Ken

This is my dearest hubby Ken. He's the love of my life.

Naomi

This is Naomi learning to knit.

She is so patient! Learning to knit is not easy. I can't wait to see the final afgan.

Naomi hides well when it comes to picture taking. I have very few pictures of her.

And who does this look like? I have to find the picture of Larry doing the same thing about 20 years earlier. I swear you couldn't tell the pictures apart!

Four Generations of Heilmans

This is Grandma Irene Heilman, Aunt Joyce, my cousin Patty and her twins. I don't remember what year this was taken but it is more than 7 years old.

Family photo

Ok, this is an oldie - Grandpa Heilman was still alive. There were 12 people missing from this photo. Can you find me, Katrina and Brannon? I was still married to Larry in this picture so the picture is over 18 years old. Ok, did I just admit that? We have grown from these 56 to great grand -kids, nieces, nephews to great-great grand -nieces and nephews. And this is only my Mom's brothers and sisters. When the first cousins are included I quit counting so many years ago I don't know how many there are now.

Ok, the photo caption says 1985. I'm dating myself!!

Joleen

Ok, Jo is as good at avoiding the camera as I am but every now and then I do get a picture of her.
She is now a Mrs. of almost one whole week. When I get some pics of Juan and the kids I'll get those up.

I'm so happy for her, Juan, and the kids!

Past Times

I hope this comes through so that you can read it. I was going through some old pics and found a few of the Fourth of July camping at Aunt Lois and Uncle Dave's in Wolcottville, Indiana. Every July 4th holiday we have a family campout. This has been going on since my cousin Steve was small. Ok, I'm 40-something so Steve has to be close to 50 by now. This is the picture of the outhouse rules that were written one year when the big kids were bored. Actually, my Mom being the youngest, I really was too young to help but I always thought the rules were funny. In essence the rules went through the alaphabet and excluded all the letters that started the last names of the families from using the outhouse.

This is Kaylee's quilt.

This is the first quilt I made except for blue jean quilts. I took a quilting class with my friend Karen. I love working with flannels. The material is so soft and reminds me of home. I learned that to get a square quilt you must trim each block so they are all the same size. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well I didn't know that and kept wondering why my quilts were not square. It is so simple once you know that you have to square up each block!

Jordyn's quilt

This is Jordyn's puppy quilt.
I had lots of fun making it. It took me over a year since I am very good at procrastinating. I learned a lot too. Every quilt is a new learning project. When you don't have enough back material I learned to divide it into thirds or quarters and put in a matching fabric that helps create a pattern.
The back has hand drawn puppy paws that I put in Jordyn's name, the date, and who made the quilt.

Grandkids

We had the grandkids this past weekend! What a joy! I love being G'ma. i really needed some "grandma time". We had such fun! Jordyn, Kaylee and I did all the grandma things that moms won't let kids do because it is too much mess. We painted, colored with chalk on the garage floor, played with silly putty and play dough. Then we planted the yellow rose bush on the south side of the house by the red rosebush. Kaylee was picking the rosebuds off, pulling them apart while saying "ooooo pretty"!
Saturday we picked up Alyssa and all went to the zoo. I think this was Kaylee's first time at the zoo. If not her first time it was her first time with grandma and grandpa. Kaylee liked the ducks and was not about to leave them. We ended up telling her there was more to see. Once she understood "more" we didn't have any trouble going onto the next exhibit.
Alyssa like playing at the playground. So did Jordyn and Kaylee. Alyssa liked the hippoquarium. They couldn't get enough pictures of the hippos.
Jordyn took some good pictures of the baby ducks and elephants. so did Alyssa. Kaylee talked about teh mommy elephant, baby elephant (Louie) and the poo - lots and lots of poo.
Jordyn liked riding the train in Africa!. She wanted to ride the carosel but that is not a good idea (she gets carsick). I wasn't chancing her getting sick in grandpa's car.
The blue frogs - yes blue- were neat. I didn't like the (s)"nakes" (as Kaylee calls them) though. thhhhssssss yuck!
By the end of the day we were all tired! There was still plenty of zoo to save for the next time!