It's a boy

Ryland Henderson Griffin will arrive in July!

NEW BABY

Snapper and Rosalie are having a baby. Ryland/Sawyer will arrive in July. Gender will be revealed at her next doc's appointment.
This will be Daddy's (gotta count them up Brian, Justin, Meghan, Ethan, Emma, Mya, Breana, Luke, Allie, Bryson, Brayden, Joseph, Abigail) 14th great-grandbaby. We are blessed with children. Heck, we are b-l-e-s-s-e-d with family. Period. Daddy has 5 living children with 6 wives/husbands; 12 grandchildren with 8 wives/husbands; and 13th great-grandchildren. We come in herds when we come!!!

Literally wrapped in prayer

I am on a blog-crawl this afternoon. I am enjoying reading blogs and my quiet time quite nicely. Both Brayden and Abigail are napping. Buck and David are in the new house finishing up the punch list. Jenn is working. In short it's me time.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to blog crawl. At least I call it 'blog crawling'. I start on a favorite blog, read it, and the follow that writer's roll to a blog I've never read before. And repeat. And repeat....
Then it happened. I found gold.
Backstory--I often sew or quilt for loved ones. My loved ones know that I am a praying woman. They also know that my sewing etc isn't often for sale. And that is limited to folks I care about also.
This blogger was quilting a quilt for a neice with cancer and the child's sister. She mentioned that she wrote prayers with a permanent fabric pen for each girl on the seam allowances of the binding to literally 'wrap her in prayer'. The girls would not know exactly what their aunt had written because she had sewn the prayers up in the bindings. But they would know there was a prayer inside their quilts.
What a treasure! Thank you Lord for sending this to me.

I lost a friend this week. Completely unexpected. Stunningly unexpected. Dan taught in the room next to me. He did have a chronic desease he had fought since childhood. He was fine at school Wednesday. He was actually participating in an online college class when he died. His wife of 5 years found him after she returned home from church. They had adopted a 2 year old four months ago.
Dan, I'll miss your smile and encouraging words. I was blessed by you daily.

Jenn and David will move out next weekend. Their new home is completely finished. I will miss late night snuggles with the grands, and early morning- fresh from sleep- hugs. Our home will be much quieter without the two little ones. Abbi learned to crawl and walk here, she celebrated her first birthday and Christmas here. Brayden mastered opening doors, both inside and outside house doors, as well as the door of the fridge.

Time passing

We took the grands to the Alexandria Zoo on 1/28/11.

We can do the wave!!!

Joe and Abby have matching carseats. Abby is tired of my taking pictures. She is only threatening to scream. No sound is actually being produced. She is too funny.

ICY ICY ICY

We were iced Thursday night, and Friday morning. We lost power about 9:00 am Friday morning. We cranked up the generator about 4:30 pm as it began to get dark. Our power was restored about 10:30 Saturday morning.

Brayden didn't understand the 'no power' concept. He wanted to go to the store and get a TV that would work.

The iced trees were beautiful Saturday morning in the sunshine.

2011

It has been a long time since my last post in May. Many things have happened here. David and Jenn moved into our home last August. They are building a new home next door. I love having them here, but our house has become quite crowded. They have a couple of months left in the building process.
Most importantly I have been able to grieve for Ann. I feel the loss of my sister still, but the hurt has blunted a tiny bit. Ann and I were born only 17 months apart. Most of all, Ann was apart of my life as long as I can remember. It's simply that I have no memories of before Ann was born.
On a happier note, all of the grands are growing like mad. Brayden has an amazing vocabulary for a 27 month-old child. Last week he was playing with a dinosaur. He said, "Mommy, it's a sighcertops." Mommy, not having heard Brayden try to pronounce the word triceratops, didn't understand him the four or five times he tried to tell her. "Mommy, it's a really big dinosaur." was his final word on the subject.
Joseph and Abigail are now walking independently. Joe will consent to holding my hand if I think it's necessary, but Abby does not want to be bothered. It is a fight to the bitter end to make her hold a hand when she walks. They are beginning to talk. They can say each others names, and Mamaw, Papaw, mama, dada, and BATH. Bathtime is a major event in our day around here. If the 3 grands hear a tub start to fill with water, they come runnning. The little ones are pulling at their clothes, and Brayden is shouting " It's my turn! It's my turn to take bath."

Long Time, No Posts

WOW! I cannot believe that I haven't posted anything in over 2 months.

First things first, it is now gardening time in central Louisiana. Brayden was very helpful last Saturday with the watering. The red bushes in the upper right of the picture are Bottlebrush plants. They are native to Australia. But do very well in my backyard. I also have old fashioned dark pink gladiolas blooming. Ann gave me those glads. In that same clump of stuff, I have some Summer Snow flowers that I dug from my great-grandmother's garden. My daddy's cousin was so gracious in sharing our heirloom flowers. It's just a guess, but these bulbs are flowers Grandma Stallings probably got from her mother's yard, or maybe from her grandmother's.

This daylily seemed to need more water than any other plant.

Then, after a long afternoon's work,

it was relaxing to run through the water

while Mamaw sprayed off the porch.

Joseph is rolling over at will now. He is trying his best to crawl, but only manages to circle. His belly is still stuck to the floor. It is really hard to crawl and suck your thumb at the same time.

Abigail is finally growing. There isn't as much difference in their sizes any more.

I have three finished quilts since my last post. I have done both of the cuddle quilts for the little babies. I also finished the flannel quilt for Joe.

Joe and Brayd tag-team Papaw. I think the match ended in a draw.