Yes, That WAS my Granddaughter!

Oh, grandchildren! They are so wonderful. So sweet, so lovable, always such angels. NOT!

Mattie May loves to go to Bible class. She gets to see her friends, is always learning a new song, and from what the teachers tell us, she is a good pupil; always listening and learning. On Wednesday night, we enjoy going to church early and eating at Manna and More. The food is always good and the fellowship is even better. Mattie May is usually a very good eater and will sit down for most of the meal and eat.

Well, not last night. She gave the hundred or so people trying to eat a real show on how not to act. She got mad at me because I would not let her eat her cake before she ate her meal. Oh, the drama! The crying, the sobbing with the hands covering the mouth and face. Standing in the chair stomping and screaming. Laying in the floor yelling "pwease, Lolo, pwease"! If only awards had been given out last night for "Best fit Thrown in a Public Place", she would have won, hands down.

I know, I could have just let her have the cake. But it would seem then that I was giving in. I had to stand my ground. She already thinks she is the boss, just ask her.

So to everyone that was there, I am so sorry for the way she acted, but now you know she is not always the angel she appears to be. To those that were not, I hope you had a very peaceful meal with your family!

Whoa...I need to clarify something!

I was looking over my last post and decided it did not make me look like a very good grandmother. It looks as if we just sit Mattie May in the floor with the television running full blast. That is not what we do. We are very active with that little stinker. She is already counting and saying the alphabet and we are working on letter and number recognition. She know numerous Bible and nursery songs and we read from her Bible every night. The movie is usually playing when we are coloring, putting puzzles together, or playing any of the other many things we play.

I do not believe in using the TV as a babysitter. I will admit to her watching Mickey Mouse in the mornings while we are getting ready for school and work, but I don't like that I even do that. So please don't judge me to harshly.

I will be glad for the warmer weather so we can spend more time outside. This year she will be helping me in the garden. She will also get to start fishing with Grumpy and I. So even though it sounds like she watches a lot of TV she really doesn't. I am sure she will get plenty of that as she gets older.

WE HAVE EVOLVED!!!!!!!

A while back, I talked about the movie Barnyard that Mattie May was hooked on. Well, we have moved on. We no longer watch the talking cows and mules on a nightly basis, now we watch talking cars! We have moved on to "the raca caas" (translation -the race cars). Yes, thank you Disney! We now watch Cars at least once a night (2 times tonight!). If you have not seen this movie, and if you have anyone living in your house under 10 I am sure you've seen it, it is really a cute movie. I think it has a really good moral to the story.

It is about a race car in his rookie season, Lighting McQueen, who could be the first rookie ever to win the piston cup. And he believes he can do it on his own. As you can imagine, something terrible happens and he learns the meaning of friendship and what it truly means to be a winner.

I love the voices. Owen Wilson is Lighting McQueen, Paul Newman is Doc Hudson, and Larry the Cable Guy is Tow Mater. The movie mostly takes place in Radiator Springs which is located on the nearly deserted Route 66.

A Disney movie that has a lesson even a grown up can learn from. If you ever get the chance, watch it. If you don't want to rent it, wait a while and when we aren't watching ours every night, you are more than welcome to borrow it.

We might be crazy, but...

Frank and I sat down yesterday to read the Sunday paper. I'm weird and have to read it in a certain order so I start and he gets each section as I finish. For some reason I always save the funny papers until last. I guess after reading all the depressing news, I prefer to end on a light hearted note.

I am always comparing my family to one comic strip or another, but I don't remember ever actually seeing one of their pictures there. As I unfolded the paper, there right before my eyes was my darling Mattie May! I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. I showed it to Frank and he saw the same thing.

Following are the picture that I saw and her actual picture. Tell me what you think---

My beautiful grand baby looks like Garfield!

A Couple of Birthday Stories

Just a couple of quick stories I really want to share.

#1:
My birthday is December 26. For those of you who do not know anyone that has a birthday during that week after Christmas, let me just tell you, IT STINKS! When your little you can't have a party because all of your friends are out of town and there is just too much going on. People try to combine gifts for Christmas and birthday. As a kid, this just isn't much fun. Fortunately, I am a spoiled rotten only child. So I always have had a special time set aside just for me because it was my birthday. I always had presents wrapped in birthday wrap. and candles on a birthday cake. Christmas was no where to be found. Until this year!

As you know from my previous posts, my mom worked out of town for the entire month of December. Not only did she not have much time to shop and decorate, she was going to be gone on my birthday. So she did something she has not done in 45 years - SHE GAVE ME A COBO GIFT! I just had to share with you the picture of my gift. You can see she is very imaginative and I love her so much! Thanks Mom for always making me feel special, no matter what day of the year it is!

The left side is in Christmas wrap and says to open 12-24-07/The right side is birthday wrap and says do not open until 12-26-07!

She is just so clever!

#2:
Mattie May turned 2 this year but due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to postpone her birthday party. Not her birthday, that is always a special day, just the party.

Grumpy arranged for a party at Mr. Gatti's (thank you Bill and staff for making it such a great time!). So here are a few pictures of our "Little Diva" -

"I'm two - see my flashing scepter says so."

Gotta love that dark purple icing!

After her party, she was a bit wired from to much cake and not enough nap, so Katie and I took her out to "Fort Imagination". This is the best park in town. She loves it out there.

Playing "Peek-a-Boo" in the cheese.

