Family Celebrations

 Today I was MIA here...we traveled two + hours away to my husband's brother's home to celebrate the High School graduation of our niece.  If you've been with me a while, you may have remembered that I asked prayer for Shannon last year when she had a very bad automobile accident, in which she broke her pelvis/hip.  She had to have surgery to place a rod in there and she has been through a pretty difficult year in more ways than one.  But she has survived. And we had much to celebrate.  And so we did:

If you are a Facebook friend of mine you may have already seen most of these pictures. I may add a few extras here that some of my Facebook friends wouldn't appreciate as much as you...you'll see later...

When we first arrived we were greeted by the newest member of the family, "Winnie"...Shannon's very cute and sweet puppy.

As you can see by the following pictures, these two love each other a lot...

Nothing quite as sweet as "puppy love"...

Sometimes you just need something cuddly to love...

Oh, here's someone else who was getting some extra "love"...

Yes, that's Lily Grace and her puppy Bailey.   Lily came dressed in her swimsuit and life preserver because:

They have a very nice swimming pool, and she was hoping to take a dip in the pool...

But this was as close as we got.   It was still a lot of fun!!

Back to the party...

This is one of Shannon's cousins with a bubble pipe...

And this is Shannon's Mom, Peggy, making bubbles for all the little kids who were having so much fun chasing the bubbles...

Aren't the bubbles beautiful?  I wanted to play with them too...

But I was too busy visiting with my sister (and her hubby, who was there, but no picture of him)

And we were laughing because somehow we managed to dress in a similar color scheme...when we live hours apart and only see each other every few months and have NO idea what each other has in our wardrobes...and we do this frequently...we show up wearing almost the same outfit time and time again. Some people still think we are twins, but we are NOT.  My sister is a petite used to be brunette, and I am a tall gangly (well, maybe more chubby than gangly now) used to be redhead, and we were born several years apart. But we tend to think a lot alike, which is scary.

Talk about scary.  I brought this "gift" to give to a dear friend who I thought was going to be at the party but she ended up not being able to come, so I opened it up so I could take a picture of it to send to her and to show the others because of course it needed to be seen:

And Of course I needed to try them on just to make sure they really worked. LOL.

Yeah, scary indeed! LOL.  This is a horrible picture of me. Now you know I have no good sense at all. LOL.

Back to the party...Now here's what I'd call a "loaded cake"...

We each had a chance to guess how much $$ was on the cake, but of course the "prize" went to the honoree.  How much would YOU guess?  Let's just say the total number has something to do with the total number of years she was in school...

And last but not least, trying to get family portraits taken is always a challenge at any gathering.  Especially in our family.

But sometimes the more candid the better...

One out of three ain't bad...

And I think this one took a few different takes before it was good enough:

This is the "Steiner family" that was present.  Sadly none of our kids could come due to work schedules.

Lots of happy memories here, and praying Shannon's life will be blessed with many more happy days ahead.

One last photo from today...at the party there was a big basket full of "puppies" to be adopted by each guest.  Maybe symbolic of adopting a pet for real, as Shannon has done with her cute little "Winnie". So Lily and Bailey adopted some new friends: "Houghie" and "Barker" are their names. Aren't they sweet?

Well, when all was said and done, we had a great day, and I pray that Shannon was blessed knowing that so many of her family and friends truly care about her and love her.

You've heard this verse before recently, but it bears repeating again as we think about our graduates and their future:

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

It is my greatest prayer that Shannon will seek and discover the wonderful plans that God has in store for her, and that she will have a very bright and blessed future.

Amen.

Good night everyone!!