54 Years Later - Nana Finally Gets Someone Who Resembles Her

Little baby Angie

by Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Actually, it is 53 years - until my birthday in November. Why am I making myself older than I am???

A tiny baby girl was born 53 years ago. When that girl was married, she had 2 children, a boy and a girl. Neither resembled her. YES. She was there for the birth, so she knows they are hers.

Much later, the boy and girl both married their lifemates and produced wonderful grandchilden. None of which looked even the slightest bit like the Nana. Rather, they looked like mommy or daddy or this cousin or that one, or even aunties and uncles. No one resembled short little Nana.

Until now. Nana giggles and rubs her hands together with glee.

Little Autumn, the youngest princess, coming in at barely 3 months old, finally shows signs of having something in common with the Nana!

Autumn's eyes look like Nana's eyes. A family resemblance - how nice for me!

Little Autumn and her Nana eyes!

This Nana is happy with even the slightest hint of "she has my eyes." I would be fine if she had Papa's height and not my lack. Actually, I am very happy that she is healthy. A slight resemblance is just eye-cing on the cake. Wink, wink.

Yippee for grands.

Do your children resemble you? How about those grands?

Just chatting with my Nana.

Fourth of July Craft Project

Khloe with her Fourth of July flag ~ it was kind of heavy!

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Pinterest wins! This Fourth of July craft project turned out adorable.

The grands loved it as well, though they really wanted to just paint all over the old barn wood plaque. That would be a project for a different time. This time, Nana wanted some resemblance to a flag. It was on OLD barn wood after all, and that stuff is hard to come by.

That being said, use any wood you like. Or cardboard or a piece of canvas. With just a little help, you will be ready to celebrate the birth of our nation in style!

Audrey adding white stripes to her Fourth of July flag.

Fourth of July Flag Craft

Materials: wood, acrylic paints (red, white, blue), plastic containers to hold paint, paintbrushes, apron or old clothes, wire

Tools: saw, drill, wire cutter, broom

Donavyn is done with his flag and enjoying a freeze-pop on this nearly 100 degree day! UGH

1. Cut a rectangle from the wood. Drill two holes in the top for wire.

2. Use a broom to dust off the sawdust and dirt.

3. Squirt each color into a container.

4. Help do the handprint. I held each child's hand and thickly painted it with blue paint. I also helped place the hand and held it down until I had rubbed it all over. Wash!

Hayden working on his white stripes.

5. We did red stripes first, making sure to leave big spaces for the white. For older kids they can pretty much be told where to start the stripe and they will be fine. My younger guys needed a little more assistance. Normally, I would just let them paint however they wanted, but these were on barn wood...

6. Add the white stripes between the red.

7. Dry. Loop wire through the holes and twist together to form a hanging loop.

Happy 4th of July, America!

It's Never TOO Early to Give Books to Kids

It's never too early to start giving books to kids.

Meet Gage. He is 6 months old and he already loves to sink his (2) teeth into a good book.

Read for life!

Being Thankful

Another Thanksgiving has passed us by.

I'm always a bit sad when it is gone. It's such a long year until the next Thanksgiving and I love having a reason to reflect on those things for which I am thankful.

We had a quiet day of celebration with a grand total of 11 people (plus 1 in utero, so I could count that as 12) at our table. It was a wonderful day.

Here are some 'things' for which I am thankful.

 

Grandbaby number 5 and her/his mommy, Jamie Lee, the talented seamstress and teacher

 

Shoes by the door

 

My Donavyn, who can figure out how to open anything (I mean anything)

 

Donavyn and my baby playing cars

 

My Hayden (6 and in 1st grade)

 

My Miss Khloe (4 and in preschool)

 

The meal

 

My baby girl, Mommy and future college student

 

My baby's baby, My Gage

 

My baby boy, Mr. Mechanic, daddy of 1 and another that's getting ready to surprise us

 

Mr. Collin, daddy of 3, 4-wheelin' dude (trying not to be in the picture)

 

My honey (who recently, uhm, went dumpster diving when he accidently dropped in his glasses) - don't worry, he washed his hands a million times

 

Mommy naps

 

Bonding boys

 

Popsicle prince

 

Popsicle princess

 

Papa and his 'silly' hat

 

Grandma Carole

 

As you can see, I am thankful for quite a few things, er, people. I just have to remember to be thankful throughout the year, not just on the fourth Thursday of November.

