Happy Birthday, Tricia!

You look so adorable in this photo

that I just wanted everybody to see it:

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday Dear Tricia

Happy birthday to you!

It's supposed to be spring . . . .

so why have these bedraggled and fading primroses

 been sitting on a table in my kitchen for over 2 weeks

 instead of being planted outside?

because this is what my backyard looks like today

  and the weatherman has promised a storm every day

for the next week!

So for a breath of springtime,

PLEASE read the next post

that is just below this one.

A Giant Carpet of Begonias . . . .

Happy Spring from Brussels, Belgium!

( I visited Brussels in 1966.)

Every year in the Grand Place Square in the center of Brussels, 

over a million Begonia plants are placed to make beautiful designs. 

These giant carpets of flowers are 300 square meters in size. 

 Notice how small the people look in the photos.

Every year they make a different design. 

 The above carpet of flowers used a Medieval design.

Here is a night time view from a previous year.

Snowflakes and Babies

Snowmen fall from heaven unassembled,

but babies come perfect.

Through the years after taking down my Christmas decorations, my house has always looked so empty . . . until Nickie gave me the idea of putting up snowmen decorations to liven up the winter months.  
I already had my first January decoration because only one week after our first date on 12/26/99, I gave Randy the statue shown above as my first Christmas present I ever gave him.  It is called, "Making a new friend." 

After Nickie gave me the idea of snowmen, we went to a store and she helped me pick out some snowmen. I like the one on the far right, where he is sculpting a giant snowflake because it also has a great message on the bottom: "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but dream, not only plan, but also believe." Anatoie France wrote the quote.

I was also with Nickie when I bought this snowman holding the bird.  

Nickie had this statue, which I just loved. It is called "Ketchum and B. Quick," but it was nowhere to be found. Camille found out that I wanted it and gave it to me for my birthday several years ago.  It also has a great message on the bottom: "Life is a series of inspired follies.  The difficulty is to find what to do. Never lose a chance; it doesn't come every day."  This was written by George Bernard Shaw.  This has become my modus operandi ever since I lost Randy.  The uncertainty of life has really hit me.  Now, if I get a good idea, I don't wait,  I just try to do it as soon as I  possibly can.  Thanks for being so thoughtful, Camille, for searching for it and giving me something so special.
Nickie was also with me when I got these cute snowmen pillows.  As I was at the checkstand, I found that one had a flaw and so Nickie was sweet to run and go find a better one for me. Thanks Nickie.

For Christmas this year, Nickie made and gave me this adorable sign.  I have always loved the saying: "Snowmen fall from heaven unassembled." I was so excited when I opened her gift.   Thanks so much, Nickie.

However, babies come from heaven perfect.  Here are Nickie and Aubrey on March 1, 2009, the day Aubrey was blessed in church.
It looks like Aubrey is really sizing up her sister and saying, "Don't you wish you had stylish legwarmers like mine."

Dee came up so we could celebrate his birthday with him. 

Here's Dee's birthday cake that Nickie made.

London is so busy that it is hard to get her to stand still for a photo, but I finally accomplished it.

Here E-man is with his rock collection.  Notice how close he is to all those delicious cookies that Nickie made.
I love this picture because it reminds me of Randy. My grandmother Ella McKinnon always told me that I should not deliberately cross my eyes or they just might permanently stay that way, so Randy used to cross his eyes to tease me because he knew what my Grammy had said.  It looks like Ethan is following in the footsteps of his Grandpa Randy in this photo.   I also love how tenderly Cris is looking at his precious baby girl.