Happy Birthday, Nancy!!!

This weekend, we celebrated twenty years of Nancy.....TWENTY!! I just cannot believe my baby sister is TA-WENTY! It's funny how eight years used to seem like such a huge age difference and now it feels like nothing. For those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing my sister, you are missing out! She is such a beautiful person, inside and out. She is the "call-in-the-middle-of-the-night, always-there-in-a-pinch, way-too-wisdom-filled-for-her-age, advice-giving, hug-sharing, story-telling, secret-keeping" sister of your dreams and I adore her! In our family, we always make it a point to get together for dinner and cake on each person's birthday, but, as the family continues to grow (just between parents, step-parents, siblings and step-siblings, there will be a minimum of twenty people at family parties!) the birthday celebrations are all starting to run together. You know, sit down, eat dinner, cut the cake, go home. We decided to try to make birthdays more about the individual we're celebrating from now on and began this by having a party filled with Nancy's favorite things.
Landon painted this masterpiece for Aunt Nancy's birthday. (No matter what colors I give him to use, the final product is always brown!)
This is Nancy and her friend, Whitney. They work together at the Ivy Salon If you're ever in town, go see them...These girls are fabulous!
This is a picture of my "little" brother Matt (6'4, big beard, 24 years old, chef, artist, drummer, loves to hike and camp.), his girlfriend, Jennifer, and my older brother, John (29 years old, clean cut guy you bring home to Mama, always matches perfectly from head to toe, knows everything about everything, good at everything, photographer, bike-rider, nerd ;o)...Put us in a line--none of us in this family seem to go together! (I made so much fun of John for that outfit!)

Okay, so now this gets more complicated...Take notes, people! There's a quiz at the end of class! The guy with the beard is my brother, Matt again. He is kissing our littlest brother, Ben. (My dad and step-mom had Ben last year, giving us yet another amazing Granger. He's Landon's "Uncle Ben"!) My dad is sitting next to them on the right.
This lovely girl is Michael's mom, Jeannie. She has just been officially adopted into the Granger clan...What a brave woman, right? Are you ready for us, Mommer? ;o)
This is a picture of Michael and Mommer with my step-dad, David (also known as "Mr. Wonderful" if you meet him on the street one day) in the background.
Here's my step-mom, Landon's "Grandma Diana", with Uncle Ben (still taking notes?). He was digging into the ice cream before anyone could give him a spoon. (Takes after me--hee hee!)
Mommer and Whitney are checking out the animals from the petting zoo we all hired as a surprise (and a JOKE!) for "St. Nancy of Animal Rescues."This was the PERFECT cake for Nancy. Mommer had the people at Strossner's Bakery decorate it with lipstick, hair pins, scissors, nail polish, and curling irons--and it was all air-brushed pink! And since Nancy isn't a huge fan of traditional birthday cake, Mommer also made her a Jell-O No-Bake Cheesecake--HER FAVORITE! Mr. Landon fell asleep before the cake was brought out, but, have no fear! The instant he woke up, he said, "I need some cake now, right Mommy?" (Little sugar-fiend!)This is "Eeyore". Our favorite animal was a donkey named "Burrito"!Michael always knows the perfect thing to give to my sister!! Their relationship is one that anyone could envy! This part of the gift was a framed collage of my sweet Landon...Meesh, you are amazing!This is a picture of my baby brother, Brian (17 years old, 6'4" Lacrosse and video game player, quiet-but-hilarious & sweet as pie!) sitting on the porch with Landon.

So, that's how we do it Granger Style! Happy Birthday, Nancy! We love you, Girlie!