A new home

Mark and I purchased a home in Phoenix. We have been working non-stop on it, fixing minor things and painting all the rooms, etc. The biggest job has been getting the water lines located and repaired for the landscaping we hope to do next fall. We love the home, the location and the back yard. We are looking forward to spending many winters together in it. I will have pictures soon! The only thing that would make it better was if Megan and her family were still living here. But, she is already in Peoria and the hubby and children and granny nanny will follow soon. They cannot get Drew and Kayley into daycare there until June 7th so I am going to care for them until that time, then head to the farm for the summer and fall.

Megan flew home last Friday to spend Easter week-end with her family. It was a short visit but a nice one! Went out to dinner Saturday night then watched the kids hunt easter eggs in the yard Sunday morning.

Great fun at the Phoenix Zoo

Drew, Kayley and I met my sister Sharon and her granddaughters Kadin and Gracie at the zoo this morning. It was absolutely perfect weather for a trip to see the animals and they had a very good time and behaved very well for grandma! (The kids, not the animals, but they were well behaved, too!) :-) Drew did manage to sneak his frog in there. He is very good at that when I am not paying attention! We were all pooped out upon our return and they are napping soundly right now!

Another video for the Peoria mommy

Megan informed me that the shirt I put on Kayley today was a Halloween holiday shirt. I thought it was just a cute shirt with two kitties on it. :-) I tried to change her and she had a fit. She LIKES this top! We are all thinking of you and missing you, Megan!

Video for mommy

Megan left yesterday morning to drive to Peoria, IL so we made a little video for her from Drew and Kayley. I like the part where Kayley says "I love you"...reminds me of the Bud Light commercial where the guy has trouble saying those words to his girlfriend. :-)

The week flew by!

Another week has come and gone. Quickly. March is so nice here that I hate to see it come to an end. Hopefully April will be as nice with temps not warming too rapidly. One can hope anyway!

I hear Iowa had snow again, the following day after they hit 65 degrees. That would be so depressing but at least it shouldn't stay on the ground too long. I have a feeling Mark is going to have to "mud in" his crops this spring. It will take a long time to dry out these fields with all the snow cover.

Below, two videos. One of the kids bowling with their grandpa's and the other showing how loving Drew and Kayley are to one another. (It was a one time thing, for sure!) :-)

Finally some sun!

Enough with the cool temps and rain. I am certain AZ has had record rainfall this year and it is only three months old! It makes for a beautiful and green desert but there will be lots of worries of grass fires when the heat kicks up to full throttle in late spring. I don't ever recall this many days of rain. Unfortunately, I think it is all moving towards Iowa and they need no rain for quite awhile! What a weather year...

Andy's dad arrived Wednesday night to spend a week with them. I am certain he is glad to be in the warm sunshine. He looks like he will be going back to Iowa with a pretty good tan!

Mark has been keeping busy with many projects so haven't seen much of him during the day this past week. Drew and Kayley keep me very busy so the days are flying by quickly for both of us. Mark is planning to head back to Iowa the second week of April unless the weather makes planting season late this year. There is a lot of "drying out" that needs to be done before anyone hits the fields this spring. I will stay out here the rest of April and look to see what the weather is like before I head back. I cannot see giving up all this sunshine for a muddy farm. I will wait to see when it dries out and the temps are starting to turn up several(like 70's!!) notches before I leave. :-)

Enjoy your Sunday!

A little pooped!

Hello everyone. Megan and Andy have been out of town since Wednesday so I have been babysitting Drew and Kayley 24/7. They have been terrific little grand kids but old granny is still a little pooped with all their non-stop energy. :-) I think I have been sneaking them to bed in the evening a bit earlier than they are used to but they never complained and always went without a hassle. :-)

The weather is warming up nicely and the flowers all look great. My cannas are popping out now. Drew and Kayley have their own planter of canna bulbs and are excited everyday to run out there and show me how much they grew overnight! And they do grow a lot in a day. Amazing, actually.

Mark has been keeping busy this past week so haven't seen a lot of him during the day. I will hate for him to leave in April but it is inevitable!

Some pics of you know who:

Fun at the Phoenix Open

Mark and I met Jeff and Pat Peterson from Dayton at the Phoenix Open yesterday and had a great time. The weather was picture perfect and so were the golfers. It was a very fun day. We also have tickets for Saturday's round but not sure if we will make that one.

The weeks just keep flying by for everyone. Before we know it the snow will be gone in Iowa. (Hopefully!!) Of course, when it gets nice in Iowa it gets pretty toasty down here! :-)

The grandchildren are both back to 100% and feeling good. On the go constantly, of course.

Today Megan and Andy and his brother Mitch are attending the golf tourney and they have a beautiful day as well. Saturday and Sunday don't sound as good for the Open so they may get rained out but we all know how accurate forecasts can be...

A video of Kayley and some pictures of Drew.

Where has February gone?!?!?

I cannot believe how quickly this winter is passing by. Before I know it Mark will be heading back to Iowa for spring field work. Of course, there is a LOT of snow to melt back there before that happens!

Kayley was feeling a bit under the weather this week. Thursday Megan took her to the doctor and discovered she had a double ear infection. No wonder she felt poorly! After a shot and liquid medicine she is starting to feel much better.

