Thank Heaven for Little Girls....

Can't you just hear Maurice Chevalier singing those words? I expect it's because our fourth granddaughter was just born, but I've been thinking about little girls this week.

So, here are a few (well, quite a few to tell the truth!) of my favorite photos of little girls from my family photo collection - both Peters and Penley. Hope you enjoy them!

Judy Peters Carver
Kay Peters Stallard
Dell McConnell
Sassy little Barbara Peters Page

Betty Jo Peters
Barbara and Linda Jean Peters with little brother, Ronnie.

(I guess we have to thank Heaven for little boys, too. )

Barbara, left, and Rudine Peters Cheatham, right.
Nila Estelle Peters, circa 1914

Judy Peters Carver takes a call (probably from an admirer!)
Connie and Cindy Penley

Doretta Templeton Peters
Connie and Cindy with Grandma Maggie Lane Peters

Judy Peters Carver
Valine Peters

Linda Jean Peters Easterling
Judy does the hula!

Carl Peters with daughter, Judy, and baby Dell McConnell
The Stairstep Kids: Bob McConnell, Kay Peters Stallard, Nila Shelley Russell, and Wanda Peters Helms. Wanda is aunt to the other three kids.

Barbara, cookie in hand, poses with Chotti, a little girl that Uncle Bill Peters smuggled home in a pillow case from Italy during WWII
Cynthia Margaret Penley

Caiti and Lexi Craley (our beautiful granddaughters - I have to brag!)
Bathing beauties, Lexi and Cait.

They're going to hate that I posted this one.

Randy Penley with his cousins, Felicia, Julia and Brenda Forbes
Sisters Hazel and Sally Forbes

Betty Jo Peters
Connie Penley, right, with cousins Victoria and Donna Byington

Dell McConnell
Connie Rebecca Penley

Chloe Lin Anderson...
...and her Mom, Janelle Rebecca Boyd Anderson

....and her Mom, Cindy Penley
Barb and Linda try to make Ronnie and Mark behave.

Good luck with that, girls!

Helen Peters, with brothers Harold and Herman
A big smile from Barbara Gay Peters

Lovely Penley Templeton, and her aunt, Sally Forbes
Fannie Forbes, c. 1912 with her brothers

Wanda Peters Helms
Barbara puts the brakes on Daddy's car.

Now, aren't you singing, Thank Heaven for Little Girls?

Baby Ella, Two Days Old

Here is little Ella's hospital photo taken on Sunday when she was two days old. I wish she'd had her eyes open, but as I recall, her mother didn't have her eyes open either, oh, 31 years or so ago... Mom and Baby went home today. They spent an extra day in the hospital as Ella was a little bit jaundiced and had to sleep under those pretty lights! All is well now, though, and she'll just have to go back for a blood test to make sure.

I'll be heading to PA next week, and when I get back, you'll see lots more pictures of the whole Anderson family.

The Anderson Family

Here's the first picture of the Anderson Family: Janelle, Ella, Chloe and Matthew. It was taken at York Hospital, PA, where Ella was born at 5:42 a.m. on September 19, 2008. They are going to have their hands full, as Chloe is just 15 months old - the same age that Jen was when I had her little sister, Brooke.

Ella

Just a little bit of news this morning.....

Our fourth granddaughter was born early this morning to our daughter and her husband, Janelle and Matthew Anderson. Chloe has a little sister!

Her name is Ella Nicole and she weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. Jennie was scheduled to have a C-section on Monday, but went into labor yesterday, and was able to have Ella naturally.

Jen called us about 7:15 this morning and sounded over the moon. They'll be able to go home on Sunday. Matt's mother will be with them this week and I'll be going up next week.

I only wish my Mom and Dad were here to share in this joy.

Pictures to follow!

Manville School

This old school building sits about a two miles up the road from Aunt Monnie's house. My mother and her younger siblings, at least, went to school here in the 1930's and 40's. Aunt Wanda told us about walking down to school from their house on the ridge, and carrying their good shoes, because the dew was so heavy on the grass. The building is now used as a community center and is maintained by the Manville Ruritan Club.

All kinds of events are held here. The Ruritan holds a fish fry every month in the summer, and breakfasts in the winter months. It's also popular for reunions. Tom and I went to the Penley reunion in August, and the Peters reunion is coming up this weekend. A memorial service for the Pendleton-Lane Cemetery was held in May, which we also attended. These events are covered dish socials, and we have had some really great meals here.

I never go into this old school without thinking of my Mom.

This is a photo of the upstairs hallway.
We had a tour of the building the very first time we came down here, when we met Rayford Pendleton, in the picture above with Tom. Rayford was doing some work and invited us in to look around. This auditorium is on the second story and has a sloped floor, which was pretty novel in its day. The whole building is beautifully cared for by the Ruritans.

