Family Reunion Weekend

Mark, Nora and I flew to Birmingham at the end of September for a long weekend with the families. Mom's family actually had a reunion, so it was the perfect excuse to get away for 5 days! Mom picked us up and the airport, then we headed north to Ft. Payne. Our first stop was to see Mamaw at the nursing home. It was good to see her, but it's still so sad. She was in really good spirits, so that was good. Children were not allowed to go into the home due to the flu outbreak, so one of the nurses wheeled her out onto the back patio. We met Jeff, Jennifer, Maxwell and Annah there, so all of the Powell great-grand kids got to see Mamaw, so that made her happy.

After picking up some groceries, we headed up the mountain to Aunt Lynne and Uncle John's cabin. What fun! We just love it up there and are so appreciative of them always sharing it with us! The cousins had a fun time playing and the adults had a great time catching up! My Uncle David came up for dinner and later Aunt Lynne and Uncle John came up for a visit.

The next day proved to be wet and rainy. So much for taking a hike! Mom and I headed back to Ft. Payne to see Mamaw and to organize a bit in her house. It's so sad to see the house so empty and in disrepair. I am going to attempt to always remember it the way it appeared to me in my childhood. I have wonderful memories of great times with Mamaw, Papa and the entire family there.

While we were gone, Jeff and Maxwell took Mark and Nora on a tour of the mountain. Mark had never seen our old family farm and the falls, so he had a great time. Maxwell liked sitting next to Nora, talking to her and attempting to hold her hand. So sweet! My cousin, Ben, and his girlfriend showed up after lunch and we all had a lazy afternoon at the cabin. Early that night, we headed back to town to my cousin Diane's house for the festivities. We had a nice time, but found out that we had missed seeing lots of family that had been there earlier in the day. The joys of nap time! Oh well, we still had a good time. Nora and Annah wore their matching Halloween dresses that Grandma made and everyone thought that they looked precious. That is a good thing, considering that Nora was a wild woman! She had not been feeling well the entire trip and suddenly perked up and ran all over the place. Mark and I had to tag team her! Nora thought it was hysterical, of course!

After cleaning up on Sunday and a family lunch, we met Buddy and Matt on the way to Chattanooga. It was so sad to leave Mom after such a quick weekend, but we wanted to make sure and see the Newman clan too! So, we transferred everything over to Buddy's car and headed to see Grammy, Stephanie and the boys!

Bath time! Nora and Annah

Change that to All Cousin Bath Time!

Nora, Maxwell and Annah

Annah and Jennifer

The family portrait

We arrived just in time for Nora to play with her sweet cousins. She jumped right into the fun and had a great time with them! They had a great time just playing together, playing the piano, eating dinner and giving love and hugs. Matt, Steph and the boys had to head back home on Sunday night, but we feel so blessed that they made a special trip to see us. It meant so much to us that they would drive up and see our family. On a funny note, they Newman boy family got to see Miss Nora New in all of her glory. She threw an absolute fit (probably the worst one ever - thus far!) because we were going to feed her dessert (i.e. a potential mess) instead of letting her sit at the big table with her cousins. She would have none of that and we finally relented and gave in. Sorry for the mess, Grammy!

We had a good time visiting with Grammy, Buddy, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sissy. We took Nora to the Blue and Yellow Park, one of her big sister's favorite parks back in the day! We also had fun walking around the mall and playing in the indoor play yard and stopping at the TN Vol Store to get Nora a Vol sippy cup and Daddy a t-shirt . (I was OK with that since Auburn beat TN the next weekend! Sorry Mark! War Eagle!) After a nap back home, we went out to eat and gave Nora a chance to work on charming everyone that she saw. We thought that these two ladies were going to take her home!

Thanks for a fun weekend Grammy and Buddy and for taking us back to Birmingham to catch our flight. We had a great time!

Nora tackling Jesse

Getting in on all the fun with Jesse and Seth!

Nora eating with her big boy cousins - Jesse, Seth and Luke

Playing the piano with Seth

The Boy Newmans with Grammy and Buddy!

The babies with Grammy - Nora and Aaron

How sweet is this? Nora giving Aaron a hug!

Swinging at the Blue and Yellow Park

Sliding with Buddy and Daddy

Hanging out with Buddy and Grammy

The Newman family!

My Mamaw

I think about my Mamaw a lot these days and was so excited to see that my cousin, Meg, had posted some sweet pictures of Mamaw and Hayes, her little boy, on her blog along with a sweet story. Our Mamaw is 94 years old and my mom and her brothers had to make the tough decision earlier this year to put Mamaw into a nursing home. Mark, Nora, Grammy, Buddy and I were able to visit with her when we were in Fort Payne for an afternoon during Easter weekend. I have some cute pictures from our trip that we never got posted ... add that to my To Do List. In the meantime, here's a link to Meg's blog: http://decoudresfamily.blogspot.com/.

