LIVE and LEARN: Special Birthdays Today!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Special Birthdays Today!

Today is a very special day for Bob and me.

February 12 is the birthdate of our oldest Grandchildren.

The twins, Ben and Amanda, are 10 years old today.

Since they were toddlers, they've been best friends.

They share everything.

Each has a built-in playmate.

dressed in finery for their Aunt and Uncle's wedding
(that's a toy truck Ben is holding, not a cell phone!)

Each thinks the other is awesome.

They look out for each other.

They have a very special bond.

Happy 10th Birthday, sweet Amanda!

Happy 10th Birthday, handsome Ben!

In your 10 years, you've made Grammy and Pop Pop very proud.

We love you!

34 comments:

SnapTuesday, February 12, 2013 at 4:57:00 PM MST
Happy Birthday to Ben and Amanda!!! Love their photos.
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Carol MattinglyTuesday, February 12, 2013 at 5:46:00 PM MST
They are absolutely adorable!!
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georgia little peaTuesday, February 12, 2013 at 7:01:00 PM MST
Awwww. Happy birthday Amanda and Ben! Your cakes look deeelicious! X

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Yogi♪♪♪Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 8:31:00 PM MST
What a couple of sweet kids. Happy birthday!
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Nancy JTuesday, February 12, 2013 at 8:31:00 PM MST
Amanda and Ben, Happy Birthday from so far away in New Zealand, your Grammy and Pop Pop are so proud, and sharing your photos with us all, so very special. Super cakes. !!! 10 years of happiness. Greetings to special grandparents, a wonderful celebration. Jean.
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KBTuesday, February 12, 2013 at 8:39:00 PM MST
Happy Birthday Amanda and Ben! That's a wonderful series of photos, showing the wonderful moments in their life together. I found myself smiling right back at your adorable grandchildren.
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Arkansas PattiWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 3:53:00 AM MST
Happy Birthday Amanda and Ben. What adorable kids and I loved the progression photos. I think everyone secretly or not wishes they were a twin with an always handy best friend. Lucky kids, lucky parents and lucky grandparents.
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snowwhiteWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 4:06:00 AM MST
Ben and Amanda!! Happy Birthday to you from Nara, Japan!! All photos are so adorable.Your post made me smile and happy very much!
keiko
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Nancy ClaeysWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 4:17:00 AM MST
Adorable kids! Happy Birthday!! :)
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JuneWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 5:16:00 AM MST
Wow, don't they look like two little Norman Rockwell kids!
Happy Birthday to both of them, and congratulations to you and your family.
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Cathy H.Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 5:27:00 AM MST
Happy Birthday Amanda and Ben! What a beautiful post to celebrate their birthday! I know the joy of twins in the famly! I have 5 year old twin grandsons! The bond between them is precious!
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Red Rose.Wednesday, February 13, 2013 at 5:48:00 AM MST
Amanda and Ben, Happy Birthday! You are so adorable. I am seeing your lovely photos, smiling you from so far away in Nara Japan!

Tomoko and Ku-chan

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TaborWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 6:00:00 AM MST
These time line photos are so sweet.
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Nature-DrunkWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 8:09:00 AM MST
What a wonderful history in photos. Happy birthday, Amanda and Ben! And many more ...
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GeorgeWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 9:24:00 AM MST
Great looking grandkids. I know you're proud. Enjoy your day!
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HildredWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 12:46:00 PM MST
A wonderful day for a birthday. Lincoln's birthday, and it was Charles' as well, - I hope your two adorable twins have as wonderful a life as he had.
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Rocky Mountain WomanWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 2:01:00 PM MST
They are so stinking cute!!! love the braces...
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HOOTIN ANNIWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 2:11:00 PM MST
Grandchildren are so special!!! And they're very sweet together. I especially like the 'wedding photo'. Priceless. And their smiles will melt anyone's heart. My sister, who lives on the Western Slope, told me last week they're getting snow. Not much, but at least some snow. Highly unusual to not have that much in the mountains tho. If I recall, she told me about 20" of new powder, and I thought of you right away.
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PatriceWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 3:05:00 PM MST
So sweet, Barb!
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DeannaWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 5:32:00 PM MST
Happy Birthday to your sweet twins. I think it is wonderful that they are so close. I have twin nephews that are in their 40's and still talk on the phone every day. Special bonds between twins. Love that "wedding" photo, sooo cute!!
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stardustWednesday, February 13, 2013 at 9:16:00 PM MST
Happy birthday, Ben and Amanda! You two are so adorable in each photo. Since I’ve come to be familiar with you only through blog posts, how would I fall in love with you when I met in person? Barb, you’re such a blessed Granma to have lovely grandchildren with charms of their own. I will enjoy watching my grandchildren grow and develop personality like you.

