Special

Unexpectedly there has grown to be a man that is special to our family.

I was in bible study with this man's grandson.
This man's son was my biology teacher in high school.
My parents are close friends with this man's daughter and husband.
Matt and I got pre-marriage counseling from this man's son and wife.
I taught this man's grandson in Sunday school.
He preformed my sister's wedding ceremony.
And...he led our Sunday school class when I was dating Matt.  That is where Matt met him and developed a great appreciation for him.

Later on down the line, he (Glendon Blosser) also preformed our wedding ceremony and we are so grateful for that.

 

But that is not where our connection ends.  Two years later, he carried Grace around the church as part of her dedication.

Last week we decided that we would like to have Glendon and his daughter and her husband over for dinner.

Glendon was able to meet Glen for the first time, and to see Grace all grown up.  It was a very special night.  We feel blessed to know Glendon and his family in so many different and varied ways.

He IS a Kiser!

One day, a friend of mine was at my house.  I showed her my family wall that has pictures of my and Matt's family back to our great grandparents and maybe beyond.  As she looked over the pictures, one stuck out to her and she said, 

"Wow, if that is not Glen"

Thinking that she was talking of my father, I pointed to another picture and said, "No, this is Glen"

She responded that this picture of my grandfather (Glen's great-grandfather) looked so much like him.

So the question is, does this little boy look like his great-grandfather?

Maybe?

Yes, I think so.

And I am glad because it shows that he is a Kiser.

Oh, and Grandpa Kiser was a handsome man :)

Mostly Glen

This is blog post to update a bit on Glen.  He is becoming very brave and standing up all on his own in the middle of rooms.  He is taking more steps.  I think that his highest count is 8 at one time.  He is getting his seventh tooth and is generally just a happy boy (that just woke up from his nap, I will be back later...)

While in Arkansas he loved sleeping with his Grandpa.  Grandpa and Papaw mattresses are the BEST!

I have never seen a child use a pacifier like this.  But it is one of Glen's favorite ways of sucking on his.

 The picture above and the picture below were taken on the same day.  The above was before I cut his hair with clippers for the first time.  The below was after I cut his hair.  He did so well with the haircut, no crying, no pushing, nothing.  I am hopeful that I might be able to do it again the next time his hair gets a bit long.

Hmmm, I am just tall enough for this bookshelf.

What should I do?

 I know...REMOVE ALL THE BOOKS!!!!

 After a year of civilness between the two children, the honeymoon has ended.  Grace is ready to ship Glen off.  She even has him stamped and ready to be mailed off (look at Glen's left shoulder).

She seems pretty proud of herself and this plan.

 I just hope that he does not get sent too far away, I need my daily Glen cuddles :)

Christmas 2012

While in Arkansas for Christmas, the weather was wonderful most of the time.  Grace loves playing on the Ellie's play set.  She especially loved the climbing wall.

 The girls all got together one evening to do our nails.  I painted Grace's pink while she painted mine white and sparkly.  She actually did a pretty good job.  I love how interested Steve is in this picture.

We were able to spend the evening with Katie's parents on night.  They made a wonderful meal of gumbo.  Then presents were given, and Grace and Glen both got books and beautiful blankets that have their names on them (you can see Grace opening up her pink blanket).

Glen got a little carried away with the wrapping of the presents.  But he does not seem to mind having a bow in his hair.

One morning we decided to make ginger bread houses.

The set was wonderful and went together really well.

And though we did not follow the instructions very well....

 and the kids had to have some help...

 and much of the candy was eaten before it ever made it to the house...

 The ginger bread house turned out great!

 Later on that day, Grandma Sue, Grace, and Ellie all made press cookies.  A long standing Christmas tradition of Matt's side of the family.  They had a great time doing it.

 Christmas Eve we went to church.  I wore a sweater that had pretty buttons on it.  Grace wanted to button and unbutton my sweater over and over and over.  It kept her happy and it was good buttoning practice.  I was content to just kneel and watch all that was going on around me.

At church we got to sing Christmas carols by candle light.  Grace sang...something...loud and excitedly.  It was like no carol that I had ever heard, but it was a joyful noise to the Lord.

 Christmas morning, oranges were found in the stockings.

 Presents were unwrapped.

Joy and wrapping paper abounded.

It was a great Christmas.  I am happy that we are able to experience the Christmas joy many times a season, with both sides of our families.

Christmas 2012: Memphis Children's Museum

On December 21st we headed out from Harrisonburg to go to West Memphis, Arkansas.  It was a very long journey.  We started at 4:00am and arrived at our destination at 9:00pm local time (there was an hour time change during the drive so it felt like 10:00 to us).  But we made it!

However, being cooped up in a car for that long in one day meant that we needed to get out and run the next day.  So during breakfast I did a bit of research and found out the location, fees, and hours of the local children's museum.  A quick change of clothes and we were headed out to get as much play in as possible before nap time really set in.

It was a HUGE museum!  I would not be surprised if it filled almost a city block (with the parking lot included, it might have).  They had a disco called Sir Dance A Lot (Grace loved it and made me go in and dance with her many times).

 Grace knows that she is a princess...so she found her rightful spot atop a castle.

 Glen, in awe, staring up at her royal beauty.  And wondering just how on earth she got up there.

 They had a real fire truck that the kids could ride in and climb on.  They even had coats and boots that the kids could put on.

 The kids are in a house, looking out the window at me.

 Above is Glen's hand, my hand, and Grace's hand.

 They had pipes that if you hit them with a flip-flop they made noise.  Glen of course had a blast with anything that he could make lots of noise with.  Whomp, whomp whomp!

In addition to the fire truck they also had a real police car that the kids could explore.  It must have been in quite an accident in it's working days.  The doors were missing and the trunk was gone.

This place was HUGE...they had a Kroger in there with 4 check out lines with working registers that would cough up a receipt of what you scanned.  They had a river in there to show how water wheels worked, and with magnetic fish so that the kids could go "fishing" in the river.  A tornado simulator, a earthquake simulator (complete with little wooden building blocks), scaffolding that the children could climb up, a FedEx airplane to simulate sending packages around the world, and a train station to name just a few of the items.

The kids were completely worn out afterward, but it was a great way to get out the wiggles that were built up from the prior day.

Dr Visit

Today we went to the doctor and had some well baby visits.

For Grace it was her 3 year old visit.  She is 36 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds.  She is 50th percentile in everything.  The doctor was happy.

For Glen it was his 1 year old visit.  He is 31 inches tall and 21 pounds.  He is 90th percentile in everything.  He is going to be a big and tall boy, but the doctor was happy with all.

Family Photoshoot

In November my sisters and I decided that we needed another picture of the grandkids for mom since the last one that we had done did not include Glen.  So we went to a local park and went crazy with the cameras.

I decided that we should also get a few pictures for our Christmas cards, and we ended up with three wonderful ones of Grace and Glen that ended up on our card.  All three are included here along with many others.

I hope that you enjoy the picture show that follows!