We All Survived

Since we have been out of the country for several years we have not done much grandchildren tending.  This week we tried out hand at it.  Our oldest daughter, Julie and her husband were in Philadelphia for Randy's Architectural Meetings. So from Wednesday until Saturday night we were in charge.
The kids were out on Spring Break so we could do all sorts of fun things like:

 going to the Pioneer Museum.  We even pulled out histories of our ancestors and read.

Touring the Beehive House, home of Brigham Young and eating dinner at the Lion House Pantry, next door.

There were 5 desks like this from where all The Church business was conducted.  Today it is a 26 story building....
   Friday we hired them to work in our yard..

 The new tramp matt and pads look terrific.

Saturday we worked at their house and then went to the Golden Corral for dinner.  A good time was had by all.

Machine and Musical

Our daughter, Julie, directs a musical at the elementary school every year.  This year they enlisted me to help sew costumes.  So I pulled out my sewing machine after three years and went to work.

 The Musical was Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance".  I made 15 "police girl" skirts since there were

 140 kids who wanted to participate. Julie did a masterful job at finding spots for everyone.

 Topher and Thea, Julie's twins were part of the pirate crew

She's Home

Our little Charlotte came home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on Friday.  She now weighs 6 pounds and can nurse and take a bottle.  However, she is still on a little bit of oxygen and probably will be for a couple of weeks.

 Big sister Janey is so pleased.

St. Patrick's Day

We do not have Irish ancestry, but we do like corn beef and cabbage which is a good enough excuse to celebate St. Patrick's Day.  Our daughter, Wendy, invited us for their tradtional, festive dinner with all the fun decorations, accessories and food:

 Rainbow spaghetti, rainbow fruit salads,

 rainbow jello salad

 rainbow cupcakes.  A lot of work, but a fun tradition with good memories.

Home and Garden Show

I went to the Home and Garden Show to hear a couple of speakers on how to get your yard in shape.  One, I especially liked talked about "Localscapes." This is  making your yard more water efficient and yet still lush in our Utah climate.   It involved keeping your grass areas together for sprinkling and your planting areas on drip systems.
   She suggested choosing plants for their leaf texture and color not just the blossoms as the leaves are always there and the flowers come and go.  This was a beautiful sample of just foliage.

 Small area gardening with a drip system was interesting...

 Thuis was probably the most unusual booth,  "green burial" a straw casket....

 Who knew there were so many things you could do with garlic?

 And  of course, everyone needs a bed/swing on their patio.....

Outdoors

As beautiful as the snow has been this winter, we have  finally had warm weather the last few days and all of it is gone. So we are seriously starting to think about our poor yard and getting it in shape.

  Thirty years ago we planted a couple quaken aspen.  I love them, but I now know why they belong in the mountains.  They have horrendous roots that sprout up everywhere and anywhere.  We are finally tired of fighting them in the lawns and the solar panels didn't need the shade, so down they came Friday.

 It is pretty bare and open, but a good opportunity to make some changes, so I went to the big Home and Garden Show (see next post)

Solar

We have jumped on the bandwagon and now have 30 solar panels on our roof.  We just need the power company to come by and hook them into the power grid.  With all of the tax rebates there was no out of pocket money, so nothing to loose and a lower power bills.

 We have an ideal house with the panels on the back of the roof which  faces south.  You can't reallhy see them from anywhere in the neighborhood..  We will update when they get going.....

Getting Stronger

Charlotte is getting stronger.  She is down to 5 on her oxygen which is almost breathing on her own.  Hopefully she can start taking a bottle next week instead of the feeding tube.  You have to learn to breath before you can swallow....

Wendy, her mom, is coming home from the hospital today and will go back anf forth.  She is a beautiful little baby and we are grateful she is progressing.

Welcome Charlotte Renee'

Welcoming a new baby is always a miracle.  We have been especially blessed with the arrival of little Charlotte.  She was wanted, but not expected as her mother, and our daughter, Wendy, had multiple complications with her first pregnancy. They were looking into surragacy when they found out Wendy was pregnant.  It has been a very closely watched process and in the end they delivered her at 34 and half weeks.

She was 5 pounds, 11 oz. and 17 inches long.  She is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit while her lungs get a little stronger.  We are so grateful for this wonderful little Blessing from Heaven.