A One-der-ful Year in the Life of A Boy

   He is officially "one" tomorrow, this first grandson of ours. He is a charmer from his head to his toes. I wondered when he made his debut if I would love him as much as I had my first two grandchildren. But of course, God does that marvelous thing in our hearts when the love is shared...it divides and multiplies and runs over until the cup of love is filled to the brim!
 

Welcome to the world, little boy! 

Here I am chilling out under the warming lights, and I am not even one hour old!

That's my Dad there with a good grip on me. I already love that man.

Here is my Momma getting me ready for my first bath!

Ahh...I love it when she talks to me like that

Worn out and ready for my nap!

My Daddy rocks my world! 

Here I am meeting all of my Nonna's friends and being introduced to some

very important people at my Sip-n-See

Too bad I slept through the entire thing...

Now that I am waking up to life, I can tell you that I have fallen in love with my Big Sister. 

 Mom thinks it's possible that I might have a future as a comedian.

Check out my facial expressions

Here I am all decked out for Christmas! I love playing with Dad. 

He does fun stuff like throwing me up in the air.

Nonna has to look the other way.

Did I mention that I love my Momma?! 

Mom and Dad left me with Nonna and Pappy when they went out of town for a little vacation.

Don't tell anybody, but things happen at Nonna's house.

 Like getting licked all over by Wilson, the dog.

And now for a random fact:

Did you know that the paper at the pediatrician's office tastes good?

Sissy and I like to ham it up for the camera and for our amazing photographer, Katherine Holly.

Here I am getting worried that they might leave me up here all alone...

with that ratty ole bear

 It's amazing all of the changes a year can bring.

I can already crawl like greased lightning and stand on my own.

 I am starting to talk and can call a few folks by name.

I finally got some teeth (I am up to four).

I love to laugh, am ticklish, and like to make funny faces.

 Oh, and occasionally I like to rock a natural mohawk!

See what I mean?

My special day is off to a great start. Hope yours is too!

Getting to Know You

   A couple of weeks ago this little man, now known as Brother, came to spend a few days with us while The Daughter and her husband got out of Dodge for a few days. I wish that I could say that it was completely and utterly delightful, but the poor little guy was sick the whole time. He mostly wanted to be held and since I didn't have to worry about spoiling him, I was all happy to oblige.
   Brother and our Cavalier spaniel, Wilson, became fast friends during Brother's visit. As I watched them, I was reminded of the song from The King and I Broadway musical. Here's my take on it courtesy of Brother and his new found friend!

Cue the music, please!

Getting to know you,

 Getting to know all about you

 Getting to like you,

 Getting to hope you like me,

Getting to know you

putting it my way,

 

 but nicely,

You are precisely,

My cup of tea!

 Haven't you noticed 

that suddenly I'm bright and breezy

because of all the beautiful and new

things I'm learning about you

day by day...

        Signed and sealed with a kiss,

Two fast friends forever

The Daughter is going to die when she sees some of these photographs. You can guess which ones!

My Treasure Chest

   Where your treasure is, there your heart will be...

 I am a blessed woman.

 My treasure chest is filled to overflowing with the love of three little people. 

In case you haven't guessed, they are my precious grandbabies!

And when they call me Nonna, I melt...

just like warm chocolate!

Happy Valentine's Day

Update on Little Three!

   My, my, how time flies when you are having fun...and that's precisely what Little Three is all about...having fun! He is a laidback, happy baby who shares the joy from his storehouse of love that is filled with a seemingly endless supply. Without a doubt, this boy is a charmer of the first order and an incorrigible flirt!
   I expect he will be crawling, no, make that running, very soon. He can roll over like nobody's business, loves to sit up by himself, and stand and bounce in his exersaucer. While he can also totally amuse himself, he is nonetheless is an incredibly social baby. He enjoys watching others eat and will mimic the moves that said people make when chewing their food. It's hilarious!
   Little Three has been vocal for months now and is starting to string his vowels together. It's a toss up whether "Baabaa Bye Bye" or "Mmmmama" will be his first word. Of course, these are all signs of a remarkable baby. But according to Nonna and Pappy, that's the only kind we have around here. Here is a glimpse of sheer adorableness! And to think he is not yet six months old!

The sweetest baby kisses!

When he laughs, he closes his eyes...
definitely a family trait!

Oh, and did I mention that he totally adores his Momma?!

Or that this Nonna is totally smitten with this boy!

Little Three turns me to mush!

And What to My Wondering Eyes Should Appear

Hands down my favorite Christmas Eve moment...

It doesn't get much better or more magical than this.

Christmas Card 2012 and The Husband's Christmas Letter

    Merry Christmas from the White Family....

Thanks once again to the marvelous
Emily O. Holmes Paper Lovelies
for our card design!

On another note...

The Husband works for an incredible organization, Pinnacle Bank, that allows him the freedom to send his Christmas reflection to all 750 bank employees each year. It is a special gift that he does not take lightly. I look forward each year to reading what he has written. Here is this year's letter sent just before Christmas:

Christmas Blessing 2012

We are now in the season of “Advent” and with it comes that sense of joyful excitement that Christmas Day is just around the corner.  The word “Advent” itself denotes great anticipation and expectation with the Latin word adventres translated as “coming,” while the Greek word for Advent, parousia, is usually associated with the arrival of royalty.  For us it represents a great sense of “yearning” as we prepare to greet our King.

