Big T and ME

We so enjoyed having Mr. Kemp with us for the past 4 days! I miss him!! I wonder what he's doing right now? Missing GranJan and Big T???????? .......Big T enjoyed blowing bubbles for his "little man" and here's the proof! We just can't get over how great he talks! He chatters all the time! Brad always says, "HEY BIG MAN!" and so he started saying that now, too. All week-end he would say, "Hey, big man"! haha! He absolutely ADORES his BIG T and when Terry would leave he would have to sneak out the door or Kemp would WIG OUT!.......TOMORROW is LILY day so I can switch gears from playing with airplanes/cars and golf clubs to GIRLY things! HURRAH! Dolls/dress up and necklaces  tomorrow! Actually, Aunt Cutie and I are taking Miss Lily to the mall. She's a typical girl. Loves to shop! Can't wait!

Lily's Princess Lair

Lily is NO LONGER in a baby bed! WAAAAAAAAAAA! She's in a BIG GIRL bed now and I almost cried when I saw that her BABY BED was gone! BUT, her little room now has a BIG GIRL dresser! Kadie says she loves re-arranging her little stuffed animals on it all the time. Her room is fit for the Princess she is! Enjoy looking at Lily's room , and the rest of her (beautiful!) (Homewood )house!!!! (And, Lily getting ready to go see THE WIGGLES)

THE WIGGLES! (better than the Beatles!)

We went to see the WIGGLES today!!!!!!!! First let me say that Kemp and Lily were 1. the cutest ones there 2. the BEST ones there!!!!! I honestly thought Lily and Kemp would flip out when the Wiggles came riding out in the BIG RED CAR!!!!!!!!!!!! They  just laughed and clapped their little hands with glee and were so excited it brought tears to my eyes! Really, those little toddlers were just FANTASTIC for the whole hour and a half show! And, for those nay sayers who thought they wouldn't SIT STILL that long, well, they  NEVER MOVED a muscle! (they acted older and more attentive than some of the children a lot older!). They were just perfect! LOVED LOVED LOVED every minute!!!!!!!! The WIGGLES played all the songs they knew---and Kemp and Lily did all the hand motions and sang along with the Wiggles!!! Lily would cut her eyes over at me and give me that "MICHAEL GRIN"  and I just knew she was in HOG HEAVEN! Of course, Kemp clapped to every song and loved CAPTAIN FEATHER SWORD!!! Honestly, I had more fun at this concert than I did so many years ago at the BEATLES! HAHA! It was the most fun I have had in a long time---!!!!!!! AND GUESS WHAT? Smart GranJan remembered that DOROTHY THE DINOSAUR loves ROSES, so I bought some at WalMart. Well, sure enough, just like in the videos, they collected roses from the audience. AND GUESS WHAT???? Murray came up to LILY and got her roses!!!!!!!! And GranJan got the photos!!!!!!!!...... One of my favorite parts came at the end when they had the flags from all the countries and there they were-----USA flag right next to the AUSSIE flag!!! It gave me goose bumps!!!!!!!!! Michael and Kadie were so sweet to take Kemp and me and we loved every minute. And I loved being with all of them! What a FUN DAY! Lily and Kemp are proabably too young to remember it, but Michael, Kadie and I will never FORGET it! AND, I have all these great pictures toshow them over and over again! *****THANKS, Michael ,for the wonderful WIGGLE DAY!!!!!!!!! ILY

Keeping Kemp!

