Blessed

As I thought about a title for this post, Blessed is the only thing that seemed truely appropriate because that's what I am. The Lord has truely blessed me and my entire family. The weekend was spent eating, decorating, shopping. laughing, and loving. It's funny how I've blocked every frustrating moment from my mind. Decorating with 3 little people who just want to help is no easy task. I'm sure we uttered the words "Stop, Step away from the tree" more than once, but it's like those moments are erased. All I remember is laughing at Zeke's antics, Emmy's silliness and Elijah's new comedy routine. My how he is like his father! I think the most special part of the weekend for me was Sunday at Grandma Grate's house. Grandma's not doing so well in the memory dept. She has dementia and gets really confused. As we sat down to dinner (there were about 30 of us there) Dad asked her is she would pray for dinner. As she started to pray, I started to cry. It was like she was herself again. This was the Grandma I know, the prayer warrior. I'm so glad I was there. We don't get to hear her pray like that anymore and it was very special. I've added pictures from the weekend to share. Enjoy!

This picture of Andrea and I was taken by Elijah. He's quite the little photographer and loves to take pictures with Aunt Kelley's digital camera. Good one Lij!

Zeke was such a little helper. He always had the next branch. I thought this picture of him on the ladder was too cute. As usual, no pants were being worn. We need to start our own "colony."

Emmy looked so cute with her new hair cut. She's quite proud of it!
Elijah is in that "I don't want to take a normal picture" stage. He likes to make lots of funny faces, but getting a nice, normal, smiling picture...good luck. This is mom's finished tree in the living room. Pictures don't do it justice.
Jason, Andrea and I took our annual Thanksgiving picture with Grandma and Grandpa Walsh.
What a nice family shot. Love the denim and black idea!
This picture cracked me up. The tree stand is broken so we have some leaning issues. Jon was trying to straighten it, with a little help from Elijah and Emmy.
The Grate clan is growing. Welcome Jon!
Friday was Andrea's 29th birthday! We celebrated with a nice lunch at Texas Roadhouse. Mom tipped off the waitress so Andrea got a nice birthday Yee Haw! She was really embarrassed. The girls love their shopping day!