Forever is Composed of Nows

Welcome to the World Little One!

Earlier this month, I flew to Texas and with fortuitous timing, this little guy made his debut about a day later. 

Meet our 8th grandchild:

 Porter Scott Gale

8 lbs. 6 oz. 20.5" tall.

Son of Scott and Nicole and little brother to Bailey, Norah and June.

He was born on his Aunt Shanna's Birthday on General Conference weekend.

The Conference blessings just keep piling up!

The big sisters meeting baby brother.

And Nana crying happy tears and bursting with joy.

June likes to check on her little brother. 

My son with his son.

Nicole and her sweet baby boy. 

Beautiful--inside and out.

Fresh From Heaven

We welcomed a new little grandbaby to the Gale Family:

Mabel Sienna was born to Seth and Taylor

last Saturday morning.

She weighed 6 lb. 4 oz.

Mama Taylor had a short labor and delivery and the 

proud parents were holding their sweet daughter seven hours

after Taylor's water broke in the wee hours of Saturday morn--

So Precious! And look at that hair!

Mother and daughter

Aunt Siara stopped by to visit.

Here's a blurry, pixelated picture of Seth as a newborn--

just to make note of the hair similarity...

...it was cropped from this awesome picture of Seth being

welcomed by his older siblings. 

I have to wait a couple of weeks to welcome this newest little one in person--her early arrival caught us all a little off guard. I am dying to get her in my arms and start the Nana spoiling!

Christmas Clearance

One of my late Christmas presents was a new laptop. New technology in the hands of an old person. So far I have managed to get my pictures from my phone onto my new laptop, but I don't have the editing program that I had on my old laptop so my pictures from the new laptop are posted "as-is" and not very satisfactory to my way of thinking. In the meantime, I have been going back and forth between laptops and I found some pictures from Christmas on the old laptop that need to be shared for the sake of history and posterity and etc. etc.

So here is a baker's dozen in Christmas leftovers--hopefully not too far past their freshness date:

The Christmas cover from our cute small-town newspaper...

Uncle Tyler (and the ipad) entertaining the nieces

Adorable little June practicing her walking skills with Nana--

she has since gone pro and runs around like a superstar.

Miss Norah and Miss Bailey opening Christmas gifts

Twas a few days before Christmas and all through the house,

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Because Ninja was on duty.

Just a funny picture of Ninja's "Cat From Outer Space" impression

We had three join our family since last Christmas:

One daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

As per tradition, they all get stockings that match the Gale Family lineup.

The General Store was decked with boughs of holly and

looked very festive. Best sandwiches in the town!

Another festive place in our town:

The gazebo Christmas tree in The Pleasance --a beautiful park on Main Street.

Some Christmas crafting with Nana

Our little chef enjoying one of her Christmas gifts:

real chef tools--while sporting her hand-painted Christmas apron and

PopPop's chef hat!

Sam instagramming The Lumberjack from King's--

our favorite place for a hardy breakfast.

And our mailbox bit the dust one last time. 

We finally solved the mystery and solved the problem.

But that is a post for another day...

Assorted and Sundry Goings On

Shayla finished up Spring term at the BYU and came home.

Her mission call finally caught up with her:

Illinois, Chicago West

Some cute grandbabies came for  the Fourth of July (see above)

(and below)

Shane had THREE Birthday Celebrations...

With the fam

the ward

and his friends--they had the cake late at night and I missed getting a picture,

so you will just have to take my word for it.

We went to Palmyra for the pageant.

Wow.

Loved it!

It's exhausting having that much fun with your family.

A nice stranger took this picture of me and Shayla in front of the Palmyra Temple.

The stained glass is exquisite.

Shayla had a birthday while we were there

We visited the sites around town. A dream come true for me.

 Since I was a little girl in Sunday School learning about church history,

 I wanted to visit all the special places where our history took place. 