Uncle Fred at the Fold

As part ot Uncle Fred's birthday present, we promised him a night out at the Carter Fold and a few weeks ago, we were finally able to take him. He had finished his radiation treatments and was feeling pretty good, but we took his wheelchair along just in case he got too tired. We posed for a shot with A.P., Sara, and Mother Maybelle before it got too dark. Rita Forrester, the daughter of Janette Carter, and granddaughter of A.P. and Sara, was nice enough to sit and have a chat with Uncle Fred. She also gave him a book written by Janette Carter about her family and life here in the mountains of Virginia. She is a sweet lady, and tickled Uncle by giving him a kiss on the cheek.

The band for the night always does a few Carter songs, and Rita sings along. Wild Turkeys played this night, and they were really good. You can usually tell by the dancers. If the regular dancers, all jump up when the music starts, you know it's a good band!
This is the original sign from when Janette opened the Fold in the 1970's. The price has been raised to $5.00, but it's still a great bargain.

A.P.'s store sits right next to the music theater - or I guess really, the theater was built next to the store. Anyway, the store is now a museum, and has some great exhibits in the original glass cases from the store. There are lots of photos, dresses belonging to Janette, Maybelle, and June Carter Cash, a suit of A.P.'s, dishes and household items, just lots of things belonging to the family. It is really, really neat.
This is the cabin where A.P. Carter was born. It now sits near the store, though it was moved from another location. The store and cabin are always open before the show and during intermission.

Handicapped seating is in the front row, and we took advantage of it. It was great for watching the cloggers. We've set a deadline - by November we're going to get up and clog!

This is a bad photo, as the flash didn't go off, but I'm posting it anyway. Uncle Fred and I got up for just a minute to do a little two-stepping. It meant a lot to me - and I hope it did to him, too.

Little things....

While Tom and I were looking at a house last weekend, a man came by in a truck. His name was Charlie Grizzle, and we had a nice talk with him. His name struck me, as my great-grandfather Abe Lane's second wife was Florence Grizzle. So, I asked him.....and sure enough, Florence was his great-aunt. I did some checking later on Don Lane's wonderful genealogy CD, and I am related to Charlie at least three ways, not including Florence! If we are lucky enough to buy the house we were looking at, Charlie will be our neighbor, and I'm real excited about that. When he was about to leave, Charlie asked us if we liked country eggs, and we said, yes sir! So he reached down beside his seat and pulled out a bag of six big brown eggs and gave them to us. He had just taken them from the coop. We had them the next morning with biscuits, gravy and bacon, and boy, were they good!

We've had pears, blueberries, peaches and tomatoes from Bob and Wanda; zucchini and yellow squash, and tomatoes from Helen and Calvin Calhoun (she was my mother's first cousin); corn on the cob from Anna Bell, next door; and marigolds and tomatoes from Mary, also next door on the other side. We have eaten well....... ....as does just about everybody down here. The photo below was taken from our laundry room window. Several deer have been coming down into the yard in the wee hours every morning to help themselves to apples from the big tree out back. Sometimes it's two, sometimes four come together. This lone little buck came in the daytime and I grabbed the camera. We've seen them stand up on their hind legs and paw at the apples to knock them down. Tom took a few apples and put them up closer to the house, near our bird feeders, and sure enough, the deer have been coming right up to get them.

The deer saw me snapping away, and wandered off through the yard of the little house where my Grandma Peters lived when I last saw her. I need to get out there and take some pictures of it. Like all the buildings right in this area, it's part of our family history.

Happy Anniversary

Cousins Bob and Wanda McConnell celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 16, 2008. Their children, Lisa and Jeff, and grandchildren, Madison and Matthew, hosted a party for them at the Anderson Blockhouse at Natural Tunnel State Park. Bob and Wanda have dedicated lots of time and energy the last few years to make the Blockhouse project a reality. As you can see by the picture below, their efforts are much appreciated. I didn't take many pictures at the party, as I was too busy gabbing, but I did catch the happy couple cutting the cake. The cake was made according to an old recipe and had raisins and currants in it. Tasty! It was made by Lisa's husband, Chris.

This picture shows the Blockhouse in the rear. We all gathered at the pavilion adjacent to the Intrepretative Center near the Blockhouse. Jeff took lots of old family photos and made a DVD which was shown during the party on the large screen TV in the center.

It was a good day for two wonderful people.

By the Side of the Road....

These are just some pretty pictures we took at an overlook in Wise County, about half an hour north of Gate City on Route 58 between Big Stone Gap and Norton. Sometimes we just like to put the dogs in the car and drive....even with outrageous gas prices, a Sunday drive down here is good value! As Tom has been saying, "there's not a bad view anywhere," and that's pretty much the truth. A closer view of the rock outcroppings.....
A view of the valley....

This is Route 58 which we drove up one afternoon. Nice place to walk the dogs, isn't it?
Tom is sleepy and Chotti wants a drink. Cindy just wants to stand and look.....

A closeup of the far hills.....

Scenery like this is one reason we moved here!