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.

TURNING 50

Our birthday bash went off without a hitch. It was very well planned thanks to my sister who is a great "supervisor". (It's a family joke)Anyway, over 70 guests came and we dressed alike. We had fancy shirts and jeans and our cowboy boots on. Shabby sheak as I put it.

We never get to see family unless it's for a funeral and this time several of our sibilings flew in for the occasion. My brother Bernie and his wife Gail and sister Melissa and husband Aaron and sister Margaret. Our neice and nephew came(they are 3 years younger than us. Our other nephew Luke and girlfriend, Ruth came. Nick's mom flew in and my daughter Natalie drove up from FL with 3 of our 9 grandchildren to celebrate. Even Tim, who was our best man at our wedding and high school friend (he had eyes for Barbie in high school) drove up from Florida to be with us.

We gathered at a clubhouse in a neighborhood that was close to Barb's house and had tons on Mexican food and a virtual DJ. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time. I also had the pleasure of seeing an old friend who showed up from Tennessee, driving 3 hours. She lived in the duplex next to us back in 1985 when we were in the Navy. We have kept in touch through the years and what a surprise to see her walk in.

It was sad to see the evening end.
I would have to say, this is the first ever big birthday party in my life. It was fun and turning 50 wasn't so bad after all.

Tyler John and Hunter Langdon

New Pics of the boys. Natalie recently watched them when James was in the hospital and Skip had to be there with him everyday. She was brave having 5 of the 6 kids on her own. They look like they could be brothers and they are only 2 days apart in age. Sure makes granny and grampa miss them!

THE GIRLS HAVING FUN

ANOTHER GREAT SHOT OF SKIP AND LIZZY

WHERE'S THE ICE CREAM

Nick asked one weekend if I would teach him how to bake an apple pie. So we headed to Mercier Orchards and got apples. We baked the pie. This weekend he wanted to do it again. This time I got out the handy dandy apple peeler,corer machine that slices, peels and cores the apples all in one fell swoop.

His job is to peel the apples and slice them while I make the crust. He was like a kid with a new toy. Once I demonstrated the first one, he went to town. We baked three pies. We are keeping one for ourselves, giving one to the Morgans and freezing another for when his mother comes to live with us in November, December and January.

I am SURE we will be baking more now that he has discovered the TOY. It is a great gadget to have. I wish I would have invented it.

Great shot of Skip and Lizzy

This is really nice. Skip got her Glamour Shots done with Lizzy. Beautiful.

Vera Bradley Feet Killing Extravaganza

For those of you who don't know what a Vera Bradley is - well, all I can say is I never want to see another one in my life. After going to the Outlet Sale in Atlanta this past weekend with my sister, I did not realize how many women were obcessed with Vera.

The journey started after parking and waiting in lines several hunreds long and then you get a pink bag to hold your "stuff" while you meandor threw the huge auditorium to buy your VERA's. Heaven forbid you put one down, you would lose it.

The sale started on a Thursday and by Saturday, they had marked stuff down and down so it was best to be there later in the sale. So everyone thought and everyone was there. The check-out lines were like the check-in lines at the Atlanta airport during 6 holidays combined. At one point they announced, if you sit down in the auditorium, you will be escorted out.

By the time we were done we were Vera-tired, Vera-hungry, Vera-grouchy, Vera-thirsty, Vera-broke, Vera-sore, Vera-over it. We laughed cause on the way home, Amanda (my niece) was sorting and adding up the savings. For the cost of a little over $240, we got $1,000 worth of Vera. Don't worry, it wasn't all for us. We shopped for the neighbors too.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'LL MEET AT WALMART

Ok, It's a small world.
We are sitting on a bench in the lobby of Walmart cause Nick is having a sugar low and I am frantically trying to get some food into him before he hits the floor from passing out.

This husband and wife walk by with carts full of dog food and groceries and she has on a Buffalo Sabres T-Shirt. Nick, Mr. Social, says "Go Sabres, she thinks, he says "got Diapers" and she said OH NO DIAPERS, we laugh and re-explained, yada yada only to find out they are originally from "Depew" and "Tondawanda" New York. They knew where Alden (our hometown) was and the man had played on the Wendy league of little league against Nicks team when he was growing up. He knew "Bob Byers" who was the coach (lived on same street my sister lives on) and in the course of the conversation he says - he LOVED going to NEELANDS DAIRY.

Now Neelands was the famous ice cream shop in town and it was FAMOUS for its great ice cream. He then says his favorite ice cream was "Honey Dew". Oh my word, I about fell out off the bench cause that was MY FAVORITE at Neelands. You cannot find it anywhere today. NOT like Neelands.
We chatted somemore about Buffalo and such. They have 6 kids, we bragged on our grandkids and parted ways.
I immediately said to Nick in the parking lot - BLOG MOMENT DEAR.

HE'S a BUTTERBALL

Ty and Hunter are like night and day. This is Hunter. Although he started out alot heavier than baby boy Ty, he's slowed down and Ty has surpassed him in size. I love just how unique and different each one is. I will love being able to see them in a few more months and see even more changes. Pictures can't explain it.

I have this thing I do that my mom did with my babies, it's called giddy giddy. You grab their hands and lap them over their chests and tickle their necks while you do it. You tell them you are gonna get them (giddy giddy) is how it comes out. I had Hunter laughing out loud. They just lay there and look at you enamored. That is what being a gramma is all about.