Amarillo by mornin'

How do you start out the first weekend of summer right after you get out of school? Road trippin'! We packed our bags for a weekend trip to Amarillo the first weekend of June to celebrate my oldest nephew's graduation from high school. I'm in total denial that he is actually considered an adult now, seeing how I was a freshman in high school when he was born.

 

I realized after taking this picture that Warren is missing as well as my brother...oops. Guess that's what happens when there's such a large group there...someone is bound to be left out.

We all headed to the park and let the kids run wild. 

Ducks were stuffed liked turkeys that day for sure. I guess they like to grow ducks with mo-hawks in Amarillo. They like to rock it out. 

 

And it's not a picnic without some watermelon.

 

 

And we had the sweetest watermelon there ever was.

 

She's so sweet you can't help but want to eat her up.

The kids were having a blast playing with their cousins and we kept them busy with blowing bubbles.

And meet all the babies of the family...I'm the youngest of three, Avery is my sister's youngest, Aspen in my brother's youngest and of course, Landry Kate, is our sweet baby girl.

My sister and brother have another half sister on their dad's side, Carmella, and we've known each other since birth. Her boys are very similar to age with my boys and they play so well with my kids.

Carmella's youngest, Zalen, looked mighty interested in wanting to be a big brother. He was too sweet with Landry.

I think she's catching on that she's cute or at least she's using it to her advantage. Smart girl, I tell ya.

My grandmother, who we call Grams, put up with all of us at her house. My kids make me a nervous wreck in her house but believe it or not, I don't think anything was broken. Shocking, I know.

And while I'd like to say that it was full of happy memories, it was my first time back to Amarillo, where we grew up, after losing Tonya. It was very weird for all of us to be together without her because I know her, and she wouldn't have missed it for the world to be there with the family. I was so thrilled to have her two youngest there with us. We had the best road trip ever with them and even ran into a grass fire on the way home. That's pretty exciting stuff because that road trip to Amarillo is usually VERY boring with not much to look at.

Catchin' Up

Finding joy. It's a Catch 22. I crave it like a druggie, for lack of a better word. But once it sneaks up on me, I sometimes feel guilty that I'm experiencing it like somehow I'm betraying my sister by smiling since her death. Logical, I know, right?

But I don't care how melancholy you are, when you see your kids jumping on the trampoline with football helmets in their underwear because they're so skinny they can't keep their pants up, joy sneaks in and stays awhile.

Family and friends are the keys to healing. I hug tighter and look for those moments where time slips away.

Before Tonya passed, my grandfather, whom we lovingly call Big Daddy, came in town. It's been almost four years since we saw him last but the boys just picked up like they saw him yesterday. Sometimes it amazes me that my Yakee Native American grandfather is related by blood to my blond hair, blue-eyed boy. And then I see their ears, and I see the resemblance.

And Miss Landry Kate didn't disappoint in her cuteness factor in her debut of meeting her great grandfather for the first time.

"Oh hey, Big Daddy. What? Me? Cute? Really, I mean...well if you say so, " said by my genius 6 month old daughter who is already speaking in full sentences.

Landry's middle name, Kate, is a tribute to both of her great-great-grandmothers' names, one of which is Big Daddy's mother.

My cousin, Scott and his wife, Myra, were also in town from California and we have loved getting to see them twice in less than a year.

Myra is about to be a grandma in a few months and it looks like she's going to be just fine with her already fine tuned baby skills.

How do you know you have the most caring in-laws in the world? When they drive nearly 1,000 miles when you lose your sister to be there for you and help with the kids when you need it the most. I wasn't the only one who needed them, the kids were pretty crazy about them.

The hugs, the love, the laughs, the cuddles are the best band-aid during this time. Every time I experience the joy from it, I realize that guilt I was feeling really isn't guilt, it's medicine.

Thank you God for surrounding me and my family with love. I cherish every second of it.

Baptism

This past Sunday we went to my parents' church. It's the oldest church in Fort Worth and has an amazing sanctuary. My sister's youngest, Avery, was baptized and we were all there to see it. Since it's such an old church, it has a very interesting baptistery and it's in the ground. It's hard for the rest of the congregation to see baptism unless you're in the balcony or right in front...which of course, we were.

My oldest niece, Madison, used to call it being "bath-tized" when she was younger so we were all celebrating that Avery was "bathtized." Avery was born shortly after Justin and I started dating and it's so hard to believe that she's nearly 10.

Avery with my parents

with the whole fam

Afterwards, we went out for a kid friendly lunch and I'd say that Campbell was a big fan of the dessert my mom brought.

A real love story

My friend Beth sent this to me and I was laughing out loud it was so funny. Soooo true! 

Birthday Fiesta

We celebrated my mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Nolan gets so excited about birthday parties and we had our big snow storm on the my mom's actual birthday and had to reschedule it to the next day. I didn't even mention it to Nolan but when we were driving home during the snow storm he said, "It's not 'posed' to snow on birthday parties." It was so cute that he knew all that snow meant no partying. Can you see why? He knows party = cake. We had a lot of fun and all took turns wearing the sombrero. How can you not have fun with a sombrero? You know that your children have big heads when the adult size sombrero fits their head. It's all those brains up there I say.

My niece Madison and Nolan puckering up

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Christmas cookies

Christmas FFF #2-making sugar cookies

My mom makes some mean sugar cookies. We usually have them all gobbled up after we've made a couple of dozen. So I took the boys over to my brother's house and my mom, sister-in-law, and my niece Aspen cooked sugar cookies and decorated them. I couldn't believe how long Nolan's attention stayed on baking these cookies. He is a true baker! He helped roll the dough, cut the cookies, wait for them to bake, ice and even decorate them! Pretty good for a 3 year old.

Here's our little baker with apron and chef hat and all...

How cute is this mini roller...can you tell that Grandma loves to bake with her grandkids?

My niece Aspen getting so excited about baking!

Aunt Becky and Grandma helping roll the dough

Now the good stuff...icing!