Family......

So, my brother and his family came thru Topeka on their way home from a wedding and we met at the Arby's right off the highway so we could at least have a meal together before he had to get home for his job.

Of course, we had to get a picture of all the cousins together... Jensen 9 3/4, Griffin 5 1/2, Abbey 13 1/2, Marinne 3 1/2, Logan 12, Elley 11. And a successful picture is rewarded with a "silly" picture!
(seriously, try getting a good picture with 6 kids and one of them being 3 years old!)

This is my brother, Randy.
He's awesome and I love him!

This is my sister-in-law, Lori. She's so funny.
I was chasing her with the camera.
She took a picture of me, so I took one of her.
She's laughing so hard, her eyes are squinty! Then, she agrees to pose....but it's too late, she's still laughing so much she's squinty! But, you can see her marvelous personality!!All in all it was a good visit, but WAY TOO SHORT!

Decorating the Tree.....

So, the tradition is that Big Daddy puts up the tree and puts the lights on and
then we decorate the tree......
(mommy and the kids, that is...)
(Jensen took this ^ picture! Good job for a first try....)

Marinne was overjoyed by it all.....

Logan, the pre-teen just puts up w/ his mother's photo obsessions so I won't fuss at him!

Griffin really enjoyed decorating this year! He took great care in hanging his!

Then, we went on to the other tradition when you are decorating the tree...
....Christmas Vacation!!!

Yes, we let Marinne watch it. I know, I know. Stop judging me!! Yes, there is some colorful language and adult humor......but, what can I say?!?! It's not like they haven't heard things before. And, it's a tradition. Well, crap, now I am judging me!! Oh, well!
At least she fell asleep after 20 minutes!

Jensen was still working hard on the tree during the movie!

The pre-teen was doing this ^!!!!

Griff snuggled next to mommy......


And, Big Daddy enjoying the movie.....he's seen it like 62 times!!!

Aunt Sis's Visit & a Family Reunion!

This is Big Daddy's Family....
...the entire clan!!

(pretty good picture for 11 adults and 4 kids.......at least only the 2 year old was wonky!!
Oh, and I love that black/white shirt, but my hubs says it does not make me look pregnant...I gonna disagree. Oh well, hopefully it won't still fit in a few months anyway! I guess I'll wear it on my "feeling fat" days. Maybe people will think I am pregs...not just fat. And with 4 kids always in tow....the pregs thing could seem like a real possiblitity!!!! At least can you tell that the black pants are huge on me. I have them tied on with a belt!!!)

Ike has a sister. Just one. She's 14 years older than him.

We don't get to see her too often.

Partially this is because she lives in North Carolina.

Partially, it's because she is so busy working all the time.


But, earlier this month, she came to Bixby for a trip "home."

It was so great to see her....The first time I met Teresa was at my wedding. She was so sweet to me. And of course, we had my beautiful niece and handsome nephew in the wedding!

The next time I got to see her was the first Christmas we were married....December 1992. Well, in the middle of Christmas Dinner she mentions the name Charlie Hxxxxxx. I ask her if he's related to Duane H. She says, yes. And I say...oh I love him and his wife Linda. I've known them for years. What a great family! On and On and ON....... Well, the whole time, my MIL is giving me this "go to hell" look (which I was getting quite accustomed too, but still, was unwarranted...or so I thought...) Well, finally it comes out at the table that Charlie Hxxxxxx is TERESA'S FATHER!!!!! WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!?!!?!?!? NOBODY (including Big Daddy) HAS BOTHERED TO TELL ME THAT MY MIL HAS BEEN MARRIED BEFORE AND THAT TERESA IS REALLY IKE'S HALF-SISTER AND HIS MOTHER HATES HER DAD AND IT IS A SUBJECT THAT IS NEVER, EVER, NEVER, EVER, NEVER EVER TALKED ABOUT........
....AND HERE THAT'S ALL I'VE DONE FOR THE PAST 15 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!



WELL.......HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!



NEEDLESS TO SAY, MY MIL HAS NEVER FORGOTTEN IT AND AS I JOKINGLY SAID TO TERESA DURING HER VISIT....I DON'T THINK I HAVE EVER FULLY RECOVERED FROM THAT MOMENT!!!! (sadly, I think it might be true.....)



UGH....moving on...........



Logan was only 8 weeks old, when we flew to Idaho for his first visit

with his Aunt Sis. (and he slept all night through during his trip to Idaho!)




