Musings from Graceland

YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY...er, I mean...BIG BOY!

Today my 2nd born son entered the double digit years. Yep, he's now 10! Wow! Below are a few photos from his much younger years.

But here he is today THRILLED with his birthday gifts. He received a Lego set from his Grandmommy (my mom), a Wii game from Grandma Chris (paternal grandmother), and his siblings chipped in for the WALL-E DVD. His daddy and I gave him his first pocket knife and a cap with a light on it. He also had some other money from his Great Aunt Cathi (Chris's sister) and Grandma Little Mac (my grandma) that he used to get a new Wii sensor board. He was one happy guy!

Being close to Christmas and him wanting to have a big camp-over blow-out to celebrate such a big milestone, we are waiting and having his party in January. In the meantime, we celebrated with just the immediate family. It's a tradition around here that the kids get to pick the menus for their birthday day, within reason. He picked waffles (frozen....believe me, making homemade for this many takes TOO long...I'm just sayin'), bacon, and eggs for breakfast and afterwards he opened his gifts. For lunch we ate pizza and PoPcOrN while watching WALL-E in the living room. And supper was homemade macaroni and cheese...with sweet peas. The peas weren't his idea, but the mom in me insisted.

He also had an unexpected happening...he got to have his daddy with him for part of today. He was supposed to have flown out early this morning for a business trip but a mix up with the tickets left him grounded. So though that was a bit of a bother, it was nice having him here for the special day.

He's also received phone calls from my dad, our good friend Chris Blackburn from Calvary Chapel, and my mom.

AND...I didn't make him do math today.

All in all, a very nice birthday.

Below are some snapshots from his younger years. Some of them are pretty blurry. That's what happens when I take photos of photos. Some of them are clear proof that I desperately need to be doing more dusting around here.

One year my Cousin Beth and I gathered all the kids together for a group shot. We did this as a special gift for our Grandma Harvey.

Below is a photo taken of my four oldest kids, my Cousin Kim's kids, and my Cousin Cindy's son at my Cousin Melissa's wedding.

Here's the birthday boy being loved on by Karen over at Fresh Fixin's. Karen has known him since he was just a baby back during our Calvary Chapel days.Another Calvary Chapel family that spent a lot of time holding and loving on him was my bff Kelly's family. Here he is with her oldest daughter who is now a college freshman. Don't you love her blue hair ribbons?The two "big" brothers. Yes, it's crowded around here but we did not make them share the same crib, but older brother D found it a lot of fun to jump in their with P.This is one of the last photos of my Grandma Harvey taken with my kids. She was then living with my Aunt Barbara on Belle Fountain Beach in Ocean Springs. She passed away not too long after this. She was a great lady and I'm glad that at least some of my children were blessed with knowing her love and zest for life.What a cutie pie! Of course, I still think he's pretty darn cute.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Your dad and I love you so much!!!