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Tag Archives: guini
Crazy 8 Days before Christmas
Hunter had a pre-school Christmas program.
See Hunter? He is fourth from the right on the back row, his little blond head bowed-praying for all he is worth!
It was truly apparent, and not just because the Little Prince belongs to me, but because it is true: the kid has the market on musical talent at his pre-school. And when they did “The Little Drummer Boy,” Hunter led out on that coffee can “drum,” never ever missing that first beat. Truly, all the other little kids followed his lead. He told me, “I drummed “pa-rum pum pum pum,’ but the other kids drummed pa-rum-a-do-do,’ like that.” He knew he was good.
The grandbebes make ornaments for the keepsake tree.
Cardboard hats and felt, glue and glitter, and voila! Note to Averi: Though quite pretty, it is actually not a cookie.
Gavin is a dedicated artiste. He loves the Martha Stewart super-fine glitter as much as I do (90% off the last week of January 09…jealous?).
Bad news/good tidings of comfort and great, great joy!
Dave’s book didn’t make the top three in the competition (we now find 10 more votes would have put him there!!), but we got good news that outshone some silly competition. It is kind of private, but suffice it to say, we are rejoicing and dancing merrily because of a health scare one of us had that is now not as scary and looking really good, in fact. Thank-You, God for mercy, for healing…
The grandbebes will not stand still for pictures. Will not. C’est impossible.
We tried sitting, standing, and stacking, we clapped our hands and said their names as brightly and joyously as possible. We threatened, cajoled, bribed and shrugged our shoulders in hopelessness. These five are in charge of the universe and all the best-laid plans are a fantasy, because they are a combined, insurmountable energy-force and you best just get out of the way. And certainly don’t believe they will all behave as requested. Goodness, no. Just line them up, let them go crazy and hope for the best. (I wasn’t supposed to be in this shot, but Guini wouldn’t let go and when Guini wants to give love, that is when you will receive it – it is all on her timetable!)
God willing and the creek don’t rise, I will get my Christmas cards out say…next Tuesday???
Happy Birthday, Guini-muggins!
Guin-Guin is 4 today!
Happy Birthday, sweet girl!
My first little granddaughter (3rd grandchild) is four. She is independence and spunk, she is quiet, but firm. She can run with crowds, but entertain herself. She is a waif in body, but strong in spirit. She is all the Disney princesses, one at a time, or overlapping as she sees fit (this year, she chose “Cinder-Lella”) and she was determined to have a cake in Cinderella’s honor using her own doll (which we almost couldn’t find). And so we did.
A Cinderella Doll Cake
I learned from my first doll cake experience to wrap the shapely doll in a paper towel and Saran Wrap so as not to cause a stir when the cake is cut away (revealing a naked bum). The birthday girl’s mommy chose my signature lemon-poppyseed with fresh lemon curd for filling. It is o-so-refreshing. I used a 9 inch layer, 2 8-inch layers and a bowl for the top of the skirt. We ate the other 8-inch layer the extra batter provided as a “taste-test.” The dress was a very simple buttercream in light and the palest-ever blues. I sprinkled it with sugar glitter (which looks like crumbs on the serving tray) and there she is: Guini’s Cinderella cake.
It was a lovely day to celebrate, a few days ago. We ate and plied Guini with gifts, but true to Aunt Tara’s prediction to save her gift for last because Guini would love it best of all, once Guinivere received the little box of make-up and lip “sauce,” she was never seen without it again. Each time I see her now, her eyes, her cheeks and her lips are all-a-glitter in the palest shades of pinks and lilacs.
Here is Guini opening the mountain of gifts, and her baby sister, Gemma, rolling about on Guini’s Happy-Birthday-ball.
Here is Guini with her jewelry/treasure box from Aunt Jovan and Uncle Rocky and Grandpa and Gavin in their geek goggles under the water in the pool.
I love you, Guinivere!
Nonna loves you, little girl. I love your smile and the twinkle in your eye and I love how you can stay focused and totally ignore what you’d rather not notice. I love that you sing your head off or don’t whisper even a sound all afternoon should the mood strike. I love that you are a good little sister and a wonderful big sister. I love that sometimes I can tell you are looking at me, right into my very soul, and you are really getting me. I love that and I love you!
XXOO…Nonna
89-cents of Bathtub Fun
Barbasol.
Twice a month, we get the Kelley kids on Sunday mornings. This was getting ready for church last week.
Happy Birthday, Stephanie
Happy 27th Birthday, Stephanie May – as in May-Day-baskets-of-lilacs-and-tulips-and-dancing-around-with-streamers-in-celebration-and-rejoicing!
(picture taken by Tredessa at church on Easter Sunday…Guini-almost 4, Gavin almost-6, Gemma-almost 2, parents-still twenty-somethings)
A full 5-weeks early in your arrival, who could have known, as they pronounced a mere 30% chance of survival on you and your severely underdeveloped lungs – that you’d be home in 12 days? That you’d defy the odds and in answer to our heart’s cries and the mercy of the Lord, you’d breathe in and out until you were whole?
We named you for one of my Biblical heroes (Stephen – a man of wisdom and grace, full of the Holy Spirit) and because three of our favorite TV actresses back in the day had the name (Stepfanie Kramer aka Detective Sgt. Dee Dee McCall in “Hunter”; Stefanie Powers aka Jennifer Hart on “Hart to Hart”; Stephanie Zimbalist aka Laura Holt in “Remington Steele”). I am sure I read in the baby name book at the time that your name meant “crown, or garland, festooning” yet I couldn’t have comprehended then how true that would be about you. We added “May” in the middle in celebration of the beautiful spring month in which you were born. You were our tiniest baby with a big, long name.
