What a wonderful holiday season we had with the family.
Thanksgiving was celebrated in Pueblo with Ben, Brenda, Amelia and
Cavan. We cooked the turkey, ate too
much, exercised a little and had a great time with the grandchildren. What fun it is watching them grow and develop
into such delightful young children.
Christmas was a treat this year with the entire family gathering
between Colorado Springs and Pueblo. The
seven grandchildren are best of friends.
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| Quiet time on Nana's bed |
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| Watching a movie - ah the quiet! |
Logan and Owen are especially close, and even write letters every couple
of weeks. When they visit, the boys have
to spend at least one
night as a sleepover.
They play with Legos and lots of Plants vs. Zombies but have now changed to Mine Craft game, which I have not
participated in yet. Amelia and Laila are such buddies and take Molly and Wyatt under their wings. What
imaginations they have! Laila is into
fairies and Amelia likes the Beanie Boos.
Her collection includes 10 so far and counting. Wyatt and Cavan really are in training as
Barristas.
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| Cavan andWyatt are future Starbuck's Barristas |
Cavan got a play coffee maker
for Christmas and it made a huge hit with those two boys. Molly is such a character-she keeps the
energy at peak level at all times. She
plays with all of the kids and does not feel that she is any younger!
Becky and Devin spent 3 nights here, 3 nights at Ben and Brenda’s, and
3 nights in Leadville skiing at Cooper.
They really enjoyed the holiday and since Pajarito does not have snow,
the skiing was a big hit with the kids.
Lots of quality time was spent with siblings, nieces and nephews. Becky loves to shop while in Pueblo, believe
it or not. We always squeeze in one evening
to hit the stores. Neither one of us
like to shop unless we are together. We
don’t have a lot in Pueblo, but certainly more than Becky has available without making a whole
day of shopping. Nothing like some
female bonding! Devin is always so gracious
to take care of the kids – he always knows what the plan is!
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| Laila (5) |
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| Logan (7) |
Laila has grown so tall this last year and
blossomed into a lovely young girl.
She
has this cute little voice and a great sense of humor. She will play for hours in her elaborate
conversations with her fairies and other toys.
Gymnastics will be her next athletic endeavor. Her skiing has nearly surpassed her Mom,
dance is on hold for now, and she will most likely master gymnastics as
well. Logan has begun basketball and
recently in a game he made 4 baskets.
Devin got one on tape, and he threw up his arms in celebration, than
very humbly ducked his head to run back down the court.
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| Logan loves Cub Scouts, especially the fundraising |
What a cutie.
He is ever the questioner of all things!
Sometimes he stumps Shep and me with questions and ideas. Devin is great at the rapid response. Logan is such a protector of his sister,
except when they are doing the usual sibling thing. Both kids love school and seem to be doing
well. Devin and Becky stay busy with
biking, running and working.
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| Ugly Christmas Sweater |
Bree and Josh are really busy with the family and Josh’s new position
as Principal of Carson Middle School.
His hours have increased, of course, compared to an Assistant Principal,
but he is really enjoying being the boss.
He had an ugly Christmas sweater party at work and could not find a
sweater, so he called to see if I could find something. I bought a sweater at the thrift store, and
went through years of old Christmas ribbon and junk. I used fabric transfers, ribbon, ugly greenery
and gobs of stuff. It was
hilarious! He won first prize and gave
me the ugly Christmas sweater ornament he won. It was truly a sight to behold as you can see.
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| Molly (3) |
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| Wyatt (5) |
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| Owen (7) |
Bree has been incredibly busy with Owen in second grade, Wyatt in
pre-school and generally keeping up with Molly.
She has mastered Gluten-Free cooking to the max! Owen has to be totally Gluten-Free and it
seems to help Josh somewhat, too. The
rest of the family gets a break, but it makes meals and baking quite a
chore. Shep loves it, because he can eat
at their house without taking his own bread!
Celiac disease is no fun, and I wonder why anyone would choose to be
Gluten-Free. Owen is doing great in
school and the T1D has not been a problem, since he has mastered his Glucose
Monitor and the Pump. I
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| Soccer for Owen - what a runner! |
learned how to
use the pump and he has to step me through it and gets pretty frustrated at how
slow I am – oh, technology! He has such
a great sense of humor these days and is into board games, Legos, and playing
games on Shep’s phone! Wyatt is ever the
artist. The biggest plus about
pre-school this fall was the amount of art they would do. His birthday party this month is ART, of
course. He still has a great little
belly laugh and wrinkles his nose like Josh.
