Life with Grandma!

We are currently without a Daddy in the house! Evan is in Haiti with his dad and my brother, Cody, helping out on a building project there. We have called him once, but it is too expensive to call frequently. Thankfully, Evan is able to e-mail us, and he has been great at keeping in touch. I haven't checked my e-mail so eagerly since I was in college and checked every five minutes, looking for a certain Evan White to write me!

Realizing that I would go slowly mad watching three kids while heavily pregnant, my mother-in-law has been staying with us the whole time. The kids have certainly enjoyed having Grammy around to play hide-and-seek, take them on walks, read them ridiculous amounts of bedtime stories, and more!

The other day, the kids "helped" make banana cupcakes and shortbread.

Helping Cheyenne prick and cut the shortbread.

Rilla helped by putting the cupcake liners in the pan.

AND she made sure the batter was all right in all the different cups, by sticking her finger in and licking the batter!

After I took a picture of the little frosting face...

Elliott had to put icing on his face so I would take his picture!

This is Elliott, driving his kids to meeting. Kind of an interesting storage system for infant car seats!

Grandma has helped with mending, and has let Cheyenne use the sewing machine!

Notice the fingers very carefully away from the needle-- this is the Caution Kid personified!

The dress Grandma made Cheyenne-- Marilyn has had this material since Lisa was a teenager. It's nice to have one dress for Cheyenne that is long-- most of the skirts and dresses I can buy that fit Cheyenne around the waist hit her about mid-thigh. Marilyn has also made Cheyenne a cute little skirt, but I wasn't with it enough to take a picture of that!

Sunday afternoon, I relent a little in my no-computer-games stance. They are all wanting to watch, even if they can't all play at once!

This is the progress Evan has made in our shed before he left. It is dried in, if you discount the fact it has no door! It is wonderful to have a place to put the lawn mower so we can fit the kids' bikes in the garage. Eventually, this shed should hold enough that I could actually use the garage to put the van in during the winter. Concept! To the right of the shed is our ever-present pile of pea gravel. At least back there, it isn't getting scattered all over the driveway!

While Marilyn has been here, I've been taking advantage of daytime babysitting to get lots of appointments out of the way. I have had my teeth cleaned, taken Elliott to his kindergarten screening, had eye exams and bought glasses for Elliott and I-- it will be nice not to have to do all that when I have a newborn in the house. I am now officially "full-term" with this pregnancy. Very thankful that I won't have another preemie-- Elliott was enough for a lifetime! I am doing very well, although I am looking forward to the day when bending over to reach something on the floor doesn't require Herculean effort! Once Evan gets back from Haiti (Tuesday night), this baby can feel free to come at any time!