Lauren

Okay, call me a proud MeMe, but isn't she beautiful. She has those big dimples and that beautiful smile and big blue eyes. I know that it is January and she turned 2 in October but we took her yesterday for her 2 year old pictures. She did so good. I will be posting some pictures later of her and Madilyn in their matching Christmas dresses, when we get them taken. ;) Don't hold your breath but we will get them taken.

Looking Back at 2008

Brandon, Ashley, Braden and Madilyn



Brandon and Ashley went from a family of three to a family of four in 2008. Ashley passed the State Medical Boards, got her nursing license and is working for St. Francis Hospital where she is a critical care nurse. I really admire her for being able to do the job that she does and Brandon was promoted at his job to Manager of Surveillance. Brandon also graduated from UNLV with his Masters this year. Aren't they a beautiful family. I am so proud of them both and thank God for the precious new grandaughter Madilyn and for our grandson Braden.




Jeremy, Trista, Jacob and Lauren

Lauren gave up the binky this year although it was not an easy task. All she ever asks for at night is her own bed, her binky and her blanket (with a tag). Well anyway Trista found her several times in her bed with a binky, she must of have had some stashed for "just such an emergency" but she would always tell Trista that it was for her baby. She has several dolls and known of them are wearing clothes. The first thing she does is take their clothes off of them. She even took the clothes off of her life size Barbie and put them on herself so she could be the "Princess." She loves to read, or be read to, dance, sing, and dress up. She is my little Trista all over again. ;) I am going to love watching her grow in 2009.








Jacob started school this year in the 4 year old program. This was also his first year to play T-ball. Here we go again, BORING. Sometimes it looked more like football instead of T-ball since everyone on the team went to where ever the ball was hit and everyone wanted to get the ball. He mostly stood out in the field with his best friends Pierson and Baylor and it was quite comical. They would be talking instead of paying attention to the game. You could tell that Jeremy and Shaun would get a little upset so Trista and Kauleen would take over helping the kids while they were out on the field. Of course they loved it when it was their turn to bat. He is sure growing up fast. Just to think that he will be going to Kindergarten at the school where MeMe works.



Mike, Becky & Jerrod



Mike retired this year after almost 31 years at the Steelmill and 31 years of shift work. We bought a fifth wheel which is our second home during the summer. We spend alot of time at Roaring River, the men trout fish and the women hang out at the pool or go to Cassville to go antique shopping. We have a wonderful time. Most of the time that we are there so is Robert and Carol and the boys, Davey, Robyn and the girls, and Uncle Johnny and Aunt Sharon and on occasion they will have their GRANDchildren with them also. It is a wonderful time of relaxation and fun with family. Our kids sometimes come up on the weekends if we spend a couple of weeks away from home. Most of the time I have Jacob with me and a couple of times Braden has got to go with us. We love to be with out children and GRANDchildren.

Jerrod is doing well. He has his own little house with his pit bull named Pearl. Jacob loves to spend the night with Uncle Jerrod. Jerrod loves his nieces and nephews. I think he probably lets Jacob do what ever he wants when he is with him. He usually spends the night on Saturdays and then Jerrod will get up and get them both ready for church. I know that he will be a great dad someday. He loves kids.

Learning to "Let Go and Let God"

I just finished an awesome book, "The Shack." I have used the phrase alot, "Let Go and Let God," and this book taught me alot about myself and hopefully some of the things I am going to share with you will help you also. It taught me how to truly what you might call, "practice what you preach." I am always telling my kids to, "Let go and let God." Some times there is pain in your life that you thought you had truly forgiven people of but the pain is still there.

If all you see is your own pain you lose sight of God. We are all created to be loved. Trust in Him and know that His power can work through you. All love and relationship is possible for us only because it already exists in God. If your heart is full of pain, anger and confusion you need to rest in the trust you have in God even if your trust is small. God's love is simple, warm, and genuine.

Forgiveness is first for the forgiver; to release us from something that will eat us alive; destroy our joy and our ability to love fully and openly.

If Jesus is the center of our life then together we can live through everything that happens to us. He wants to be the center of our life because that is where our friends, family, and etc. exists.

I learned that I can't build a wall to protect my children and loved ones or to keep them from feeling pain. My wall can keep me from growing closer to God and possibly keep them from growing closer to God also.

We are the pinnacle of God's creation and the center of His affection. Even if you do not always understand what God is doing you must always trust Him. God is an awesome God and all the processes of your life is covered by His goodness.

God bless you all and have a safe healthy, prosperous and blessed 2009.

Christmas Eve

Today we had Christmas with our children and GRANDchildren. Trista, Jeremy, Jacob and Lauren will be flying to Michigan in the morning to spend Christmas with Jeremy's family and Brandon, Ashley, Braden, and Madilyn will be spending Christmas in Bristow with Ashley's family. Jerrod will be with Jennifer's family tomorrow in Mannford so Mike and I will probably sleep in and then go and spend the day with Barbie and her children and GRANDchildren. We all had a wonderful time at Jeremy and Trista's house. I helped her get her laundry caught up and get things ready to be packed for their trip. They have a layover in Chicago and I just hope that it doesn't turn into a long one. As of this morning the airport in Chicago and been shut down because of bad weather. A long layover wouldn't be much fun with two young kids.
This is a picture of Lauren and Abby. We have ALOT of Abby videos. Abby is from Sesame Street, just in case you didn't know. I took the presents to their house last night so that I wouldn't have so much to unload today and couldn't resist "Pwease MeMe, I want my pwesent."
This is a picture of my precious Grand-daughters, Lauren and Madilyn. Lauren thinks that she is a big girl since she got to feed Madilyn. Aren't they beautiful!!!

