Fourteen Facts About ?

Guess who is 14 today!?

1. His favorite music:                    Imagine Dragons

2. His favorite book:                    Mazerunner series

3. His favorite movie:                            The Hobbit

4. His favorite TV show:                Adventure Time

5. His favorite food:   anything with pasta and meat

6. His favorite game:           Minecraft, Terraria, and

anything on the Xbox or computer or Kindle

7. His favorite holidays:           Christmas and Easter
8. His hobbies:           music, riding his bike, friends,
avoiding homework, playing video games
9. His favorite thing about school:                   friends
10. His favorite thing to do with friends:   wrap random
objects in tinfoil and doorbell ditch cute girls!

11. He watches an episode of "Good Mythical Morning"
on YouTube every morning.
12. He became CERT trained this year through Layton City
(Community Emergency Response Team)
13. His favorite things about his 13th year were
getting his braces off, 8th grade and Scout Camp.

14. He is looking forward to 9th grade, Pioneer Trek,
High Adventure Camp, Church dances, and
growing a mustache this coming year!

Happy Birthday Zach!
Love, Grandma



Zz is for Zach

Once upon a time

(exactly 13 years ago) . . .

a sweet baby boy was born who . . .

  grew up to become . . .



my first official teenage grandson!

Happy Birthday Zach!

Love, Grandma

Ee is for Easter and Eleven

April 8 Happy Easter . . . Happy Spring . . .

Happy Birthday let us sing!

This young man turns 11 years old today!
Do you know 11 facts about Zach?

1. What is Zach's favorite color?
green

2. What is Zach's favorite book?
Diary of a Wimpy Kid

3. What is Zach's favorite show?
"Adventuretime"

4. What is Zach's favorite song?
"Tonight Tonight"

5. What is Zach's favorite subject in school?
math
6. What is Zach's favorite thing to do after school?
ride his bike
7. What is Zach's favorite snack?
baby cucumbers
8. What is Zach's favorite food?
shrimp, steak, and meatballs in spaghetti or sub sandwiches
9. What is one of Zach's wishes?
to live next door to his best friend, Braden

10. What does Zach want to be when he grows up?
a video game tester

11. Where did Zach's 11th finger come from?
Brody!

Happy Birthday Zach!
Love, Grandma

Bb is for Babies

You may wonder if doing the alphabet backwards this year has confused me . . . but don't worry. I haven't gone bonkers throwing this "Bb" in out of nowhere. The day after the birth of a brand new baby boy--Owen Brady Pickett--seemed like a perfectly lovely day to talk about babies.

Besides that, it's also a big day because now I have ten grandchildren. That's every single finger and thumb on two hands if you're counting! It also seems like a good day for another guessing game.

Look at all the baby photos above and below and guess which one might be you . . . which one might be your mom . . . and who are the rest of the cutest babies in the world? Correct guesses are worth big bucks (I mean tickets) to the X-box Shop grand-opening in only one more week!

Happy Birthday baby Owen!
Love, Grandma

Zz is for Zachary

Sorry for the two-week snoozzzze. I guess I needed a long winter's nap after doing the picture book Christmas countdown for 26 days in a row! Now I'm ready to start a new year of alphabet adventures! How about you? To spice things up a bit, I thought we would do the alphabet backwards this year!

So . . . . here is a little quiZzzzz:

Zz is for . . . ?

Who is the very first person who got alphabet adventures from me?

Whose name begins with the very last letter of the alphabet?
Who knows so much about the alphabet that he can

write in cursive and read chapter books?

Who loves pie?

Who loves all kinds of food . . . both eating and cooking?

Who got a lump of coal for Christmas?

Who also got a Nintendo DS something or other gadget?

Who will be a whole decade old in three more months?

Guess who "Zz is for . . ." and tell me your favorite thing about this mystery person and win a fabulous prize. Draw a picture or glue a photo of this person in Chapter Zz of your Alpha-Book and win another fabulous prize! Get the autograph of this person in your Alpha-Book and win yet another fabulous prize!

Happy New Year!

Love, Grandma

Zz is for "Zzzzzzzzzz"

Once upon a time I discovered a Christmas Alphabet Book at the library called "Not Enough Beds!" by Lisa Bullard. It was the same year (2001) we had so many people sleeping over at our house on Christmas Eve that Aunt Betsy and Aunt Hayley had to sleep on a pile of quilts, blankets and sleeping bags on the cold basement floor. We also had a Zachary sleeping in our house that night just like the last page of this book. Fortunately no one had to sleep in the bathtub, but whenever I read this story it reminds me of that wonderful Christmas Eve. I hope you're able to get enough zzzzzzzz's tonight wherever you may be sleeping.

