Friday Show and Tell - and Twin Update

Last week I posted a few pictures of my ancestors. I enjoyed it so much, and others seemed to enjoy it as well. I am going to share a few more today. I wish I had paid more attention to my Grandma's ramblings when I was a teen-ager. I wish I had more history written down. But I am trying to make up for lost time now.

I absolutely love this picture of my mom's parents. They were married in 1928, so this is probably a year or two before that. I'm sure someone out there in blogland can identify the year of the car. This pictgure is so sweet - I never saw Helen and Stanley show this kind of outward affection in the years I was around them. Grandpa was a man of few words, and Grandma made up for it. She loved to talk, which made her last 5 years after a stroke so much sadder - we know she knew what we were saying, but she could not respond.

This was our young, working out of the home Grandma, who had store-bought goodies when we came to visit - fresh bakery goods from her place of employment, and always 7-Up. She was so proud to show us off when we walked on the streets of the little Minnesota town with her. Grandma was only 38 when I was born. Mom was 18 when I was born. She had only one sister, 11 years younger.

This is Grandpa and his older brother, Bert.

This is Grandma and her oldest brother, Charles. Don't you just love the big bow??

This is a lovely picture of my dad's tiny little Swedish mother, Olga. She was a Swedish farm wife whose grandchildren all outgrew her by the time they were 10 or so. Her kitchen was built especially for her, and I had a hard time helping her with the dishes when I became so tall that it hurt my back. She was our "old fashioned" grandma, who had cookies and cakes in the freezer for any visitor who might stop by. Swedish ladies have to serve "coffee" whenever anyone comes over.

Dad's dad, Albert, is here on the left with one of his 4 brothers. He was a really big man with huge hands. When he was 10, he went to visit the new baby in the area. Her name was Olga. She vowed, "That's the girl I'm going to marry!" I have always been fascinated by this story. It seems had to believe. But they did grow up, marry, had 5 children (plus 2 who did not survive). Two became missionaries, Dad became a pastor. Their salvation story is wonderful, and I must share it someday.

I do not have a wedding picture for them - the only one in existence has disappeared since Grandma died. But I am privileged to have this picture of their 45th anniversary.

Below are pictures of the houses Grandma and Grandpa grew up in. The first one is Grandpa's, the second is Grandma's.

From these roots came my family. The picture below was taken 4 years ago at our family reunion - just my immediate family - my parents, my siblings, our children, and their children. Everyone was there except one - the newest bride who had to be in another wedding that week-end. There are 11 more great-grandchildren since that event (19 total), and one more on the way -

The most recent additions to the family are, of course, the twins. I took them and the big girls to see Maizie this week. I wrote about Maizie last year at this time when she celebrated her 100th birthday. She'll be 101 on May 23. I love to take them to the assisted living facility during lunch time. Everyone in the cafeteria gets to excited when we walk in the door. Seeing cute little children just makes their day. The picture is not great, but Maizie was thrilled to be able to hold them in her lap for a few minutes.

I took this last picture because the little watermelon jammies are getting too small and I wanted to have a picture of them in them. They were four months old on Wednesday. I truthfully cannot tell you which one is crying in which picture.

For more Friday Show and Tell stories, stop by Kelli's blog, There Is No Place Like Home.