This is Esme' Arabella, who had her first birthday in mid-August. I'm not sure whose gigantic tennis shoe she has procured, although it looks remarkably like Dylan's ... I'm pretty confident her little foot will never quite grow into this size. Esme' is my great niece. She belongs to Mark and Shari who live in Knoxville and are expecting their second (a boy!) near the end of April. I have lots more pictures of Esme' to show you ...
This is Nolan Oliver, my great nephew, who will celebrate his #1 birthday next week! This is only the second time I have ever seen him ~ isn't he precious? Nolan is Shelley and Bob's baby boy. Matthew Owen is his big brother.
I was trying to get a shot of Esme's darling outfit, complete with tights and fancy dress shoes. She was a bit shy of my camera ... but then so many of us were shooting her picture at once, I think she thought we were all rather obnoxious!
This was Kelly's introduction to "the family." We thought it was amusing that she shares the same last name as Ruthanne and Terry. Kelly fit right in with my nieces ~ but I knew that would happen. :)
This is Mark, my nephew-in-law ... and it is the ONLY shot I have of him from the entire day. I searched in all of the pictures I took and he and Shari were always blocked out by someone else! Mostly I was trying to get cute pictures of Esme' and the little boys ... so I completely forgot about the grown ups! I did not take ONE single picture of Shari ~ but if you squint a bit, there is a framed picture of Shari and Mark on the shelf behind where Mark is crouching down here ...
A few weeks ago I was looking around at Meijer, digging through the clearance section for some special purchases and found this tube of dinosaurs ... perfect for Matthew, since he studies them all the time and can correctly pronounce their names and put them into categories. His whole face lit up when he saw them, and then he announced that "these were his very favorite!" Ah, so worth the $2.49!
I asked Matthew all kinds of questions about different dinosaurs and I never stumped him even once! He is very serious about his dinosaurs!
And doesn't Kelly look so pretty in RED? I think it must be her color!
Being a first granddaughter has definite advantages ... wee Esme' was center stage throughout most of our day ... she is SO sweet and so much fun.
This is Bob. He is married to my niece, Shelley. He is reading some tiny books to Matthew ... could they be about dinosaurs?!
And I love this photo of Shelley and Esme' ... aunt and niece ... and I am aunt to BOTH! How special is that?
My sister, Ruthanne, knocked herself out again with an amazing meal of turkey with every fixing imaginable, as well as a spiral glazed ham that practically melted in your mouth ... she worked so hard she completely forgot she had her apron on all day! But I remember where the two of us were when she purchased that apron this summer on our retreat on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan! Esme' is Ruthanne's first granddaughter ... it's very hard that Esme' lives in Tennessee ... my heart knows exactly what that's like!
And here is Esme' having a cuddle with her grandpa (Terry) ... she is such a little doll!
I didn't get any nice pictures of Nana and Grandpa Roy together. I meant to do it, but then got distracted. Here is Nana, though, enjoying time with her great granddaughter. This was also Nana's very first time meeting little Nolan ~ so it was a special day for her!
The five or six hours we were at my sister's house just flew by way too quickly. It was so great to see everyone again and hear about the good things God is doing in their lives.
Ruthanne and I were cleaning up the kitchen and just caught the end of this game of Bananagrams ... I think Dylan won, but I'm not sure ...
And look at Grandpa Jones's beard! YOW. He looks like a mountain man! Our church Festival of Lights begins in just a week, so his beard is just about perfect for being a first century character in that production. He says he will keep his beard just long enough to show our granddaughter, Karis, when she arrives on December 21 and then ~ OFF it goes!
Too soon it was time to get ourselves ready to drive back to Grand Rapids. What a nice day! How kind of God to give us family to love and spend time with! We had been concerned about perhaps running into some bad weather going to and coming back from Detroit, but none of that happened. We drove through some rain (but no snow!) on the way home until we got into Kent County and then all was clear. Thanks, Lord, for Thanksgiving 2009!
"Let your lives overflowwith thanksgiving for all God has done!"
COLOSSIANS 2.7
2 comments:
What a great day! And what a beard! I don't even know what Karis will think of a bearded grandpa- she may not recognize him despite showing her all these pictures!
How fun!
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