Bebes!!

As usual I am reminded why I don't blog very often..... it seems to take forever to get the pictures uploaded and then I inadvertently cut one here and there and then have to try to reconstruct what I just undid.

Also, it seems to be getting harder to get pictures of the grandbabies as I am just too busy playing or otherwise snuggling with little Tabor or Emma. I have been doing a few video snippets with my regular camera but so far I haven't learned how to edit or upload anywhere....

We spent the weekend in Portland for Corey's birthday - and alas I did not get a single photo!! I am really slipping! We went to a water park that weekend and should have taken the camera but I didn't think it would be a good place to have a camera. Turns out a camera would have been fine; and we all had a blast!

Anyway this leaky hose a Boring was two weeks earlier.... Tabor definitely likes water, especially on a hot day! He loved the water park - needs swimming lessons though. Had no fear of stepping off into the pool.

When Tabor was not playing in the "sprinkler" at Boring we hung out in the sandbox..... So many trucks to choose from.....it was hard to sneak Tabor past the sand box between meetings at convention.

Serious business

Come on Dad, the trucks are just up the hill from here.

Last week made a quick run to Burley, Idaho to see Emma (and her Mommy and Daddy)
Unlike her cousin Tabor, the only way to get a smile or other decent look for the camera is to sneak up on her. The minute she sees the camera she looks away or frowns. Snuck this shot while she's sitting on my lap.

Bathing beauty..... she loves the water as well as Tabor. Which is good thing. Feeding her rice cereal is a very messy job and baths are very necessary - for the feeder sometimes as well as the feedee!

Hurry up gramasan, I know you want a good shot of this dress but I can't sit up any longer.

Way past everyone's bedtime but Emma was still awake (barely) when Daddy got home around 10 pm. and last chance for a family picture.....

REAALLY , REEAALYY looking forward to our family trip in December when we will be able to spend time with both grandbebes and their parents all at the same time. Just hope I get a few more pictures but who knows I just might be too busy playing in the kiddy pool.

Two Grandbabies in Two Weeks

Great fun! Two weekends ago we went camping with Tabor - his first! His mommy and daddy and friend Greg and Laura came along!
Tabor really likes hiking - usually had a stick in his hand to make his daddy go faster.

Took a short hike through old growth fir trees.

Our campsite was (almost) surrounded by rhododendrons
And, oh yes it rained. Quite a lot actually. As Danica put it - it was insane.....

Tabor loved playing in the tent, especially when we all piled in during the rain.

Some relatively dry moments, playing with logs and sticks and rocks.

So helpful that he was walking...... kept a bit dryer that way and could get from one fascinating log to another.

Even with all the things to see and do Tabor did stop once in awhile to let gramma and grampa get some snuggles in.

Two weeks after camping we had Shauna and Emma here - for a total of 5 nights!! Really missed having Kevin here but someone's gotta harvest the barley.

Great front pack - Emma spends a lot of time in it as she loves to stay close.

All that wanting to be held came in real handy for gramma and grampa - not sure we'd ever get tired of holding her.

Not sure what caught her eye here but in a daze.

Looking like a porcelain doll

And just hanging out looking cute!

Never too much of a good thing!

Is there such a thing as too many birthday parties for a sweet, adorable one year old boy?

Corey and Danice brought Tabor to see us this last weekend so Tabor could have one more birthday party (it was his third). He knew the drill and seemed to have fun!

Think he did have too much of a good thing - shortly after everyone left he got fussy and threw up his cake!! So much for gramasan's baking eh? Poor guy.

Fortunately he recovered quickly so he could get back to playing with his favorite - the old Fisher-Price farmer & tractor!

And patting (lightly pounding) on the glass coffee table that Danica had just demonstrated her great cleaning cloths on for me.

Last but not least 3 generations of Wilson boys celebrated Father's Day!

OK, OK, alright already! I know theses photos are long over-due, after all little Emma is 3+ weeks old now. If I had really been organized I would've made sure I had my blog access info packed with all the rest of the stuff we took to Idaho.

Even if I had my password, etc. not so sure I would've found the time to blog anyway - what with all the cooking and holding Emma and laundry and rocking Emma and grocery shopping and snuggling Emma and helping with the irrigation and kissing Emma.... did I mention changing diapers and cooing at Emma......

Needless to say this little lady is quite a sweety and it was quite the privilege to hang out with her (and her mommy and daddy) for two weeks.

Don't worry Tabor - you are the cutest grandson ever and I can't wait to see you!! You will feel so grown up after your little cousin!

A little less than a day old.

