Evan's Valentine's Day Gift

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and I usually give our grandchildren something each year.  I must admit, this has gotten more difficult over the past few years, as the number of 'grands' has increased, along with my age! Last year, I settled for Valentine's Day cards, and tucked some money in each one.  The 'grands' didn't seem to mind.

Our family was blessed with a new grand-baby, just three months ago, so I felt like a little Valentine's Day shopping might be appropriate, this year.  Oh, what a chore it turned out to be!  I spent two hours wandering around Wal-mart, looking for the perfect gifts.

For the three older 'grands', I finally decided on some Valentine's Day candy, a couple of inexpensive gifts, along with a little shopping money in each card.  For baby Evan, the choice of a gift was a little easier.

While shopping, I saw a little stuffed Chihuahua dog, who was wearing a ball cap.  He was the spittin' image of our grand-dog, 'Jack'. He shook a couple of maracas and sang 'Hot, Hot, Hot'!  It was a 'no brainer', I had to buy this gift for Evan!

Evan and his parents live out-of-town, but they were home last weekend.  I knew I wouldn't see Evan again before Valentine's Day, so I presented him with his gift on Sunday.  I turned the little dog on, and what do you think Evan did?  He cried!  So much for my gift choice, huh?  Hopefully, as Evan grows older, he'll learn to like his new puppy.  I know his Mimi sure does!

Long Time, No Post...

I'm absolutely ashamed that it's been over ten months since I've posted on this blog! I'd think about posting here, from time to time, but somehow never seemed to have time. As a result, I don't have many "Mini Tales" for 2013 recorded! For that, I'm truly sorry.

 On the positive side, at least I've recorded many grandchildren highlights on my sister blog, 'Reflections By Kathy'. Another positive note--our family likes to take lots of pictures!

 During 2013, a lot of wonderful, noteworthy events happened, concerning the grandchildren, including the announcement of a pregnancy, and the addition of a fourth grandchild!

 Granddaughter, Madison, graduated from Kindergarten in the spring, then began doing a first grade, home-school course in the fall. In addition, she's been taking violin lessons, and continuing with dance lessons. 

Meanwhile grandson, Caden,played another round of T-ball, in the spring, then began pre-K classes at Busy Little Beavers, in the fall. Caden has grown so much, this past year. He hardly seems like the same child anymore!

 Grandson number three, Chase, perfected the art of running and climbing, learned how to speak using sentences, and became potty trained by age two! Chase didn't have time to spend 'being a baby', he he had to keep up with the older children in the family!

 Last, but certainly not least, is our newest addition to the family, baby Evan. Given Evan's mom's previous medical history, none of us thought a baby would ever be in her future. It just goes to show, doctors don't know everything, nor do we! Not only did our daughter-in-law, Jennifer quickly become pregnant, she sailed through her pregnancy with ease, until the end.

 For a time, we had quite a scare, concerning baby Evan, when tests revealed that both of his parents were carriers of Cystic Fibrosis. Once again, God showed Who is in control, when Evan turned out to be a perfectly healthy baby boy! Evan doesn't have Cystic Fibrosis, nor does he carry the gene for the disease. Praise the Lord for double blessings! Evan's growing like a weed, and recently turned 3 months old.

 Since I haven't posted over here in such a long time, I went back through our photo files (borrowing some from our DIL's Facebook pages), and made a movie of the past ten months. By doing this, it will sort of make up for all of the posts I missed writing. I'm going to try to post over here on a more regular basis, from now on.  I should be able to at least manage weekly updates.

For now, here are the past ten months in pictures: