The Greats......

These are some of Sam and Matt's Greats!

Great Grandmother, Great PopPop, Great Meemaw, and Graunt Nonnie!

We sure do love our Greats!!!

So thankful that we got to play with all our Greats!!

Lots of love

4th of July and Our Cup Runneth Over....

Our 4th of July this year was spent in Canyon enjoying wonderful family and friends!

The cousins had a blast this year at their Baba's house, it was so fun to see them playing together!!

Hudson has gotten so big and has the cutest curls, Charlie is truly the big man on campus at Baba's house and such the helper with Matt! Sam loved every minute with her cousins :)

On Saturday, July 3rd the Nester and Brantley family along with many other friends and relatives joined at George and Paige's house for some YUMMY Uncle Chuck fajitas - an annual tradition! After it got dark we put on our own fireworks show! For some reason I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks and Sam was too tired to enjoy and chose to go to bed instead. Matt slept soundly in my arms most of the evening despite the loud explosions! :)

After our traditional pancake breakfast we headed over to "Fair on the Square" where Paige and George were already hard at work painting faces! George painted fireworks on all the little cousins!

This is what Matt did the majority of Fair on the Square :)

Sam LOVED sitting on the train - once it left it was a different story! They had to stop the train and let her off early because she was crying so hard :)

Our Cup Runneth Over!!

We were so blessed to have a large part of our family and friends around as Chuck's brother, John baptized our son. I know that those that couldn't be with us that day were there in spirit.

Tears filled my eyes as I saw our sweet boy smile up at his Uncle when he put water on his head and I saw his big sister sitting in the pew across from him. I am truly blessed with my two sweet babies, my wonderful husband, and our amazing family and friends!!

Blessing abound as we are reminded of the beauty in our lives each an every day

After the Baptism Baba had a brunch at her house. Lots of friends and family joined in our celebration, I made sure to get pictures of Matt's Great Grandmothers loving on him!!

My Meemaw :)

Chuck's Grandmother made a special trip out to Sally's house to see him :)

I am so grateful that my children are a part of such loving families who are there when we need them most and continue to celebrate these wonderful milestones, holidays, and times together.

These are where memories are made and that in itself is beautiful......

1st Annual Uncle Camping!!

Our 16 day summer vacation started on July 1st in style! We drove into Canyon at about 2:00 and at around 5:00 Chuck and his brother John embarked with the eldest little ones for the first annual "Uncles Camping"! Charlie is almost 5 and Sam is 2 1/2.

They did lots of playing....

Sam has differing emotions towards her Uncle John :)....

After setting up camp they, of course, had to build a fire...


best part of camping!!!


Once it finally got dark around 10:00 the night proved quite interesting apparently :).....





This tarantula was found under Chuck and Sam's tent the next morning!!! YUCK!




The Uncles had planned on playing at the Canyon once everyone woke up but with the encouragement of sprinkles and the rough night they decided to head back to the house around 7 am. Not before giving the kids hot chocolate and powdered dougnuts :) This is Sam after about 3 hrs of sleep and on a morning sugar rush!!! :)
She was a big girl and used the big kid swing for the first time! She did awesome until she decided to let go and proceeded to flip backwards on her head! Her Daddy caught her leg and prevented her injury from being even worse than it was......here's her head injury, she lost quite a bit of hair from this spot - poor girl..... but quite a trooper, she let Daddy clean her head and then asked to get back on the swing!

Even though all 4 were pretty tired from the experience, both Daddy's said they will do it again next year! What great memories they will have!!

BTW: I have to give snaps to Chuck who took all these wonderful pictures and video! He was given the camera with detailed instructions to take lots of pictures and he did not fail me! Lots of documented memories thanks to Daddy :)

Tadpoles and Froggies....

We went tadpole and frog hunting!! Actually Papa did all the work but it was well worth it cuz Sam had a BLAST!! Papa called a few days before we got to Perryton to tell us that he had rounded up some tadpoles and put them in the stock tank!! I wasn't quite sure how Sam would react but knew she would be interested at least. Not long after getting to Perryton we all went to see the tadpoles.......

timid at first.....

Matt was interested :)
She started off just watching Papa touch the frogs...
Then she would touch them with a leaf....
Then she would pet the frog but have to wipe her hand between each petting....
THEN we went full on holding!! And it was a free for all after that!! :)
She had a blast and has gotten up each morning since wanting to catch the frogs!!


"Look Mommy, the frog is walking!"

We took a TON of videos of the frog hunting so I'll post more later :)

Lots of fun to come :)