Tiny Talk Tuesday in Memory

I haven't felt much like blogging lately. But I'll do this one in memory of Grandma, my Momma, who passed away February 11, 2010. She loved to read Tiny Talk Tuesday.

Grandma & David, 2007

Uncle Jimmy came to visit Grandma last week. My kids had never met him, so I asked: So what did you think of Uncle Jimmy?
David: He had girl hair.
Elizabeth: Yeah, it was white!
Uncle Jimmy has gray/white hair in a long pony tail.

Aunt Sissy was making David & Elizabeth peanut butter sandwiches last night and asked: Do you want squares or triangles?
Elizabeth: Triangles!
David: I want it like a man! (a whole sandwich, not cut)

Grandma & Elizabeth, 2009

We've had to talk about the subject of death. When I explained heaven, David replied: Now there are two people in heaven - Great and Grandma.

Dad did an excellent job when he talked to David. One night at supper, David said: Grandma's soul is in heaven.

We love you Grandma and miss you greatly.

Grandma holding Baby Rebekah, 2009

2007 in Review

This post is a lot wordier than usual. We did not send a Christmas letter with this year's Christmas photo, and my cousin had the great idea to blog their letter, so I thought I'd copy that idea for our New Year letter. Here's our Christmas photo, followed by a summary of 2007:




2007 was a year of change for us! Last Christmas we were not able to travel for Christmas (because we were expecting Elizabeth!), so the first week of 2007 was greeted by Mom's family visiting us at our home in West Texas for a couple of days. Grandma came back on the first full weekend and stayed for a week. MawMaw came, then went back, then came again. Both Grandma & MawMaw were able to be with us, and help with David, when Elizabeth was born on January 9, 2007. I was so thankful for their help because Dad had to be in Fort Worth the day after she was born for part of his hiring process with the Fort Worth Fire Department! Later in January, Dad had to return for his polygraph. David adjusted nicely to his new status as big brother and continued speech therapy.


Elizabeth made her first road trip to meet family and more family as the page turned to February. Dad also had an oral interview in Fort Worth at that time. The rest of the month was rather uneventful as Elizabeth grew and started smiling. David was still loving going to Mother's Day Out and proved to be very helpful!







March was a flurry! On March 8, Fort Worth called to offer Dad the job of Firefighter Trainee, starting April 2! That gave us less than a month to find somewhere to live, pack for the move, going away parties, and get our house on the market... with a 2 1/2 year old and a 2 month old! By the end of the month, we (or just Dad) had made four trips to the Fort Worth area house hunting. We had a place rented and then that fell through at the last minute. So in that last minute, we asked Grandma & Grandpa if we could move in with them. They were gracious to welcome us in without hesitation... and their lives have been a bit crazier since then!



April came in with piles of boxes! And Dad turned 30! Our last day at church and Dad's last day on duty at the Fire Department was Easter Sunday. We moved the next day with lots of help from some fellow firefighters. Uncle Bubba was also gracious to help store our household of stuff and Aunt Wee was waiting for our moving caravan with pizzas for everyone. People keep asking if we're settled in yet, and I still think no! With the move, David was now out of Speech Therapy and Early Childhood Intervention. Dad started with the Fire Department on April 16. Mom & Elizabeth were able to attend a welcome reception on Dad's first day as we all joined a new family of firefighters. We participated in Antique Alley with Aunt Wee, celebrated PaPa's 80th birthday, and had dinner with Curt & Suzanne. This was the start of a long line of family events that I guess will never stop... but that's why we moved back!


In May, we celebrated Mother's Day, Elizabeth started eating cereal & rolling, we started going to Family Swim, Aunt Erin graduated from high school, and David turned 3 years old!






Mom was able to go to a wedding shower for a college friend in June, and Dad had EMT clinicals before continuing with fire school. David attended Vacation Bible School at Grandma & Grandpa's church, we celebrated Father's Day and my brother's 40th birthday, and cousin Jordann & Aunt Sissy got to come to Texas for a visit. We tried to go to David's first theater movie, Ratatouille. (we only made it about 1/2 way through the movie!)


