Every day Nikki sends me pics of the babies.  It thrills me beyond words to get a sweet pic of them.  It seems like Mason is growing in leaps and bounds.  He has been cooing and smiling. 

 

His smiles just steal my heart!!

Haley is Nikki's little sidekick helper.  She helped Nikki give Mason his first bath in the big tub.

See her little hand.  Doesn't Mason look happy in the bath?

Today Mason hung out in the baby sling.

 

Ahhh, I just love it.  And, look at his blue, blue eyes.

He loves his big sister.  (I love, love, love this pic)

The other night, Nikki made some brownies for Haley to decorate. 

Icing the brownies:

Putting on sprinkles:

Taking a bite:

Finger lickin' good:

I love how Nikki does fun stuff with Haley.  Even though she has an infant and is probably overwhelmed, she thinks about things to do with Haley.  How cool is that?!!  I regret to say that I was not a mom like that.  Thank God Nikki is a mom like that.

Nikki sent me this pic today too.  Nothing better than a pic of a happy grandbaby.

Ahhh...my precious babies!!  Isn't it awesome that we can send pics over phones?!  Technology is keeping me in touch with my grandkids.  Thanks Nikki!!!!!

 

Eli is my neice's son.  He is my brother's grandson.  Eli has an older brother that is three (? I'm guessing) named Noah.  Anyway, Saturday afternoon Mary, Liz and I went to Eli's first birthday party.  My other neice's (Crystal) little girl (Bella) was there too.  Crystal is a sister to Eli's mom, Jenn.  There were four littles there.  I was in baby heaven.

Jenn (Eli's mom) did such a wonderful job on his party.

This is Eli before he got his cake.:

This is big brother Noah.:

Eli just smiled when he got his cake, but he didn't eat it.

You can see he is starting to dig in, but he wouldn't put his fingers in his mouth.  Jenn would give him bites, but he mostly played in the cake.

He showed us his messy hand.

Bella, Crystal's daughter, got so upset at how messy Eli was.  She walked in the room when he had cake all over his legs and hands/arms.  She looked at him and said, "Eeeeewww!"  It was so funny.  She watched him for a bit, and then went to get a napkin and brought it to Jenn to clean him.  It was the cutest thing!!  Hahaha

After Jenn gave him a quick bath, he opened gifts.

   

It was fun just to watch the kids running around.

Noah helped open the gifts.  He is such a darling too.  All the littles were so cute and precious.

Brothers:

I really hate that Haley wasn't there.  She would have had a blast.  I love where they live, but sometimes my heart aches wanting them to be up the road.  Nikki helps by sending me pics every day.  I love her for that!!!  It is hard to be keeping Mom when I want to be with my grandbabies.  I want Mom taken care of like I take care of her too.  It is such a torn feeling.  Ok, before I get on a downer, I just want to say Happy Birthday Eli!!!

Ryan is such a blessing to us.  Of course at times he is your typical teenager, but I am so thankful for him.  I think I have posted before how he loves to watch youtube videos on how to fix things.  He especially likes the ones about fixing cars, lawnmowers, etc.  He has helped Andrew fix our cars too.  Ryan says he wants to be a mechanical engineer.  I pray he will be able to.

Now that Andrew lives so far away, it is hard to get our car to his shop for repairs.  We had planned to go this past weekend and trade cars with Andrew so he could fix our brakes.  Mark called me the day after we had talked about it and said the brakes were too bad to wait.  They sounded like metal to metal.  We decided to let Ryan fix them.  Andrew said Ryan could do it, and he would be by the phone in case he had any problems. 

Ryan was nervous and excited to be doing the work himself.  I sat with him and took pictures (bothered him ).  He would say, "don't you need to go fix supper?"  The truth is, he was really glad for me to be there to listen to him rant when he couldn't get the rotor off. 

Raising the car:

Removing the lugnuts:

Removing the tire:

Removing brakes and calipers:

He had no problems until he tried to remove the old rotor.  It was seized and would not move no matter how much he banged on it.  We even consulted youtube with no results.  He tried for over an hour until we could get in touch with Andrew again.  Andrew told him exactly where to hit and it immediately came loose. 

Hey look, he had a reason to use the knife he bought the other night. 

Installing the new rotor:

Everything installed:

Right side completed:

By the time he started on the left side, he was one tired guy.

He had trouble on the left side getting the bolt off the caliper (I don't know what I am talking about--it may be wrong).  I even tried to help him and couldn't loosen it.  He went upstairs to get his dad.  Ryan had extended the wrench for his dad and when he went to show him which bolt to loosen, it loosened for Ryan. 

