TWINS!!

The school told Randi and Efrain we need to call the twins by their names, no longer can we get them to follow us, or get them to come where we need them to come by yelling "TWINS!" We must call them by Isiah and Isaac. Can you tell who is who??? Grandma/GeeGee was just here and I asked her to look at this picture and to tell me these boys don't look different. She declared "no they look very different!" and then told me their names, she got it backwards!!

I can almost always get it right, except on Christmas Day when they were on the floor opening presents. I had something in my hand for Isaac and was yelling above the loud din of voices "look up, look up!!" Randi was looking at me like I was crazy. I told her " yeah, I can tell them apart if they show me their faces, but the top of their heads are just the same!!"

Well have you figured it out yet??? Yes, the twin on the right is Isaac, he is still just a tiny bit shorter and has a higher pitched voice, Isiah is on the left, he remains a bit taller, with a deaper voice and darker hair. Somethings are just the same, they are equally easy to love and are both the cutest boys we know. (except CJ, he is just as cute!)

Cute Kids and Christmas Cookies

Randi and Jenni and Isaac and Isiah all went to Aunt Petra's to frost cookies with CJ. I have to say these are the cutest kids ever. Jenni loves to hug but macho CJ is not sure he loves it as much as she does. Isiah and Isaac were loving the fact that someone (on purpose) gave them cookies and frosting and candy to decorate the cookies!! They were in heaven!

Isaac decided he had better make sure the cookies were good enough for everyone else!!

Jenni, is always the good girl, she has her plate of cookies and came out of it clean. It cracks me up to watch her with the boys, she never gets anything on her clothes, but Isiah and Isaac are covered in whatever they were doing.

They are so sweet they dropped off a plate of cookies for Grandma and Papa.

Made with love!!

Lottery wins!

We have had a wonderful weekend. Friday night CJ came to stay with us. Petra and I went to work a Chocolate fountain. It was in downtown Sacramento and we were lost for 40 minutes! Well before all the blond jokes start, they gave us the wrong address. But Ed had a night out with friends and so CJ stayed with Papa. When I got up Saturday morning there he was. He is so fun to hang out with. His first words were "Pancakes!" While we were doing the normal Saturday morning stuff he says to me "Grandma, thanks for taking care of me, I like it here!" I won the lottery!! or you would have thought, what joy that child brings to us.




Well, our day didn't stop there, Randi and Efrain were going out and asked us to come stay with the kids. Since my oven died I was going to bake cookies there. So we ended out the day with picking up a Pizza and going to play with the rest of our Grandchildren. They always act as though a rock star has come in the house when we arrive. They scream and run toward us with hugs and kisses. I will tell you we normally see them 3 to 4 times a week, it is always the same, they just love us no matter what!! Jenni and her Papa had to go take Allie to the dance and the boys and I watched Home Alone 2. They dance to the music in the movie and when I went in to make a batch of the cookie, Isiah followed me, he is so interested in cooking, he likes to eat but more than that he wants to know how things go together, yeah at age 4 he needs to know how come I was melting the butter and then put graham crackers with it. He is going to be a cook someday. Isaac wanted to sit with me and tell me all about the presents under the tree and what would happen to me if I touched any of them, especially the ones with Isaac's name on them. I was trying not to laugh because he was so serious, but he was so cute. He was telling me all this and then leaned on me and said, "Grandma, you my best friend" Another Lottery win!!
Jenni and Papa came back and Jenni preceded to tell me everything they did, exactly what Allie and her friends were doing. It cracked me up, she came in the house and had to go get her lipstick (her flavored chapstick) and put some on and then within a few minutes she had climbed in Papa's lap and curled up to watch the movie. She looks at me with her precious smile, so content in her world and says "I like when you and Papa come to my house"
I am sure that having extra money would be nice, but we sure won the lottery of Grand kids!

