Bye bye January

We spend most of the month of January at the basketball stadium each year. This weekend we had a nail biter of a basketball game here on the plains against our biggest rival, ALABAMA. It was down to the last 3 seconds and we were tied. AUBURN sealed the deal in the last second with 1 free throw and we won 58-57! We LOVE our men's basketball and are loyal fans no matter the winning or losing, but we must admit it is always fun to win a big one like that.
I took pictures of the scoreboard and Toomers Corner being rolled after the game Saturday with my cell phone but they were not worthy of publishing so I found this spirited one of Annie on my phone from football season and thought it was too cute not to publish :) and it expresses the happiness of all AUBURN fans this weekend.

While we were at another game this week, I looked up and a very special someone was making his way to the row in front of me with a big ole smile. He surprised me by finding me in the stadium full of thousands of people and came over to give me a big hug! I was so proud to introduce my nephew Parker, a freshman at AU this year, to my friends around me. I was even more proud when he asked could he go to church with us this Sunday!

Parker met us today for church and then joined us for lunch at our favorite Tenda Chick. I have some really fond memories of this boy especially of his early childhood years, and he and I have special nick names for each other from those days. He is "bunny foo foo" and I am "Aunt Pearlie foo foo". We both can't help but grin when the names come up.

and he was not too embarrassed (nor surprised) when I suggested we take a picture together today. Bunny foo foo, you know how to warm my heart!

Great way to end this month with a big win and a winning nephew by your side!

Cloudy with a chance of Lollipop tears

Weather Forecast for the next year = Cloudy with a chance of Lollipop tears...
Expect a few occasional outbursts of sunshine but it will be mostly cloudy with a chance of lollipop tears over the next few months...
...We just found out this week that these kids will be moving back to Fairhope in the very near future.

Last night we were invited to have dinner with them and it was such a nice evening with Regan cooking cheesy cheddar mushroom chicken. It was delicious! Knox slept thru dinner which gave us some good conversation time together. We actually had to wake him up in order to get any time with him and he displayed some "Williams virtues" I must say. He does not like his sleep interrupted...any Williams hear me out there? I don't blame him. He was all snuggled in for the evening with the sleep machine running(another Williams thing). But he managed to give us a few smiles and giggles and that was enough to fuel my love tank for another week or two.
The Lollipop tears will come later.

I love watching the adoring parents as much as the adorable baby :)



Yes, the Lollipop tears will come later...

Lake Martin 3 R's

Two days at the lake with Sadler in the winter = rest, relax, and refreshments galore! By refreshments I mean goooooood food as in beef tenderloin steaks on a charcoal grill, loaded baked potatoes, salad with real bacon... and S'mores for dessert. I have not had a s'more in ages and I was too excited to roast marshmallows over a real charcoal grill fire!
Thank you Sadler for using your gifts of hospitality, true friendship, and serving on me this week. Blessings flowed...

Wild Horses

I really like this photo of our handsome Harrison and sweet Tess. I can't take credit for this photo though because Greg took it with his super duper camera after Christmas. Harrison has steadfastly loved our many outtings to feed the horses since he was a baby. I can hardly ever capture a shot with him so still so I am very pleased that Greg caught this one.
This picture also reminds me to tell you about a CD by Susan Broyle I got for Christmas from my friend, Susan Shiflett. Besides the "I Dreamed A Dream" song, the one that I love sung by her on this CD is "Wild Horses".
I think of that song when I look at this picture... wild horses could not keep me away from either Harrison or Tess.

Wear that sunscreen

Hopefully all of you already know how important it is to wear that sunscreen. Jack and I are living examples of why you should wear it. We can't help that we were born with fair skin but we can help it by protecting it daily now. These visits to the dermatologist are not fun and the warning picture in the room I sat in yesterday says it all:

I am here to tell ya, having a tan is not worth the trouble you will experience later in life from trying to look like what the world says is good. Love the skin you're in!

Weather or not you like it is beside the point

Weather we like it or not, we are gonna have a winter season, huh?
Some of us will wish for snow,
while others like the rainy days inside,
while yet others prefer blue skys all around us!
Weather we like this weather or not, I find that these winter days are required to be in the seasons of my life. Many of them, I can only see in the rear view mirror as being valuable.
I am already looking back to one night recently during this cold winter we have had, when we were invited to a couple's house that has an inside bird aviary. Quite unusual and oh so very interesting was the evening. They have 35 Australian finches that are absolutely beautiful little birds and the care for them is more than your average pet. There were umpteen little bird houses for them to fly in and take refuge and their landlords had it decorated so pretty. My photos do not do them justice but I think sharing them with you is a fun way to say that weather I like winter or not is beside the point. Something interesting can always be found and maybe even learned if I allow myself to look in the rearview mirror.

Baby Face

"you've got the cutest little baby face" comes to mind when you look at my darling grandson, don't you think?
Baby Knox and his mommy drove up for the afternoon to play with us and it was difficult to take my eyes off this precious baby face for one minute. I did manage to for one minute when I asked the manager if I could pose him in the peanut barrel at Santa Fé Restaurant! Never underestimate the imagination of this grandmother with a camera in her hand :)
"hello there" says baby Knox,"I pretty much smile all the time at almost 6 months old and I am told I am pretty, well, they really say beautiful, as well as cute too. Lolli says I look just like my daddy with my mommy's nose and pretty dark blue eyes. I just don't understand why so many people want to touch my red hair! Lolli tells me it will only get worse as I get older."
"I am loving my foods but I just can't wait for my first lollipop :)!"

