My family reunion!

I went ahead and posted a bunch of pics for my family to see and download if they wanted - easier than sending an email and having files waiting to come up etc... So note to my family - just double click on a pic and then right click on mouse and you can save it to your hardrive.

Now, there are so many that I did not get pics of and I am so sorry! I didn't even get a pic of my mom or my grandma! I just can't believe it! And all the babies! Well, hope you all enjoy what I did get......

Have to start off with the hottest guy there!

My man - Tom

Daniel, Tracy and Baby Noah!

Jessica and Dan!

My aunt Brenda and Uncle Andy!

Love this pic of my Uncle John!

Eric and Sarah!

My hottie young cousin Kristen!

My niece Tammy and her man Corey!

Baby Noah!

Again - my young hottie cousin Kristen - always chillin!

My godfather and uncle John! (and hottie Kristen's dad!)

Some of the gang - but there is my SIL Tracy and Baby James on the left!

My 2nd cousin Colin and nephew Michael!

My awesome Aunt Deb! (and my bro in the background)

Float trip pit stop!

My gorgeous OLDER sister Sandi!

Abby!

Abby's sister Emma!

My neice Rachael!

My cousin Eric without his BETTER half Erica!

My brother Andy and cousin Marc! (to all the singe ladies out there - he is available!) My cousin Marc that is - not my bro! :)

Annual Family Reunion

Here we are! 2007 Annual family reunion!


Tom and Ryan chillin out after a game of volleyball!


Awesome bonfire!


Can't see many of my peeps - but this is just a few of them! Also I want you all to know that I can not show many of the pics I took because so many of my wonderful peeps were giving me the bird!!! For shame! :)


Having an awesome time!

Annual Family Reunion float trip!

Here we are on our annual float (canoe) trip at our family reunion! This was Ryan's first time to go with us! He did very well getting in the canoe and about 15 min after we took off - this is what happened.....

He fell asleep!!!!! Can you believe it? Looks a bit uncomfortable - but as you can see at the pic below he was not phased by it at all!

He was in a water gun fight with my brother - Uncle Andy!

Jenn and Tom - Texas style!

Still squirting everyone!

Funny thing is that Ryan did not want to ride in our canoe at all - he spent the majority of the float in my cousins, Jessica and Dan's canoe! Can you blame him? Abbey is quite the cutie!

Mexican Villa

What is a Mexican Villa? It is a restaurant in Springfield, Missouri that Tom and I would go to when we were in college! They have awesome Sanchos! I get mine plain and Tom gets his enchilada style! They also have this wonderful sweet sauce to dip your chips in! Every time we are passing through Springfield - on our way to our family reunion or St. Louis we ALWAYS stop at "The Villa"! There are a few scattered throughout Springfield - but we always go to the one right down the street from campus - the one WE always went to when we were there - THE ORIGINAL VILLA!

Anyway - some of the same people are still working there and we just love going back! It is so surreal to have our kids with us - who would have ever thought - we would be coming back 20 years later married to each other with 2 kids! Great memories! Anyway - here we are at "the villa".....

Yes, those are little jukeboxes at every booth! They still work too!

Kinda blury - but gotta get Ryan and Jake caught at the villa!

Ryan's first buzz cut and THE FROG!

So I took Ryan to get his hair cut - he takes after his dad - he plays hard so he sweats hard! I thought it would be cooler for him with a buzz cut! OMG! Look how short it is! She said, "well let's start with a #4 and go from there" - GO FROM THERE??? There is nowhere to go from there! Oh well - all it can do is grow! And actually, I think it is cute! My little peanut is growing up!


Cheese!


Just chillin by the pool in his tighty whiteys!
He is gonna KILL me when he gets older :)



He is trying to catch a little frog that jumped in the pool.



Look Mom, I caught a frog! Ewww, go show your father! :)

Jake's first lunch date!

We had a playdate at our house and Jake thought Olivia looked pretty cute - so he made his move......typical boy - food before love!


"Hi there cutie, whatcha got there? It looks pretty good!"



"Okay, it looks like she is being distracted by the camera"



"I'm going in! I want that green bean!"

Baby Jake is growing up!

Tell me it ain't so! He decided yesterday that he was NOT going to sit in his highchair - that he wanted to sit at the big kids table! He did great! He didn't fall over or anything - he sat there for 20 minutes eating a banana and then some mandarin oranges! Baby Jake is becoming My little man! :(

Ryan starts school....

and he loves it! It was a decision (a very hard one) that Tom and I have made for Ryan and us.

We have decided to put Ryan in school from 8:30 to 3pm Monday thru Friday. He is going to a Montessori school. I was very unsure (aren't we always second guessing ourselves as parents?), but after today, I know that we have made the right decision for Ryan. Ryan is a very outgoing boy and needs to be constantly challenged and of course structure - more than I know how to give. I felt that I was losing him being at home with him. We were not communicating well at all with one another and both were getting very frustrated. No matter what I tried it just did not seem to work. Anyway..... when we dropped him off on his first day we all went in (even Jake) to get him settled in etc... and he was so excited! He sat right down (we went early to get him settled so he was the first one there) and started working on their materials - he was just so hungry to learn and be able to work his brain. It was an awesome sight to see - I had to interrupt him to say goodbye and he gave us all kisses and hugs and said "okay mom see ya later" and went back to working/exploring with all the new things there. When I picked him up - he had made new friends and gave them all hugs goodbye and talked about his day all the way home! It is amazing to see the change in his attitude toward Tom, Jake and me!

I am so excited for him and us - I am looking forward to "quality" time with him once again instead of the constant struggles we were looking at. Here is my peanut and his new school!


He is the little yellow dot by the front doors! Wanted you all to see a wide view of the school.

Fun on the 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July - we grilled out while the kids swam and since we are way out in the country - fireworks are legal! So the kids had a BLAST!


Jake and buddy Vinci - they do not understand why they can't get out and run/swim with the big kids!


Some of my peeps! Dee, Me and Vickie!


Ryan with his sparkler!



Pretty cool! God Bless America and our Troops!