We’ve had a few things going on in March so I thought I would just lump them all together.

Baby Steele –

Kalie and I have been talking about a quilt for the new baby.  She would like one that has Peter Rabbit on it (one of her favorite authors is Beatrix Potter) so we have done some shopping at fabric stores and quilt shops.  We didn’t find any Peter Rabbit fabric but we have seen some beautiful quilts and had a good time.  She was telling me about her favorite quilt as a child, that it had the A B C’s on it.  So that got me to thinking about the quilts that Grandma Steele made for all three of our kids.  I dug through the hope chest and find Aaron’s to give to them.

Aaron pointed out to Kalie right away that he was 8 lbs. 14 oz.  She and her sisters were around 7 lbs. so she may be wondering if their baby will be a big baby:)

Ruthie:

I had a box full of rags that I took out of the cabinet in the basement bathroom, there were just too many.  Ken took some of them out to the machine shed to use and I decided the rest would just go to the City Mission since they recycle all unusable clothing.  I wasn’t sure when I would get to the City Mission so I just stuck the box under the stairway.  With the colder weather, Ruth has adopted that as her bed. She lays in there until you tell her its time to go to chores.

Chris’ birthday:

Chris turned 60 in March and I wanted to give her something unusual, something handmade.  She is always giving us beautiful things that she has made from just stuff she has found or has around the house.  So I did a lot of pondering and came up with an idea to use one of the doors from the built-in china cabinet that was in the old house.  I sanded it down some to get the varnish off and then painted it with an off-white paint.  It has two small panes of glass on top, but the middle glass was broken so I took it out and replaced it with a piece of plexi-glass that I had painted with the black chalkboard paint.  On the third (lowest) portion of the door I stenciled the words Love, Laugh in red and then in a different font I stenciled HUNT.  I painted those letters in camo. Chris is an avid hunter so I knew she would appreciate the camo touch.  I think it came out pretty good. Hopefully she liked it.  I really enjoyed doing it and I have some other doors from the old house that I can work with.

The Friday after Chris’ birthday, her kids surprised her by getting a room for her and Mark at a motel on West O.  Some of the kids had rooms too.  They did this so that they could all go to Pla Mor to dance and have a few drinks without having to drive all the way home. Chris’ brothers, sister and their spouses came too.  A lot of the Doeden dancers were there and we had a great time.

Parker’s baptism/birthday:

We were invited to Parker’s baptism and birthday party.  I thought Mom might like to go too, so we picked her up early Sunday morning and headed to Grimes.  The church service was a 10:30 and we were there in plenty of time.  We had a great lunch, Stephen had smoked some pork, and birthday cupcakes for the party.  It was great to see everyone, we don’t get to the Des Moines area too often.  Here are a few of the pictures I took: