F is....for Alphabe-Thursday

I missed last week's Alphabe-Thursday, but I will jump right back in this week.

This week Teacher Jenny says we are learning the letter "F"

 Thank you Teacher Jenny for helping us learn. 

And for hosting too! See here to visit others who are linking in this week.

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F is for

Flowers

 These were taking at the San Francisco Zoo

when we went with our kids after Thanksgiving.

 Don't know the names of them though.

 They are pretty.

 Different than what I usually see.

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 F is for 

Family

 We have Kaylyn with her Father

and her Grand Father, otherwise known as Poppa Ed.

 The girls with their Great-Grand Father.

Also known as Poppa Vern,

Also known as my Father.

He was the reason we wanted the Family

to be together for Thanksgiving. 

While he is still around to enjoy them.

I love this picture of them and the baby picture in the background,

is my father as an infant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

F is for 

Food

 Our desserts when we went out to dinner that evening.

They were Fabulous!

I hope everyone had a Fantastic 

Alphabe-Thursday!

~Linnea~

It's My Birthday!!

Today is my birthday and I am spending it the best way ever at this time in my life!

With my kids and grandkids!!!

Here I am with my new granddaughter who will be 4 weeks on Saturday! I am getting as much cuddle time as I can while we are here with my son's family in Florida.

My daughter is here as well which also adds to the specialness of spending my day with my family.

Of course B-Daddy known as Poppa to the grandkids has to get some cuddle time in with Kaylyn too!

Even the dog senses his gentle soul and seeks some love as well.

 My daughter also known as Aunt Sara has her turn. 

We spend the days passing Kaylyn around! 

What fun!

Our older granddaughter at 4 years old is a little shy with us at first.

She warmed up to me on our first full day here.

We play a matching game with the blocks.

It is such a joy to hear her call me Grandma Nea!!

I am blessed to have hearing aids so that I can hear that.

It means a lot to me.

I did some grandma feeding and diapering as well.

I had forgotten how small those newborn bottoms are and her diapers are so small!

On our second full day Shaylee warms up to Poppa Ed.

What a thrill for Poppa to have both of his granddaughters in his arms!

Last year Shaylee did not give Poppa a hug until we were at the airport getting ready to leave.

Now we still have several days of hug time with our little girls.

And of course Helmi came along for the trip.

She would be very upset with us if I had left her home.

The plans for my special day include breakfast cooked by my son.

He claims his eggs are better than mine. :)

Then we need to shop for a shirt for B-Daddy.

I forgot to pack a few shirts for him. Oops!

So now we have no shirt to use for the family portrait we are going to get today as well.

I decided I wanted a family portrait of all of us.

Dinner will be at Cracker Barrel. 

Besides that I don't know what else is planned.

Just being together is the most important part anyway.

~Linnea~

REDnesday in the Kitchen

It is that time again!

REDnesday!!

Thank you to Sue over at

It's A Very Cherry World!

for hosting this every week.

One day not too long ago I was at Big Lots looking for something for work.

Did not find what I was looking for, but I did spot this tin with RED on it.

Of course I had to get it.

I am using it to hold measuring spoons.

Now I want to get a set of RED measuring spoons!

Here is another view of my new thingy!

I already had that hot pad and decided to add it to my display.

Another thing I found the same day! 

Yay! 

It is still sitting on the counter.

Perhaps this weekend we will finally get it hung up.

A new RED vegetable brush.

I had to get it since it was RED!

This picture of us was taken on Sunday when we were celebrating

our niece's birthday. The same one I have posted about on my craft blog when I was teaching

her to sew. Now my other niece wants me to teach her to sew too!

Plans for that this weekend.

But that will depend on how my dad is doing.

This was taken on Sunday also. Dad went to the hospital the next day and is still there.

He happened to be wearing RED that day.

I will be visiting him after work today.

Prayers for healing for my father.

And prayers for strength for my mother.

Thanks.

~Linnea~

Blue Monday-Baby and Advent

With the first Sunday in Advent here,

we are now in a BLUE Season.

BLUE is the color for Advent in our church.

But first I want to to introduce you to a new baby.

Actually, first I want to thank Sally at

Smiling Sally for hosting

BLUE Monday!

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Ok, now the baby!

I was introduced to my new step-great-nephew.

My brother raised his father.

So of course they are like family.

And he looks a lot like his father too.

In the first picture he was fussing.

But here he is snoozing soundly under his

BLUE blanket.

A very cute baby.

