What A Surprise!

Zena and I were both surprised beyond belief to learn John and Kelly had also traveled over to Chula Vista and would be visiting at the OTC!  How exciting that Zena would also be meeting his wife and two little ones. :)

Baylee had no hesitation at all in climbing out of the vehicle and giving Aunt Ogie a big hug. I love that she was smiling up at Grandma, too!

Zena was all smiles as she nestled Ashlee in her arm and led the way inside, out of the heat of the day.

After the initial greetings, we went up to the activity center for some fun and games. Kelly and Zena played a couple games of pool. I'm not sure what the outcome was beyond the sheer fun of the game.

John and Kelly went a couple rounds of table tennis, too.

Guess who won? :)

Don't you just love that Olympic moment with the outstretched arms?

A group picture before departing...John wanted the banner overhead, I wanted the people below. We compromised. Somewhat.

It was such a surprise that John and Kelly had come over. It was great that they were able to spend the time getting to visit the center and meeting Zena. I know it meant the world to her having that time with Hi Baby and his family.

Five Years

Happy Anniversary John & Kelly! You mean the world to me, I am so happy for you. :)

Introducing...

Ashlee Ann, also lovingly dubbed Baby X for a time waiting until Mommy and Daddy decided a name, made her debut in this world on Mother's Day, May 9th, and we couldn't be happier! She is a beautiful little baby and so very loved and wanted.


I'm sure Kelly would have prefered to be home on Mother's Day but she was so ready for little Ashlee to be born! Her arrival definitely made this Mother's Day memorable. :)


Ashlee weighed 8lb 5oz at 20 inches tall and her hair looked more reddish blonde (strawberry blonde) initially after her birth although it was darkeneing quickly in the days following her birth. She is precious!


Baylee is delighted to be a big sister. :)


Welcoming a new sister is tiring! Baylee was beat and took a nap sprawled across Mommy's hospital bed causing Mommy to retreat to a chair for a couple hours. :)


Ashlee Ann, we're so glad you are here with us!

Surprised Her

Kelly took Baylee to a play date with other little friends and was totally surprised that her dear friends had planned a baby shower for her and the new little one. The thoughtfulness and the gifts were so sweet! I especially like the decorative hand-made B A B Y banner made by her friend Stacey, and the tiny little bathing suit is so cute, and the burp clothes. Oh my, all of it is so cute!

A Fun Day

For Christmas, Davis' other set of grandparents gave him a rocking horse. It's a little big for him right now but his cousins, TJei and Baylee, had fun playing on the horse.




Isn't it funny to note how kids have picked up on things? TJei started doing a bucking bronc routine while she was riding the rocking horse.



Kelly let me take a "belly shot" of her working in the kitchen. Kelly is due in May and it's okay to say now, she's having a baby girl. She revealed the gender to John during a phone call earlier in the day. Ooops!



Kelly had prepared a special meal for Mike to celebrate his birthday the day before. She had prepared meatloaf and all the fixins (his fav) and even a special dessert...apple pudding. It was the first time either of us had this treat and it was yummy! Mike had help from a couple of the grandkids to blow out his candle. Luckily, Kelly just added a single candle instead of all 55!



Yeah, he was feeling the love.



Jacob holding little Daphne.

Monday, Monday

Baylee opened the Christmas gifts we had taken down and she seemed delighted with the clothes, shoes, and books we had given her. She hugged onto the Cat in the Hat stuffed animal much of the morning but she didn't want to slow down enough for Mommy to read the book to her...I think she suspected slowing down was the intended result of the reading. :)

This shirt is so cute. It reads, "Daddy is smart but Mommy knows everything"

Baylee is holding a little Gingerbread Man ornament.

She seemed to adore the Cabbage Patch doll Jodie and the girls sent down for her. I think Kelly said that is her first doll. What? Couldn't be? She's 2-1/2 years old - none of us have gotten a doll for her before now? For shame. Either way, she kept that doll tucked in or under her arms much of the day. It was so cute. :)

TJei stayed with John and Kelly while Mike and I took care of a couple errands and went to visit Maria and the two little ones.

We had to deliver paperwork to Melba Shill Goodman on an offer that has been made for the Camp Verde property. Melba wasn't home so we left the paperwork there for her to review when she returned.

