Tag Archives: Liam

The Joys of Family Time

The kids came down last weekend and I have cutie pie pictures, as promised. :)Cutie Pie Grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.meTiffany and I worked hard to get the room child-proofed. We cleaned off the card table that we had set up and took down the table. Then we took some of the tile boards that we’d cut down and used for marker boards when the kids were schooling to cover the drawers, shelves of exposed games, craft supplies, and other storage kind of things. Then we took Sean’s old twin bed mattress that we’d stored behind the sofa bed in the other room and put it on the floor of the room giving him a big boy bed. :) We store the toys we have for him in that room too and left them available to him.

Shortly after they arrived, we all went outside for a bit, to burn of some of Liam’s energy. The guys threw a football and frisbee around, while we girls threw a frisbee.

Grandson and Son ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Husband with football ~ Lifeofjoy.me
I’m one blessed lady!

Michael is sooo good with kids. :)Grandson and Hubby ~ Lifeofjoy.meUncle Sean took Liam an adventuring, which really means he simply took him around the cleared area to look at Sasha, our Blue Tick Heeler. He saw one of the chickens under one of the trees. The other he’d seen up front where we were throwing the frisbee.Liam, chicken, flying disc ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe saw the old lawn mower and remembered that he got to sit on it last time they were here, so up he went. ;)

Grandson and his uncle ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe spent a few minutes blowing bubbles and chasing the bubbles I blew for him. ;)Grandson blowing bubbles ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe seemed to like visiting Sasha. Tiffany took him over too.

Grandson and his aunt ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd the next day he went out with Sean to feed the animals and they visited for a while again. :)

Visiting the dog again ~ Lifeofjoy.me(I don’t know why we haven’t gotten rid of that old dog house. We got her a new one several years ago, which she uses but I guess she likes having options. :D )

Then we were off to my parents’ house to visit and celebrate March birthdays. My youngest niece took the cake out to each person when it was their turn. First up was Halee, then my sister Tracie, then Sean, whose birthday isn’t until next week. :)

Blowing out candles ~ Lifeofjoy.me Happy Birthday ~ Lifeofjoy.meLiam helped Sean blow out his candles. :) One more time ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt was a nice visit! It was good to see my family again. I sure do miss that we get together weekly but I sure do like lazy Sundays at home after church. :)

Well, there were more pictures taken of the trees and such but I’ll share them next week, as this has gotten rather picture heavy.

Have a great weekend,

Michele ºÜº

Family Time, Photography and Grandson

Well, I did not catch up on Valentangle2019 this week. With Valentine’s Day approaching, I was busy planning that, my kids came for the weekend, and my nieces are coming today. :) Busy but fun times. So it is my plan to work on the rest of the Valentangle2019 prompts throughout the rest of the month. :) There’s no law against it. :D

Daughter-in-Love Bday ~ Lifeofjoy.meWe celebrated Lauren’s birthday last weekend. :) Since her birthday is so close to Christmas, it was hard for her to come up with a wish list, so she just asked for cash to spend as she sees things and for spending on their vacation this spring.

We gals generally put cash on or in something little. I got her some pretty glitter washi tape . . . I know, shocking . . . she really liked the chevron one in the small package. Tracie put hers on the back of a print that Lauren really liked and Mom put hers between the pages of a notepad–we all did good. Then poor Sean is the lone male that gives gifts himself (I know he’ll be glad when he has a wife to help with these things ;) ). He leans towards money origami. :) In the picture above Lauren is holding the hearts he made with the money.

Liam is such a ham! Well many children are these days with all the pictures taken with phones but also he goes to a daycare where they send pictures to the parents daily and have taught him to smile and say cheese. It’s adorable.

Grandson the ham ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt’s funny because he had been over there playing with that activity center on the sofa by Lauren when I took the first picture. Then he came towards me, smiling and saying cheese the whole time. He kept it up, doing different things but keeping eye contact with the camera for a good few minutes. However my poor picture taking skills did not do any of this justice. Even the picture above had to be edited because the flash made it sooooo bright. Hey, at least I’m getting the camera out to try and take some pictures. :)

Here’s an example of my poor camera skills (raw, unedited in any way):

Grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.me Grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.me Grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.me Grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Great photography ~ Lifeofjoy.me
The blur is my grandson moving.

