Show and Tell today. . .

Well, I promised (and warned) you all lots of pictures and an update tonight. And here I am with both! This 1st picture is out of chonilogical order - but I suppose it doesn't matter - right?

Many of you know that I do not celebrate Halloween. But I am still a Grandma and must have photos of all of the cute things my Monkey does. While we were at Disneyland this summer we got Monkey this Minnie Mouse costume, so it was only fitting that she be Minnie for Halloween. Have you ever seen such a cute mouse in your whole life????? I wasn't there but Bryanna tells me that she really enjoyed her trick or treat experience with her older cousins.

These next couple of photos were taken on Oct 30th - Gary & my 24th wedding anniversary! I swear the best part of the day was spending it with Monkey. We played ALL day and I had my camera in hand the whole time! This is not to say I didn't enjoy Gary once he got home, but frankly after he's worked a 12 hour day it's dinner and a little tv then he is off to bed. I will say that I love this man more today than I did the day I married him and still find him incredibly handsome and sexy! I hope when my girls have been married this long, they feel the same way about their husbands!
You will notice a recurring theme in all of these photos. Monkey has her monkey leash on. She has always liked it, but lately she insists upon wearing ALL day! Also as you can see below, she has started using those pretty little pearly whites to pick things up. We think she is immitating the dogs. Whatever the reason it is stinkin' cute!

Can we say china doll here! She is so beautiful and this is my very favorite outfit on her! And I must say the monkey harness and tail really make the outfit!

These pictures are from Wednesday - my 45th birthday! Can you believe it? I am half way to 90 now! Do you think I will make it the rest of the way????? Anyhoo. . . Monkey and I had the whole day to ourselves and even though there were chores to do we had fun doing them! As you can see here she helped me do laundry. And while she helped she discovered that the dirty clothes cart made a great riding toy. We did several trips up and down the hallway with her riding on it, and of course her monkey leash was along for the ride as well. Notice also that the pj's are covered in monkeys!

Later that morning she discovered that the Lego table could be turned upside down to make a totally different and entertaining toy! Gotta love that smile of hers!!!!!

Eventually baths were taken and hair was brushed - what a BIG girl she has become! She looks like she is heading off to school.

Look at how she looks at Grandpa - I just love this! They were playing piano together and then she just stopped, reached up and patted him on the shoulder and looked at him as if to say "I love you Gramps, teach me everything you know". Gary is not typically a "mushy" guy, but this little girl melts his heart and I see in him a tenderness I never saw before.

This was my Bday present from Monkey. Isn't it cute!

My birthday was a great day! Not only did I get to spend it with my Monkey I also got to have Lizzy and Richard here for dinner. She was gonna cook for me but I decided to put a roast in the crock pot and bake an apple pie before she got home from school. I would rather spend the time with her than watching her cook. She and Richard bought me a DVD player for my bedroom (I have been wanting one for a long time). They got it all hooked up for me and then we watched movies. Not just any old movies, but MY old movies. My Mom had all of my old VHS home movies from when my girls were growing up, transfered onto DVD for me. Oh how fun it was to see my girls as little girls and not woman once again! Of course they loved the ever changing hair styles and glasses I sported through the years. It was really a fun day!

This is the next day, Grandpa's lunch hour. He tries to come home every day at lunch before Monkey goes down for her nap. She just loves it when he does. This day she helped him make (and eat) his lunch. Lunch consisted of a protein drink and tuna salad.

She is getting really good at stirring it all up for him!

WOW! You look back on a week and you think "nothing big or exciting happened" then if you are lucky, like I feel I am, you look back and think "WOW! How blessed am I!"

I have a beautiful, healthy family. I have a beautiful home. I have it ALL!!!!!

This is that time of year when our focus is turned more strongly toward family and thankfulness. The winter holidays just have a special way of making you reflect upon these things. I have always been grateful that my birthday and my anniversary fall right at the beginning of this time. It makes me even more aware of all that I have and how much I am loved and how many I have to share my love with. I hope you all feel the same way about this time of year and will take time in your own way to acknowledge all that you have and those you have to share these things with.

Last Saturday I taught this class - Santa's Toy box. It was a full class and lots of fun. But one of the really fun things for me was a gal named Tanya that was in my class. It was he 1st time I had met her. While talking to her I found out that she was from New Mexico and had flown in to Phx to take my class! How fun that was for me. She had been in the store a few weeks back while she was in town for a scrapbooking event and saw my sample book. She and the friends she was with wished they were going to be in town when I taught the class. But instead they all ordered kits. Once she got home she decided that she could make some other plans and come back during that weekend and take the class in person. And that's exactly what she did. I took this as a huge compliment.

Today I was at the store to teach another class when I got another compliment on my Santa's Toy Box book. My sample book was stolen from the store! Tht's right, stolen! I guess someone liked it so much that they just had to have it - and they took it! I hope they enjoy it and fill it with photos of their family at Christmas time and display it proudly on a coffee table this holiday season. It is funny, when I found out it had been stolen, everyone but me was upset about it. I just choose to treat it as the highest compliment. I guess like anything else in life, it's all how you choose to look at things.

It's the old "glass half full or half empty" thing. I am not always good at it, but I do try to have a half full glass most of the time. How about you???

Have a great week!