Christmas!

Well it is offically here, Christmas day! The girls were totally spoiled by Santa and a few relatives! ;-) We took lots of pics this a.m. but no digital cameras so I am posting a few we had taken with Santa on Sunday and some at Great Aunt Gina's house with all her decorations on Sunday afternoon....

Pretty Princesses!

Yesterday was Little Ivy's 1st birthday party. We had a princess party theme and 3 beautiful princesses showed up. We had Princess Jasmine, Island Princess Barbie and Belle honor us with their presence. It was a great time.

Christmas Parade....

here are a few pics from the Bolivar Christmas Parade. It was the first parade the girls have ever been to and they had a blast, even though it was cold and drizzly!

Glimpses of our life!

I thought I would let everyone see a snapshot into our lives in the last couple months since Heather and the girls have been living with me. The girls have changed so much in those 60 days and we are having so much fun! They just make me laugh out load and that is an awesome thing!

Here are a few glimpses into our life!

Spirit of LIfe

I’m thankful for the wind, today.

I love how it blows life into everything – especially me!

I love how the wind moves the clouds, and the leaves on the trees, and how the birds ride on it.

Invisible, yet there, giving life and moving life.

Just like God.

SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS!

Saturday a friend from church, Nancy Hall and I took all the money we had collected from our church's "Support our Troops" ministry and went shopping. I am NOT a person who looks forward to shopping, NEVER have and never will, but it was for a great cause so I went..... We hit Wal-Mart around 9 a.m. and left after 12 sometime. Then we went to the church and worked on the boxes, getting them packed and separated. We had 6 overseas boxes to get ready (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Greece and Germany) then we also had 6 state side boxes to prepare for military families that are from our church family as well. It was fun thinking of what the guys and gals would think of what we had bought. We even added a "whoopee cushion" to the boxes. I know my son-in-law will enjoy that! We shipped out the overseas boxes on Monday after we made a Church wide Christmas card for each and every soldier.

This week we have to get the boxes ready for the state side soldiers and their families. It was a fun time and a blessing to be involved in this ministry. But we were sure tired when we both returned to our own homes!!!!

Sweet Little Bambi

Isn't this deer just precious? Cute big brown eyes, nice wet black nose.... Well one of his friends was NOT so cute tonight when it ran into my bumper and slid up the front windshield and then flew about 10 feet into the air and landed in the middle of the highway!

I have a messed up headlight and a decent dent on the front bumper and I popped the hood and now it latches but won't go down all the way.

What a fun evening!

My Christmas Girls

I just had to share these pics we had done of the girls for Christmas. They turned out so well.

Family on Thanksgiving Day...

We all met at my parents house for Thanksgiving which is what we usually do. The girls took alittle getting use to everyone there, but quickly were in everyone's laps having a good time. They really enjoyed the meal as we all did. The food was really good. We were all there except my son and daughter-in-law Codie, My brother his wife and 2 kids and my sister, Lisa.

Here are a few pics from the day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.....

GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

THANKFUL...

This year I am thankful for so many things.

- My personal relationship with my Lord and my new church family at Eudora Baptist Church.

-My wonderful children. When Heather and Brian came into my life it was changed immediately.

- My son-in-law, David who is serving our country in Iraq at this time. Missing so much of his girls lives to protect us and our freedoms.

-My daughter-in-law, Codie who has brought alot of "class" into our family and is there for my son, Brian while they are stationed in Germany.

-Constance and Ivy, my wonderful little granddaughters! They truly have been a blessing to me from the minute we found out of their existence.

-Extended family and friends who I have become very close to in the last year. You all mean the world to me.

-My job, it has sustained me financially and given me a whole new group of friends.

-My love of Nature. I love all the seasons we see here in the state of Missouri, driving down a back road and just discovery something new! I hope to share this love with my granddaughters!

OUR Saturday!

At 3:00 a.m. we finally got Ivy to sleep. She is teething and was having a rough night of it. So Heather and I were up with her until 3 a.m... She woke up Constance (which is extremely hard to do, because she can sleep through a hurricane!) Constance came in all worried about her sissy and was touching her and saying, "Are you okay, Sweetheart?". It was just adorable. Finally, we all got back in bed at 3 a.m., and I WAKE up at 6 a.m... Ugghhhhh. The girls got up at 7 a.m. and then they preceeded in waking up their mommy. So we had a little shopping to do in Bolivar, got that done and came home and went over to the small park area here in Eudora and let the girls have some fun. Then home for naps. Heather and Ivy slept and Constance didn't! She went to bed early tonight at 6:15 though. Tired out little girl.... Just a glimpse into how different my days are now. My normal saturday was to get up, clean up a little, watch a movie, read a book, listen to the radio.... YOU know quiet! LOL But I wouldn't change it for the world. GOD knew I needed this time with them all, just wish David was here with us all AND Brian and Codie too...

My daughter and her family

This is my daughter, Heather and her husband, David and the two most beautiful and loving girls, Constance and Ivy. David is in Iraq at this time. He left 2 weeks ago and Heather and the girls chose to move in with me for the 15 months he will be gone. I am really enjoying having them here in Missouri. It is awesome to NOT walk into a dark house. Now I have a 2 1/2 year old that runs to the door and yells, "Hi, Tam-ma"... and a 11 month old that toddles up to me and smiles...I love it so much... It is going to be hard to let them go when David comes back to the states. Heather and I get to have our mother/daughter time after the girls go to bed at night, like we did before she got married and left me!

My Son and Daughter-in-law

My son, Brian is in the Air Force and stationed in Germany at Ramstein AFB. He is married to a sweet girl, Codie. They are enjoying living in Europe. So far they have gone to Paris (did the whole tourist thing!) and done some day trips in Germany. Brian and my daughter, Heather were both born in Frankfurt, Germany and we did alot of traveling through Germany. It is a very beautiful country. I was just missing them today so I decided to add them to my blog site.

My "Strong" daughter

I have really worried about Heather and how she was going to handle the separation with David who is in Iraq for the next 15 months. For being such a young wife and mother she is doing remarkably well. I don't know at 22 years old I could have handled this kind of separation. Our church had a power point presentation for Veteran's day which included pictures of her brother, Brian who is in Germany and her hubby, David who is in Kuwait, waiting to move on into Iraq in a week or so. I was worried on how she would handle it. I bawled and she was strong and kept a brave face.

I know the girls help her out a lot with keeping her busy (VERY busy!). When she is busy she has less time to think about it all. I do notice her staring off into the distance at times and I know her thoughts are of her husband and his welfare.

I just want to say how very proud of her I am. She is a great mom and wife and a wonderful daughter. AND I have a wonderful Son as well!

Perfectly precious - Little girls are one of GOD'S most precious masterpieces.

New Blog

Well I have been inspired by my daughter, my cousin and my daughter's best friend to start a new blog site.

Not sure if I will be as diligent with it as they are, but I will give it a try!