July 4 brought Mom & Dad's 9th Anniversary. Elizabeth turned 6 months old and was eating all sorts of things, except green beans! Grandma & Grandpa went on a mission trip, leaving us to the house. In just a short time, we had noticed a great improvement in David's speech with no more therapy!








August was a lot of the same thing. Dad continued to make it through another rookie school, kids had some sickness. David enjoyed his first midway at the Old Settler's Reunion and we took a family day to the Star Wars Exhibit. Mom's highlight of the month was attending the Women of Faith Conference at the American Airlines Center in Dallas! This was also Elizabeth's first conference. Also in August, we started blogging "Tiny Talk Tuesday" each week!

In September, David started attending Cubbies and we found a MOPS group to attend. We celebrated Andy & Aunt Wee's birthdays and Grandma & Grandpa took a trip to California to visit Aunt Sissy, again leaving us with the house.

October was a very busy month! Elizabeth turned 9 months old! We met one of Dad's cousins & her family for dinner and continued Cubbies & MOPS. We celebrated birthdays for Alex at Chuck E. Cheese, which David LOVED! We also celebrated birthdays for Jordann, Aunt Sissy & Grandpa AND Aunt Erin! Dad went to a haunted house with one of his friends and started Ride Outs. David went to the PTO Halloween Carnival with MawMaw & we went to Trunk or Treat on Halloween night. We also surveyed the land and got the 9-1-1 address for our future house!

November found us celebrating MawMaw's 50th birthday! and Dad finally graduated from the training program!!! We celebrated Grana's birthday and enjoyed Dad's extended family Thanksgiving. We were finally able to put more time & energy into our own house plans, met with a draftsman (who said the plans Dad had worked up were good enough to use) and obtained our land from Grandpa. Elizabeth started playing peek-a-boo! David is loving going to Cubbies each week and has memorized all of his memory verses so far.

December is always busy, and this year was no exception. Mom decorated a table for the Ladies Christmas Tea at Grandma's church and was thrilled to have a short visit with best friend & family! We visited Santa and went to Christmas parades & parties. We finally placed membership in our new church. Mom & Dad had a wonderful Christmas Date Night, joined by Elizabeth. Christmas Day was celebrated at home, then at MawMaw's, then at Grana & Papa's, then at Aunt Laurie's. Aunt Sissy & family arrived from California & we celebrated Christmas again at Grandma & Grandpa's. Aunt Sissy commented just yesterday that David is talking more at this age than her girls did! What a long way he's come!!! It seems like he's constantly talking or singing. He has especially enjoyed singing Christmas carols this year: 12 Days of Christmas, Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, and Jingle Bells. He also memorized Luke 2:11-14. We welcome in the new year with Aunt Sissy still visiting.

This has been a wonderful, unusual, and displaced year! We are excited about 2008 and the new beginnings it holds. We are planning a first birthday party! We pray for blessing on a new home, new and restored friendships, and new growth. We will celebrate 10 years of marriage! To all who read: May you be equally blessed! And Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving In Review

For those in my family who remember taking Grandmama out for her birthday lunch, you will see the humor in this...

Today's Thanksgiving dinner was to take place at Grandma's favorite Chinese restaurant. Grandma & Grandpa had gone there last Thanksgiving & it sounded like a good idea... until we pulled into the parking lot and saw it was closed!!! We all had a good laugh over that.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'll not go into details of the lunch we actually ate. Moving on... Grandma & Grandpa went to the Supercenter after lunch & we dropped in on Thanksgiving at Grana & Papa's house where they were just sitting down to their Thanksgiving feast:

After a short visit there, we headed back home to the post-Thanksgiving-Day-lunch-activities.

Elizabeth helped me comb through the sales circulars. She had fun! David helped make the Countdown to Christmas Chain.

Then David helped me set up Grandma's new fiber optic tree. I'm sure I'll get a picture of it before the season is over.

