Amarillo by morning

Early this summer we planned on taking a trip to Colorado. Justin's grandmother who had been ill for over 6 months suddenly took a turn for the worse. We decided to cancel our trip because we had a feeling she wouldn't make it long. Our instinct was right and our dear sweet Rosie passed away.

As part of our trip to Colorado, we wanted to stop in Amarillo and visit my grandparents. It had been since last summer that we had seen them so it was definitely time. So since our trip to Colorado was cancelled we took another weekend just to go and visit them. I'm so glad we did.

We made it in really late Friday night, but we filled our weekend with some quality family time. My grandmother's yard is amazing. She works so hard on it everyday and it shows. Her grass it like carpet.

And my kids love it too. They play like crazy barefoot and all because when else can you feel like you're walking on carpet outside in Texas?

It warmed my heart to see my kids playing her in backyard and loving on my grandparents.

 

And can you believe that I grew up in Amarillo and I've NEVER been the the Big Texan?

That's blasphemy in those parts. While we waited for what seemed like eternity for our food, they had some really great music and the kids loved it and we even got to see someone attempt to eat the 72 oz steak in under an hour. He didn't make it by the way. 

 

Losing Rosie really helped remind us how precious our grandparents are to us and I feel so lucky that I still have some of mine.

My grandmother is so beautiful, trendy, lively and so generous. She's always volunteering at her church and to help others. I hope I can be her when I grow up.

We love you Great Grams and Grandpa! 

Kentucky visit

We weren't planning on going to Kentucky this summer but Justin's amazing and remarkable grandmother passed away. Without thinking twice, we changed our route to go to Colorado for family vacation to head to Kentucky to be with family.

Rosie...what an amazing lady. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've never met a more positive person in my life than our "rosy" Rosie. She always saw the best in everything....I mean everything. She was pretty remarkable and quite a spunky, lively thing right up until the last 6 months of her 92nd year of life. She was the type to wave at the door until she saw your car gone and even stick her head in the window of the car because she loved that we visited her. It was so precious.

When we knew that Rosie wasn't doing well, we talked to the boys that she would be passing soon and Nolan opened up about how he was scared about dying. I told him that was nothing that he needed to worry about now. Rosie was nearly 100 years old and had a long happy healthy life. Then he said, "Yeah, and I'm only in the ones place." We went from sadness to hysterical laughter in seconds. I love that about my children and I know that Rosie was laughing in heaven about it. 

It really was a celebration of her life and the boys loved seeing their Kentucky family. They love visiting Gram and Pop's house. While we were there we decided to make a real trip of it and spend time with the fam and just hang out.

We took the kids to the Kentucky Horse Park and it was a blast. We packed a picnic on a gorgeous day.

And the boys always pick up right where they left off when it comes to their cousins. 

 

I'm not sure who's crazier about who when it comes to these two. Pretty sure, it's mutual.

 

After our lunch, we caught the horse parade and even had a chance to pet them. 

 

This horse was HUGE, but Landry didn't seem to care. Be careful, Daddy, she might just ask for one.

 

All in all, it was a gorgeous day and just what we all needed days after Rosie's funeral. 

And it's not a Kentucky visit without an ER visit. In case you're wondering why Landry has a boo boo on her head. She had a fight with a solid oak wood chair and the chair won.  Her 4 stitches prove it. Of course my baby girl is the first one of my kids to get stitches. I can't believe how great she was during the stitches. She cried more about the numbing medicine than the stitches.

 We also made some time to go to some new places in Lexington that we've never had time to do. And this next series of pictures were part of a sneaky photo shoot of the kids for my sister-in-law's birthday. They are some of my favorites of them as cousins. 

And this one of my nieces...oh my goodness. I can't handle how precious. 

I just love how the 900 miles between them doesn't keep them from playing with each other like they see each other every day. 

Our Nolan and Neala...

Neala Rose...named after Rosie. And how appropriate is it that she's perfectly rosy too just like her great-grandmother.

We managed to squeeze in celebrating Melissa (my sister-in-law) and Campbell's June birthdays too.

And even in a game of corn hole.

Our little crew is learning to become travelers after all. Well, everyone but Landry. One day she'll watch movies and sleep, right?! Lord, please let that happen one day.

So grateful for this time in Kentucky to celebrate the beautiful long life of Rosie and to see family.

Kentucky visit

Ok, this is just downright embarassing. I know it's February and I'm posting the LAST of my Christmas pictures. But one day, years from now my kids will be glad I did it even if it was a month late.

Throw me a bone here, I'm working two jobs with three kids so it's amazing that I'm even keeping this thing up anymore.

After we finally made it to Kentucky, it was a great trip! Twenty and a half hours in the car with three children 7 and under made for a very exhausting two days.

The lucky thing is right when I get to Kentucky, I’ve got lots and lots of extra hands for  help. My oldest niece adores Landry and she loves her just as much. She’s so great with her and she was exactly what I needed after hearing the word “mama” at least 645,938,297 times in the car.

I’m pretty sure that the boys favorite place on Earth is being at either one of their grandparents’ houses. They love spending the night and LOVE spending the night in bunk beds at Gram and Pop’s house. I was scared that no one would sleep with all three sleeping in the same room together, but they did surprisingly well.

It snowed while we were in Kentucky and that meant another snow day fun day. Since my kids hardly see it, they love playing in it. I like looking at snow next to a warm toasty fire, but not so much being out in it for more than 10-15 minutes.

We jam packed a lot in 3 days but managed to squeeze in an adult movie (thanks to a very patient mother-in-law) who babysat my kids.

Speaking of others that babysat Landry. My sweet niece babysat Landry. I mean she literally took care of her and watched and entertained her more than anyone that I would pay for babysitting. I love seeing their relationship grow and I love that Landry has a break from her brothers and gets to see her girl cousins.

The boys love playing with their cousins and all their new toys. Before we ever pull out of the driveway, they start talking about how much they’re going to miss Gram and Pop and how they want to come back.

 The drive back was smooth and uneventful! Hallelujah! We actually made it back in record time.

20 year high school reunion

Now before you go and thinking that I'm that close to 40, let me clarify, that this was my husband's 20 year reunion!

Justin moved to Shreveport, LA his sophomore year of high school and went to a small private prep school there. Their claim to fame is that they are the ONLY school that has Snoopy as their mascot.

We packed up the kids and headed to Louisiana for the weekend. The boys favorite thing ever is to spend the night in a hotel room. They think it's the coolest thing. We, however, get the worst sleep ever, but we're making memories, right?

Of all weekends, the weather was freezing while we were there and we had an outdoor event planned for everyone to meet each other's families.

My children didn't seem to complain about the weather. And Landry is quite the rule breaker when it comes to the grass.

Later that night we had a grown up night. It was great to see everyone again. Most of them I hadn't seen since their 10 year reunion. There is one thing about people from Shreveport, they are some really sweet people.

The boys are already missing the hotel and keep asking when we get to go back to a hotel. I didn't realize how fascinating hotels were!

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.