L'il Bevie is in Houston

Nana and I went to Del Monte yesterday evening. Bevie is there this week too.
We had a great dinner and I took a few vids. The best is the last. Al was reading to the twins just before bedtime and got caught skipping pages. The twins picked up on it and Steph recovered and got them back on track. However, Al tried it again and the twins nailed him......thus all the laughter on the last video!


This first one is of Graham playing with the air propelled rocket......



Next is Nana and Evie




And more of same..



Now the reading starts, Al was doing such a good job reading about Blueberry Hill......Little Evelyn is asleep on Bevie.



Until Steph had to get them synchronized ..........



And then he was caught trying to hoodwink the twins by skipping pages. The twins weren't having any of that and brought him to task on it........everyone thought it was so funny. We had a good laugh and I only captured the last bit of it......

Sleeping Beauty......

Not a lot to blog about today. But I do have this little 1 minute vid of Evelyn sleeping.



She was at the DR's today and weighs 7lbs 7ozs

Getting it together....

I remember a Christmas eve around 1960 and the difficulty I had putting together a little gas station/auto garage model (Japanese) for my nephew Kevin. The directions were written by a French/Cameroon bush pilot crossed with a Mexican midget. It was as hard to understand them as it was to comprehend how Steve McQueen could fashion a lens out of a glass bottle that enabled Dustin Hoffman to read in Papillon. A stretch at best! Anyway it took until after midnight to get it done and under the tree just a few scant hours before Kevin got up to destroy it.

IKEA has pretty good directions and, although written in English, they were probably written in Swedish and translated. Thank God they have pictures to tell the story PLUS, they have foolproofed the pieces so they only fit together in the right way......so the new computer desk was a two day deal but relatively simple.


Earlier this month, Emily and Jenn bought me a lovely outdoor grill for Father's Day.






It is just what I have been looking for since we moved to our new cramped quarters and it only took me an hour to put it together. There were 2 little pieces left over so after it rained ( I left the lid off )and filled the bottom of the grill with water I threw them in over my shoulder and made a wish. I learned to close the cover completely.....





Next, we finally got our kitchen window replaced on Saturday morning and Saturday after noon I got to put together an awning and position it above the new window. Took me an hour and a half to put the pieces together and another hour and a half to mount it. The instructions were not that great (written in Chinese) and after I had drilled holes in the wall and mounted the base piece I caulked it only to find out it was on upside down. Now, I coulda mounted the awning onto the base and told Bev it was a new style -pointing up instead of down -but her credulousness seems to be diminishing as the years pass and I'm not sure I could have convinced her unless I plied her with Cosmos first ....
Here's the awning.






And finally, yesterday Steph's pool sweeper quit running around the bottom of the pool. I took it apart to see what was wrong and now it wont go back together. She needs a new one! OR, I could ask the French/Cameroon undersea division of the Japanese 1960 Toy Garage people to send me instructions. Your call Steph.

What a day.

We had a great day today. It started with seeing the twins off to school and then we had old friends ( relatives too ) come visit us. We had snacks at the condo, went out for lunch ( Mexican ) and then spent the afternoon at the John and Dominique de Menil art museum. We enjoyed seeing the Picassos, Magrittes and the Jackson Pollocks, but I wish I had had my camera when we went into the chapel and saw Mark Rothko's paintings. You wunta believed it. There were three canvasses to the left, 3 canvasses to the right, and three canvasses in the center. Huge works about 10 feet by 5. All of them were black or dark purpley-black andWell, Jackson P is a stretch for me. Looking at dark canvasses and imagining seeing stuff is beyond my capacity........

The old friends ( relatives ) were Eric and Susan Muirhead. Bev's cousin Eric, his dad was Bev's uncle. He gained national fame back in 1977 ----- he was the Dr who participated in and oversaw the autopsy of Elvis Presley in Memphis. ( EP died of overdose according to Dr Eric M )

Any way, we go back a long way and we had a nice time talking, taking in the art and enjoying some nice wine..... it was so fun that none of us wanted the day to end.


But it did. But not before we had Cain Five (1998) and Shropshire Blue on whole grain French baguette.........followed by cigars on the patio.....



Lovely it was.

Here's a pic of the three of them.

More of The Martin's Visit

Here's Paige and her new sister...
Here's Colin snacking...

And the last two are the cousins (All 'cept for Colin who was still eating!)




Now here's a vid of a gorgeous kid. Just look at that mush......



And here's one of the cousins just getting into the pool at Nana's house.





And here's one at the other end of the pool. Anna and Graham jump to Jennifer who is in 8 feet of water!

Anna and Colin came to visit..........

Big times around the Houston family complex in River Oaks. The P'ville contingent came to swim, eat and babysit. It was great to have Colin and Anna for the day at our house. We went swimming and played and ate. They are such terrific kids.

Here's Anna singing to her new baby cousin. So sweet.