Boy oh BOY oh BOY! We're keeping Kemp for several days! Hurrah! (Mommy and Daddy are taking their first trip together since Kemp was born---going to Las Vegas!!!). Aunt CUTIE and I picked him up at Little Lambs Playschool (@ Riverchase UMC) and when he saw us he started jumping and down and squealing, "GranJan! CUTIE ! GranJan ! Cutie!" Think THAT didn't make us happy???????? He chattered like a little monkey all the way home. UNTIL we got to the gate that opens to our street. His little head fell to the side and his eyes started closing! "WAKE UP or I'll get your feet!" Cutie started tickling his feet and he slowly opened his drowsy little eyes and smiled. I got his diaper changed and put him down and IMMEDIATELY he fell asleep! We woke him up 2 1/2 hours later b/c Auntie Cutie needed to go to the mall and we took our little angel. Not to be prejudiced, but EVERYONE came up and said "he is SOOOOOO cute! Look at those HUGE EYES!" we grinned of course, and agreed!!! We also did something special with him (it's a surprise) and then we came home. He was sooooooo excited to see BIG T and immediately wanted him to hold him! (It sounds like "BIG B" when he says it!). Terry thinks we have another TIGER WOODS b/c Kemp is absolutely OBSESSED with his little golf bag/clubs and ball. Brad always tells him, "CONCENTRATE!" before he swings! He DOES! It's hilarious! Terry said that he is going to make us a lot of money one day! HAHAHAHA!...This morning Laura just had a complete fit over him! She said he's the smartest little boy she's ever seen! (of course, he is!) And, LILY being the smartest girl. OF COURSE....In 2 hours Kemp and I are meeting Uncle Michael/Aunt Kadie and Lily and guess where we are going???? YEP!!!!!!! THE WIGGLES!!!!!!! Natalie and Brad about DIED when they found out the concert was while they were gone! OH WELL! I sure am glad b/c I get to go now! And take my little angels!!!!!!! I can't wait to see their faces when they see their favorite group dancing and singing on stage!!!!!!!!!!!!! More to come!!!!!

A black eye at GranJan's???????

Poor little Kemp!!!!!!!! He came to play with Lily today and they were having such fun when he suddenly threw his (actually, Uncle Michael's old Fisher Price!) airplane and it hit him under the eye , somehow, as if "flew" past! Lily and I heard the bloodcurdling scream and I grabbed him and comforted him and then saw! OH NO! A tiny cut under his eye and it was already beginning to turn bluish black! My sweet grandson got a BLACK EYE at his GranJan's house! Oh no! What if Mommy/Daddy decide NOT to let us keep him while they go to Las Vegas Thursday (Thro Sunday!)!!!! HAHA! Doubt that's the case!!! .......He and Lily played pretty well, but MISS PRISS was on a roll today and was a tad agressive with her YOUNGER (by 2 months only!) cousin! She didn't want him to sit in GranJan's lap! Little Queen! Of course, when he hurt his eye (see picture!!!), he wanted his "PASH" (passy) and when he got HIS, Lily HAD to have HERS! So, that's the only reason they had PASSY'S!!! I know, I know, their mommies are trying to take them away and I DON"T let them have them unless they go to sleep! UNLESS, of course, they get HURT!!!!  I had fun with them , as usual, but sure did hate it that my sweetie patootie got a BLACK EYE while his mommy was gone to school!!!!!

Surviving 100+ heat!

I had to think of something to do INSIDE today, obviously, with the HEAT WAVE going on!!!!  With the outside temp over 100 degrees (and the heat index 106!) we had to do INSIDE STUFF! SO, first of all, WE had to water the plants and I had a HELPER to help me do that!!! THEN, I finally brought Lily upstairs to see her new KITCHEN! Guess what? She liked getting on the computer the best, of course! HAD to go to the WIGGLES website, of course!!!!! BUT, then she spied the doll in the high chair and freaked out! Jumped down from the computer chair and straight to the high chair where she "fed" her baby and then started making PIZZA (yes, she TASTED it!). Having a nice cool day upstairs today!!!!!!! (and, yes, I'm STILL celebrating my birthday today. And tomorrow. ANd the next day, too!).

July 17th--MY BIRTHDAY! (I'm double nickels!)