Merry Christmas zzzzzzzz's to all

and to all a good night!

Love, Grandma

Tt is for 'Twas

About three Christmases ago Zach wrote and illustrated

his own version of "The Night Before Christmas" . . .

that famous poem that goes:

" 'Twas the night before Christmas,

when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring,

not even a mouse . . ."

There are many other versions of this beloved poem like " 'Twas the Fright Before Christmas" in a haunted house . . . or "The Care Bears' Night Before Christmas". If you want to know the true story of how Clement Clarke Moore wrote this classic as a surprise for his children, read " 'Twas the Day Before Christmas".

Merry 'Twas the week before Christmas!

Love, Grandma

Aa is for Advent

Advent is a word that means "coming" or "arrival". It is the season when people begin preparing, getting ready and waiting for Christmas to come. Some people have an advent tradition of lighting a candle each of the four Sundays before Christmas and telling part of the Christmas story. Some people start their holiday preparations by getting out special dishes and decorations, playing Christmas music and reading favorite holiday books. Some people open a little flap on a cardboard calendar each day in December to count the days until Christmas. There are all kinds of ways to get ready and countdown the days until Christmas.

Do any of these ways look familiar?

Once upon a time (before 8 out of 9 of you were born)

your mommies made these cute advent calendars . . . including Shelly whose picture I could not find. (Sorry.) You will probably have it hanging up in your house soon and using it again this year. Nevertheless, I am going to turn this Alpha-Blog into a sort of Alpha-Advent Calendar this month to count the days until Christmas. So check it out each day so you know which letter of the alphabet to button onto your Christmas tree pillow. In case you can't tell, today would be a good day to button on the letter A!. By the time we make it to "Z" it should be Christmas!

Merry Advent Alphabet Adventure!

Love, Grandma

Yy is for Yellow

My favorite color is yellow.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a yellow house. Or maybe it's because I live in a yellow (on the inside) house now. Or maybe it's just because yellow is such a bright, cheery, warm, happy color. You can see great yellow things all year long like yellow daffodils in the spring . . . yellow sunshine in the summer . . . yellow sunflowers in September . . . yellow leaves on trees in the fall . . . and twinkly lights on houses and Christmas trees in winter. There are just as many yummy yellow things to eat like bananas, corn-on-the-cob, lemonade, lemonsnap cookies, and cheesy scrambled eggs. In fact, Eddy thinks the color yellow is "lemon". And don't forget all the everyday yellow things like pencils, school buses, the middle "caution" light on traffic signals, Big Bird, little rubber duckies, and my Kitchenaid mixer.

Celebrate the color yellow by wearing, eating,

and looking for yellow today.

Maybe you could also draw or find a yellow picture

to put in Chapter Yy of your Alpha-Book.

Happy (as Eddy would say) Lemon Day!

Love, Grandma

Xx is for "X marks the spot"

X marks the spot where an "end-of-the-alphabet" surprise is waiting for you. However, we still have two more letters in the alphabet to go . . . so eXcuse me for a moment while I tell you my gratitude alphabet: I'm thankful for Alphabet books . . . Brody and brownies . . . Coltin and crayons . . . Disneyland and dishwashers . . . Eddy and e-mail . . . my Family and fall foliage . . . Grandpa and gardens . . . my Home and holidays . . . Idaho and ice cream . . . Jack and raspberry/peach jam . . . Kleenex and my kitchen . . . Luke and little Lindsay Lu . . . M&Ms and Mary Engelbreit mugs . . . Notebooks and numbers . . . Oregon and the ocean . . . my Piano and peaches . . . Quilts and quiet . . . Ryan and rainy days . . . Sunflowers and seasons . . . Teapots and trees . . . my Umbrella . . . Vacations and vegetables . . . Wade and waterfalls . . . Yellow . . . and Zachary and zippers! Look and see if you can find a picture for every letter of the alphabet. X marks the spot where you can get a sneak peek of your "end-of-the-alphabet" surprise. While you patiently wait for it, perhaps you could draw or cut out pictures of things you're thankful for and glue them in each chapter of your Alpha-Book.

Best wishes for an eXcellent day!

Love, Grandma

Qq is for Quiz

Since summer has nearly slipped away, I decided to quit the picture book posts. I may not have quite finished the alphabet, but I will still give you a fabulous prize for any or all puzzle pieces you glued in your Alpha-Books this summer.

Now . . . on to our regularly scheduled alphabet adventures.

