I received this beautiful card today from a dear friend. It is one of my favorites and thought you might enjoy it as well.

The Meaning of the

Christmas Tree

Each part of the Christmas tree celebrates Christ's birth

and tells the story of how God sent His son to earth.

The wood reminds us of the manger where He lay

and of the rugged cross where He gave His life one day.

The evergreen shows the eternal life Christ gives-

anyone who believes in Him forever lives!

The decorations represent blessings from above

and inspire us to thank the Lord for His tender love.

The shining lights show us how we're to do the same,

as we share His grace and seek to glorify His name.

So may each beautiful tree bring honor to our King,

and may we celebrate Christ's love in everything!

Blessings Memaw Barbie

How do ya like my snowflakes on my blog!!!!

That was then...this is now...

These are last years Christmas pictures. I love to take the boys to have our pictures made together. We have done it twice a year since they were born. They are really comfortable with the camera. They look forward to it. We always do Christmas pics, and birthday pics in March or April. We usually take our own props. Last year I took our little porceline Nativity set. I have always allowed them to have a set to play with. I keep a small set out year round. They are very familiar with the Christmas Story. Thomas likes for me to take fabric pieces and make him a shepherd costume. He hasn't asked this year, but I bet he will before the season's over.

Little David

Memaw and her boys



Cooper

I thought it would be fun to compare last years photos with this year.....so here are the pictures from this year. We went Tuesday afternoon. I checked Thomas out of school a little early to try and beat the crowds. It worked, there was no one ahead of us so we didn't have to wait. I love it when a plan comes together.

Cooper is holding our prop in the photo below. It is a snowman with lighted antlers. When you squeeze his hand he wiggles and sings let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

When I got our Christmas boxes out of the attic last week I was so excited when I found him. I called the boys and let them hear the snowman singing on the phone. Thomas and Cooper remembered him and squeeled. It was a moment to remember. Laura said "you're crazy momma" I texted her back, "you just now figuring that one out?"

It was funny.

There's our snowman again. They had to take turns holding him. He's missing an ear muff. No clue what happened to it.

Not the best picture here, but I loved it that all the boys laughed and had a good time. The photographer really had them giggling.

Thomas sure does love his brother and cousin. He calls Cooper "Bubby" and little David calls Cooper that too. Little David thinks they are his brothers!!! When we past by Thomas's school one day, Little David said" there's our Bubby's school!!" Such a blessing we live close together.

This one might be my favorite.

Thanks for visiting

Blessings Memaw Barbie

January bliss

Friday was a fun day at work. Three of the girls that work at the salon are Tennesse Volunteer fans. Two of us are Alabama Crimson Tide fans. They are big rivals in SEC football. Tennessee had a losing season and Alabama only lost to Florida this year. Alabama was in the sugar bowl against Utah on Friday night in New Orleans. The Tennessee girls came to work with Utah t-shirts on friday!!! It was a riot. There was some heated discussion during the day, but it was all in fun. Take a look at these tacky shirts!!

I have had a busy week. Fun, but busy too. It has been a great week. My parents were here. Always a wonderful time. Mom and I got some good visiting in. We watched a few movies, we got to spend time at the salon together. Laura Leigh spent alot of time with us. What a joy. Dad and I got to walk a couple of times. That's one of my favorite things to do while they are here. Quality time. I don't get near enough of that. How much is enough when you are with those you enjoy. It's always hard to see them go. I am always trying to figure out when we will be together again. Hopefully I can get home in February or early March.

We had a really good day today. Our pastor, Paul had started a sermon series based on our mission statement which is "Your WAY to worship...connect...and serve. He started out saying "Worship is something you express when you have been touched by God. Worship doesn't just take place on Sunday mornings, but all during the week. When you have been touched by God you will worship in your life. When you have been touched by God you will strive to make him the center of everything you do. We worship when we first awaken in the morning, when we see our childrens faces, when our spouse smiles at us. Worship is what we do when we face adversity as well. Worship is an offering to God. What is your offering? " I am looking forward to his message on connecting and serving.

After church we went to visit a mother and her new baby at the hospital. My best friends' daughter had her third child. A beautiful baby girl. She has hree beautiful girls. Can't you see God's hands in childbirth. What a miracle. All the things that make your body work, it cannot be by happenstance. Just thinking about all that goes into how we have vision, how our eyes work is a miracle. We are thankful for a healthy baby and a normal delivery.

We got to play outside for a while this evening with Laura, Jason, Thomas and Cooper. Jason fished with Thomas and Laura and Cooper rode the go-kart. It was another good day.

Hope your week is great. Find the sweet things in life. Blessings Memaw Barbara

Outdoors in December...wonderful

We had beautiful weather yesterday.(Saturday) We were able to play outside on the trampoline...... We played on the teeter-totter.....

we played with our new toy......

Jason was even able to hit a few balls.....

and can you believe we didn't even have to beg to get Meme and Papa on the go-kart. They cave really easy to peer pressure....... Too funny

Blessings Memaw Barbie