She's Almost 1 Year Old and She's Walking!

Oh so much to tell! First, Brooklyn's first birthday is this Friday and she has started walking!!! On 4th of July weekend she was oh so close and finally did take one step. Let me tell you that one week can make such a difference and I just had no idea!

Monday night the daughter of one of my dearest friends had a book party at my friend's house. Since reading has been my lifelong favorite hobby and I do hope to pass that love of books on to my grandbaby it was a natural for me to attend. Even better was my daughter-in-law and granddaughter came with me!

First we picked Brooklyn up at daycare and headed to my house so that we could get Grandpa and all have dinner together. The four of us headed to a neighborhood italian restaurant where Brooklyn shared some of our lasagna and spinach pizza. Each bite I gave her made her kick her feet in delight. Yes sweetheart, grandma feels like that when she eats sometimes too! ;)
We stopped back by my house for a minute to change her clothes and to delight in her walking for a few minutes. It was almost hard to leave!

Brooklyn did not disappoint us at all that evening. She walked and when she wasn't able to walk fast enough to keep up with all the kids she would drop back down into her crawl and go fast as lightning after them.

I dearly love this last picture of my grandbaby on the left and my sweet friend's grandbaby on the right. She is almost exactly one year older than Brooklyn and it was so special to see the two of them together.

The kids all played together so well and apparently she played hard because when the three of us got in the car to head back to her house Brooklyn fell fast asleep within a couple of blocks and slept the whole way home.

Good times.....

5 Generations and Cousins with Grandkids

Of course when we all get together I bring out the camera.....a lot. Everybody moans and groans, but they do like to see the pictures afterwards. ;) We also had the golden opportunity to take a picture with five generations.

(From the left - Mom, Grandma, Me, Brooklyn, James in front)

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On Friday we all ran over to Grandma's house because my cousin Melinda was in town from Little Rock. This picture is Melinda holding her grandson Max (he's ten months old) and me holding my granddaughter Brooklyn (she's four months old). These are our first grandkids and we are just loving them up!

The few hours we got to be together was so much fun. When Melinda and I get together it's like we were never apart and we talk and talk and talk. When we were younger we lived in the same city and our families got together fairly often. I remember packing my Barbies in their little carrying case and spreading out all the Barbie stuff in Melinda's bedroom. We would play Barbies for HOURS! So while we were sitting there holding our grandkids I turned to Melinda and said this was kind of like playing Barbies (and Ken!) only these Barbies were MUCH better than the ones we had before!!!

No Baby Yet!

No Baby Yet....three little words that say so much. And those three words are the words that must be said FIRST every time I answer the phone or make a call to a friend or relative. :) This little girl is already making such an impact on so many lives.

But soon. Very soon and I'll be a grandma. We've got the cameras and video camera batteries on the charger and are good to go. I feel like I must bring more than one camera JUST IN CASE the battery goes dead or something on my primary camera. I can't imagine being at the birth of my first grandchild sans camera. Just not going to happen!

My weekend was filled with fun - and Brooklyn was constantly on my mind! Friday night I went scrapbooking with friends and as usual had a ball. Didn't get much done, but did meet a couple of new ladies that seemed very nice.

Saturday morning I had to work, but only until 10:30. I left work at full speed and met some girlfriends for shopping, lunch and a movie. Lunch was an ever popular soup and salad event at Olive Garden. During lunch we had one of those moments in time that really should be in a movie somewhere. Olive Garden gives a small taste of wine, I'm sure hoping you'll love it and order more. It just so happened that one of the gals at lunch was going through a rough patch in her life and another friend very calmly and without any words or fanfare passed her wineglass over and poured it into the first glass. We each followed suit and it just honestly was so poignant and really such a "ya ya" moment. The silence was what got me I think. Had words been spoken it would've broken the beautiful spell of the moment. God is truly merciful to honor such friendships amongst women.

