Meeting Stephen

In January, "Aunt" Katie flew in from Monterey, CA and brought her boyfriend Stephen home for all of us to meet!  We spent a fun weekend together and headed out to Chandler Hill winery for a relaxed gathering.

We love our Aunt Katie!  And it's hard to believe in January it was warm enough to go without coats!  Of course, as I'm posting this now it's 107 degrees outside here in St. Louis!  Ugh!

Uncle Bragg, Auntie Joyce, Grammy and Pappy having some fun.

Cousins!

Uncle Bragg and Logan are on their respective electronic devices!

Claire and Logan stay busy with their games!

Logan took this picture of Pappy, which I love in b&w.  

Nice job, Logan!

Aunt Katie took the kids out to romp around the deck.

Cute or what?

Adorable family.

The vineyards are pretty even with no leaves on the vines!

Uh-oh.  Logan going crazy with the camera!

Love that cuz!  And a few months later, Katie announced that she and Stephen got ENGAGED!  Yippee!  We are happy to welcome Stephen into the family.  And now we get to plan a WEDDING!  FUN!

I love my family!

Mama

High School Reunion, Day 2

Does my class know how to throw a party, or what? On Sunday we got together for a family BBQ at the city park. Here is our class as it was in 1991, immortalized in butter cream!

The kids played at the Kiddie Park while the grown ups chatted and ate. This is my high school friend Brian's little girl, Charlie, with a random dog that had the unfortunate luck to show up at the park that day and ended up being manhandled by the kids all afternoon. Brian was two classes ahead of us, but he came in to hang out with us anyway. His best friend, Jamie, is married to my best friend, Tricia.

Speaking of Tricia, this is her little girl, Chloe.

Claire-Bear!

All aboard!

Here are the grownups, taking a break from chowing down for another group picture! Have you gotten them straight by now? Here we go...

Top Row: Aaron P., Lorenzo C. (didn't go to the dinner the night before), Becky D., Tricia S., ME, Becky U., Joe P., Larry C.

Front Row: Jeannie P., Jen B., Stephanie N., Curtis J.

Still cutting up.....

Charlie and Logan riding the shuttle

Here's a cute bunch of kiddos on the train!

Charlie, Logan, and their little dog too.

Here are Tricia and Brian's other girls, Brooke and Riley

After the picnic, some of us went back to Pappy's house to hang out and play in the back yard. There goes Claire on the zip line!

Jamie takes a turn watching the kids while Claire scoots by on the zip line again!

Skip, Chloe and Claire

What a cute bunch of kids!

Daddy was sooooo good to Mommy that weekend. He did almost everything with the kids so I would have lots of time to chat with my old chums. Thanks, Daddy!

It was a real full-circle moment to see my old backyard full of my friends' and my children, the same backyard we all used to play in when we were kids. There's something really special and sentimental about that.

What a great time.

Love,

Mama

My 20th High School Reunion - Day 1

Well hey kids, let's talk about ME for a change, eh? A few weekends ago I had my 20th high school reunion in my home town of Slater. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long, but the calendar doesn't lie, apparently. Wow. Here are some of your mom's OLD buds from back in the day.

On the first day we got together for a couples-only dinner. Here is my old friend Curtis showing off his original Wildcat jacket! Curtis and I graduated #1 and #2 in our class and I always had a lot of respect and affection for him. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have gotten that A in Chemistry! Thanks, Curt!

Cutting up in the group photo.....

My good friend Jen. We used to dance our little feet off together. I miss that girl!

Here's the gang that made it in! It actually turned out to be almost half the class, so I'd call that a decent showing! Now you know just how tiny our class was!

From the top row: Aaron P., Tricia S., Becky U., Becky D., Curtis J., Larry C.

Middle Row: Heather S., Jeannie P. (married Aaron!), Stephanie N., Jen B., and ME

Bottom Row: Joe P., and Sam K.

Let me tell you, it feels so GOOD to get together with your old pals and still be able to laugh like you used to!!

Check out these hot mamas!!

Heather S., Jeannie P., Becky U., Stephanie N., Becky D., ME, Jen B., Tricia S.

And our guys: Aaron P., Curtis J., Sam K., Joe P., and Larry C.

