Tag Archives: grandson

My Big Guy has gone Double-Digits!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , ,

Oh, my sweet Hunter-man!

hunter bw

www.eldeenannette.com

Ten years old! Ten. years. old! HAPPY {joyous-fun-laughing-adventureous-surprising-creative-loving} Birthday to you!!! {{Didn’t you just LOVE that surprise all-guy Risk party your sweet parents planned for you???}}

I have to tell you, I absolutely cannot fathom what life would be like without you. I can’t. You are my gentle-eyed, bold-and-strong, energetic, enthusiastic, diplomatic, affectionate, handsome and loving grand {really, truly, totally GRAND} boy. I thank God for you, I do!

When you arrived, I was madly zooming through life and over-working (as those of us who feel the need to prove ourselves often do) and you just fell like a star from heaven {three weeks early} to abruptly stop the madness and capture our full and complete attention and our hearts. lickety-split – just like that: BOOM! We were in love!

hunter as a little guy

You when you were just a “little guy…” oh, I’ve loved you a long time!

Know what I love about you? I love the way your eyes crinkle when you laugh and smile. I love your sense of humor. I love your beautiful smile. I melt from your hugs – especially when you suddenly realize you have been so busy talking to lots of people when you come in to my house and then you make a big deal of zooming over to give your Nonna a “proper greeting.” Oh, my goodness – yes – that does me in! I love the way you pray for me. I love that when my heart was breaking, you got on the arm of the chair and wrapped your arms around me and whispered words of comfort. I knew God was using you to touch me. Oh how strong you were that day.

I also love that you like my ideas and that you and I have so many things we want to create and do and movies we want to produce and projects we wish to try. We will never run out of things to enjoy together, will we, Hunter-Magoo?

Now, of course, since you are such a blessing to me, I want to bless you back. And it is my pleasure and honor to do so. For all the years you have left in life (and for all the words I can pour out over you before I am gone), these spoken blessings will be here, things I am speaking over you now – heard in heaven, covenant words on your life! They are yours to keep, to live, to enjoy to fulfill and to believe. If you ever get lost and wonder what your Nonna and the God of the Universe agreed on about you as you turned ten with so much life ahead, you can return here and find more pieces of your story and pick them up and run with them (Habakkuk 2.2).

hunter and his family

Happy Birthday to my second grandbebe (now more commonly known as my big guy), Hunter Douglas Powers. I bless you like this:

Oh wow – I just love you and I pray love in your life! I pray the love of God will surround you and work in you and through you and that His very love will be established in your heart and soul and that the perfection of this love will make you fearless in the face of the challenges in the world today. May you rise up mighty as a man of God – displaying His power and glory wherever you go. Be so permeated in the love of God that nothing can stop you, Hunter Magoo! L O V E – go get ’em!

Your days – oh, may they be numerous and long, and healthy and productive. I bless your days from when they began. I do so bless the day you were born, a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning. You just couldn’t seem to wait to arrive. :) And you have been on a life of adventure ever since. You have filled your days and nights with travel and missions work and school and learning (science experiments – your constant request) and playing with cousins and friends and interacting with family of all the generations and so much more. You know how to pack a day with good stuff. So I pray over you that all your days will be filled with good and godly things and that as you keep on honoring your parents like you do, it will go soooo well for you and you will enjoy a long (really great and abundant) life on the earth (Ephesians 6.2-3).

hunter and his brother

Taken by Aunt Stormie outside the candy shop.

You are such an honoring son and grandson. You are a loving cousin and friend and you are an incredible big brother to Kai. So, may you find honor and love and good friends and brothers wherever you go in life. May you be surrounded with the people you need to do what you were created to do and be what you were created to be (Psalm 139).

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  -Matthew 5.14-16

You are visible, Hunter. Your life is being observed. You are a city on a hill. You have an important place in the world for this day, this time, and this age. You cannot be hidden. So blaze bright, my grand-boy. Dazzle brilliantly and point the world to Jesus. This is why you were born.

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I also just want to bless you back for the way you bless me: you warm my heart with your kindness. You accept me as your ‘Nonni,’ and you affirm my place in your life, heart and soul. I bless you back with those things a thousand times over. You have my devotion, you have my respect and acceptance of you as an incredible boy created by God almighty (oh, He did such a good job creating you) and you will ever and always be in my heart. When I leave this earth, all that will change is that I will brag you up and bless you like crazy from the halls of heaven!

I agree with God for all He thinks about you and all the plans He has for you. I agree with Him and will do whatever He asks of me to make sure you are blessed, whole and holy! Oh yes!