On each person’s birthday, I let them choose their food. Lauren chose No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake (THM) version,

Birthday Strawberry Cheesecake ~ Lifeofjoy.meand open-face sausage sandwich-low carb version – (and tater tots).

Open-face Sausage Sandwich ~ Lifeofjoy.meI added cooked mushrooms, onions, and peppers to mine and we had veggie tots which are not really compliant because they have the wheat breading but I was doing so much cooking that I did not feel like making something different for us . . . in hindsight, I should have just made the green fries.

Bday dinner 2019 ~ Lifeofoy.meFor breakfast the next morning we had Cinnamon Pecan Baked Pancakes  (Trim Healthy Table pg 338), bacon, and eggs for those that wanted them. Once Liam finished eating, he made his way to sit on Uncle Sean’s lap.

Uncle and Nephew ~ Lifeofjoy.me birthday breakfast ~ Lifeofjoy.meUncle and nephew ~ Lifeofjoy.meI love it when I see similarities in them. :)

At one point the kids were getting ready to play a video game together. Lauren snapped this shot of Liam getting right into it too (at least sitting with them and holding some kind of controller–this controller thing doesn’t always work, as sometimes he realizes his is different and wants the real thing).

Video game togetherness ~ Lifeofjoy.me Including grandson ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt was a good weekend, especially because I hadn’t seen them since Christmas and I’d only seen my sister and her family at the hospital when Mom had her knee surgery. We used to get together every Sunday! It’s a bit difficult adjusting to seeing the rest of them so infrequently. (Then there is my other sister and her family in Missouri that we see even more infrequent!) Life goes on and changes as it does. In five and ten years, things will look even more different . . . I hope it will include more extended family time than we’ve been having the last year or two. Well, only God knows. :)

Earlier this week Tiffany and I decided to go to our local (used in a very broad sense) library. Okay, it is as far away as the Tulsa library we were frequenting and in the opposite direction, but it is the one that we pay taxes towards and therefore free to us. We decided NOT to pay the $50 to borrow from the Tulsa library system.

Library Time ~ Lifeofjoy.meI’d taken a picture from a different angle using a different app and forgot to save it. Ugh!!! See! My photography skills are severely lacking. So this one is courtesy of Tiffany. :)

Sean went with us too, since he was working at home that day. We took our laptops and even did some writing after looking around. It really is a lovely building. Maybe next month I’ll take my camera and get some nice pics to share.

I’ll run for now. Have a great weekend; I intend to.

Until next tie, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Joyful Week

I finally remembered to buy snow to sprinkle on our Christmas tree! Yes, I was at the store, not once, not twice, but three times and didn’t remember to look for it a single time. So I went into town to have lunch with a dear friend last week and decided that I just needed to stop, on purpose, and get the bagged snow. Michael helped me put it on as Tiffany was cooking. :)

Putting on the Snow '17 ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt looks so much better with snow on it! Tiffany said, Now it is pretty before it was fugly. It really does make a huge difference. I enjoy snowmen, so I’ve been given a few snowmen ornaments; they look a lot better when there is a lot of snow around them on the tree. :)

I stopped by my sister’s house on the way home to drop off a book for her . . . Another Celebrated Dancing Bear. Evidently, I had a lot to say because I think I stayed and chatted with her for about two hours! I love my sister and don’t see her very often, in spite of living just fifteen minutes away. I could do that because I knew that dinner was a cinch to prepare and I also knew about what time I’d need to fix it, so I managed to get a good visit in with her and make it in time to fix dinner too. :)

Last weekend was also Christmas Cookie Painting day. I am so pleased to find a good “sugar” cookie recipe that is on the Trim Healthy Mama plan. It was really good too, even though they were a little bit more tender/breakable than regular sugar cookies. I was surprised that the cream cheese and butter frosting was so good, colored easily, and just one recipe was enough for all thirty-two cookies.

Cookie Decorating '17 ~ Lifeofjoy.meWe had a few cookies get well done but Liam liked them all the same. The kid loves sweets!

It seems this year was more three dimensional because the frosting was thicker.