TWILIGHT THE MOVIE

Yes we went on the first day Twilight came out. Not at midnight like Allie, Randi and Samantha, but at 4:40pm later that day.We proved the movie is for all ages. We had Grandma/GeeGee with us and Petra, Katie and Aunt Colleen and two of Petra's friends Mattie and Sherrie. It would seem very strange for us to take our picture while standing in line, if everyone around us wasn't doing the same thing. The movie was fun, but we decided that you really needed to read the book first to completely understand it.

More Allie's birthday

More of Allie's birthday! This is sheer indulgence on my part. We have enjoyed this last child so much. I will tell you she is grounded at the moment but it is just because she thinks at 17 we don't need to know where she is going. She had decided to go shopping with friends on their day off of school. Not a big deal, but when everyone was trying to get a hold of her she wasn't answering her phone, it's really loud in the Mall due to construction. Sounds like an excuse to me!! Anyway, to her shock when she finally answered her phone there were several angry people wanting to talk to her. So on to memories of better birthdays



This picture cracks me up, the three boys in the picture are still in our ward. Stewart and Tyler and Matt all go to Oakmont. All three of the girls have moved away. I should say all three of the boys are Seniors at Oakmont. This would be a fun picture to show them!





Allie and Grandma Roskelley have shared their birthdays for most of her life. Allie's is on the 7th and Grandma's is on the 12th.She loves it, she has always been very close to her Grandparents.






She decided on her 14th birthday to have a princess party, all the girls came and dressed up and Allie's sisters came and did hair and makeup. Then we took them out for ice cream. I thought they would say no to going out in these outfits, but no they loved it.
Here is her 16th birthday!! Neal was the only boy that would do all the crazy things with the girls. They had so much fun, we did a scavenger hunt in the Mall. We had so many people in on our adventure, it was a blast.
Now she is 17 and a Senior and ready to move on in her life. What will we do with all our time when we are not running around with Allie and her friends. (sleep comes to mind!!)

ALLIE's 17

Allie turned 17 on Nov 7th. She has gone from this cubby little girl to a beautiful lady. This is her with her Grandma and Grandpa Seamons on her blessing day. The dress is bigger than she is!

Allie was just over 1 when we moved to this house, she was sure we were not going to remember her bed, so she had to help Grandpa Roskelley move it to her new room.

Allie at her 3rd birthday. She loved to show off her presents!! She was always happy and was thrilled when she got something new to play with. She had many playmates in her siblings, but she was happy to get new things to occupy her time when all those old people left and she had to play alone.

She loved Cammi and Lance, I remember her telling me that she thought Lance was beautiful. We all laughed, she wouldn't talk to him just Cammi. She is 4 in this picture and was so excited to be in a picture with them. She had this picture in her room until the last time she painted her room.

More later

My Patriotic Mom

My Mom has been working the election boards for the last 60 years!! Last night she came in and told me "this is it, I am NEVER doing this again" Katie laughed and said "Grandma you say that every year!!" She started working on an election board when she was 21 and she will be 81 next week. She will probably not be a rover again, the driving was hard, but she isn't ready to give up on the elections.
She came last night to eat her dinner here at our house, and found that Katie had not voted yet. It was pretty cold for us (CA cold) so Katie had put on sweats and was ready to settle in for the the evening. One look from Grandma and she got her purse and keys and said " I hope they don't care what I am wearing!!" and out the door she went.
Colleen and I had lunch with her and I was going to take her picture and I forgot, I am so mad because she has all these pins she wears that she has gathered over the years, she ALWAYS wears red white and blue when she works the elections and she never understands how come they make it so hard to vote. Every year she talks about how they just make it harder than it should be. All the election officials in Placer County know her and I have very clear memories of going to visit her at where ever she was stationed to work on a board when I was younger. It was never very far from our house and her and Norma would be there working together. Yes, Norma still works on an election board close by.
Per Mom the biggest change from the beginning to now is that there are many more men that work on the boards than there used to be. Even 20 years ago most of the boards around town were mostly women with very few men sprinkled in. My Dad worked on some boards after he retired but always said that Mom was the election board person in our family.
Katie worked on an election board with my when she turned 18. The people voting called the main Placer County election officials to complain that a 12 year old child was being used on a board. It was Grandma to the rescue, she called and told them it was her very young looking Granddaughter and she was plenty old enough to be there. We ended up having to explain all day and night long about Katie being old enough.

