All Because Two People Fell in Love

Last weekend we went out to Alabama to celebrate my grandparents' 70th wedding anniversary. It was so nice to get together with everyone and to look around and see what these two people had created. The sign on the guest book table read, "All Because Two People Fell In Love."

 

My grandparents, Posey and Edna McLeod, were married in November of 1941. They had seven children, one of which is my dad.

 

I'm not one to use the word "blessed" very often, but how very blessed are they that all nine of them are still alive and healthy?  I think it's pretty awesome. 

Those seven children gave them a total of fifteen grandchildren, and we grandchildren have given them 34 great-grandchildren so far, and they're still coming (two of them with an ETA of January). That's a lot of people... all because two people fell in love. :)

It was a very nice reception.  The turnout was great, with over 100 people in attendance.  My mom and aunts made some great food (mmm... chicken ball...), and they asked me to make a cake.  I was very happy to make this cake for the celebration:

Here's our crew with my parents and grandparents,

 

and here's Cannon giving Grandmother a high-five (that's his new favorite thing to do):

I loved this table they had set up with all the old and new pictures of everyone.

The seven children.  Can you tell which one is my Daddy?

And I've always loved this one too.  All four of the McLeod men served in the military at one point or another.  Grandaddy (top left) was in WWII, Roy (bottom right) was in the Korean War, and Daddy (bottom left) and Tommy (top right) were in the Vietnam War.  Happy Veterans Day to all of them, by the way!

It was a very nice gathering; I really enjoyed it.  And what a beautiful day for it.  After the party I was helping clean up while Josh took the boys out to the playground.  I took a break at one point and walked outside to check on them.  I stepped out the back door and had to stop for just a minute.  It was sunset, and a gorgeous one at that; the air was clean and crisp; I was looking at several gorgeous trees in front of me full of vibrant fall leaves; I looked to my left and saw my dad and two of his sisters walking into the distance, headed to look at my grandparents' future grave site across the street; I knew that my husband and two sons were around the corner, all happy, healthy, and full of love.  

I was so happy and so sad at the same time.  Happy, because even though it seems unmanageable and crazy at times, what an incredible stage of life I am in right now.  So, so many moments to cherish and try to hold onto forever.  And sad, because 1) no matter how hard I try to hold onto these moments, they are going to pass faster than I want them to, and 2) it's heartbreaking that some people can't enjoy such a peaceful, reassuring moment like that.

Oh, life.

(didn't mean to make this post about me... sorry)

Grandmother and Granddaddy, thank you for falling in love 70 years ago and creating such a big, beautiful family.  I am so proud to be a part of it, and can only hope to have the same with Josh decades from now.

Playin' in the Leaves

Just a quick one of our boys enjoying the leaves. :)

Halloween 2011

A year ago, I saw a photo of what a friend of a friend did for her sons' Halloween costumes and I knew then that I wanted to do that for Bennett and Cannon.  The older brother was the fireman, and the younger one was the fire.

Thankfully, Bennett was all for being a fireman (but I have already been told that next year he's going to be a dinosaur).  So, I bought Bennett's costume and got to work making Cannon's fire costume and smoke hat.  It turned out really cute, but I think I got a little carried away with the smoke hat.  It wound up being rather large. 

I wasn't able to get a good photo because the reflective strips on Bennett's jacket made flash photos turn out terrible, but if I turned the flash off, any slight move turned into a blur.  Like this:

Oh well.

Once we got all dressed up, we went to Sam's Club.  I had been there earlier in the day, and the cashier told me they were doing trick-or-treating in the store that evening if I wanted to bring the boys back.  So I did.  We just went around to each department and trick-or-treated.  We (Cannon) definitely got lots of looks and laughs.  On our way out, Bennett spotted a fire and ran to the rescue!

Thank goodness he was there.  That could've been bad.

Here's a couple more photos I made in an attempt to get a good one.

You'll have to pardon that big ol' belly in that last picture.  It's a bit unavoidable these days.  :)

I should have made the smoke hat before the day-of, because it needed more time to set.  I used loose batting and spray adhesive to make it all stick together, and it just didn't stay together very well.  By the end of the night, Cannon had chunks of "smoke" hanging down his back.  I'm sure we left a nice little trail of gray batting around the neighborhood.  It seemed like it was going to stay together, but once he got it on and started walking around, that puff of smoke was shaking around on that little head of his and didn't stand a chance.

We had a good time.  Mama and Daddy came over and while Josh made beer cheese soup and homemade sourdough bread (that was delicious), Mama passed out candy on our front porch while Daddy and I took the boys around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.