Old Family Pictures

I’m cleaning out boxes of “stuff” my mom brought me after we moved in the house… all my “stuff” (there might be a better word to use here that starts with “cr” and ends with “ap”) that was filling up the closet in my old bedroom.
Tonight I found these pictures and they made me happy.  Oh how I wish Cason (and Admiral) would have known my Pop and my Nana!
These are from 1995.
Four Generations (Me, Mom, Grammy and Nana)

Gathered around the breakfast table

Grammy in the Kitchen… go figure…

My dad in his usual chair at Pop and Grammy’s… though it was James’s chair on Christmas Morning.  I’m not sure why my Dad and Uncle Deaun are dressed for a blizzard and my Cousin Will is dressed for a summer day… haha.  This appears to be after the gifts were open so I assume that means Aunt Rose, Uncle Ed and Cousin Jean sent Will that Jersey from Seattle and he had to wear it.

Pop in his recliner in his bedroom.  This is where he was sure to be found after a long Christmas Day.

I don’t remember him sitting in this chair much… especially not at Christmas time!

Though Pop appears to be in the same sweater, this picture is at my parents house and is just too good not to post! Two of my favorite men!

I think this was the year that Mom had her Vertigo spell.  I have pictures from the same stack of her laid up on the couch.  I’m using restraint and not posting them… at least not for now! 

Mother’s Day

I didn’t expect to be really celebrating Mother’s Day as an actual “Mother” this year.  Mother’s Day fell 2 days after my birthday.  We joked a lot about how we thought my birthday would be pretty miserable… pregnant, fat, tired, uncomfortable and so ready to meet little Cason.   Mother’s Day would probably have been more of the same complaining.  :)

Instead, I celebrated my 29th birthday and my very first Mother’s day with my adorable little man, my wonderful husband and my oldest son (of the canine variety). 

Mother’s day has a new meaning now.  Though I’ve only been a Mom for a little over 3 weeks, I know already what it means to be a mother.  As my body was not just my body for 9 make that 8 months… my life is not just my life anymore.  Especially in these early weeks and months I hold the responsibility of this life in my hands and its an awesome responsibility and amazing gift.  From the morning I jumped out of bed and rushed to check on Cason after he slept for 6 hours to the way he melts my heart when he grips my finger as if he will never let go to all the crazy funny faces he makes as he stretches, wakes up, eats, etc…. I am just so truly blessed to have this happy, healthy baby that arrived 5 weeks early.

Finally being a “Mother” myself, it makes me appreciate my mom and my grandmothers and all the mom’s in my life that much more.  I hope to look back in 29 years and see that I’ve been as wonderful a mother as my Mom.  And with that, I thank my Mom for always being there for me and James, for loving us unconditionally, for letting us make mistakes (and being there to help us pick up the pieces when we did), for encouraging us to follow our dreams, for offering advice (even when we didn’t want to hear it), for being our friend as we have grown older and for a million more reasons… Thank You and Happy Mother’s Day.

 

Doggie Videos

I’ve joked that Ryan is most excited about the toys Cason will accumulate.  We got a few things recently… I think this video proves my point.  And, I’m pretty sure we are going to have to pay close attention to Admiral and Ryan when it comes to the toys…

And today is the start of the Woodforest Showcase of Homes and Grand Opening.  Ryan is off hosting their Showcase Home along with his parents who were dog sitting Kevin and Steph’s dog Clive.  He was only here for 10 minutes before I started hearing the playful growls and collars jingling.  I caught this little video before they noticed me watching!.

They’ve been going at this off and on for the better part of 3 hours now.  Gonna be some tired (and slobbery) puppies!

Finger Football (Part 2) and Fievel

Eric and Whitney(who finally have a blog) came over this weekend so Eric could help Ryan get the rest of the nursery furniture upstairs... and just to visit.

Ryan and Eric had to get a game of finger football in since, you know, Eric's the big stud Division 1 Wide Receiver and all!!! I'm thinking the Ivy League education was more useful than the Football training since the game has so many rules.

Ryan in scoring position...
Something good just happened...
Kicking a field goal or extra point
So determined...
Once again, there was a lot of laughter and when Eric is around it's never a dull or quiet evening!

And a few pictures of their puppy Fievel who was just a few days out of having his man parts removed and forced into a onesie because his neck is so long he could still reach his stitches with a cone collar.
Resting (or pouting)
Trying to figure out why there is glass separating them!

