My sweet little pumpkin collection

As stated in my last post, I love pumpkins. All sizes, shapes, textures, colors, etc. However, there are now three in my collection that are by far my favorites. Three years ago, Owen and Clay painted me a pumpkin at our local Pottery Place (the one in the center of the picture). Meg sweetly sat the pumpkin down, gave them some different fall colored paints and let them create! It is beautiful. Last year, they presented me with a pumpkin with three adorable handprints (pumpkin on the left) and last night they brought me the latest addition to my collection. It is also white, has three sweet but growing handprints plus a little leaf, which happens to be Miss Emma Grace's handprint! Love it!!! I can't believe how fast these little ones are growing! It reminds me of how fast our own kids grew...but this time I am trying hard to relish the moments even more! Last night we had 3 pirates show up at our door! They were the cutest pirates we have ever seen! As you can see, they love dressing up! The last picture is of Miss Emma Grace, who this year is decked out as...A Snowflake...and the sweetest little snowflake ever!!!! Happy Halloween everyone...have a fun day with your kiddos! Make fun memories and take lots of pictures!

Don't get me wrong, I love my ceramic pumpkins...but below are really my favorite punkins of all!!!
Will, Clay and Owen

Miss Emma Grace

Happy Fall Ya'll!!!

I love Fall!!!
I love the cool days!
I love the changing of the leaves!
I love being able to open up the windows and smell the sweetness in the air!
I love baking with pumpkin!
I love Pumpkin Lattes! (Got to enjoy one yesterday with my sweet friend Karen...thanks for the treat!!)
I love decorating with pumpkins! Ashley started collecting pumpkins several years ago and then she started giving me pumpkins too! I have added several through the years and even have two pumpkins that my sweet grandsons have painted for me! So cute! I do believe decorating for fall has become one of my favorites! Maybe because we get to enjoy it for several months AND we have more time to reflect on the blessings surrounding us. We are so blessed! Here are a few pictures of our home...may you have time this fall to stop, reflect, enjoy the season change and hug those you love! Blessings!

Bud and Honey's little "pumpkins"

Happy Fall Everyone!
Oh, how I love this weather!
This is by far my favorite season!
And if the weather wasn't great enough...
Look who we got to be with this past weekend!
Our Four ADORABLE grandchildren!
Owen, Clay, Will and Emma are our favorite pumpkins!
It was Emma's first time to visit Bud and Honey's house.
We had lots of fun family time.
We went to the DRI Pumpkin patch, a great place for photos
AND to pick our a few pumpkins too! (We missed you David!)
Have a blessed day friends and family...
and enjoy the change of seasons!
Let us all take time to stop and thank God for ALL that he has given us!

Continuing a Tradition

First I want to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!! 27 years ago today, our little family was blessed by your arrival. You have been a complete joy to us every day! We love your generous spirit, your love for family and friends and most importantly your love for God.

To celebrate, I was blessed to be able to drive over and spend the day with you and Emma! We continued a tradition today! You grew up shopping (even though lots of time we just were looking), eating out and spending time together as girls! This tradition was stared and shared with you, me and Nanny (my Mom). We did this a lot! It was kind of our "special tradition". "Girl time" was anytime we got together, but some of the times, we would get up early, drive to Fort Worth, shop all day and then drive home late at night...giggling, eating junk food, singing in the car and talking non-stop all the way back to Abilene. We have so many fond memories of those days!

Today, we started writing our own memories. Oh how we wish Nanny could have been with us, but I have a feeling she was looking upon us and smiling! Smiling that we were continuing the tradition she started! Today, Ashley, Emma Grace and I went shopping, celebrated Ashley's birthday at Cheesecake Factory, Ashley shopped with her birthday money and we TALKED! It was such a sweet day for me, because it brought back so many memories of times we had with Mom, but also the fact that we have started a new chapter in our "memory book"! May we have many many more fun outings together!