TAGGED!!

I've been tagged!! I am supposed to tell 6 quirky things about me. My family would tell you that it would be hard to keep it down to just 6, but I say I am pretty normal and they are strange!! OK here goes:

1. I cry at the drop of a hat!! I mean really, you drop your hat and I would probably get teary. I hate it but if anything even remotely touches me emotionally, I tear up. Hallmark commercials get to me every time. My grandchildren can get me going pretty easy and chick flicks are always a tissue fest for me.

2. I hate to be late or get lost. I do believe these come from my Mother, she has a really hard time being on time. The Sunday they put my Dad in as Bishop, we all trooped in about 10 minutes late to Sacrament Meeting. ( I was a teenager and wasn't happy about this event to begin with and to come in late and have everyone stare at us ugh!!) My children all understand that getting lost is just sightseeing, my Mom has convinced them it is a good thing. But I can remember driving for long periods of time and not ever getting to where we were supposed to go because we were lost. So I have this thing about knowing were I am going, and getting there on time.

3. I wash my hands ALOT. I don't have Annaleesa's germ thingy, but sometimes if I am just walking past a sink I will wash my hands. If I am having a bad time or something is wrong, I will wash my hands. When Jeff was in the hospital, I would go to the sink in his room and wash my hands!! I just makes me feel better, oh and I have to tap my hands twice on the sink to shake off the water before I reach for the towel to dry my hands. If you watch my sisters they all do it also. LOL

4. I am not a hugger, yes, I am a Mother of 6 children and 4 grandchildren and I am not a hugger. (unless I get to chase Annaleesa all over the yard for a hug hehehe) Go figure. I, of course, hug my grandchildren and have hugged my children, but as they come and go from the house their Father always stands at the door and hugs everyone and I am there but not usually hugging too much. The most weird thing about this is my Mother is the biggest best hugger of all time. Who knows where I came from ???? ( mom would say from my Father who was not a hugger) I can remember clearly the last hug I gave my Dad. It was a couple of weeks before he died and as I was leaving my Mom said, "go back in there and hug your Dad!!" Jeff, of course was in there hugging Dad goodbye, I went back and and hugged him and he pulled me close and said " hmmm you always smell so good" I was glad I did it, as he took a turn for the worse and died soon after. Oh, and refer to #1, I am all teary from typing about my Dad.

5. I love Blogs, I will read Blogs of people I have never met and probably never meet. It fascinates me! I am not sure if that is quirky or just strange!!

6. I love early morning, I get up on most days before 6:00 am, sometimes on weekends I get up and go back to bed after being up for a few hours. There is something wonderful about getting up early and in the quiet of the morning getting things done. At Christmas time this is my wrapping presents and baking time. My kids, when they were little would get up and come peek at me and run back to bed because I am full of energy when I get up early and will put them to work if I see them.

OK, I tag Rachel and Sara!!

IT'S FALL!!

You can always tell it's Fall even it the weather is still warm. We plan our yearly trip to Apple Hill. We really wanted to take Samantha with us this year but she works every Saturday, darn!

The very first thing we wanted to ride the hay ride. We all patiently waited for the guide to come and take our money and THEN we would get on the ride. Not Grandma, she just got on and decided to wait in the wagon. There was a line behind us and no one got on with her, hmmm she is a rebel rouser!
CJ was not sure that REALLY old tractor that was pulling us was going to be safe!! It was so loud and the man driving it was probably as old as the tractor. It took us passed all the apple trees to the Christmas tree farm next door and then on thru the grape vines. It was a very fun ride!

You notice who the big kids are, Papa can always be persuaded to join CJ in the fun! There were so many people all around but we were able to have lots of fun! behind the picture there were ponies for the kids to ride.