I thought I'd better get this entry in on the last 4 minutes of July 17th! Then, my birthday will be OFFICIALLY over for another year! WAAAA! I love my birthday! To everyone who sent cards/e-mails and phone calls---THANK YOU! I loved each and every one!.....I started celebrating yesterday when Katie and Nat and I went to see "The Devil Wears Prada"--cute cute movie! Then, TODAY, July 17th---started the day off by opening gifts from Katie that were scattered all over the dining room table! Such fun! 2 beautiful shirts from Lara and a necklace and a gift certificate to SCRAP , ETC! Of course, I HAD to spend that gift certificate so that's the first place we went---I loaded up on MORE scrapbooking supplies (and they were having a 60 % off sale, too!!!). Then, Katie and I had an early lunch at ZOE'S! YUM YUM (i even had chocolate cake!). THen, off to the SOHO district in Homewood where we looked around and we ended up at the Summit!......Exhausted from the 101 degree heat we came home and met Nat/Brad/Kemp and Michael/Lily/Kadie at SUMO's! YUMMY!!!!!!! The babies were great! So cute! Lily LOVED looking "at NEMO" (the goldfish at Sumo's!)....... I got an adorable GRANJAN shirt from KEMP and a gift certificate from Nat/Brad! From LILY I got a beautiful necklace and a gift certificate, too! Then, back here for some of the delicious CAKE Katie got me from EDGAR'S! Then, a big treat! LILY is spending the night tonight! She is snuggled up to "BIG T" right now, sound asleep!......I will continue my birthday celebration with PAT tomorrow as he is bringing me lunch (he had to work tonight!). I plan on continuing my birthday celebration ALL WEEK LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND, by the way, I'm DOUBLE NICKELS now! WOW! I'm officially now an OLD WOMAN!

Kemp visits MIMI!

 GUESS where Kemp went today? To visit his GREAT-grandmother! (yes, she's GREAT!!!). At almost 92 years of age, I just hope I look that good in, ummmmmmm, how many years? Anyway, she looks awesome!  It took an act of God (and a firm grip from mama!), to get a picture of Kemp and MIMI! He did NOT want to sit still that long, even! He is ONE BUSY LITTLE BOY!!!!!!!!! WOW! Kemp enjoyed running around her (TINY) little room but even more loved opening her door and RUNNING DOWN THE HALL!!!!!!!!! Yep, he GOT AWAY a couple of times! We had a nice visit with Mimi and I just bet she is still napping after her visit with the wild little monkey aka KEMP! It was fun and she gave me my b'day prezzie early and I also got me a pair of CROCS (like the babies!) from Judy for my b'day, too! Hurrah! And I still have 3 days till THE day ! (July 17th for those who don't know when MY big day is! haha). OH! Something FUNNY that Mimi did! She showed me a note she was putting with her subscription to Nat'l Geographic magazine that said she would "only renew for another YEAR because she was 91!" hahahaha! I told her I thought she was just trying to get a FREE subscription and she said, "Well, I am! HAHA"! FUNNY ! I even made a picture of the note but it might be too small to read it on the journal but it was hysterical!....We ended up at one of my favorite places to eat: SEAFOOD/CHICKEN BOX! It looks exactly the same as it did 25 years ago AND the chicken tastes the same! DELISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....The last pictures are of Nat/Brad's freshly painted house with the (UN)-painted ornamental iron furniture! I'm sure it's on Brad's HONEY DO list to paint them this week-end! HAHAHAHA

Princess LILY

 Today was PRINCESS Lily's day to come to GranJan's!  (Isn't she just ADORABLE?! I know you looked at ALL 67 pix! If you skipped any, go back RIGHT NOW and look at them all! HAHA).

