Brandi with her Darling Girls

Becoming a Grandma for the Very First Time

Thirteen years ago on October 16, 1996, I became a grandma for the very first time. I knew I'd love any new baby born into our family, but I wasn't prepared for all of the joy this little girl would bring into my life. Our Father in Heaven sometimes answers our prayers in ways we wouldn't have thought we wanted but His blessings are limitless. When I became a grandma at 42 I thought I still wanted one or two more babies in our family, with me being the mommy. I didn't know that those prayers would be answered in the form of grand babies, but what a wonderful blessing they have all become, starting with Ema Jean.

I know I'm biased, but I had never seen a more beautiful baby in my life, she was and has continued to be an angel, and a gift from Heaven!
From the very first time I heard her heart beating at a Doctor's appointment that Brandi let me go with her too, I have loved this little one in a way that is impossible to express. Ema became the whole family's little girl. It was so nice of Brandi to share her with all of us.

She loved and embraced our family too. Here she is welcoming another one of her Heavenly friends, Kylie into our family.

She and Dane, too of course, became my littlest friends as I was blessed with the opportunity to assist with their daily care. We enjoyed many fun time especially our trips to Disneyland. Brandi needed my help but the responsibilities of daily care for these little ones helped me more at a time that I needed to be needed more than anything else.

Daily routines were the best.
At the mall

and at the park.
I love being a grandma, and now have a total of 10 sweet grand children, with one more on the way. I love them all so very much. I knew that I'd love being a grandma, but never dared believe that it could ever come close to the love that I felt for my own children. Now I understand and know that the love for our grandchildren is the love we feel for our own children multiplied at least 100 fold if not more!

Time off for Disneyland

For the last several weeks Gene has had to drive to Duarte for work everyday. It has been gruelingly long hours and a lot more physical than his usual routine. So as this responsibility came to an end and his work will be returning to normal, he took a day off, which he rarely does, and we went to Disneyland. My two brothers and two of my sisters brought their families down from Utah during Utah's annul UEA school break. It always coinsides with the hunting seasons, so it seems that everyone who doesn't hunt comes to So. Cal. for a few days at Disneyland. All of the "Mormon families" are so obvious, to me. Any way, what ever the reason it was a great excuse to go to Disneyland with my best friend, who is usually working to hard so that I can play, with my usual little friends, our grand babies and their mommies. It was fun to go on the big kid rides with my family who I don't get to see often enough.

This is just a funny self portrait of us as we're in line for Pirates

These are some of my cute nieces and one nephew. They are great kids, Beka, is Steve and Denise's daughter, and Angie and Brig are Krista and Louis's two oldest kids. I think we were all in line for Indiana Jones here.

More fun with my people

I didn't take enough pictures, but I'll share some of the ones I did take.

Krista and Rachel, her 5th child. Krista is such a cute mommy with 6 beautiful children and one great husband, so dang lucky/blessed! She's been such a wonderful blessing to the whole Haws family!

More of the gang in line for Indiana Jones. The Utahan's from the Haws/Pixton/Pope families had matching t-shirts. Kyle, Jim, Joseph, Louis, Connie and Dave, I think Denise is in the back too.

Cute Megan, Krista's #4 child, and Jacob Pixton, getting ready to go,

man Jacob was one CRAZY driver!!! We filled up two whole cars.

Here's my baby brother Jim and his recently returned missionary, Kyle. He served in Peru and is now trying really hard to get on with the next stage of life. School!!! It was so good to see him!

The Stockards are Moving

I decided to blog about this because it is what I am doing right now and what is occupying my attention. They are just way to busy and Jenny is going in so many directions she doesn't have time to sit and blog,

it isn't what she is concentrating on right now.

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I have a problem with change. Even as a very little girl, I hated the thought of moving, having new routines and making new friends. It was always very traumatic for me. Now as a mother my stress is magnified and knowing that they are grown adults doesn't help me much.

I guess I need to learn to let go and trust in their decisions and choices.

How can I worry when I see the place they are moving too? It's a beautiful home in Fountain Valley, and is only about 7 miles away. I won't be able to just walk over any more on my morning walks or pick the kids up at Eastwood with her, but hey don't they say that "change is good?" They're moving into a wonderful neighborhood, and their new ward, FV3 has at least 90 kids in their primary.

This is the entry way with the formal living room on the left side, and the formal dining room beyond that. They have a three car garage to the right. It has a lot of windows with a lot of natural sunlight.

When you walk straight in from the front door you go into the kitchen

and family room. See all of the sunlight coming in?

