Sweethearts on the Hill

What a lucky girl I am. I happen to come from this long line of amazing, strong, resilient, truly remarkable women… and quite stunning too, I must say. I got to spend the latter part of this beautiful afternoon today celebrating my maternal grandmother's 90th birthday.  Ninety Years!  What a blessing to have such a loving family surround her on this special occasion. She has spent every day of her life loving others - wanting nothing for herself - only concerned with those around her. She has created life… so much life. Six children. Thirteen grandchildren. Nineteen great-grandchildren. And a great-great-grandbaby on the way. Five Generations! I have to believe she has influenced every single person in our family in one way or another. She is truly an angel on Earth. You can just feel it when you're in her presence. I have countless memories of being with my grandma throughout my entire childhood. I spent every single weekend at her house when she lived ne...

Autumn bids a fond farewell As Sister Winter takes her place The colors of the trees in glory With Winter's white is soon replaced As Winter's gift is gently falling Upon the trees that soundly sleep The world in silent wonder watches The miracle the season brings Sadly, nothing in this fickle world May live forever in its youth And likewise winter starts to age Her beauty she begins to lose Her snow white hair now turns to gray Her voice is quiet when she speaks  And as the days grow warm and long, Her touch is light while she grows weak And soon the people who had loved her Grow tired of her chilling song Then Winter sadly leaves her thrown  And waits for baby spring to come along So old, frail Winter bids farewell As Sister Spring now takes her place She waits with quiet, steady patience To come again with youth and grace. (I thought I'd share this last picture to show what Luke is doing while mom...

So, here I am with another tribute to the snow weeks we had in Knoxville this year.  This happened to be a Saturday morning on which we all woke up very surprised to another little blast of snow that had fallen upon us. I pulled Richie out of bed and told him we were going sledding at Lakeshore!  Charlie looks like a little Russian boy We all had a really great time! Lots of fun sledding to be had. I absolutely love those smiles! I can hear them laughing now It was Luke's first time sledding - and he thought it was hilarious! What a great sport he is :) Photographer Sam got a good shot of Mommy and Daddy  Oh what fun it is to giggle about a toddler all mummified in a snowsuit! Good times! Good times!