Merry CHRISTmas!

Wishing you and your family a

day filled with Christmas blessings!

Happy Birthday, Brandy!!!!

 Today, is my sweet daughter in law,

Brandy's Birthday!

 Happy Birthday, Brandy!

Brandy is an amazing wife to my son Andrew!

She lovingly supports him in his

business adventures and does a great

job of taking care of his home

and their baby girl, Brilyn!

She is a great Mom! She is selfless and

loving and puts her families needs

above her own.

Without her, our family would not be

compete. I'm so happy to have

her. I hope she has a wonderfully

happy birthday and a super

blessed year to come!

And many, many years after that!

Brilyn and the CHRISTmas Tree!

 I took Brilyn to Cameron University to

see the big Christmas Tree. We also

took a few pictures to break in

my new camera.

Is she not the most adorable

thing you have ever seen?

You just have to love her.

It can't be helped.

She's a handful as she is

constantly on the go.

But - she has such a contagious

enthusiasm. She always

makes you smile!

Elf On The Shelf

 When the girls are here visiting

our little Elf on the Shelf

leaves us surprises.

His name is Jingle Bells but we

call him Jingle or Jingles!

One night while we were sleeping

he decorated our tree with a paper snow

angel chain and left us a book

titles, " The Snow Angel"

by Glenn Beck!

 I love how he encourages reading!

So far he has always left us with something

new and special to read!

 One night we went to bed after cleaning

up for the December Family Birthday Party

and we found he had decorated!

 Overall, he did a decent job - but, he used

toilet paper!

(and if you look close, you can see he left

us a book in the chandelier)

Another day he left candy canes with bookmarks

attached to share and a story about

the true meaning of Christmas!

He's been a lot of fun,

 and I thought I had more pictures of all of his

little antics, but I guess I took them with

my phone and not my camera.

The girls like to send pictures to

their Momma when they are here

so she doesn't miss them!

And when they're not here

I miss them!

But - they'll be her for a few days for

Christmas!!!



Getting Ready For CHRISTmas!

 I've been babysitting Brilyn and getting

ready for Christmas!

We've rearranged furniture and cleaned

the guest room and yesterday

we baked cookies!

 Brilyn is a good helper!

 I had Grandpa working on a wall mount for

my backdrops in the studio and when I

went to check on him Brilyn dumped

the flour and we ended up with a powdery mess!

But - messes are memories!

And we ended up with some pretty

cute Christmas cookies!

And baking cookies with Grandma

is a memory I'd like all the girls

to have.

WHO IS THAT?

Who is that out on the

football field?

Is that Brilyn?

Where's she going?

What does she see?

 She's running really fast.

She's after something!

 What has she found?

Oh.... it's a cute little hat!

See?

There is even a hole in the

middle for her bow.

Now, I wonder why all those

hats were out there on the

sidelines?

The Little Girls Enjoy The Park

 Our little neighborhood park is just the right

size for little ones!

 Brilyn and Olivia can climb up the

play structure and go down all of

the slides all by themselves!

 Brilyn even takes the hard way

up from time to time!

 And the reward for making it up

is getting to slide down!

 I just love watching the two of

them play so nicely

together!

 

An Indoor Picnic

 The girls wanted to have a picnic

but it was windy and cold.

So - we had a picnic indoors!

 And by doing so - they got to

choose a movie to watch!

And of course, a collection of

critters to watch it with!

A Crazy Clown and Olivia Having a Tea Party!

 Olivia is having a tea party!

She has cookies and tea!

 Now, she just needs a friend!

Who can she invite?

 How about a Crazy Haired Clown?

That would be fun!

She's super cute, too!

And it looks like Olivia is enjoying

her company!



My Little Nature Lovers

These three love to go to the pond.

They like to look into the water for little fish,

watch the turtles and ducks

and chase the geese!

 These geese!

 Olivia takes off after them every chance

she gets and they take off flying!

 She chases them. She looks almost as if

she believes she can catch them!

If she only had wings!

 Brilyn just watches!

I wish I knew what she was thinking!

Here, she's offering Olivia some helpful

advice. That way.... see.....

They went up there!

It doesn't look like we'll be catching them, though.

They are headed to a family reunion!

Grace told me they were a family.

A BIG Family!

With lots of Uncles and Cousins.

And even a Grandma and Grandpa!

And they were spending the

day flying together!

Happy Birthday Grace!

It's hard to believe that four years have passed

since this little angel was born!

I remember the three long flights it took

to get to Okinawa, Japan.

I left Thanksgiving Day. I wanted to make

sure I was there to welcome this little

one to the world.

I got there and we waited!

There were places to go and things

to see to help pass the time,

but the most beautiful site in that entire

country was this little girl's sweet face!

She was perfect!

And when the time came for me

to fly back to the states, I didn't

want to go. It's never fun being separated,

but I'm thankful now that she lives in the USA

and visits are much easier! And much

more frequent!

Oh, what joy she has brought to our lives!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRACE!

She had a birthday party at the gymnastic gym

she and her sister Olivia, now attend!

It's a really nice place. Her party was in

the part of the gym where Olivia's classes

are held. Olivia looked like she

felt right at home.

 I think gymnastics is good for her. You can see

that she enjoys it. And - she's getting

stronger by the day!

 This was Brilyn's first time to visit.

She got to see Grace and Olivia's new

house, their new neighborhood

and their new gym.

I think she had fun!

 Brilyn always likes playing with

Grace and Olivia!

 Isn't Olivia just darling in her little

gym suit.

 Here is Grace getting ready to perform a

trick on the bar.

 This gym is a pretty neat place to have a birthday

party. You get free play time on the equipment,

a coach that does a few things with the

kids as a group and a party room

and time to have refreshments.

And just look who Grace is playing with!

She tells me that she doesn't like cootie boys!

(and ALL boys are cootie boys)

But, if I didn't know better I would think

she liked Pete!

 She seems to give him a lot of attention.

Maybe she has learned that

boys can be fun to have as

friends, too!

 

 



Happy Birthday, Alyssa!

 This is my beautiful and very sweet

daughter in law - Alyssa!

And today is her birthday!

She married my son, Billy, almost a year

ago and I can't tell you how happy I am

to have her in the family!



Happy Birthday, Alyssa!

I hope you have a wonderful day

filled with love and blessings!

You deserve it!

 

Olivia in the Sand Pile

 Olivia doesn't care about searching

for treasure. She doesn't

care about finding rocks. She doesn't

need a shovel or a pail.

She just wants to climb!

 Up, up, up!

Maybe she wants to play

King of the Hill?