He is almost 2 months old now.

~~~~~~~

This banner now hang in the altar area

at our church.

Reminding us of what the Advent Season as all about.

Here is the Advent wreath with the BLUE candles
and sitting on a light BLUE cloth.

See the BLUE decorating the church?

Our pastors got sneaky and stuck the purple

winddancers up there with the BLUE.

Purple used to be used during Advent.

Now it is used during Lent only.

This picture I took with the flash.
The one above that is.

And this one above I took without the flash. I like this one better.

You can see the purple one is in a different place on each rod.

Outside it was a gorgeous day. We had horrible winds on

Saturday. But Sunday was beautiful.

Though the wind blew a lot of leaves off the trees,

many still had their beautiful color.

Like this one outside the church. I love the yellow against the BLUE sky.

Happy Monday!

~Linnea~

Three or More Tuesday-Pets on our Trip

Time for Three or More Tuesday.

Sometimes the week goes by too fast for me!

Thank you to Tam over at The Gypsy's Corner

for hosting this every week.

~~~~~~~~~

While on our trip we met our kids pets.

Last week I posted pictures of my daughter's 2 pets.

Well, my son and his family have 4 pets.

That works for a Three or More post!

First up is Sterling.

This was Shawna's cat before my son met her.

Now it is the family cat.

Right now I forget if it is a him or a her.

I think it is a him if I remember right.

LOL!

This is Cayman, a long hair daschund.

They have had him for over a year now.

My daughter is holding him here.

This is Milo.

I love this picture of him.

Look at his eyes!

They just recently got Milo as a pet

for my granddaughter Shaylee.

He has already gotten big since they first got him.

Almost too big for Shaylee to hold.
She was bringing Milo to me so we could pose in a
picture together.

That white one is the fourth pet, Zoey.

Another pet Shawna already had when my son met her.

Shaylee and Shawna play with Zoey

while Cayman and Milo wrestle in the background.

Zoey plays between my feet too.

You can barely see Cayman's nose at the top of the picture.

Zoey is in daugher's lap.

And now Zoey in Shawna's lap.

It was fun meeting the pets while we were there.

Actually I had already met Sterling and Zoey on a previous

visit. But this was our first time to see

Cayman and Milo.

~~~~~~~

Happy Tuesday everyone!

~Linnea~

Blue Monday-Iowa and Florida

It has been awhile since I have participated in

Blue Monday.

But today I have some pictures to show you from

our recent trip.

Besides the ones I have already posted in previous posts

both on this blog and on my craft blog.

~~~~~

Thank you to Sally at Smiling Sally

for hosting this every week.

When you get a chance, visit others

who are posting for Blue Monday.

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First up is pictures from the Iowa portion of

our trip. That is where our daughter lives so

of course we had to visit her there.

On the Sunday we were there,

we visited her church.

It was a gorgeous day which

provided with me with gorgeous

BLUE skies.

This is a view of the old sanctuary.

I just love the colors here against the BLUE sky.

Lot of BLUE in this stained glass window.
This used to be behind the altar in the old sanctuary
and it was backlit.
Now in the new sanctuary a window is behind
so it is lit up naturally with the sunlight
on a gorgeous sunny day.
A shade is down part way at the top.
The sun was probably shining on the altar too much that morning.
This is located at the back of the church.

Here is an outside view of the new sanctuary.
That long window there is where the stained glass window
is located. The I showed you in the previous picture.

These windows also used to be in the old sanctuary.
Now they are placed along the side windows which face south.
Here is a close up of one of the windows.

Here is another view of the outside of the new sanctuary.

Those windows along the wall there are the ones

you could see in the previous picture.

Isn't the sky gorgeous?

It was supposed to rain while we were there

and instead we got this beautiful weather.

Actually it did rain the next day.

There is a book store at this church and

I bought this cross. It is painted on a rock

from the shores of Lake Superior.

This is the back side of the necklace.

~~~~~~~

Ok, now some more pictures from

the Florida portion of our trip.

Our daughter went with us

to visit our son and his family.

It was wonderful to be with

both of my kids, daughter-in-love

and my precious granddaughter.

Our little granddaughter goes to gymnastics.

This is all of us watching her from the balcony.

BLUE shirt, BLUE mats.

Another picture of them.

Daughter-in-love is taking pictures too.

She has some pictures posted here on her blog.

Helmi was along to watch also.

That is my daughter's hand holding on to her to make sure she does

not fall off the ledge there.

Shaylee is bouncing around in there somewhere.

Lots of BLUE at a gymnastics place.

Best of all, Shaylee wore a cute

BLUE leotard with BLUE ribbons in her hair.

~~~~~~

Happy BLUE Monday to you!

~Linnea~