You, my Hunter-boy, do give light to all in the house!

You and me, Christmas 2012.

hunter-and-nonna-christmas day

Happy Birthday and week and all the days. I celebrate you! {{LOVE! Nonna}}

Gavin hits the double-ones

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

Oh, Gavinators-

gav playing piano

Gavin turned 11. He also just got his 6th grade schedule, a different teacher for each subject – a middle-schooler. He has this big, authentic smile, a shock of the most amazing red hair, a sprinkling of freckles and an emerging sense of humor. He erupts into giggles over things I didn’t know he would get and it doubles my joy, triples my fun, quadruples my absolute love for him, this all-American boy.

He was my first grandbebe, my first oh-good-grief-I-am-undone feeling. I never thought I’d be one of “those” grandmothers – effusing and gushing, feverishly, wild-eyed in-love with some small child not even my own.

gav skateboarding in denver

I mean – I loved my little munchkins, the five children I birthed. I thought they were just unusually talented and amazing and they brought Dave and I so much joy. Then they grew up and they became the people I most admire in this world. But I wasn’t really mentally expecting grandparenting to be that big of a deal.

But then Gavin arrived and – GEEZ-LOUISE!!! He was breathtaking. He was astonishingly beautiful (well, he has beautiful parents, so…), a magnificent tiny being, so impressively smart from the start and his smiles thrilling beyond belief. He .changed. everything . with his bright eyes and full-of-wonder curiosity. He really did. He altered my identity by adding this whole new generational dimension and infused our familia with new wonder and excitement.

gav his harry potter birthday cake

The Harry Potter I made for him for his 11th birthday

Gavin-L-K // YOU are amazing!

So, of course, I MUST bless your life and thank God for you. I must tell you that I speak words of blessing over you and I speak kindness and good wishes over your life because I love you deeply and want it to go well with you. I want you blessed in the city and in the country and I want all you put your hands to and all the things you attempt to do and to be to prosper and be over-the-top successful.

I pray for you to be strong, not just physically, but in your heart and mind and to be a young man of courage and conviction – to stand up for holy things and protect people around you who can’t protect themselves. I pray you will right wrongs and be a generous giver to people in need.

So I share this scripture with you on the occasion of your 11th birthday and I like it because it was originally delivered to a regular man named Gideon who was just working hard threshing some wheat in a winepress. I am not sure what that means exactly, but I know God’s people were in trouble and they needed a leader, a Judge – some one to help them battle out of the oppression they were living in, some one to answer their cries for help. And here was Gideon just doing what was right, day in and day out. And because Gideon was faithful when no one was watching (except God), He chose Gideon to lead the armies, to save His people.

I can see you as a Gideon…And so the angel appeared with God’s message to Gideon, and I speak it to you, over you,

“The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6.13

Really, Gavin, you can do anything. You will be amazing in your life. The sky is the limit, my Gav – if love is the fuel that powers your plane, then between God and your parents and your Gramps and me, your plane will fly to infinity and beyond and never come down.

gav and the tomato

He loves to garden and eat tomatoes as much as me. The kid is a genius, I tell you!

I cannot remember life before you-

In all the world, no matter what happens, my heart for you will always and ever be partially, at least, pinned to your sleeve, hanging on for dear life – never letting you go. I am so pleased with the person you are, so proud of the young man you are becoming, so excited to know the blessing of God on you because you are such a parent-honoring kid! I just think you’re pretty cool.

Small Size (5)

Hoping all your wishes come true on your 11th birthday and the whole year through! I love YOU!  {nonna}

NOTE: All photos by his mom, whose beautiful work can be seen at MayDae.com

My little Gavin is a big 8 today!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events,

Where does the time go?  Happy Birthday Gavin Lee Kelley!! EIGHT!?!

 

 

 

YOU made me a Nonna!  You were the first of all the grandbebes.  And you are oh-so-wonderful in every way.

 

 

 

You have brought me joy and happiness every single day of your life!!  How many people can really say that?

 

  

 

I think you are wonderful.  I love you with my whole heart.  You make me smile, over and over again.

 

 

 

You deserve LOTS of good things your whole life through and I pray that very thing for you – blessing!  xxxooo

Happy 6th Birthday, Gavin!

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Today is Gavin’s birthday ~ what a day to celebrate!

