Wordless Wednesday

Calvin, our First Grandchild

As the 15 of October comes around for the second year of Calvin's passing, we are remembering our times together and sharing some photos. We had fun together going to Boise, Idaho, time together on the Great Midwest Tour of America, (a vacation for the Hansen's and McLean's one year), going to parks to play and just being together. Calvin holds a special spot in our hearts as our first grandchild.

The 2000 Family Reunion in Modesto, CA has Calvin with his teenage Aunts,
Uncles, and 2nd Cousins, plus others 

Calvin with his Bake & Bradley (Chas) cousins

Having fun outside the old Boise State Penitentiary 

DQ stop on our great Mid-West tour

This is as serious as it gets, even in front of the Nauvoo Temple

Mr "Ham it UP" and probably taken by his mother

The boys with the venerable Mark Twain (or his look alike) in Hannibal, MO

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday - Suzanne's Birthday Table Runner

Special Moments - An Italian Missionary

Happy Birthday Lonita!

All Tuckered Out

A few years ago, while in Indiana, Dan took this photo of me. As you can tell, I didn't know it. Thinking back I must have been one tired grandma. I was warm and connected. I had the telephone at arms reach. I also had lots of reading material. I had my scriptures and other books nearby. I'm surprised Whisper, our cat, wasn't on my lap. She loves to lay on my lap, especially if a blanket is involved. I'm in my favorite rocker. I still love to read in this chair, usually at night before going to sleep. Sometimes it even gets chilly enough to use a blanket. The funny thing is Whisper loves this chair almost as much as I do. She uses it while I sleep. I know, because she leaves cat hair, which I try to remember to remove.

Wordless Wednesday - 43 Years

Anniversary Friday!

Happy Anniversary Chris and Donna. What a great 17 years you have had!

Wordless Wednesday

Grandma's Dress

The dress that Donna is wearing in this photo was made by Grandma McLean in 1972. The dress was a little big when she received it, but fit fine a few years later. Okay, maybe it was a little short by then, but you can't see it. With stockings, it looked great. We lived in Manhattan, Kansas when this picture was taken. Graduate school encouraged us to stretched out the wardrobes as far as they would go. This dress was received the same time as Donna's blue jumper with the red shirt, which I have shared before. I loved those two dresses so much. As I remember Donna wore one of them every Sunday to church. You have to remember, the memory only remembers what it wants to. I'm sure, thinking back, there must have been more dresses in her wardrobe. I know there were summer dresses that I made and other dresses from Grandma. Little girl dresses are so cute. Donna looks so happy in her dress.

Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday Afternoon

Wordless Wednesday

Its Meg Ryan!

As I was looking at the combined photos of Jeni that Dad put in his blog today, I thought she looks like Meg Ryan. The first shows her saying "Hi, I'm Meg Ryan. Im glad to know you." She is staring straight at you and talking to you. Her eyes are blue and her mouth has a smile in it, just waiting to jump out. The last photo has her saying "well good-bye. I'm glad to meet you today, and I hope to see you later." In the photo it looks like she is ready to jump off to someplace. In reality it was school. I guess you might say I've seen You've Got Mail too many times.

Heading to Graduate school

Thinking of Allison and Michael moving to Bloomington, Indiana to attend IU, brings back lots of memories. I remember how much Dad and I were helped by Grandma and Grandpa McLean.

The summer before going to BYU, dad attended the Army artillery officer basic course for 4 months. That was my first experience living outside of California. The school was at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma in the city of Lawton. There were heavy rains, thunderstorms, and humidity. All of which, I had never experienced! What an eye-opening 4 months.

Grandma and Grandpa traded cars with us for those 4 months. We had a VW bug and they an International Harvester Travelall, which is like a Suburban.We had it packed with a little bit of everything. They still had Patti, Jeri, and Marti at home, so that trade must have been inconvenient for them. we were so young, we didn't realize what a sacrifice that was. Thank You.

While in school at BYU, I had a job for about 6 weeks. I realized I needed to be at home with our two little girls. I just couldn't leave them with my downstairs neighbor for all those hours at work. The time away couldn't be made up by any amount of money. Dan and I both agreed and he had 3 jobs to make ends meet.

While in Provo, Utah, Grandma sent us "care packages." It was really an "I love You" package. One package in the fall contained clothes for Donna and Jeni. I was so excited when I saw what was in the box. Two church dresses for Donna, tights for church, pants and t-shirts for play, socks, underwear, and even winter coats. Donna's coat was red. Jeni's was blue check with matching pants (which was worn by several of our children). Jeni's coat was used for several kids. The only thing I needed to get was shoes. I remember the two dresses for Donna so well. One was a red shirt with a blue jumper with little red strips. The other dress was purple and buttoned down the front. She wore those dresses for two years. Everything was cute and warm for a snowy climate. Grandma Jean was a wonderful seamstress, and she could also sew quickly. I remember loving to dress the girls for church and for around the house. Jean also sent Christmas boxes. One box had a pinecone wreath, which I used for many years.

