Here comes sixty ... celebrating Princess Emily

I am blessed. Did you hear what I said ??? I AM BLESSED! I have a lovely family. My husband is the perfect mate for me. It is obvious that God picked him for me and matched us together. There is no way I'm smart enough to have made that decision on my own. When we married we became a family of two. Then two years later, we became a family of three when our beautiful baby girl, Rebeka Lynn, was born. Five years later, Beki became a big sister as Ryan was born and four years after that, Robert was born.

It seems the years flew by and now they all have grown and had families of their own.  We have eight ... YES EIGHT ... grandchildren and each and every one is the most perfect grandchild in the world.

But this week, we are celebrating the 11th birthday of our beautiful Princess Emily, oldest of the three daughters of our son Robert and his lovely wife, Kelly. Emily gets to be the first child honored in the blog as her birthday is the first to come after the "official" start of the blog.

The family gathered on Saturday evening for a wonderful dinner at Babe's in Granbury. All I can say about that is "yum yum". The family dinner has been planned for over a month. Then last week we began to wonder if we would need to postpone, as the area was coated in ice on Tuesday ... and Wednesday ... and Thursday. On Friday, a thick blanket of snow covered everything again making it extremely doubtful that anyone would be able to make the drive. On Saturday morning, everything was still blanketed with snow, but by Saturday afternoon, the sunshine had done the trick. I really am grateful to our God for giving us clear roads for the drive.

If you are unfamiliar with Babe's, it is one of those wonderful places where you pick your meat (limited selection:  fried chicken, smoked chicken, chicken fried steak or catfish) and then everything is brought out family style:  mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, salad and biscuits. The waitresses all gathered to wish Emily a happy birthday, then had her do their own version of the chicken dance. Sweet Princess that she is, she clucked, clapped and flapped to a Babe's chicken perfection.

Kelly designed Emily's chicken cake ... oh my word, it was so cute. Check out the detail. The little girl sitting on the cake is beautiful, but note the chicken with its head on the chopping block. The staff at Babe's was SOOO impressed. (By the way, everything on the cake is edible and hand crafted by Kelly too.)  

My favorite term to describe Emily is that she is a "pure spirit". Emily is the type of child that sees need in the world and tries to fill that need. She is the child that wants to wear Tom's Shoes not because they're cool (which, they really are) but because every time she gets a new pair, an underprivileged child gets a free pair. So many of her friends have started wearing Tom's because Emily wears them and I've told her that because she introduced Tom's to her friends, she is responsible for even more shoes being donated.

The former pastor at our church befriended a homeless man who hangs out near the freeway that passes our church. When the pastor left and moved to Chicago, Emily told her parents that their family needed to watch out and take care of the gentleman. She is precious and I am so honored to be her Nana.

As the months pass, I will introduce you to the other Princes and Princesses that I am fortunate to be Nana to. I warn you, sometimes they come in groups (birthdays have a way of "clumping" in this family), but I assure you, they are each and every one a precious gift from God.

However, for now ... Happy Birthday Princess Emily!!!
Bunches!