Abby's First Birthday Party

We had a great time yesterday afternoon at Kat and Jason's celebrating Abigail's first birthday.  She opened her first gift - a set of drinking cups - and wasn't interested in anything else!  She played for quite a while with her new cups. Finally we got her interested in her other gifts - a new baby doll, a teddy bear, some books, a night light with stars and moon to shine on the ceiling in her room, and a new purse with fun things to put in and out of it. She took to that one quickly! She also got a new stuffed puppy that was part of the decorations for her party. Everyone got into the act - Daniel helped open the gifts, Roxy checked them out, and the grandparents helped her play with everything. After gifts, we had a delicious meal of roast chicken, baked potato chips, mac and cheese, salad, and cake. What a fun time!

Party Time!

With a Puppy Dog Theme

The Birthday Girl with one of her new drink cups.

G-G and Pop Pop look with Daniel at the gifts he found in a bag just for him.

Grammy helps open the baby doll box.

Roxy checks it all out.

Ready to eat cake!

Take home bags of puppy chow!

Her One Year Photo.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Prayers for Grandchildren

Next to my bed is a wall of pictures of my grandchildren, along with the meanings of their names, scripture verses for each one, and a prayer. I see this when I go to bed at night and when I awaken in the morning. I finally added Siena. Her name was a little more challenging, but I think it turned out lovely. 

I did the first four a couple of years ago. Below are the latest three! To see the others, please go to
http://richnsusan.blogspot.com/2009/12/whats-in-name.html.

ABIGAIL REAGAN

Source of joy; noble one

I Samuel 25:3 – …his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman.

Psalm 35:9 – Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in His salvation.

Proverbs 8:15-17 – By Me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by Me princes govern, and nobles who rule on earth. I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find Me.

Our prayer for Abigail is that the source of her joy will be the Lord and that she will be a source of joy for others as she shares her Lord with them. We pray that she will love the Lord and will seek His counsel for the decisions she will make in life.

LEO ROMAN

Young Lion; One of strength

Proverbs 28:1b – The righteous are as bold as a lion.

Psalm 28:7 – The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.

Our prayer for Leo is that he will be a righteous man with the courage of a lion to live his life for God; and that he will trust completely in the Lord as his source of courage and strength.

SIENA MARIE

Beautiful place; Blessed of God

Isaiah 52: 7 – How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Luke 1:30, 38 – The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” And Mary replied, “I am your Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

Our prayer for Siena is that she will know God and will become His servant; one who proclaims to others the beautiful news of His salvation.

 

 

Tractor Fun

Daniel, the Artist

I was able to get this family portrait photo just before the rain washed it away. That's Grandpop on the left, Grandma on the right. Kat drew herself and Jason, but Daniel did the others.

Lobster with Friends

Our friends Bob and Nancy share our interest in fun cooking.  In fact, we plan to go to Italy together in the spring to learn more about Italian cooking!  On Friday night we had a chance to get some bargain lobsters, so we had our own version of a lobster fest.  Yum!!!!

September 2012

Wow! What a month! On September 4 I traveled back to Marietta, GA, to help Sharon with Ella and Leo and the new baby, Siena. I was there until September 15 when we all hopped in the new family mobile and headed for the Outer Banks in North Carolina where we had rented a large house a block from the ocean to house the entire family - eight adults and seven grand children. What a blast! I referred to it as "Happy Chaos."

We all needed at least a week to recover when we got home. I returned home on September 22 - having been away for almost three weeks. It felt good to be home, but I really missed all the activity of the grand children.

Here are some of our favorite pictures of those happy days.

Leo and Ella playing with Grandma in the morning.

Siena was growing and becoming more interactive. What a cutie!

Leo and I hung out together a lot - while Ella was in school. Here we were sitting in the car watching the "diggers" for about 20 minutes. We also spent time at the playground, in the pool, going for walks, playing in the neighbor's play house, playing with Leo's toy cars, reading story books...well, you get the picture!  It was hard on both of us to have to say "good-bye."

AT DUCK, N.C. - OBX

After several challenging  attempts we got them all on the couch at once - and smiling. Leo kept trying to escape, so our time frame was quite short!

 My beautiful daughters - Laurel, Sharon, me, and Kathryn

Grandma made the dresses - it was Sharon's idea and she helped

me choose the fabric before Siena was born. It was fun to make them

in assembly line fashion - each one a different size.

to be continued....



The Beach

Pop-pop read as the girls buried his feet in the sand.

Grandma held the baby.

Mark and Ella tried kite flying.

Abby and Leo discovered the baby's tent.

Ella and Daniel worked on a sand castle.

Leah and Lars flew the monkey kite.

Luke and Leah spent an entire day at the beach. Lots to do!

Sharon and Siena; Pop-pop still reading...

The big boys got out the kayak and Daniel ran and jumped in for the first ride.

Daniel spent hours moving sand.

Mark celebrated his birthday with an ocean kayak ride.

Abby, the little bathing beauty.

Abby doing the "sand crab walk."

Jason bringing in the monkey kite.

Lars and Mark untangling the kite strings.

Laurel checking her messages.

to be continued....

The Beach House - Sea Calls and The CRAB!

Luke and Daniel discovered the swing - good for a long period of fun.

The kids ran up and down the stairs both inside and outside. They ran through the house and checked out every room. They had a wonderful time burning all that energy!

Abby helped Pop-pop in the kitchen. Rich cooked all the evening meals.

Jason read to the kids.

Pop-pop read to the kids.

Mark read to the kids.

Mark and Lars tried to have a serious game of chess.

After dinner Daniel swiped the board clean, thus ending the chess match.

Lars helped Leah hold baby Siena.

THE CRAB

In the evenings the guys would gather some flashlights and the older kids and take them to look for sand crabs on the beach. The first night they brought home the crabs to show Pop-pop. They had three very large crabs in their sand pail.

 Pop-pop reached into the pail to touch one of the crabs and it crawled up his hand and jumped out of the bucket.  

A perfect camouflage...

"Here, Crabby, crabby"

The next night they let the crabs go on the beach before they returned to the house.