The Labor Day Curse

**I'm about 10 years behind on blogging, so I (hopefully) will be posting a bunch over the next week or so in a lame attempt to catch up...

Last year on Labor Day, Dane and Aidan accompanied their Pappy to a very special photo shoot with some of their favorite football players.

#8 would later go on to break his foot, ending his 2011 season.

#80 would later go on to pull his hamstring, ending his 2011 season.

This year on Labor Day, this star linebacker, lead tackler for the team, signed my sweet boy's cast.  He was the envy of his third grade class for the following weeks.

And last Sunday?  #56 tore a ligament in his knee, ending his 2012 season.

I would like to apologize to all Texans fans for the past couple of seasons.  Apparently, my boys are involved in a little-known curse, and next year they will try to find a tackling dummy to solicit autographs from.

Kentucky 2012

A couple of weeks ago, we made a trip that I have been looking forward to for the last two years.  We FINALLY all went up to Kentucky for a family reunion.  Dane and Aidan went two years ago, I was last there four years ago, and Brandon has not been since before we were married.  And of course the girls had never been.  I was very much looking forward to all of us going together, and as usual, it was worth every second of the long car trip.

We headed out on Thursday morning, and made it to Little Rock with plenty of time to swim in the hotel pool (always a highlight of any road trip for my kids).  My mom met us in Little Rock, and my dad, Lindy, Andy, and baby Nora flew to Little Rock late Thursday night.  Friday morning we all loaded up, girls in one car, boys in the other, and headed up to Sikeston, Missouri (not really on the way, but kind of close) because we cannot go to Kentucky without first stopping at Boomland.

Which, in addition to fireworks, now offers home decor.  Of course.  That's the real reason we come to Boomland.  The home decor.

Not the row after row of fireworks...

We may or may not have bought enough fireworks to get a free hat.

Pictures of my four kids all look the same after a while.  Emerson smiling sweetly at the camera, Aidan refusing to look at me, Harper horizontal.

We arrived in western Kentucky Friday evening, and I spent the next couple of days with my beloved extended family, but only took pictures of people I see all the time.  Of course.  Why I have almost no pictures of my Kentucky people, but 80 pictures of baby Nora doing cute things, I will never know.

Friday nights at Kentucky reunion are fish-fry in the barn nights.  The kids play in the pool and the adults catch up, and towards the end of the evening, Fireworks Round 1 commence.

I don't know how many times I have eaten fried fish in a barn in Kentucky in my lifetime, but that Friday night I looked up to seen several hams hanging from the barn ceiling, curing.  I've never mentioned this on the blog before, but one of my favorite foods in the world is really good country ham.  Not regular ham.  COUNTRY ham, the saltier the better.  My uncle* Walter Lee and aunt* Jane surprised me with my own little sample of their country ham the next night, which I gleefully enjoyed in my kitchen a couple of days later.  You know it's good when it's so salty it doesn't really need to be refrigerated :)

Aidan with his cousin Walter*.

I don't think they're making a bomb in this picture with various parts of different fireworks.  And I promise we feed Aidan.  Every day, in fact.  He's just a skinny little dude with shoulders that poke out and ribs that you can count.

We had pulled the boys out of school for that Thursday and Friday, causing Dane to miss the day at school when all the kids who clocked a sub-7 minute mile would race against each other for the Magic Mile Race.  Dane's best mile was 6:59 this past year, and he was pretty bummed about missing the Magic Mile.

He got over it pretty quick when he saw where he would run his Magic Mile:

And he had a (slightly slower) running buddy:

(Sidenote: Teeth are falling out constantly at our house now.  Dane is currently missing both of his top teeth, and Aidan lost his first lower tooth last week.)

Some corn runners are less graceful than others...

Someday Aidan will get all four of his long limbs coordinated and will be a beast of an athlete.  Until then, I will take lots of pictures like this that make me so happy.

Saturday evenings at Kentucky reunion are always dinner at Aunt* Juanita's house.  Some of my most favorite times have been spent in and around Aunt Juanita's house, with people that I have NO PICTURES OF.  You'll just have to trust me on this one.

The kids kept entertained on the new swing set and taking endless rides on the golf cart.

Baby Nora wanted to drive.

There were lots and lots of "Fourth Generation-ers" this year.  Not sure how they're actually related to each other (5th cousins, maybe?), but they had a blast!  Emerson latched onto a couple of these 4th gen-ers...

and spent the evening excitedly telling me, "Mom, she's my COUSIN!"  She was beside herself with all the excitement of meeting so many family members all in one place.

Like Francie and baby Lydia,

and her cousin Zelda (That's right.  ZELDA.  Because my family is AWESOME.) and her daddy The Baby Whisperer.

No Kentucky reunion is complete for my crew without a few of these things:

1.  Pyromania.  This was the bonfire when we got to the house Saturday evening.  It was as tall as my 6'2" husband.  Brandon put on his invisible firefighter hat and spent a few minutes hosing off the surrounding grass,

then a few hours later we were attacking the fire with the leaf blower for roasting Smores...

while Brandon, Andy, and a bunch of 4th Gen-ers were burning through more Boomland goodies.

2.  Getting beat at backyard football by your girl cousins.

Girl COUSINS.  Plural.  This gives me hope that perhaps some of Dane's athleticism did come from my side of the family, after all.  

