I Heart Granny's House

Our every-holiday tradition is to go to granny's. If there is a holiday, whatever it may be, we celebrate at granny's. Below are images of this year's Halloween celebration complete with cookie decorating and crafts at granny's house. The moments are so sweet I could eat them.

One note: For the first time EVER, the grandkids supplied the food. I took the chili and pumpkin bread and everyone pitched in by bringing other stuff. One one hand it was bittersweet, a changing of hands, so to speak, on the other hand, it was about time I got off my hiney and started SERVING instead of being SERVED. For Pete's sake, she's 99 and the most precious thing you could ever imagine. Look at her in the last image in this post: she's glowing.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

For obvious reasons, we have always kind of been a basketball family. In fact, instead of listening to classical music in the womb, my children heard the steady squeak of basketball shoes on the court and the thump of adrenaline raising songs played at timeouts. That's just the way it's always been.

Imagine my surprise at the way that football has snuck up and intercepted our hearts! I just wasn't expecting it. In the least.

At Jenks, kids start playing TACKLE football at the tender age of six. I know, it sounds crazy. And it is crazy. You can see our first experience with it here. I wasn't so sure at that I wasn't the worst mother in the world for allowing my precious son to be involved with such a thing.

But I'll tell you, he has loved it. LOVED it. His favorite thing about playing tackle football? You guessed it... the hitting. There's something about a boy that needs that physicality. To smack other kids down and be smacked down.

Tom has enjoyed the heck out of football too. He has seemed to relish each game as though it's the SuperBowl.

And another strange thing has happened! Ellie has gotten into it. She actually (I can't believe I'm typing this), willingly and excitedly puts on pads to help Luke practice. She runs the ball so he can practice tackling her and then she goes after him real hard when he runs it. It's been a really strange phenomenon.

Now that Kami's cheering for Jenks Black (for the first time EVER, cheering that is), football has exploded into our lives even more. Would it be weird to say we're becoming a football family?

So the fact that the kids played football for about an hour in grandma's back yard when we went over this weekend really wasn't that surprising. A kid next door jumped the fence, they squared off, boys against girls, I made the calls and off they went, making football history right there in granny's yard.

TOUCHDOWN!!!!

Early Easter Exitement PLUS Encore!!!

Recent Tradition dictates that we must go to Granny's for the dying of the eggs. We've done it the last oh, 8 years or so. Here we were in 2008. Like most traditions, you do the same things you did the last year and the year before that. But I'm telling you, at Granny's house, tradition NEVER gets old. It just grows more tender with each year.

This year, we actually got a little jump on Easter due to Spring Break. We went to see granny in her tiny, little nest on Friday. 12 of us showed up at noon and lo and behold, the woman, the completely amazing lady, had fixed US lunch. White beans, mashed potatoes and corn bread. The BEST! I felt awful... something told me I should have been bringing HER some kind of special lunch. But she just won't have it that way.

Here are the kids sitting around granny's famous round table. We've been sitting round that thing for the last 40 years. Well, I should say I have been sitting round it that long. Sure it's longer for my mom and dad.

Hallie, Ana and Ellie.

Backyard Easter egg hunt.Luke hid the eggs a little too well. Even he had a little trouble reaching them.

Con-cen-tra-tion.Woops!

Success. Kami was done in 5 minutes flat. Not so much the artistic type.

Grandma sat and watched all the kiddos decorate eggs.
Even gave her two cents on Ellie's eggs. The only thing cuter than Grandma I?

Maggie Rae. That girl is too cute.;Everyone relaxing afterwards and then...... the ENCORE!!!

The quilt giveaway (from Valentine's Day).

Who won?

Who could it be?

Surely not me!!!

My family has already won three!

But when she reached in to draw a name....

I could not believe my ears....

I won the quilt!!!! ~Happiness~

I know I gush about my granny, but I do not know anyone personally who truly embodies the quality of LOVE like she does.

We are blessed by her and our Easter Excitement at her house.

A Few from the Fourth

Love this day too much to skip it. Here are a few images from our Independence Day....

Halloween Afternoon @ Granny's House

It's a tradition!Granny with some of her great grandkids....Granny drawing a name to give away her Halloween quilt. Remember, Kami won it last year! The guy in the top right hand corner was the big winner this year..... Indiana Jones and the Pumpkin Princess on Granny's swing...Kami as a football player, Luke as IJ, and Ellie as a Pirate who lost her pants. We never found em and had to go back home before trick or treating and find some different pants. Also, the hat was so rumpled! The costume I actually paid big bucks for at Target was, sadly, the least cute.Sibling love?

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

I live for the days I get to have....

Granny's brown beans (simmered all day)
her cornbread muffins (great with butter)
pan fried potatoes
and time with this lady (wearing Ellie's Limited TOO hat). At 97, she still serves us. There really are no words. It's astounding.

Things We Do at Grandma's House

Coming Soon: Grandma I Leads a Cheer

Kissing Cousins and Loving Mothers

Will they hate me in a few years for taking this shot and then posting on the World Wide Web? I just can't help myself. Lauren's expression is just so pained, which is quite funny, and I unfortunately have to admit it looks as though my child is getting quite good at this kissing thing. Whether it's just to annoy the girls or he really enjoys it (Lord help me) I don't know. At the tender age of 4, he has learned the power of kissing. And now that I think of it, that cookie Lauren is eating looks yummy. Maybe he'd just like a bite of it.
The famous porch swing, which you can't actually see in my not so nicely cropped picture. I promised you all I would get better at my photography, and although my subjects are lovely, I don't see much improvement. It looks like my son is hexing me. Maybe that is my problem. Well, the hex didn't last long because Tom won the quilt drawing, which really means that I won it!
At least that was what I thought until I went home and walked upstairs to see the quilt neatly folded in half on HIS side of the bed, an obvious dig that he was the big winner. His competitive streak knows no limits. But, like a true victor, I did find myself peacefully sleeping under a certain purple quilt that night! Thank you Grandma I! You are awesome!

Easter Excitement at Ida's

Easter will not come this early again for another couple hundred years, thank the risen Lord. It's getting all convoluted being so close to St. Patrick's day, our anniversary and March Madness. I don't know if I've EVER celebrated Easter before St. Patrick's day, but that is what we did yesterday at Granny's house. We did our traditional dying of the eggs and then the kids played outside, hunted easter eggs, and we made some yummy bunny racecars that probably boasted no less than 1,000 calories apiece. A swiss roll for the car, a marshmallow bunny, bottlecaps, skittles and lifesaver made up the other details, all put together with icing. Of my kids, I would have to say that Luke got the biggest kick out of decorating eggs. He worked longer than the girls, and when he was done, he kept saying, "I can't believe I really did it! I decorated ALL my eggs!" It was cracking me up. He took his egg carton to every adult who would listen and showed them his eggs, discussing which one was his favorite, what color looked nicest and so on. What he was really looking forward to was the quilt drawing. He firmly thinks that this one is the one he's going to win. I hate to tell him that there are probably 20 other people's names in the bag. We didn't draw for the quilt after all, as we are going to wait until the real Easter Day to do it!