painter working

She painted for hours, many, many beautiful, soggy paintings.

Love you, Grandma

birthday party!

 The party was postponed a week due to the stomach flu going through the family.

Gosh, good times.

Ugh.

 But today was a great day, loved ones all around celebrating and having fun.

You my dear, are a delight.

I hope NINE is a great year. 

Happy Birthday with so much love, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

a week ago

 A week ago, Kari came with me for the day babysitting.  We had a great time.  That little girl popped out of a nylon kid tunnel and told us, "That kid was rude at me!"

A cute kid peeked out and made a scary face.

"See??"

It added to the drama and they chased each other in the tunnels for a while.

Then we stopped at the grocery store and bought lunch and this bouquet of St. Patrick's Day flowers, very festive.

It feels like it was about a year ago.

What a week this has been.

So much love, Val

and this happened

 John and Dannell moved and we were able to be helpful last Sunday for the afternoon. Above you will see a child with a huge sandwich.  My dad baked those little loaves of bread, one for each of them, and the child took his brother's beef jerky to use for the filling.

Good LOR-ed.

No, he did not eat the whole thing.  Shortly an ice cream truck drove though the neighborhood and I gave them a $20, and they all ran away chasing after the ice cream truck.  I stuffed this sandwich in a zip bag and tossed it in the fridge.

 My camera's batteries are dead and my phone storage keeps announcing to me that it's full so Dannell sent me these two pictures from the day. There they are on the front steps with their ice creams.

Below they are beating up on each other at basketball in the back yard.

John?  Dannell?  All of you kids?  I hope you will find as much happiness at your new house as you did at your old one.

Nothing but love, MOM and Dad.

who is 23?

 Yup, that little pipsqueak in the middle has a birthday today.

James?

You've always been adorable.

 This is one of my favorite pictures of you. It captures everything about what you were like as a child.

It's been such a pleasure.

Thank you for all the happiness you've brought us.

Happy Birthday, with love forever, Mom and Dad and Everyone

happy birthday, beautiful girl

We all love you like crazy, and that's the truth.

Happy Birthday, You.

Love Grandpa and Grandma and Everybody.

mr. fourteen

FOURTEEN??

How is this possible?

 Your arrival in this family was life-changing.  We became grandparents. They all became aunts and uncles.  It was crazy.

(You kind of were too.)

 And it has just been so much fun.

 This is something I wrote after you left after a sleepover back in 2009 when you were three years old:

"When he left I kissed the crown of his head where the hair is extra red and told him, “I’m so glad you came to my house.” (...to my family, to my life, to my heart)"

It's still just as true now.

We love you like crazy.

Happy Birthday, Buddy.

Love Grandma and Grandpa and  Everybody