Playing with Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom had special company today. Matthew and Abbey came over to play. Abbey liked throwing the pink crazy thing that lights up when you bounce or throw it. She and Uncle Tom threw it back and forth. I think she is really better at it than Tom. She and Tom danced and ate Malted Milk Balls with some nutritious milk. How is that for being a good influence on children? Auntie Cindy and Uncle Tom do the best we can to be the kind of people Mom's and Dad's cringe to see, when they walk through our door. Of course I say that with a smile. =-)

Of course Uncle Tom couldn't ignore Matthew. He didn't throw things, dance or eat those Malted Milk Balls that melt in your hands. He wanted to play the 'I can smile and look cute' game. As you can see Matthew is probably one of the best in Wabash at this game. I am not sure what the rules of the game are, but Uncle Tom didn't cheat today. Matthew beat Uncle Tom hands down.

^5 for a great game Matthew.

Matthew with his 'smile' part of the 'I can' game

He has practiced on this for several days.

Matthew had no problem at all with the 'looking cute' technique. This is a game only babies know how to play best. Older people wish they knew the secret, but it is forbidden to let older people in on it. Matthew is showing Uncle Tom how to play the last part of the game. Uncle Tom tried really hard, but Matthew beat him.

Children are so special. We should cherish them, like the jewels that they are.

Auntie Cindy got to play a little bit. Matthew let her participate in the 'hold me and I will go to sleep' quarter. Of course it is the last part of the game. I guess they don't think I am able to do any other part.

A Heart for Children

One hundred years from now,

It will not matter, what kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in,

How much I had in the bank,

Nor what my clothes looked like.

One hundred years from now it will not matter,

What kind of school I attended,

What kind of typewriter I used,

How large or small my church,

But the world may be ....

A little better because ...

I was important in the life of a child.

~Unknown~

Remember to spread kindness to someone today. It will change their life and yours.

A day with Papaw....and other stuff

Alex called Saturday
to ask if Grandpa could spend some time with her. He was more than happy to accommodate her request. Her last day of spring break and she chose to spend it with us. She and Grandpa have a wonderful relationship. It is fantastic, the time we get to spend with our grand kids. They all are so special in their own way. It is precious time that we can share with them and they can share with us. We enjoy listening to them talk and tell of their interest and challenges in life. They have so much they can teach us and we certainly have lots of life experiences we can share with them. We are so blessed to have our grand kids live so close by.


We decided to go to The Siding
in Peru for Sunday lunch. Alex
had never been there.
I must say, it was one of
the best meals we had
had in a long time. The
atmosphere was
great and so was spending
Sunday with Alex.

We decided to head to Marion for a couple of things. Grandpa and Alex tried their hand at Miniature Golf. Grandma was the 'official' score keeper. It was an exciting and tense game. Grandpa was ahead until the 17th hole. We won't mention on here how many strokes he had on that particular hole. We will say that Alex didn't have to play catch up after that hole. They ended with a tie. Perfect for everyone.

Sunday evening Cassidy, Lauren and Luke were dropped off to spend some time with us while Amanda and Kyle went bowling. When they got here, Grandpa was cleaning the golf balls he had collected from the field behind our house. No...we don't grow them. He hits them into the field and then collects them, so he can hit them into the field later. Grandpa was cleaning the golf balls. Luke decided he needed to help!

Cassidy and Lauren had a sleep over with some friends the night before. I think this photo says it all. They were up a little too late........LOL. They will be glad to get in bed this evening.



Grandpa knew there were more golf balls still in the field behind our house. So he and Luke grabbed a bucket and headed out into the muddy field to gather a few more. Luke was like a little puppy all evening long. Where ever Papa was, you would find Luke not to far behind.

Grandkids have a special place .....

That place is in our hearts.

Be sure and share kindness with someone today.

Giving to others makes every ones day special.

GNO

Now you may ask, what does 'GNO' mean. Well if you listen to one

of Miley Cyrus' songs, it means Girls Night Out.

A link to listen to Miley sing her song.

http://www.dotspotter.com/videos/398428_miley_cyrus_singing_girls_night_out_live

Amanda, Cassidy, Lauren,

Alex, Grandma and oh yes...

