I Never Met a Pumpkin I Didn't Like

Fall is my favorite season of the year!  This picture makes me hyperventilate...

 I love the shorter days, the cooler temperatures (?), the leaves turning beautiful colors, and the pumpkins.......I love pumpkins!  I love to decorate my house for Fall.  I start with the leaves in September and then work my way up to the pumpkins in October and then add the turkeys and Pilgrims in November.  My daughter said it looks like The Great Pumpkin threw up all over my house.  I can't help it -- I love Fall.

 My children and I have carved pumpkins every year for as long as I can remember--it was a special tradition in our family.  When they were very little, I would carve the pumpkin.  But when they got older, I would get each of us a pumpkin and let them carve their own.

When my kids were all gone, I missed carving pumpkins with them....
Then, my daughter became a third-grade teacher....and one day she came home and asked me if I would carve a pumpkin for the third grade to enter into the pumpkin-carving contest!  I was thrilled!  Her school mascot was the tiger so I carved this pumpkin with the tiger on one side and the name of the school and the year on the other side...

I got second place ------- I was robbed!
Anyway, life goes on....but this year I look forward to carving a pumpkin with my granddaughter.  I know she will only be 6 months old then, but you have to start sometime.  I know her mother will make a pumpkin with her, too,  but Nana has a tiny, special one in mind.....

Falling In Love

Today is my granddaughter's 5-month birthday.

I have never been in love like this before.

I have discovered that love for a grandchild is a different love than you feel for your own children.  I adore my children--they are the greatest joys in my life--but just like a person feels a different kind of love for their children than they do for their husband or their parents or their friends, grandparent love is different.  Looking into the eyes of your baby's baby is a very special experience.

 I don't have to be so concerned with the everyday stuff, so I get to just have fun with her, laugh with her, play games, sing songs, spoil her a little...

Of course I DO have one great responsibility and that is to pray for her--which I do--every day--and will for as long as I live.  When I am gone, I want her to remember me as someone who loved her unconditionally and who prayed for her to walk with God and have His best for her life.  When she remembers me I want her to smile.

New Toys!

Leah has discovered that God gave her two new toys - her feet!  They are always handy and she loves to put them in her mouth...

 She also loves for me to take her picture...

 ...and she wants to play with my camera.
I went on vacation for a week and when I came home I went to see her.  I was afraid she wouldn't remember me, but when she saw me she smiled and held out her arms.  I melted....