Granny – The Bless Your Heart Blog

Random {Christmas} Rambles

A little recap of our Christmas holiday…

We got to see Santa and a couple of real live reindeer…

We ate a few chicken nuggets, went to the doctor for the FIFTH TIME IN 2 WEEKS and then came on home.

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Sweet Sayble is finally feeling a bit better. She got croup just like brother but had two infected ears on top of it and now has a cold. We did a lot of this around here…and I haven’t minded a bit to be honest…

Sweetest little (bald) thing... — Sweetest little (bald) thing…

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One of my FAVORITE things to bake is pumpkin bread and banana bread. I’m not a fan of thick, dense, heavy bread and these two are moist and light and heavenly, if I do say so myself.

Since we had a little downtime with all the sickies, I cooked up 22 loaves for some of our sweet friends…

We ate two and took two the Phipps family Christmas and the kids were asking for some this morning. Guess I shoulda made more…

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We always get the kids Christmas jammies as an early gift. They got to open them before we went Christmas light looking and hot cocoa drinking last week.

They got changed immediately and looked ADORABLE!

He looks so protective in this one... — He looks so protective in this one…

We cruised around Holyoke and then came home for some popcorn and a little Apple Dumpling Gang watching! This was one of Wrexy’s FAVORITE movies as a kid and our kids have fallen in love with it as well.

It was a REALLY good day…

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My home is truly a place of refuge for me. The other evening we had the lights off and the Christmas tree was glowing and the candles were filling the air with sweet scents…the kids were playing joyfully in the other room and Sayble was cooing at an angel from the nativity scene…daddy was on his way home and supper was in the oven and I was just so at ease. There is truly no place I’d rather be than HOME.

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Our sweet neighbors invited us over to have supper and have a little Christmas celebration. The kids had a ball (per usual) and were bouncing off the walls in excitement. (Pretty sure the Krueger house was a LOT quieter after we left!)

Mr. Rick built the kids a barn for all of their farm animals and toys and it. is. gorgeous! The hay mow flips open and the barn doors slide; there’s glass in the windows and ‘Phipps’ is engraved in the side. Seriously, you guys, it’s one of the kindest, most thoughtful gifts we’ve ever received. The kids have played with it CONSTANTLY since then!

Twins - Mr. Rick and Sayble — Twins – Mr. Rick and Sayble

Sawyer posing and Wryder over-smiling...you know, the norm! — Sawyer posing and Wryder over-smiling…you know, the norm!

Wryder didn’t fully understand that the barn was ours to take home. When it was time to go, he immediately started melting down and said, “Can I please come back and play with it sometime?” Ms. Kristi jumped in and saved the day and helped him realize he got to take it home. He stopped, dried his eyes and started jumping up and down with joy! It was pretty cute.

Mr. Logan and sweet Sara got the kids an EQUALLY awesome gift – a membership to Adventures in Odyssey! For the year, we can listen to any and every episode that we can! With our living in the boonies and driving 30 miles+ to get anywhere, this is a GREAT gift! The kids (and us!) love it!

We are blessed with some of the best friends, I tell ya…

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On Christmas Eve, we spent the day getting ready to head to Nebraska. We still had laundry to do and suitcases to pack and a few last minute gifts to wrap.

We ate a yummy lunch of steak and potatoes – everybody’s favorite – and took communion as a family. We are so thankful that Jesus was born! We took time to thank Him for the ultimate sacrifice He made for us with His death and took time to remember the faithfulness He’s shown us in 2015. We are a blessed people….

We went to Christmas Eve services at church and the kids got to get fancy!

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Sawyer and Wryder left Santa some cookies and milk and they left carrots for the reindeer. 🙂 Santa showed up and the kids didn’t even get up until 8:00 to check out their goods!

For Santa and friends

Microphone for WD and a push toy for Sayble

Wrexy snacked on the carrots and then threw them in the yard as if the reindeer ate them. The kids found them this morning and were SO excited!

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They have been so kind and gracious and grateful this year…makes a momma’s heart happy. They’ve wrapped “gifts” they’ve taken from their rooms and made gifts and then wrapped them all with whatever they could find.

Wrex was looking for his shoes to go to the barn the other day and Wryder had taken those, too! We found them wrapped in tissues under the tree. Their generosity and desire to bless blesses us…

Earrings Sawyer made me...her creativity is ASTOUNDING! — Earrings Sawyer made me…her creativity is ASTOUNDING!