Cookies 2017 ~ Lifeofjoy.meNot sure what was up with that one other than it broke, so I guess he put it back together, with style. ;)

Xmas Cookies '17 ~ Lifeofjoy.meI really liked Lauren’s snowman. :)

Cookies 2017 ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe even had the 3D going but only with the frosting depth. :)

cookies 2017 ~ Lifeofjoy.meI don’t have a clue what this 3d creation is. It looks like it was a gingerbread shape turned Santa? Not really sure. Maybe we caught the picture after it had been snacked on. :D

Tiffany helped Liam paint a cookie.

Liam Xmas Cookie 2017 ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt was hard to keep him from eating it right away but he had fun AND got to eat the cookie. :)

Laim Painting Cookie '17 ~ Lifeofjoy.meYes, Tiffany and I painted cookies too.

Tiff & I painted cookies ~ Lifeofjoy.meTiff did a cute snowman and I turned an angel upside down and made a flower. We decided that it looks like one of those Mario-eating flowers.

Here are some of our finished cookies. Not many were left, as we enjoy eating the labor of our hands. :D

Xmas Cookies 2017 ~ Lifeofjoy.meI do have to buy new colors and paint brushes next year. I’ll need to make sure I make myself a note because I generally wait until the last minute to gather my materials. ;)

Well, since Liam stayed with us this week, I have a few pictures to share.

Liam with Xmas dog ~ Lifeofjoy.meThis post is already picture intensive, so I’ll save them for next week.

We’re all going to see some Christmas lights this weekend, so I should have even more pictures to share; it will probably take two more weeks to share them.

I hope you are enjoying this holiday season! We sure are, in spite of different ones of us fighting off sicknesses.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Holiday Decor and Liam’s Vacation with Us

I’m going to have to learn how to put videos up on this site soon. I’ve had a couple of cute ones I would have liked to have shared if I knew how. I had captured those ducklings I shared a few Thursdays ago on video. Then last week when Tiffany and I were running errands we went to Big Lots. They always have some of the cutest holiday stuffed Christmas decor that moves and plays music. They have one this year that looks and sounds a bit like a monster from Sesame Street. :D

Christmas Decor ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe spins around the floor ‘singing’ a Christmas song. Very fun! (I figured out how to capture a still from the video.)

That’s about the extent of my non-Liam news. Brian and Lauren were able to go on a cruise and we get to keep Liam while they are gone because a boat is no place for a toddling child. He’s hardly stable on solid ground, let alone a boat or worse yet, solid ground after being on a boat. :D

I have decided that what I have heard is true: it is more fun being a grandparent than a parent! :) Don’t get me wrong, I love having him here and would not have had it any other way. But he reminded me how hard it is to be consistent with discipline day in and day out. I think I like being grandma best. :)

Fun being a Grandparent ~ Lifeofjoy.meI think I’ve probably said it before but this boy loves food! He even loves watching food being made.Liam loves food~ Lifeofjoy.meA few days before Liam got here, I got a package from Trim Healthy Mama and decided to save the box for him to play with. Usually kids like boxes and he did enjoy it for a little bit.

Box fun~ Lifeofjoy.meBut soon he gave up on it and played with the blocks his mommy left for him. :)

Mega Blocks ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt was fun to have Michael get some of the toys I’d saved from the kids out of storage and have him enjoy playing with them.

Toys ~ Lifeofjoy.meI was trying to figure out what real food I could feed this foodie. I boiled a couple of sweet potatoes for him to have with some meals. It’s really easy. I seasoned them with a bit of cinnamon. He seemed to enjoy them and has eaten both of them over the last several days.

Sweet Potato for lunch ~ Lifeofjoy.meAmong the fruits he’s eaten and enjoyed this week are strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, orange, and a peach. Fruit is not his food struggle, neither is meat. His struggle is vegetables. He seemed to like the sauteed broccoli and cauliflower we had near the beginning of his stay. He also seemed to like the creamy cabbage and chicken we had one night.

One day I tried to feed him some canned vegetables and he did not like it at all. I realized that I wouldn’t like it either. So I decided to cream them up. He ate some after that. The other night I gave him the rest of them added to some quinoa and he liked that.