Yoko
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ladyfiThursday, February 14, 2013 at 5:29:00 AM MST
Oh, they are adorable and so loving. Wishing them a fabulous day.
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Coloring Outside the LinesThursday, February 14, 2013 at 8:39:00 AM MST
Awww, sweet kiddos- you have been blessed!
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JimFriday, February 15, 2013 at 1:07:00 PM MST
What a lovely post in honour of your grand children, Barb. How special they are! I can't imagine the bond they must have....so good for them.
And the smiles! Who wouldn't be smiling with those cakes around!! lol
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Filip and KristelFriday, February 15, 2013 at 1:42:00 PM MST
Twins are special and 10 years is also. What a top day.

Greetings,
Filip
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Sallie (FullTime-Life)Friday, February 15, 2013 at 4:29:00 PM MST
This is such a wonderful post! Ten is such an important birthday! How lucky the twins are to have each other and such a wonderful family! And what a nice family album you are creating for them.
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missing momentsFriday, February 15, 2013 at 9:15:00 PM MST
So sweet! Happy Birthday to them!
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JeanieSaturday, February 16, 2013 at 6:46:00 AM MST
They are the most beautiful children! Adorable. And that photo of them dressed for the wedding just made me smile all over -- it might be the look in his eye, but really, that could win a prize! As much as they love these photos now, they will really treasure them in another twenty or thirty years!
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Rose ~ from OzSunday, February 17, 2013 at 12:06:00 AM MST
They are indeed beautiful and the progression of photos is poignant and a wonderful thing to treasure. Happy belated birthday to your little lovelies Barb!
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SandraWednesday, February 20, 2013 at 10:00:00 PM MST
What sweet grandchildren! How lovely to see them grow up and to see what complicity they have with each other!
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AnitaThursday, February 21, 2013 at 3:28:00 PM MST
What a treasure you have!!! And that they have in each other. May it last forever.
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beckyFriday, February 22, 2013 at 7:52:00 AM MST
They're adorable, Barb! And they look so happy. How lucky they are to have YOU for a grammy!
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susanvgSaturday, February 23, 2013 at 2:15:00 PM MST
You are so lucky to have them and for them to have you. Enjoy your treasures.
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upwoodsSunday, February 24, 2013 at 12:47:00 PM MST
I saw this earlier but must not have commented. You must be so proud of your little ones. They are gorgeous!
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Quotes for Living

The dangers of life are infinite, & safety is among them. Goethe

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man. -William Shakespeare, poet and dramatist (1564-1616)

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)

Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface; he, however, who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice. -Washington Irving, writer (1783-1859)

"Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: 'Is this the condition that I feared?'" -Seneca (1 BC - AD 65)

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein

You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind. The rational mind doesn’t nourish you. You assume that it gives you the truth, because the rational mind is the golden calf that this culture worships, but this is not true. Rationality squeezes out much that is rich and juicy and fascinating. - Anne Lamott, (Bird by Bird)

Lingering in Happiness by Mary Oliver

After rain after many days without rain, it stays cool, private and cleansed, under the trees, and the dampness there, married now to gravity, falls branch to branch, leaf to leaf, down to the ground where it will disappear--but not, of course, vanish except to our eyes. The roots of the oaks will have their share, and the white threads of the grasses, and the cushion of moss; a few drops, round as pearls, will enter the mole's tunnel; and soon so many small stones, buried for a thousand years, will feel themselves being touched.

Wisdom from Others:

The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or a new thing in an old way. -Richard Harding Davis, journalist and author (1864-1916)

Words are the small change of thought.
-Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
-Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
-John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

THE THING IS by Ellen Bass

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

"The Thing Is" by Ellen Bass, from Mules of Love.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mindful

Every day

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It was what I was born for -

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world -

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant -

but of the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these -

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean's shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

~ Mary Oliver ~

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LIfe at High Altitude in Colorado

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Special Birthdays Today!

34 comments: