I’ve been doing a lot of knitting and enjoying making some hats.  Amy had been asking for a hat so I decided to make one for her in purple, of course!  I got some nice variegated purple yarn along with a solid purple at the yarn shop in Clarion and quickly made a hat a couple weeks ago – but forgot to give it to her.  Last week, a friend at work needed some advice and some help making mittens so I decided to use some leftover yarn to make Amy some mittens to go along with her hat.  This same friend wanted to make a crocheted flower so I made one too, using the purple yarn.  Since Amy’s hat was still sitting there, I put the flower on it and am very pleased with my project.  I gave the items to Amy today and the girls modeled them for her.

  Silly Megan pulled the hat over her eyes… then Abby tried on the mittens…   Then Peyton got in on the action…

Since just before Christmas,we’ve been experiencing a lot of car trouble.  John didn’t have anything dependable to drive so we were sharing my car.  Last Sunday night on the way home from church, my car had a flat tire!  Unfortunately, the spare could NOT be removed from underneath my car and it had to be towed home.  John finally found a car this past week and is now the happy owner of a 1985 Chrysler LeBaron convertible! 

I got a new iPad tonight for my present from John and I love it! Some of the Internet sites I like are easier to see on the iPad than they are on my laptop!

I’ve already decided on my New Years resolution for 2012 – Get Rid Of – unwanted stuff, extra pounds, time wasting activities…

I went Black Friday shopping with Emily and her friend Brianna at 6:00 a.m.and got some Christmas shopping accomplished! Later, Jess, Audrey, and I went to the diaper store for their sale.

Last evening we went to the zoo to see the beautiful lights. It was great weather – 50-60 degrees! We got there shortly before dark and missed the long traffic lines .

Today Adam made some yummy potato soup and we ate it while watching a chick flick on Netflix. Adam didn’t stay for the movie though because he went out to get a new battery for their van.

Last week, John’s father passed away so we spent a few days in Ohio celebrating his life.  It was nice to get together with family members and old friends we haven’t seen for a while.   

The kids found ways to keep themselves occupied!

It was touching to see 8 of Fred’s 9 grandsons be pall bearers for their grandpa. 

After the funeral dinner, we were treated to a beautiful rainbow, which made us wonder if it was a sign Fred and Emily were together again

We also got an updated picture of two girls who are named after their great grandmothers, Emily Kerr and Audrey Hill.  We had also taken their pictures in 1999 at Fred and Emily’s 50th Anniversary party.

Yesterday, we woke up to at least 4 inches of wet, heavy snow! 

After cleaning off John’s car, we headed into snowier territory on a wild goose chase.  John had found a car with a bad engine and a good body that he hoped to buy and transfer the good engine from his car.  Unfortunately, the car was unintentionally misrepresented as having a different sized engine and our engine just wouldn’t fit.  After that trip, we spent the rest of the day shopping.

I’ve had some problems with my cell phone locking up so I decided to take almost all the pictures off it and put them on my computer instead.  While doing that, I looked at all the pictures I’ve taken for the last 4 months and am amazed to see how much Audrey has grown!

Then

and now!

Megan and Abby decided to be a cat and a dog, respectively, this year for Halloween so I did a quick job of sewing ears and tails to old sweatshirts for them and they were thrilled with them. I made Audrey a pumpkin hat for the fall season.

I’ve spent a lot of time with the grandkids, of course   John met Audrey when she was almost a month old.

A couple weeks later, Jess, Adam, and Audrey spent an entire week with us!  During that time, we made a trip to Philadelphia, where Jess had to take a test.  Audrey got to go swimming in the pool

at the hotel and experienced her first earthquake!

Amy put on a nice baby shower for Audrey

and the next day she held Abby’s birthday party – a busy weekend for her! 

Soccer season has started again and Abby is playing this year too. 

