Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer....

I admit I'm a partial grandma, but seriously isn't this Rudolph the cutest?
Toby had his first Christmas program this week....

Merry Merry Christmas from the Stapleton's

Sunday at Uncle Joe's

We went to church in Kiowa and had lunch at Joe and Steph's...
Who is this guy in the picture? He grows another few inches each time I see him.
Sage is about 6ft 3 now...course that was on Sunday, he's probably taller today:)



How cute are they? Waiting patiently for their food...
Joe cooked brisket on his new smoker.....yummy good.
Checking out the new swing set....

Grandma is enjoying this one.....

Chunkie lives....

Remember this guy? Isn't he just the coolest caterpillar ever?? I love him.
Well he still is in cocoon, and we have not been sure whether he lives.
This week Heathers Dale did some research for us and found out lots of new
information about chunkie or is it chuckie?
Check out my last comments and see what Dale had to say and then go to web
site and see what our caterpillar is to become.
We have many of these moths in Nebraska. My bug boy is always bringing
one to show me.
So we wait...
Thank you Dale and Heather, what fun to see Chuckies future.

Check it Out....

We are excited....
Cole woke up this morning to find that Chunkie Chuckie, the caterpillar, made a cocoon in the night.
We are excited to see what happens next...

We ARE doing it...

Toby's own little play house is getting finished....

Steph and others have been working on this for weeks.
Remember there were 100 steps, and they are now on step 77, I'm told they are the hardest because they are the finishing touches, like the climbing wall, the swings, stairs and roof...
Here I am working hard, modeling my new hat, and supervising.
They need me:) check it out...at days end we stopped and had Mexican food.

We can DO This...

This beauty even has a climbing wall...

We have had some interesting weather for the last month. Heat during the day and storms in the afternoon. We have had several tornado's, some have even been in the city.

It is always windy in Kiowa, but worse when one of these storms blows through. One afternoon

the kids old play set was blown across the field in pieces. But...

Steph to the rescue, a play set on the Internet even the delivery was free, the only problem is that it was delivered in 4 big boxes and had to be put together by a rocket scientist.

I volunteered Art....There is nothing he can't do...and he loves it when I volunteer his services..

So...

Steph and I discussed it and even though Joe had to work and she had to study we decided that we would still get together and have a barbeque then Art could take a look.

Steph's mom agreed to help.....I love when Deb comes she is a female Art and can do most anything...and has muscle so we were set to go.

Deb and Art checked out the boxes and separated the pieces. Luckily the pieces were numbered.

Hmmm....not bad there were only 99 steps and a few screws, bolts, and nuts...

"What is a spike tee rut?"

Still checking out the pieces...a small problem...the holes did not line up. And some of the screws didn't fit.. Don't worry Art made bigger holes.....

Toby took the opportunity to beat the heat...playing in his new pool...

Making progress.... Step 3 and moving on.

I'm supervising and knitting a baby hat for the newest addition to the family... WAIT...

I made potato salad, sliced watermelon , and made sure that Toby stayed safe.

Tough jobs but someone had to do it, remember Joe is working and Steph is studying...

New help has arrived...Steph we need G16.

She can find G17, wait G 18, where is G 16?

Try looking in another pile of wood...

We are at step 5...only 94 to go...can that be rain coming this way?

Indeed at step 6, the rain came...

we had to stop and there was nothing to do but eat...maybe next weekend.

Congratulation....Sage....8th grade graduation

Time flys when you are having fun...or not.....
On to highschool?
Proud of you Sage.

A Walk in the Park:)

This story began early this morning. I spent some time with the boys, Cole and Toby. Steph had errands so it was just them and me. I don't get to hang with the Tobster much. (My nicname for Toby)
We had a great time. We played dress up, Toby makes a cute batman. I have pics if I can get them off my phone, we ate and then we decided to go for a walk.

"Come on Grandma, I will show you around," said Cole.

"We need to be careful though cause the cows could attack us so we will go the other direction."
Well okay. I mean this is an eight year old. And eight year olds love to run the show especially if he is giving a tour of the 60 acres he lives on, and with grandma and brother in tow. I decided right then and there that I would follow along and give him control.

Cole gathered the necessary tools for a succesful walk his two knives and an air soft gun, and the three of us set off. Strolling to the bottom of the hill enjoying the warm weather,the blue sky, and the slight breeze we stopped for Cole to show me how easy it would be to climb the tree if I was so inclined.

Not wanting to falloff, show off I chose to help Toby climb instead. We started back up the hill only to see the cows had decided to move and they were blocking our way out.