Jensen and Aunt Sis will always have a special bond because Jensen is such
and animal lover and so is his Aunt Sis (and cousin Kami, too!)But...he thinks it's cool Aunt Sis trains dogs and breeds the full-breed
German Shepards. In the past, she has trained police dogs and protection dogs.
She trains them in Shitzun training. And in German, no less!
When I first met her main male, Fritz. I was scared. But, that dog knew it and tried to make friends with me, without being threatening. So, what does he do....goes into my luggage and gets something of mine out to give to me. (like a peace offering) But, out of everything in my bag....what does he choose? A maxi-pad, of course!
HOW EMBARRASSING!!!!




Well, Griffin spent alot of time with Aunt Sis when we went to her house out in North Carolina 3 years ago. So, this visit, he just warmed up to her real easily. He really loves her a lot.
So, it was easy to get him to snuggle up to her.


Well, the times that Aunt Sis and Marinne have seen each other....Marinne was a tiny baby. Until, now! But, Marinne, in true Marinne fashion warmed up to Aunt Sis quickly. And when it was time to go, she threw her arms around her and even gave her a kiss! Sweet girl!!


All I can say is....visits are NEVER long enough!!

Our trip to Tulsa....

When I got to G-ma and G-pa's house on Saturday night....boy were the kids excited to see me and their sister!!!! They were so hyper!!


On Sunday morning, we went to church. Of course, about 5 minutes before leaving, I realized I could not find M's white sandals. I knew I had put them in the bag, but they were not there. Argh! So, M and I made a detour at 8:30am to Wal-Mart to buy shoes. I was not going to bring her in hot-pink, dirty Croc knock-offs with her pretty dress!! Was NOT going to happen!!! So, I did arrive at Sunday School late. Oh well, would you really expect that I would be on time?!?!

But, wow! What a great day! During Sunday School, we saw a Beth Moore movie. Wow...if you've never heard her....you should read one of her books...Well, within 4 minutes I was in tears. Just as I walked in late, she was talking about being held hostage by things in our past....Wow! Can you say this lesson was meant for ME!

Then, the preacher's message was also very good, except I got paged by the nursery in the middle of it, because M was crying her eyeballs out! Poor sweet angel! She was brave at first, but that faded away into panic of "where's my mommy?" But, she did pretty good.

I saw my old youth sponsors, Steve and Sonja B. I love them!!! Sonja updated me on their girls, who are 21 and 25 now. (that is just wrong! I changed both of those girls' diapers!!!!!) Just seeing them brings back such good memories...memories that are very close to my heart!! I seriously love these people...they are fantastic!!! I also saw so many people that are important to me and have known me since I was a little girl. Such love there. And I was super excited to see a friend of mine, Jennifer, who went to college w/ me. I got to see her adorable daughter, Camden, who is close in age to Marinne. It was so good to hug her and I was sad to hear she's going thru a divorce....Jen....call me if you need someone to listen.....((hugs))

Anyway, several people mentioned after seeing my kids how much they looked like me (and Ike, too) but I was surprised how many time I heard that Marinne looks like my mom. That warmed my heart.

Speaking of Marinne.....



Grampa wanted this picture.....
...it's not great, as the camera battery was dying and it only let me take this one....but he loved her hair in the double ponytail, so he asked me to take this picture.

On Monday, I took L and J to see their friends A and R. They all went to school together. We have gotten together every summer since we moved. We spent the day in the pool and even though it rained/sprinkled about 5 times while we were there...they still had a blast! A and R have a little sister who is 4 months younger than M and she goes off the diving board. So, you guessed it, M was going off the diving board after seeing A do it! And these tiny girls did this like 25 times each. As A warmed up to me, she wanted me to catch her off the board and she started calling me "other mommy." Isn't this cute?!?! I can't believe how brave these little girls are!!!


Here they are....minus R and M. R was getting kinda grumpy and M had already gotten out of the pool and was having a snack. There was no way she was going to give up fruit snacks for our picture!!

I snapped this one poolside, while she ate fruit snacks. I changed it to B/W because her suit is pale pink and the floaties are bright orange!

Doesn't she look so sweet?!


On Tuesday night, I was so happy to be able to see our oldest couple friends...the Warwicks.....you see, we go WAY, WAY BACK!!! And I seriously love this FAMILY!!!! All 4 of them!!!!

