Lilly Bea Grigsby will have a little something special in her baby book. Her grandfather, Tonganoxie's Andy Gilner, plans to shave the beard he grew just for her and put the whiskers in the book, just like he did for each of his three kids, including Lilly's mother, Amanda.

Beard’s the word in the Gilner and Grigsby families.

Each time Tonganoxie resident Andy Gilner and his wife, Margie, have found out they were going to have a child, Andy Gilner has decided to give his razor a rest and grow a beard to signify a baby was on the way.

Three times he went through the routine – for Amanda, now 29; Michael, 26; and Thomas, 24.

“I don’t know, it was just something different, coming from a large family,” said Gilner, who has four brothers and four sisters. “: I just wanted to do something to let everybody know we were having a baby. That was kind of the reason behind it.”

More than 20 years after last growing a beard for a new baby in the family, he has opted to forgo a razor once again.

This time, it was to recognize the expected arrival of his and Margie’s first grandchild.

Their daughter, Amanda Grigsby, and her husband, Joe Grigsby, found out months ago they would be having their first child.

True to form, Gilner grew a beard.

“I thought, ‘What the heck,'” Gilner said. “I did it with my own three children.

“I thought I’d do it for our first grandchild.”

Grigsby said she talked with her husband about his carrying on the tradition and growing a beard.

“I know Dad would have given him trouble about it,” Grigsby said jokingly.

On Oct. 18, Grigsby gave birth to a daughter, Lilly Bea, who weighed 6 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long. She was welcomed home by her half-sister, Kaihtlyn.

After the birth of each of his own three children, Gilner shaved his beard, and the clippings were put in a bag with each child’s baby book.

This time, though, he’ll wait a little longer to shave that snow-white beard. With the holiday season approaching, the longtime Tonganoxie High School social science teacher has received requests to make the beard part of his recurring role as Santa Claus.

“Yeah, it seems like I’ve got bookings,” Gilner said. “It needs to be a little bit longer, so we might need to go back to the false one (Santa Claus beard) a little bit.”

When he’s finished with his December gigs, the beard will be shaved and the whiskers put in a plastic bag for Lilly.

“So she’s going to get quite a chunk from Dad for her baby book,” Grigsby said. “It’s kind of cute and kind of funny. It’s just Dad. And now it’s Grandpa.”