I laughed all day at the difference between the way my two grandbabies, almost like TWINS so close in age, PLAY! Yesterday KEMP came running in and ran and grabbed the trucks and GOLF BAG and golf clubs and whacking everything in sight with them! Like a mini tornado! When Lily arrived today, she wanted BARNEY, the purple dinosaur, to eat with her on the high chair! When she got down, she spied KEMP'S green CROCS he forgot yesterday and promptly took her PURPLE ones off and put his GREEN ones on!  She kept saying, "KEMPS!"Then, off to the "play area". First, she sat down at her NEW computer desk and colored with her crayons in her color book. After coloring for awhile, off she went to see the new toys I had bought that Kemp had already found yesterday. She threw the new trucks aside and went straight for her FAIRY WAND! How funny is that?????? I was just in the background making pictures as usual, just watching (like I did with Kemp yesterday! BTW, I made a few shots with my FEET sticking out so you can see me in the pix! HA!). It amazes me the way girls play vs. boys!  BTW,BOTH the babies love my scrapbooks, though and love to look at each other! Lily will point to Kemp and giggle and say, "KEMP! KEMP!" Yesterday, Kemp sat in my lap (for a minute!) and pointed to Lily's pix and said, "LILY! LILY!" Funny! AND, notice a couple of my layouts from my 4th of July album---already made! How about that?! .....Katie got home from Auburn just in time to cuddle with Lily before her nap and play with her, too.

 We had so much fun with our little PRINCESS today!!!!!!

Mommy's gone to WalMart!

Nat needed to go to WalMart today so I suggested she bring KEMP here so she could shop, vs. fussing at Kemp to "SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW IN THIS BUGGY!" So, needless to say, She took me up on the offer. :)

Since she and Brad have painted their whole house and gotten it looking FABULOUS, they decided to move the old concrete table/chair  that graced their front yard, to the back yard. That left them with the round concrete slab in the front yard, empty!. She was going to go find some furniture when I suggested her taking the Ornamental Iron bench that Daddy gave me years ago, along with a  small Ornamental iron table and  planter (also from Daddy). Brad is going to paint them black to match their NEW SHUTTERS! It's going to look fantastic! We tried to put the bench in Nat's back seat and , I heard this, "MOM! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!"NAT GOT STUCK in her backseat wedged in with the bench! Wish I had thought to grab my camera and make a picture! I stood there and died laughing and we did have a time getting her out!!! We finally got her "UN-STUCK" and got the bench out but I knew she wanted that bench, TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Instead, she called Patrick and he came over and picked them up in his truck after she left for Wally World. That's what those pix are---him putting Nat's "new" furniture in the back of his truck. I'm so glad she wanted that furniture. It wasn't even being used--the bench was on the back porch where the cats sleep on it and the planter was in the garage still waiting to be painted by Terry for the last 20 years! HAHA! The table was being used in my sitting room but I'd rather her have it so off it goes, too! AND.........I can imagine Daddy is smiling from heaven knowing his sweet Nat is so excited over getting that wrought iron furniture!!!!!!!!!!! He would be so happy!)

(Sure enough, when Nat picked kemp back up , she had already bought some new plants to put in her NEW planter!)

Kemp's FIRST haircut! July 7, 2006

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Our baby boy got his very FIRST HAIRCUT today! I guess Nat must have read what I had written about his long locks making him look "like a girl" because today was the day, our little cherub got his curls cut! WAAAA! I was SAD because now he looks like a little BOY and not a BABY anymore!!!!!!!! HOWEVER, I must admit, he does look simply adorable!!!!!!!!! He was so good and cried when we left he was having such a good time!!! Isn't he a DOLL? Natalie wasn't too distressed but she DID keep asking me, "It's not TOO SHORT is it?!" HAHA.......Oh, and YES, Ashley, Natalie asked for TWO envelopes of hair---one for you and one for his baby book!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remembering my trip to Australia( Feb.2006)

