a guy we love

 New Year's Eve, his birthday. What a great birthday.

 COUSINS!  Today they met a pool and swam all afternoon, Kirsten's idea. I guess it was a great idea.

 Gifts!  Where people crowd around so closely:

 Happy  Birthday, you beautiful guy.

We truly could not love you more.

Love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

a very snowy, babysitting day

 Dan brought his kids over here early in the morning, and then we headed for Heidi's.

It was a fun day, lots of cousins and ideas and they were all so happy to see each other, and so cute.

I mean, Pretty, Pretty Princess? Can we do this without breaking out into fights and huffs? They really tried.

 Barbies!

 "Smile for me!"

 Nevermind.

 This is some collaborative game they like to play.  They were thrilled to be together and working on this for a few hours in the morning.  I didn't even have to cut them off. Before lunch, they wandered downstairs, ready to move on. But the conversation and laughter while they played? This is a good game.

 Back in the day, they called these colorforms. They were scenes a child could move slippery, plastic stickers around on and make different scenes. 

This kept them busy for a good long time, but no pieces can escape onto the floor because our baby might try to eat them and gag.

 A sweet aunt, keeping care of a sweet baby:

 The pines out front:

 The back yard down the hill:

 Olaf!  I had to bonk him with the broom to shake the snow off when he was drooping. He was happy.

 They were excited to go outside, and I remember how much I loved being outside in fresh snow when I was a kid.

Go!  Have fun!

 They were outside for at least an hour, and our make up artist woke up and began working on her aunt's smoky eye.

The year 2019 has been over for  19 minutes now, and can't argue with that.

Best wishes to all of us in the new  year.

So much love, Val

family christmas party, 2019

On Friday when I mentioned to p.j. that tomorrow would be the family Christmas party, she threw back her head and laughed, "Yes!  The cousin party!"

Glad for that enthusiasm.  The got them all together right away while they were smiling and still in their pretty clothes.

This was from a few hours later after a bit of wildness had happened.  I pretended to be aghast and said, "This room was PERFECT before you got here!  What happened?"  They looked nervous for a second and blamed each other.

Hahahahaha.   I love kids.

Everyone was in a good mood, seemed happy to see each other.

 She loved playing on this blanket.

 These three did not want to pose for a picture.  This was the best one out of about four attempts.

Here they are around Christmas 2009, ten years ago when this blog started.

There was some music.  He's getting pretty good--we could recognize the songs.  Julia joined him for duet, and others were playing songs on Tim's piano.

 See that guy second from the right? For a while we could not find his present from us.  I knew it was here. I ordered it, accepted the package, wrapped it up.  It's here.  But where?  Eventually someone brought it, mixed in with a pile of other gifts.

 She was so excited about her new make up.  She made him smell each and every lip gloss.  He's patient and agreeable.

 This is a cute picture,  just so darn blurry.

 Matching crocs!

And then it was the end of a perfect evening.  Little by little they all left until there were only a few left, and then about ten, they headed home too.

Onward to the new year.

Love, Val