Grandma Time in Colorado

 I feel very fortunate to be able to cancel piano lessons if I need to so I can fly out to help when a new grandbaby is born.

 I was able to spend ten days with Tyler and Rachel's family when sweet little Sylvia was born. Here are a few more pictures from my time in Colorado.

The weather was so warm (it got up to the 70's) while I was there that we spent time outdoors.

Andrew liked trying to pop the bubbles for awhile, but then wanted to blow the bubbles himself.

A family walk to the park. I believe it was Sylvia's first trip to the park. 

Andrew is taking after his daddy in that he LOVES to pretend he's driving the car! Tyler did that, too. when he was Andrew's age.

Andrew liked to check on Sylvia when she was sleeping in her bassinet to make sure she was okay.

Tyler had his birthday while I was in town; I think this is a cute picture because he's holding Sylvia and Andrew is near by as Tyler is blowing out the candles.

My turn to cuddle with baby Sylvia!!

A sweet Mommy and kids picture. I love Andrew's arm around his mom.

I went with Andrew as he spent his first day in nursery at church. He got along great.

One last picture of sweet baby Sylvia. It will be fun to see how she's changed when we go for her blessing in April.

Welcome to the World, Grandchild #9!

Precious baby Sylvia joined our eternal family at the end of January, weighing 7 lbs. 1oz.

 Tyler and Rachel are the proud parents, and Andrew is a loving big brother.

 The next two pictures show how cute Andrew is with Sylvia. He likes to pat her head and occasionally wants to hold her.

When she's in her bassinet he often checks on her.

Sylvia is a sweet and calm baby so far. 

 I feel very blessed that I've been able to spend some time with the family, especially bonding with adorable 18-month-old Andrew.

Even if Andrew doesn't have a large vocabulary, he's good at doing what he's asked to do. He's also good at making the grownups aware of what he wants!

Christmas in Houston

On December 19th, Kent and I flew to Texas to spend Christmas with Lissa and Adri's families. We split our time staying with each family.

This is at the Lee's house, when Sophia helped to make crepes.

On the 20th of December we went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert with Russ and Adri.

The concert wasn't as good as the one Kent and I went to several years ago in DC, but it got better the second half of the show.

The light show was pretty awesome.

Another day trip we took with Russ and Adri was to the San Jacinto Monument and USS Texas Battleship, located not too far outside of Houston.

Kent had heard about a Monet Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, so we spent a morning enjoying many lovely Monets. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the paintings.

It was a wonderful exhibit, bringing together in one place paintings from all over the world. It was interesting to read where all the paintings are normally on display.

Another fun trip we took with the Lees was to the Johnson NASA Space Center in Houston.

In the photo below you can see, it was warm enough on this day that we didn't even need to wear coats.

The sign in the photo below says that this is the home of astronaut training.

On Christmas eve we all dressed up to act out the Nativity story. Adri and Russ were Mary and Joseph, Grace was baby Jesus, Sophia and Savannah were shepherds, and Kiera was the angel.

Kent played the donkey, his usual role.

Lissa, Jason and I were the wisemen.

The day after Christmas we went into downtown Houston to see the Waterwall Fountain. This is what it looked like from a distance.

It was pretty amazing.

Kent had to head back to Virginia on the Sunday after Christmas, but I stayed another week.

The Lees and I took Kiera and Savannah to the Houston Zoo. The day after that we went in the evening to see the zoo lights.

This was a tunnel kids could crawl through in the aquarium. It looks like that fish is nibbling Kiera's head.

Here's Sophia looking at the toy train display.

Here's the view at night with the lights.

Same thing with the hanging balls in the trees.....

and again at night. 

 The Houston Zoo Lights were some of the best I've seen.

 I think there were more lights than they have at the National Zoo in DC.

 I thought the scene below looked like something from Dr. Seuss.

  I had a Crystal Light tea party with Kiera and Savannah.

We cut our sandwiches into shapes and had some apple slices.

I made a jumper for Kiera as a Christmas present.

Here Savannah and Kiera are modeling the aprons I made for them.

 And here's a cute picture of me with Sophia and Grace. As you can see, we had a really wonderful Christmas in Houston!!