Crafts with Grandma

Each day the girls worked on a project with Grandma and were thrilled with every single one!

They designed their own canvas shoes

Grandma was very patient and helpful as she sat beside them through each craft.

Painted shirts

And made super cute stepping stones

These girls love wearing their new gear and proudly letting others know they made their fun clothes with Grandma!

We love how everything turned out and even more, enjoyed the process of creating everything with Grandma!

Grandpa's Help

Every single time Grandpa comes to visit, he gets involved with our house projects.  This home would not be anywhere near where it is today without Grandpa's help.

During this visit, Dad installed a larger switch and outlet for the basement bathroom, fixed our kitchen drawers, installed a new garage door (which included moving a beam in the garage roof, accommodating the electrical wires for moved beam, and cut and installed some wood on the floor to accommodate the garage's sunken foundation), prepped the bathroom wall for a new medicine cabinet, toilet paper holder, and light, fixed the bathroom vent, replaced our old, rusty column with a new pillar, secured our car battery, and hung our handrails.  And as big as that list is, I'm not even sure it is complete!

Plus, on top of all this, I would find little things Dad did to make things even nicer around here.

(Before Dad came, I 'leveled' the green flower box with rocks, now it has a perfectly angled piece of wood under it!)

During Grandma and Grandpa's visit, our driveway was paved with concrete, so by the time they left, our house had experienced a pretty dramatic face-lift!

BEFORES:

AFTER:

Dad, we so appreciate your time, talents, and love how you have helped make our house a home.

Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's visit

This year, instead of holding Grandma Camp in Pennsylvania, Grandma and Grandpa decided to go on tour to see all their kids and grandkids.  We were lucky to have them the last week of June and we treasured every second of it.  Hylie and Eliana were elated to have Grandma and Grandpa here and Lillian was wonderful and rarely fussed about all the attention Grandma and Grandpa gave her.

Grandma brought a carload of crafts and projects to do and Dad brought his tools and house-fixing expertise.  We were so blessed to have them with us and love all the reminders of crafts and completed projects of what a wonderful time we had together.

While they were here, Geoff and I got to go to the temple to do a session and we were grateful to allow Mom and Dad the chance to go to the temple on their wedding anniversary.

Grandma and Grandpa surprised the girls with an opportunity to ride a pony.  Hylie was beside herself with excitement.  Eliana opted out...but now she's been talking about how she wants to ride the pony next time.  Grandma guided the pony for Hylie and found out how stubborn and heavy (it stepped on Grandma's foot, ouch!) a pony can be!

We also took a break from crafts and projects to go downtown to experience a few of the classic Chicago sites.

 I love these upside down trees at the Maggie Daley Park

 After work, Geoff was kind enough to go straight to Giordano's Pizza and reserve us a spot for dinner

Grandma also surprised the girls with some beautiful hand-made dresses.  Mom was very sweet and incorporated a connection to me with each dress: Lillian's buttons came off an old dress of mine, Eliana's dress was a project Mom started for me when I was little (she had completed all the embroidery on the dress years ago, but life got in the way of completing the dress until now), and Hylie's dress was from a pattern Mom used for a dress she made for me when I was young.

Thank you, Grandma!  We love being showered by your amazing talent!

Hylie's Eye Patch

The girls had some follow-up eye appointments on June 20th where the doctor decided it was best to start patching Hylie's left eye for two hours every day to strengthen her right eye.

Hylie has been such a trooper about wearing her eye patch.  The first few times were very difficult, her vision was extremely blurry and she kept asking to take it off.  We kept explaining to Hylie why she had to wear the patch and now, after only a few weeks of patching, she no longer complains about it.

To help make wearing the eye patch a little more fun, Hylie designs her patches.  She also came up with the idea of drawing an eye on her patch so it doesn't look like she's wearing an eye patch.

I think I like her designs a lot better than the drawn eyeball approach...

Here's hoping this will help improve her vision!