Colleyville AG Block Party

This afternoon after church our church hosted a community block party. Beautiful sunny day, good food, fun, and fellowship. Dustin, Carlos, Isabell, and Samantha enjoyed watching a BMX performance, a game truck, pizza, and food from the food truck. They cooled off with snowcones. Grandma's tired but had a good day.

SAMANTHA STILL CELEBRATING

Samantha can stretch a birthday farther than anyone I know. Here she is this evening ready for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and then a movie with the Harts. She is going to see Alexander's Horrible , No Good, Awful Day or something like that. She is excited because she read the book at school and wants to see the movie.

CARLOS LEADING A PREGAME DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYER

So proud of Carlos and how willing he is to share his faith. Here he is pictured this evening before his 9th grade game leading his teammates in a devotional and prayer. Way to go, Buddy.

CELEBRATING SAMANTHA'S 10TH BIRTHDAY

On October 22, 2014 our last grandchild was born. Samantha Jewel Wilson has been a great joy to our family these past ten years and we thank God for sharing her with us. We celebrated her birthday tonight because tomorrow is church night and you cannot miss church to celebrate a birthday (just ask Samantha!).
She wanted to serve the cake so here are a few pictures (no we didn't make her bake her own cake).

Samantha Baking for Friends and Papaw

Samantha is with us today and she has been a busy girl baking for friends and making cupcakes for her "sugar addicted" papaw. As I have pulled up pictures from the past to post of her on my facebook page this month, I am realizing just how long she has loved baking and cooking.  Early pictures show her standing in a chair just to reach the counter top. Today I smiled as I saw her working in the kitchen while listening to and singing along with praise music. She is precious and I hope and pray she stays this way. Here are some of the goodies she made today.

Mini Pear Cakes and a couple of Maple Cupcakes for friends Terry and Darla Mitchell. Terry and Darla have pear trees and a pecan tree in their yard. She gets pears and pecans from them and then makes them treats. She loves baking for them. She will deliver these at church tomorrow.

Decorating her maple cupcakes. No, she is not growing a moustache, she was enjoying a cup of hot chocolate while she baked. I love the crayons in the background - time out from her art work to bake and decorate.

Her smiley mini cupcake.

Maple Cupcakes

FALL IN SOUTHERN INDIANA

There's not much I miss about Indiana and I hope to never live there again. Having said that, I will admit I do miss the beautiful Fall colors of Southern Indiana. I love this picture of one of the stone quarries in Oolitic, Indiana in my home county of Lawrence. I'm sure my children remember some scenes like this one and how pretty the colors were around Lake Monroe from our houseboat. But I want my grandchildren to know just how pretty Southern Indiana can be.

The Empire Quarries were named for the Empire State Building in NYC because they quarried the stone for that building along with many of the famous buildings in NYC and Washington, DC. My grandpa Sowders worked for Empire and was a part of all that. I had the priviledge of taking each of my children to visit the Empire State Building when I was living and working in NYC. I would love to take my grandchildren there. Lauren and Lindsay have been there but the others have not, yet, I might add.

More Pictures of Mary's Birthday

A few more pictures of Mary celebrating her birthday yesterday. Here she is with presents and her kiddos.

With Carlos

With Isabell

With Samantha

MARY'S BIRTHDAY

Celebrating Mary's birthday today after a birthday lunch at Chili's.

BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR MOMMY

Tomorrow is her mommy's birthday so Samantha has been busy making her a birthday cake. She said her mommy wanted strawberry cake with chocolate frosting so that is what she made. Here she is at work:

Yummy strawberry cake batter.

Now the hard part begins....

Second layer added....

The fun part....

The finished project!

August 1991

I used this picture today for my Throw Back Thursday facebook picture. Other than being with her great-grandchildren I don't think there was anything my mom enjoyed more than travel. She could be packed and ready to go on a moments notice. Here she is enjoying Dollywood with family friends Deanna Sicking (now Cook), her neice Beverly Sutton and Deanna's mom Mary. The Sicking family took her on several trips and she so enjoyed everyone. Even after she was disabled by her stroke she still loved to travel. Christy, Dustin, and I flew her down to Houston to visit NASA, Moody Gardens, etc. She enjoyed herself so much. We got a motel close by the Johnson Space Center so we could take her back to rest when she tired. The joke was on us, she didn't really tire and had no desire to go rest. We sure do miss her.

SAMANTHA 5 1/2 MONTHS

Love our baby girls' big eyes in this picture. She was almost six months old in this picture. She was born on October 22, 2004 and this was taken on Carlos' birthday April 11, 2005. We were at Cici's Pizza and I had just fed her a few cracker crumbs, one that is obviously on her chin. It is so hard to believe this was almost 10 years ago.

Samantha and Aunt Cindy

Love this picture of Samantha with her Aunt Cindy. No matter how fancy the occasion a little girl needs her sippy cup! Can't believe she will be 10 in a few weeks. Double digits already, REALLY?

Happy Birthday Month, Samantha

Our October birthday girl will hit the double digits this month. We will no longer have a grandchild in the single digits - we must be getting old! Since I love Samantha and I love sunflowers, I love this picture.

Samantha at 5 Months

This month's birthday girl was always a happy girl. I love this picture of her with that happy smile.

Samantha's Birthday Month

October is here and that means Samantha's birthday month so I will be featuring a lot of her pictures. This is one of my favorites of her earlier years. She was 3 in this picture. She just had to wear her favorite 'Curious George' shirt for picture day at Mother's Day Out. Wishing you a happy birthday month Samantha.