Sweden @ 3

Sweden is 3. What a beautiful and sweet child. 

Rilla

Now.....how about a couple of shots of Rilla before I put Sweden's Birthday pictures up.

Just One More { I promise! }

Oh, these pictures with their blue and white theme make Sweden seem so Swedish {which she partly is of course}! Blue eyes, pale ivory skin, and her old fashioned blue and white flowery dress, all work toward the unintended mood. Grandma Pietsch would have loved this so much and makes me love this photo shoot as well.

Sweden

Sweden got Bambi
"all to herself"
this morning.
Which meant Bambi got Sweden
"all to herself!"
Pictures ensue.

Hibernation ( Coming out of )

Winter hibernation (from blogging) seems to be a habit of mine. Add to that tendency a total computer hard drive crash and you have a perfect storm! nearly 3 months long.
  
I am grateful for our son-in-law, Russ, for his expertise in all things computer but even he couldn't resurrect those thousands of pictures stored therein. So now that the proverbial cows are out of the barn we are going to fix that barn door called.... Back Up! Fortunately many of my choicest photos are stored on my blog but definitely not all of them.

Now to get back into the habit of taking pictures and posting some of them here fairly regularly, even though its mostly for myself. ( Nobody follows a blog that takes a 3 month vacation, for crying out loud!)
So here we go again....Tadaaaa! Crowns even.

  And there's nothing like brand new pink polka dot... flip flops to get one in the mood for Spring, ( especially  worn by grandchildren with cute toes). They just put a smile on your face, don't they?

  Then to top off the "coming out of hibernation" party I'm throwing here on Treading On Moss, some pictures from about a week ago of a hike with some of my favorite people.  We hiked on a trail that passes some beautiful waterfalls and is close enough to access in an afternoon. Beautiful weather doesn't hurt either.

Merry Christmas

Nope, I didn't mail any cards....

 But I did hang 20 stockings ( from the only place in our house that's long enough), did some other wrapping, decorated a little tree (oops, that's right Ilex and Ivy decorated our tree this year!) baked a few GF cookies and helped Ivy make a gingerbread house from scratch, put up a few other decorations, made most of Christmas Dinner, (Shannon did the table decorations and eath brought their particular specialty ) and we all enjoyed time with family!!  

Drake is home from the Navy for Christmas so the newlyweds are happy...

The after dinner walk has become a set custom and the weather has cooperated the past few years.

From Our House to Yours

Rilla