 

Did you notice all of the 'my's? I claim relationship with these blessings in my life.

 

(Not pictured: So many people. Missed you! I claim you as 'my,' too.)

 

Happy Thanksgiving! I'd love to hear your thankful list. 

The Help

Meet the help.

Stats: 2 year-old male
Experience: Negligible
Status: Volunteer
Job assignment: Laundry assistant
Recruited by: Head cook, housekeeper, and bottle washer

Sometimes help is required. Today was such a day. Recruiting was simple, as above mentioned volunteer adores time spent opening and closing doors.

 

The dryer has a door that opens and closes. It also has a lint trap that can be taken out, cleaned, and replaced.

Success rate: 100 % (per number of items folded, er, rolled and piled on top)

Comments: Supervisor says recruit shows much promise. With proper training and years of experience, volunteer will be able to exhibit superior laundry folding skills.

Tip: Train the help early. The younger, the better.

Poll: What jobs have you trained your volunteers to do? How young did you start the training program? Success rate?

Hand-Me-Downs, Earth Day Solutions!

Donavyn, wearing Daddy's and Papa's red jacket.


I don't know about you, but I love hand-me-downs.

Don't get me wrong. I also love new clothes. But used outfits are broken in and feel so soft and loved. Ahhh.

Can't you just feel the comfort of a previously owned sweater? I have one that I wear almost ever day. I bought it at a thrift shop for a dollar or two. I'm pretty sure others are tired of it, but I do love that sweater. It's the prefect weight, warmth, and color. Ok. Maybe it doesn't match everything else I own, but I wear it like it does. Who cares? I'm over 50, so I can do things like that.

Reusing clothing is awesome! Why?

the price is excellent
used clothes can be used until they fall apart (guilty of this)
second-hand-clothes are not relegated to the trash (and landfill)
old clothes are broken in
reusing is budget stretching
sentiment on favorite items is extended to the new owners

Are you guilty of saving your child's baby clothes? I am.

Donavyn wearing Papa's and Daddy's (and auntie's) mail suit. It's showing the long years of use, so this outfit is more of a sentimental prize.

I kept all of my favorite outfits from both of my children. A good amount of boy and girl baby and toddler clothes stayed stashed in the garage. When the grands starting arriving, I dug out those boxes and started reusing favorites.

Let me warn you about stains and elastic though. Stains got worse (especially those formula and milk under the chin stains that never quite came all the way off). Elastic did not survive the heat and years in storage. Just an FYI.

The worn-by-all Mickey Mouse sweatshirt.

I loved most of the favorites just as much as the first time they were used. Oh, and many of my favorites were hand-me-downs, so we are talking some serious long-life-use of clothes.

A few of my supposed favorites? Ick. Why did I keep those? For emergency clothes. After the diaper leaks or the food exploration trashes an outfit, good old Nana has some spares.

But one of my absolute favorites? Holding on to something that used to be my husbands' when he was a little guy. Like the red jacket. It was worn by Kevin, and his son Taylor, and now Taylor's son Donavyn, who was recently photographed as he trotted around the backyard wearing it. I still have the matching hat.

Baby Hayden wearing the red hat that matches the red jacket. Sizes do not match, so I'm not sure how that worked in the olden days...

I also have a sweater set that my mama crocheted for Baby Taylor. It was worn by Baby Chelsie (Taylor's sister), Baby Hayden and Baby Khloe (Chelsie's kids), and for a short time, Baby Donavyn (Taylor's son). I will just keep putting that set on whichever grand needs warming up at the time.

This blog post was originally brought to you by Earth Day 2015. Let's add Nana's Trip Down Memory Lane as co-host. Thanks for joining me!

Papa holding Baby Taylor who is wearing the Christmas sweater set crocheted by my mama.

What kind of hand-me-downs do you hang on to and love?

Look who just showed up? Sister, not feeling well at all, but still willing to smile for Nana and her camera. Khloe is wearing the pink lamb sweater that her mommy wore many years ago. Hand-me-downs strike again!