The Wedding

Today all was quiet in the house---that's when I knew something was going on. Usually silence is a bad thing when both children are up and playing. I appeared out in the living room to find Emma Grace putting a "wedding ring" on Jase's finger. I asked her what was going on and she said, "We're getting married!" with a big 'ole grin on her face. Then she showed me which ring was her "gregagement ring". It was the CUTEST thing you have ever seen. She had gone and gotten a skirt, dressup heals, a bracelet, a necklace, and SEVERAL rings. Girls, I tell you, there's nothing like them! I just LOVE having a daughter. And she has such a vivid imagination.

Well, I had to get pictures of their hands with wedding rings! Jase, of course, was being forced to marry his sister. He had no idea what she was doing. Aahh...I just love how she loves her brother so much that she'd want to marry him. I asked her if the preacher had said, "And now you may kiss the groom!" She just laughed!!! More or less, she was dragging him around and he was just being quiet since his sister had placed something shiny on his thumb finger (go figure) and he was trying to figure it out.

I must tell you, though, this led to a whole discussion. I then asked her why her mommy wasn't invited to the wedding?! She said they videotaped it and did I want to see it? Well, that's when she took me to the kitchen and showed me (pretending) that she had a video complete with sound on her phonics/learning computer game. :) (see above pic) I completely went along with the charade. That's when I asked her if she wanted to see mommy and daddy's wedding video. *What?* A video of you and daddy?! Yes, we marched right in the living room and found the tape dating back to 2000! It was so neat for her to watch us "pre-children". She asked, "How old were you, mommy?" "Who is that lady?" (referring to my two grandparents there---granny Barrett and Great-Grandmother Allinger). I have to say I got tears in my eyes when I saw Grandmother Allinger in the video and told Emma Grace that is who she is partly named after (Grace Beatrice Allinger). I miss her terribly. She would have been 110 this past May. I pray Emma Grace can have a full life like Grandmother living to 102!

There have been lots of those teary moments lately...even Saturday when Emma Grace was watching the show "Little House on the Prairie" on TV with her daddy for the first time (which she LOVED!!!!) and then we went to find the novel Little House on the Prairie that I had from when I was a young girl. Guess what was written inside the first page? "With Love from Grandmother Allinger, Christmas 1985" My grandmother loved those books, and she loved giving them as gifts to her great-grands. Such a memory for me....amazing what a legacy she left for us. I pray that I can be that to my children and grandchildren and greatgrands. It takes work, though, and intentionality. And lots of thoughtfulness. That she was.