First Days of Kindergarten

I remember so well lining my children up on the front porch on the first day of school to take pictures. I never imagined the day I would have my Grand daughter do the same thing. I am so blessed to get to be a part of these special moments.
Chelsea had a parade escorting her to her first day of school. She had her mommy and brother, her Aunt Christen and of course Grandma. None of us wanted to miss it so we all went.

Look at Miss Independent walking down the big hallway all by herself, well, we were right behind her but she was taking the lead. Such a wave of emotions fill this heart of mine. Her mom walked down this same hallway for her first day of Kindergarten. I am sure she was just as independent and just as cute.

After about a week of school Chelsea has got her teachers name down. Instead of just saying "teacher" she now says "Mrs. Moran" It was nice of her teacher to color coordinate her outfit with Chelsea's for the first day of school.



She gets to ride the bus to school and as you can see she is totally okay with this fact. When I tucked her in to bed that night and said her prayers with her we thanked God that she had a safe bus ride and she sat up in bed and matter of fact told me, "Well, I had to hold on to the seat real tight when we went around a corner" I guess she wanted God to know that. So we asked God to send his angels to protect her, like we always do.....and she pipes in again...are you ready for this one...."are those angels God's wives?" I just never know what she will say next, but she is so sincere and so eager to learn.

I pray she will always love school, always be eager to learn and never be afraid to ask questions. Her angels have a full time job ahead of them, but who better to entrust her with but her Guardian Angels.

My "Little" Man

I know, it has been forever since I posted. Here is what I have been busy with, and isn't he the most adorable chunk of love you have ever seen? His smile melts my heart. He is four months old now and 20 pounds of cute.
If he isn't being held, which is his preference, this is his next favorite spot. He wants to be UP and facing the world, not laying down.

He has entered the drooling stage as you can see and with summer here, clothes are optional but the bib isn't.

There is nothing cuter than a baby or toddler in overalls. It was hard to get a pose where I could get a picture but we tried.

Keep checking back, I am hoping to get more pictures posted soon since I am so far behind.

My Little CowGirl

So, we are back to the point where she loves me to take her picture again. She is also getting very good at posing for me. She comes up with her own poses and tells me when to take the picture. Once again she is on our bed playing. It is so funny to me that she will run in and say to me, "Can I go play on your bed Grandma?"

Today was pink camo day and she decided that my pink hat topped the outfit off perfectly. Well, alright then. Who am I to argue. Can you believe she is only 5? She just looks more and more grown up all the time. I know I can never compare the two kids but if Ryder has even half the personality that Chelsea has I am going to have my hands full, not to mention a million pictures of them before they are even in school.

Does it get any cuter than this?

There was such an angelic look on her face on the photo below I couldn't resist posting it. We had a lot of fun playing around and taking silly pictures. You know I am going to post more so don't be thinking you are missing out.

One Month Old

I don't know how it happens but one minute I am in the hospital watching Ryder be born and the next he is one month old. How in the world does that happen? I will admit, I wasn't sure how it would be having two grandchildren, especially after Chelsea. She has been more to me than I ever would of imagined. But you know what, my heart is big enough for all the grandchildren you can throw at me. Ryder has his own special place in my heart that no one else can fill.
I think he is trying to smile at Grandma in this photo. When Chelsea was one month old she got to have her first sleep over at Grandma's house, and guess what? When Ryder was one month old he got to sleep over too. Do you think it will become a tradition with my Grandchildren? I think I would enjoy it. Both sleepovers involved very fussy babies, more like screaming babies. Screaming babies for long bouts of time. But you know, it didn't bother me too much. I had been very sick the week before and had not totally recovered but it didn't stop me.

Having two babies at the same time (okay, Chelsea is 5 but will always be my baby girl) was also a challenge. Papa had to sleep in one room with Chels and I had to sleep in another with Ryder but I got more sleep than I had thought I would. I think Ryder likes my bed (we know Chelsea does, she will only sleep with us when she is here). I do believe Mark and I will be getting a king size bed to accomodate the grandkids though.

Chelsea was nice enough to take this picture of us. She is becoming quite the photographer. This was a good moment, notice he is sleeping. If he was awake he was crying so most of the photos I got were of him sleeping.

I think he was just very hungry, so I let him have as much bottle as he wanted. Of course the first time I did this he threw it all back up all over me. That was a special moment I will always cherish. I had an entire bra full of formula. We came to an understanding of just how much enough formula his tummy could hold at any given time.

Grandmahood is agreeing with me.

3 Weeks Old

Three weeks old...and cuter every day. Grandma got to have the kids over for the day while the big kids went to Tri Cities to celebrate Sarah's birthday. Lets just say it was a good day. I am guessing that Chelsea does not quite trust my parenting skills as she was by my side all day instructing me on how to take care of her brother. She was even willing to help me out when I so much as blinked in the other direction.

