Fun times in June!! Parties, Parties, and more Parties!

June was a fabulous month! We had so much fun. We got to spend a lot of time with family and friends. We are really enjoying our backyard and are spending lots of time outside.

I love when I go to people's houses and they have handprints in the concrete. My grandparents had a slab of concrete where my mom's handprint was. I loved seeing how my hand measured up against hers. Well, we are not pouring concrete any time soon, so we painted our hands on the concrete at the corner of our drive way. It was fun, but hard to get Taylor's fingers to spread out just right. I'm so proud of the way it turned out.

May 29th was my dad's 50th birthday. He was in Phoenix so we had his party on the 13th of June. I made all the invitations by hand and then mailed them. He knew we were having a party, but they had no idea who was coming. It was a great party! We are so blessed to have a home where we can have people over to visit. No, the smoke alarms didn't go off. And yes, there were 50 candles on that cake. This cake I made by hand. It was yellow with chocolate frosting, Dad's favorite!

Here's the spread of all the goodies. We bought a bunch of balloons, but the wind got up so most of them popped. I LOVE balloons, they really say party! I was disappointed about the balloons, but the rest of the party went awesome.

This is Stan and Becky Maxwell. My dad and him have been friends a VERY long time. He was even in my parent's wedding. They share the same anniversary and used to celebrate it together every year. I don't have enought space to put pictures of everyone who came on here, so I'll just share a few.

My cousin Matt, his wife Amy and daughter Krissy came to the party! They moved way up north for a few years and are finally home! It was so great to see them. I am almost embarrased to admit, but they have been married around 6 years and I had never met Amy. Ouch, I know crazy!

Kime loves to grill and so does Jackie. Jackie always says he's so happy because his cook drove all the way from Dallas! They did a great job and the burgers, brats, and hot dogs were awesome!

A bunch of Dad's friends from work came to the party, which was so awesome! It was really nice to put some faces to names of people I had heard about over the last 26 years. He's been at Pantex forever. It was kinda hard to know who to invite, because he can't really talk about work, but they were so helpful in helping me add to the list!!

Here's the great cake! I was so proud of it because it was two layers and didn't crack down the middle like the last layered cake I made did!!

Here's the cake we ordered from Ms. Piggy's, a bakery here in town. It turned out awesome!! I didn't want to ruin it with candles so that's why we had two cakes! Plus this one was strawberry and so we had to have his favorite!

I love the billboards that you see that say Congrats, or Will you marry me?, or Happy Birthday. So, we made one since we couldn't rent one! I took sheets and painted them and then my amazing husband mounted them on the side of this truck we borrowed from the church. It turned out great and let everyone be sure of where the party was!

I have more party pics to add, but I can't seem to get them added, so I will move along and try again later!

The next weekend we had a sunday school class social at our friend's Greg and Dawnette's house. They have the most amazing backyard. The grass is awesome, the plants are beautiful, and it doesn't even feel like you are in Amarillo. It's so peaceful and we LOVE going over to visit there! Here are some of the kids playing on the huge swing they have.

Here's Shawn chasing one of the cats. They have these black and white cats that the kids love to chase and catch. They had some tiny baby kitties. Taylor kept calling them Catties. They were so cute and I really don't even like cats.

Since we had leftovers from Dad's party, we loaded up the grill and headed over to their house. Jackie did a great job on the burgers, then Tom took over. It worked out great!!

Here's Wes, Donnie, Greg, and Dakota having a great chat. They have a fire pit which last time we roasted hot dogs on. Dakota started a fire for us and by the end of the night it was so nice!

Here's some more people that were at the party. We are so blessed to have such awesome friends where we go to church! We love spending time having fun with people who love the Lord like we do! The guy in the OU hat is Rod, Taylor LOVES hanging out with Rod. She's always so happy to see him!

Thursday Jackie stayed home with Taylor. They went to the store and he let her pick out a pool. She has went swimming everyday in it. She loves this pool. She keeps saying how she can't wait to go swimming with Emma and Cole when they come this weekend! She likes the slide, but she wants to go down backwards, which is very funny to watch!

My husband is so very talented. He is so gifted with his hands. He can build and fix anything. Friday at work a member told me about Backyard Adventures closing here in Amarillo. They are selling a lot of stuff for extremly cheap. Slides that had minor defects were only $10. We had been shopping around for a slide for Taylor to have. We have been collecting lumber too. I called Jackie as soon as I got off work and told him to turn around and head out there. The man was so nice. We got so much great stuff for her swingset. Jackie stayed up until 1 in the morning building so that Taylor could use the slide first thing Saturday morning. He did an awesome job. It's not quite finished, but it looks so awesome! We got stuff for a rope ladder on one side and a rock wall on the other. We got swings and teeter-totters and steering wheels to add to it too! It's going to be so awesome when it's all done. Here's Taylor taking her first trip down in her jammies. We were so excited we showed it to her as soon as we woke up. She opened the door and said, "WOW, LOOK AT MY SLIDE!" Her eyes were the size of silver dollars. It was better than Christmas!!

Saturday we drove to Guymon, OK for a funeral for one of Jackie's aunt. We spent the afternoon driving around seeing all the sites and where he lived and went to school. We even got to meet a few of his friends. It was so much fun. They have a little lake there, well it's really a pond. They had paddle boats and a little train that went around the water. It was so much fun. I wish I would have taken my camera. It was really neat. They even had fishing in the little lake. Taylor had so much fun and didn't want to leave!