Then you grew. And you were funny and a singer and had a helpful heart. And you developed a very unique sense of style and you played basketball and now guitar and you worship and you married Tristan and produced these 3 adorable kids. And you amaze me constantly. I did not know what an incredible wife and mommy you’d be. I didn’t know how much I’d learn from you about following Christ and serving my family. You are the Proverbs 31 woman, Stephanie! In every way – you are!
“Many women have done wonderful things, but you’ve outclassed them all…The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God. Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises!” Proverbs 31, The Message
Twenty-seven wishes for Stephanie on her 27th Birthday~
- I wish for you to be rewarded for the wonderful and wife and mommy you are – to receive the fruit of the seeds you have planted into your family’s lives.
- I want you to get the needed time to develop your May-Dae biz with Stormie.
- May the creativity flow in full force for all you put your hand to as you remain o-so-close to the Creative One.
- I wish and pray for the smile of the Lord to be on your life.
- I am asking the Lord to make you aware of how He sings and delights and dances over you, crowning you with His goodness.
- I pray those 3 children will receive everything you have to place in their hearts as their mommy.
- I pray Tristan will always be blessed by you, always ravished by your beauty, both inside and out. And may the wild romance blossom profusely and continuously.
- May the song of the Lord pour from your heart and mouth and please Him.
- May the Holy Spirit instruct you in the song of the Lord (1 Chronicles 25.7) and may you become a highly skillful musician for His glory!
- I wish for this next year to be full of the joy of the Lord (your strength) and for it to start with the best summer you have ever enjoyed – fun times with the people you love.
- I wish for you to discover new abilities and skills as you Exec. Direct a whole “Pod’s” worth of people! What an impact you are having!
- For all the times the Lord has miraculously healed you in both body and mind, I pray that you will lay hands on the sick and that they will recover and that your fervent and effective prayers will produce wonderful results and many healings!
- I wish for you to have peace on all sides, to have favor with both God and man.
- I wish friendships for you that were long-ago planned by God, to enrich you and bring encouragement.
- The new “old” house of your dreams – I am wishing that for you! And all the antique-and-funky stuff to fill it you could ever desire (including the music studio!!).
- Songs – the ones you write…when do we get to hear some?
- I want your lilac bushes to bloom profusely! Because they so remind me of you – all purple and deliciously-scented. So they should..profusely…bloom!
- I wish for you to know your value in our family – that you are a crown to us.
- I pray that you will understand what a blessed representation of our love you were to us, that to guard your life and cherish it was a symbol of all that was to come.
- I want you to know how much I love you and admire you and how proud I am of you, not only for the woman you have become, for the person you have always been.
- I am praying you can receive the praises and festooning we are bestowing upon you on the occasion of the celebration of your birth because you deserve them, you do.
- Be courageous. Don’t be afraid.
- Be bold. Don’t hold things in.
- Be you. That is a gift to us all.
- I wish you laughter daily and tears when you need a good cry.
- I wish for all your dreams (the ones we know and especially the ones we don’t) to come true.
- And I pray you will take your place – the one God had in mind for you before you were even one day old (Psalm 139), take the place, the ministry, the arena, the position – God has called you to and don’t ever let self-doubt or man’s opinion stop you. You are the crown. You are the garland that celebrates and decorates the Head.
I festoon you with my love. I festoon you with my praises. Twenty-seven years ago today, I got to touch a miracle – and you remind me of God’s faithfulness everyday of your love-filled life.
Happy Birthday, Stephanie… Mom
NOTE TO SELF: Am I blessed or what? This girl is one of the most interesting, multi-faceted and surprising human beings on earth, the spice of my life.
“Jo, how could you, your one beauty?!…”
That is a line from the Little Women movie when Jo had cut and sold her hair for money to help the family.
And isn’t it true our hair can actually make or break the day we are having? There must be some glory there, or lack thereof on a “bad hair day.”
“…if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.” 1 Corinthians 11.15 NIV
When Tara was three, she cut her sister Stephanie’s hair – just the bangs right in front. Stephanie was exactly one year old, had beautiful hair and now it had a”butched” area right in front! I was sad, but a little time and cute bows and barrettes in the meantime kept her looking like a baby girl.
When Tredessa was almost three, she, whose hair was thick and curly and was already longer than waist-length when it was wet, lopped off a whole side of her hair. I had just had a baby. I sat on the stairs of our home and wept in deep sorrow (can you say ‘hormonal’?). It grew back.
Gavin was three when he got ahold of some scissors and cut his hair short-short-short right next to the scalp. We had no choice but to shave that shiny, beautiful hair right off his whole head.
Saturday morning Guini came down to breakfast and gleefully announced to her mama, “Look at my haircut,” as she stood there, sans locks, but with freshly cut hair and glossy lips (she calls it “lip sauce”).
Mommy brought her over for a pixie-haircut – which were very popular with my friends around 1967-68. It is really short, but she actually did a pretty fair job of cutting it to the hairline without gouging out too may big swaths into her scalp. So we were able to give her a nice short pixie (still-in-process) and her beautiful face is her glorious feature for now…
These grand-kids keep life interesting…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Help the mommies strategize how to keep Gemma and Averi from the 3-year-old cut…
pictured: Guini with her very short bangs and baby sister, Gemma in the background
School Days
One of the most important parts of my life right now is getting to pre-school 4 year old Hunter and 3 year old Guini (Gavin “graduated” to Kindergarten last fall). Of all the amazing things in my life right now, and, wow, I am blessed, time with my grandbabies playing with shapes and colors and numbers and first words and crayons and markers and books and paint is like – the best! They call it “school with Nonna.” I call it time with the ones-of-my-heart.
pictured: Guini on Tuesday, Hunter on Thursday