Putting on the new rotor:

He did an awesome job!  No more screeching or grinding noises.  He worked so hard!!  I told him I would let him stay out of school the next day.  He said he couldn't cause he had an important test.  I ended up letting him stay home Friday. 

Friday he mowed the yard:

 

Guess what!  Saturday night my dishwasher quit and he worked on it:

 

He fixed it to run another load, but it still isn't right.  He thinks he knows what to do to fix it tho.  I am having to hand wash for now.  I don't mind it too bad, it just takes up more time than I have to spend on cleaning the kitchen.

He is such a blessing!!  And even though he would hate to admit it because he is a teenager, we are close.  He is usually a quiet guy, but he talks and talks to me.  He tells me how to fix things and I have no clue what he is saying.  I just say, "un huh, un huh." 

I usually pray for him and my neices and nephews and Andrew's family as I am driving him to Jared's in the morning.  I pray the kids will understand their work and retain their knowledge.  I pray they will grow in their knowledge and relationship with God.  I also pray they will be protected and safe.  I pray they will have God's wisdom and knowledge in everything they do and say that day.  I am so thankful God takes care of them.  Thank you God!!!

 

 

 

This morning I could hardly get out of bed.  It was my day to take care of Granny, so I usually get up early.  I always fix supper for my family before leaving.  This morning I didn't even fix Mark's lunch.  He had to buy his lunch today.  I decided I would try to run home this afternoon and fix supper.

I drank a really large cup of coffee and it made me wide awake.  After helping Mom with her shower, I layed her down for a nap.  I always try to nap with her in the mornings if I can.  This morning it took a bit for me to settle down.  I think I may have slept around 45 min. and it totally refreshed me. 

It takes a lot of effort and patience to take care of Mom now.  Even at that, I think she does really well.  Martha and I walk her around their really long table 10 times several times a day for exercise.  We have had to learn different tricks and techniques to feed her.  It is amazing how I will tell Martha something I am doing, and she says she does the exact same thing.  So much of our routine is the same and we never discussed it beforehand. 

In the afternoon, Mom usually sits in her recliner and looks at photos.  She can no longer read, which is really sad.  That is when we run out for a while if we need to (of course Dad is there).  Today I went to Walmart to pick up a few groceries and ran home to fix supper.  Nikki had texted me last night wanting to pick up a bag of clothes Haley had outgrown to give to her neice's baby.  Nikki brought the kids up yesterday to go to a birthday party and decided to stay overnight with her mom and dad because she had a dr. appt. today.  She was going to pick up the clothes after her dr. appt.  I could not find the clothes anywhere.  I went downstairs three times and looked in the stuff we are storing for them.  I told Nikki I was afraid Mark may have accidently thrown them away.  I called him at work, and he had only thrown away bags.  So, I could not figure out where they could be.  Finally, I remembered they were in my car trunk.  I took them back to Mom's with me.  After supper Nikki brought the babies for Mom and Dad to see.  Haley has only been there a few times but she remembered.  She walked in and said, "Papaw!  Hi Papaw!"  She threw the ball with him.  She showed him her "ouchie" too.  Nikki  said she had gotten all kinds of sympathy today from showing her "ouchie". 

Yesterday they were at a birthday party and Haley was playing with her cousin who is three.  They both fell on the driveway.  The other little girl skinned her elbows and Haley skinned her face.  Poor baby!!  Nikki sent me this pic last night.

I knew it had to have hurt really bad.  Nikki said it bled so bad she was ready to call Andrew to meet them at the ER.  I took a pic tonight and you can really see how bad it is.

 

Even her top lip was swollen.  She was full of life though and telling about it.    She kept singing "Happy Birthday to you" because she had been at the party yesterday.  It was so cute!

I sat Mason on Dad's lap and then I held him while kinda sitting him on a pillow on Mom's lap.  They think he is a doll.  Mom said he is "beautiful"!!  I agree!!  When I had him on that pillow I was talking to him and he was just listening to me.  All of a sudden he smiled so big!!  It was wonderful!  I really think he remembered me cause he started to fuss when Dad had him. 

They did not stay too long.  Nikki had to take the clothes to her sister's house before going home.  I worried and prayed for their safety having to drive in the rain.  I texted her around 10PM, and she said they were home.  Thank God!!

Nikki told me something funny about Haley.  She said she and Haley would talk about how cool her shoes were and Nikki would say, "thanks Grammy".  So, she said yesterday if someone commented about liking Haley's shoes, Haley would say, "thanks Grammy."  Nikki said I got thanked a lot yesterday.  Hahahaha

Ok, I am off to bed.  I have to take care of Granny the next two days.  Thank God Nikki and the babies got home safely.  I pray your night is blessed!!!