Allie loves to take Grandma with us on all our outings, she is sure a Grandma's girl! We took our lunch and had a picnic at High Hill Ranch, while Grandma, CJ and I waited for everyone else to get the coolers from the car, CJ and I played a game of tag, now remember I sit at a desk everyday and I am not great at running, well I didn't think it was that bad, until I could hear the laughter of the people watching us. People I might add, we don't know, and they clapped when CJ won.
Katie goes to the tree every year and every year she hasn't grown!! CJ is gaining on her!!
I forgot to move this picture before I posted it!! Allie keeps getting taller, she is only a couple of inches shorter than Petra!!
Petra and CJ are making sure they keep track of how tall he is with everyone!!
Another picture I forgot to fix before I posted it, sorry!! We found a lady that did the greatest baloons! CJ wanted a sword and of course a sword holder!!
It's time to go home, yes, part of the adventure is to deal with the crowds coming and going!! We love it and go back every year.

More Wedding

Sarah brought her camera's worth of pictures. It is so fun to see everyone's pictures and how much fun everyone was having.


I am so glad we got picutes of people because you forget who was there!!

Uncle Ron and Noah decided to hang out in the back of the crowd, it looks like it was fun back there.

Aunt Colleen and Eden were having fun also, water was in short supply, it was so HOT, everyone was looking for a drink.

Sarah was off to the side trying to get a shot of our family. We need to get an updated picture for our picture over the fireplace.

more pictures to follow...

Adorable Noah

Everyone was getting their picture taken, or watching the pictures being taken, but Noah decided to check out the plants. He wasn't touching the plant, he was VERY close and you could tell he really wanted to get in there and check out that plant. Allie caught this picture of Noah, it perfectly describes his personality, he is so fun to hang out with, his mind never stops, but unlike his quiet brother or rowdy sister. Noah checks everything out and then will tell you how he thinks about it. I believe third children are the BEST!!

THE WEDDING

We are so happy the wedding was wonderful and we had a fun day with all the family.
Hans and Shelli looked so happy all day long, she wouldn't let Hans see her at all that day even before she put on her wedding dress. They are so fun to watch.


Ed gave a very sweet toast to the newlyweds. You have to know that it was 104 degrees that day and those poor boys were roasting but all managed to look wonderful



There were a couple of meltdowns but you notice it is a father/son problem. JJ had to lean on Ross to get thru and Jake was just tired of all the talking!!


The Bride and Groom were very nice looking but if you wanted to see the cutest people there, look below. These two are such good friends. They danced and CJ even twirled Jenni but she wouldn't let him dip her.

Hans and Jenni have a quiet moment before the wedding, Jenni loves Hans, but she has found a soulmate in Shelli.
All my beautiful babies, (yeah, I know they hate it when I call them that!!) They are trying to stay out of the way, the groomsmen are outside getting their picture taken!!

The Twins turn 4

The twins have turned four. It just seems incredible that they could be so old already. Four short years ago Randi Marie called to tell me her water broke, I wasn't very upset just concerned that it was very early (29 weeks and 5 days) When we got to the hospital they didn't seem too upset, until they had Randi hooked up to everything they could find. Then we saw her Dr (the head of the Neonatal trauma team) running down the hall. This was NOT good. Efrain and I were given scrubs to put on and told to go sit and wait for them to come and get us. We were asked if we had any questions before they took us in with Randi and the teams of Doctors and nures that were standing by to help with the birth of the tiny babies. It was so hard to see those little 2 lb boys being rushed away. But the best sound was their crying all the way down the hall, it wasn't loud but we could hear them!!
Now we see these big boys running around asking for birthday cake. That is their favorite food!! That and trains!! They had a train pinata and train cake, with two sets of tracks and trains that really moved on the cake. Everything was trains. It was so fun. They are healthy, happy and if I do say so myself, the cutest 4 year olds I have ever seen (well besides our CJ, he is the cutest also)

The last one!!