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We headed to Nebraska on Christmas day to be with the Phipps family. We had a WONDERFUL time being together. The kids had so much fun playing with all of their cousins and we had fun with their cousins’ parents. 🙂

The boys got pajama pants and we took the mandatory modeling picture. If you don’t hear from me for a while, it means one of these guys has killed me for posting this. 😉

All of us grandkids got to give Grandma Rusk a very special gift this year. We wanted to make it the grand finale – the last gift to be opened – but we were all so excited we did it pretty much first thing!

A merry Christmas for a special lady... — A merry Christmas for a special lady…

It worked out well because the kids were all quiet and there weren’t a lot of other distractions. This lady is something else and so deserving of every good thing.

We took time for everyone tell the family a big thing they felt like the Lord was doing or something they really needed prayer about in the new year. During that time, Granny said that she’s gotten the same word two different times that the Lord has a mission for her in Stillwater. She was saying she didn’t really have a clue as to what it might be or have any preconceived notion what it was but she was ready to get there and get going! Lord I hope to be here and be that ready to serve the Kingdom at 80 years old…

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We finished up Christmas here today. This year has been especially fun with the kids older and fully able to soak up the joy of the season.

Wryder with the Paw Patroller and Lookout

We are so fortunate to have daddy home with us the rest of the week for Christmas vacation. We plan to soak him up and watch fun shows and eat fun food and play games and enjoy being together…our favorite thing!

Oh, and nap.

Christmas break is hard, y’all!

Birthday Bonanza 2015 – Part 2

In case you ddin’t see that late post yesterday, here’s the link to Part 1 of the Birthday Bonanza post.

We made sure and had an actual birthday party during the birthday weekend…

We found the majority of the fabric for $1/yard and scooped it up immediately! We just made some simple bunting and table runners and Wrexy sewed the backdrop. God bless him…

Grandma LOVES her family and LOVES pictures, so I made bingo cards with family faces and we played that during her party.

That project, honestly, was one of the more time consuming. Each card had to be different and random…glad that one’s over. 🙂

I covered some tin cans with cute paper and scrap fabric, attached a few horses and filled them with flowers for centerpieces…

Wrex made a barnwood plaque and we shaped an M out of a rope (for Maxine) and hung it on the backdrop…this was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.

Seeing it all for the first time... — Seeing it all for the first time…

My fabulous friend Stephanie (who also made Wryder’s tractor cake) made me some flower cupcakes and they turned out sooooooooo cute!

Since we couldn’t fit 80 candles on a cupcake (or even a larger cake) we made a cake plate full of candles for her to blow out. Apparently, the fire/smoke detector is INCREDIBLY sensitive at this place and before we even had them lit, the fire alarm went off! THAT was something we’d never forget! Thankfully they got it shut off, the building was still standing and she got them blown out in 3 tries!

It does look like quite the blaze... — It does look like quite the blaze…

We ate and drank and played games and then watched the video I talked about yesterday. I didn’t intend to make everyone cry but there were a few wet faces in the crowd…it’s been a life well-lived for sure…

The other thing Grandma really wanted to do was to have a talent show. She thinks she has one of the grandest, most impressive families on the planet and she wanted to see us do our thang!

There was ribbon dancing…

Vocal performances…

Skits…

Bedtime stories…

and a lot of smiles and laughter!

We played a little more pitch and then went to bed far too late, yet again. 🙂

We worshiped together on Sunday morning and Clint shared a message with us about family…a good word! We took communion together and remembered what the Lord has done for us….oh. so. much…

We ate one last meal together, packed up, cleaned up and went our separate ways… We sent the troops off with some trail mix and a hand stamped keychain.

I found all of these vintage boots and guns on Etsy…

and then we bought some metal blanks and memorialized them. I LOVED how these turned out!

Our prayer has been for Granny to feel so loved…to honor her…for her ideas and imaginations about her birthday weekend to be met or exceeded…and for this to be a catalyst for future and more frequent get togethers.

We pray we have countless more years together with our sweet Granny but none of us are guaranteed our next breath. We get ONE family; one crazy, imperfect family that most likely loves the stuffing out of us. Carve some time out of your schedule for them. We all make time for what’s important to us – it can’t be disproved – what does your schedule say is important to you?

All-in-all, it was a magnificent weekend! We had so much fun with the family and we had so much fun working together. There is no one I’d rather do all these crazy projects with than this handsome man of mine… There’s been lots of talk of doing this whole reunion thing again and these Phipps are on board! 🙂

Grandma, we love you. This was just one tiny little way we could bless you back for all of the countless ways you’ve poured out your love for us. Happiest of birthdays, sweet lady!

