Nene duty!

I love Nene duty!

Nene duty is when the parents of my sweet babies need a helping hand.

Sean was busy moving one evening and I got to watch Lawson while Britain played her t-ball game and then take both to their swimming lessons.

Britain had a great game! 3 good solid hard hits and two scores. She looks adorable in her uniform.

After t-ball, we raced to swimming lessons.  The kids changed into their swim suits while we inched along in the traffic trying to get out of the ballpark.

After swimming lessons they were starving!  Poppy had hamburgers and mac n cheese ready for us at our house.

This last pictures is one of my favorites.  Britain has a friend, Phoebe, that went to play school with her for quite awhile.  Phoebe moved to another playschool about 6 months ago.  Both girls are playing T-ball.  Phoebe spotted Britain first and came running to her.  They hugged each other for about 30 seconds and then told one another how much they missed the other.  It was really sweet.

Last night, Ryan and Laura had a date.  Nene and Poppy got to keep our sweet Taylor and  Emma Grace for the evening.  Lots of fun!

Nene and Emma Grace.

Taylor does NOT like to have his picture taken - actually, in order to get a picture of him, one must sneak which is very hard, bribe him - pretty hard, or just take what you can get.  Following is the best I could do last night.  Love you Taylor Lee.

Emma Grace loves "outside."  She will say that over and over and over again until she is outside.  So cute.

Look at this pony-tail basket shooting girl.

The menu for the evening was pizza, corn dogs and ice cream!  Hey - Nene and Poppy were in charge - whatever they want....

Please note Poppy and Taylor in the background - those two played the Wii most of the evening.

Look at this little face.  It makes my heart happy!

Emma Grace has added another very active word to her vocabulary - "self."  Which means - let me do it myself.  She tried to put her jammies on "self" - below she has the top on the bottom.  But hey - she did it "self" and that makes me  happy just because it makes her happy.

One last picture.  It wasn't taken last night - it was taken about 4 years ago - back when Taylor let us take his picture.  This was the little face he made when asked to "smile!" 

Now this just makes a Nene's heart happy.

The end.

4th of July 2010

I am very patriotic and I love celebrating the 4th of July - our country's independence day!  I am thankful that God allowed me to be born here and not in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iraq.  When I get frustrated with high taxes and all of the beauracy in our government, I have to remind myself that I am not a citizen of Mexico, trying to find a way to escape from the horrible life and government there.
I'm just saying "THANK YOU" from the bottom of my heart!

I am thankful for all of our men and women that risk their lives voluntarily to protect my rights and freedoms - I am mindful of the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice.  I am aware and mindful of the sacrifices these men and women make on my behalf.  I love the opportunity to thank one of them for their service.  Each time I do this, I am amazed at how humble the receipient is - like it's no big deal.  I have watched grown men tear up when thanked for their service.  My guess is that they don't hear it enough.

I love fireworks as part of the celebration.  This year John and I got to watach 2 awesome firework shows on the lake.

Friday  night - Aaron, Audrey and sweet baby Lila joined Poppy and I on our boat for fireworks.
I love this sweet family - it makes my heart happy to see the way that Aaron and Audrey love and respect one another and of course the beautiful little girl that they made is our precious granddaughter, Lila Grace!

After work on Friday, we all headed to the lake - got on board the boat and headed over to the restuarant at Ventris Cove's Trails End Resort.  Poppy and I love this restaurant and the people that own/run it.  They have amazing food - they actually grown their own vegetables, bake their own bread, etc.  Yummy food!

Lila did not like her life jacket!  But she had to wear it.

Beaver Lake is beautiful!  I love being out on the water.

Walking up and I mean UP the trail to the restaurant! Remember, the food is worth it!

Lila ate really good.  She especially loved the home made rolls. (Nene sneaked a couple out for her to munch on later)

Beautiful Audrey and Aaron!

Nene and Poppy!

Aaron was brave and got in the water while we waited for the fireworks to begin.

Once we got the boat situated with the anchor down, Lila got to come out of her life vest and she had fun playing while we waited.

The boats began to gather in anticipation.

Amazing - Lila was not a bit afraid of the loud noises coming from the fireworks.  She watched in awe.  Nene with her great camera skills was driving herself nuts and everyone else in the boat  because I couldn't catch the darn fireworks exploding!  All I got were a couple of embers or total darkness.  Aaron to the rescue - I think he was tired of listening to me.  ;-)  Thank you Aaron for these pictures.

And - Miss Lila got sleepy so she put her jammies on, inserted her binky and grabbed her snugggle toy.  She was asleep in no time.

The end!

Branson part 2

Well, I found more pictures that I want to share from our wonderful trip to Branson with the grands.
Lawson, Taylor and Britain are very close and love one another very much.  They really act much like siblings when they are together,

They all wanted to sleep on the sofa that made into a bed.  Seriously?  They chose that over a bed.  It made into a queen size bed so they could all fit.  It was pretty cute.  In addition to the novelty of sleeping on a sofa that made into a bed - it helped that it was right in front of the television.  First thing every morning Poppy turned the cartoon network on for them and we let them fall asleep watching the cartoon network.  Nene and Poppy are so cool!  ;-)

Waking up happy!

We had breakfast on the deck each morning.  Menu for most days were waffles and bacon.  They got to choose.  I think a pop-tart may have sneaked in one day.