Tonight was the last "back to school" night for my children!! 22 years and 72 back to school teachers to meet with, and it is over. I was greeted with hugs and smiles tonight as I met with Allie's teachers, especially the teacher she TA's for, a nice tribute to Allie was part of the presentation of the class outline. I sat with Maggie's Mom and Tyler's Dad in one class. They all were in the same kindergarten class, we have delightful pictures of them holding hands as scared 5 year olds, and now as they get ready to go off to major universities, we remember how cute they were. (Tyler will get one semester in before his mission. ) These high school years were hard because I had to sit on the Blue and white side and try not to cheer for the black and orange. It was the hardest when I had a child participating wearing blue and white. Ross playing football and basketball and Petra in the band. This is certainly a milestone, I was so sick of going and sitting in classes to find out how busy the teachers were going to make my life each year, and this time I sat grinning. One teacher commented on it, I told him I was just savoring the moment because this child doesn't need the prompting some of the others have needed and this was the last time I would need to hear about homework deadlines and major projects. ahhh memories......

GIRLS CAMP - QUEEN OF THE ROCK!!

Girls Camp was so fun for Allie this year. She was queen of the rock, well until she had to climb down!! It was the last year for Allie and her friends they were the 6th Year YCL's.

They went several miles from camp to go repelling and found this wonderful water fall.



Jayme and Allie went down together, they were singing Disney songs to help them not scream in terror. They look so calm in the picture, but I understand a couple of minutes later the singing started!!
I like the cute bandanas, they were to keep their hair out of the ropes and not in the rocks.

Allie loved the rope swing, it is hard to balance and swing at the same time. By the time you are a 6th year you can show off to the younger girls. This was Allies last swing!! Bye rope swing!!






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Allie and Kristy shared an air mattress at camp. Jayme and Holly's air mattress had a hole in it and they ended up sleeping on the floor. We bought Allie a new air mattress right before camp so she could be comfy her last year. The 6th years have YURTs all to themselves. (YURT = a hut with wooden floors and sides and a canves top. There are wide cots and places for suitcases.)

The gangs all here!! Jayme, Allie, Holly, Kristy. They got to help run girls camp this year. The Stake leaders had them do pretty much everything. There was a bit of a problem with some of the other girls so these fun girls stepped up and took over!! (this kind of frightens me, I have seen these guys in action and putting them in charge is scary!!) They loved it and had a great year.

This is Sister Pickett, she loved her girls. She gave the megaphone to the girls to wake up all the younger campers. Of course this group was a little late but always happy to sing the other campers awake. I am not sure how the leaders felt about this wonderful song fest first thing in the morning. But Allie and her group enjoyed their task!!

So many wonderful memories!!

A Game of Memory anyone??

Here is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog thoseHere is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories memories

4th of July in Grandma Roskelley's front yard

Isaac, Lance and Jenni enjoy the fireworks in Gee Gee's front yard. The neighbors still had wonderful fireworks even thought Randy next door died this year, his sons took over. We can see the fireworks from the fair grounds even better now that one of the neighbors up the park took out a big tree.
Randi and Efrain were ready to enjoy the fireworks. Efrain was our lighter this year. He helped all the kids with the sparklers and set off all the big fountains for us to watch. Efrain was our master chef and ran the barbeque for the night. We had steaks, chicken, carne asada, and hot dogs. YUM!!

Randi's friend Kenna and her family came to have a barbeque and watch the fireworks also.

Jenni, Isaac and Isiah are waiting in line to get a sparkler. Isiah is a little worried about how bright they are.

3rd of July at the Ball Park

Ed and Petra got us tickets to a RiverCats game at Raley Field, on the 3rd of July they have fireworks also, it was a perfect evening with 80 degree weather. By the time we went home we all had sweaters on.

CJ has his glove and is ready just in case a foul ball comes his way. He had the glove on the entire night, he got so tired he asked Papa to hold his arm up so his glove was ready for the foul ball. It was so sad we never saw even one foul ball come to our section.

This is a blurry picture of what we could see from our seats. The office buildings of down town Sacramento. It was a fun night!!