And here's one of Anna and Evelyn





Colin Oliver and OJ





Jennifer in the recliner with CollyOlly





And finally one of Anna trying to make a mechanical pencil work.

Happy Father's Day

Raining cats and dogs here in Houston. Jennifer and Anna and Colin O. are coming to see the new baby later today. They will be travelling in rain the whole way according to the weather stations projections....... Bev and I are going to visit with Eric and Susan Muirhead ( Bev's cousin Eric) and we were supposed to have going to swim but it looks doubtful with all the thunderstorms in the area. P.S.Someday I will post about the salmon that Eric and I dished up. Also today as on my birthday last month I got to hang some more window blinds.

I took a couple of nice videos last evening and Bev took a shot of me yesterday doing my Saturday crossie....










Here's Graham eating a cookie and telling us about someone with freckles.


Here's one with Graham acting like the patient to Nana and Paige who are doctoring him





Here's one posted hours after the others, I got busy with grandkids.







Here's another......

She works hard for the money......

Steph's blog today talks about the amazing woman's body. It got me to thinking about it. Not that I needed a reminder 'cos I've been enamoured for these last 40 years heh? by this one :-




Isn't it amazing that all this machine needs to function is a nice cup of tea?
Oh sure, once in a while you need to give it a little more sustenance to keep it running smoothly. I usually ply a little oats like this:-






And if you take care of it in that manner you will see a happy contented worker like this :-









Or this one that Noel has treated kindly for 50+ years :-














Or this one that Tud has trained so well to do hard manual labor and still is as happy as can be :-















And Tud's dresses up nice to look like this :-





Note: He keeps an ankle bracelet and a big iron ball attached to it to keep her in the kitchen where he knows she's happiest.



Or, you could just get lucky and find a nice happy one in a pub in London like this one :-











Amazing isn't it that with gentle encouragement (a nudge here or there but no whipping) these cared for female bodies can look like this:-










Or this :-

Twins 4th birthday video

Here's one of the slip and slide


Here's a follow up of the slip and slide


Pop rockets are fun


More pop rocket tomfoolery


Pop rocket #3



Counting Candles....



Paige Keegan Walker knows how to reserve her side of HER b'day cake. It reminds me of brother Colin who would lick his finger then touch the biggest piece of pie and say "This piece is mine"...

PK sneezes on HER cake..and Graham sings to Graham!



Happy Birthday Twins



Waiting for 1 more to download but I will publish this and post t'other later

How old is Evelyn?



I read somewhere a long time ago that horses are one year old the first year of life, and two years on the second January following their birth.

Here's something I found through Google explaining this.

All horses have common birthdays on January 1, regardless when they are born. Thoroughbred horses are bred to be born anywhere from January to June. So if a horse is born in June, it is considered a late foal. If it is born in January, it is considered an early foal. An early foal is preferred over a late foal, because a horse born in June will officially be one year old on January 1 when in reality it is only six months old. Horses are called weanlings until they reach the age of one and yearlings until they reach the age of two.

Happy Birthday Twins Fotos starring PK GB and Evie

Paige's birthday cake which Nana baked and iced, and Pk helped decorate.
Graham's birthday cake, again baked and iced by Nana and decorated by Graham and Grandad
Mommy trying to ignore the paparazzi


Evie yelling at paparazzi
Evie threatening to spit at them
Evie giving paparazzi an Italian salute
PK and Graham as bugs.....PK a fireant and GB a tomato worm that looks like a praying mantis in disguise!


GB as Superman


Next, I will publish a few videos of the days events. It will take a while, so you UK folks may not get to see them Thursday, unless you stay up late.

Tired yet?

I figure you must be tired of videos so here's foto or two.
The first is of Al plying the kids with sun block. One of PK at lunch, one of GB at the lockers and one of me and 2 of my 3 grandaughters.

How I missed dinner.....( new addition )

People have been very thoughtful by taking food to the Walker's. Yesterday was our turn. I made a chicken casserole and Beverly bought fruit and salad etc.
You will see in the video that everyone ate 'cept me; Evelyn was sleeping on my chest and I just sat there for 2.5 hrs..... Al was kind enough to bring me a glass just as they sat down to eat. These are not as clear as I'd like; I am too close in most cases. But they're worth a butcher's.








And here are Paige and Graham doing the 'I love you' song

Monday, Monday. (bonus footage added Tuesday)

Paige went to the dentist's today to have a cavity fixed. She was brave and did very well with no antics or behavior probs at all, despite the ordeal for a 4 year old to have to have meds and novocaine......

Graham went to school and then came home with Nana for lunch and a swim in Nana's pool.
After that we went to see our youngest family member. I will treat you with a few shots of Graham and some video of Paige Walker and her little sister Evie Walker...




Here's GB making guacamole.......





Please notice the paper hat he made at Camp today..














Now here's a video or two............















This one added the next day...........just after feeding.

