What a fun family time we had Sunday night! Tom and his family were visiting from Indiana, and many of us went to the Brownsville Mennonite Church to hear a reunion concert of the A Capella Harmony Quartest, some 20 years after they were first starting singing together, when Tom was all of age 20 and the other youngsters were as young as 12! They were awesome! Rich harmonies, lively arrangements, sung from their hearts. The church was packed! After church, the family went to Mom's house next door and enjoyed some mini-pizzas, a lovely variety of fruits, and some fantastic home-made bars and cookies.
Just delightful to have Uncle Cloy in our midst! I believe he and Tom may have been discussing Costco hot dogs right here!
But since it's easiest to upload pictures chronologically, lets step back to a visit a few days before. I don't believe Tom's daughter Allie had even talked to Will since the last visit two years ago when she came dashing up to him to ask if he was good at fixing things because she was having trouble with some of the train track pieces. So Will ended up in the kids playroom helping them for awhile.
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| Josh and Serena |
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| Bradley and Uncle Galen |
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| Grandma with Tom's Lexi and Brianna's Karise and Janae |
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Sunday afternoon - Kam with Tom's girls: Allie, Lexi and Mandy
Lesi is almost a month younger than Kam. (Kam got to play with a doll for the first time! He was much more interested in Grandmas's trucks!) |
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| These girls - so much personality! |
Why does a photo edit not carry through to this blog sometimes? I don't know why the pic was upside down in the first place, but I rotated before importing it but I can't get it to stay rotated. Anyway, Jamie fell asleep during AQH's last song, and boy was he sound asleep on this bench!
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| It kinda hurt my back just to look at him with hid feet hanging off the side! |
So I put them on the bench and he continued to sleep soundly. When I bent down to hug him goodbye a few hours later, he almost hurt my back for real when I was unprepared for his enthusiastic leap into my arms! Love that boy! (Don't worry Jean, my back is just fine! And I think you are a fantastic parent even if you let your little guy sleep all twisted up on a bench. I assume he was sitting next to Tom when left in that position.)
Oh and how exciting was this, to be wearing a matching shirt with my two beautiful nieces! Apparently we all shop at the same exclusive retail establishment!
So many conversations….
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| Unclu Cloy and Hope's Micah (I cropped the feet out of this one before importing too!) |
Uncle Galen had some stories to tell Allie, and she had a few of her own to share!
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| Serena helping Lexi walk. |
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| Hope with our beautiful Aunt Norma Jean |
Allie had some stories to tell Uncle Doug too. "I'm so Christmas sick. I just can't wait for Christmas. We have the most beautiful decorations you can imagine. You should see all our lights…and the angel…" and so on!
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| And we must include Tom's lovely wife Jewel! |
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| Camille reads stories to Serena, Josh and Janae |
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Janella with Brianna's adorable Zaiden. What a sweet happy baby!
I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone there. I wish I would have got some of Hope's big boys helping and playing with Tom's little ones. There was quite a ball game going on in the yard, with Justin patiently directing lots of little children, including one small one who couldn't figure out which base to run to. Cute little Zaiden fell asleep in my arms so I didn't take pictures for awhile! (Thank you Janelle for taking some for me!)
I love this big family that I'm privileged to be a part of. I was 16 years old when Tom was born, and he was such an interesting little boy. It's no wonder that his children are also full of energy and ideas and personality! I wish we could see them more, but it was delightful to have them visit!
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