Yesterday I was looking for a veggie for him to eat and realized I had a piece of “Cake for Dinner” which has a lot of undetectable radishes in it. He liked it.

Cake for Lunch ~ Lifeofjoy.meWell, I’ve rambled long enough. I’ll save some stuff for next week. Life is a bit more boring without him here. :D

So, Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Cooking, Birthdays, and Liam :)

The last week has been a major baking week for me, as predicted. I made this yummy sugar-free, grain-free cake for Tiffany’s birthday. It’s the same one she made for my birthday.
Birthday Cake ~ Lifeofjoy.meI hadn’t finished putting the candles on as Sean was taking pictures.

It was three layers. See!

Tiff's Cake sliced ~ Lifeofjoy.meAs you may be able to tell from the mess in the middle, the second layer broke apart, so I glued it together with frosting. :) It ate just as good as if it hadn’t been broken. :D

I also made brownies to take to my parents’ to celebrate with the extended family. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of those. They were fudgey-ish and had chocolate chips in them. Oh! I found a great way to make chocolate syrup/fudge sauce using Sukrin clear fiber syrup, which we put on top of the brownies and sugar-free ice cream my parents’ served us.

Birthdays ~ Lifeofjoy.meI also made a chocolate chocolate bundt cake for my mother’s birthday celebration. We celebrated a week early because we won’t be getting together again until Father’s Day. (And nope, I didn’t get a picture of that one either. The way it is, I swiped the picture above from my mother.)

I made pancake batter on Saturday, which Tiffany cooked on the griddle. While I made the batter, I put the dry ingredients for a second batch in a baggie for Tiffany’s birthday breakfast! Birthdays are busy cooking days around here, so every little bit of help I can give myself the better.

While Tiffany made the pancakes, I mixed up the cake batter for Momma’s cake and put it in the oven and then made some sausage and eggs to go with breakfast because I cannot just eat something sweet for breakfast . . . I gots to have my meats. ;)

On Tiffany’s birthday I added some blueberries and subbed blueberry extract for the vanilla extract. OMGee! These were delicious!!!

Birthday breakfast leftovers ~ Lifeofjoy.meI don’t usually eat leftover pancakes but these were soooo good, I couldn’t help myself! Oh! what makes it even better is that they are perfectly legitimate keto!!!! Whoo hoo!!!

I’d made “Soul Bread” before the weekend arrived last week, knowing how busy I was going to be and we needed that bread for Tiffany’s birthday. We used that bread and made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. The side dish took forever but was sooo good – Zucchini fries with a spicy mayo dip. Mmm mmm! (Sorry, no picture again. :( )

For her birthday dinner we had chicken fried caulirice. It was nice and meaty and I added some good coconut oil to it to up the fat, since the chicken is so low in fat and keto diet is high fat. (Yeah, you know the drill, no picture for this one either.)

Saturday night, Tiffany and I made Mexican pizza. Yummo.

I’ve had a couple of recipes I’ve been wanting to try. One is onion rings where you take a ring of onion and wrap it with thin cut bacon! I also got the ingredients to make “everything” bagels a couple of weeks ago; I really should stop loafing around and make them already. LOL


We also got to watch this cutie this week!!! Woo hoo! I just love him!

Liam Highchair ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe loves is spoons. He gets one to hold as you use the other to shovel the food in. We’ve graduated from tying him on a chair to a high chair, thanks to Lauren. :)

Liam and spoons ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe looks so grown up here! He’s such a good baby!!! He really only gets cranky when he is tired or hungry. Of course, both happen frequently. :D

Jesse Bear ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe seemed to like this sensory ball this visit. And of course, Tiffany is reading him Jesse Bear What will You Wear. I promise, we do own more books than that. :D

Liam and Pawpaw ~ Lifeofjoy.meYep, he’s a cutie patootie and we love having him here!!!

Well, I’m going to run for now. I hope you have a great weekend!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Flowers, Liam, and Visiting

It is always so busy at restaurants on Mother’s Day, and we dislike crowds, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Whataburger on our way to my parents’ house that day. While we were there, I think there was a group there together from somewhere, although I have no idea where. At any rate, they passed out some pretty carnations to every mother in the place. It was really very sweet of them.
Mother's Day Carnation ~ Lifeofjoy.meMother's Day Carnation ~ Lifeofjoy.meI got some pretty annuals to put in the front circular flower bed.