So many people have requested seeing pictures again after our incredible trip to Melbourne, Australia in Feb. that I'm putting some more on my journal. I sent out a day by day diary while we were gone and I'm so glad! We did so much and I'm glad I can now look back in my diary to see what we did on which days! I am still thinking about that trip 5 months later! (wow, has it already been FIVE WHOLE MONTHS?!). We planned, from the minute Kemp was born, that trip and it was something I looked forward to for so long! It went too fast, (we were there almost 3 weeks) ,but I look forward to going back and seeing some of the things I missed (not much, tho, thanks to my incredible TOUR GUIDES, Ashley and DAVID!)! Of course course, going in Feb., it was their summer so I've had TWO summers this year!.......Kemp was 15 months old and was the best baby on that LONG LONG flight (18 hours from start to finish!) I've ever seen. Not only that, I'll forever remember the moment when we walked down the terminal and saw Ashley's face. She ran and grabbed her (our!) grandson with tears of pure joy and happiness that it makes me cry even now, just remembering....The main reason we got to go to OZ was to see Brad's brother , Anthony get married to Karyn! Wow, what a wonderful way to end the trip (we left a couple of days after).  I also LOVED going shopping with KRISTY (Brad's sis)---I finally found someone who likes to shop as much as I do! She was so sweet to take me around and let me go wild! AND, when Claire and Rebecca took me SCRAPBOOK SHOPPING! Can you believe it? I went scrapbook shopping in OZ! I went nuts over all their papers, etc (much more expensive there than here, however!). The first pictures, FYI, are on the flight (DUH!) but the little screen (like a t.v. screen attached to the seat in front of us)of details of exactly where we were , instantaneous, I loved watching  (in between movies and Aussie T.V. shows! HAHA). Brad kept telling me, "Stop watching the flight plan! It goes by too slow!" (he was right!). Also, the pictures of PATRICK on the computer monitor was when we talked to him via SKYPE (if you don't know what SKYPE is, it's a FREE way to talk all around the world , and SEE each other---immediately! It was great checking in with Pat/Katie and Terry that way except trying to figure out what time it was at home! HAHA). So many wonderful things we did and saw---I'd need my diary to write it all again! But, one thing I DON'T Miss---DRIVING ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD! HAHA! I don't think I ever got used to that!. One thing I loved soooooooo much was getting to, FINALLY, see my KOALA'S and KANGAROOS! I fell in LOVE with Koalas! I even bought the cutest one, FOR ME, (see him in several pictures! Even in the cart at the airport!) that sits proudly on my bed. Yes, I sleep with TWO stuffed animals now---Terry and Kiki the Koala!....All in all, even after 5 months, the trip is etched so deeply in my mind and heart. I'm so thankful to God (and TERRY!) for sending me on that journey of my lifetime (next time "BIG T" has to go, too!). I love looking at my pictures (and have GOT to start "Scrapping" them!).  I also can't believe how much KEMP has grown since February! WOW! (kids grow before your very eyes!) .....I want them on this journal so that I , myself, can visit my trip to Australia and always keep the trip close to my mind and heart! By the way, I know some AUSSIES are reading this right now and I throw you kisses and hugs and THANKS for making my visit one that will never be forgotten and always remembered. I love you, my AUSSIE FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I WANT SOME SCONES AND CREAM! RIGHT NOW!!!!

July 4th, 2006 (I forgot the RIBS!)

Today was a busy and fun July 4th! Terry and Charles played golf early and while they were gone, Katie and I COLORED our hair (we're both GOTH looking now!) . Katie is back being brunette again! HAHA! Then, around 3 we headed to Nat/Brad's. After Terry arrived he started looking for the RIBS to put on the grill. GUESS WHAT? I FORGOT THEM! I had taken the stuff he made: Potatoe salad; banana pudding; deviled eggs; bar-b-q sauce but FORGOT THE RIBS!!!!!!!! So, Katie and I headed home to get them! When we got back, Michael called and said they were back from the beach so they came. Terry cooked the ribs/hot dogs and hamburgers and it was all YUMMY! Then, Pat and Stephanie came too, after he got off work. (Charles/Rachel went to Judge Vowell's to watch fireworks from Red Mtn!). We had so much fun, as always!!!!!!  OF COURSE, the "Boys" shot off a gazillion fireworks!OH! And Carl Cummings dropped by to "help" Pat  shoot some fireworks, too! It was great seeing Pat's old buddy from the old neighborhood! (They've been friends since first grade!).

 HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!

KOALA BARE

Here's our little KOALA BEAR! (Koala BARE!). I love this shirt that his Gramozza got him in Australia while we were there! These pix were made AFTER the nap and dip in pool! HAHA (notice his great Golf Swings!)