SFF/MAA Reunion 2009

Amy Bascom and Shane Richardson put on the reunion this year, with their dad Larry Richardson as the President of the family association. It was a big hit, and I think we all had a fun time. Emma and I won the award for coming the furthest distance to attend.

Here is my Aunt Pam and mom manning the registration table.

Here's Amy, beaming with pride. (Or at least smiling about something.) That's her handsome hubby and cute daughter, too.

Here's Jared's look-alike son, loving on his momma.

I liked this shot of Courtney and Tawnya, with Dad in the background.

Amy said a few words. Isn't she beautiful?

Here's Seth (and Rush), Clint, Seth's wife Courtney and Linsey. (She looks cute, but then she always does.) Also, Colin and Hayley are in front. Please ignore Hayley's finger placement. Eli does that a lot too.

Eli with Nana and Dora.

I tried a few times (while she was eating) and finally got a great shot of the lovely Courtney. :-) She's had 4 kids and is still skinny as a model. Grrr!

Brandon and Amilyn (with Shane's little girl.)

Dora was mostly happy, as usual.

Here's Uncle Larry with Amy's baby girl (I am pretty sure.)

Classic that I caught Linsey taking a photo.

Handsome Clinty with little Clint Junior.

Nana loving on Isadora.

That was the last one from Friday night. The rest are from Saturday afternoon.

Tawnya...

Aunt Janet and Aunt Rosemary...

Playing babies...

Playing toddlers...

Dora pulling up to get to the jambalaya! I think all in all it was a great time. Uncle Bob took the group photo--I didn't get one. We were stuck in the back right the whole time.

Trip to Louisiana

We took a 5 hour drive down to Louisiana, lengthened by frequent stops, a trip to see a family friend (Hieder) and traffic into an 8 hour trip.

At one point, Eli and Dora were both sleeping--Eli on my mom's arm!

Here's my mom with Hieder and the kiddies.

Once we arrived at Uncle Sherry's (which Eli says really well), Eli found and appropriated (with Aunt Janet's blessing) a laundry basket to play in. Also, they had a lot of fun toys for him to play with.

He liked the leggos best, while Dora preferred the barbies. Who says gender roles don't exist?

Eli is a BIG fan of Uncles. He loved Uncle Sherry, who took him for two rides on the tractor and even let Eli drive. YES, it was moving!!

Uncle Sherry and Aunt Janet have a GREAT back porch Eli loved to play on, plus Uncle Sherry and Papa took him for lots of walks where he found neat stuff (bark, rocks, sticks, bugs, puppies and other treasures.)

Aunt Janet's granddaughter Morgan was AMAZING with Dora and played with her for two days!

Eli and Morgan's little sister Addie got along really well and ran all over the place holding hands.

Here's Dora with one of her barbies. My mom makes fun of this bow, but I like it!

Here are a few more shots of playing outside.

My mom and her brother, Uncle Sherry, look a lot alike. Thanks for letting us come stay with you!

Also, I have to mention the quality and quantity of food at Aunt Janet's. Every time I turned around she was cooking, and somehow she kept the house spotless. Aunt Janet, you're amazing!

Two more tractor shots.

We miss you Uncle Sherry!

To Great Grandma's House We Go

I took the kiddies and went to Houston for Thanksgiving. I have been gone more than 10 days, so I haven't blogged in a while and I downloaded 500 photos to my computer today! WHOA!

I thought I would try and take the blogs one at a time, and I split them into 9 separate sections... so I hope you're prepared to be blog spammed! Haha. Here's the first. While we were home, my grandma turned 85! WOW! I took the kiddies over two days before to celebrate. We all split some "happy cake" as Eli calls it.

Happy Birthday Grandma Jean! :-) Your granddaughter and your great grandkids love you!

Marshmallows and GQ Poses

Eli loves his Lucky Charms in the morning. Lately he has realized the marshmellows are the good part. So he eats them first. Check it out... Also, he calls them "Dada Cereal." Total is "Mama Cereal".


Here's my little lamb in some new (too big) clothes. I love the new panda line at Gymboree! She loves to chew on anything right now, and Mr. Potato Head has been a front runner lately.

These are some of Eli's new church clothes (and his new shoes which cost entirely too much, but I love them!) Doesn't he look GQ here? Haha.

And now a smile! (Oh and he's holding puppets, which he has been obsessed with for one week now. These photos were from last Sunday--I have just been too busy to put any up. He carries those puppets everywhere and insists people wear them.)

Second Set of Christmas Photos

Here's our second set of Christmas photos. I think they came out really cute.

My mom says they just look "faded" but I like the vintage look.

I liked this shot, but Eli had a cheese smile and Dora looks grumpy!

I love this one!

Here's the one I wanted for the Christmas shot.

Here's the one Whit wanted. Whit won. :-) Notice the street sign...

Dora is currently in between sizes. I can't really snap her 6-12 month onesies, but the pants in 12-18 are enormous and the shirts are pretty big. Basing on what size Eli was at her age, and dropped down one size because she was a girl so I hoped she wasn't as big of a porker, I assumed she would be 12-18 months. Sadly, I overestimated a bit. Her dress and coat are a bit large.

I think she looks kind of cute, swimming in her little Christmas dress and coat!