Happy Birthday April!

Today is my sisters birthday! Happy birthday April!

God has blessed me with two WONDERFUL sisters. Last night, their hubbies watched the kids and we got to have a sisters night! It was so much fun and as usual, we laughed a lot! I love when I get to spend time with my sisters.

I hope that you have a wonderful birthday, April! And an even better year to come!

Love you so much!!

Come to Sissy

Isn't this the cutest? Senica stood at the bottom of the slide telling Ty, "Come to sissy, it's ok, I'll catch you"! She is such a little mother...she loves him so much!

At the Park

Friday night after work, Brian and I met mom, Anitra and the kids at the park in Syracuse. They posed for me for about 3 minutes...and then they were done. They just wanted to get on that playground!! :) They both loved the big "tube" slide!

Crazy

This is the person who said "Will you spend the rest of your life with me?" I said yes...he's crazy, I'm crazy! It must be love.

Grandma Pauly

Today my sweet Grandma Pauly would have been 91! Some day's I feel like she was just here yesterday, but other day's it feels like she's been gone for decades!

There aren't very memories from my childhood that don't include Grandma Pauly. Since Grandma Pauly and Grandpa Carl lived right across the street from us, I spent a lot of time at their house!

Grandma had a keyboard in a spare bedroom that we would play together. And red lipstick that I loved!! Grandma always had an after school snack for me. Apple Jacks or Oranges with sugar and of course Cookies! Grandma Pauly cookies....yummy!! Grandma had the best couch to take a nap on. You would go to her house and as soon as you touched the couch, your eyes slowly closed! :) She made the best Strawberry Jelly! One time, I washed a red sweater that wasn't supposed to be put in the washer. The washer ate it. Right in the middle of the front. I cried I was so upset that my favorite sweater was ruined. Grandma took that sweater home and within a week she had it completely fixed! You couldn't tell where it had been ripped to shreds!

As I was thinking about her tonight, I realized she's all over my house! She made me this doll because my bedroom at the time was black and white. She made her to match my room. The doll now lives in the my spare bedroom. The top right picture is a picture of a picture of Grandma and I. That sits in my dining area. The bottom right picture is a blanket that she made me. Hopefully someday I will use it as a baby blanket. In the bathroom is Grandma Paul's hand held mirror.

It makes me sad when I think she wasn't here when I was married and that she won't be here when I have my children. But, I am so thankful that now she gets to spend her birthday's in heaven with Grandpa Carl. No broken bones, no internal bleeding, no memory loss!

I miss her!

Random Shots

Senica taking a picture of me, taking a picture of her.

My husband with NO HAIR! It gets hot at work in the summer...off with the hair.

Anitra trying not to smile at me. I call this look her frown/smile. Corners of her mouth turned down, but she is clearly smiling!

I stopped at the cemetery on the way home today. It had rained and there were these massive drops of rain on the leaves at Grandma and Grandpa's stone.

Daughter Day!

Today was bring your daughter to work day. Just kidding! But Charissa, Cheryl's daughter came and ate lunch with us today. It was so nice because she is a nurse, but works a different shift, so we don't get to see her very often! Then after Charissa left, Christa called and came to spend some time with Randa! She helped us in the office and we laughed most of the afternoon...mostly because I was chasing them with my camera. Randa and Cheryl hate to have their picture taken. I love the "mom" look Cheryl is giving me. ha! I hope someday I have a daughter to take to work! :)

Like father...

I L.O.V.E. this picture. Seth and Ty in their matching shirts.

Church League Softball

Monday nights are now filled with Brian's softball games. I went once before and as soon as we got to the field, it started raining. So, I made it to my first game! Sara was there watching Mike play and little Luke let me get in his face and take some pics. Isn't he so cute?! Brian is on a team with Jonathan and Ed. Denise brought the kids and I got to hang out with them! It was fun!! Brian slid into the fence and re-opened his wound on his leg. Sweet Olivia wanted me to take her first aid kit to Brian. He put this tiny band-aid on his ginormus wound to let her feel like she was helping. Isn't she sweet? :)

Deprived??

This is me trying to blog tonight. The pics aren't the best, but do you think someone is a little jealous and feeling deprived?? Attention starved??

When I rocked Ty this weekend, he jumped up on us and wanted to rock too. I made him get off of Ty.

This morning when Senica woke up, she got in bed with Brian and I and Graw climbed up and laid right on her. I made him get off of Senica.

Now that the kids are gone, he is determined to not take second place to a computer!! So, I just let him stay put.

Rainbows....two!

Just when I thought the sky couldn't get any prettier...there were two! A beautiful double rainbow. If you click on the picture, you can see the second, it's more faint.

Rainbow

Tonight it just poured and poured! When the rain started to let up a little, my neighbors garage across the street looked like it was on fire. The sun was so red, shining on it...it was so beautiful! My house and yard was dark, but across the street it was so bright from the sun. I was sure somewhere there would be a rainbow. By the time I went in and got my camera and I stood facing the street in my front yard, this is what I saw! Isn't it beautiful! I didn't do very good at matching the top two pics, but that is really what the panoramic view looked like!

Mohawk Man

L.O.V.E. him!!

Shoe Fetish

It's been discovered! Anitra's children have a shoe fetish like their father and Grandma Jeri... and maybe me. :)

Friday night Ty spent the night with us. Anitra was leaving early Saturday morning for Indy to a life celebration for her friends baby that died last week. April kept Senica. Well, Friday night, he couldn't stay away from Brian's shoes. He just kept getting them out, putting them on, putting them away, putting them back on....all night! Saturday morning, when he woke up....back to the shoes!! Anitra got home around 6pm on Saturday. Ty was an angel the whole time we had him. He ate good, pooped a lot, laid down in the pack-n-play when I said it was time to sleep, laughed a lot and is just a sweet, sweet little man!