First evening home... before we returned to the hospital for more bili-lights.

Snug little bug in her hand-me-down basket. Her daddy (and her uncle Corey) slept in this basket.

If you haven't had enough of Emma then there are a few more pictures on my picasa site....

https://picasaweb.google.com/soomuch2see/Emma#

Spring might be here?

OK, maybe I am optimistic but there are a lot of tell-tale signs that Spring is here- at least a typical Central Oregon spring. It never got much above 42 degrees today. Might have gotten to 60 on the front porch where I sat and read for awhile, bundled up but with the sun on my face. AAhhh!

I really wonder who writes those weather forecasts for the paper. Monday it's forecast for 50 degrees, "unseasonably cool" - oh yeah? what is so unseasonable about that??!! What is seasonable around here is it can be balmy one moment and snowing the next! May even wake up to snow tomorrow and of course the car in is the garage again.

I can tell spring is here because I have daffodils and a few crocus blooming under the netting I put up to slow/deter the deer. Looks kinda hokey but a girl's gotta do what she can to have a few flowers. The other sign of spring is the itchy nose and eyes - yup the juniper pollen is on the rise.

In addition to the deer, it turns out we now have a rabbit roaming the yard, nibbling here and there. So, I got outside for a bit today (in between dark clouds and wind gusts) and trimmed out some of the dead stuff that I should've cut back last fall. Now it's easier for the rabbit and the deer to get at those tasty morsels. I hope they appreciate my work!

Bangkok 84/72 Bend 28/20

Every evening this winter I park my car at the top of the driveway - if it looks like it might snow, or if it could possibly snow or even it could remotely possibly snow in the next state, next month. Until last Saturday night when I left the car at the bottom of the driveway and I woke up to this. For those of you who have seen our driveway you know what a dilemma this can be!

Oh wait this was the first day of Spring.... (that makes for extra heavy wet snow by the way) days like this have me looking up the temperatures around the world in the paper. Bend fit into the same category as Moscow, Oslo, Toronto.... At least it was warming up as the morning wore on so I got dug out just in time to leave for Sunday morning meeting and got some exercise at the same time.

On a more cheery note Corey, Danica and Tabor came to see us the a few weekends ago. Brought along their great friends Brian and Mari McDonald. We had a good time, lots of great food and snuggles (with Tabor), hanging out and the younger men managed to get in some snow shoeing.

Here's Tabor trying to figure out the best way to use what we kept telling him was a phone... sure he says, so where's the touch screen Ma?!

Tabor had a great time playing with the antiques.... mainly the Fisher Price farm and phone. He loved it when grampasan would run the tractor over the top of his (T's) head. I never seemed to have my camera in hand at the right time but check out Danica's blog and flickr - she managed to get a few, not of the tractor on the head but some of the fun.

Not so wild life!

Just a few of our resident deer..... wonder how we have any yard at all with these guys hanging out. I am standing on our deck and they are just (about)30 feet away - well aware that I am out here. Earlier this same day I went to get the newspaper and there was a 5 point resting much like this by the driveway less than 10 feet from the paper. He didn't get up to his feet until I was almost to the paper and then he just stood there and watched me - no sense of urgency to wander on. I was more nervous than he was.

OK, they do get alarmed once in awhile. Here our next door neighbor's Jack Russell terriers came out on their second floor deck. Once the deer figured out what was going on they settled back down as they were. Later the same day we were out in the yard and found elk scat! Haven't seen any elk in our yard but they are on the butte. The elk and the deer are really gorgeous but I do wish they would stay out in this undomesticated, natural part of our yard but nooooo, they love just about everything we ever plant - deer proof plants and all.

Oh and those deer sprays and other repellants.... we've tried the really icky ones that smell like rotten egg and putrified garlic because those are the ingredients.... hmmmm they might work if you spray the repellant on a dog and sic the dog on the deer. Mainly the spray stinks up the yard and the garage and your hands. The deer don't particularly like the taste but they have tasted (as in biting off and spitting out) every bud on our day lilies just in case one didn't have the rotten egg/garlic gunk on it.

We've read about motion sensors that will turn on a light, doubt it will work with these guys. Motion sensors that turn on a sprinkler - might work once or twice to get them to walk a few yards away. Gordon has even tried a pellet gun, but they have learned that it will sting but only for a moment, so they wait for it and then wander off. The only place they haven't bothered our plants is on our second floor deck and in the house. Waiting for the day we come home and several are sitting in the deck chairs while another is in the house gathering goodies for the gang. Given half a chance I think they just might go for it.