Smith Family log home where they were living at the time of the First Vision:

The Sacred Grove

The hearth where the plates were hidden:

E.B. Grandin's Print shop--the first copies of the Book of Mormon were printed here:

Shayla had just taken a church history class at the Y so she was a

great traveling companion to have along:

  enthusiastic and informative. 

Sam and Shane were 15 and 17 year old boys--

but hopefully we made some memories

that will mean more to them later.

We are sewing, daily sewing.

Countless skirts of modest length.

Some of the mission prep going on around these parts:

And in conclusion. Our Sam earned himself a scholarship to the BYU.

All of his studiousness paid off.

He was to send a thank you note to the scholarship committee with a picture of himself.

This is the one Shayla picked out for him.

And there you have it. 

Gale Family madness is an ongoing phenomenon so I will keep you posted.

Memorial Day

Gracious me! Where has the time gone?! I have an ongoing swirl of blog posts swimming in my head and then I realize I haven't actually sat down and written any of them. So in an attempt to update here, I checked my camera to see what I have been up to lately and this is what I found:

That's me with my awesome daughter-in-law and the ever adorable

Bailey and Norah.

Picnicking on the back lawn over Memorial Day weekend.

It was a spontaneous get-together made possible by

our living close enough that they can jump in the car and be here

in about two hours. I am a lucky Mom--and Nana!

Spencer and Adrianna came with them and we all had a good time.

These pictures are courtesy of Scott--I usually avoid being in pictures by being the

one behind the camera but in another spontaneous gesture, he grabbed the

camera and started snapping away.

 So here we are for posterity...

Sitting in the grass in Connecticut warmed by the sunshine and  the love of family.

The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get

Sweet Little Trio of Girlies

Gentle Reader, I realize my blogging has been scarce as of late--it's just that we have been inundated with disasters and storms and family milestones and drives to New Jersey and grandchildren arriving from heaven in need of snuggles and cheek-smooshing and other grandchildren in need of story telling and song singing. Not to mention homeschooling decisions and early college admissions in addition to church callings and career considerations and so on and so forth. 

It's always something.

Winter storm Nemo brought us about two feet of snow.

The snow-plow driver destroyed our mailbox (again).

I beat the storm to New Jersey and waited it out there with our son and his family. They were going to bless new baby June that weekend but Pops and Uncles were snowed in in Connecticut. So that has been rescheduled. 

Perhaps for next Spring.

If the snow melts by then.

We caught the fringe of the storm in Jersey and got about four inches of snow.

So the girls bundled up to play in it. Bailey decided her Tinkerbell pjs were just the thing to keep her warm.

 Norah had done some avantgarde face painting with a dry erase marker. Her installation included the office carpet. She's kind of a free-range artist.

Ready to head out. Cinderella Barbie was part of the entourage.

Back indoors, the girls found many ways to entertain themselves and Nana. Here you see Norah in her cat costume jumping over a box (their Dad is doing some remodeling--like father, like son) riding a horse. Bailey's(imaginary) horses are named Lula and Scarlet. When one gets tired, she rides the other. 

Baby June-bug all dressed up for church. June is the most pleasant of baby companions. She is content and laid-back and only fusses when absolutely necessary.

 She is surrounded by love and she is thriving  in it.

The last day I was there, Bailey woke up and stretched and announced

 "Let's have  a Valentine's Party today Nana!"

So we did. She decided  the agenda:

Make Valentines

Decorate

Dance

Tell Stories

Have Treats

So we did.

A good time was had by all.

One day playing "School"

Norah: "Close your eyes and say the magic word."

Me: "What's the magic word?"

 Norah (whispering): "Kitchen."     

When it was Bailey's turn to be the teacher: 

Bailey: "You can call me Miss Bailey or Miss Gale. Or you can call me whatever you want."

Me: "Can I call you Silly Sue?"  

Bailey: "MISS Silly Sue!"     

That's about it for now from our neck of the woods. 

Life is good.

If you need a little enchantment in your life, remember the magic word.

Kitchen