JUST DOING OUR GIGI AND PAPA THING

This day proved to be more productive then I had planned. I was able to get several canvas 1/2 way done. Actually, it is the most time consuming part and it feels so good to have it out of the way. I did two loads of laundry, changed the sheets on the beds, vacuumed the house, ran some errands, and played with our grandsons.
Now that I have showered, put on my PJ's, and nibbling on my Nutri-System dessert, I realize that I am tired.
We have two EverReady bunnies living at our house. Their names are Coleman and Caden and who knew the energy these two have. And boy can they eat!!! All the time. It really is amazing to watch. But keeping up with them is another story. This is why we have children when we are young!
Here's a sample of what has been going on around here lately.

Early evening golf has become a ritual. Papa takes the boys to our golf course and they play a couple holes each evening before bedtime. We all pile into the golf cart and off we go.
The boys LOVE to golf.
Caden made the mistake of wearing his new flip-flops to the course and realized that he wasn't having much success with them on, so off they came and he played in his bare feet. He would hit the ball and then take off running, his club dragging beside him, to reach his ball and hit again.
Coleman used Papa's driver since we only have one child-size driver.
Here's Bre giving Coleman some golf tips!
Cole actually hits the ball pretty well. I'm sure he could out drive me. Papa is working on some putting ettiquitte here.

When Caden gets excited he clenches his fists, mouth comes open and he lets out a holler. Did I tell you that he gets excited A LOT!


Our bare foot golfer~
We also go to the movies.....which includes lots of popcorn. If you haven't seen the new Disney movie, "UP" you really really should go see it. We all enjoyed it.

Then there's the swimming lessons. Wow, if I would have had beautiful facilities like this to take lessons at I would have learned to swim a lot younger!

Caden is practicing his kicking.....


No, the instructor is not torturing him! This is his excited look. He's actually having fun.

Coleman is progressing so quickly. I think he wanted to keep up with his cousin Hanna. She is like a fish in the water.
In just two weeks Coleman is swimming the length of the pool. We are so proud of him.
Then there is the best part of the day.....POPSICLES!!!!!
OK, now I am yawning! But with a smile on my face. We just love these two little guys to pieces. Each day brings a new adventure, funny things they say and do, hugs and kisses and a few time-outs. How fortunate we are to get to have them for a month...and their mommy too!
Time for me to get to bed. Rosie and I are starting to exercise at Mountside Fitness tomorrow morning at 5:40am. I already know I am going to be sore!! Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and are ready for a new week.
XOXO Nancy

EAT, PLAY, SHOP, SWIM

There's just nothing like a good burger from In-and-Out Burger. Tonight we just had to have one. So after swimming in the pool we jumped out, showered and headed for one. Mmmmm, it really hit the spot!
Man, having the kids here is killing my so called "diet". I haven't exercised in a week and I am eating all the yummy fattening foods. Why is all the good stuff so full of calories? Good thing my next Nutri-System meals arrive tomorrow!

See, I told you....we are eating all the yummy stuff! And these kids can eat!!! All the time!!
Sofia just watches them in awe.


I continue to experiment with the Yupo paper and watercolor at Art Group. This week I tried painting some poppies and another dog. I find myself really looking forward to Tuesday mornings and 4 hours of painting with the great people who make up our Trilogy Art Group. The numbers have dwindled recently due to several members leaving for the summer. But the diehards are hanging in there and together we are creating with paint and through conversation growing our friendships. I just love it.



I did manage to sit down for a couple hours last night to work on some canvas art. But it's been hard to squeeze it in amongst all the family activities. The boys have started their morning swim lessons (doing great) and the afternoons are filled with more water fun. But today Bre and I had made a play date just for us. So Papa took the two boys to swim lessons and we took off to explore. We ended up in the Phoenix vintage district first. We prowled through several wonderful shops, bought some jewelry and yearned over tons of great finds. But our wallets were on the light side so we headed back towards downtown Mesa and had lunch and went through some of my favorite shops. Bre found a darling black dress and jacket and I ordered two new pendant lights for my kitchen. Our day was fruitful.
Another day almost over...time is flying by. We are treasuring this time with Bre and the boys and trying to soak up as much of them as we can before they leave.
Tonight in the car Coleman was asking me if I remembered several different things we have done with them over the past few years. It was so neat to know that HE remembers them. Even though we are continuing to do and go new places with them they still want to repeat all the things from past visits that they remember.
That really warms my heart.
The memories we are making are sticking with them!
So now it's time to rustle them out of our bed (blankies too), turn of Toy Story and get them to sleep........for tomorrow we will be making more memories.......
XOXO Nancy

GRADUATION DAY!