Braden and Jacob are truly enjoying their video game that MeMe and PaPa bought each of them. At one point they both came out of the bedroom asking for a piece of cake and when I had asked them if they were through playing with their new game they both said, "No, but Daddy and "B" (that is what they call Brandon) wants to play the game.
Uncle Jerrod received the honor of handing out the presents again this year, minus the Santa outfit. We are not able to convince Lauren that Santa is a nice man and that she doesn't have to be scared of him. We had a wonderful day with our family, Mom & Dad, Barbie, and Jeremy's Mom & Dad and his brother Jeff.

Hill Family Christmas Part 2

Okay, you are not going to believe what my daughter did!!!! When she got home from the "Hill Family Christmas" she was looking at the pictures that were taken that day. I was not able to take many pictures because Lauren was attached to my hip because of Santa. Well, Sunday morning before church she DELETED ALL of the pictures taken the day before because she THOUGHT she had downloaded them on her computer. Well guess what she DIDN'T so now I am e-mailing everyone trying to get pictures. We had taken pictures of the families, the grandson's, grandaughter's, in-laws, etc. Pictures of everyone in their sombraros that Grandad and Bonita had given as gifts. Someone suggested that we go Christmas caroling in our new hats but we convinced them that it was too cold. THANK GOD.

This is a picture of Brandon, Ashley, Braden and our newest angel Madilyn. It was taken on Christmas Eve at Trista and Jeremy's house. Braden was with his dad when we had the Hill Christmas so I wanted to let everyone see this picture of Brandon and his family. I am so proud of both Brandon and Ashley. She passed her nursing test and is employed at St. Francis working on the critical care floor. Brandon was promoted and is now the Junior Manager or second in charge of the Surveillance Operation at the casino. God has truly blessed them this year in all areas of their life.

So here is a picture of Lauren and Madyson Sunday morning at church. Aren't they BEAUTIFUL??? Don't worry I will be updating more Christmas stories later.

Hill Family Christmas

We had our Hill Family Christmas yesterday. Our niece Amy and her husband Carl invited us to their house for our Christmas celebration this year. EVERYONE was accounted for and present this year. Tye, Janina, and Addison had to come the farthest. They came from Hawaii where Tye is currently stationed. I think we should have all gone to Hawaii, I bet it would have been much warmer there. We had a wonderful time. This year we had 3 new babies born, the first picture is my little angel Madilyn, she is the daughter of Brandon and Ashley, Sophie, the second picture is the daughter of Lori Beth and Daniel, the third picture is Addison, which is the daughter of Tye and Janina. Who knows how many new ones we could have next year!!! Jacob did tell Santa that he wanted a baby brother and the last time he told Santa something like that he got what he wanted, a baby sister.


Below is a picture of the new ones we had two Christmas's ago. Boy have they grown. This is Chloe, she is the daughter of Lori Beth and Daniel and the big sister of Sophie, Preston, is the son of Amy and Carl and he has a big brother named Ian and my little angel Lauren which is the daughter of Trista and Jeremy and she has a big brother names Jacob. Lauren is terrified of Santa. If you ask her to please have her picture taken with Santa she says, "MMMM, NO!" Today at church my nephew Justin was dressed like Santa and was handing out the gifts to the children and I even told her that it was Justin but there was NO WAY she was going to get anywhere near him. Sorry Santa. I am sure it is nothing personal. As you can tell by the look on her face she is not interested this year, maybe next year.

Cold Outside but Warm in MeMe's Bafwoom

Another day spent with Lauren and Jacob since school was out. I think today it was just because of the wind chill although the streets are still slick in the neighborhood. Got everyone fed with sausage patties, doughnuts and orange juice and it was time for the morning bath. By the way the doughnuts and orange juice is what Trista picks up on the way to MeMe's house, I do have more nutritional things to fix them. LOL I was trying to get a good picture of Jacob smiling but the only time he was smiling was when he was splashing the water in his sister's face and I didn't want to get my camera wet.

I had a dentist appt. today to get my teeth cleaned so before I left I got Lauren to sleep on my bed and Jacob was coughing his head off so I gave him some Dimetap (because his PaPa took all of his Benedryl) thinking I was killing two birds with one stone. One for the cough the other to make him sleepy and take a nap. Well guess what? Dimetap makes him climb the walls and ceiling. Mike said that Lauren woke up about 15 minutes after I left (whatever) so when I got back about 2 hours later he was a little frustrated. :(

I did get to video Lauren singing her songs today. "Row, Row, Row Your Boat, ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." On a couple of them we got to hear them twice cause she would say, "One more time MeMe." It turned out really good. Jacob and Lauren also sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" but the Dimetap kept him from standing still. I will go to Wal Mart tomorrow to restock on the Benedryl, hide it from PaPa, and will never again buy Dimetap. I sure hope that we are back in school tomorrow. Even if I don't have the GRANDbabies Mike is driving me crazy being home all day since being laid off last Thursday from his job, yes, two weeks before Christmas. :( We are keeping our faith in God that he will be back to work REAL soon. We know that he got the job because it was God's will in the first place and we are keeping the faith that the lay off will not be for long. He really enjoys the job and the people that he works with. He doesn't feel good ;( and we all know how much worse it is for a man to be sick.