Signs of the TIMES~

All the snow has melted from the garden decor(not that we had

very much this year, but still)...and the stubble from

last years garden is left staring me in the face~

The leaves have all fallen from the trees and have been wind blown to

every corner of the yard~ waiting to be raked and bagged.........blahhhhh!

BUT~

there are signs of Spring...there is proof of it everywhere-

The Quaking Aspens have budded and will soon be sporting a new shade of green (green leafs that is!)

My Sumac tree's are ready to shoot new starts from the ground...leaving me with

tiny little trees to find a home for~

The Apple tree's are budding and will be getting blossoms before we know it!

The Pussy Willow tree is in full bloom (MY FAVORITE part of having a Pussy Willow Tree)

and the bee's will be coming~

The old brown grass is slowly being crowded out by new blades of green~

The lilacs are preparing for their big spring arrival~

AND the lily's have pushed their way to the top of the world, waving in the sunlight...ready for

another year.....

Yep...its SPRING AROUND HERE!

OH GLORY DAYS...SPRING is FINALLY HERE!

"The BLUSTERY Day"......

Gopher: If I was you, I'd think about skedaddlin' out of here.

Winnie the Pooh: Why?

Gopher: 'Cause it's "Winds-day."

If you've ever seen the cute little movie by Walt Disney, "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day"...you'll remember quite well how Pooh Bear's friend Gopher warns him that it's "Winds-Day," so Pooh goes off to wish his little friend Piglet a Happy Windsday, but Piglet is lifted into the air by the strong winds. Pooh grabs Piglet's sweater string and looks to be flying Piglet like a kite. If you live in Utah or have ever visited Utah, you will have experienced similar things, in fact, I am sure the the "Hundred Acre Woods" is right here in the Uintah Basin. The wind seems to blow frequently and comes from out of no where. A few weeks ago we experienced our own "WINDS-DAY" as we went out to take Kim and Mike's engagement pictures (Murphy's Law you know, if anything can go wrong, it usually does). The morning was warm and gorgeous (for a late February day) but by 2:00 pm the winds were roaring so hard and it was SOOOO bitter cold that we thought about just canceling and trying for another day, but then decided against it, embraced the moment and just "went for it".....

a little "wind and cold" never hurt anyone, right?!

We had a fun time driving from sight to sight, trying to snap a few good pictures...which we did,

but we got a few fun, crazy ones too!

Kim and Mike are so cute together and so much fun to be with...and I might also add,

they are both very photogenic!

Here are a few of my favorite shots that we captured...

with a few "creative touches" that I added with the help of "Picnik"~

Our "Blustery Day" turned out quite nice...if I do say so myself~

mmmm...mmmmm...GOOD!

Little Mister LOVES him some chocolate...in fact,

I'm pretty sure he loves it more than anything else...

I have a candy basket (yes, its usually full) that sits by the door, AND if you come and visit

you get to pick a treat from my stash! WELL, Little Mister KNOWS where the candy is

and HE KNOWS which kinds he likes and dislikes, so when he comes over

he automatically points to the candy basket and says, "uhh"...which when "uhh" is

interpreted, means- "Grandma, I want a 3 Musketeers bar".

Well, of course, I have to give it to him...piece by piece he carefully puts it in his mouth...

and piece by piece he gets messier and messier...but we love every minute of it!

Sometimes I'm not fast enough at opening his candy so he starts to smash it up with his fingers and his tiny little teeth, while its still in the wrapper~

But thats okay too...because after I open it up I get one of these...

a great big "Thank YOU Grandma" smile....

AND then even a bigger smile...

and THEN he laughs right out loud....

so you see, that is why I give Little Mister chocolate (YES, I feed his addiction)-

its worth the sticky hands and the dirty face

just to see his gorgeous smile and

hear his infectious little laugh!

Splish, Splash...taking a bath?

I have the privilege of playing with this little guy three days a week...and I couldn't be more happy about it! A few weeks ago while he was over for one of our play dates, Little Mr. was bored with all of grandma's toys...SOOOO trying to be "creative" and find something to keep his attention for awhile, I thought he might have a great time playing in a bowl of water and a few "unique" toys....HE HAD A BLAST!!!

He put the canning ring in and out of the water for about 15 minutes...

He would put it in, wiggle it around for a minute then pull it out and suck the water off of it....

Then he would......

Splash and splash and splash. AND giggle and giggle and giggle....

AND THEN....he figured out the "REAL" fun of having a "BIG bowl full of water"......

HE DUMPED IT OUT!........YES, the entire thing~

It was the cutest thing ever!!!

Confetti isn't just for New Years..........

Who would have thought that a

LITTLE PAPER could go so far.........

