Misc. Pictures of the family.

Kirsten was working on a quilt for her little sister and I did some embroidery on it for her. Kirsten and I spent a good part of Saturday working on it together. It was so much fun and I am so proud of her and Hannah both learning to sew and loving it.

We took a few pictures outside in front of some of the lights.

It was so nice to have all 4 of the grands together. Tanek enjoyed getting re-accquainted with his cousins.

We also did our Christmas while they were here. I feel like I have already celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year we will get to celebrate Christmas twice. Opening gifts is always fun.

Such a sweet smile from Hannah. She is our bird loving, natural girl. Loves the garden and all things of nature. Just all smiles here because she got some bird books and a thingy that plays the sounds of different birds. She is our 2nd grand and is a joy. She loves riding horses and doing anything that has to do with nature. Papa would love to have her here all the time to help him in his garden. She loves it. And I might add, she has a very green thumb and can grow anything.

Here is our oldest grand. Kirsten is a very talented and smart girl. She can write a good story and draw the pictures to go with it. Her biggest love is horses and she can draw a beautiful horse head in the sand at the beach with her finger. Very talented. She and Hannah are learning to sew and doing very well at it. She is a pleasure to be around and we are so proud of the young lady she is growing up to be. She is the one that first made me a Nana and I am so thankful for that title.

Emily is our youngest grand-daughter and she is a very special little girl. There is NO telling what she might come up with. She is cute, and funny, and smart and precious. (spoken like a true Nana). The joy on her face as she opened her gifts was so heart warming. She likes a wide range of things. She loves to dance and sing and draw pictures. She is also very smart. (all my grand-children are extremely brilliant) She is very entertaining and loving..

Our youngest and only boy grand-child is also such a joy. He is just a happy little guy that likes everything. He is fun and has the a vivid imagination. He loved spending time with his cousins and Aunt and Uncle and just had a good week with them. He is into cars, and bulldozers and Handy Manny and just about anything else. He loves to sing and read and perform. He has a memory that is unbelieveable. I look at each of these sweet children and stand amazed and love watching to see what God is going to do with them. They all are so open to God and learning about Him and love hearing about Him. It was just wonderful having them all together and watching each of their personalities. Each is so unique and wonderful and such a blessing. It was a special "early" Christmas for us.

This was our final night together and they left early the next morning to go home. It was a wonderful week and holiday week spending time together. It went by way to fast but a lot of memories were made and lots of pictures were taken (by Heather) and will be coming in soon (hopefully). She is a very busy photographer and takes great pictures. This is a very busy time for her.

A Day at the Beach....in November

Monday Heather, her mom and I and our 3 grand-daughters went to the beach for the day. Even though it definitely wasn't summer, it was pretty nice for the end of November. Emily is making sand castles.

We enjoyed walking on the beach and playing in the water and picking up shells. We didn't actually get very far into the water with the exception of Emily. She got pretty wet.

Go Kirsten

The water was pretty cool at first, but not too bad after a while.

Any day at the beach is a good day

Kirsten and Emily walking along the water's edge

We made a make shift dressing room for Hannah to get into her bathing suit.

Heather and Hannah are in here getting Hannah changed

Here she is ready for the beach

Heather and Jackie sitting and relaxing. As you can see it wasn't real hot and it was windy, but it was still a pretty nice day.

My oldest grand-daughter Kirsten is very talented. She can write great stories and has a natural talent for art. She just drew this picture of a horse in the sand with her fingers. I think it was very good. Such talent.

It was great spending the day with all the "girls" and we had a nice time. Unfortunately when we came home Hannah was sick. She seems to get sick everytime she goes to the beach in Florida. Not sure if this is a coincidence or maybe she is allergic to Florida Sand? Hannah, get well soon.

Happy Birthday Emily & Papa

Today is Princess Emily's birthday. Tomorrow is Papa's birthday. 4 years ago today, Kirsten, Hannah, Gaga & I were anxiously awaiting the news that Emily was born. (Papa and I were hoping she would make it one more day, Heather was not in agreement to this). It was a cold fall Maryland day. When we got the word that you had made your entrance into the world we rushed to the hospital to see this precious little girl. Kirsten and Hannah were so happy to have a new little sister, and Gaga and I were happy to have another precious grand-daughter. It is hard to believe it has been 4 years ago. I have missed so much of your growing up time being so far away, but I have enjoyed whatever time I have had to watch you grow. You are a precious beautiful smart little girl. Nana and Papa love you very much. I can't wait to see you. This is a picture of the last time you were here and your Aunt Kiki bought you this little princess dress. You had the best time in it. You are our precious little princess Emily. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Here is a picture of Papa trying to hold the wiggly Emily. Papa is very happy to have a birthday so close to yours. He will soon be coming to see you and he can't wait. I can't wait until you come to visit for Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Papa and Emily.

Chillin with my lego catalog

We got a lego catalog in the mail a couple weeks ago. This is just about Tanek's favorite reading material. He loves to sit back and just look through it every day. When he spends the night with me he wants me to read that for his good night story.
After his bath at night he loves to come in the den and sit on the little seat of the sofa and look through all the pictures. He especially loves to see all the construction machines that can be made with lego's.

So much to choose from.

Taking time out to watch Handy Manny. He likes to call up Handy Manny when he needs help fixing things or if he thinks maybe Manny needs his help.

Showing off his catalog

This is good reading

Halloween

Saturday night we took Tanek to a few houses in the neighborhood to "trick or treat". After that we went to the fall festival at Hope Baptist. We went last year and it was a lot of fun for Tanek.
You play games and then get candy. He was most interested in getting the candy. He played the games by his rules and did very well at them. He liked these fancy glasses he got at the first booth.
Instead of dunking for apples, you picked them up with a large spoon.

He thought this was fun

The idea of this game was to throw a pumpkin at the pumpkins on the steps and knock them off.

He did very well at this and played it several times.

I am sure you were supposed to be a little further back, but he had fun and he would knock them down and then put them back up and do it again.

And here is his happy trademark smile. He almost always has that big smile on his face.

He was trying to get a bullseye here

The object of this game was to shoot a water gun and put the flame in the pumpkin out.

He got a big lolly

After he had all the fun he wanted and got a lot of candy we came home. We had a knock at the door and had 2 scary people at the door. This is what I opened the door too. (our neighbors John & Paula)

Well Halloween was fun and now it is over. It is NOW officially the beginning of the Christmas season. Yea! Tomorrow I take all the fall stuff down and up goes Christmas. I have been working on Christmas lights for about 3 weeks now (occasionally). Now we go full force. Inside and out. The goal is to have everything up and lit sometime during the week of Thanksgiving.

I love having it all done before Thanksgiving and then just relax and enjoy the whole month of Christmas. This year we will have our "Maryland" family for Thanksgiving so I want to be sure everything is done so the girls can enjoy the lights. Tanek is already excited just seeing them go up. We are already enjoying some Christmas music. His 3 year old choir is practicing Christmas music and that will be another treat to get to see and hear them. And this week we have cool fall weather all week (predicted) so it is perfect for working outside.