Drumroll please.......

IT'S A GIRL! Yep, Holli and Matt had an ultrasound and they are having a sweet little girl whom will have her daddy wrapped around her little fingers and whom her mommy will love accessorizing! Her name will be Charlotte with the nickname of Charli! Love it. Everyone is all aflutter about the news. Some of us (whom shall remain nameless), have even purchased little girl clothes...(all on clearance of course).
So to celebrate, Kenzie and I decided we were going to Vintage Cupcake here in Ogden. It's such a darling little cupcakerie.


So feminine and girly...what a perfect place to celebrate this monumentous occasion! Then the next day I attended an all day floral workshop and we had a balloon demonstration. One of the demo's was this cute binky balloon! Of course, I had to take a picture.
So, let the fun begin! I am so looking forward to being a grandma and can't wait for even more to come to our family in the future. I don't think I'll ever be able to have enough grandbabies...and maybe the next one will be a cute little boy in blue!!

Craftapalooza

We held our 2nd annual craft weekend, hereby known as Craftapalooza on Labor Day Weekend at beautiful Bear Lake! There were 10 of us off and on and we truly missed those who were unable to join us. Hopefully next year!! We rented a cabin looking over the lake and crafted our behinds off for 4 days! We watched chick flicks, ate yummy food, enjoyed the scenery, went hot tubbing and made a couple of trips to the beach!

I woke up early (stupid internal alarm system) and watched the sun come up from the deck of the cabin. I'm so happy I woke up early. I wouldn't have wanted to miss this!

We made cake platters out of simple every day plates and glasses. They turned out beautiful!

Julie and Kali enjoying dinner on the deck.

Julie pondering the meaning of life.

Erin and her lasagne

Another day, another sunrise

We saw lots of wildlife around the cabin. These were some wild turkeys across the street.

One morning, looked out the kitchen window and saw a mama dear and her twin babies! i couldn't get a picture of all of them together, but here's the mama and one of the babies.

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere. It wouldn't be a girl's party without it!

More of the chocolate display

We all fell in love with making magnets, crazy, I know, but oh so fun!

Bottlecap magnets and a flower magnet drying on the deck.

Trip to the beach. Kim, me, Julie, Kali, Erin, Darcy and Lynette

Chelsie, Lynette and Kali hard at work...

Kenzie, yes she slept with that pillow over her entire body all night long. Crazy girl.

It got a little windy and whipped up some nice whitecaps. It almost felt like being at the ocean...almost...

Erin, Kenzie, Chelsie, Kali, Jared and Hamlet
We invited to "boys" to come up on Sunday afternoon and stay over until Monday. Jared brought his 4-wheelers

Chelsie, eating one of Julie's "to die for" rice krispy treats!

This is a final picture of the beautiful lake as we were leaving. What a wonderful, relaxing, bonding weekend! Can't wait for next year...in fact, maybe we could do it once a quarter!!!

Ralph

Ever since my mother in law passed away last summer, Ralph, my father in law has been sad...He repeatedly told me he really didn't want to be here without her. He pondered aloud why he was still around. It's been hard to see him decline.
Last week was our turn to check on him each day. On Tuesday when I went to see him, I was told he had a UTI and Thrush. The nurse had been to see him and ordered an antibiotic to treat both illnesses. Ralph didn't look well at all...He wasn't too responsive to me. He knew me but wouldn't say much. The next day I was told he hadn't been eating. We thought it was because his mouth hurt from the thrush, but come to find out it was probably because he had lost the ability to swallow. Wednesday evening we were told by the hospice nurse that he was on his way out of this world. We didn't know how long it would take but his body was for sure shutting down.
We got a text message from Robyn (Dave's sister) at about 2:35 a.m. saying that Ralph had passed away in his sleep. He went down quickly and for that we are grateful. He didn't appear to be suffering and he just slipped away...that's how I would like to go when it's time.
I imagined him being greeted by his mother who passed away when he was a boy and by a myriad of others who went on before, but I got a little smile on my face thinking about him seeing Norma again after a year apart. We joked that we weren't sure if they were having a grand reunion or if Norma was thinking "darn, my fun is over!!" If you knew them both, you know what I'm talking about! So...we have a funeral for him this weekend where we will honor and remember him. And life goes on...