Totally Blown Away

We have a yearly day that our "Annual" or yearbook as better known, is dedicated at school. All of the kids are gathered to the gym to sort of "cut the ribbon" and then the students have a time of signing each others book.

I remember as a teenager that excitement of doing this. We had all our friends sign our yearbook with their quippy little sayings or long paged send offs for the end of the year. It was fun for all (I still have some of my yearbooks - scary).

As we gathered today for this event in the gym, they began to read a few things describing the person with whom they were dedicating the yearbook to this year. They talked about the behind the scenes things the person does etc. and then announced that this years yearbook, was dedicated to me! I was totally blown away.

I had to go in front of the whole student body and was presented with "my yearbook". In the front of the book is a page, complete with pictures, dedicated to me. Blown away, Wow, I never imagined this ever. What an honor.

Looking like her mommy

This is a picture of baby Leah.

 

This is a picture of Natalie when she was a baby.

It's amazing how she looks like her mommy!

MOM LANGDON'S 80th Birthday

 

The kids were all together for Mom's 80th birthday this past weekend. We decided to go about 2 weeks ago and I booked the flights (non-refundable) 5 hours to us finding out Nick lost his job - soooo we went anyway. We had a good weekend and saw lots of family that we had not seen in years. There were about 26 of us in a 2 bedroom townhouse and it was fun.

Mom loved having her 5 children with her all in one place. The only one missing in this picture is Brenda's husband David. He went to a church study that night and we weren't sure if he was coming back so we snapped the pic anyway. Lots of laughs, food and fun.

LEAH NICOLE WEEKS

She has arrived, safe and sound. After 44 hours of labor, we finally went to Winnie Palmer Hospital for some help. She came out a screaming. Birth went very well and she looks like her sisters and brother. Pretty and precious. She is 7lbs 6oz. 20 1/2 inches long.

Little to NO hair and sweet, sweet, sweet. Natalie is a trooper and did fantastic after some important decisions not to have her at home once she didn't progress. Sarah and I were in the room with her when she delivered and Skip walked in just as she went to the warmer to be cleaned off and weighed! I got to cut the cord - whoa Nelly.

She is like a pretty china doll.

ONLY A BREATH A WAY

We are still waiting on Leah but it should be anytime now. Natalie is fully ready and if her contractions would just pick up she would pop out. The mid-wife is here, but baby Leah has her hand on top her head and is holding up the works!

It's exciting to think baby Leah will be born on Rowan's birthday which is today.

How fun is that for a grandma and grampa.

TY TY

 

Tyler was glad to see gramma and grampa from a distance! He bolted to his mom when he saw us, probably thinking, Oh no, they are not taking me home with them! He is so different from Hunter and is about 6 inches taller. He is a sweet natured kid. He wasn't feeling good actually while we were there, but managed to smile and make his usual faces, we remember so well while he was with us.

DON'T LET THE SOCKS FOOL YOU

 

This is HUNTER, better known as "duck" to his mother. Picture this boy listening to ballet music with his sisters as it shows video on how to lift your arms and twirl on your tippy toes to graceful music!

He had us in stitches over the weekend with his antics. While he was "preforming" he would sing a melody while he did it.

The funniest part - he had the bulky diaper on, no shirt (belly sticking out) and white ankle socks. He LOVED every minute of his "routine". His dad says he is practicing to be a linebacker.

His hair being everybit as white blonde as can be, just like his mom at his age.

This is what being a gramma is all about!

BOOTS

I have been into shopping for Christmas. With my being in college, I have very little time for other things much less shopping and I reminded myself how awful Christmas was last year with being in school. Besides not having any money, time and effort were not on my side.

COUNTRY BOY NO A REDNECK

 

This little guy loved this hat when he was with us. Back when everyone was with us for Thanksgiving, I had bought 12 of these hats to do a photo op and Tyler was in his momma's belly and couldn't wear one. It is hard to believe that he is old enough now to wear one. What we loved the most was the PJ's he wore with it.

He looked like a country bumpkin or rather a redneck in the making!

TY TY GOES BACK HOME

It's hard to believe that Tyler is now safe and sound with his Mom and Dad and it has been 4 weeks that we had him. Today I actually welled up thinking about:

No more rides on the tractor with grampa during the week.
No more putting him on the pool table to change that first diaper of the morning after taking him out of his porta crib in the pool room where he slept.
No more, food all over the kitchen floor.
No more putting the blue crocs on his little feet that his sitter bought him from the Dollar General because his shoes were too small and I can't tell you how many times in 4 weeks we put those things on and took them off.
No more bath time in the garden tub and wrapping babies in the towel when grampa lifted him out for gramma.
No more playing "Darling" and his running down the hall into my arms and me yelling "Darling" (He loved that game.)
No more protecting my antique milk bottles on the back porch while he strategically put them through the railing and dropped them to the grass 14 ft below.
No more up the slide backwards and down the slide on his belly.
No more gramma being frantic while he scaled the stone driveway all by himself, never falling once. Guess it was his magic crocs!
No more kisses for Gramma ONLY after Grampa got his first. (And who got him up and took him to daycare everyday - and Gramps still got the kisses first.)
No more filling the endless cups of Juicy Juice.