We tried to dash across the street to see the movie in the mall, but the incredible amount of traffic made a dash impossible. ;) We saw the movie Evening, which was really, really good and we agreed that not a one of our husbands would've enjoyed it. It was the type of movie to see with girlfriends and a fist full of tissues.

We wandered out through the mall a while, of course stopping at Starbucks for a frap. Pottery Barn had a plethora of items to drool over, Stride Rite and their Robeez shoes (I can thank Becky for introducing me to those!) and the baby department of a couple of department stores. And that's what I mean about Brooklyn being with us - I honestly think my friends are almost as excited as I am about this baby.

I've Seen Brooklyn!

Yesterday morning was one of the single most amazing events I have ever experienced in my life. Loni invited me to go to her 36 week doctor appointment with them as a 4-D Ultrasound was scheduled. Seeing Brooklyn on the screen moving around, hearing her heartbeat, seeing those beautiful chubby little cheeks, watching her breathe - it literally took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. There are times that we take all the modern medical technology for granted and truly it is a miracle. I called Keith afterwards and was describing Brooklyn's cheeks and his comment was that the fact that I'm able to describe to him what she looks like before she's born is unbelievable.

Right now she weighs 7 lbs 10 oz and they will induce labor on July 18 if she doesn't come earlier. Have I mentioned just how excited I am to hold this little princess? And now I'm also looking forward to kissing on those little cheeks of hers. She really is beautiful. :)

The Countdown Is On!

The grandbaby is officially due in July and since my calendar says that month is indeed here, we are excited!!! Excited more so since Loni is having contractions. They are not steady yet, so I do realize it can be a while. And I haven't talked to her yet this morning, so for all I know right now things might be hopping in their household!

It's amazing how much a person can love somebody they haven't even met yet. Thinking about her honestly gives me such a warm and peaceful feeling. I can't wait to look into her eyes and feel her in my arms. :) I spoke to my cousin this week and I always love hearing her talk about her grandbaby. She absolutely loves her little girl and hearing the toddler girl voice in the background talking to her MeMe just warms my soul. I can't wait!!!

Our weekend went really well - this was the first time in quite a while that we didn't have something "very important" to do or somewhere to be. Lots of relaxing at home together. We did go on Saturday to see Live Free or Die Hard and enjoyed that. I did, however, come out of the theater with a headache as they had the volume quite high. Wonder if it's always been that way or am I getting old??? Hmmm.... Last night we watched Failure To Launch at home (a gal at work had loaned me the movie) and that was cute. It did get us to talking about the whole Empty Nest thing and how so many people keep mentioning to me how either they themselves or people they know have problems when it's just the two of them again. How blessed Keith and I are to be having so much fun together.

Which brings me to the Honor Your Husband 30 Day Challenge. Being sure to keep Keith first in my life has brought some amazing results. My first thought to not put a lot of my feelings on my blog seems to be correct as I seem to be having a problem lately with some people twisting many of my words around to their benefit. Therefore I will just say that this challenge has been a tremendous blessing to my family and I encourage everybody to do this.

These are the cupcakes I took to work last week - Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. They were so good and the fun part about this recipe was that one of the guys I work with brought the recipe and asked me if I would make them some time! The recipe looked good enough that I told him I'd move them to the top of the rotation, which made him grin. Always good to keep your workmates happy! :)

Friday night I went scrapbooking with some friends (nothing like bouncing around on different subjects!!!) and had the best time! I laughed so much and so hard that my cheeks hurt by the time I came home. Project pictures to follow. :) And we met some new ladies that were at the table next to us and they were a ton of fun as well. Good times....

Brooklyn's Baby Shower

Saturday our side of the family got together for Loni's baby shower and it was SO MUCH FUN! My cousin is the quintessential hostess and every time we've had any kind of shower or gathering it is wonderful - and this one was no exception. The picture is the "chef guy" in her home standing inside her dining room off the entrance of her home. The sign says "Can't wait for Baby Brooklyn!"