At the same time, while the traditional sense of excitement and joy is certainly present as we prepare to celebrate one of the two most important (in my opinion) days in history, I must confess that for me there is also a sense of numbness; of sorrow; and lingering mourning which I continue to feel.  Needless to say, the events of last week in Connecticut have shaken people to a level of disbelief possibly never before felt as we contemplate the loss of twenty beautiful young children to a tragic act of both terror and evil that so clearly reflect the fallen state of mankind.  So as I have continued to contemplate these young children and the families who have been devastated by this act, I have begun to realize this is a perfect example of why we celebrate with such great exuberance the birth of the Savior on Christmas Day.  For it is for times such as this that He has come to be among us.  He and He alone is the Master Healer of the wounded of heart; the Prince of Peace; the source of comfort and joy that ultimately supersedes our worldly circumstances.

Born in a obscure village to a peasant woman, Jesus came into our world of pain and suffering through Mary – who suffered the physical agony of childbirth with no pain relief; He was born in the cold of winter with the cleanest thing around Him being the hay covering the floor.  Christmas is about joy, but it is a joy that is reached through and never drifts far from human suffering in a fallen world where this precious Messiah would ultimately redeem our sin and our suffering.  As confusing as it may appear to be, how special it is to know that Jesus came to Earth amidst suffering for the ultimate expressed purpose to suffer because we suffer.  His love for us is so great that His purpose and desire was and is to remove eternal suffering from all who come to Him and proclaim Him as Lord.  As with the recent Connecticut deaths, let us not forget the infanticide that Herod ordered when he killed all male children under the age of two.

It is difficult for me to fathom the transformation which Jesus endured in leaving the glorious perfection of Heaven for a manger in the cold of winter.  Even more so, knowing that his place of birth was prophesied in Micah 5:2 seven centuries prior to this day we celebrate next week – it is indeed amazing that he was willing to leave the glory of paradise to become poor so that we could become rich in eternal things.

In times as we have recently experienced, we may be tempted to cry out to God in anguish and accuse Him of a sense of aloofness – of not answering our questions and our pleas for answers.  And yet we must only look to the story of Lazarus and the confusion which surrounded his death to see two of the most powerful words of the Bible in John 11:35: Jesus wept.  So rather than a sense of separation, we see tears that represent something so different.  While having the power to stop, reverse, or allow any action, God’s wisdom suggests that He keeps specific things from us in order to determine our real trust and faith in Him.  As in the case of Lazarus, He enters into our grief and sorrow as an example of perfect love – showing us that it is okay to have a sense of a broken heart as evidenced by sorrow and weeping.  By His birth on Christmas and living amongst us, He gives us not simply answers to our questions, but much more – He gives us Himself.  He gives us His tears; He gives us His anger at needless tragedy and repudiation of His commands; and most importantly, He gives us His Hope.  In our deepest sense of despair, He offers us not simply consolation, but far greater, He offers us resurrection.

Because Jesus was born into humanity, He opened the door to eternity for each of us.  Let us not be consumed by the gifts – giving and receiving.  Let us not merely celebrate Christmas, but instead know that we are celebrating Christ – the joy of a loving Christ presented to you and me as a gift through the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father.  I encourage you, in the midst of whatever trial, challenge, or disappointment you face – to hold fast and firm to the joy and wonder and glory of it all – the Emmanuel, God with us!  The Christmas story is the ultimate rescue mission – Jesus coming to earth offering us the opportunity to be free from whatever enslaves us.

“Praise To The King of Kings
You Are My Everything
And I Will Adore You”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The Love of the Father

Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us

that we should be called the sons and daughters of the Most High God. 

And thus we are.  I John 3:1

Each of us has some experience as a son or daughter. I daresay each of us has had a father or father figure at some point in our journey. For most of us, it is a crucial relationship and one that carries the mark of imprimatur upon our lives.

I lost my father to cancer when I was but a little girl. It was a defining loss for me, and it seems as though I spent a lifetime looking for that Daddy I lost too soon, wrestling with myself and ultimately with God to find the answers for the hole that kept opening up in my life.

Thankfully, I finally was able to obtain that measure of peace that brought me great freedom (see this post entitled David's Daughter)...it was, at times, a hard fought battle to get to the place where the hurt, the pain of loss, and the deep-seated fear of abandonment would ultimately begin to recede into the distance. It was a long journey, but one that I was required to take in order to move forward as a wife, mother, sister, daughter.

I marvel at times at the different cloth from which each of us is cut. No two alike. Each with his or her own path. His or her own story.

Little One has just turned three. My baby sister was younger than she when our father became terminally ill. It staggers me. I watch Little One as she holds her father's hand. She is so safe and secure in her daddy's love for her. She is totally unafraid when she is with him. She trusts his arms to catch her. His love to secure her. And his faith to guide her to her own.

 

Only he can elicit shrieking, body-shaking laughter from her. Only he gets the most tender of her secret smiles. She has his heart and she knows it. It is a wonderfully confident and trusting kind of love.

I am thankful for a son-in-law who loves his children without restraint and with grace and hope. It bodes well for their future.

All of these quite lovely photographs were taken by Debbie Barnett.