Happy Birthday to me!!

Inside of my birth announcement. It was written in pencil so some of it didn't scan. I was 9 1/2 pounds and my parents were B.J. and Ileta.




My dad, Billie Jim and I (6 months.


About a year old.


Probably 2 in this picture.

Happy 28th Anniversary to me and my honey!!

28 wonderful years- my how time does fly!! Check out that sizzlin' hot baby blue tux on my man!! My sister, Ann made the bride's cake. It was awesome.

She also made the groom's cake and the little fans that the bridesmaids carried. My mother made my dress, the flower girl's dress and ALL of the bridesmaids' dresses. I found a picture of the dress I wanted in a bride's magazine and my mom figured out how to do it. It was beautiful. So between my sister and my mother- they did everything but perform the ceremony!!


I thought this was a neat shot- the silhouette of me and in the silhouette it shows my dad and I at the alter and he is about to hand me over!!

The summer of 1980 had some of the hottest days on record. As a matter of fact, the air conditioner was not working at the church during the rehearsal but thankfully they had it fixed by wedding time. And here we are - 28 years later - kids, grandkids, lots of memories and we are still together and we still love each other!!

He did it!!!!

We have been talking to Chandler about taking the training wheels off of his bicycle. At first he wasn't sure if he wanted to do it or not, but this week he decided he wanted to try so yesterday afternoon he got Grandad to take them off. He said, "Granna, you are going to have to hold me up." I gave him a push and off he went. It was so funny. I don't think he thought he would be able to stay up and ride it, but he stayed up and rode a long way and of course the camera was upstairs. I ran to get the camera and he was ready to try again- video below. It wasn't long before he was pushing himself to start and doing it all on his own.


I clicked a still shot and didn't realize until I was looking later that Chandler's buddy, Olsen was right behind him. They have been the best of pals this summer.

Yard work!!

I looked up from feeding Rainey and saw little sweet Chandler helping Grandad "mow" the yard.




And I thought- it wasn't that long ago that Chandler's mommy was helping with "yard work".




Check out her socks with the ruffles!! So sweet!!

Time passes way too quickly!!

Workin' at the car wash . . .

Chandler came in one day and told me that I needed to back my car out of the garage because he needed to wash it. So of course I backed it out and turned on the water and he played for a long time. He "washed"- and I use the term lightly- my car and he washed the grass off of the driveway and he washed his bicycle, motorcycle and tractor and he washed the sidewalk around the house and he watered all of my flowers in the front flower bed!!! :) We have a well - thank goodness - or we might not have been able to pay the water bill. The next day he talked Grandad into letting him wash his truck. He loves to use that water hose and for several days he needed to wash his bicycle and tractor until I finally had to tell him the chain was going to completely rust through if he didn't stop washing it!! Chandler has played and played and played outside all summer!!



Car washing is serious business!!

Just hangin' out!!

Granna's sweet babies!!!

Lions and tigers and bears - oh my...

Not really - just lots of birds and bugs and other night sounds. We (Chandler, Britni and I) slept in Chandler's tent last night in our backyard. Chandler thought it was pretty cool. Yes - we were roughing it. We popped up some popcorn and watched a movie on Granna's laptop while we slumbered on an air mattress. It was fun and it made my sweet grandson happy!! What more can I say!!

Bye Bye!!

Yes - we are waving and saying bye bye!! Rainey has been jabbering da da, mum mum, na na and bye bye. This week we have been working on waving and getting her to jabber bye bye. She has been doing pretty good but today she seemed to really get it. We have waved and said bye bye all day!! It is so sweet and we always praise her and say - yea Rainey and she gets this big old grin on her face!! So sweet!!

The picture is of her waving bye bye. I have a video on my phone but the video quality on my phone is lacking and there is so much background noise that you can't hear her but you can see her mouth saying bye bye as she is waving. I will try to get a good video to post!

Multi-tasking

"I just gotta send one more text message!!"



I had sent Chandler to the bathroom to get ready for his bath and he was playing with my old cell phone. This is how we found him, multi-tasking!! It was so funny I just had to share but I didn't want to be too risque so I used my computer skills (hee hee) to make it cartoonish.

Time to shut the gate!!

Just as Chandler has been all over the yard- Little Miss Mobile is all over the house!! She headed up the stairs yesterday after Chandler so we will have to put up the baby gate!!



Dripping with sugar!!

Let's go muddin'

Chandler has had a blast this summer. He is outside ALL the time. He rides the little tractor that used to be Austin's and he has a little hot wheels motorcycle or he is on his bicycle. Austin's lab puppy, Olsen who is 4 months old is usually following Chandler around the yard wherever he goes. Chandler knows not to get in the pool unless an adult is watching so yesterday he came to the door and asked if he could step on the top step in the pool to wash his feet off. When he turned toward the pool, I saw mud all the way up his backside!! After the rain- he went outside and got on his bicycle and had been riding in the mud puddles!! Little boys!!!