Circular Flower Bed ~ Lifeofjoy.meSome geraniums, I think.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meFlowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meYep, I got that one in two different colors. That pink one is so vibrant and the orange was really nice too. I couldn’t decide between the two, so I bought both. :D

Vincas, which I love because they are drought tolerant and I actually managed not to kill them. I’ve got a lot of these because Michael bought me several different colors of them. :) Hmmm, it seems that I did not get a picture of these yet. I’ll have to remedy that and share next week. :)

Gerber Daisies

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meThose look so nice they look fake. :D

This one is called Lemon Slice something. I don’t remember what the rest of it was but lemon slice was so perfect for these bright beauties. They may be petunias.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.me

The purple flowered one in the middle is a perennial, so I’m looking forward to seeing if they survive. ;) Of course you cannot see the small purple flowers on it though.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meI tried to crop this in my wp but it didn’t seem to work and I don’t have time to keep messing with it. Hopefully it will do well, and I’ll put up another picture later. ;)

Then there are these.

Flowers ~ Lifeofjoy.meFlowers ~ Lifeofjoy.me


My sister and her girls came over for a bit one day this week. Tiffany made us a mini chocolate cake. It was pretty good but the sweetener was a bit strong. Gotta work out the kinks. ;)

Mini Choc Cake ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen we got to babysit this cutie this week too!

Babysitting the Cutie ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Michael is so good with him.

Michael and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.me

It happened to be the same night that my parents came for dinner. So it was a joy to have both here at the same time. :)

Mom and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meAfter being warned about the chair, Daddy seemed to be comfortable and enjoying conversation with Michael.

Dad and Michael ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Lauren said he gets two pouches of food for dinner. He was definitely enjoying himself. :D

Liam 2 Pouches ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd this is the new face he is making . . . cracks me up!

Puckering Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.mePuckering Some More ~ Lifeofjoy.meLove the knee pads! :D

It has been a fun but busy week. The weekend is going to be full of baking because Tiffany’s birthday is this weekend and Mom’s is a week later, so we’ll be celebrating both this Sunday and I have three desserts to make before it is all over. (Wow, that was a Heidi worthy sentence! :D )

I hope you have a great weekend!

Until next time God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Liam Tangled

iamthedivacztI’m so glad I didn’t just skip the challenge this week. It didn’t seem to be something I would really enjoy but I have to admit, this one was soooo fun!!!  When I saw the Diva Challenge was to use a cut-out and Laura had used a model, the first thing I thought of using was a picture of my grandson. I entertained the idea of choosing food from an advertisement or something from a magazine, from which I have plenty to choose. But the idea of using a picture of Liam was the strongest idea, so I went with it.

First I had to pick a picture of him. This smirk of his just cracks me up. Oh and when he opens his mouth in an ‘O’, it just gets me! :DSmirk ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen I had to cut out his image in gimp (a free program for photos and such). Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen I had to save it and finally print it. After that I cut it out with scissors and affixed it to my tile.

Next came the tangle selection. I thought footlites by Carol Ohl would be good. Since Liam’s hand was on a busy box in the original photo, I decided on Cadent in that section. I wasn’t sure what to use in the final section. I toyed with some grid tangles but didn’t want anything that might look flowery or too dramatic. In the end, I settled on Tipple.

I forgot to take a scan of it before I shaded it, although it wasn’t really very dramatic, at least to me. Here it is in grayscale-finished.

Gray Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd here it is, as I see it in real life. :)

Color Tangled Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meI’m pleased with it. I could’ve blended the shading on Cadent a bit more but I like it. I will probably end up framing this one and hanging it up. Oh! I have just the thing! I got some glass frames for Christmas; this will be perfect! :)

A quick note about last week, I couldn’t figure out why none of the faithful commenters had commented on my tile last week. So, on Monday, I went to the Linky to check the link. Turns out that I never pushed publish on the post!!! :p Ugh!!! That’s the first time in nearly three years, that I have done that. Oh well, live and learn!