Mark and I are looking forward to attending the pro golf tournament this week. We are going Thursday and Saturday and Mark also is going on Tuesday by himself. It will be a golf filled week! For years it was known as the FBR Open but this year they have a new sponsor and it is called The Waste Management Open...I like the sound of FBR better. :-)

Weather has been gorgeous, as usual. Lots of outdoor time for us with the kids. A short video from the week:

Happy Valentine's Day

I heard on the radio that $14 billion dollars will be spent across the nation on this Valentine's week-end. Sadly, Mark and I contributed nothing to this windfall except a couple of small items for Drew and Kayley. We are staying home and grilling instead of fighting for a restaurant seat, too. Love CAN be cheap!! :-)

The weather in Phoenix is getting just beautiful. Sunny and 78 today and the next 10 days sound equally as sunny and pleasant. Lots of park opportunities coming up! I pray spring comes quickly to my Iowa family and friends although they are getting snow as I type this. :-( I think they would settle for some 40+ degree days to start melting the massive snow piles there! My niece Katie sent us some photos of our farm from her phone and I could not see our home. That is NOT good! We are thankful to not be there right now...

Drew has been fighting a cold and cough this past week but seems to be on the mend now. Kayley started getting a runny nose and a little cough yesterday and we are all praying it is not anything her respiratory system cannot handle. She's a tough little gal, though, so maybe it won't be too bad.

Drew's Uncle Mitch sent him a motorized ATV and he loves it. It took him a few days to warm up to it but now he rides it everywhere. It is really a cute little machine.

I finally went hiking with the gals yesterday. I have not been on one since December so I was thrilled to get out on the trail again. We are guessing we went 7-8 miles but it was a mild grade climb so not bad. The desert and mountains are really turning green thanks to all the rain. The blooming desert should be stunning very soon!

A short video of the kids and pics from my hike:

Uncle Matt comes to town

Son Matt arrived in Phoenix yesterday morning. It is so good to have him here. He had been in Vegas and stopped by on his way back to Omaha. He and Megan's children have been having a good time together. We took them to a new park this morning and I know we will be going back there again. Lots of play equipment!

I was happy with the outcome of the Super Bowl, though would have been happy had the Colts won, too. It was a win-win situation for everyone here. No big partisan fans either way so it was enjoyable to watch and no yelling. Well, Kayley and Drew had various "yells" but I don't think it had anything to do with who was winning!

Quick video of Matt and the kids. And Megan, before you watch this... Drew is fine, no concussion. Whew!

A future Phoenix Suns player?

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood!

After a week of rain, it has turned just gorgeous here. Mark and I were in shorts yesterday as the thermometer hit 70. We are going to the golf range today or we might opt for the horse races. There is a track down the road from us and we have always threatened to go, so today may be the day.

The kids were housebound quite a bit last week so we look forward to getting outdoors this week and making sure Sox gets walked. We all have a much better day when the dog gets a nice long walk! Grandma getting walked helps everyone, too! :-)

A short snippet from the week and a few pics:

Just like Grandpa and Daddy

Drew received a BBQ set for his birthday and he just loves grilling beside his dad at night. He prepared a special meal for grandpa and me yesterday.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Drew!!

Mark and I were on our cruise when Drew turned three so they waited until the next day to celebrate so we could join them and Grandpa Butch for his actual party. I am glad they did. The theme this year was...Thomas the Tank Engine! Surprise! :-)

Rain, rain, rain

It has been a very unusual week here in Phoenix. Lots of rain. What is rain? We hardly ever get that here but we are getting it this week. There were even reports of a tornado a few miles from our home but they are saying it was now just very high winds. I am no meteorologist but I think tornado warnings in AZ are just about unheard of but we heard them last night! Tomorrow it is all supposed to go away so we are looking forward to that! The good news about all this: it should make for a beautiful blooming desert in several weeks.

I am way behind in my posts and getting videos edited, so I stole this from Andy's camera. I thought it was a good one!

Getting back to the routine!

Mark and I had a fantastic time aboard the Oosterdam, one of Holland America's ships. We left from the Port of San Diego on January 9 and returned on the 16th. We were at sea the first two days then we had three consecutive port of call days. Our first stop was Mazatlan where we joined an all day beach excursion to Stone Island. It included transportation (a rather old "tub", but fun)to the island, a very good lunch, all the drinks you wanted and two activities. We only chose the horseback riding activity and enjoyed that. Riding on horseback in the sand by the Pacific was great fun.

Our second port was Puerto Vallarta which was by far my favorite port. It is such a gorgeous seaside resort town. We have been here before so didn't join any excursion and simply hailed a taxi to the center of town and wandered the boardwalk by the sea and generally just relaxed by the sea. Our last port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We decided to take a military type water craft to see the whales up close and personal. We did! It was awesome to see these creatures so close to the boat. This craft went between 60-70 mph so we got around to each whale extremely fast!

The last day was spent at sea returning to San Diego. That was our only "cool" day because we were heading home and it was windy and the temps were lower than Mexico but it was still shorts weather. You always hear about so much food onboard and it sure is the truth. Our evening dinners were delicious and we tried most of it! Lobster, filet, prime rib, basa, rock fish, etc. This was a trip we will always remember and I would bet money that Mark and I have another cruise in our future. It is so much fun!

Some shots of the cruise and short video of our whaling adventure!