To my brother and sister: With the addition of Elizabeth to this year's Christmas, our stockings no longer fit on the shelves around the wood stove. Upon discussing the problem with Grandma, we're going to try hanging all of the stockings together along the top of the bookshelves. Update later; comment if you have a problem with that.

Now I've got to get to bed for our exciting, early shopping trip tomorrow!

Dad's Birthday Trip

After finding out that the termite guy couldn't even do the treatment on Monday, we got ready and headed to Grandma & Grandpa's house as our home base for Dad's birthday trip. Here is David kicked back & snacking in the car.

Tuesday, April 4 - Dad's Birthday. We started the day by touring the area to see how the landscaping has changed since we were last there.

We visited both new wells and the site of Uncle Bubba & Aunt Wee's new house.

It was sad to see so few wildflowers this spring after the lack of fall rains. Here is a lonely little patch of bluebonnets in an area that is usually covered with them.

From there, we headed to Fort Worth. Dad wanted to go to the Vintage Flying Museum at Mecham Field, but alas, it was closed.

Then we went to the Stockyards and went through the Cowtown Cattlepen Maze. We had to find and punch our cards at 4 letter stations: M - A - Z - E. It was pretty hard! But it was fun! After being in the maze for a while, David actually walked part of it. When he got to a dead end, he'd turn around and try another way!

Here he is holding up our punch card at the end to show that "We Made It!" He got a shiny sticker and a toy pinwheel for completing the maze! (Grandpa took these pictures for us from the look-out - see Grandpa's Blog for more pictures from the day.)


Then we walked down the street to the Fort Worth Stockyard Exchange building. Grandpa helps Grandma up the steps while he reminisces about coming here with his daddy as a little boy to sell cattle. Grandpa said, "It was bigger then." It always was bigger then... Inside the museum, we saw a window that Grandpa remembered seeing as a child.

Everyone was hungry by the time we left & Dad was hankering Riscky's BBQ downtown. Not the one at the Stockyards, the one downtown. Here we see to satisfied and full customers headed out the door. Grandma was about walked to death by this point!

Mom, Dad, and David headed up the street another block to the old Fire Station No. 1 which is currently housing the exhibit, "150 Years of Fort Worth." It was really interesting about the history of the town, the panther, the FW-D rivalry, and the beginning of the fire department. (the picture of Dad & David with the buffalo in the previous post was taken at this exhibit)


Here is an old FWFD helmet from the Panther Town display.




Outside, Dad tries to show David the skyscrapers, but the sky was really bright and cars & trucks kept driving past. Give David a wheel any day & then you've got a friend!

Ready to head home, Grandpa suggested stopping by the Trinity Railway Express station and got no complaints here! We never saw the TRE train, but there were several trains sitting there. Here, Dad tells David about them.


And there goes David, off to check things out for himself. The gold sticker on his back is from the maze.


Back at Grandma & Grandpa's house. What an exciting day!





We came back home on Wednesday. We left Grandma & Grandpa's about 10am, went to the school to see MawMaw & Aunt Laurie, then out & visited with Grandpa H, Norma, and Curtis. From there, we were going to stop by Grana & Papa's, but after calling on the way, they weren't home so we turned around. Had late lunch at Taco Cabana, then we went back to Radio Shack in Arlington(!) to exchange Dad's new scanner. Stopped in Weatherford for drinks & snacks, then here in Eastland to try to see a train come by. (We waited & then decided it would take too long.) Then to W-M in Eastland to go potty while Dad looked for a cable. Paused a bit later for Mom to take a picture and finally got home a little after 10pm! Can you believe it??? It took us 12 hours to get home!

We made it...