3.  Food.  And lots of it.  Actually there was a strawberry cake that didn't even make it till after dinner, because so many of us snuck into the laundry room for "just a tiny piece".  This girl found herself a princess chair to enjoy her chicken from.

4.  First Generation-ers.  Like GG.

5.  Making my dad take pictures of us outside by the corn.

My beautiful seester and her family (did I mention that Lindy is pregnant again?  Due in September.  Baby Nora will be a big sister at 14 months!)

And my little family.  I think this is the first picture of all six of us since Christmas 2010.  Our kids are bigger now.

We had a wonderful WONDERFUL time in Kentucky this year.  And if any of my family has pictures of people other than the people I see all the time, please send them my way!  Hopefully we will get up there again before 2016.


*I use the term "aunt", "uncle" and "cousin" very loosely.  Basically these are generational distinctions.  My "Uncle" Walter Lee is actually my father's cousin's husband.

*Aidan's "cousin" Walter is actually my dad's cousin's grandson.  No idea how he's related to Aidan.  5th cousins?  4th cousins?

*Aunt Juanita= GG's sister.  Aunt Juanita had 6 kids, who then went on to have a million babies, who are in the process of multiplying as we speak.  Hence the abundance of 4th Gen-ers.  I hope you are getting all of this.  There will be a quiz later.

And April

I'm sure our little family did lots and lots of fun things in April.  I'm fairly certain the highlight of the month was not manicure day:

However, when I went through my camera, very few pictures represented the super fun month that I AM SURE we had. 

I know we went swimming a couple of times, and played outside and went to the park a bunch.  I know for sure that I spent no small part of the month mentally obsessing about what on earth I am going to do with four kids at home all summer, since we're not planning any big fun vacations.  I know I spent lots of time on Pinterest, planning my next room redecoration/craft project/scripture memorization plan/baby shower menu.  And I know I co-hosted not one, but two bridal showers over a single weekend.  (Sidenote:  Why do I always think cake balls are such a good idea?  They take 6 hours to make.  6 HOURS TO MAKE.  Never again, cake balls.  Never again.)
So what did I get pictures of instead?

Brandon took the kids for a weekend to see  his family and surprise his mom for her birthday.  I had to work the whole weekend, so I didn't get to go.

Which I realized was probably for the best when I saw these pictures:

Dane with a microphone.  Aidan with a trumpet.  A trumpet.  As parents, Brandon and I dread the day when our kids will utter the fateful phrase, "Can I be in band this year?"  We will support them in any endeavor they want to undertake, of course, as supportive, encouraging parents who want the best for our children.  Unless that involves band, baseball, or tennis.  Or some sort of select ice hockey league.  Those are all out.

On an unrelated note, Emerson wore this cute outfit and green shirt on this trip, and I have not seen this outfit since then.  So if anyone sees it, please send it back.  Girlfriend looks cute in green :)

The girls and I spent a weekend at my parents' house, in town for a big 50th anniversary celebration at the church I grew up in.  We had a great time, seeing friends I haven't seen anywhere (except on Facebook, of course) in 15 years.  How is it possible that I'm old enough to say "I haven't seen you in 15 years!"?  What I should have done was take pictures of the people I got to see and catch up with, of their beautiful babies and hair that is graying.  Instead, I took pictures of my kids watering Momo's tomatoes.

 And some of girls looking for bugs with their cousins.  Of course.

Harper's newest thing is to grab your face with both hands, and move in for a big, dramatic smooch on the lips for 5-10 seconds.  She calls it a "princess kiss".  We're going to be monitoring her Disney watching habits a little more closely :)  It's really pretty awkward when she does it to her friends at church.  Speaking of church, Emerson is coming to church service with us Sunday because they're talking about her (well, not her, but adoption and orphans) and we all get to wear cute matching shirts and she'll be so sassy, except that she fell out of her bed two nights ago and has a big purple bruise right by her lip.  Awesome.  Parents of the Year.

Harper Lo, Zane, and Jack have the exact same hair color.  It's called "almost the same color as these bricks".  Apparently it's a dominant family trait.

And here's to being officially (almost) caught up on blogging!  Just a week behind now!  Woo hoo!

Family Pictures: Christmas Edition

What's a holiday with family without family pictures?

It's been a while since we had a group picture of Brandon's side of the family with ALL of us in it. And the last time we did was about three grandchildren ago.

And after minimal photoshop magic, I think it turned out pretty well.

Brandon's Grandma Helen joined in for some of the pictures,

Then we got just the kids and their grandparents.

(Small sidenote: A man with a very impressive mullet who works at the haircut place down the street cut Aidan's hair into a circa 1984 chili-bowl cut the other day. It was a sad day. I'm not a stomp-my-feet and scream in the haircut place kind of girl, so we tipped the nice Mullet Man and went on about our day. But hair will grow!)
Over Thanksgiving, I missed getting a good picture of just my four kids, so I thought this would be a good chance. The kids were dressed, everyone had shoes on, hair was fixed. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, yeah. Harper.

Girlfriend was DONE with all the picture-taking, and she wasn't afraid to let us know about it.
Oh, little sister with the big, big attitude. Perhaps I should make a compilation of all of the holiday pictures that have demonstrated your signature pose:

Exhibit A, Christmas:

Exhibit B, Halloween:

Oh, LoLo. I can just see us compiling a photo album to show to any future suitors when you are 23 and your father finally lets you date.

Did I say 23? I meant 27.