Yesterday was a big day for all of us. Our oldest granddaughter, Hanna, graduated from Bethany Christian Preschool. Watching her walk down the aisle to the stage the memories of the past 4 1/2 years came flooding back. I distinctly remember the evening she was born. She was a tiny little thing...so pretty...so perfectly shaped. A miracle. Over the next couple years she grew into a gregarious, smiling, chatty sweet little girl. A real girly-girl. Loves glitz, nail polish, high heels. A quick learner, except when her strong will thinks differently. Now she is marching onto kindergarten. Confident, smart, excited to learn more.

Having her cousins Coleman and Caden here to help her celebrate only made her day that much more special.

So we celebrate another milestone with a grandchild. So many memories made and so many more to be made.
Love abounds in our house right now as we all gather here. Our four little blessings fill our lives with so much joy. They are a built in comedy show, drama and sometimes a thriller. How lucky we are to be such a large part of their lives. We just hope our old bodies hold up to their continued pleas for play. We know our hearts always will.
XOXO, Nancy

New Do

A a new hairdo can sure make you feel like a new woman. Especially if you have very fine, thin, straight hair like mine. Today I took the hour long drive up north to the Glendale area to have my hair cut by Michelle Rene. I have been watching her transform women through their hair for over two years on Channel 15's Sonoran Living. She is amazing. It was one of those spur of the moment choices. A very costly haircut, but my daughter insisted I needed to pay the price to get the results. I figured I would have at least a 2 month wait to get in for an appointment, but when I called yesterday they had a cancellation for today so I got in. I am not photogenic, but I wanted you to see what she did for me.
So here is the before..............
And the after........

This is still a work in progress since she needs my hair to grow about another 1/2 inch in a few places to get the finished look. So I will return on June 19th for color and cut. But I do like the new look. Now I just hope I can make it look like this tomorrow! But the really neat surprise is that my daughter Bre secretly paid for my haircut!! Boy, I must have really needed a change!
The rest of the day Jami, Bre, Sofia and I went shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square.
Here is Sofia sitting in our booth at Nordstrom Cafe. She is in early training for "shopping".

A fun day was had by all. We finished this evening watching the final of American Idol. Were you as surprised as we were by the winner? Fun to see all the big names perform. So now it's off to bed. XOXO Nancy

Wild and Crazy!!

And we're off and running!! The grandkids have arrived and we are in full entertainment mode. What could be more fun then hitting the pool at 7:30 in the morning on the first day! After all, they had been waiting for four and a half months to get here and swim. And Cole did swim! To all of our surprise he taught himself how to swim on the second day here. Since his cousin, Hanna, can swim like a little fish, he was not to be out done. I think I made a mistake by signing him up for Level 1 in swim lessons for next week.

Caden was the first to try out our lobster. We are still working on convincing him to take off his swim ring while in the water. His swim instructor may have a real challenge on his hands!
He has thrown out every toy in both toy boxes at least five times since he has arrived and taken total possession of a few. You can see all the toys floating around in the pool.


Baby Sofia loves the water. Jami has this cute inflatable frog with a palm tree for cover that she put her in.

After a long, hot day in the pool the boys are ready to hit the hay.

Hanna had her first dance recital a few days ago. Here she is in her costume. She was so excited and so were we.


