Kaleb is 5 and Emma is 7 - the SAME DAY!

These special days are the times we miss Matt and Sara and family the most! Emma turned 7 on December 4th, the same day Kaleb turned 5. Thankfully Kaleb only lives a half hour away so we were able to attend his birthday party, but little Emma...well, Orlando is a very long way from here! We did get to talk for a minute and sing Happy Birthday and Matt posted a little video on YouTube of her opening her books from us that was so fun! They are always so thoughtful of us and the fact that we can't be there for these occasions even though we long to be. I love that all my grandchildren LOVE to read...they all love books and I am sure that this is due to their good moms taking them to the library so often and reading at home with them. We thank these wonderful moms so much because if a child can read they will love school and learning as a general rule.

 All Kaleb wanted was a remote controlled helicopter which Cindy was nice enough to let us give him and he does love it! His parents gave him a remote controlled truck which he is also so thrilled about and plays with constantly. Kaleb has always loved things that are real or look real! So these items fit the bill perfectly! He is an easy child to please as is Emma.  Happy Birthday, you two! Grandma and Grandpa love you SOOOOOO much!!!!!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! I love my RC Monster truck!

Kaleb is definitely Grandpa's buddy!

Patiently ? reading Grandma's lengthy cards!

His cool remote controlled helicopter!

Cool race track cake/bumper to bumper traffic!

I won't say this is what DJ does best, but he is darn good at it! He does them here, too! Love that guy!

Happy 4th Birthday, Kaleb!

It was both Kaleb's 4th birthday yesterday and Emma's 6th birthday! We did get to talk to Em for a minute before her mom dropped her at school. Apparently they were having a pouring Florida rainstorm so the car line for dropping the children off was extra long and they were running late as a result. We were so glad we got to sing "Happy Birthday" to her! We missed being at her little party but hope she enjoyed our gift and knew that we were there in spirit. We love you, Emma and miss you! See you in just a couple of weeks!!!!!

We WERE able, however, because of close proximity, to attend little Kaleb's birthday party and see his cool dinosaur cake! Though you can't tell from the look on his face in the picture, he was very thrilled with it! Greg had his company party at Mountain River Ranch at 7:30 so Cindy was gracious enough to begin his party at 5:30pm so we were able to attend most of it. We really appreciate that! Grandpa was pretty excited to give him the little pair of armittas (short, light-weight chaps) he found for Kaleb as this little boy LOVES to dress up like a cowboy! KJ was so cute when he saw them and couldn't wait to get them on. Cindy said it was one of the first things he wanted to put on this morning. Probably his favorite gift, however, was his little headlamp! Todd has one for reading and he thinks it is the coolest! So you are cool now, too, Kaleb! We loved his new little white shirt, tie, and dress pants for Sunday. Talk about looking like a missionary! He received some darling gifts from his sisters who absolutely adore him and love nothing better than hitting the dollar section at Target and picking out just the perfect gifts for him! These kids are as excited for their siblings birthdays as they are for their own. It was a beautiful thing to see how they fussed over him! My pictures arent' very good. I finally figured out that somehow I had slid it to the manual setting and so some of my best pictures were fuzzy. Sorry I didn't get a picture of you, Cindy. They were all fuzzy! We love our very special little Kaleb and his wonderful smile that makes his eyes dance and then disappear. He just enjoys life and everything about it! Happy Birthday to our 4-year-old "cowboy missionary" as he calls himself!

More Blessings Packaged Small!

"Walking the Plank" at the Library

Jordy knows how to clean up!!!

Regan embroidered this beautiful napkin for me. I love it!!!

Fun in the pea patch!

Painting the tree

True "tree-hugger"

No fair! Let us out!

Picture with the pirate

Pirate story time at the library!

Cindy came down to stay Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. As Chloe and Lily are staying with us, it was so fun for them to have lots of "cousin time!" These are just a few highlights! Regan was our photographer for many of the pictures. Thanks Regan!