He looks so much like his dad at this age. When we ask his siblings who it is in a
picture of Josh, they always say Wyatt.
What a love he is! Molly, well,
what can I say…. She is a bundle of
energy, speaks way beyond her years and seldom keeps moving. She has the most incredible sense of humor
and pretty much entertains parents and kids alike.
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| Cavan(4) |
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| Amelia (6) |
Ben and Brenda are in constant motion with the kids, work, exercise and
house projects. Amelia is the budding
artist lately and my refrigerator is proof of her artistic talents. Her favorite animal is the Cheetah, so it
seems there are a lot of spots in her art!
She is in first grade (hard to believe) and really having fun leading
the playground girls in Cheetah games.
Guess what her Halloween costume was!
Cavan is interested in tools and putting things in bags for safe
keeping. When he leaves, I find all
kinds of things tucked away in bags in the toy box.
He is one of Shep’s biggest fans- it is so
cute how he always latches on to Papa when we visit. The children are huge fans of Nana and Papa
since we are the only grandparents that they see often. What a treat to be treated with such
enthusiasm when we see them. Ben finally
got a hot water heating system installed late fall, so it has been a blessing
with our first really cold spell. I am
sure it saves a bundle from the space heaters.
Ben helped us with some household projects while he was here for
Thanksgiving– it is the pits getting older and relying on the generosity of
children. Brenda has finished up her
last projects with the Bailey Hundo and will be off to something new in the
near future. She is busy with the two
kids in different schools and working as a volunteer in the classrooms. Ben’s business is always busy and he travels
several times a year to Chicago, California and Canada. The two parents stay in shape between biking
and running. When they visit we always
try to keep the kiddos while they get away for an evening.
My job is still just great! I am
so lucky to work 20 hours a week, and get to take time off when I want! The work has enough variety and challenge
that I seldom get bored. We have a huge
archive collection, so the archivists will be busy for years to come. The steel industry is fascinating! Ben and Brenda got to tour our buildings and
collections and were quite surprised at the extent of the business. Future endeavors will be renovation of a 1901
building and creation of media center and upgrades in the museum. If you go to the website, you can get an idea
of what Pueblo meant to the development of the west
www.steelworks.us. I am still the go to person for repairs,
supplies, ideas and advice-kind of like a Mom at work, I guess. The staff is incredible and I have no
complaints, except there is no running water in our building. We are ramping up for the big fundraiser of
the year on Feb. 15, so I am working 30-40 hours a week and it is killing
me. I get to gather and create items for baskets to sell at our silent auction. In
addition we have to plan the entire event from table decorations to take
down. I look forward to getting back to
a leisurely life. Shep and I may head to
Cancun in March for a rest in the sun!
Occasionally I still have lunch with my friends from CSU but their
schedules are much busier than mine. We
have such fun catching up on everyone's lives! I
haven’t seen much of the neighbors in the winter months. We have all been pretty much home bodies
except for a couple of glasses of wine on occasion.
Summer is always fun when people come outside and start making noise in
the yard.
My bedroom is finished and so much nicer and cheerier so I am on to
other tasks. I always need to have a
project in the back of my mind, or I am not happy. A house built in 1942 always has a project
waiting to be done. I am looking forward
to getting outside!!! I have watered the
lawn and flowers twice as we have had no snow this winter.
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| Recovering projects in the living room |
The only time we got much snow was when I
left one morning to travel to Colorado Springs to babysit. I left at 9:30 am and was home at 11:30 am
and had gone all of 40 miles. There were
slick roads and crazy drivers. I saw 15
cars off the road, a couple overturned, so I exited at mile marker 20 and came
home! It was not a fun trip.
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| The treat this summer was 3 Mississippi Kites across the street |
Shep and I enjoy Pueblo and the variety it offers. We went to a Christmas concert, a couple of
pot luck dinners and I enjoyed a floatilla on the Arkansas River for World
Peace (go figure).
There is a never
ending supply of entertainment. Shep has
found new interest in do-gooder organizations.
He is always volunteering for meetings, offices, grant writing and
singing. What a diverse life he leads.
I hope you are all well and happy.
I miss my GJ friends and hope to visit the Western Slope this summer.