More to come later....

Love,

Mama

July Flashback: Parenthood!

Dear Logan,

It's unlike me to do back-to-back flashback posts, but how could I leave things hanging in the air like that?

Here is your very first photo:

From what I could see of you from my operating table position, you looked huge and sounded like a squeaky little mouse! Not bad for a "preemie"! Although, the doctor had warned me that if I didn't stop packing on the pounds I was going to end up with a 10 pound baby! (A remark I didn't deem exactly fair since the pre-eclampsia added about a ton of water weight!)

Fat and sassy! (Now you're just sassy.)

I was pretty much stuck here while they sewed me up. From the look on my face I guess you could say at least they were giving me some good drugs. At this point all I wanted to do was look at you and hold you! I was sooooo jealous of Daddy, getting to follow you all around! Not to mention, I was a tad resentful since for 8 months I did 100% of the work on you! I should have gotten to see you first!

All nice and settled down... My gosh, you were so beautiful to me then. Even now I still think you were a beautiful newborn.

Seven pounds, seven ounces! And apparently not enjoying the weigh-in!

Ohmigod! We're PARENTS!!!

Now what?

Here we are! Our first moment together! Well, with you on the outside.... I had to wait soooo long to see you! Your grandpa and Mary came in to see me in the recovery room and then Pappy and Grammy came in, and I had no idea they were waiting for everyone to leave before they brought you in to me! We waited and waited and waited....meanwhile, the rest of the family was seeing you through the nursery glass and up until that time all I had been able to see was a bundled up blanket with a hat! They whisked you off so quickly when you came out that all I could do was try to keep track of you from my horizontal position - not an easy task! I was absolutely DYING to see you, and FINALLY I made Daddy go and check to see where you were! So really, I was pretty much the last one out of the whole family who got to get a peek at my own dang baby! Yeesh!

But oh, my, how you took my breath away. I couldn't believe you were mine. I couldn't believe you were a BOY! You were just that gorgeous to me. And soooooo unlike what I expected you to look like.

Keep an eye on Grammy - she has this look of bliss on her face in every picture! Meanwhile, I had had a rough night of no sleep and a lot of pain! Is it possible my face got even BIGGER? Good Lord, look at me. I look like a Macy's Day balloon.

Pappy. How funny is it that men just automatically look this awkward when they hold a newborn?

Aunt Sheila, and your cousins Rochelle and Abby.

Dad's cousin's wife "Aunt" Terri and cousin Emma

Cousins Tori and Chelle

This photo looks totally staged. If I didn't know better I'd think this was a still taken from some cheesy diaper or baby powder commercial! But this is how much everyone adored you. In the picture are Grammy, Daddy, Chelle, Aunt Sheila and your daddy's cousin, "Uncle" Joey.

The best feeling in the world...

Grandpa

Step-grandma Mary

Mary's mother

Your great Auntie Joyce

My cousin, "Aunt" Katie

great Uncle Bragg

This must have been the day we discovered you had developed jaundice. And here I had been admiring your awesome olive complexion! But, you and I, we were meant to be palefaces.

Daddy taking a turn with the bottle. You were born a picky eater. You took so long to catch on to breast feeding that we were forced to supplement with formula! You lost a bunch of weight and they threatened to stick a feeding tube in you. At the time I thought that would be horrible - now after going through what we did with your sister, I realize it's not a big deal. It was just that after having such a touch and go pregnancy with constant contractions and worry, I wanted so desperately for you to be healthy!

As an aside, see the pretty flowers in the background? Right out of Grammy's garden, just for you!

Dad's stepdad Harold

Daddy's cousin Nicci

Getting ready to take you home! I know exactly what your dad was thinking in this picture. Just three weeks earlier your grandma Michelle had died in a car accident. It was so tragic and heartbreaking for us, and we missed her so much - and still do. It was hard to see all the family coming in and out of our room and not have her with us. I know your dad is wishing she could have seen you. She was an awesome grandma and she would have loved you soooo much! I often wonder how different our lives would be if we still had her around. She will be forever missed.

There was a lot of love for one little baby in that hospital room.

Love you forever,

Mama