Saturday night Anitra, Senica and Ty spent the night at our house. With Seth in Hawaii, and Anitra having to work at church on Sunday mornings, the kids would have to spend almost 4 hours in their classrooms if Brian and I didn't take them to church. If they stayed at their house, Brian and I would have to go down to their house at 7am, when Anitra leaves, since they are still sleeping then. Instead, they stayed at our house and everyone slept until 9, except for me. It works out well! :)

On the way home from church, Brian asked Senica what she would like for lunch. She told him, she didn't care, she would just eat whatever he made. Isn't that sweet? Brian grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and just as he was coming in, his parents stopped by. They had been in St. Louis at a conference his mom was attending. They stopped to bring us some goodies that she got at the conference and also a Wii Fit!! I was so excited! I have wanted to get it, but can't find it and don't have the extra money for it. When Andrew and Katie were here Friday night, I mentioned about wanting one and Drew said something to his parents and they had an extra one at the house they just gave to us! Let me just tell you, I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. ha! So we talked them in to staying and eating lunch with us. It was a great time. :)

They left after lunch and Anitra and the kids and Brian and I ALL took naps! We have all had a busy, tiring weekend!

Brian made spaghetti tonight for dinner and it was wonderful. Ty of course loves spaghetti and he did really good at using his fork tonight! Yay Ty!

April and the girls stopped over just as we were finishing dinner. The 3 older girls bowled on the Wii, Ty was up and down the stairs making his mother nervous (we need a gate), Adria was crawling all over the place, also making her mother a little nervous (we need a gate), Brenna was up and down the stairs chasing the kitty making me nervous (we need a gate). I love the chaos, but April says we need a gate! So, I am going gate shopping this week. ;)

Anitra and April took the troops down to Anitra's house and Brian went to work. Silence.

Great time to blog and watch my Cubbies beat up on the Sox!

Dogg N Mug

This is the place I look forward to on Wednesday's. Brian and I like to go to the Dogg N Mugg on Wednesday's because that is the day that the Coney Dogs are on sale. This past Wednesday, Anitra, Senica and Ty joined us! It was so nice out, we sat outside at the picnic tables. While we waited for our food, Senica showed off her gymnastic skills for us. She is getting pretty good for a 3-year old.

Tomorrow Janae, Brenna and Senica are going to a summer gymastics class. The girls are so excited and are having a sleep over tonight at Anitra's. April is staying the night too because she doesn't have to work tomorrow. I hate missing out on a sister day, but I gotta help to pay our bills! :(

My model

Isn't she beautiful? On Father's Day when the family was over, I got some shots of Janae. She is growing up so fast! She went from an adorable little girl to this beautiful little lady!

Flowers and Graw

I took today off to clean and rest. They don't really go together, huh?

Brian's brother called last weekend and is coming tonight with his girlfriend to hang out and spend the night. So, I am cleaning and tidying up the house for our company....as for the resting, you can see who is taking care of that! ;)

You will be missed...

Karen was not wanting her picture taken, so I did the best I could! The top left picture is Pastor Rick waiting to see if the other teams bean bag was going to mean his defeat. I think he lost.

I think I am still in denial about his leaving. It is bittersweet, because I am happy for him and for whatever God has in store for him and Karen. In a selfish way, I am sad because he is such an amazing Pastor. I have never been as challenged in church as I am when I hear him preach. He was a huge part of why I started driving to Granger for church when I lived in Goshen. He and Mindi met me for dinner one night and I just felt so comfortable talking to him and I had never had a pastor really reach out to me like that. It truly changed my life. I felt like I could talk freely without being judged.

Anyway, that's all I can write now because I am starting to cry and I need to go to bed and don't want to wake up with swollen eyes!

So, thank you to Rick and Karen...my life has been truly been blessed and I am a better person for knowing you!

S'mores

What would a summer, backyard picnic be without S'mores? We did them on the grill! It was quite funny with the grill and coat hangers! As you can see, a good time was had by all.

The Group

Thanks to Whit for taking our group picture! It turned out great.

Babies, Babies, Babies, Babies...

Sunday night we got together with our Sunday School class for a get-together before Pastor Rick leaves. Sniff, sniff. We had a cookout at Rick and Karen's house and as you can see in the middle picture, the car seats were lined up and babies were everywhere. There really was no fighting over who was gonna hold the baby because there were in abundance! :)

The Quilt

On a last minute thought...I asked Tiff if she could teach me how to make a rag quilt! So, Anitra and I headed over Tuesday night and got to work. Tiffany is an amazing teacher and really helped us out. :)

By Thursday morning, I had the quilt done. It wasn't perfect, some of my stiching was off, but Aimee liked it. :) Isn't she adorable? They don't know what they are having, but they are happy that there is only one baby in there. Aimee is a triplet!

Fun times

Top left clockwise, starting at 12;

Table setup in our backyard for the cookout
Adria and Ty have their own special section
Ty, FINALLY liking the swimming pool
Janae and Brenna swimming with me
Mom and Brenna after swimming
Adria and me, she's out little swimmer!
Mom, acting goofy, getting Ty to laugh, and the rest of us too!
The "chip line" 3 bags of chips, 4 hungry ladies!
Middle pic: Mom and Ty swimming together

More from the cookout

I know, I say this ALL the time. But seriously...how cute are they??

Happy Father's Day!

Saturday night, the family came over for a Father's Day cookout. Brian, of course, did an amazing job grilling! After supper the kids and mom swam. It ended up being a gorgeous night. We are thankful for our Father's...not just on Father's Day, but year round! :) Thanks for all you do for us!