Zach, had a girls? night out

Friday. We went to the

Historic Eagles Theater to

see 'College Road Trip'

with Martin Lawrence and

Raven-Symone'. It was quite

funny in spots. Donny Osmond

was a neurotic father that was

way too over joyed sharing a

road trip with his daugher.

He did an excellent job with

his part.

I personally loved the pig

named Albert.It was

especially funny when

'Albert' was done using

the bathroom and exited

with toilet paper still

attached to his rear end.

Sometimes the animals just

can't help stealing the show.

We will have to have another GNO soon. Grandma, Daughter and Granddaugthers all sharing and enjoying each other. You just can't beat that.

Hoping your day is filled with Sonshine and Blessings overflowing.

Kids, Kids, Kids

Amanda and Kyle won tickets to see the Indiana Pacers and a 2 night stay at the Embassy Suites in Indianapolis. Tom and I got the pleasure? of taking care of Cassidy, Lauren and Luke for the weekend. I wasn't sure how Luke would do since this would be his first overnight away from home without Mom or Dad. Amanda had everything ,plus some, for us to take proper care of her children. I guess I forgot how to take care of kids- I say that with a smile.=-)

Actually the kids were all so good. The girls didn't fuss, and Luke was actually pretty well behaved. The girls and Alex played Corn Hole when Alex came over to visit with them. It is always so much fun to have our grandkids spend time with us. Here is a collage of some of their weekend. In clockwise order: Lauren and Cassidy are playing with Play Doh. It is good for the imagination. Luke's picture is next. He is perfecting his throw for Corn Hole. Alex, Lauren and Cassidy play on the computer in Alex's room. Grandpa is giggling while Luke 'beats' him in Corn Hole. Even the little ones like the game. We can't wait until we can get outside with it. We are so glad all of our grandkids live close to us to enjoy them. Sunday morning, after breakfast and showers, the kids watched some TV for awhile. Luke did stop long enough for me to catch this picture of the three of them. I swear, he had to of run 10 miles this weekend. He was constantly running from one end of the house to the other.

Grandchildren are the Flowers in the Garden of Life

There is no greater joy than seeing the world through the eyes of a child. They bring laughter, help you experience the world all over again, we can share our lives with them, and watch them grow into adults to start all over again.

Here is a link so you can watch Luke and Grandpa play Corn Hole. I think Luke beats Grandpa.....LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Gj74ufmlY

Remember to be kind to someone.

Amanda and the Clown hair...

I found out along with Amanda that sometimes it is better to just leave things alone as they are. Amanda has been tired of keeping the blonde in her hair. So she decided to let it go back to her natural hair color. Well........ She chose a mahogany brown to put it in her hair. Ugh......it was very purply red. She laughed and I wanted to cry. What have we done? So being the good mother that I am, I ran to Dollar General to get a darker color. After applying it to her now mahogany red brown hair, she is now, still mahogany brown. Eeekkkkkkk we need more dark brown. So back to Dollar General. Another box of dark brown. After this application we now have a little red and lots of dark brown on the ends.

Tiffany from the office told me about this stuff called Color Oops. It is supposed to take the last color out of your hair. Well...it is worth a try? That is what I thought. I had Tiffany get me a box. I called Amanda with the good news. She was very hesitant to use it before their trip to Indianapolis for the weekend with Rick and Jen. I guess she should have stuck to her guns. She called later and said,"ok lets do it". She came over and we started with the Color Oops. Let it stay on the proper amount of time. Rinsed it off !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Orange hair. Ok, we now are going to apply the 'brown' that I have for her. It didn't actually turn out the color brown we thought it would be. It is more like Jet Black. Now we have gone from orange to black. I then applied the frosting kit to her hair and let it turn a brown color. Have you ever seen black hair with brown highlighting? Ummmmm.. not good.
I now have to make an emergency run to Wally World to get hair color remover once again, and hair color to fix what we have now really messed up. When will it end? I hurry home and we get the hair color remover on. Here we go again. We are back to the orange hair. Do not despair. We have another Mahogany Brown. Oh...and we have another brown to put on after the Mahogany Brown is on. Needless to say, we are now back somewhat to the original color we were trying to remove in the first place. It isn't quite as harsh dark as it was when we started, but we made progress. We don't have the orange hair any more !

