Family at Heart

A and I had a great trip to see our family in WV.  Hubby didn’t get to go with us since he has some upcoming deadlines and had a client in town all week.  A and I left on Thursday, the 22nd and returned on Thursday, the 29th.  We got to see both of A’s grandmas, my grandma, lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It was awesome!

On Friday, the 23rd, A and I spent several hours with Hubby’s side of the family.  We celebrated A’s and her cousins birthdays.  Each of them got their own cake and presents.  A had so much fun with her cousins and of course Uncle James brought some water guns for the annual water gun fight.  We also had Hubby join us via web cam, so it was almost as good as having him there.  Everyone enjoyed that as well.

We spent the rest of the time at my grandma’s house just visiting with her and my aunt until Sunday morning.  Then, we went with my sister and niece to Princeton to my mom’s house.  We had a great time there too.  It was great to just relax and unwind.  We did some shopping of course and my mom made her famous rigatoni dish for us.  We had a marshmallow and weiner roast and also took a very nice trip to see the countryside.  A sat up front with my mom’s fiance while I rode in the back of the pickup truck with my sister, mom, and niece.  We had a great time.  Enjoy the pictures!

A was ready for bed at Ma Merlie's house. She was talking to Hubby in this shot.

On Ma's front porch swing.

She loved this swing

A with Aunt Carol at the party/dinner with Hubby's side of the family.

A with Uncle Dusty

Cool gift from Ma Gles! Thanks Ma!

Littlest Pet Shop vehicle from Uncle James and Aunt Marlena Thanks guys!!!

More LPS goodies!

The Bedazzler from Aunt Carol and Uncle Dusty Thank you!!!

She was so excited for her cake.

Her cousin Austin turned 8 the next day.

A talking to Hubby via webcam.

Blowing out the candles.

Time for some water fun.

Time for a showdown with Uncle James

Cousin Austin.

With Ma Gles. A was in a towel because her clothes were soaked and I had to put them in the dryer

Cousins giving each other rabbit ears for the picture.

I love this picture!

A with her sweet cousin Alexis, aka Lexie.

A with Aunt Marlena

A with her cousins and Uncle Dale

A with Uncle James' family

A with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dusty.

Silly Uncle James

A with my Aunt Ellen at Ma Merlie's house.

A and Ma Merlie. Two of my favorite people on earth.

I love my grandma. Her house is a safe haven for me. Always has been.

A with my Uncle Larkin. He made her laugh by doing animal sounds.

The creek that runs by my grandma's house.

A standing on my grandma's bridge.

Ma Merlie's house.

My little vacation buddy.

The gorgeous tree by Ma Merlie's bridge.

A takes time out from throwing rocks to pose for me.

A posing in Ma's front yard.

Another angle of Ma's house.

The church where Hubby and I were married on June 30, 1990

A with Ma Merlie again

Love my Ma Merlie

Me with my Aunt Ellen. We had a great visit.

A at my mom's house. My mom had this cute little shirt for her

Me with my silly sister

A with Cousin Ashley

Bubble fun

We were on my mom's deck. I love sitting out there.

A and Ma Ev! I love my momma

A in front of my mom's house.

The very fun weiner roast

Joni and Wilkie having fun at the roast.

This kid had a blast doing the roast!

Ma Ev and Wilkie know how to throw a roast

Cousin Ashley smiles for the camera.

A loved every second.

I really enjoyed the marshmallows

Group shot

She ate sooo much!

Dirty face

A poses with Ma Ev and Ashley.

More posing on the deck.

And more posing.

Getting ready for our ride in the country. FUN!!!!

Taken on our ride through the countryside. It was so beautiful.

More gorgeous scenery.

Just breathtaking.

Three generations.

A with Mr. Wilkie. A just loves him.

We had  such a great week with everyone.  Thank you for all of your hospitality, birthday gifts, and for just taking time to spend with us.  We appreciated the rides to and from the airport Aunt Joni and all of the work on the birthday party Aunt Carol, Ma Gles, and Aunt Marlena.  The weiner roast was awesome Mr. Wilkie.  Thanks Mom for your hospitality.  To say that we felt welcome is an understatement.  We love you all.

We went to a very fun party this morning at Main Event.  The kids got to go rock climbing for an hour, then they had pizza and cake.  The party room was awesome. It was very spacious so there was plenty of rooms for the adults too and the hosts were great.  I could easily see us doing a party there.  C had handmade all of the goodie bags with hand-painted Littlest Pet Shop characters and each child’s name on each  one.  They were amazing!  The kids each got a $5 game card for the arcade games too.  It was so much fun and A was literally in tears when we had to leave.  Thanks C for such a wonderful time.  And Happy Birthday S!  We love you sweetheart

Getting ready...

A loves to do this!

Ring that bell big girl!

S is on the left and A is on the right

Pizza! Yummy!

Angel girl had a blast!

She had a little volcano cake and a huge Littlest Pet Shop cake.

Happy Birthday to you...

This cake is awesome

A is doing the chicken dance. The kids really got into the dancing!

A with her awesome goody bag. Great job C!

A and the birthday girl

Fun in the arcade...

Fun with friends

A had her well check yesterday and everything looked good.  She is in the 97th percentile for both height and weight.  No big surprise there   She was completely off the charts for her age for a very long time.  We are so blessed to have a healthy girl.  She weighs 68 lbs and is 49.5 inches tall.  Oh, and A’s newest Webkinz checked out just fine too

We had a great time with the T family for our holiday festivities.  They brought a grill and some wonderful food with them to our house, and we all enjoyed an evening of food, games, and great times.  We had chicken fajitas, brownies, and of course the dessert that A and I had made.  Everything was just delicious and it was a great evening.  A wanted everyone to do a talent show and that was a huge hit too.  We followed everything up with some pool playing in the media room and then off to the fireworks we went.  Awesome holiday with family and friends who feel like family!

A and C had a great time together.

Yes, it's yellow watermelon and it was delicious!

I had some crafts for the kids to do. The glitter pictures were the biggest hit. This is A's masterpiece.

Mrs. T's awesome brownies

This hat made it around to everyone. Enjoy!

E

C

A

Mrs. T and baby E

Mr. T

K

Moi

Hubby and baby E were buddies.

Mr. T at the talent show.

E doing his handstand at the talent show.

A at the talent show doing her mouth humming trick.

A demonstrating her karate at the talent show.

More fun at the talent show.

We started a tradition last year when we made a pound cake dessert that I had seen on tv.  A just loved it and she couldn’t wait to make it again this year.  So today, she and I went and got all the ingredients and got right to work.  Enjoy the pictures.  I know we will be enjoying the pound cake tomorrow with the T family

I got two pound cakes and covered them with cool whip.

She was so happy to help!

She kept asking to eat the strawberries After we were finished decorating, she got to eat the rest of the strawberries and cool whip. Lucky girl!

Blueberries for the stars and strawberries for the stripes.

All done!

Happy kid!

On Thursday we met up  with T and her momma for some fun at Main Event.  The girls played some games and had a great time.  We even ran into C and S there!  After the games, the girls played mini golf and then we had some lunch.  The pizza was really good!  The wait for bowling was an hour so we just hung out and visited a little bit.  The girls had a great time together as usual

A and I followed up that fun with an afternoon at the movies with Hubby.  We saw The Last Airbender and it was awesome!  Fun Thursday

Air hockey!

Drive time!

Horses rock

Sweet girls

This shot shows that both girls have lost their front teeth They are also wearing the colorful hair extensions they picked when they redeemed their tickets.

T likes to wear glasses like A. They look like twins here