Life is so good when you live in a bubble.

I hope this is the only jail I ever have to get these two out of!

Of course you know these are not the only pictures of her birthday that I have, I just didn't want to bore any one!

I Know it is Boring, But...

It's here! 2008 is here. As a country we have been anticipating this year, well, since 2004.

IT IS ELECTION YEAR.

Oh, don't quit reading now, I promise, I am not writing a post about my favorite candidate or even why I don't think your should vote on your favorite candidate. I know there are many of you out there that will never agree with me on my views and that's OK! What I am going to tell you in this little bloggy of mine is to remember to

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!

I'm sorry. I know capital letters mean I am yelling and I am. This is very important to me. I promise to not use this blog as a political soapbox. I have lots of family and friends that I love that we will never see eye to eye on the issues or who we think makes a good candidate. And I really don't like to hear their views anyway, so I am keeping this post to one subject. Get registered to vote.

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!

As a women, we have not had this privilege for very long. There are several classes of people that were able to vote before we could. There are still countries where women are still not allowed a voice in their government.

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!

Ok, Ok, I know it is only January and the primaries for most states are several months away. But I bring this up now to remind you, if you are not a registered voter, you need to get signed up so you will be able to vote come primary time. You don't get to vote just because you want to, you have to be registered. And yes, your vote does count.

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!

When you go to vote take your kids and grandkids so they can start learning the process at an early age. We always to Katie with us and to this day, she may forget some things, but she always remembers to go vote.

Can you tell I just love Maxine?!

Pictures that have been promised...

I know I promised a while back that I would get some pictures of Christmas posted, but I have just not taken the time to do it until tonight. So now, for your enjoyment, here is -

CHRISTMAS 2007

Frank and I started our favorite tradition together just last year as Mattie May's first Christmas approached. We have a rather large Christmas card mailing list and love to send out cards. But we always had trouble picking cards that showed not only our personalities, but our love of God and the reason why we celebrate this time of year anyway. So we decided that we would make our own cards with a Christan thought or scripture on the front with a corresponding picture of Mattie May inside.

This year, we chose;

Luke 2:10

"and the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people' "

along with this picture -

Have you ever seen a cuter angel?

She just makes it so easy,

such a ham in front of the camera.

The next two were the runners up and I just had to share them too.

A good angel always says her prayers.

And even the tiniest angel knows how to properly praise Jesus!

And so now starts the celebration pictures. Our first celebration was at Poppa and Lorraine's (Pete) house on the 23rd.

I just love this picture.

I am not quite sure what she is looking at but this picture shows me what Christmas is about, the wonderment and belief that only children have.

Last year, Mattie May loved the pumpkin pie...

but not this year! We have got to teach this child some manners!

Grammy and Mattie May

Christmas eve has almost always been celebrated at Mom's house. There are two days of the year that she looks forward to, Mother's Day and Christmas eve, so on both of these days, the family gathers at her house. Even though she spent the entire month of December working out of town, she insisted that "the show would go on!!!" And did it ever!

Ever since Katie was little, we have been taking pictures of the little ones under the tree with all the gifts. This year we did it a little early, before all the others got there with their supply of packages. But as you can see, this didn't stop Mattie May enjoying the traditional snap with the gifts. Aren't those cool tights?

Kauy reads as Mattie patiently listens. They are both ssssooo ready to start opening gifts!

Modeling her "Sugar Plum" hat that Tiger bought for her.

When Katie was little, we always spent Christmas eve night at Tiger's because she had a fire place for Santa to come down and we didn't. The tradition of spending the night at Grandma's house continues as they started last year staying with us. Mattie May could really care less about the "Big Man" right now, but we do have a fireplace.

Katie has NEVER been a morning person!

Yes, all that stuff is just for one two year old girl. It's GOOD to be an only child!

Our tree is not as beautiful and elaborate as Mom's, but it holds our 24 years of memories.

Mattie May got...

Tinker Bell slippers...

and new boots, too.

Mattie was so excited about this little snow globe because it had "Micka Mowse" in it. About 5 minutes later it shattered when she dropped it!

Katie got new boots too...

and just couldn't wait to put them on!

This is a lot of pictures, I know, but it really is only about 1% of the ones I took during the holidays! I just love making and recording memories.

I hope your family had as wonderful a time as mine did. We are already planning for next year!

Happy Birthday to the Twins... Well Not Really Twins

Happy Birthday to the kiddos! January 3 is a very special day for our family, we celebrate two birthdays! No, not really twins, but two kids that think the world of each other.

Oldest first - Kauy Paul born January 3, 2001. Special in so very many ways, but the first that comes to my mind is that he is "the man". He is the only boy that has been born into our family. He is part of Mattie B's fourth generation, and the only male for 64 years! He hates it when I call him "little man" but until he is taller than me (which, knowing his dad, won't be for long) that is what I will call him. But to one very special little girl, he will always be "Uncle Kauy" (that is what he wants her to call him and none of us are going to tell him any different).

Mattie May was born January 3, 2006. She is the first in many ways; the first of Mattie B's fifth generation, Katie's first daughter, our first granddaughter, and first great granddaughter to my mom and dad. For two years she has brought such joy to our lives. The first thing anyone notices about her are those big, beautiful blue eyes. As she grows older they become more expressive and her best asset. She is such a good little girl that is always learning. And Kauy says she is the best birthday present yet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BOTH. WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!