Fun, Fun, Fun

Well, well, well, the front of our house is finally painted! It looks so awesome! I'm so proud of
it! This morning while I was at my water aerobics class, Jackie took off the door and taped and painted it! I was so excited when I got home. The whole house is the grey color now. We still have some trim to paint, but for the most part it's finished! I'm so glad that Jackie is a super painter! He did such a great job and it looks exactly like I wanted. You can also see the flower bed we cleaned out before Mother's Day. It's so wonderful to have your own home that you can paint or do whatever you want to with!


While we started painting Taylor slept in until 9 o'clock. That's an amazing feat. She hardly ever sleeps past 8. So we were able to get a lot done without her "help." She is very active, she's a doer and not a watcher! She loves to be right in the middle of everything. Jackie had a bucket of water he was using to set up the sprayer. Taylor washed her hands in it, and that was just the beginning. Then she wanted to put her feet in. Before we knew it, she was inside the bucket with all her clothes on. So, she and I went inside, slathered up with sunscreen, and dug out a swimsuit. So, this is what she did while Jackie and I were painting. This is her being a fountain. She loves to make wishes at fountains. Too bad my paint clothes didn't have pockets for some pennies!


She had to refill the buckey about four times because when she would jump in the water would splash out. She loves to play with water. She loves to splash in the tub, water plants, wash dishes, wash her hands, if it involves water, she's there!


We have a big tote outside that we throw all her outside toys in so they aren't all over the yard. So, since she didn't have much room in the bucket, I dumped out the toys and we started filling that up. But, go figure, she wanted the bucket! Here she is filling up the tote.


Jackie had to join in on the fun too! She saw me squirt him with the hose, so of course she had to try it too. It was really, really cold water! Doesn't the grass look pretty and green?


Jackie and Taylor didn't want me to squirt them anymore! Taylor had to go inside and get her baby to play too. Good thing the baby will go in the washing machine!


Taylor loves to flex her muscles to show how strong she is. We have been working on eating "smart food" aka veggies, so her brain will grow just like her muscles! She even makes a serious face, it's hilarious!! Here Jackie and Taylor are comparing muscles!


Taylor had to go take a break for a drink of water, so Jackie was left alone in the tote. It really is not that big, but we all had a blast playing in it today. Guess this means we need to buy a pool. The sun was shining, but the yard was nice and shady and the wind was blowing so we all got really cold. Taylor's teeth were chattering, but she was having so much fun and didn't want to quit!


It was such a great day! We got a lot done and had a whole lot of fun!! I'm so glad that Jackie likes to relax and have fun.

Last Saturday, my dear friend Mindy and her son JJ, drove up from Lubbock to spend the afternoon with us. The kids had so much fun playing together. It was so great to see her. Taylor loves to read, she draged JJ into the chair and read him her Dragon book. It was so cute.


We went to the zoo. The Amarillo zoo is small, but it's the perfect size for two toddlers. By the time we walked through it, they were tired.


Here is the resting place when we finished seeing the animals. Jackie kept tickling them and they just laughed and laughed.


Mindy brought a wagon, and it was so good. Taylor wanted to push it instead of ride in it though. They look so cute here in their shades with their suckers. They had so much fun playing!





On Monday, Memorial Day. We drove to Plainview and celebrated Cindy's birthday. We went to a Japanese restaurant and Cole and Emma loved the fire, but it scared Taylor. Then we took the kids to the park to burn off some energy and give the grown ups some time to talk. It was so much fun. I'm so glad we are so close to them. Cindy is a great friend and I'm so thankful to get to see my niece and nephew grow up.

I'm bummed this picture did not turn out better. Taylor and Cole were just swinging on this tire swing and chatting. It was so cute.

Here's a picture of Josh and Cole taking a break from playing.

This playground in Plainview was so awesome. There were tons of things for the kids to do. Taylor and Emma started sharing the swing, but it didn't last too long. They wanted to go higher, but they couldn't with both of them in it.

Emma and Taylor love spending time together. I love this picture of them holding hands. They have so much fun playing and laughing together. Taylor even calls Emma on her phone to tell her about her day.

This is a great picture of the three of them. It's hard to believe how fast they are growing. It's so hard to get three little ones to all pose and smile for the picture.

Saturday Jackie made my day and took me to the George Strait concert at the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas. It was an amazing time. We got up early Saturday and drove to Dallas. In Bowie we had car trouble and one of the spark plug wires quit working. Thankfully, Jackie had already bought them. A nice mechanic in town let him borrow some rags so he wouldn't burn himself too bad. We got to the concert at 6. We missed the first act, we made it in time to see Blake Shelton, Reba, and of course GEORGE!! The stadium was awesome. We climbed to the very top to see how big it was. They even opened the roof which was really cool. I couldn't take my camera in because it had a video camera on it. I got some pics with my cell phone, and they are ok. We had a great time and really enjoyed being together. We got back Sunday morning just in time to get dressed and to pick up kids for church. We didn't get to sleep until Sunday night at 11. It was exhausting but worth every minute. Thanks to mom and dad for letting Taylor stay the night.

We are getting ready for a big party for Dad's 50th birthday on Saturday. It's going to be great. I will post pics from it soon!