Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Happy Birthday Christina!

Happy Birthday Tina!  (Christina is the the second from the left).  When we lost all of our pictures last year when the computer crashed - I lost all of my pictures of Christina.  This is the only one I could find.  Tina has been a sweetheart since the minute she showed up.  She would love to come and go with our girls to the zoo or Fiesta Texas.  I am sure her sisters were jealous because Heather and Heidi were home-schooling and I would let them have some outings and we would go and grab Christina when we did.  Pam would come too when she had Dr. and dentist appointments in San Antonio.  One of my favorite memories of Christina is when she was about 3 and I had put the tape of Secret Garden in the car player.  She started singing along with it.  I asked her where she had heard it.  She said she hadn't but she knew it.  She did too!


Have a great birthday Tina.  I hope this is a wonderful year for you.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Last of the Texas Pictures

 Carianne and Carl in the Carpenter's bag yard holding Dane while the rest of their family were getting pictures taken.
 Our beautiful Carlye
 I am showing this because just that morning we had gotten our pedicures.  Look how dirty the bottom of her feet are!  Oh to be a little girl.
Our New Years Celebration with the Pfiesters.  Hope you are have a wonderful new year too.  I at least got all of these pictures in before the end of the month.  I love how the boys chose the pink horns.  I miss the grandchildren.  I miss the warmth.  We had a great time. 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Girls Day Out

 The last day Pam was in Texas, we had a girls day to celebrate Carlye's and Pam's birthdays.  We all got pedicures.
 Carlye was first and had to wait for everyone but then she watched Dane for Aunt Pam while she finished up.
 Carianne - my camera is messing up.  Sometimes it focuses really well and then the next picture is our of focus.  It is what I get for buying cheap.
 Pam - so I will have a cute picture of her.
 At Queen Bee's for lunch
 Carianne loves to try on all of the hats in the place!
Dane in his hat - a cute tam that probably was made for a doll because it was too small for Dane.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Happy Birthday - Chris!

 Yesterday was our son-in-law - Chris Davis' Birthday.  I had blogged in advance and spaced that it was Chris' birthday until yesterday during Church. 
This is one of my favorite pictures that we took while in Texas.  Dutch gets overwhelmed and Chris and Pam are so good about how to help him.   This picture is so sweet.  I think it is funny that my favorite pictures of the trip are of parents holding their children.  Happy Birthday Chris.  We hope you have a great year!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Carl and His Nephews


 These are pictures of Carl with his nephews.  Dane is on the right and his sister Tiffany's son, Boston is on the left.  Emmaline is in the front.  Dane and Carl share a birthday.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Carlye Opening Presents

 These pictures make me laugh because every single picture of Carlye opening gifts has either Nathanael with the trash bag and Abigail in them or both.  I think Abigail was in all of them but I edited her out because she moved and was only halfway in of some of them.  By the way - the day we opened Christmas presents as a family, Nathanael was there with the trash bag, collecting garbage as we opened our gifts.  He cannot stand clutter. He is certainly his Grandpa Bailey's grandson in the way.
 It's funny as I look at these pictures now, I see that Carlye was starting to look like she was getting a bad headache.  Later - after the party she complained her head hurt so bad that she didn't want to eat or go anywhere.  The baby bottle in the background it Dane's.
 Here she is unwrapping the blue Webkinz faun from us and finding out the Grandpa's present to her was her loftbed - her hearts desire.

The money in her hand and her other birthday money eventually went to buy a guinea pig.  She and Nathanael ( with money he had saved from Christmas) are now the proud owners of two guinea pigs - Bugsy and Henry.  They got them the day before we left.  Their dog, Emmaline (a Yorkie) thinks they are her puppies!

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Last of the Silly String Pictures

 A  group shot after the silly string fight.
 Notice how Nathanael has his can still tucked under his arm (He's in the front in the red shirt).  He still had a full can!  He let go of it a few minutes later and some of the older girls showed their wrath.  He had the scratches on his face up until we left to prove it.

 On the front row in the far right is Dutch.  He is 3.  He spent the whole time trying to figure out how the silly string spray can worked.  Because he is so big - people assume he is much older.
 Carianne and Jodi cleaning silly string off of themselves and Jodi cleaning up her camera.  The kids thought it was funny spraying Jodi's camera with the string.  Hopefully there was no harm done. On the left in the background is April - a family friend.
The end of the silly string pictures.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

The Great Silly String Fight

 As one of the activities for Carlye's birthday - they had a Silly String fight.  Her Uncle Chris's (in the burgundy t-shirt towards the right) strategy was to stand in one spot and just slowly turn - getting everyone around him.  He had hardly any string on him.  Other people were covered.  The kids had fun.
 Chris stopped for a moment to show his son, Dutch, how to spray the Silly String.


 Clean-up time.  The attendee with the most Silly String won a prize.
The aftermath before the Clean-up began in earnest.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Carlye's Birthday Party - Part 1

 On December 29, 2011 - Carlye Anne Pfiester had her 11th birthday party at the Pfiester home in Kerrville, Texas.  Here are some pictures from the party - in fact for the next several days there will be pictures from the party so Carlye and her mom will have access to them.  We usually download the pictures onto each others computers before we leave but this time we didn't.  The focus was getting Carlye's bed done and Carianne's computer fixed (she got a replacement instead).  As it turned out Carl and Carianne had to do the finishing touches on Carlye's bed as you can see on Carianne's blog.
 A group shot.