We had so much family there and it was truly a blessing. I sat with my cousin and her 5 month old grandson loving on him. I saw my other cousin's daughter 5 months (I think) pregnant and she is just so beautiful. Another cousin's twin boys just turned a year old and they were fun! My grandmother was there, my in-laws, more cousins and kids - truly fabulous.

This shower was a couples shower (the mom-to-be always gets to choose), so really a full house. We even had a sit down dinner for all these people! And baby Max, the 5 month old, coo'ed and played and entertained us all.

The second photo is, obviously, the beautiful cake. So precious and PINK! My family has obviously embraced having a baby girl come into the family as there were so many pink and girlie outfits in the gifts. This will be a very sharp dressed little girl!

Again let me say - It Is Well With My Soul. God is truly gracious to our family and in the heart of our gatherings.

New Knit Bag

Keith, Joe and I went to visit the folks this weekend and had such a nice time! It was a much more relaxed trip than what we usually take and I enjoyed that. We had lunch with Mom, Gary and Michele on Saturday at Mimi's Cafe and of course that was fabulous. On the way back to mom's house we had a "boys" car and a "girls" car due to different errands needing to be done. We went to Gourmet Yarn Company because I needed some new size 2 dpns. I totally love this store every time I go in! Margaret has rearranged a bit since I saw it last and has tons of fabulous new yarns. It was really hard to exercise self-control, but I did manage.

Then Sunday morning we went to church with Keith's parents. I will always have a special place in my heart for this church since it's the one we attended when we lived there. Just love it - the pastor, the music (a WONDERFUL bluegrass Christian band), the new building - good times.

After church we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and of course half the fun of Cracker Barrel is the shopping before you eat. I absolutely fell in love with this bag and told Keith it would be a great knit bag for me! He just smiled and kind of shook his head at me because he knows I'm really embracing this "becoming a grandma" thing. We finished eating and then went out and bought the bag. Isn't it adorable??? :)

Loni's Baby Shower

Today was such a special day - Lynne' and I got to attend my grandbaby's first baby shower! The shower was at Loni's parents' house and was given by her three sisters.

One of the cutest games was blindfolding the pregnant one (aka Loni!) and handing her a diaper bag with 10 baby items. She had to pick up the items one by one and guess what they were. We all had a piece of paper and had to write down our guess of how many items she would get correct. Bless her heart, she got all ten of them correct and not a single person there had enough faith in her to guess ten! The closest was a cousin who had guessed eight.

And it was just so fun to watch Loni open all the gifts. There were so many adorable outfits that you couldn't possibly pick a favorite. Loni and I were talking after the shower about how fun it will be for quite some time when she gets Brooklyn dressed each day. And how difficult it will be to choose an outfit from the many cute things she has!

I really enjoyed being a part of my daughter-in-law's family today at her shower. Two of her sisters already have daughters (one just turned a year old and the other is three weeks old) and a cousin has a daughter 18 months old. It really was funny watching the two older babies running around and having fun together. Even more fun was watching and listening to the four sisters getting together and picking on each other!

"Sisters sprout from the same garden, but blossom and grow in their own way." - unknown

It's A Girl!

The ultrasound confirmed that we are having a granddaughter!

Will she be frilly or will she be adventurous?

Will she like dolls or trucks?

Will she like quiet time and reading or will she prefer to run like the wind?

It will be so much fun to watch a little one grow again!

First Grandbaby Gift

Last night we met James and Loni for dinner, then we all went to Babies R Us just to look around. Loni saw the wall o' bibs and we went over to read them because really they can be just as funny as church signs. I saw this one and when Loni pointed out that the kitty was knitting, well that clinched the deal and I had to buy it. We don't even know at this point if it's a boy or girl, but if it's a girl I have her first bib now!

"When there's a knitting grandma around it doesn't matter if the kittens lose their mittens - we'll knit more!"