Mackenzie Christine Leavitt

On December 21, 2013 our eight grandchild was born. The timing of her birth messed up our Christmas plans of having all of our kids come home for Christmas but we wouldn't change a thing. She is a beautiful little child of God fresh from Heaven. 

Do you see that slightly yellowed baby blanket that Mackenzie is wrapped in? It was made by Mackenzies "Great, Great, Great Grandmother" pretty amazing don't you think? Lisa was christened in it and all seven of our grandkids have been blessed in it. 

So far Lisa and I have been able to be there for every one of our grandkids baby blessings but with our closest 1,286 miles away it is getting more and more difficult. Our first grandchilds blessing was 2,331 miles away. Things were really tight this time and we were consigning ourselves to the fact that it wasn't going to happen when a miracle happened. It turned out that I needed to fly to Washington DC on business and about that time Brandon asked me if we were coming out for the babies blessing because if we were we needed to decide on a date. 

I told him that if he did it on the weekend that I needed to fly then my ticket would be mostly covered because I could just stop in San Antonio on the way. We were able to get Lisa a cheap ticket and we were on our way. It was so good to see our babies again. I do NOT like it that they live so far away. Lisa didn't have work the week before so she flew out a week early and was able to walk Sydney to school and let her show her off. I flew out the Friday and was able to spend Saturday and Sunday with the family. 

Here are a few pictures that I took in the park with the kids. It was a lot of fun. We even took a loaf of bread so we could feed the ducks at a pond in the park but those ducks were so well fed that they weren't the least bit interested in our bread. That was kind of depressing. 

Those little girls love their daddy. I know Sydney doesn't appear to be very happy in this picture but trust me, she was loving it. 

Brandon gave Mackenzie a beautiful blessing. She was a perfect angel too, she didn't fuss a bit. 

 The girls loved being with their grandma. They were not very happy to see us leave and were begging us to move to San Antonio.

Monday I then got to move on to Washington. I got to get a taste of that Polar Vortex I keep hearing about. I didn't like it a bit. I was picking up my suitcase to head out the door when the thought came to me, "You're going to Washington and it is February. You may want to take a coat". I am so glad I took a coat. It was a miserable day. The conference went really well though. It was a good experience.

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Only 2% of the money an average American spends goes to China.

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