I wouldn't say she is jealous, I am watchful for that, but she must be included on everything.
Can you see it? I go to change his diaper and she already had all the snaps undone on his outfit for me. I give him a bottle and she is sitting down on the couch telling me she can hold him. I turn my back while he is safely laying on the couch and she is giving him a bottle that he doesn't need or want, or she is picking him up. She just didn't understand Grandma's frustration with her and I didn't want to over react either.

So far, Ryder is a good sport about all of our transitioning. Lets hope he will always be that easy going.


I am so lucky to have two such beautiful grandchildren. I want to always be a huge part of their life. I want them to have memories to last a life time of wonderful moments they shared with their Papa and Grandma.

A Visit From Uncle Jonny

We always love a visit from Jonathan, but usually they are for a Guards weekend so we don't get to see him too much. This time we got him for a weekend with no commitments. Chelsea decided playtime at the park would be a grand idea, so off we went. He is so good with Chelsea, I think it is the little kid in him. I think he very much enjoys being silly with her and making her laugh.
Chelsea told me she knew how to cross the monkey bars all by herself but as soon as we got there she froze. Uncle Jonny showed her how it was done, and her best attempt was to get on his shoulders and cross that way. Hey, if I had a choice that is how I would do it too, its much easier that way.

Chelsea loves to play outside, she would stay out there all day long if we could handle it. Here they are having a "race". To keep her running you have to chase her though. I think she would of beat Jonathan anyway. She is laughing the entire way.

Uncle Jonny got to meet Ryder for the first time too. As soon as Ryder started to fuss he looked at me and said, "I have absolutely no idea what I am suppose to do." The look on his face was priceless!

What an Adventure...Part 2

So, here we are with Part 2 of our adventure. Yes, the it stopped raining and YES it was still cold and wet. Did this fact slow them down...NO. They have been here together many times and off they go to have some fun.
I will be honest, I have as much fun as they do. I have said it before, I am a different Grandma than I was a mom. Sure, we spent days at the park and at the pool and on many adventures together, but I don't know if I loved it this much.

NOTE TO SELF: NOTE TO OTHERS:

Enjoy every minute of every day!

Dirt washes off.

Rain will make you wet, but you will dry eventually.

If clothes get stained from climbing on fire trucks....who cares...buy new ones.

Don't miss today while waiting for tomorrow.


Chelsea was all about the "posing" and not so much about the swinging from the bars. Landon is a complete monkey on the bars and is strong enough to cross them all by himself.

There apparently is no such thing as too high when pushing these two in the tire swing. They love it and they laugh the entire time, telling me to push them more.

If you can't have a balanced diet, then at least balance on the beam. I think I can do that. This beam is a little tricky since it moves when you walk on it but both Chelsea and Landon have no problems on it.

Now, there was laughter.....and there were tears. Landon insisted he had to be inside the tires while Chelsea as on top of them. He worked his was through, laughing the whole time...and then...................

he pinched his tummy and when he finally got out he was crying. Next thing we knew, we looked at Chelsea and she was crying because Landon was crying. I am not sure Ronda or I knew whether to laugh or cry at the whole scene.

I guess I chose to at least try and comfort the two of them, which took about 60 seconds and then they were good to go.

I just never know where my next adventure will be, but I know I will have them. They are too great to pass up. I do need to start developing the pictures though since this adventure produced nearly 400 pictures. Too bad I didn't have my camera, we could of got a few more.

What an Adventure...Part 1

I promised Chelsa we could go to the park...and it was pouring rain. Back up plan, lets go see Papa at work. I knew Landon would like this adventure, and so would his mom so we invited them along. Good thing I did, it was twice as fun with a friend, and my camera once again went dead on me. (Okay, I use it so much I forget to charge the dang thing)

They were so excited and ran from one fire truck to the next. Papa gave them quite the tour and they got to climb on everything they could find. Here they got to try on a fire coat that weighed as much as they did, well, maybe not as much as Chelsea, but they were swimming in it.

And then the safety vest.....

They had no fear up on top of the trucks. Notice all the pictures are taken from ground level...yep, Ronda and I kept our feet planted on the ground.

Outside on top of another truck, once the rain stopped a bit.

And a cheesy pose.

The funniest part of the whole day was right here. Mark let them listen to their hearts with the stethoscope. Landon listened to Chelsea and his eyes got real big and he said....."SHE IS WOUND UP!"

They both got to put on the head sets and talk to each other.

And what fire station is complete without a workout room. They had just as much fun in here as they did with the trucks.

This was hysterical, all she did was move her arms. She must of been watching how I do those pushups.

So, you wonder what part two of the adventure was...it quit raining so off to the park we went...