Cameron got a "FUN" surprise a few weeks ago when he came home to find his room FULL, YES FULL, of shredded paper! These three beautiful girls came and RETURNED the finely shredded white paper that Cam "so kindly" gave to one of them...(yes, she was getting even~) the week before.

He was a BIT surprised when he walked in his room to find that everything was covered, buried and full of pieces of paper!

He smiled and laughed.....for all of about 2 seconds AND THEN he got frustrated at the fact that NOW HE HAD TO CLEAN IT ALL UP!...yes, revenge is sweet for some, but often painful and "not worth the original act of FUN" when it comes back to bite you~

I think Cameron had to learn that the hard way!

Needless to say, it took a LONG time to clean up this mess...but CAM did it all by himself, while I stood and snapped pictures, reminding him that IF HE wouldn't have started the WAR he wouldn't be spending his night cleaning up...and I MIGHT have been laughing a little under my breath (maybe just a little tiny bit).

Cameron laughs about it now...but HE WASN'T LAUGHING that night. The more

he cleaned, the more frustrated he got. He cleaned up one spot only to find paper hiding

in some other spot. His shoes were full of paper, his golf bag was full, his pillow and sheets were covered in it, his window sill was filled, every nook and cranny had shredded paper hiding in it!

Finally after HOURS, that eventually turned into DAYS, of cleaning (because as soon as we thought his room was clean, we found more...if anything gets moved, there is YET another pile hiding) I think WE FINALLY are close to having ALL the paper cleaned up.

I think Cameron will think TWICE before playing a trick on someone...

I have a feeling he just might have learned his lesson.

This "paper" has put a new light on the old saying,

"What goes around, COMES AROUND...again AND again AND AGAIN"

Think twice before you do something that you might eventually regret~

A work in progress...and progress AND PROGRESS...

ALMOST one year ago our bathroom looked like this...

On June 2, 2011, I actually wrote a post as to WHY we

are remodeling our bathroom...in a nutshell:

"It was covered in mold and the walls were literally FALLING down around us."

(this is the shower after it was gutted)

Service Master came in and cleaned the bathroom out, tearing down walls, ripping out carpets, the shower and some of the ceiling...needless to say, we ARE down to ONLY one bathroom (which is an entirely different sort of stress and another post all in itself!)....

(I'm not sure why this part is underlined...but it is...so I will have to go with it because I can't figure out how to fix it!)

BUT the good news is, we are on our way to having a NEW LARGER

bathroom VERY soon...hopefully!

The shower is closed in and has tile on the floor.

The old vanity is gone, the old wall torn down and a new LONGER one built, as 1/2 of our bedroom is being added to the bathroom (the old bathroom was itty bitty) to make a much larger, more conducive bathroom space.

The new vanity is sitting in the bathroom, but isn't installed yet....

We have new walls and plumbing put in...and even tile on the floor. Its coming along and hopefully VERY soon it will be ONE beautiful large bathroom!!

I will be sure to post pictures when its finished.

From this...to that~

I've always dreamt of having a spare room. A place where company could sleep and have their own space...but with 6 kids there was never "a spare room OR a spare bed" to speak of. NOW with Kim getting married, there will finally be a spare room! I have been looking for a bed to put in there to replace the small twin sized one that Kim slept in for the past 20 years. I looked high and low (yes, I realize that you can PURCHASE such things, but that wasn't an option at this point)...when I was talking to one of my neighbors and she said they were getting rid of a KING SIZE bed and box spring mattress and wondered if I knew of anyone that needed/wanted one! "ME, ME...PICK ME"!!! I was ecstatic!!! She let me have it for free (which was an added bonus and treat for me!). It is in OUTSTANDING condition and I'm still wondering if she didn't just give me the NEW bed (seriously, it is in mint condition) and she kept the old one. I was a little worried that the bed might overpower the little room we had to put it in, but I think it turned out "just right"! After having Cam go pick up the mattress and box springs, I decided that the bedroom needed to be painted before putting it in...(painting the room was inevitable, so I figured I might as well do it before the bed went in)...that way I didn't have to take it out ONCE AGAIN when I got around to painting.So the next day, I dug through my supply of paint and found some leftovers from my living room project a year ago...(perfect...FREE EVERYTHING!) and got right to work. Twelve hours later I went from...

... "fun, teenage pink and green".....with polka dots (I might add)....

...to a warm and restful brown and tan. Don't get me wrong, I loved the green and pink with polkadots

when Kim was living here (it was a very happy, bright room, just like her personality)...but I also love that she is getting married. So with her new change, comes changes for us... and with that we get a NEW spare room.

I love how it turned out.

It's NOT exactly the way I want it yet. I would like to get a MORE classy comforter and

some prettier drapes...but that will have to wait for now. It's painted, it has a bed and

I couldn't be happier with the way it all turned out!