The memories of Christmases past and looking forward to the memories we'll make this year make me smile.  Memories...appetizers for dinner on Christmas Eve with fondue dessert, decorating our tree with sand dollars we found on Upper Captiva in 1987 and calico birds I made in 1979, Christmas morning brunch with Aunt Rhea's cinnamon rolls, luminarias lining the driveway and patio, the Christmas Party we hosted for friends in Dallas in 1987 with Great Papa dressed as Santa, Aunt Mary growing hoarse talking like "Big Bird", watching Ralphie in A Christmas Story, Christmas lights in Highland Park, Christmas in Paris in 1992, caroling in Cherokee Park, Christmas in Spain in 1993, Selby by Candlelight in Sarasota, Christmas in Patagonia, Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter's Cathedral in 2005, Christmas on Casey Key in 2006, Christmas morning brunch in Casablanca in 2007, Toby's first Christmas in 2009, Emerson's first Christmas in 2010, and so many more.  Yes, it's a wonderful life!

28 Years Ago, First Day Home From Hospital

Over the past couple of weeks, I thought many times of myself and the first day home from the hospital with a newborn or two.  Gosh, that was scary!  With Audrey, we were living in Tucson.  Her nursery was decorated in Noah's Ark theme, with lots of stuffed animals and a large wall hanging and quilt with Noah's Ark.  My mother came out a few days after she arrived and stayed with me for a week.  At seven days old, we took Audrey on her first outing.  By two weeks old, I started going on short walks with her.  We took her on her first real hike at two months old, on the trail to 

Finger Rock in the Santa Catalina Mountains in Tucson.

We brought Claire and Whitney home in Dallas, at eight days old.  They required full time heart and breathing monitors and we had to wait about two hours after we got home, for the monitor delivery.  My mother again came to help and she and I held both babies until the monitors arrived.  Audrey couldn't take her eyes off them.  At 17 months, her world had been turned upside down!  Within a month, we got battery packs for the monitors so I could take the girls on walks in our neighborhood in Dallas.  We got three strollers that could be connected as a triple stroller. 

First Moments Home with Claire and Whitney, Audrey checking them out.

Baby Greta!

I got this photo from Whitney today, of baby Greta in winter gear.  Our girls have always had fun with "hand me around" clothing.  They are now having fun with "hand me around" baby clothes!  Greta is wearing some of her latest "hand me arounds" from cousin Emerson.  So fun!

New Mother and Baby

Audrey and Baby Lauren

Cookbook

Several years ago I compiled a cookbook for my girls.  I included many of the girls favorite recipes as they were growing up.  As I grew up in the South and my mother and Aunt Rhea were wonderful cooks, I used many of their recipes over the years and they became favorite recipes of our family. As I'm helping Audrey after Lauren's birth, and helped Whitney and Claire after Toby, Greta, and Emerson were born, I often go back to my cookbook for recipes.  Over the years, I have changed the way I cook, using much less oil, butter and sugars.  I'm much more aware of making sure we get plenty of dietary fiber and calcium, as well as eating fewer empty calories, as in pastas, breads, cakes, and cookies.  I like to think Papa and I are healthier as a result. 

Little Feet

I love baby feet and hands.  They usually jerk a bit, are wrinkled and old looking in the first few weeks of life, and also beautiful in the way they are formed so differently for each individual.  

Lauren's feet

Faces of Newborn Lauren

Adorable!