Six years?  How is that possible?  That is when I first became a grandparent.  Time flies and the days get richer!

late-may-007 late-may-002 

Gavin-the-Gardener

Gavin wanted garden plants for his birthday.  His mom specified that they should come in a pot that he could tend to himself (as I did not raise a gardener in Steph…yet).  Well, how could I refuse that?  Gav is my garden helper.  He plants and waters and listens to everything I tell him about growing things.  Flowers are OK to him, but veggies (especially tomatoes!)  are better: truly a man after my own heart.

So, last week on a beautiful, sunny day, we took Gavin to my favorite garden center just outside town (Horiuchi Brothers Nursery – great stuff and generous-they always give me free stuff!).  Gavin was so excited as we were turning into their drive.  He told us, “My mom and dad never take me to the garden center.  I always want to go here, but they say, “No – let’s just go to church.'”  Hahhahahhha! 

I hope he is not somehow equating a passionate indulgence in gardening as a sin or some opposition to good church-going folk??

Anyhow-he’d have turned his entire backyard into the garden of Eden if I hadn’t made him choose just a few favorites!I ended up with a bunch of specialty pepper plants in my own 4 x 4 because he just had to grow them!

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Oh the miles of smiles you’ve brought me, Gavin!  You are my heart’s joy and delight!  You opened the door that turned me into a Nonna!  You are exuberance and curiosity.  You are a good-finder and glee.  Your love and zeal for all things family and gardening and learning at school and Wii and Xbox and cartoons (especially Spongebob) and your sisters and cousins and building and running and jumping and playing?  Inspires me!  I want to enjoy life like you do!

You’re 6 now, Gavin!  Happy Birthday!…Love, Nonna

pictured: Gavin with his 2 birthday pots; a pot of flowers for the front porch (marigolds, purple petunias, purple salvia and white wave petunias which will soon cascade down the side of the black Malaysian pot; a grape tomato plant for the patio with a couple of marigolds to keep it company.

My Magoo

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

   

Hunter’s mommy and daddy are off doing a ministry conference.  For two whole days and nights he is mine, all mine.  I keep him close.  I listen to him set up “meetings” on an old cell phone with his little playmates.  He thanks me profusely for the little “bed” I have created for him right next to me on the floor.  Just as I am dozing off, I sense his little face close to mine.  Leaning against the side of my bed with his head resting on his hands, he nonchalently starts a conversation as if it were 11:30 am instead of 11:30 pm. 

“Do you want to cuddle for a few minutes?”  I ask.  “Yes, just for a few minutes, Nonna.”  He climbs into bed and wraps his arms around me.  We snuggle close, he is stroking my arm.  I close my eyes and breathe him in – and wasn’t it just yesterday that his mommy was this little, this near?  He is four and tomorrow he will be fourteen.  I am memorizing the softness of his face on mine, of his raspy whisper talking about this and that and nothing at all.

A few minutes later I tuck him back in to his makeshift bed.  I can see his long lashes in the moonlight.  He will stay awake and watch me as long as I am watching him, so I know I must call it a night.  I place my hand on his chest and pray over him – for God’s favor and blessing to rest on him.  O God, make Your face to shine upon my little Hunter.  Guide his steps, direct his path.  God, bless my little man.  Bless Him, Lord.  Jesus, bless my Hunter!  I cry out with intensity in the darkness.  “Jesus bless you, Nonna!”  Hunter finishes.

He has, Magoo.  He has!…Hunter’s Nonna

 

NOTE TO SELF:  Work on my Thanksgiving list of all the things I have to be grateful for, thankful for, don’t deserve…my list will be long.

pictured: Hunter with the mommy and daddy who are making him such a cool kid – jumping off a hay bail with total abandon; with his mom and dad; jumping off a train and being thrown 12 feet into the air-with glee!

Gavin is Four!

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

gavin-almost-4-5-07.jpg

Gavin-you silly, delightful boy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I cannot believe I was once trepidatious about becoming a “Grandma,” better known around these parts as *nonna.*   It is true what they say: Grandchildren are your reward for not killing your own children.  I won!  I hit the jackpot!

As I write this – you’re innocently asleep in your bed and have no idea of the 3-D dinosaur cake I am preparing for your party and how its’ head just fell off.  You won’t even wonder why my hands are dyed green when I arrive.  You, being you, will just be excited about the cake and tell me it is wonderful because you are my little encourager.  You’re my red-headed fella and one of the most energetic human beings I have ever known.  You’re the double-sworded Leonardo who has explained more to me about “Turtle Power” than I ever wanted to know.  You are my delight!

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Thanks for enduring the kiss and remember: YOU CRACK ME UP!!!

I am blessed…”Nonna”

NOTE TO SELF: Try to remember – was there life before Gavin?