This will be a short and quick update (I hope!). I have SO MUCH to do to get ready to go on my scrapbook retreat this weekend. I leave on Thursday and will return home Sunday.

Vanessa's baby shower was Saturday. It was a nice turnout and she got some nice things. She had a bit of a reality check when she realized she still needs a lot of stuff. The hostesses did an outstanding job in decorations, food and all the preparations! There was a bit of a glitch with the location of the shower and was difficult for some to find on GPS or yahoo maps. Although a local address it was 10 miles north of town. There are some other people I know who live in this same are who have an address of one town, phone number of another town, are in a different school district and pay property taxes for yet another county! Isn't that wild?! Those who wanted to come called and got more specific directions but wonder if there would have been more to come had directions been included. We'll never know and it really doesn't matter.

The little bentwood rocker in the first photo was Vanessa's when she was little. I made the page for registration and there is a corresponding page w/the invitation and the pics from the last sono.

This is the dessert table. The little horse Vanessa bought. It's a "Build-a-Horse" instead of a "build-a-bear". The little yellow stool was Vanessa's when she was little made by her Grandfather, Daddy Don, her biological father's dad.







A close up of the yummy cupcakes.

There was all kind of finger foods. Mini tacos, taquitoes, chips, hot sauce, queso, guacamole!














Some of the guests. If anymore had of shone up I'm not sure where we would have put them!











More ladies. The lady in green is the woman I call "Mama Irene". She affectionately calls me "Miss Spunky" hence where I got my nickname. She is a long time friend of the family.







 
Opening gifts. Lezlee sitting on the fireplace.
























flash didn't go off on this one because of the bright light coming through the window so had to adjust. To Vanessa's left is Nikki one of her dearest friends.  














 

This little t-shirt Kennedy will have to grow into but it was too cute!










Vanessa thought bringing her baby scrapbook might be fun for people to look at. Here her stepmother is reminicing as she was in her life since she was an infant.



Two of the hostesses. Michelle (left) and Nikki (right). The shower was at Michelle's house.
















Vanessa reading the card from the hostesses.

  My friend Teresa (and also a hostess) took my camera and took this glamerous photo.  I have no idea why I was sticking my tongue out!
















Saving paper, ribbon and bows for scrapbooking later!




I got my camera back and returned the favor!  Teresa and Jan looking at Vanessa's baby scrapbook. 










Vanessa with her grandmother, Mama Jo, ( her father's mother).











Vanessa's Aunt Jerri and one of her cousins, Jennifer. It's hard to believe Vanessa is nearly 8 months pregnant in this photo. This shirt compliments her well!
As an extra bonus Teresa and Michelle had planned for a small "party" after the party. A girls night so to speak watching movies and just hanging out. We all had a really good time.

This is the two page layout I did which had the page for guests and gifts.

Fall colors are becoming more apparent and the leaves are falling. One of our pecan trees has already lost all of its leaves! This was taken at the cemetary a week ago.











The leaves are changing but the grass is still growing. See the guy mowing?













It won't be long and this big ole' fella will be solid reddish brown. You can see one little section that has already turned. This is a red oak tree.










This is what it will look like. This pic was taken last year later in the month.











Kajen taking a leap while he is being chased by Kaidence.












I just love this view.













Got this photo the other day when I walked the dogs to the creek not far from the house.












 


I just love this rocks and the water. You can see how the leaves are falling from the trees now.






this is what it looks like down my street. It was a bit overcast today. It would have made a pretty pic with more light. See all the leaves in the yard and street.

Well, I've been distracted long enough! Must get back to deciding what to take and packing it up! I'll try to get by later to read and comment blogs.

Have a good one!

I guess for the most part 4D sonograms are a "girl thing" cause it was only girls who went! I guess if Vanessa had a husband, he would have been there but that wasn't the case. There were seven of us there. Quit an interesting mix too I might add. My SIL (Doris) and daughter Beka, my Mom, my dearest friend Teresa (who is like a mother to Vanessa) her daughter Lezlee, Nikki (a friend of Vanessa's) and Jan (Vanessa's step-mom). Stork Vision told Vanessa she could have up to 14. The room was very large with a big screen and comfortable chairs.

Now Kennedy was not cooperative in the least. She wouldn't move! The sono tech poked and prodded to no avail. She did move her head to the side one time looking staight into the camera but just as quickly moved it back. She was hid under the placenta most of the time so that is why the pics are not as clear as some you may have seen. All in all it was still pretty amazing to see as much as we did and watch her little heart beating! It was confirmed that Kennedy is a girl and that there is only one! I never doubted for a minute there was more than one.

A baby shower for Vanessa will be a week from Saturday and two weeks from Saturday I will be at a scrapbook retreat! I can hardly wait. Seems I've not done much scrapbooking lately. I let my room get out of control and I am totally overwhelmed by all the "wonderful project ideas" I thought I would do!

I did complete covering the letters Vanessa wanted for Kennedy's room. Between the two of us, I must say they turned out pretty cute!









Yes, that is a real horseshoe from one of our horses and real barbed wire wrapped around the "Y". The "N" in yellow I used some of the "Ten Second Studios" metal.










 Yesterday I took the dogs for a little hike. It was a beautiful day. About 75 with a gentle breeze. A cold front was on the way with rain and 20 degree temperature change. The Cowboys played at 3PM so I took the dogs after I got home from church and lunch with Mother. We walked up a hill and now we are going down toward a creek.   





