Yard work ...

Every spring Johnny and I work out in the yard

cleaning up winter, pulling weeds, raking and raking

filling so many trash bags with leaves and branches

and didn't I mention pulling weeds!

So this year we decided to hire a landscaper to come

out and clean out all of the flower beds and

mulch areas

they did all of this work in one day

it would have taken Johnny and I several days!

here's some before pictures

look at those 2 naughty dogs that snuck out of the front 

door to follow me

you can see all of the piles of weeds and leaves that they

raked out of the mulch areas 

and after......

later.....

Easter 2016 ....

We celebrated Easter at our house this year

was hoping for a big Easter egg hunt outside with the kids

but we had so much rain that the yard was

just a muddy mess

so we decided to just do it inside!!

First holiday celebration with both of our parents 

not here......so that was sad

But thankful that we have each other

such a big family here

there are 30 of us!

So that makes for some fun family gatherings

We were missing my niece Abby who is still working

out of state and missing another niece Alison, who is

away at college.

Here's a big collection of pictures...

we had so many eggs filled with candy and it would

have been plenty for outside but inside, you just start running

out of place to hide them....so turned out to be

pretty funny all of the places we were coming up with!

Johnny and Lorraine

Lynne and Tyler

Lynne, Declan, Vickie and Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn is always my sous chef! She always makes

sure everything is just right for me :)

I did the ham, bread, sweet tea and an orzo salad

and then everyone else brought a dish

and everything was so yummy!!

Tom, Lynne and John Thomas

Aimee, Kayce and a great photo bomb by Nicole

My brother Tracy and Jake

My sister Kandi

Tyler and Lorraine

Maddox

and with his mommy Nicole

Jake and Kayce

Jacquelyn and Bucky

Declan Liam and Avery Grace

awww, here I am with 3 of my grandchildren

with Jacquelyn and Avery

Declan finding eggs in Uncle Jake's pocket

Avery makes the funniest faces for us now

so cute

later.....

Someone turned 3 ....

Our grandson Declan Liam turned 3 on March 8th

Our daughter and son-in-law hosted a birthday

party for him at our home on March 5th

and with my camera still broken, the only pictures

I have are some iPhone photos shared with me

our sweet, sweet Declan had so much fun on his big day

can't believe how fast the time goes by

It was a good time for everyone

He had a Paw Patrol party....

check out his awesome cake!!

his other grandmother gave him a doctor set

he said "Just call me Dr Declan"....haha

later.....

A birthday party ....

I know it's been forever since I blogged....

life is busy!

I had a birthday....it was one of the big ones

I turned 60, oh my!

And it kind of feels weird but I'll tell ya

it makes me work harder exercising and harder

eating right. I want to see my grandchildren 

grow up so really need to take care of myself.

And here's what happened 2 days before

my birthday....

Johnny and I went to Maggianos for dinner

he had made reservations and Jacquelyn and her crew

were going to meet us there

we get there and the hostess starts taking us down the

hallway where I know the private banquet rooms are

and I made a comment to Johnny.....

"this is weird, the private rooms are down here"

and without missing a beat, the hostess turned around

and said "Oh we are packed and using the private rooms

for overflow". Well, that made sense to me

but then we get there, they open the door and

there is all of my family, my siblings, 3 of my best friends

and everyone yells surprise!! wow, I was shocked

totally 100% surprised!!

and my sweetheart grandson Maddox (he is non-verbal) comes

running up to me, gives me a hug and runs back...haha.

Well it was just the most wonderful thing that has ever been

done for me on my birthday....except I did have a surprise a few years

ago when Jake and Jacquelyn

 surprised me by cooking dinner for us.

I couldn't believe Johnny could do all of this but he told

me he was just paying for it all, that Jacquelyn our middle daughter

had planned it all, invitations, ordering the dinner, getting the cake

and even had some sweet flowers 

and she did an excellent job!!

It was wonderful and I loved it

here are some pictures......

later.....