"King" Anthony & the beautiful Princesses

Well, the last time I posted here we were just told we were going to be grandma & grandpa in a matter of 6 months, 4 times over. Today (6-10-09) the last of our princesses arrived into our family.


Anthony our precious little 3 year old grandson is in for the time of his life. He has been blessed with 4 beautiful Princess. I had asked Anthony, after we found out all the babies were girls, "What are we going to do with all these girls?" and he said "I'm the King, Grandma". So from now on we have King Anthony and his four Princesses.

Kayden Grace - the first of the four was born on December 5, 2008.
Audry Dyann - the second to come into the family was born on December 31, 2008.
Caroline Adair - number three was born on May 13, 2009 (3-1/2 weeks early) but doing great.
Anna Grace - last but by no means least was born today June 10, 2009.


Meet our beautiful grandchildren:


Anthony, 3 years old, reading with "G-G".


Kayden, 6 months old, looking pretty in her Clemson Dress.

Audry, 5 months old, visiting the zoo. Look at the penguins.


Caroline, 1 month old today, asleep in Grandma Nena's arms.

And finally, Anna Grace. She has been wanting to come for 4 months now. She finally arrived.


I am so looking forward to having all my babies for summer camp at "Grandma's Camp".
I love you all so much. Don't grow up too quickly.

Giving Thanks!!

This year we have so much to be thankful for.

I am so blessed to be in a family with so much love. My husband & I brought our 2 families together 7 years ago. Since then our family continues to grow. What started out as 7 of us has grown to be a 11 person football team.

Having 5 children together we knew we would have lots of grandchildren. For the last 7 months we have been busily getting ready for our 2 granddaughters to arrive. Two of our four girls will be giving us this precious gift for Christmas. Then a few weeks ago our oldest son & daughter-in-law told us we would have another little precious bundle in June. Our latest blessing came yesterday when our daughter told us she was also giving us a precious little bundle in June.

What could be any better than having children in your family. My plans for next summer have been decided. I can't wait to be able to be with all of our new additions. Anthony will have lots of new playmates very soon.

Won't next year's Christmas Picture be something. I'm not sure where we will be able to find a company who will want to take our picture. 16 people WOW!!!!

Thanks to all my family for making this a wonderful holiday.

7 Wonderful Years

It’s been 7 years and 12 people ago. It all started when I woke up September 29, 2001 to a beautiful Saturday morning. All the girls were with me and we were getting ready to go have our hair done for the events that were going to take place a few hours from then. The boys were also doing whatever boys do to get ready for the “big event”.

Our “BIG DAY” has arrived. We all made it to the Gray House for our debut. They ushered me into the B&B and upstairs to the room where we would put on our beautiful dresses and get ready to make our appearance.

“The time has arrived” someone said. The music started and the vocalist began to sing. The moment came when I would start my walk to meet the man I would spend the rest of my life with. I had the arm of my handsome son as he guided me down the aisle. We came out the door of the B&B and walked onto the grounds between where rows of chairs where all our families and friends were seated. The others were waiting at the end of the walkway. There he was, the man who would soon be my husband. My daughter, my two new daughters, and my new son were also waiting. The wedding was beautiful.

It was a gorgeous Fall Saturday afternoon. The wind was blowing, but the sun was shinning. The only problem the wind caused was before the ceremony when the director was trying to light the candles. But she didn’t give up, the candles were lit and the ceremony started on time. We decided the not only would my husband & I light the unity candle, but all our children would take their individual candles and help light the unity candle with us. We left our candles lit to represent our individuality as well as becoming one family.

In the past 7 years our family grew from 7 people to 12 people with 2 more in the works as I write this, they will show their beautiful faces somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas (there will be more on these precious little girls when they get here).

I hope you will enjoy the pictures of our special day. I have been truly blessed with my family and love them dearly.

Happy Anniversary to my WONDERFUL HUSBAND!!

Hectic, but wonderful Weekend

WOW! What a weekend!

Friday night our oldest daughter and her husband came in for the weekend. It's always fun having them home, but very tiring for them. During their short visit they try to squeeze in seeing all the family on both sides in a very short time; visiting grandparents, in-laws, and friends who are scattered from Anderson to Union and everywhere in between. We didn't get to spend much time together, but the time we did have together was wonderful.

