1 Year and 2 Year Pictures

No time to blog. I'm in the middle of constructing our set (you can see it here http://www.hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/ ) but I had to put these two pictures up! You can see more pictures of Hannah and Benjamin by clicking on my link to Tennessee Grandbabies.

It's OK for you to comment on how beautiful they are. I don't mind hearing that over and over again.

Happy Birthday Hannah

Hannah is 2 today!

Hannah is so beautiful.

She hasn't quite figured out how to smile for the camera, but we catch some pretty smiles now and then.

She loves her baby brother (but feels free to snatch anything she wants out of his hands).

She is allergic to all kinds of wonderful things like milk and cheese and eggs and the biggie that you wouldn't think about that is in EVERYTHING - corn.

She calls Grani and Papa every day. She has soooo much to say.

She can carry on a pretty good conversation in fact.

She can count to 20 although many of the "teens" sounds alike. But she know how many she has said and gets to 20 at the right time.

She has great hair! Her mommy fixes it sooooo cute.

Here are some pictures from Hannah's second year.

Grani's Valentine

The ladies in Grani's office alwyay start bothering Grani about Papa coming over to play or sing for them for Valentine's Day about two weeks before Valentine's Day. "It just wouldn't be Valentine's Day if Lyndel didn't come sing for us!" they whine. I wasn't going to go this year. It's a good 45 minute drive if the traffic cooperates - longer some days. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "My lovely Valentine is the envy of everyone at LifeWay and all the men need to see the work of a true romantic (it makes them go out and buy flowers and candy)." So I packed my violin and a CD player into my faithful PT Cruiser and headed out to LifeWay.

Here I am playing Can You Feel the Love Tonight. I also played You'll Be in My Heart.

I had told my lovely Valentine, Grani, (a.k.a. Cheryl to the people in her office) that since the ladies were insisting that I drive alllll the way to Nashville from Clarksville that I was going to do like the guys down on 2nd street and open up my case for people to throw change in. So there they all were, lined up in the foyer of the HR department, sitting on the floor, standing around, watching me set up my stand and get my violin out of the case. So I laid my violin on a chair and then set my case out in front of where I was standing, pulled my wallet out of my back pocket and took out a dollar and threw it in the case (priming the pump - so to speak). They all laughed, but when I started playing one of my groupies threw a dollar into the case. Then she crawled over (she was sitting on the floor) and unzipped her change purse and started shaking coins out. They went everywhere! Others joined in. It was way too funny. But I did at least get gas money out of the deal. $3 in ones and $3.39 in change!

Here she is - the envy of LifeWay.

Papa's Best Valentine

Grani and Papa were Valentines waaaaay back in the 70's! Our first official date was for Valentine's Day. Our church, Eastwood Baptist Church, Tulsa, OK had a "Sweetheart Banquet" every year. We had already been sitting by each other in church and I asked her to go with me to the Sweetheart Banquet. She said yes! Great-grandpa had to drive us because we were only 15. I walked her up to the door and (children, close your eyes for a second) I kissed her good-night! Woo-hoo! It was not just our first kiss with each other it was our first kisses with anyone. How sweet is that? I think we both almost fainted.

We have a picture frame at home - one of those collage deals. I couldn't take the pictures out to scan them individually because they are stuck to the glass. I wanted you to see them.

The pictures are:

Grani as a baby, Grani and Papa in Denver, Papa as a baby

Grani and Papa at 6 flags over Texas when we were, hmmm, probably about 20

then my all-time-favorite picture - taken with a Polaroid Instamatic so it has faded a lot over the years - It's Papa and Grani at her, oh dear, now I don't remember if she was 15 or 16 here (I'm pretty sure 15). My heart still skips a beat when she walks in a room, just like it did when she was 15!

And then the last picture is when Papa graduated from college.

Here are a few more recent pictures of Papa with his Sweetheart Valentine.

Valentine's Day 2007

Our Christmas trip to Chattanooga 2007

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Benjamin is one year old today. I had suggested that they name him Lyndel Valentino but Benjamin seems to fit him well.

Benjamin:

is a cuddler

adores his mommy and daddy

dances like Hannah

and love to follow her around

always smiles

unless he's crying - he's a little bit of a cry baby

very sensitive like Gibson (see above)

bouncy like Haven

sucks his thumb like Elam

and has dimples like Elam

lights up when he hears his Grani's voice

you can tell he's part of the family

oh, and he is Papa's big buddy!

Papa's Valentines

Here they are in the order that they came into the family: Andrew, Christy, Haley, Daniel, Gibson, Haven, Hannah, Elam, Benjamin.

Snow at Papa's House

It's not real deep, but it's very pretty.

Here are a couple of pictures of today's snow. You can see these and more on my Hilldale Worship Blogspot

An Exciting Week

Be sure and check in later this week for birthday pictures!
Benjamin will be 1 on Thursday - Valentines Day. Two days later Hannah will be 2. Needless to say, their mommy stays very busy!

Grandparents

I found this great quote:

"Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." Alex Haley

Sorry, no new pictures. The last few times we have been to see Hannah and Benjamin I didn't have my camera with me. Benjamin is verrry close to walking. Hannah is finally getting some relief from all of her skin ailments now that we know she is allergic to corn - which, by the way, IS IN EVERYTHING!

I'll try to get some pictures. You can always see pictures on Christy and Haley's blogs.