We had such a good visit with Maria and little Davis and Daphne! They are so cute!!! ---Okay, and no pics because this Grandma didn't even think of pulling out the camera while I was there. :( ---

Davis is growing so much! He's becoming a little boy instead of a baby boy. He's a big little boy at that. :) Davis was playing with a little wooden toy train that their friend Lyle had made for him. The train was so cute and Davis was having a lot of fun with it. Eventually, as little -and big- boys do, he started demonstrating his ability to throw. There was no convincing him to not throw the train cars. He was in Hulk mode and he had an arm like Hulk, too! Those train cars would magically become missiles while Davis was playing with them. :)

That's when we learned why Maria had Daphne's baby swing in one room and Davis in another - with a gate between to keep a safe distance between them. LOL She is such a wise Mommy. :)

Daphne is absolutely angelic! She is so precious. She slept during much/most of our visit but I was able to hold her as she slept. She looks so much like Davis when he was a baby...and they both look like their Wilhelm family relatives. Especially their Grandpa, Spence Wilhelm, and Maria's brother, Spencer. Someday I'll have to get a picture of them so my extended family can see what I mean when I point out the resemblance. :)

We had such a nice visit with Maria and the kids. It was so good of John and Kelly to keep TJei so we could have that visit. TJei had a super time with Baylee and she went shopping with Aunt Kelly.

The Valley

Mike and I drove to the valley so we could visit the boys and their families for the holidays. John and Kelly will be in Utah for Christmas and Mike has to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so we decided to go down a couple days early and just have a brief visit.

We had planned to get to the valley a bit earlier than our actual arrival time...Kelly had invited us for dinner. Fortunately she had plenty of leftovers to feed us when we actually arrived. Kelly is such a good cook! Mike really liked the pot roast she had prepared and he told her it was one of the best he's ever had. It really was good.

Quentin and Philip were at John's when we arrived. They had been there for dinner, too. Baylee and TJei gave one another enthusiastic Cuz Hugz and then dashed off to the bedroom to play.

We stayed there at John and Kelly's place during our visit to the valley. It was fun being there again and they went the extra mile to make us at home in their home.

Special Thanks

I didn't get any people or food pics so just this single picture will have to suffice as I sing type praises to Kelly and her sweet spirit of charity. I had traveled to the valley, along with Jodie and the girls, to welcome a new grandbaby just the day before Thanksgiving. It was late in the day by the time we'd gotten in and even later when Quentin and I had been able to visit at the hospital. Kelly called that evening and invited us to join their family for Thanksgiving dinner. Kelly had already planned on having her parents, grandmother, and young nephew for dinner. It was such a loving gesture for her to extend the invitation to all of us. And she was so amazingly good natured with a houseful of people!

In the end, Kelly had seven unplanned guests ...me, Jodie, TJei, Mia, Quentin, Jacob, and Davis! Wow, what a houseful in addition to the three of them plus her planned four guests.

I love you so much, Kelly ...and appreciate you even more! ♥ ♥ ♥

JandK

Hey, hey, hey ... it's John and Kelly's special day! Wishing you all the best as you celebrate this milestone. All our love.

What a Turkey

Kelly did herself proud ... wasn't that a pretty bird? This was Kelly's first time cooking a turkey and she raised the bar for all of us! Her bird was not only picture perfect. it was scrumptious, too. Kelly deployed a little seasoning secret that I'd never seen or heard of before and it must have done the trick, that turkey was juicy and tasty. Yum. Along with typical veggies stuffing the belly cavity (onions, carrots, celery, seasonings) she packed a lemon in there. Uh-huh, a lemon. That was a new one to me. Whether it was the lemon or the basting ... it worked. That was one tasty bird.

John and Kelly ... thank you so much for inviting me and Jodie and the girls to have Thanksgiving dinner with your famiy. A special thanks to Kelly ... your passion for food is evident in the care and time you give to making meal time so delightful for your family and friends. Love you gal! I love both of you ... and Baylee, too!

Thank you!

Happy Birthday Kelly!

You're an amazing young woman, Kelly. We are so very blessed and fortunate to have you in our family and part of our lives. You are such a hard worker ... you give yourself fully to the task at hand whether that be yard work, teaching girls through activity and example, baking a "just right" birthday cake, parenting, supporting, singing, pitching a tent ;-) or just being the sweet spirit you are on a regular basis. It is so fun watching you when you get into that hyper-competitive mode - bring it on baby! You are intense and focused and just love good, clean competition and that makes you so much more lovable.