Qq is for this quick quiz:

Question number one:

Who do you think should win a fabulous prize

in the "Ee is for Elephant" coloring contest?

Zach who is quite confident about this colorful creation . . .

Brody who decided to color a regular elephant . . .

Jack who looked at every page of his "Elmer" book
for inspiration in coloring his elephant . . .

. . . or Eddy who has been much too busy doing puzzles

and loving little LuLu

to care as much about coloring an elephant!

Question number two:

What kind of fabulous prize would be worth winning?

Something big . . . or something small?

Something cute . . . or something yummy?

A new book . . .or a new box of crayons?

Some quarters . . . or something else?

Please help me solve my quandary.

Happy Quiz Day!

Love, Grandma

Oo is for Ocean

Oh, what fun I had going to Oregon on vacation

with our whole entire family

. . . and being there when all eight boys saw

the ocean for the very first time!

Besides some seashells, salt water taffy, and a Christmas ornament;

this is the picture book I brought home as a souvenir.
It is a cute story about a Mom and her baby's

adventure just getting to the beach.

Maybe you can look for it at the library sometime or . . .

better yet, I could read my book to you the next time I see you.

In the meantime, find your Oo puzzle pieces

for your Alpha-Book . . .or make an

"ocean" in Chapter Oo of your book by painting one page

blue and gluing on pictures of fishes, whales, octopus, etc. . .

or you could make a vacation memory jar

with the seashells you collected!

Have an Ooooutstanding day!

Love, Grandma

Oo is for Oh!

Oh, no! It snowed this morning and I wanted to do a

"summer is coming" post.

Oh, well . . . here it is anyway.

Oh, and by the way, you can read or sing along with the song

on page 245 of the Children's Songbook

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream

on the banks as the clouds go by?

Is that what you do? . . . so do I!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool,

or swing in a tree up high?

Is that what you do? . . . So do I!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Do you march/watch parades, or drink lemonades,

or count all the stars in the sky?

Is that what you do? . . . So do I!

Actually this is my real summer to do list:

1. Go to Oregon to see the ocean

2. Go to Alaska to see the Land of the Midnight Sun

3. Go to Cedar City to see some plays

4. Eat lots of watermelon, cantaloupe, and ice cream

5. Try to post one picture book title/and or activity idea for each letter of the alphabet

Tell me five things you want to do this summer and obviously, then I will have to give you a fabulous prize!

Oh, what a fun summer I hope we all have!

Love, Grandma

Nn is for Numbers

Let's play name that number!

How many hats is cute Luke wearing?

How many Wades are in this picture?

How many cute cousins are chillin' on Grandma's floor?

How many crazy cousins are horsing around on Grandpa's grass?

How many counting books are on Grandma's blue table?

How many numbers on are Jack's blue closet?

How many colors are in Eddy's paint box?

How many numbers are on Grandpa's refrigerator?

Here are a number of other things you can do today

. . . tomorrow . . . or whenever:

Find 1 number notebook I gave you

on your 3rd birthday and look at it just for fun.

Eat 2 treats afterwards then sing

the 4 seasons song or

5 little monkies jumping on the bed.

Take a 6 second nap then pick up and put away

7 toys and do 8 jumping jacks. Next find 9 numbers

to put in Chapter Nn of your alpha-book.

Color pictures, stick stickers, or cut items from a

magazine to match each number.

Then give me 1 good reason to give you a fabulous prize.

Happy counting,

Love Grandma

Mm is for Moms

Sing (or read) this post to the tune of

"A Happy Family"

(Children's Songbook page 198)

I love this Mommy

she loves Luke, Brody and Zach. We love this Mommy, yes sir-ree! She loves Ryan and Jack, so you see, They are both happy families. I love this Mommy, she loves Eddy (and the baby girl in her belly) We love this Mommy, yes sir-ree! She loves baby Wade, so you see, They are all happy families! Remember Mommy this Sunday! Maybe you could make her a meal (and clean up the mess afterwards) . . . or give her a gift, card, hug and kiss! Maybe you could also draw a picture of your Mom in Chapter Mm of your alpha-book. Happy Mothers' Day!

Love, the mom of your moms

Kk is for Kids in the Kitchen

Recently there were some kids in my kitchen . . .

. . . looking for something to nibble on . . . . . . while their cousins and . . . . . . big brothers were . . . . . . frosting and decorating . . . . . . and eating their names!
Here are some treats you might like to create in your own kitchen:

Fruit Smiles
Cupcake Garden
Heart-shaped Pretzels
Ice Cream Cookie Cups
Kabobers and Shake-a-Pudding Dip

Happy kitchen kapers!
Love, Grandma