Fun with Grandkids...

 Hiking in Redwood Regional Park...

 Who says there's no fall color in California?

 Halloween fun at balloon house mania!

 The "traditional" Nieman Pumpkin Man..

Cupcakes with Kody!

Play date...he's King Kody...

Cupcakes with Penny!

Beautiful baby boy....Crew!

Tending Penny...it's easy (shhhh...don't tell Dave and Jess how much tech she gets when with me!)

Mother's Day Pictures...Christian, Alec, Sadie, Lindi

 Every Mother's Day, Amber's gift is that her children cooperate with having family  pictures taken...when they were small she took them to Kiddy Candids I think, until they closed....now she take their pictures herself and does a great job....usually she has individuals of each of them, plus shots of the two brothers and two sisters and a group shot....of course this year Christian is on his mission in Colombia....but he had someone take a nice photo of him and emailed it to mom...then Alec used his photo editing skills to put himself in the picture! Next year Alec will be on his mission...we'll see who can create that shot next Mother's Day....aren't they fine looking young men and women?

Sewing with Lindi

So Lindi and I also made this skirt while I was here...Lindi did almost all of the sewing! Side seams, hems, gathering stitches (LOTS of gathering stitches)...It's very twirly!

Grandma "Genius"?....Extend-a-Dress

 Lindi was having to get rid of a lot of her favorite dresses since she is (of course) growing taller....and shopping for new dresses was a bit discouraging too because most we found(if we were lucky) would barely come to her knee....so enter a little creative grandmothering....

I used a half slip she already had....then bought 1 yard of lacy eyelet fabric and a couple yards of light weight velcro...
I cut the fabric into 4 strips, 1/4 yd each and sewed the short edges together into a cylinder , then gathered the top edge...(and hemmed the bottom edge)

  

At this point I could have just sewn it to the bottom edge of the slip....but here's the genius part....I sewed some velcro to the under edge of the slip, then the other part of the velcro to the top edge of the ruffle... so it attaches to the slip with velcro...this is because we plan to make a couple more ruffles (black, yellow, etc.) that can be switched for specific dresses...

 Here's happy Lindi with a dress that was approaching uncomfortable shortness...we'll make a black ruffle that would look good with it too..

 And this was a dress she had two years ago for Kaity's wedding and hated to send to DI...

So many sundresses become much more wearable now...

Isn't this a cute one???

This is a navy/white dress

This will look good with the black ruffle...

Happy (modest) Lindi.....what a fun (grandma) project!

Talented Lindi...

Lindi has quite the artistic talent!....Here is her first picture done with charcoal....

And this is a picture she worked on for months (it took about 25 hours!)....

State Champs!

Alec's swim team (Mountain Crest) took first place in the State finals last week...it was very fun to be able to watch him swim "live" due to the meet being streamed by Deseret News....Amber filled me in as to which event and which lane. 

It's a tradition for the team to dye hair (and sometimes shave it all off!) in the weeks prior to the competition...good thing he got his "missionary" picture taken before this! (thanks to a mom who plans ahead!)

Alec is holding the trophy in this picture....Nice!
Now he's on to water polo!

Welcome, Everett Alan Broadbent!

 A new member of the family! Welcome, Everett Alan Broadbent!....born a little early,on November 1, (see Kaity's blog for birth details...) I left California at 4:30 am on November 1, thinking that I'd be there by the time he arrived as the plan was for Kaity to be induced that morning. But much to my surprise I got a text just after I left Reno that they were done! Kaity didn't have to be induced....went into labor on her own and had Everett at 8:15 am...happy news!

 What a little sweetie...6 lbs. 14 oz., 19 inches...

 I drove all day (observing the speed limit across Nevada...sort of)...and this was my reward!

The many faces of Everett...

Big yawn!!!

Face palm....aren't you guys done with the photos???

Sunny when he was born, snowy a few days later....

And when I drove home...temperature in Nevada at 7 am....10 degrees...glad I had my seat warmer!

The Broadbent family....

Cute grandkids!(Of course)...Penny

Here's the cute Penny on an outting to the beach in Maine!

Dave and Penny....what a pretty day.

Cute grandkids! (Of course!)

Just had to perk up my blog with a couple of cute pictures!

Here

Penny with the blossoms in DC!

And here are a couple of the Kodester!

Shall we call him Dustin, Jr.???


Two little cabbage patches!

Cute Grandkids...

Are you talking to your daddy, Penny?


Kody "rocks"...

Getting to be Grandma

Back in the good old days (the early 60's!) when I went to Lincoln High School in San Jose, I was often asked as I approached graduation about my career aspirations. Although I had a scholarship to BYU and planned to be a teacher, I usually told people my goal in life was to be a grandmother!

I was the first grandchild on both sides of my family and my grandmothers were only 41 when I was born, so I had many happy years being indulged by them, each in her own way...so thank you Christian, Alec, Sadie, Lindi, Brady, Carson, Parker, Cody and Penny for giving me the opportunity to be on the other end of grandmothering!

Penelope Nieman (May 15, 2009)

Parker(2 1/2)
Carson (4)
Brady (5 1/2)
Kody (April 10, 2009)









Sadie(11)
Christian (16)
Alec (14)
Lindi (8)