I appreciate this community so much! You’re comments are most appreciated!

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Liam, a Birthday, and Zelda

Last weekend I went and got Liam. :)

He’s taken to sucking his lower lip. :D

Liam lip sucking ~ Lifeofjoy.me

I got him a cute snack cup from Dollar Tree that holds the snack pieces inside the cup and has an opening for him to pull a piece out. He didn’t get the hang of it this time around but I’m sure that before long, he’ll be a pro at it.

New Snack Cup ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe was really wanting to move!

AND . . . he had his very first sleepover!!! He was very good!Sleepover! ~ Lifeofjoy.meHis mommy said he gets up between 7 and 8. I couldn’t reach her to ask but was pretty certain that she wanted me to wake him up. I was a bit nervous about doing it but he was a sweetie.  I gave him his morning bottle and we had some nice snuggle time.

Grandkids are a joy! I cannot wait until I have a bunch of them . :)


Sean’s birthday was this past weekend as well! He requested that yummy pound cake I made just days prior for his cake. It was REALLY good!!!

Sean Birthday ~ Lifeofjoy.meBusy and Fun ~ Lifeofjoy.meI wrote about it in more detail last Friday. If you eat low carb and sugar-free, this is delicious!


The only other thing that’s been big this week is that we are still loving the new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild. It is HUGE!!! and lots of fun!

Zelda ~ Lifeofjoy.meWe weren’t sure if we wanted to get it because it was released on the new Wii which we do not have. I’m so glad Sean bought it! :)

He also went ahead and ordered a strategy guide for it and it came yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to peruse it yet but it is gorgeous and has tons of information in it. The print is small but he was forewarned about that so we knew what to expect.

The Guide ~ Lifeofjoy.me

He’s a good bargain hunter and found a coupon and a discount, and sale items, and free shipping. :D

We get to have Liam spend the night again this weekend and get to show him off at church Sunday!

Well, I’m off for now. Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

Flowers, Art, Kittens, Birthday, and Liam

When Liam came last time, my sweet daughter-in-love, Lauren, had sent along a bouquet of flowers that Liam picked out for me.

Thoughtful Daughter-in-Love ~ Lifeofjoy.meHow thoughtful of her!!! And now, nearly two weeks later, they are still lovely. I feel so special and loved! :)

We had another freeze the other night and Tiffany has checked on the peach tree and says it is doing well. I’ll try to get some pictures of it next week.

I’m looking forward to  Walmart getting in their trees again this year. I’m going to replace my nectarine that died and my poor Arkansas Black apple tree that seems to be partially dead. Looks like it may have gotten hit by lightening. :o I got the peach tree from Walmart last year.


I received this cute chef guy for Christmas from my little sister and the other day I saw that Tiffany had written on it.

Blackboard Art ~ Lifeofjoy.meI love it!!!

When the Bradford Pear Trees were blooming, I checked on our wild redbud trees and they hadn’t started yet. Of course I didn’t get close to them because they are not readily available, meaning I’d have to walk through the brush to check closely. But when we’ve been out and about lately, I’ve noticed that others are blooming, so I looked out my back window and rising above the barren branches were some pretty bits of pink! :) I asked Tiffany if she’d take a picture while she was out feeding the animals today.

Wild Redbud Tree ~ Lifeofjoy.meThey are little but a nice bit of color in otherwise dreary or drab branches.

Here’s a picture I took with the telephoto lens so that you could see what I see. :)

Redbud in the distance ~ Lifeofjoy.me


This is Latte.

Latte and Kits ~ Lifeofjoy.meAnd this is a picture of KitKat from last August.

KitKat ~ Lifeofjoy.meNotice that she has no tail.

These are newly born kittens. Both Latte and KitKat were pregnant at the same time. We know when Kit Kat had hers because her water broke on our front porch while Tiffany was out with her. We aren’t so sure about Latte.

There are four kittens.

Spring 2017 Kittens ~ Lifeofjoy.meTiffany says that she thinks three of them don’t have a tail, which would make them Kit Kat’s. We’re pretty sure at least one is Latte’s. They are both nursing all four of them.

This is Shiloh. She just had a hair cut and it is chillier out this morning, so she’s wearing her coat.