Jessica has begun her interviews for residencies, so they came out here this weekend so Adam and Audrey could stay here while Jess was gone all day interviewing.  Audrey is a lot of fun now, smiles at everyone, laughs, and enjoys looking at books and likes to be read to.

While John was resting up in the hospital, I took a fast trip to see our newest granddaughter and spend some time cuddling her.  I could tell she looks like my kids did when they were born but didn’t realize she looked so much like Jessica until I saw some pictures of her when she was a newborn.

Audrey Elizabeth has been meeting her cousins,

aunts, and uncles, but hasn’t met her grandpa John, or uncle Jeremy and his family yet.

Bubba and I had our own adventure – we got stuck in an elevator for a few minutes!

Grandpa had some visitors a couple days ago. 

They wanted to pick some blueberries

but the bushes had just been picked a couple days before.

Amy, the girls, and I came to visit Audrey for a few days and to see their cousins.  I think we’re going shopping in a few minutes and maybe taking a walk too!

This summer, so far, has been quite different from our normal summers.  This summer, I feel like we’re old people because it seems like all we do is go to doctor appointments and go for testing!  Tomorrow, John will undergo a heart catheterization which will hopefully show exactly where his blockage is and hopefully get him fixed up and back to normal   He’s had a rough summer so far.

Last Saturday we went to Megan’s birthday party.  (Her birthday is actually today!)  Her parties have changed over the years!  It used to be that most of the attendees were adult relatives and a few children.  Now it’s reversed – grandparents, a couple uncles and an aunt, and lots of kids attended.  Amy had several “Minute to Win It” type games that the kids enjoyed playing.  The kids got to frost their own cupcakes before they ate them,

then, of course, Megan liked opening her presents!

We’ve enjoyed going to Peyton’s baseball games and liked seeing how much he’s improved since last summer.  He does a good job catching fly balls, hits the ball very well, and has hit several triples and at least one home run.  Since his season is finished, we went to Jeremy’s softball game Monday night and watched his acrobatics!  Something is wrong with third base and several people tripped or slid when they hit it.  Jeremy pretty much did somersaults when he hit it!  He couldn’t seem to hold on to the ball as well as I thought he could but John reminded me that Jeremy’s fingers were burnt.  He had an accident at work and had electricity run through his body.

Sometime in the next week, our family will be increasing with the birth of our newest grandchild.  I’ve been busy knitting items for him or her and am really anxious to meet her or him!!!  This is a nursing cocoon for Jess and her baby

at Becca and Emily’s school. 

It just happened to be Jessica’s birthday too, so we got to help her celebrate.  We went to a Mexican restaurant – delicious!

Adam made a yummy cake from scratch. 

We got to see Bubba’s place.

I made short sweaters for Megan and Abby and almost have Becca’s finished.  I’ve been working on something for the baby too, but get really frustrated when I look at yarn – I wish I knew what sex the baby is so I would know what scrumptious yarn to buy and which patterns to use!

Abby showed me how she shoots her bow,

with Daddy’s help, of course!

We’ve been going to a lot of Peyton’s baseball games. 

He has really improved this year and has caught a couple nice fly balls, hit several triples and hit a grand slam home run. 

Peyton and I spent the day together last Friday.  We went to the game store and got a game for his ds, then went to Walmart where he got an airplane Lego set.  We enjoyed putting it together.

That evening, we celebrated Peyton’s birthday at his house. 

After eating, there was a fun baseball game.  Abby found a caterpillar that she carried around most of the evening. 

She and Rosie got to know each other and had a lot of fun.

Of course it helped that it took place almost three weeks before his birthday.  There was a nice turnout at the grange and we had a very nice afternoon visiting with friends and family.  There was a makeshift quartet that sounded great!

John and Jessica compared bellies!

The night before the party, we attended John’s barbershop group’s concert.  It had a ’50s theme

and had a lot of good songs.  He was part of a barbershop quartet

and they also sang at the afterglow.

Abby grabs my phone every chance she gets!