Emma Grace did awesome! She mostly slept, which of course allowed her mom and I to have lots of talking time! It was a precious time and hopefully the first of many fun outings we three will share!

A very sweet start to a sweet relationship!

My heart gets warm and my face immediately smiles each time I look at this picture! I love it so much! This was Owen, Clay and Will's first time to hold Baby Emma Grace, the morning after she was born. Is it not the cutest picture ever? I love their expressions! I pray this is the beginning of a very sweet relationship between these cousins. I never really grew up have a cousin that I was super close to. Later in life I have developed a sweet relationship with one of my cousins and his precious wife. But growing up, we saw our cousins maybe once a year. I hope Zach and Ashley have better memories of "cousin time". I pray that these four (and any future grands!) will be close and have lots of fun times together! In a few years, Emma will be old enough to join in on Knight Camp, something her boy cousins already are experiencing. Knight Camp is for all of Bud and Honey's grands. One more way for these little ones to build memories with us and one another!

It was so sweet to witness this first experience as "Knight Cousins" and we look forward to many more fun times with these precious kids! I have been so teary eyed these past few weeks as I watch these sweet grandkids and realize how very blessed we are! God has so richly blessed us, and we are so thankful!

30 reasons I love our boy!

Our firstborn, is 30 today! How can that be? I feel like the last 30 years has been in fast motion. It seems like yesterday the nurse place him in my arms! Today I want to celebrate Zach. Here are just a FEW of the reasons this young man is so special to me! These are in NO particular order...all 30 are at the top in my heart!

1. He always ends our phone conversation with a "love you"...always
2. Pretty much anytime he leaves on a trip, we find a sweet note tucked away in our house somewhere, thanking us in advance for "covering" things while he is away
3. He is an incredible man of God
4. He loves his wife with his whole heart
5. He not only is the best father to his three sons, but he somehow gives them all individual attention and love
6. He is such a hard worker
7. He loves to help others without anyone knowing
8. He loves to be silly and goofy
9. He loves God's world and makes every effort to take care of it
10. He loves his sister Ashley! We have watched a relationship grow between them from the minute she was born.
11. He has a great laugh
12. His boys melt his tender heart and you can see the love for them in his eyes
13. He is a loyal friend
14. He loves family times
15. He loves to read (and there was a time that I never thought this would happen!)
16. He really cares about our world and it's leaders
17. He has an amazing relationship with his Dad
18. He has a MORE amazing relationship with his Heavenly Father
19. He is always looking for ways to improve himself
20. He works so hard so his sweet wife can be a stay-at-home mom
21. He always has a hug for me! Even at 30 years old!
22. Never fails, when he eats at our house, he is a SUPER helper in the kitchen! He usually cleans it up for me
23. He is involved in their church
24. He is a dreamer, always looking for ways to improve his business
25. He always has a project
26. No matter how busy he is, he will drop everything if he sees someone in need
27. He is always learning something new
28. He loves spending time outdoors in God's beautiful country and sharing that love with his boys
29. He loves our family traditions
30. He has an incredible work ethic

Welcome Miss Emma Grace Snow

I hear Grandparents Day is this weekend but we celebrated a bit early! We welcomed our fourth grandchild and first granddaughter into the world last night at 7:15. She is BEAUTIFUL!!! She is the sweetest, daintiest little thing! Ashley did an amazing job! We have enjoyed a day filled with family, lots of pictures and taking turns holding this precious little one. Emma is 20 1/4 inches long and weighs 6 pounds and 13 ounces. She has a sweet little shaped head and a shadow of auburn hair. Her eyes are a very deep dark blue and she has already completely stolen our hearts. We have learned that being Bud and Honey to these precious little souls is quite fun!!! We are so thankful that God has once again shined His his sweet face down upon us and blessed us with a healthy and perfect in every way little one! Welcome Emma Grace, we love you so much and can't wait to watch what God has in store for you!