" Cole are you sure about the cows attacking us?"I said. Cows don't attack people do they?"

"Well yes, especially the male one, he is big, but don't worry we will just climb up the tree if he comes after us."

Visions of climbing the tree with Toby danced through my head.

"There must be another way out of here." I questioned.

"Oh look, a snake hole. That is a big one." Cole pointed." Must be an anaconda snake hole."

"Cole, show me the other way out," I said calmly.

" That way," he pointed out across the field. I looked across the field and saw no clear way out.

Just about that time my phone rang....
It was Art...when I answered the phone died....
It rang 4 more times and died each....
Must be important I thought he seemed awfully determined... Where is my "network" when I need it after all I have Verizon. Only place Verizon doesn't work is Kiowa.

Right then,In the middle of our trek, Toby decided that he had had enough. He began to cry loudly as he tried climbing up my leg,
and the phone rang...again...
"Guess what happened to me?" Art asked.
"Huh?"
"Well, I got a ticket for catching 1 to many fish this morning. $94."
"Can't talk to you right now," I said agitated calmly.
Did he say $94?

"Cole, where is the way out of here. I cannot carry Toby."
"Well, I'm not sure," he looked all around.

At least the cows hadn't moved, they still stood calmly at the top of the hill watching us.
No way was Toby going to walk,so I gathered him up and limped walked across about 10 steps through the field.This wasn't going to work.

Okay it was time for me to take control. I was the adult, and we were in trouble so I did the only thing I could do, I sat down on the ground, Toby on my lap, and made a call. Thank goodness the phone worked.

"Steph, where are you?" I asked.
"Almost, home," she said.
"We are in a dilema here, We need the 4 wheeler."

"Mom's on her way.I think we walked 20 miles," I said to Cole as we waited.

"Oh no, Grandma, it's only been about 1/2mile. I think you are just older than me so it seems longer to you," he replied all serious.
"Hmm, you think?"

Pretty soon we saw Steph in the distance coming on the 4 wheeler. When Toby saw her coming he found his legs and started running to her.

Steph offered to let me drive back.
No way, I have been working hard to be able to climb those hills in Vanuatu. Without Toby, I would and could walk up the hill to the house.

"That was a fun walk," Cole said when we finally got to the house. I found this old saw, a shot gun bullet, and that dead skunk that didn't stink. I wonder how he died?"
Amazing how an 8 year old gauges success.

"It was a fun walk," I said "and I made it all the way back."
That's how a old grandma measures success.

Happy Birthday... To You....Toby

He is CUTE and TWO...

The Fishy Story...

The snake fish is in the corner if you look closely...

This little guy is actually a shark...

Well I've learned a lot this weekend about fish tanks. The fishy part of the tank anyway.

There are two kinds of fresh water fish, aggressive and non-aggressive. Cole insisted that he did not want "sissy fish".

He did not care that the aggressive fish grow to big for the tank, or that they often don't get along with one another or that he could not have as many together in one tank.

He did not care that the non-aggressive fish are more colorful, that he could have more of them, and that they would all get along.

Nope all that mattered was that they were mean, and ugly, and calle aggressive...

So we got a shark, and some kind of snake fish, and a mean angel fish.

Surprise because the shark had eaten most of her tail before we got them out of the bag and into the water. Thankfully she seemed to hold her own once in the tank.

Cole is happy, and already trying to decide which kind he wants next.

I told him that he needed to give it a rest.

Better Late Than Never.....

Evn though it is late Sunday night I'd say that this is still the Thanksgiving weekend. My blogging Thanksgiving pictures before now was interuppted by forgetting my camera at Joe's house, and by the absolute necessity for me to focus on getting my Christmas Vanuatu packages out by Saturday morning.
Now that I have camera back, and packages safely in the mail , I have time to focus on blogging our Thanksgiving Day.

I"m thankful for the time spent with family. Having Erik so far away always keeps me aware of the importance of family time. Jon had to work, and he was missed.

Thanksgiving dinner was the usual focus,and it seems that we always have good food. What a blessing it is that we have so much food to choose from here.

Toby enjoyed his meal as we all did....

How cute is he? He was in the hospital last week, but is doing much better. Something else to give thanks for, that we have such excellent medical care here, and that with some of that medical help Toby is back to breathing better. Actually except for a slight cough he was good as new on Thanksgiving.

Newest member of Joe's family... Her name is Anne.

The guys say that turkey makes you tired. Looks that way....

FACES OF FALL ;o)

Sunflowers come in all sizes these were along the side of Joe's road in Kiowa this fall.