Have I ever told you how much I love being Lolli?!!!

girls, girls, girls - part 3

ok- not only was it hardly above 35° this whole time of the girls staying with us (their daddy was having sinus surgery), it was just plain too cold to be outside. The only outdoor outting we had was by car to feed the horses. The girls were delighted to use their new mittens and hats that their New York great grandmother sent them and the horses were delighted to have yet another carrot snack from our family in the last 2 weeks.
"eenie, meenie , miney, mo, which one shall I feed first?"
Tess is the winner!
Annie is so brave with these large beautiful creatures :)
LK on the other hand is just now getting the hang of trusting them and learning the proper way to hold your hand with the carrot.
what a cutie pie:)
One of the many indoor activities we did was to make a mermaid island out of my 30 year old blocks. We had a hard time keeping LK from destroying it though:. Her favorite response to our protective "don't do it" commands was spoken very plainly, "oh mannnnnnn" (she gets that from Swiper the fox on Dora -kind of funny to hear that from a 21 month old who mostly only says "please, thank you, no and cheese" in plain english)
I thought it was rather creative of Annie to come up with this island thing though :)
both girls were thrilled with getting new boots in hopes of playing in them in some snowy weather. Lk was too happy that she could put them on by herself and we had a few laughs watching her!
Pops thinks she kind of looks like the trash men in their boots and jumpsuits :) She wanted to wear them night and day :)
Annie thought she was big stuff getting the only polka dot ones they had in her size.

And finally to wrap up the tales of our winter adventures this week, I have a few recommendations for your tv rental viewing with 2 small grandchildren:



this one was by far the favorite---- why? because it had lots of lollipops and a very nice lady named Lolli in it!

Girls , Girls, Girls - part 2

For those who are totally into looking into my world of enjoying the grandchildren, here's more of our time with the girls this week :

We took Annie to a basketball game all by herself and left LK with a babysitter (college student neighbor friend who sees the girls regularly on their visits here), It was awfully good medicine for Annie to have some big girl time with just us and she absolutely loves Aubie.
She asked Aubie "don't you like my dress?" and then everybody she saw in the stands she told them she had on her special cheerleader dress and anything else they would listen to :) Some fans were more entertained by her than they were the game:)

This is an adorable picture to share- Annie asked me to put her hair in pigtails several times this visit and her little sister begged for the same. This was the best I could do!

girls, girls, girls

This past week was full of girls for us! If ever Pops wished for a little girl, he had his wish come true this week.

It started off with picking up the two littlest girls while in Montgomery and making a special visit to the birthday girl, Alex.

It was kind of fitting for Lolli and Pops to give Alex something in the "horse" category. I think she liked the barbie horse that she can bathe and groom. The cabbage patch doll with all sorts of hair pulls did not thrill her as much. But then again, she has been a little overwhelmed with gifts lately :)

She is one year older than Annie and they have a good time together, although Alex loves being the older cousin to Lily Kate even more so. She has always been a little mother and Lily Kate seems like a baby doll to her.
here they are in Alex's playroom playing "let's stroll the baby". Now that LK is on the move so much, Alex had a harder time babying her :) Annie was willing though.
All 3 girls will always be our baby dolls though. We have had a lot of fun taking care of these girls separately and together at different times over the last 5 years.
speaking of being on the move, LK had a big time on the piano at Alex's house. Her parents should sign her up for lessons now!

Our next phase this week of enjoying girls, girls, girls was having my dear friend Sadler and her 2 granddaughters visit us while Annie and Lk were staying with us. We took the girls to "the bouncey house" and they had a very big time. AH and CC are 2 darling little blondes, just like their grandmother and their mother. They were easy to spot in the bouncey house full of kids but mine were not quite so easy. A and AH held hands coming down together on this slide. Can't tell you how that thrilled their 2 grandmothers who spent all their childhoods holding hands and laughing together through many a good time.


They ran us ragged for sure keeping up with them bouncing from inflatable to inflatable but it was totally worth our time to see these smiles and laughter.

It did not take LK long to figure out that she could do just as the big girls were doing too. I hesitated but there was no stopping her and after all she does have red hair and a strong determination to succeed :)




After they literally wore themselves out sliding and climbing and Lolli and Say Say's tongues were hanging out, we took them back to our house and fed them and then they had a good time all playing together. Sadler and I were finally able to have a conversation for the first time all morning. It seems surreal to be sitting with her and watching our girls together in our grandmothering stage.
We tried to get all 4 in a picture but no such luck with all these ages :)

you will find this hard to believe but these are the only pictures of lollipops I took all week! (They were also the only lollipops we had all week:)
the girls clicked their lollipops as if they are in the lollipop club-I promise we did not tell them to do that and they have not seen each other in a long time...

and here they are 2 years ago doing the same thing and neither grandmother has promoted this cute gesture. How fun is that for a grandmother named Lolli!