I love the following picture - we have one of Taylor from a couple of years ago.  Inside of Silver Dollar City, they have this sign posted over a hole in the wall of a building that says "Don't Look In This Hole."  Once the sign is read - they can't resist looking in the hole.  Lawson had just finished reading the sign outloud - Britian ran for the hole - and Lawson was on his way to tell us about it.

So cute!

This last picture I truly love.  It is the epitamy of what pouting looks like.  We didn't have much pouting on our trip - but I had to snap a picture of this - Britian was working so hard on her pout face.  We were sitting in The Cracker Barrell waiting for our food - she was very tired and was pouting because she had to wait for a turn to play with that silly game they put on the tables there - the lille triangle with the golf tees.  Britain, I love you and your sweet face - this look is priceless.

 I will finish with my favorite picture of all.  My precious Lawson, Taylor and Britain happy and having fun.  I had the time of my life on this trip - I am trusting that it will be a fond memory for each of my precious grands - I know it will for me.
Love each of you bunches!
Nene

Everything I Needed to Know about Life-I learned in Branson!

Well - that isn't exactly true -    it's more like, "everything I needed to know about Life I learned in Branson with Poppy and our 3 oldest GRANDS! 

Our 2 oldest son's, Ryan & Sean,  and one daughter-in-love, Laura,  allowed us to take 3 of their children, Lawson-7, Taylor-6 and Britain-5 to Branson for a week.  Poppy and I have been anticipating this trip for months - ever since January when we bought a week of someone's time share at Big Cedar Lodge on craigslist.com.  We bought it with the hopes that we would be able to take the 3 oldest grandchildren and spoil them rotten and have lots of fun with them there.

We had a week of fun, constant movement, adventure and candy!  Yep - the first day at Silver Dollar City we let the kids go in the candy store - gave each one a basket and let them fill it up with their favorite candy for the week.  Our babies love candy!  When we checked out, we had 3 bags of candy, 3 happy kids and a bill for $36.00. 
;-) 
Definitely money well spent!

Poppy and I had fun - we found ourselves a few times laughing so hard that our sides hurt.  These 3 kids are incredibly entertaining and they don't even know it.  We also found ourselves so tired that on a few nights, we could barely muster up enough strength to brush our teeth and fall into bed.  I have to admit, there were a couple of times when Poppy and I looked at each other and thought, "what have we gotten ourselves into?" 

Lawson, Taylor and Britain, for the most part, get along really well and play very good together.   We did have a couple of times when we had to get loud in order to be  heard over them and get them to quiet down, and a couple of times when they had to be separated for awhile to cool off - but nothing really bad.  I was super proud of them all the way around.

We stayed very busy while we were in Branson for 5 days and had loads of fun. We spent THREE WHOLE DAYS in Silver Dollar City, went swimming several times in 3 different pools, water slides, the lazy river, shopped (only fun stuff for them), went to the Giant Imax and watched a documentary about fighter pilots and the Blue Angels, rode the wiggle scooters, walked all over Big Cedar Resort and managed to find time to sleep a little bit.

Here area a few of the things I learned:

• If Taylor says that he is thirsty 3 or 4 times while riding in the car, what he really means is - pull over, I'm about to throw up.
• Do not order Lawson popcorn at the theatre unless they have extra butter.  He won't eat it.
• If you want to  make Britain's day, don't make her wear a hairbow. 
• True love is going on the giant swing ride with your 5 year old granddaughter because she really wants you to ride it with her - even though you know there is a 90% chance you will throw up after.
• Golden Coral is the new favorite place to eat for Lawson, Taylor and Brit.  Where else can one get an endless supply of pizza, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes & gravy, spaghetti,  & ice cream? It also helps that one can top their ice cream with gummy bears, M&M's, sprinkles, nuts and crushed cookies. 
• Not sure how many times I was asked, "are these your kids" "are they triplets?"  I finally just started answering "Yes they are my children - they are triplets." That way I only had to answer one question - even though it was a lie.
• "I love you Nene" are sweet words that make my heart happy.  I learned that they are even sweeter when the speaker dog-paddled all the way across the pool just to hug me and tell me that.
• Poppy was a bit worried that Britain had something wrong with her stomach because she said it hurt several times.  AND THEN I pointed out to him that her tummy ONLY hurts when she doesn't get her way.  I love you little girl.
• 30 minutes is too long for a 5 ,6, and 7 year old to wait in line for anything!
• Each of these precious children were told they could have anything they wanted in the giant souvenier store.  They each ended up with a shirt, a back scratcher and a giant pencil.  Yep - a back scratcher and a giant pencil.  ;-)  But along the way to making their final decisions the following were considered: a coon skin hat, a skunk skin hat, a bag of rocks, a magnifying glass, candy, a walking stick, a cane, a cowboy hat, a necklace, flip flops, a miniature wooden outhouse,... I am sure there are more items - these are all that I remember.  Sooo.... really.... a backscratcher and a giant pencil are pretty good choices.
• I learned that the reason these 3 oldest grandchildren of mine "clash" on a regular basis, is because each one of them are natural leaders.  They are not accustomed to following.  That is pretty exciting to me.
• I learned that I love these precious children even more than I believed possible.  I love their sweet little faces, each of their unique personalities and seeing  glimpses of the amazing adults that they will become.  I am truly smitten with them, they own me, they make my heart happy.

Silver Dollar City

The Sheriff Got Them!

It was HOT in SDC - my creative little ones took advantage of the water sprinklers inside the park!

Check out this big bass they caught!

Then it ate them!

Can't wait till next year!