This is their georgous back yard, with a newly fenced pool, isn't it beautiful?

And here's the kitchen. She's going to have to get used to a little less space and less storage. The kitchen they are leaving was so big! But see, isn't this a beautiful house. They have four bedrooms up stairs and that's a change from only three. They even have 3 working fireplaces and even three bathrooms.

The Utah Wilsons

We miss Greg and Jess so much but stay up-dated with Jessica's cute blog. It sure seems like they have a sweet life in Utah, but that doesn't help the longing for their presence here with us. Today, B.Y.U. game day, they were brave enough to venture past "the point of the mountain" going north in true blue cougar attire. Man they must be crazy!
I helped myself to these pictures from their blog to share on mine too.

Aren't they a handsome bunch?

Number 62

Football is difficult for me to take pictures of, I haven't mastered my new camera yet and I only take my point and click one, so I stole this one from
Kevin and Brandi's blog.
Dane is growing up so nicely. Kevin and Brandi are raising fantastic kids.
He's smart, studious, polite, kind and tenderhearted.
Oh and least we forget, a terrific football player!

Another Soccer Saturday

We are so fortunate that two of our soccer players are on the same team. Ella and Payton are on the same team this year, and they are so cute to watch.

Payton has been watching soccer and going to soccer practices for as long as she has been walking, therefore she has somewhat the advantage, and she's 5. She knows what to do with the ball and when to do it. Ella on the other hand, who's only 4, just has to go on the natural born athletic characteristics that she got from her parents. Soccer for her this year is a whole new game, not much like the football practices she's spent her life watching. They are both so cute and even work together now and then. Ella is probably the smallest on the team, but in her mind she's as big as everyone else on the field.

Here are my Calif. babies. I love it when they fight over sitting on my lap. Wade and Abby are only 10 days apart in age, and I think friends from before this earth life. They are always so happy to see each other. (Check out the new hair cut)

Weston and this week's addition, his cast. Not much gets this boy down. He's as tough as they come. He broke his arm, both bones, at lunch recess, and wasn't given anything for pain until after 9 p.m. Everyone from the school nurse, to the ER techs and aids were truly amazed. He was a little teary when I picked him up at school and was sweating from being is shock, but no hysterics or even crying.
He faced surgery the following morning very bravely while requesting a
Priesthood blessing from his dad and his grandpa.

Cute Kylie is a terrific soccer player. She always says that she doesn't want to play each year but she is really good and enjoys it during the season.
The games usually over lap and are always at different fields.
Here she's waiting to go to her game at her park.

In a way, Weston did us all a favor by not being able to play for the rest of the season, because of his cast.

Next week I'll get pictures of Kylie at her game and of Dane at his football game.
Stay tuned.

Wade's Robot Leg

The other night when Wade and Wes were jumping on their trampoline in the back yard, Wade got hurt. It was unclear how it happened, everyone had their version of the story, but when the crying was over he wouldn't walk, he would only crawl around. He really didn't cry that much but did wake up after going to sleep and it was obvious that he was uncomfortable. Instead of taking him to the ER, they gave him some Ibuprofen and he went back to sleep. In the morning though, he still wouldn't walk, so they took him in for an x-ray. It was very hard to diagnose so they went to a orthopedist and togehter he and Steve decided to err on the side of caution and put him in a removable cast for a few weeks to stabalize it. So now they have him in a walking shoe. It's really tiny as you would expect since he's only 2 but who knew they made them so small. Even his podiatrist dad, had never seen one so small.

I get to spend some more one on one time with him today so I took some pictures. When I first heard it is removable I thought, "Oh great who's going to have to fight with him to keep that thing on, he won't even keep shoes on?" He is so cute with his new "Robot Leg" That's what they told him and for now it's working and he's cooperating and keeping it on.

So tiny

and cute!

I went to work with Gene today

This is one of the projects that Gene is currently working on. He has been working on this one for at least 18 months if not longer. Right now it requires that he drive to Malibu at least once each week. It's a long drive but great scenery once you get to the Santa Monica Pier. Then it's PCH the rest of the way. That's a fun part of our area that we don't get to otherwise.

It has been a really challenging job because it is on the Malibu pier which is a historical landmark owned by the state of California. These buildings have been remodeled and into beautiful establishments while maintaining their historical components.

The whole project consists of 4 seperate buildings.

The first two were worked on at the same time.

One is a nice restaurant and the other is a bar.

This is the Malibu Pier Club, building #1, it's the bar.

This is just one of the pictures that I took looking back on the shore from the pier.