Shiloh loves Kittens ~ Lifeofjoy.meShe loves kittens! She has always stuck her head in whatever house they were in and just looked at them fondly . . . no matter to whom they belonged. Kit Kat is okay with Shiloh checking in on them but Latte is another story. She hisses at Shiloh every time. Thus, Tiffany only lets her peek in when Kit Kat is with them. As you can see in the picture above, Latte is a bit protective of her kits.

Michael found a mangled dead kit at the bottom of the steps one morning, so this is probably why she is being this way. Not sure how it got that way but . . . it could be why she’s being so protective now.


We finally got to celebrate Lauren’s February birthday last night! They’ve been awfully busy.

Celebrating Lauren's Bday ~ Lifeofjoy.me Yep, he’s a loon!!! :D

I made one of her favorite meals: San Francisco Chicken with noodles and then Strawberry No-Bake Cheesecake for dessert. I made a keto version for us. It was good, except for the crust; I gotta buy some other oat fiber! The brand I got, Anthony’s, is STRONG! It makes food taste like play-doh! :p

I did promise a picture of Liam.

Liam with Aunt Tiffany ~ LIfeofjoy.meWe played Small World board game together and Lauren won!

Small World Winner, Lauren ~ Lifeofjoy.meWe had fun and I got lots of Liam cuddles. We get to watch him some next week too.


We have a church dinner/fun night tonight. I’m not hostessing it this time but have agreed to bring a pot of stew and help decorate this morning. I hope I remember to get some pictures to share with you next week. ;)

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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Peach Tree, Flowers, and Liam

It appears that our peach tree and its blossoms made it through the frost that hit a couple of weekends ago. There are some new blossoms and the old ones seem to be progressing along. Of course, I’ve never seen the stages of how a peach is formed but it seems like it is moving as it should be.

Peach Tree, Flowers, and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.mePeach Tree, Flowers, and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meOh! the peaches we’ll have! But now Michael tells me it is supposed to dip down below freezing again this weekend. Oh God! PLEASE protect my peaches, peach blossoms, and my peach tree overall.


The narcissus all bloomed out this week too. They are now standing tall and looking lovely.

Peach Tree, Flowers, and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meYes, I know, my flower bed is a disgrace. One day I’ll have beautiful flower beds but until then, I’ll just keep learning and growing. I think these may have actually increased from last year, like they’re supposed to do. :) Cool!

Peach Tree, Flowers, and Liam ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt looks like I have mostly the short trumpet ones. Oh well! At least they are the ones with the darker yellow centers. That’s some nice contrast.


Liam and new blocks ~ Lifeofjoy.meLook who was here last weekend! I bought him some sensory blocks and balls. I think he liked them.

Here is how we handled not having a highchair when we ate dinner. :)

Make-shift Highchair ~ Lifeofjoy.meI think he liked it.

He likes it! ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe moves his feet a lot . . . caught him mid-circle. :D

Changed into pj’s and chasing that rubber ducky.

RollAway Ducky ~ Lifeofjoy.me

Now on to the book.

Catching up on his reading ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen Aunt Tiffany read him Jesse Bear What Will You Wear.

Tiff and Liam & book ~ Lifeofjoy.meHe loves books! We’re all so happy about that. :)

Then Uncle Sean played with him. Here he was laughing at Grandpa. (He’s so unloved, right? NOT!)

Uncle Sean Time ~ Lifeofjoy.meThen Uncle Sean read him Jesse Bear What Will You Wear. Yep, the same book. :D We do have other books AND they are readily available. Oh well, he seemed to like it.

Uncle Sean's Turn ~ Lifeofjoy.meIt was a fun visit!


I got this really wonderful cookbook this week. I’m loving it. I made some bread from it this week and even though it didn’t turn out exactly right, it still tasted good. :)

I gave some sticky flags to Sean, Tiffany, and Michael to flag the things they would like me to make.

New cookbook fun ~ Lifeofjoy.meThere are very few unmarked recipes and some of those I want to try myself. :D They used up all of those flags I had. I guess I have lots of cooking to do over the next little while. Yum Yum!

Well, I hope you have a good and warm weekend.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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