These past few days have flown by. I guess that's what happens when you have a housefull of busy little people. If they aren't swimming or playing with all the toys, they are eating, snacking, eating, and snacking some more. It's SOOoooooo much fun to have all of them here. We are so blessed to have such great kids that we can spend time with. Nothing compares to those sweet little kisses and hugs.
Tomorrow the girls and I are going to get my haircut and then to Scottsdale Fashion Square to shop while Papa babysits. I'm going to pay the big bucks to a big name hair designer. I am hoping for a new look, but not sure if I have enough hair for her to accomplish that. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
I had another big day yesterday when Designer Blvd. bought all my new inventory. They are keeping me busy and challenging me to continue to create new and different canvas art.
Time to sign off and watch Dancing With the Stars.
XOXO Nancy

A BIG SIGH!!

We are down to 23 hours and counting until our daughter and two grandsons arrive. I think I might be a bit of a procrastinator cause I ended up with way too many things to take care of today before their arrival. I even had to cut out a trip to my favorite glass store for a big sale they were having in order to try to get everything done. I just have to clean out the toy box and the outside water toy box and then I think we are really ready!
Any how, my favorite decor store (and the same place that sells my canvas art and headbands), Designer Blvd. in Gilbert, was having a 40% off your entire purchase today. So in the middle of my trillion chores, I stopped to run over to check it out. I came home with a car full of wonderful purchases for my house and picked up some Christmas and birthday presents too! Their sale goes through tomorrow. So if you live in the area I would suggest that you RUN, not walk, to their store first thing tomorrow as they have the absolute most wonderul home decor and accessories.
The big surprise came when they told me that they had already sold ALL my canvas art pieces except one and four of the ten headbands. Wonderful, but there goes my inventory!! So guess I will be working while the kids are here after all.
The top black and white canvas is a brand new one that I created. I just love it. Well, why wouldn't I since my whole house is decorated in black and white. But I took it along with the ones below and my stash of new headbands for Designer Blvd. to pick from. They were so busy that I just left them and will catch up with them next week.

I am going to be doing Special Orders for personal photo canvas'. So took this one of Sofia for a sample.
Then I rushed home and started working on four more. CRAZY!!

So I got a wild hair and decided to do something with the bare wall above our TV. I had a large old fashion key up there for the past few years and it just wasn't doing it for me. After I took the black shelves down from my studio I got this idea.....
Designer Blvd. carries some really cool black and white items so I knew I could find just the right things for the shelf.......and I did! What do you think?
I still need to get a picture in the frame. The one in there is facing the wrong way or I could probably just leave it in there and say it was a long lost relative! There are endless decorating possibilities with this shelf....especially at Christmas time.
I've been looking for a little bench for our guest bedroom and after walking around their store for a 1/2 hour I discovered this one under a table. I think I may paint it white and make a cute cushion for the top.
Okay, I think I already told you that I worked for 2 1/2 days on my studio (and my daughter, Jami helped me one of those days). I even decided to take down my two nice black shelves and put up 18 feet of white ugly shelving. But I NEED the storage space. Here are the before and after pics.
BEFORE... two days into the cleaning and reorganizing!

AFTER..........



SIGH!!!!!!! DONE!! Boy does it feel good to have a neat, organized studio again. Gee, I wonder how long it will take me to mess it up again!
Tomorrow is our granddaughter, Hanna's big dance recital. She has the cutest little glittery outfit to wear. We will all attend that and then head to the airport to pick up the gang. I'm sure we will have to stop at In-And-Out Burger for dinner. Since they don't have those in WA. it's a favorite for them when they come down. Afterward we will head for a dip in our pool. Sounds like a wonderful day to me.
If I'm not too tired I will be up very early to hit Domestic Bliss Bohemian Soiree at 7 AM tomorrow in Mesa. So many talented artists will be there I really would love to meet them and see their work in person.
So that's all I have the energy for tonight. My tank is near empty and I still need to take care of a couple more things. As I sign off for tonight, I'm feeling a thrill of excitement run through my tired body in anticipation of seeing my daughter and grandsons tomorrow. I just love my family. They are what makes me who I am today. Sending prayers of safety to Kyle in Iraq.
Have a great evening everyone! XOXO Nancy