The leaves are beginning to change some but there is still lots of green as you can tell by the photos.







This is a pretty common sight around here. Rocks and cactus!












Saw these beautiful delicate little flowers. They were about the size of  the nail on your big toe.











Saw this beauty too. A little different color dragonfly than I have taken pictures of this year.
 










At the bottom of the hill along the trail are these bushes. The white you see are blooms. Don't have a clue what they are but I figure they were contributing to my runny nose! They are 7 or 8 ft tall.








Here we are in the woods next to the creek.
With the recent rains the creek was full and the dogs had a blast! Even Mercy got her feet wet! It wasn't her plan but she got on the opposite side of the creek from the rest of us and I guess she thought we were leaving her so she forged across! I took a pic just to prove little Miss Priss would go in the water if  need be! 





 

Kajen in the photo on the left running through shallow water.

This is beautiful to me. The trees that are laying down have washed down stream for past heavy rains.





 
I think this is my most favorite shot! Makes me just want to sit here and reflect for a few moments. Breathing in the fresh air. Hearing the sounds of nature around me and enjoying the presence of my Creator and Father God. But I have the dogs with me and they aren't about reflecting, they're about sniffing and discovering! LOL! Ya, know, now that I think about it, I'm really not any different  than they are. God just wants me to be still for just a few minutes and I'm like...come on God let's go do something! Guess I spent a little time with Him after all! I will make a note to self  "next time, leave the dogs at home".

Have a good one!

I hadn't intended to only blog once a week but it seems as though a week is gone before I even realize it! I really haven't been that terribly busy but it has been more difficult since Vanessa moved home and Doyle disassembled his office. That means all three of us are sharing a computer that we all tend to want to be on at the same time! To complicate matters we have had almost 2 weeks of cloudy, gloomy, rainy weather that has had an effect on our internet service. We are on DSL and there is moisture getting in the line somewhere. When it gets damp it quits working and when the sun does appear drying things out a bit, it's like nothing happened. I'm not complaining about the moisture. Lord knows I am extremely thankful for what we are getting. It has been that tropical type of rain. Light, drizzly rain. Over 2 weeks we have gotten 3 inches of rain!

Ok, I'm sure you're wondering about the title of my blog since I've yet to mention anything about my "new friends". About 2 weeks ago while I had the dogs out in the front yard a few neighborhood kids came by on their bikes. They were enthralled with the dogs. Mercy, because she is so big and Kaidence because she fetches frisbees. They (all 5 of them) each took turns throwing the frisbee until Kaidence' tongue was hanging out. They all went about their way. Then one little girl (Adalida age 8) came back a few days later to play again. She just loved our dogs. It wasn't long until her sister (Maria age 7) showed up. Now Maria was afraid of the dogs. I learned that when I took the dogs to the cemetary I was walking right by their house. I had seen their dogs and they didn't appear to be friendly. There are two both of which were on chains and sound like they would eat me if they were loose.

Everyday now, the little girls come to my house to play with the dogs. I ask them about their day. What school was like, what their favorite subject is. They are adorable and they have quickly wormed their way into my heart! I must admit I do get annoyed sometimes as they seem to always want to be here and I am having a very difficult time telling them "now isn't a good time"! Both their parents work and no one is home when they get home from school. I think I am one of the few adults who really "talks to them". I see a real unique opportunity to share God's love and make a difference. I also know that God is teaching me how to "set boundaries" so that I don't get taken advantage of. This is a very interesting journey. As you can see from this photo, Maria isn't afraid of the dogs anymore! She is leaning on Mercy in this picture! The face of one happy little girl! Today as they were leaving I heard the ice cream man walking around the neighborhood with his ice cream cart. I decided to give each of them a dollar to buy ice cream! They were delighted!

Do you notice how easily attached we get to "things"? I had been have some difficulty with my work computer. It was being sluggish in performing. We had a problem with the computer in the workroom behind the office that is used by members of the church so Pastor told me to take it to the shop. He had told me to take mine too but I put mine off as I was in a very busy time of the month for me and waited until things had slowed down. I thought I would only be without it for a couple of days. Boy was I wrong. The shop kept it for 7 days! Have you tried to work without a piece of equipment that you use for everything you do?! After 5 days I started calling the shop asking if it was ready yet! I was never so happy to see a machine in all my life! Now I had catching up to do. I worked yesterday until 3:30pm as I was going to be gone today for Vanessa's doctor appointment.

After I got home it appeared there was a break in the drizzly weather. The dogs were about to bust a gut to go somewhere to run and play. I had a little over an hour before I needed to pickup Vanessa from work so we took off toward the place I discovered this past spring. With all the rain, the grass and weeds were wet and the creek had water running in it. I don't know if any of you have problems with fire ants but we have them here. This is a HUGE fire ant hill.





A little closer view of this massive ant hill. You can't tell in this photo but they were running around like crazy!










Of course the dogs got in the water but I didn't get any photos of them this time.










Look at all the beautiful blooms





I'm not sure what these are. They remind me of morning glories.












More interesting foilage.













Can you see the little white spider? He is very well camoflauged. In fact. I didn't know he was there until after I uploaded the pics to the computer!

Tomorrow is my day at the scrapbook store. Once again, I've stayed up too late!

Have a good one!