 Jodi Carpenter taking a break from being the party photographer and Carianne's helper.
 Pam being cute.
 Carlye with one of her friends.

Carianne giving instructions to one of the groups for the scavenger hunt.  More pictures tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Happy Birthday Pamela

 Pam in North Carolina at about 18 months.
 Christmas in Kerrville about 1995.
Carianne on the left and Pam in the right and "Queen Bee's Tea Room" in Kerrville, Texas for a combination of Carlye's and Pam's birthdays December 2011.


The whole time I had been pregnant with Pam, her name was going to be Diana Eloie or Cynthia Eloie.  About 2 weeks before she was born Clyde came home and said he like the name, Jenny Rebecca.  I just thought he was telling me he like the name - not that he wanted to name our baby that.  The morning of the day I delivered Pam, and even all day long, I kept thinking the names I had picked out were wrong.  I kept having a nagging feeling I needed to pick out a different name.  I finally actually prayed about it and the name that popped into my head was Pamela.  I hadn't even considered the name until that minute.  I went and spoke to my mom about it.  I have a cousin named Pam that I hadn't seen in years.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't naming my child after someone that she would eventually be ashamed of.  It turned out the Pamela Walton Pepperoni was/is an neonatal nurse and well respected in her hospital.  Later that evening when I held Pam in my arms, I knew her name was Pamela Eloie Bailey.  That is the name I put on the birth certificate.  Clyde says I went behind his back but that story has gained momentum as the years have gone by.  When I suggested Pamela in the delivery room, he said he was fine with it.  


Pamela means 'all honey or golden'.  Pam has been our platinum blonde growing up.  She and Carianne have stayed the lightest of our daughters (our bookends).  There are times Pam's personality can be 'all honey or golden' but she can be full of 'vinegar' like the rest of us too.  Pamela completed our family.  I knew that she would from the first minute I was aware I was pregnant with her.  She has been a blessing, as have all of our daughters are.  Happy Birthday, Pam.  I hope you have a wonderful year.

Monday, January 16, 2012

A Very Belated Birthday to Marcus!

 I literally woke up in the middle of the night last night and realized that I had not blogged about my oldest grandson's birthday!  I am so sorry, Marcus.  I knew your birthday was on the 14th because we called you but for some reason I spaced posting about it.  I kept having a nagging feeling all weekend that I had forgotten something and now I know what it was.  So here we go.  Marcus is my oldest grandson and is 10.  He is the only grandchild that I have lived in that same city as his parents when he was born - in fact he lived just around the corner.  I got to go and see him every day.  I have never been able to do that with any other grandchild.  Then his parents went on for their higher education and moved to Cedar City, Utah.  That was fine because a year later we moved here to Rhode Island.  Marcus is kind and tries very hard to please everyone.  He does have a temper but he works very hard to control it.  I learn a lot when I am around Marcus and I am proud he is my grandson.  Happy Birthday, Marcus!  I hope you have a wonderful year.  (The above picture was  taken at Hogle Zoo last summer over the 4th of July weekend.)

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Watching Videos

I think everyone knows that for Christmas, I received a Kindle keyboard and Clyde received a Kindle Fire.  I just wanted a Kindle to replace the one I had because mine would no longer hold a charge (it was going on 3 years old!)  I am now a very happy camper.  My daughters and husband gave me the best gift ever.  Our daugthers also helped with getting the Kindle Fire for Clyde.  He loves it for so many reasons - especially since he can check his email while I am in seminary and take care of his bishop responsibilies.  He loves reading on it and he loves watching movies on it.  I finally got tired of him watching the fun movies he has been able to watch for free and made him share with me today.  By going through the computer instead of the Fire - we were able to watch "Murder by Death" this afternoon.  I forgot the big names in the movie - David Niven, Peter Sellers and others.  The 'bit players' are Alec Guinness and Maggie Smith - though they have parts as big as anyone else.  But at the time they were less well known.  Now they would be the big names because of "Star Wars" and the "Harry Potter" movies.  It is interesting how things change with time.  One of the things I had forgotten about the movie was that it was just filled with puns.  The whole script is nothing but one pun after another.  It was a fun afternoon.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Picture Heavy Post!

 The day after the Davis family came, we had our Family Christmas Celebration.  This is the table that Carianne set.  We had a smoked turkey for dinner with all the trimmings that was delicious.  We were joined by Carl's mother, Pat Pfiester.  It was a wonderful evening.
 Dutch found a submarine.  Aunt Carianne let him play in the kitchen sink for hours.  She forgot he was on the garbage disposal side and when dinner was over there were tiny toy pieces in the the disposal.  Fortunately there was no lasting harm done.
 This next sequence of pictures is of Dane.  How he could be on that stone floor was beyond me but he kept crawling off the rug onto the stone.
 Dane's 'toe push-ups.'  He bear crawls more than he knee crawls, I think.  Actually he had little time on the floor at all with all the people that wanted to hold him in Texas.
 When Dutch laughed as a baby - everyone in the room laughed.  When Dane smiles - everyone in the room smiles.  
 By this point he was tired of the camera chasing him around.
 Carlye eating something good enough her mother wanted a bite.
 When my sister, Marianne and I were little - we would get into all sorts of contortions.  Our daughters did the same thing.  This picture just reminded me that is must be in the genes.
As I mentioned the other day, Dutch fell asleep at the table before his dinner was over.  This is after we finished opening presents.  Pam is holding Dutch and the sisters are enjoying the company.