One of God's Special days..........

Yesterday we had a great day.

Everyone was on top form. The twins were on their very best behavior and were so loving and protective of their new little sister. And we were all pleased with Evie's advancement on the food line. She was a sleepy girl for her first full day at home and snuggled with A. Cinda for over two hours, then at the end of the day she snuggled G'dad for two hours also..

Sunday was a good day too.
I agreed to go swimming with the twins and Daddy while Beverly and Steph stayed home with Evie.
We had lunch at the club and swam in the pool.

............Here's our new baby

Steph looks great and other than a little yelling at the end ( baby was too fast for Steph to get an Epidural ) she handled this like it was a serious Pilates class.

I will load videos and as they upload to YouTube I'll add them here.
They really need no commentary.

Here we are just entering the room to see the baby for the first time



Nana picks up her newest grandaughter...



Nana picks up her newest grandaughter again



And.

Call in the night.

Well we finally got the call from Al at 1230 midnight last night. We went over and they left for hospital about 1245. Baby was born at 0334, no name yet. I will post a couple of pics here now because that is quicker than the vids....I will do several videos as time allows.

Energy to spare

Its taken more than 2 hrs to publish this and it still is not the way I'd like it. Blogger is not user friendly at all. But I have other stuff to do so enjoy this the way it is...


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Nana cut short her day trip to San Antonio because we were expecting great happenings today. After Steph's Dr's appointment this morning we were all at the ready for the our new girl to come. But she didn't. She must be a good little hanger-on-erer.

This evening Nana read to Paige and Graham and Mommy played with blocks. I got a couple of snaps of that you may like. ( They are above and deng it I canna move them )




As to the title of this post, I took the kids for a walk just before bath time..Its 2 vids and I'm gonna take the time from my busy schedule to post both. Can you imagine having that much energy to spare?



And continuing...

Colin and Ballet

I heard my grandson Colin was interested in ballet and thought what a great opportunity that was for Col, and how sharp he was to recognize it. Then Dr Jenn said Col had refused to go 'cos it was all girls.
Paula said he should watch Billy Elliot, which was a good movie, but I thought he should see another aspect of ballet from a man's viewpoint. Actually, IMHO involvement in ballet rivals taking a small cute dog for a walk and may be even better 'cos there's no poop to pick up. :-)

I'm just saying......

Cultural Eclecticism, oh yeah.

Emily and I went to a wedding in Coppell yesterday. I had met the nice people who were married a few years ago at an IMC2 party. They are from diverse backgrounds- Eduardo from Peru and Michelle from London and with Indian parentage. The attendees at the church reflected the mix and more, there were all kinds there. And different accents too. The party after the wedding was held in a winery in the south end of Grapevine right off Glade Road. It was very nice.
Unhappily I don't have pics of the bride because we didn't take the cameras into the church (Terribly long ceremony with Mass and all. And it started late by almost a half hour because I think that Peruvian time is like Mexican time, huh?)
Nor did I get a pic of her at the reception because they were delayed getting to it because of the obligatory pics at the church and heavy 6pm traffic from Coppell thru DFW to lower Grapevine. So I was just leaving for the airport when they got there. Maybe Emily will post on this too.

I did get the pic above of Em on the drive from the church to the winery, and a small video as she drove me to Love Field for my return to Houston flight.

Weekends come and go.............

Saturday we ate lunch at River Oaks CC. It was a delight. We dined on lump-crab,chili,seafood tortillas,navy bean soup, country club sandwich, chicken strips, salad, pasta, sirloin steak and lots of PINEAPPLE. Supposedly pineapple is a stimulant for mother's who are getting fed-up with the pregnancy thing. Anyway, dint work 'cos the w/e came and went, didn't it? Sunday we ate Indian food at Del Monte. Lots of curry stuff again aimed at stirring things up......It was great food and the twins were in top form. They were on their very best behavior trying to convince Mommy that they should be allowed to go to a swimming party taking place right at their normal nap time. They made it!

Here's a short video of Nana and twins at the lunch on Saturday.




And here's one from today at Del Monte with Paige wearing G'dad's Birkenstocks

Saturday Night Fever at Del Monte

Okay, I know enough is enough but these kids are intoxicating and always doing something to record..........

John Travolta watch out....



And just in case you aren't bored stiff with my efforts, (P.S. I will know from amount of comment response whether I am pushing it too far or not) Here's Paige enjoying an unusual lunch for a 4 year old.

June 1st and still no new baby....

I know how much you guys like my videos; I got EIGHT comments on the last one. Just like the DJI--- a new record today.
So, since the response was encouraging, I am inspired to continue the production. (get the message inferred here?)
Here's a vid of the twins this morning walking up to the townhouse before going to Camp.



Steph was up early this morning and was first in line at the drop off point. The twins awakened her at 6 a.m. fully dressed and ready for camp. She is Sooo ready for the baby to stop procrastinating.