Donna in her "Grandma Jean" shirt and jumper.

We know we have a photo of the coat, but this has to do. Little Suzanne has a coat Grandma Jean made for her.

The car exchange and BOXES were examples of giving pure love and service. Grandma and Grandpa didn't expect anything in return. We were young at BYU (26 to 28 years old) and didn't realize how blessed we were. So here is a belated THANK YOU. They gave us a great example of family love and service.

Sister's Weekend-2010

It has been awhile, but I wanted to share our sister's weekend quilt blocks and some pictures of the event.

I think we all had fun just relaxing, eating, visiting, and being silly. We missed Lonita this year and welcomed the newest member Allison, Michael's wife. I hope she wasn't too overwhelmed by the girls.

I was so proud, each sister brought eight 12x12 inch quilt squares. That is a lot of squares. Lonita had hers made by Donna. Her blocks have cows in her design, which is so appropriate for Iowa. Krissie made hers after arriving. I was jealous hers were made so fast. I can't tell you how much I love all the squares.

Donna has homes and a heart on her block. Jeni has triangles with hedgehogs, flowers, and mushrooms. Suzanne has a sunbonnet girl in a flower dress on a hot pink background. Lonita has cows with brown triangles. Her dad has a farm in Iowa with cows and corn. Her block was so "on spot" for Iowa. Sally has orange flowers with a chicken in the middle. Allison has green triangles with blue flowers on a tan background. Krissie, our non-sewer, has 3 large circles of orange, brown and teal on a background of dark brown. I was blown away how chic it looks. I love roosters, so I put a rooster in the middle of the square with red, blue, yellow and green around him. I had a different rooster for each square.

Jeni had her quilt done before she left for home. I'm sewing Lonita's and Krissie's quilt together, I just have the top done so far. Life seemed to get in the way of finishing it, but that will happen this summer. Summer starts this week. I can hardly wait to see the finished product.

Lonita's Quilt Top - It may all get done someday!

Krissie's Quilt Top - Just be patient!

Mother's Day - 2010

It's mother's day again. How did this happen, so soon. In a short 43 years I have become the mother to seven children and 16 wonderful grandchildren. I made our first child's school wardrobe including a blue winter coat (I loved that coat) which got her teased because it was blue and she was a girl. They all had home cut hair when young. They grew up eating homemade bread, cinnamon rolls, and reconstituted milk. They had dishes to wash , even when working till 11 p.m. at night. I was a mean mom. We have had a few broken bones, but lots and lots of smiles, too. One winter in cold Iowa, Dad and I made doughnuts on Saturday mornings. We all loved that. My mother once asked me "why do you have them do work at home." you see I didn't have any chores when growing up at home. I replied, "to keep the home going." But, we did have fun also. They loved playing in "the pits", a wooded lot in the neighborhood. They loved being pushed on a swing. We all loved eating cinnamon rolls hot out of the oven on a cold winter day or any day. And especially a homemade birthday cake each year. Thank you KIDS for making me a mother. I love each one of you.

I started celebrating mothers day last week. The girls were home plus Michael's wife. We had so much fun eating, talking and goofing off. Today we had a little cake to celebrate. It was chocolate with chocolate frosting. So good! We even received chocolate truffles in church. A great day. This afternoon I plan to do a little sewing, reading, and relaxing.

Puzzel mania

For Christmas, grandsons Cole and Clayton gave me the neatest puzzle. It was a tranquil country scene with hanging quilts. It had eleven quilts in the puzzle. It was really fun to look at the picture of the finished puzzle. But, it had 500 little pieces. Once I started it, could I ever finish it? Did I need to send for granddaughter Meagan to help me work on the puzzle? She put a puzzle together very quickly when here a few years ago. Alas, she was in school when I started and couldn't be called in to help.

For some reason, January and February flew by this year and I hadn't started the puzzle. Then on March 1st I said "this is the day to start my puzzle." I took out the pieces and laid them on our big coffee table in the front room. Oh, so many pieces. Remember, there are 11 quilts in the puzzle, two houses, people and the background of flowers, sky, and trees. To bring some order, I took sticky notes and put numbers on them to correspond to each quilt and house. Working with the colors in each quilt and the lines in the houses, I made piles of each item and put them by their assigned number. Dan made fun of me, but he wasn't doing the puzzle. Then, I was finally ready to start. I started with one quilt that was on the left side. I was able to get most of each of the 11 quilts done and connected.

Whenever someone telephoned me, I worked on the puzzle again. After exercising on the bike in the front room, I worked on the puzzle. It was so fun and addictive. I just couldn't stop working on it. Even Dan got involved one day and helped put some of the last pieces together.