So, the dad....Matt and I met and dated for a few weeks over the Summer of 1990 at Oklahoma State University. He's a great guy. But he's Catholic and I wasn't, so it just wasn't meant to be. (plus I'm a little too high maintenence for him!!!) But, we remained friends as the years went by....tied together by a love of Melrose Place. Over the years, he met my hubby and they became friends. And I was quite busy trying to set him up on dates w/ my friends. But, he could not seem to find the right girl and the wrong girls always seemed to find him....

Then, one day, Erica was brought into my life, by circumstances that were unfortunate for both she and I. But, nevertheless, we formed a bond and became good friends. And as I got to know her...I realized, she had a LOT in common with my good buddy Matt. So, I got them together over a movie and they hit it off.

Fast forward over a decade and they are married with 2 kids and still our best friends.......and I miss them sooooo much....
and I love them even more!!!

So, everytime we get to visit.....we try to snap a pic of the kids so we can see how much they've changed and grown.

Here's the June 2007 version:

Logan 11, Jensen 8 1/2, Danny 8 1/2 (5 weeks apart,) Marinne 2 1/2, Josh 5 and Griffin 4 1/2.


Except for the sudden departure....the visit was fantastic. We spent a bunch of time just hanging out, which is what I love the best. Oh, and I started reading a Beth Moore book that my step mom has graciously loaned to me, so I could finish reading it.

A Day at The ZOO

We had a blast at the ZOO!



Here are a few pics from our day! PaPa and MiMi really enjoyed the time with the kids. And the kids had so much fun!

I guess the giraffe was hungry...
he was eating the tree!!

This is a North American Pronghorn. The name makes sense, but I have no idea what it really is!

I love this picture of me and the kids. Most of the time I am behind the camera instead of in the pictures....Marinne was actually throwing a fit because she wanted to get out of the stroller and stay out!!!

The best part of the day was the petting zoo. All of the children loved it! Even Marinne wanted to feed the goat. Logan was so sweet to help Marinne. They all just really enjoyed this part of the zoo!

And it was so much fun to watch!! The News Director says that it's hardest to work with children and animals because they are so unpredictable. Well, I think that's what makes this so fun! Because there was just no telling what was going to happen. You can't predict what the animal will do or what the kids will do, either!

Look at the pure JOY on her face!!!

When we saw this guy, I felt like we were back in Georgia!!

Alligators still freak me out!






Beautiful birds we saw in the "rainforest!" Being in there, in the humidity, also made me feel like we were in Savannah. Wowza....I do not miss that!














I don't know if you can tell, but the blue bird has "patterned" legs! Click on the photo and you should be able to see it! (sorry the pics aren't as great as I would like....but those darn birds would not sit still....they just kept running around!)

The elephant was in a cage, because the outdoor elephant area is being renovated. Marinne has really been talking about him. But, trust me, elephants indoors are a stinky event!!!!


All in all, we had a terrific day!

Lookee what we did yesterday....

What do you get when you take 2 parents, throw them into 80 degree weather w/ 4 kids hovering underfoot, working for almost 11 hours straight on an $750 apperatus that says in the instructions, estimated time for assembly 3-6 hours?

Our rockin' new playset for the kids!!!!

This thing is AWESOME!!! It has 2 swings, a disc swing, a pirate ladder, a sandbox, 2 rock walls, a slide, a periscope, a steering wheel and a clubhouse w/ the sunshade!! It looks so fun, shoot, I wanna play on it!!!!

Griff and Marinne had to try it out!!!

While Ike and I were building, we realized that the entire time we lived in Savannah, we never, ever sat in our back yard. Not once. The mosquitoes are just tooooo bad!!!

(Editor's Note: I think the instructions were meant to say 3-6 days.... 'cause that's how long it felt like it took to built that thing!!!!)

And, while I was taking the pictures....I realized I hadn't really shown much of our new house. So here ya go.....

Here is a shot from out near the swing set.....showing our tri-level deck/patio off the back of the house. The top level has a built-in gas grill and a beautiful view (see later pics...) Then, you go down the stairs to the pool deck, then finally down the stairs to the covered patio.

Looking from the upper deck down to the pool.


Another view off the top deck....beautiful!

Looking from the bottom patio, out to the swingset and to the left, up to the pool. In case you can't tell, our yard is HUGE!!! And, this is only one half of the backyard. (the other side is a little smaller, but still sizable.)