Meeting More Family

It was a big weekend for little Lucy.  First weekend trip to Nani's house.  

First trip to Mississippi.  First time meeting the bigger brothers.  First time sleeping through the night!  

(Although she hasn't duplicated the latter mentioned event since)

It was a big weekend of travel for our family.  Michael drove to Texas to pick up the boys.  Sam, Lucy and I stayed with Nani and drove over to visit with our Columbus crew on Saturday morning.  What was a normal visit turned into a huge Christmas in June gathering thanks to one post on Facebook.  Social media has its benefits.

When we arrived at Grandmom and Grandad's house, we piled out of the cars and went straight to new introductions.  Lucy, meet your bigger brothers...

Sam sorta lost his "shiny new dime" status when baby Lucy arrived, but he doesn't mind.  Whenever asked, he says, "I wuv bay Wucy sooo much!"  

Next, Lucy met her great grandmother after which she was named, Margaret Shackelford.  This is a Proverbs 31 kind of woman.  A works hard without complaint, displays wisdom and compassion, shows kindness and humility and strength all the same breath kind of lady.  All the qualities I pray little Lucy displays as she grows into a strong woman of God.

Four generations of daughters in one photo

 After we got all the greetings out of the way, Aunt Donna and Uncle Allen (now known as Pops and Nana) hosted a grill out party with enough food to feed and army.  Joyce and her girls came too.  It was so great to see them and their kiddos.  It had been too long.  I'm voting we make this kind of get-together an annual event!  So fun, and so nice to see the Mississippi crew.
(Minus a very few)

Spring Break With Brothers

It just so happened that Michael's spring break this year was the same time as the boys' break.  This has never happened in all the years we have all been doing the school thing together.  So, we flew the boys in for a  week long visit.  Sam and I still had to go to school each day while they were here, but they got some really great quality time with Dad while they were here.  They even helped with a little home improvement project during their stay.  Michael and the boys repainted the bathroom, installed a new counter top, framed the mirror and laid a new floor.  They were quite handy to have around this week.  

Not to mention, Sam thinks his brothers hung the moon and adores any time spent with them.  Because we had beautiful weekend weather (and Michael needed a quiet house for a while to finish some school work), we headed to the park to play.  Here are some photos of all my boys at the park enjoying some sunshine and fresh air.

Monkey see...

Monkey do...

I absolutely love watching the bond between these boys grow.  Sam is blessed to have some super great big brothers to teach him how to be kind and have good manners and turn flips on the trampoline.  Kidding.  Sort of...

CHRISTmas Has Come!

In all my years, I have never woken up in my own home on Christmas morning.  We have always been on the road traveling.  Santa has found me at my grandparent's house and visitied us early.  He's flexible like that.  But this year, because of the boys' flight schedule, we stayed at home and had Christmas morning in our own home.  I missed seeing the crew at my grandparent's house, but it was really nice for once to wake up in my own bed on Christmas morning and spend the bulk of our day in our own living room and not on the interstate.

Kimmie and Pawpaw joined us for the Christmas morning fun, and it was such a special time together.  We watched as Sam unwrapped his gifts from Santa, and it was just what he wanted.  Thomas toys!

A happy boy with his Thomas toys!

Santa brought Sam a remote control Thomas with real steam!

Sam was a great helper opening gifts for everyone.

He even opened a gift for his baby sister...

Baby girl's first elephant gift from her Kimmie, a silver picture frame.  

Kimmie got a special handmade birdhouse that Sam also helped open.

When all the gifts were opened, we sat down together and gave thanks over Christmas breakfast.   Thanks to Uncle Drew for all the great new serving pieces and plates to make our breakfast table look so festive.

 After breakfast, we settled in for a long winter's nap.  How nice it was to snuggle up with my little family in front of the fire place and enjoy the day together.  

By evening, it was time to head out and pick up the boys from the airport.  Sam was so excited he couldn't even stop hopping around to put clothes on, so he went to the airport in his pajamas to meet his brothers.  It was a sweet homecoming, complete with a Christmas dinner at the hibachi grill.  

Back at home, more gift giving, more unwrapping.  More quality time together.

Merry Christmas everyone!