Saturday morning my husband & I got up early and cooked breakfast. He was in charge of the eggs & grits and I was in charge of the bacon & toast. That afternoon I had to go take a test for my certification. After the test we went to some friends for dinner. They cooked stuffed shells which were great. Anna, their daughter & Anthony, our grandson always have a good time together and this was no exception. They made the most of being able to play by running, dancing, throwing balls, and cutting flips (It must be nice to be that age again). They played hard for almost 2 hours. On the way home you would think Anthony would go to sleep. But nooooo he chatted all the way home. He finally settled down when Grandpa put him to bed at 10:30 PM.

Our two sons returned home from their mission trips (one in Alabama and one is Louisiana). Both returned home Saturday night. The youngest son (picture to the left) worked with a team to repair roofs while others from the church worked on other projects. They even hosted a Bible School for the kids in Louisiana.

Our oldest son is a youth minister at a local church. (picture to the right). He and his wife took a group to a camp in Mobile, Alabama called Centrifuge. All of them had wonderful experiences this past week. I'm very glad they are all home safe.

Sunday is always busy in our household. After church we had lunch with our oldest daughter and her roommate from college and her family. There were eleven of us (9 adults & 2 kids) who invaded City Range Grill. We had a good visit talking and visiting with each other. After lunch, our daughter and son-in-law left to go home (4-1/2 hour drive) and our youngest daughter & I went to visit my mom. We got back home just in time to go back to church for the mission trip presentations. Our youngest son plays base guitar and sings while leading the music for the youth group. The mission teams told what their week was like for them and how it changed their lives. As always it is very inspiring to hear about their trips.

Well, it's back to another week of everyday household stuff.

I hope you have a great week. Stay tuned for more in the lives of our family......

Happy Birthday Adam

Happy Birthday Adam

It happened twenty-eight years ago today. It was a very hot (over 100 degrees) day. I had a doctor’s appointment so I left my 3 year old with her great-grandma. I kissed her and told her I would see her in a little while. That was at 8:00 A.M. on Wednesday (exactly 28 years ago today). My doctor was 30 miles away and as I drove I started hurting. The closer I got to the doctor’s office, the more I hurt. By the time I made it to my appointment I could hardly walk. I went into the office and told them I hurting and they rushed me into an examining room. The doctor proudly said "you need to go to the hospital; the baby is on the way". Well after discovering I had driven my self he had his nurse take me to the hospital. I was checked in at 9:30 A.M. I kept saying it isn’t time for this now. You see, my due date was September 5 not July 23. They told me to stop worrying because the baby was ready to join us today. At 11:01 A.M. my beautiful baby boy arrived. He weighed 7 lb. 9 oz. and was 18” long. Pretty big for a preemie, right? I called my daughter to let her know she had a brother and all she could say was “What is your baby, mama?” I tried to explain to her there was only one baby, but she didn’t understand. When we finally arrived home on Sunday, she became very upset because she thought we had forgotten the “OTHER” baby at the hospital. It took several days to convince her we only had “ONE” baby. I believe a few years down the road she was secretly glad we had only brought one baby home that day.

I love you, Adam. I hope your birthday is as special as you are.

Happy Birthday Sweetie

Mom

OK! HERE IT IS! My first Blog!

Everyone has been bugging me about starting a blog. Well, this is for all of you who thought I would NEVER do it. It's here my very first blog. This is all new to me, so bare with me.

What to Blog about? That's a BIG question.

I think I will start with my grandson. Anthony is 2 years old and has more energy than my husband & I put together. He loves to play the piano (or play at it). My best friend's daughter & Anthony make quite a pair on the piano. We think they have talent. A little more practice and they can play in concert. Right now it isn't hard to get them to practice, let's just hope that last.

They have fun playing together. They have been friends all their lives (all 2-1/2 years of it) :) !

Saturday night we kept Anna while her parents went out for their anniversary. Anthony came over to play. I had filled the pool that morning so it would have warm water in it. They played in the pool for almost an hour.

After pool time we went in to have dinner. Anthony has learned a new song. He sang it to Anna during dinner. His song is an oldie. Sonny & Cher made this song a #1 hit in 1965. During dinner everyone was eating. It was quiet and all of a sudden Anthony looks at Anna and says: "I got YOU babe", with the emphasis on "YOU". It was really cute. I guess you would have to be there though to get the true effects.

Each time Anthony comes over he has learned something new. I can't wait for our two new babies to arrive. We are going to be grandma & grandpa again in December. Christmas will be a busy time around our house this year.

Stay turn for more on my wonderful grandkids from a "Proud Grandma".

I promise to blog about other things also.