Finger Football

My parents always find something sort of silly to get Ryan for Christmas. One year was one of those little remote control helicopters they were selling in the malls. This year it was Finger Football. Kevin and Steph came over last weekend and Ryan convinced Kevin to play with him


It looked pretty fun, but more complicated than we imagined.


And requiring a little more skill. But they had fun and there was lots of giggling (manly giggling) invovled as they played.

Christmas 2009

We hosted Christmas at our house this year. My parents, grandmother, niece, brother and his dog all came from Mississippi and stayed for almost a week. It was great to have my family see the new house and especially to spend some time with Grammy, James and Helmi as I see them even less than I see my parents. Admiral enjoyed having his cousin Gus around for several days too.

On Christmas morning, Santa came to visit and we opened gifts with my family. All of Ryan's family (parents, both brothers and their wives, and of course all the dogs) joined us for lunch.

It was great to celebrate our first holiday in the new house with both families. Here are some highlights.

Grammy and Helmi making Grammy's famous Lemon Pie.

Helmi in her adorable Christmas Dress

Santa came to visit.

Helmi helping Neanie open her gift... handmade by Helmi (with some help from James).







In the kitchen where I spent lots of time!

My first attempt at Grandmother's dressing.

Admiral getting his gifts.

My family

Ryan's family

All the dogs (I suggest you click on these to see them full size!!)

Fievel makes his escape and Clive TRIES to follow.

Playing Mouse Trap

Admiral and Gus relaxing in the sun.


For the full roll of pictures, click here.

Doggie Cousins

Admiral has been a part of our family for over 3 years now and had definitely been our baby boy no matter how big he is. For the first two and half years of his life, he was the only granddog on Ryan's side of the family. He is the spoiled rotten first grandchild who got lots of one-on-one attention from his grandparents!! :)

Now that Ryan's brothers are both married and in their own homes, the doggie family has been growing. When Kevin and Stephanie got married, we added Steph's dog Maya to the family and then we met Clive in June.

Just a few weeks ago, Eric and Whitney drove to Dallas to bring home their baby, Fievel.


Thanksgiving was the first time we got all the dogs together and it was a blast watching the "kids" play. The boys did a lot of wrestling, fetching and swimming while Maya did her best to stay out of the action (which is why I never got her in these pics--I'll do better next time!!! )

Clive and Fievel became fast friends. Fievel would nip and paw and jump all over Clive and Clive seemed to love it.


Admiral seemed to be pretty smitten with Fievel but he can be a bit intimidating to a little guy. Fievel did lots of hiding in small places that Admiral cannot fit! I think that when Fievel gets a little bigger he'll probably be bossing Admiral and Clive around on a regular basis! He's feisty

Kevin started playing fetch with Clive and Admiral joined in. Of course, Admiral thinks the only way to play fetch at the grandparents house is in the pool. Kevin would throw the ball in the grass, Clive would run after it and Admiral would run the opposite direction to the pool wondering where the ball was. Eventually Admiral got a clue. We finally gave in and started throwing the ball in the pool (had to be freezing). Clive followed Admiral right in.

Clive really only likes to get in if someone else (human or dog) is in the pool. He really wanted that ball but was just not so sure about jumping in until Admiral went first.

And you can tell when Admiral gets tired... He starts getting lazy and tries to wait for the ball to drift back toward the edge of the pool instead of jumping in to get it.

Fievel was very curious of what the big boys were doing, but this is about as close as he got to the pool. Only time will tell if he likes to swim!

Cousins... it doesn't get any better! And you know, as I wrote this post, I couldn't help but laugh that sometime in the next few years I could return to this post and replace all the references to dogs and puppies to kids and babies. As I think about how our family is about to grow again and how much my cousins have meant in my life, I think about the fun times our little one will have with his/her older cousin Helmi. And, I look forward to the day (whenever it may be... no pressure) that we add more people cousins to both families!!

A little more love for the family

My parents sent me all of their pictures from our week together. Here are a few more pictures.

I had to show this picture of Helmi with her tongue out while she worked on her artwork. So cute.
As if we don't already know how crazy tall Uncle Ryan is! Helmi learned the phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas" before she visited. We asked her about it one day... "What's bigger in Texas?" She pointed at Ryan, then Ryan's dad. Ha.

Helmi with the three men in her life.
Helmi posing in our pantry.

Helmi wanted to make cookies. Here we are rolling out the dough.
Cutting out cookies.
About to go in the oven. H for Helmi and a fish for Shamu!
Pink Icing!
The whole family waiting for our Riverwalk boat tour.

Helmi and Uncle Ryan being silly in the pool.
The family on their last night. Don't you love Helmi's little yellow shoes with her black and white dress??