(We have a really cute picture from Christmas of Nora sitting at Mamaw's piano - it is super sweet! I'll have to post it when I run home for lunch later today.) I couldn't resist these other pictures too!

Holiday Rundown - The Long Version

Whew! We are wiped out from our Christmas/New Year adventures. Being gone for 11 days was great, but exhausting! We flew to TN on Christmas Eve morning, spent some time with Mark's family, including meeting our newest nephew, Aaron! We then headed to AL to see the Powell/Crow clan. We made it just in time to change everyone for church and rush off. Can I tell you how cute Annah and Nora looked in their matching Christmas dresses that mom smocked?!? Darling!

It was so special to go to Christmas Eve service at my Mamaw's church. It makes me remember so many holidays in the past and and the people from that church who have blessed the lives of our family. That is the church where my parents were married; where my brother, cousins and I would argue over who got to ring the church bell when we were little; where my Mamaw played the organ for decades; where Mr. Malone (who is still a loyal member) always had sticks of Juicy Fruit gum for all the kids; and now, where Mark and I spent our first Christmas Eve with Nora. What a blessing! It made me really miss my dad. He would have just loved having us all together... This sweet couple from the church told me that they were married on the same day as my parents. Apparently back in the day they had lots of double bridal showers held in their honor. I thought that was so neat! Anyway, on our way out of the service, they told me that they are going to have flowers placed on the alter in June in honor of both of the wedding anniversaries. That touched me so deeply and of course I started boohooing like a baby.

After church we all headed up to my aunt and uncle's cabin on the mountain for our family dinner. It was so much fun and totally chaotic - just how it should be! We had my soon-to-be 94 year-old Mamaw, Mom, my brother Jeff, his wife Jennifer, their kids Maxwell and Annah, Aunt Lynne, Uncle John, their son, John, his wife Alicia, their kiddos - Will, Maggie and Emma, Uncle Neil, his son, Ben, Mark, Nora, and me. Not the whole family could make it, but we still had a great time!

Mom, Mawaw, Jeff, Jennifer, Maxwell, Annah, Mark, Nora, and I stayed on the mountain for 2 days. It was great! What a fun Christmas morning! All of the adults were awake and anxiously waiting for Maxwell to make his appearance. This is really the first year that we had a kiddo old enough to really get Santa. He was so cute and really excited! I think that Nora and Annah were just happy to be there and be held! We all had a great time out on the mountain. My aunt and uncle were so sweet to let us all stay at their wonderful cabin - and even decorate it for the holidays! Mom brought all kinds of special treats/food/decorations/etc. that just contributed to the festive time we had. I love how she can just whip up such special treats!

After visiting with more family on the 26th, including finally meeting my cousin Meg's little boy, Hayes (and seeing her husband, Shawn), we headed back to Tennessee for our Newman family Christmas. Thank goodness the two families live close!

Needless to say, Grammy and Buddy, along with Aunt Sissy and Uncle Dave were completely enamored with Miss Nora - who can certainly put the charm on when she wants to! They just loved having her there and being able to love on her. We had such a great time with everyone! It was so great to see our precious nephews, Seth, Jesse, Luke and Aaron. They are such sweet boys and we just adore them. Every time I am around Matt and Steph, I wish that we lived closer together so we got to spend more time with them and their family. I am in awe of their parenting skills, calmness, ability to handle everything so effortlessly and most importantly, their Christ-centered lives. Grammy cooked up a storm - yum! She and Buddy totally spoiled us with all of the fun activities and playtime.

We did a lot over the holiday break, so I'll spare you all of the details, but here are some highlights:

• Nora officially started crawling (life will never be the same again...)
• We had a fun (and very southern) New Year's Day lunch with my Uncle Harry and Kathyrn in Georgia
• We met our new nephew, Aaron, finally!
• Visited with lots of old friends in TN, including the Fergusons (who will be parents at the end of the month!), the Brady family, the Tadlock family and the Burton family - including meeting Marshall (doll baby!)
• Listening to Matt and Mark sing on Sunday at the new church where Buddy is the interim minister of music. They each sang so beautifully!
• Visiting the aquarium. It was amazing!
• Going to the park and riding the carousel - a family tradition
• We got to spend our first Christmas with both families since we got married. How fun was that?
  
  

  Christmas 2008