Oh! And one other memorable moment from the weekend (besides the fire alarm scaring the heck out of everyone in a 100 yard radius?!)…Sawyer lost her first tooth! She was so excited and the tooth fairy found her even though she wasn’t in her normal bed!

Pardon her poor eyes – it was early! There’s one more that is just hanging on by a thread! I better get to the ATM….

Birthday Bonanza 2015 – Part 1

So, I’ve had just a few things on my plate here lately, the biggest of which (so far) culminated this weekend in Kansas. Wrex’s Grandma Rusk turned 80 years old on Sunday and her only request was to have all of her family in one place…to spend time with them and make new memories and to share with them her love for the Lord and her desire for them to know and love Him, too. Why in the world would ya not show up for that?!

Granny is a ranchy thing, but you’d never know it just by looking at her. She’s always put together – never a hair out of place – yet tough as boot leather. I went with a vintage cowgirl/shabby chic theme for her invitations and party decor. Maybe I say this every time, but HONESTLY, this was my favorite party that I have thrown. It’s probably because the woman for whom I threw it is just out of this world lovely… I can’t say enough good things about her here, so you’ll just have to watch the video I made regarding her life. It sums it up to the best of my abilities. (It’s not perfect but after 36 attempts – not even kidding – to read it without crying, that was the best I could do).

I found the kids some little plastic spurs from Party City that they wore the first night. They. were. ADORABLE! Wryder had already lost his rowel at this point but still cute!

Leading up to the event, our family committed to covering it and everyone invited (Grandma, her 5 kids and spouses, grandkids and great-grandkids) in prayer. It’s hard to get 30+ people in one place at one time and we know that satan hates family and does everything in his power to attempt to divide them and we refused to let him.

That alone was such a rewarding time for our little family…something we plan to continue.

Grandma was so excited the day of the event, she woke up at 5:30am, got around and left even sooner than she needed to – she just couldn’t contain herself!

We gave her the grand tour, as we had all kinds of little surprises planned for her.

The only thing missing was the guest book because a certain 2 year old decided to sign the cover himself. *ahem* Thank goodness Granny thought that made it even cuter…

We bought a bundle of cheap cedar shingles and I painted them all to use as signage as the weekend. We had each person’s name on their respective doors and used them for directions and welcomes, etc.

We wanted to make the birthday girl’s room a little extra special so we had a few little things up our sleeve to do so.

When we sent out the invitations, we also included cards for each family member to fill out regarding their favorite thing about and favorite memory with Granny and asked them to send them back with their RSVP cards. We collected all of those and then tied them to the ends of balloons so when she walked in, she had a room full of love waiting to greet her!

Checking out her room.... — Checking out her room….

In everyone’s room, we left them a little goodie bag with fresh fruit, water, an itinerary of weekend events, the jelly belly bean-boozled game for late night fun and a name collage of our entire family. The family hadn’t been all together in a quite some time and we just wanted to make everyone feel as welcome as possible – we were so excited to be together again!

Friday night, Grandma wanted to have a pitch tourney and we couldn’t say no to that! This is quite the competitive group and there was quite a bit of whooping and hollering! 🙂

We had the idea to make Grandma the star of the show for this event and we made her the queen of the cards. I printed some pictures of her and photoshopped some crowns on her head and then mounted them on foam board. We loved the way they turned out!

Isn't she a beauty?! — Isn’t she a beauty?!

The queen in the flesh... — The queen in the flesh…

Some serious card playing - see the shuffler?! — Some serious card playing – see the shuffler?!

Wrex’s sister gathered prizes for the top two highest scores, one of which was Wrexy – no surprise there – and we used some old acrylic plates we had from a display case that we took apart and made plaques to go with them…

The losers got a little something, too. When we hosted pitch parties in Denver, we always tried to make the loser trophy completely ridiculous. I was at the dollar store before our trip and set out to find the most ridiculous looking thing I could find and I happened upon a glittery pirate owl. What the heck?! So I consulted the bestie on what to call the trophy and she came up with “Aye didn’t play my carrrrrds right!” Yes, she’s a genius.

Ashley took home one and Waco the other…he with a little less excitement than she. 😉

Saturday morning, we took professional family photos and then we all gathered to sit at the feet of 80 years of love and wisdom. Grandma shared her heart and her deep and abiding love with us and we got to tell stories and laugh and cry and reflect upon 80 incredible years… It was a really, really good time.