The construction only took a week, from Monday to Friday. Thanks Cole and Clayton for sending me such a fun puzzle to work. I would show you the completed puzzle that Dan took a photo of, but he has it on a small drive he can't find!

We Love Aprons

Grandpa and I have loved reading about all the fun the grandkids are having with their new aprons. My mom, grandma Longcor, wore an apron to cook dinner every night. I really didn't use an apron much till the last few years. It always seemed too much trouble to put one on. Even now, I don't use my apron very often. But, when I do, it is fun. I made an apron with roosters on a yellow background. You know, I love roosters, so it's just fun.

Grandpa has a UNLV apron. He likes to wear his, also. So, this afternoon grandpa and I used our aprons to make some cupcakes. We had fun, just like your kids did. Bon Appetit. Who doesn't like to make cupcakes or cookies wearing an apron.

A Study in Red

Being the first week of February, it must be close to Valentine's day. Anyway, close enough. I though I'd do a study of my favorite color, RED, to honor that special day. Red is such a vibrant color. It just pops out at you. It is a fun color to have in your home. I love looking at the RED objects in my home. I love using them also.

First is my Fiesta ware in RED. I love using each piece, especially the red ones. We even bought enough small red plates that I can have every other plate in red in my cupboard stack of small plates. I usually have my oatmeal in the morning in the red bowl. Makes my breakfast fun.

I love the new Red drinking glasses we got after we moved to Las Vegas. They are big. So it is Red and Big.

Red tomatoes. These are the vine ripened type that actually taste like tomatoes, not the usual winter cardboard variety. We love them on our sandwiches.

This is a little "chicken in a red rimmed bowl". We use it for nuts so we don't get carried away and eat the whole bag at one sitting. This little chicken is just cute.

I love this pillow. I call it "Red Heart Squared". I dream of making a quilt with this patch in the middle someday. But, for right now, it is just a picture on my calendar begging for me to start cutting and sewing a new quilt.

This is a picture Michael gave me for Christmas several years back. He knows I love chickens and roosters and especially the color Red. It is my Red Angry Rooster. I love it.

The last entry for today is some "not often used" RED glass work. The goblet is from a set I bought almost 40 years ago in California. I guess I started liking the color red many, many years ago. The dessert glassware is from a set we inherited from grandma McLean. We had bought the red dessert cups many years before as a gift for her. They are perfect for a little dish of ice cream.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Red in the McLean household. What is your favorite color? Are you surrounded by that color? It can bring a cheer to your heart each day.

Birthdays are suppose to be fun, no matter what your age! Jeni has a January birthday and I wanted to do something different. I had an idea. I started a little quilt last year and had not finished it yet. It had been put aside for many other pursuits. Now was the time to strike. I fished it out of my many UFP. I still liked what I had done. So, I added a border and finished it!

A little late for the big day, but it was sent and I was happy. I call it Butterflies in the Mountains. In the quilt there are Butterflies in the Colorado mountains (triangles) in the corners. I love the flowers in the middle. Flowers always make me happy. Colorado has lots of spring flowers. Such a fun quilt to make.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENI!

Joy in the Journey

I just plain LOVE grandkids. I have hugged, kissed, squeezed, and tickled them. I have held them for that first greeting and counted each little toe. Yes--there are 10 little stubs. They are perfect!

>I have grandkids that are now teenagers. How did that happen so soon?? At times it feels like I have had grandchildren almost all my life. You can love them and hand them to their parents, when they start crying. You smile, love, and weep over them. Having given birth to seven children, I know of the pain and travail their mother's went through to bring these sweet and innocent babies to this earth. It is pure joy to see their eyes light up in recognition of grandma. They love being talked to. They have joined our eternal family. They have entered their journey of earth life.

We had two little sweethearts join our family last year. Charlotte Ann Bradley came July 2,2009 and Hattie Ce Ce Bake came October 26, 2009. I was able to be there after their births for a week or so. Each little one is so precious in their own right. And yes, I made sure, they each had 10 perfect little toes!

Charlotte is now six months old. She loves to watch her siblings and is perfecting (in her mind) how to run. I can see her saying: Run, run, as fast as you can. I'm going to catch you soon. Her brother and sister love her. Chas. has to come over to her and give her a kiss when ever he is near.

Hattie is 2 months now. She is busy being loved by her siblings, also. Her 2 sisters love to hold and feed her a bottle, especially in the mornings.

These two little girls are going to be bosom cousins forever. They loved being around each other before birth, and this feeling will only magnify as they grow. How wonderful to have cousins to grow up with so close.

Children are an heritage to the Lord. Grandchildren are an heritage and joy to their grandparents. We do love each of our grandchildren and wish we could visit them more often.