First Daffodil & Corpse Lily

To celebrate Ramona's birth, our first daffodil bloomed on her BIRTH day!

Here is the day-by-day growth of my corpse lily:

Monday, March 12, at 2:45 P.M. 13 inches:Tuesday, March 13, 2:30 P.M. 14 1/2 inches:

Wednesday, March 14, 6:04 P.M. 17 1/4 inches:

Thursday, March 15, 5:45 P.M. 19 3/4 inches!

I will post furture growth on my next blog.

Travel Sightings

The Sacramento Airport has a new terminal, where I photographed this huge tree branch suspended from the ceiling with thousands of crystal pendants hanging from it. It is really beautiful:
Los Angeles, December 2011:
Chicago and Lake Michigan, January, 2012:

The doll on the left is Violet's. I made this doll's dress and bloomers as Violet's 3rd birthday gift. I made the one on the right for Sadie's doll:

Christmas 2011

Here are the last of my Christmas photos. I posted photos that weren't on any of the other family blogs.

Andrew, Alissa, Jonathan and Sara. I think that this was before David and Hillary arrived.

Lunch at Los Aztecas. The children were all SO GOOD, down there at the end of the table together!

Fun time at the mall playplace. Wow, I never noticed Sara and I are in this, too!

Two doll dresses for Felicity and Elizabeth.

This is such a CUTE photo of Louise playing Dalmuti:

Lori's Visit

Lori came to visit us while Alissa and Andrew were with us at Christmastime.
Thanks so much, Lori, for sharing your time with us! And Thanks also for the "kissing balls." I still have one on the back porch that I look at everyday!

Marion Christmas program

Here are some photos that we took at the children's Christmas program in Marion. Notice Jonathan working on guitar music in the background.

Glenn's Holiday

I took these photos of Glenn's family room after I decorated for Christmas.

This is Glenn's Christmas cactus that usually lives outside, but we brought it inside instead of buying a poinsetta.

This is a little tree that I bought. It was already decorated, but I put some lights on it. It will be planted in the spring.

This is a bush out front that died last summer. He wanted me to put lights on it like last year. Then when I was out in January, I cut it off and dug it out!

It's PIE Time! Er, HIGH Time!

These are the pies that I made with my Gays Mills apples. I also put up some canned applesauce. I tried a "rustic tart" but didn't like the way it came out so well. My mistake was in using canned cranberries, instead of dried cranberries. It was too moist. The leafy top was the most fun! Alan got the flowers for Thanksgiving.
This is the fine arts building going up on the UD campus. This is in the general area of where our house was located. It is now a couple layers higher than when I took this photo! We're all wondering when the top will be reached!