Such innocence!! :)

Father's Day recognition continued

Robert coached for many years so he was gone a lot. When he would get home in the evening the kids would run to the door squealing- Daddy's home. They always acted like the king had come!! He was always good to help when the kids were little. He bathed them and then read them books as he put them to bed. He always had these goofy words that he would say to them before he left the room. Britni was Punkin' Doodle, Kylie was Princess and Austin was Little Buddy. Robert would say things like- Are you my sweetie pies? My punkin doodle? Honey Pot? etc. If he tried to leave the room without saying them- they would say - Daddy, say those words. My mother passed away suddenly when Austin was 3 weeks old. Britni started kindergarten that year and I had the worst group of freshmen ever so Robert pretty much had to take over while I was trying to get hold of myself and get through the grieving process. I think the kids ate cinnamon toast for breakfast every morning for a year.

Always the sweetie pie.



Dressed for Halloween. This un-nerved Britni. She got under their bed and wouldn't come out because it scared her so bad. As you can see it didn't bother Kylie one bit. I guess this should have been a sign of her career choice in nursing. :)



Chip off the old block!!



Robert's dad, Bob (or better known as Gunda to the grandkids) was a great dad and grandad. He passed away several years ago. Gunda always had time to play with the kids or pull them around in the trailer . . .



. . . or to dance a little jig.



I hope all of you had/have great experiences and fond memories of time spent with the precious men we call Dad.

Happy Father's Day to my Honey!!

Yes- this is a day late but I had to get some pictures together and Britni and I and her children were in College Station for the weekend.

Happy Father's Day to all you dads and especially to my husband and father of our 3 wonderful children!


And to my son-in-law, Chuck!


Only the best dads will spend time playing video games with their children and grandchildren!! :)



And to my stepson, Trevor - who is truly a "hands on" dad!!



I hope you all got to spend time with your dads. I grew up with the best dad!! He passed away in 1999 and I miss him terribly. He was a hard worker and didn't let any of us kids slack! He was a farmer and rancher so we worked - none of this sleeping late in the mornings! He was stern but later in life I realized he had a great sense of humor. There were 5 kids and he provided for us and supported us all and sent us to college and then married us off. :) The first time I ever heard my daddy cry was in 3rd grade when my mother had a baby that was stillborn. It broke my heart when I heard him cry but it made me realize how very much he loved us so of course when he was diagnosed with leukemia several years ago, he never spent the night in the hospital alone. My 2 brothers and 2 sisters and I each took turns staying with him. I love the song- "Daddy's Hands"- it pretty much fit my dad. The chorus goes something like this- "Daddy's hands weren't always gentle, but I've come to understand-there was always love in Daddy's hands." His hands weren't "gentle" one time when my little brother, Jim and I squirted oil ALL OVER some tires he had in his shop!! Or when I hit Jim with my baton. Or when I scratched Steve and Jim with my fingernails - which I did a lot when we were fighting. But then they were gentle one time when I stuck my finger in a light socket- literally. My mom had one of those "tree lamps" that had 3 light fixtures on it. One of them didn't have a bulb in it and I didn't know it was turned on and I stuck my finger in it. It actually scared me more than it hurt but I remember my Daddy holding me in his lap for a long time to calm me even though he needed to get back to work. Then there was the time that I wrecked his pickup and I cried and cried. My brother and I were not hurt but the pickup was. But my daddy wanted to make sure that I was okay.

He was also a great grandad. My two sisters had 2 children each. They all called him Grandaddy, but then Britni came along. When she was little bitty she would hear us sometimes call Mother "Mama" so she would call her Mama sometimes instead of grandmother. Then she would call Daddy "grandmother" because we were trying to teach her grandaddy so he said grandaddy was too hard and that she could call him "Papa" which she did. So the first 4 grandkids called him Grandaddy and Britni and all the rest called him Papa. Austin always wanted to go with Papa to check his cows and he would go whenever Austin wanted to go. He was taking his tractor out to the farm one day and he took Britni, Kylie and Austin and he let Austin drive. Austin was about 4 or 5. The girls came back all upset. They said, "Papa let Austin drive the tractor and he was driving all over the road."

I know my sisters will love this picture of my daddy, Billie Jim, my 2 brothers, Steve and Jim, and my 2 sisters, Ann and Barbara - which was taken about 14 years ago but I thought it was funny with our poofy hair!!

The best thing of all was that my daddy loved my mother and they were married 47 years before she passed away. I have lots of sweet memories of my precious Daddy.

8 months old

Wow- time really does fly!! Rainey is 8 months old. Seems like just yesterday I was speeding south to try to get there for her birth.


Now she is jabbering away and sometimes it is "na na na" which I believe she is trying to say Granna. :) She is holding her own bottle and eating everything we give her. And oh my goodness is she ever mobile!!! She is crawling everywhere and is into everything!! If she sees any kind of cord-that is where she is headed! She pulls up on everything and will go from one thing to another-she may be walking in the near future. She knows how to open the cabinet doors and pulls out whatever is in them. She has been so much fun! She is such a sweet cuddler. She only cries when it is time to eat or time to sleep! When it is nap time she lays her head on your shoulder and goes to sleep. At bedtime we just put her in her crib and she doesn't fuss a bit. She loves her big brother and he loves her. He can make her laugh and it is so cute. She is a sweetheart!