It is such a joy to watch you with Baylee ... you are always teaching, always guiding, always celebrating her accomplishments and relishing in the joys of motherhood. I am so glad you are Baylee's mom, so glad you are John's wife. So glad you are our daughter-inlaw, our daughter. We love you Kelly and wish you the very best on this day and always. Enjoy your special day.

Best Wishes

Happy Anniversary, John & Kelly

I hope your day is as special as the two of you!

Quite Predictable

While in the valley last weekend, I was able to go for dinner Friday evening with Maria, Kelly and Baylee. (Thanks for dinner, Kelly!) John was working and Jacob was at school so it was just the gals out for the evening. We went to Outback Steakhouse - it was my first time there.

After ordering, Maria laughed and said she couldn't wait to tell Jacob that I had ordered prime rib ... for the third time in a row when they'd been with me! (Yeah, but who's counting?) LOL Maybe I need to make a point of not going to a steakhouse - nothing better than prime rib at a steakhouse! - the next time we go for dinner. Then again, maybe not ... steakhouses do indeed have the yummiest meals! I'm already looking forward to the next dinner out. :-)

I love prime rib ... I had to send the dish back when it was first served. My take on medium and the cook's take on medium was a few shades of pink different. Meat lover that I am, I'm not into cuts that are still moo'ing. When I did bite into the meal, it was quite tasty. Outback's creamy horseradish was tasty, too. They add a bit of dill to the zesty sauce.

You Have Your Soup On!

The water was still icy cold but TJei was determined to get into John and Kelly's pool when we visited there on Friday. Kelly had been working hard around her home but being the wonderful aunt she is, she let the housework go for a bit to go freeze her butt off in the swimming pool with TJei. You rule, Kelly! :-)



Thank you so much, Jacob, for introducing me to this movie-making feature on my computer. It has already proven to be so much fun ... not sure how conducive it'll be to also getting work done but this is awesome! Thank you, and I love, love, love the video you made of your camp outing with the Boy Scouts! You're a champ!

Polar Swim '08

Kelly endured the cold to spend time with TJei in the pool. TJei was determined to go swimming despite the frigid temperatures. If I'm able to get the video clip working, you can hear their reaction to the icy water. Kelly was just an amazing aunt to get in there and deal with that cold water with TJei. :-)

Bustling Baylee

I spent a couple days in Queen Creek with Baylee, and John and Kelly, too. It was wonderful to spend one on one time with Baylee and get to know her even better. It is just amazing - that bouncy, bubbly presence is part of her personality the entire day long ... not just for special moments of coaxing a smile from her. I had spread out a blanket for her but she had other ideas and worked her way to the edge of the blanket so she could chew on the corner.

Baylee had fun sitting in her exersaucer and chewing on the different toys attached to the play center. After mommy returned home, Baylee had a good time chewing on her toes while on mommy's lap. Isn't she sweet? Baylee is adorable, too!

Baylee had a good reason to be doing all that chewing. She has just cut her first tooth!!! Yippee ... Grandma was the one to discover the new tooth! Yep, that's right, I discovered Baylee had a new tooth on her lower left gum. She may have waited just for my visit - Kelly said she'd checked a few days earlier and none of the teeth had made it through yet. Well, it's there now and I'm sure it won't be alone for long ... not at the rate she is chewing on things! :-)

Monitoring Floodwaters

Mike has been monitoring water levels along the Verde River and other waterays affecting the Verde Valley so he can provide updates for Scotty. Of course, Scotty can see actual changes in the Verde by stepping outdoors and taking a few steps around his yard. Mike monitors watershed into those waterways though, changes that may affect Scotty in the near hours or days.

Mike called to talk with Scotty about the water and learned that John and Kelly had driven up for a visit yesterday. Scotty was able to visit with his new great-granddaughter, Baylee. Great Grandpa says she is a real cutey!

We already knew that ... so glad Scotty was able to meet her and concur with prevailing opinion!

Kelly's Birthday

Today is Kelly's birthday. I'm not sure if she has plans or anything for her special day. This isn't a very good picture of her ... I don't have many pictures though. She was trying to read things on the back of her new digital camera, I think. :-)

Happy birthday, Kelly! I am so glad you are part of our family. I love you bunches!