I will have to say that this was by far the worst hair experience that I have had to deal with. Once Jane and I made her hair jet black. She had to live with it. One other time Jane and I twisted our hair before we permed it. Talk about a wild woman from Zanzibar! We beat that by a mile. Another time Jane highlighted my hair so much I had to use a brush to comb through it. All in a days work. Maybe one of these days we will learn to leave well enough alone.

Make sure you are kind to someone today. You never know who you may help with your kindness.

Family Easter and the Cornhole

We had Easter dinner at our house
this year. We had lots of food and plenty of fun and laughter. As usual, we had more than enough food. Someone thinks the California Blend isn't good to eat. We will have to remedy this problem the next Holiday celebration. This holiday desserts ruled the tables. We had lots of sugar to satisfy any ones sweet tooth. Praise God for the families we have to share our lives with. He is so generous to all of us. Dad was a little under the weather. I hope he gets to feeling better.

Well look who is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her ! Shannon and Dad seem to be distracted by something going on at the door.

Maybe it is the Easter Bunny making a surprise visit.






The Easter Bunny left a few eggs(Amanda didn't adhere to the rules) for the little ones. Of course Grandma's and mother's had cameras ready to record the adventure of finding where all the eggs were hidden!



















Another group photo to add to the page. There are a few not in the photo. They weren't allowed this time. Next time we will take a picture of just them. LOL




The fun for the day was the Corn Hole Game. It was altered since we couldn't go outside. We realized we needed an official score keeper and a referee !!!!!!!!! Go figure ........

Stephanie and Spencer

Alex and Rick

Dad watching Jennifer and Rick

1. Collin and Barbara 2. Rob, Heather w/Jen, Rick laughing

1. Alex, Amanda, Luke, Tom.

2. Mark, Amanda, Kyle, Luke, Spencer & Rick

Rainey, Alex and Spencer D.

Amanda using her Michael Jordan Technique

As usual, we all had a super great time spending the holiday together.

With all the fun and laughter, we never want to lose sight of why we celebrate the Easter holiday. Praise God for His faithfulness when He sent His only Son to die on the cross, shed His blood that we that believe in Him may have everlasting life. We praise Your Name above all others. Happy Easter everyone.

Remember to do something kind for someone.

Spring is in the air, Matthew's first visit with Dr. Schneider

Spring has finally arrived. Much anticipated by many people.
It is the promise of a new beginning. The season gives us an anticitpation of starting projects, planning many family get togethers, and time to enjoy our families in a new and refreshing way. Spring seems to renew peoples spirits. Aren't we lucky to live in a country that gives us so many privileges and opportunities. I am looking forward to the blooming of the flowers that were planted a couple of years ago. They seem to get better as they grow each year. Spring is also the time of the flower catalogs arriving in the mail box. Time to dream of those beautiful flower gardens we wish someone else would take care of ! Spring is the time of year that we can also pause and renew the Spirit of our Souls. God offers us renewal every day. Just as He promised with His rainbow He sets in the sky after a rain, we are promised to be renewed as we follow Him. One of my favorite verses is from Philippians 4:7 -And the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. God renews our Souls when we give our hearts to Him. You become a new creature in God. Spring gives us a look at how God can change the old dark spirit of our beings into a New and Beautiful Spirit and Soul. I love spring and I love Jesus.




Today was Matthew's first visit with
Dr. Schneider. He was dressed so cute.
He is growing pretty good.
Mom and Dad waited in the waiting
room to be called back for the check
up and the weighing in.

Shelley decided to weigh herself and

then weigh herself and Matthew

together. The little guy weighed

in at a whoppin' 7 lbs. He seemed

to be tolerating the whole process

quite well.He didnt cry or cause a

fuss at all. He just went with the

flow. Good thinking Matthew!

I went back to take this picture

of Shelley with Matthew and

Dr. Schneider. It looks like the
doctor visit is going along just fine.

They seem to be having a good time.

We are so thankful that we have

Dr. Schneider in our community.

Everyone in our family depends on

him for excellent health care.

Remember to give to others. It is one way to brighten

someone else's day.

Luke 6:38
Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure and

pressed down, and shaken together,

and running over, shall men give into your bosom.

For with the same measure that ye mete

withal it shall be measured

unto you again.