Well, after a VERY long day, we finally made it to Grandma & Grandpa's house! Our caravan consisted of Grandma driving the Lumina, Dad's fireman friend Mack driving his truck pulling their Lieutenant's trailer (Alan rode with Mack so they could keep each other awake after fighting a 3-alarm fire all night long Sunday night!!!), me driving the Excursion (I had left my Saturn with Grandpa & borrowed the Excursion last weekend) pulling a U-Haul trailer, Mack's wife Delanie & Elizabeth rode with me, Dad's cousin Curt driving his truck pulling Papa's trailer, and Grandpa driving his truck pulling the gooseneck cattle trailer! MawMaw had been out at our house on Easter & took David back with her on Sunday. We got most of our stuff stored in my brother's garage, now just need to finish bringing in what we're going to keep here at Grandma & Grandpa's.

Not sure where my camera is right now & using Grandpa's computer, so I'll get pictures up later.

There is no way we could say thank you enough to the following people for the help we've gotten the last few weeks: Grandma & Grandpa, MawMaw, Mack & Delanie, Grana & Papa, Curt, Phillip, Chatta, Bubba & Aunt Wee, Will & Jesse.

The Day that Wore Me Out

I'm not sure I've recovered yet... I got up early (like 5:15 early) with Grandma Saturday morning & we did something special together. Click to see what got us up so early... : ) Dad & the kids were still sleeping when Grandma picked me up.

I was back at home by lunch time. David enjoyed some play time in the sand box while Elizabeth napped after lunch. He got just a little bit sandy. When he saw his dirty face in the mirror, he was so proud of himself! He had to have an early bath, because we had more stuff to do on this eventful day...




While I was out with Grandma, I found this light-up Wall-E Christmas shirt! (I'm surprised by Disney this year - I've hardly seen any Wall-E clothes, toys, accessories, or anything. But Cars is still all over the place!) Ever since David decided to be a robot for Halloween, then Grandma introduced him to Wall-E about a month ago, anything robot is big stuff at our house! My first intention was that this shirt would be a Christmas present. But then I realized it's a Christmas shirt, so he should be wearing it before Christmas. But I'm positive he will wear it as long as it fits! Well, I think this shirt just made his day! And now, he was able to wear it for our visit to Santa!

David started talking to Santa immediately upon entering the sleigh. I'll tell more about that on Tiny Talk Tuesday! : ) Just wait... you'll get a good chuckle out of it!

From there, we got something to eat (the pregnant woman couldn't wait), I ran inside one store & finished my Christmas shopping (now I just have to finish the things I'm making!), and then Dad ran inside Lowe's to get some light bulbs.

And we finally made it to Frankie's Family Christmas Party:

Frankie's mom & Dad's grandmother were sisters. I think that makes all those kids cousins, to some degree, with David & Elizabeth... right? There were kids & people & food all over the place. It was a lot of fun. And I think it was about 10:30 when we got home. Whew.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Yesterday the kids and I went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house. We brought the Christmas cheer when we showed up!

We got Grandma's 4' tree up on the living room table, lighted and decorated. The kids were interested in a few of her ornaments, but it was a walk down memory lane for me.

Here are some of the highlights for my siblings:

Wonder how old that ball is?

I have no idea where this came from & Grandma couldn't remember, either.
It's just always been on the tree.

Sissy made these one year.
Were you in high school when you made them?

Momma thinks she remembers painting these
with Sissy before my time.
Bubba said he remembered helping paint them, too.
Grandmama made the needle point poinsettia in the background.

This was given to me by my friend Jonathan when we were little. Don't remember how old because we didn't think to date stuff back then. His parents had a ceramics workshop and they made this one for me.

Momma said Uncle Jimmy brought these from Mexico.
I remember these always being there, too.
Of course, the cat was my favorite.

She said Bubba made this one at school.
It has a Christmas tree on the other side.

Sissy made these one year when we had a little craft booth
in a craft mall where we sold handmade items.

Grandmama made an assortment of these bead ornaments.

I made that one in elementary school.

The star has always been here, too.
It was from my Granny & Papa's first Christmas together.
And Daddy always puts it on top after the tree is decorated.

We also got the stockings up, with 2 new ones this year!
Now Grandma needs a glitter pen to add
Rebekah's name and Mark's name.