4 weeks of diapers, wipes, juice, graham crackers... $150
Gas to and from Daycare 4 weeks... $200
Seeing that sweet boy smile, priceless!

We are going to miss him so much.

20 YEARS

This is for Frances

This is the glass quilt chest that Nick made for me to give to my sister for her 50th birthday. She always talked about having a glass chest that would show quilts. In it I put my mom's quilt that I was given after her death. I wanted her to have something special to put in the chest.

Nick was telling Frances at work about it and I have promised to put this on the blog and haven't up to this point.

We are going to have him attempt to build another one so we can try and sell it at Tuckers in Blairsville at our shop/booth.

This is for you Frances.

Collection Of Great Pics

Roasting Pan Weather

OK, we live in the North Georgia Mountains and we DO NOT own a sled or tobogan. What is up with that? I remember seeing them at Ace Hardware just last week, thinking, well, we probably wouldn't get any use out of one of those.

When we were kids growing up in "Western New York", having a sled or tobogan was an absolute must. Having come from a large family, we had the ultimate, 12 seater and baby, could that thing fly.

For hours,we would go sledding and tobogganing, until our body limbs froze and come home happy little clams. I remember how I would get to the top of the hill and start down, with a tobogan full of people and think, what on earth is gonna happen when we hit the bottom? But, we managed to get up, brush it all off and head back up the hill again for more torture.

Tonight we watched the snow fall, quietly and gracefully in the yard. At every commercial, we took turns getting up to "check the snow" status. I am just sorry now that I didn't buy that sled at Ace last week. BUT, my sister suggested using my roasting pan (only one big enough to fit my butt)and use that to go down the hill in the back of the house.

School is closed tomorrow, and I am going out to play. Then wash the roasting pan and bake the Turkey I thawed for dinner!

As Sarah Puts it - Operation Christmas 2007

As Sarah wrote in her blog,

"Some of you may have already heard about "Operation Christmas". This took MONTHS in the planning and a couple of death threats to little kids that couldn't keep their mouths shut!!! But we managed to pull it off. I flew to Orlando the first week in December for 5 days to photograph The Weeks Family and Staley Family... all the while never telling mom and dad that we were all together. 2000 photo's later (that includes many other photo shoots) we had completed the first half of Operation Christmas. Our entire family, including Nana Langdon, was able to come to Texas this year for Christmas; the surprise took place Christmas Eve evening. Everyone gathered around the tree, Mom and Dad still do not know anything. And then my dad went first..... See below!! Everyone was emotional; by far Rayah Lee's reaction was the best. This precious angel, only 3 years old responded with such emotion, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. The pictures tell the entire story...A video was made at the end and we sat around and viewed over 300 amazing photos to music and tears. It was a Christmas Eve we will NEVER forget."

As I post this, what was cool was when we saw the first picture which was Nicks, it had all 9 grandchildren in it. It was at that point we remembered that up until this holiday event Sarah had never met Ty Ty in person - or so we thought. I think that is what triggered the chain of event on the emotions, it was then that they all breathed a sigh of relief, the secret had been kept.

I honestly did not know what to expect when I opened my picture, thus my reaction.

We did take pics with Santa hats on while we were at the "tree" and those will follow at somepoint. Sarah's job is never finished. She takes the shots and then has to work her cropping magic on them, till we get them. More to come.

Couple more pics

Pics of Natalie with "Bubby" (Hunter) and Ya Ya (Rayah Lee). Sarah took these at Lake Lily in Florida on a sneak visit to get pics for us for Christmas.

Sarah's talent once again

Sis is so talented. We will NEVER go to a studio again to have our pics done. She does such a wonderful job. We had her do these while at the same "tree" spot.

CHRISTMAS 2007

Another Pic from the Party

Here's another Party Pic. Tim Schaffer came up from FL for it. He was our best man from our wedding and long time friend from High School.

Ride for MOM LANGDON

We have been thinking about taking the bike off the road for the winter but wanted to give Nick's mom (she'll be 79) a ride before we do. We had a day this weekend that was up in the high 60's and Nick and I dressed her up and loaded her up and he took her out. She enjoyed the ride. With a few more days of practice,she could become and experience rider. You can't be nervous and jerky on it, I told her, just go with the flow. Me, I get so relaxed, Nick has to keep asking me if I am alright, I sometimes get so oblivious back there,and in "my element" I forget where I am at. It's the next best thing to Grandkids.

When Nick said lets sell the house and just ride the bike to all over, I WAS HALF tempted to say yes! Ride Sally Ride!
P.S. He brought her back safe and sound.