Sweet John

The Wednesday before we moved from Bartlesville my grandfather, John passed away. His nickname was "Sweet John". He was such a sweetie. He was actually my step-grandfather, but I always considered him my real one b/c I knew him better than my biological grandfather who passed away when I was young. It's neat b/c my real grandfather and John were good friends. Anyways, John wanted to be cremated and for his and my grandmother's remaining ashes to be spread in the Blanco river which is where the had picnics together all the time.
The day turned out to be beautiful! It was very casual as you can see by the pictures and comfortable. There was just family there. Luke led the "ceremony", one of his grandaughters sang and then my mom, Uncle and John's other daughter put their ashes in the river. All the grandkids and great-grandkids threw rose petals. It was sweet.
As you see in the pics right after we spread the ashes my Aunt and Uncle's dog decided to jump in the river right smack in the moss. It was hilarious. Perfect timing for a good laugh! Wookie (the dog) came out of the water with moss draped all over her.
After we celebrated John's life we continued celebrating life by playing football, picnicing and playing in the tree. John really would have loved what we did on his special day. I will never forget my sweet John. He loved me unconditionally and could give the best hugs!

Saturday

Saturday we had a picnic at the park with Taylor, Campbell and Emily Grace. The boys are getting a little old for the playground - but they had a lot of fun helping the little ones have fun.

I love this picture of Campbell trying to cheer up my pouty daughter.

My 4 had so much fun going down the slide together. They were being so crazy and setting a really bad example to all the other little ones at the park. Oh well, so sorry- they were having a blast!

She is alway smiling!

Big princess. Little princess.

Ryder loves having someone his own size to play with.

Cam was swinging and doing back flips off the swing. Another bad example. Oops.

Prayer please

Please pray for Cam's teacher from B'ville - Barbara Brown. She has battled ovarian cancer off and on for 6 years. Yes - SIX years! She has young children at home. I can't even imagine battling cancer while raising children and teaching at the same time. She just found out that her cancer has come back for the third time. She really needs your prayers. The spot is in a tricky location and might be hard to remove. She has told me she is scared, tired and sad for her kids. As a mom my heart really aches for her.

She is the most amazing teacher! She loves children and is just so amazing with them. Cam would come home all the time with silly stories or exciting things he learned from her. She definitely has the gift of teaching and you can tell she truly loves children. She wants so badly to live and raise her children.

Please pray for her - pray for a miracle! Ask everyone you know to pray for her - for her kids, the doctors that treat her, for her to have hope and live w/o pain - most of all for His will.

Thanks! I'll update.

Second week in Austin

We enjoyed playing over at Chad and Taylor's house. Campbell was good at sharing her Dora truck. Ryder had no idea what was going on. He just put the petal to the metal and stared blankly until he wrecked.

This week wore him out

Tuesday we went with Cam on his field trip to the farm. We got to see lots of beautiful animals including this one.

Cam and his friend were so sweet with Ryder.

Ostrich egg. Funny farm man.

Easter was a lot of fun. We did a scavenger hunt for the big kids and an egg hunt for Ryder.

Lane was so sweet helping Ryder

Everytime one of my boys picks up anything close to resembling a ball - the other one automatically gets nervous.

The park close to our house has an awesome park with walking trails.

We always love playing ball in Papa's backyard

Gotta love this face!

Cam can make drums out of anything. His teacher can attest to it!

Emily and Cambell

We were all excited to finally meet Emily Grace!

I think Campbell and I are going to be tight.

Grande soy chai please

Starbucks, or course

Breakin'

Once in TX we took a break in Tyler at my Aunt and Uncle's house that is on the lake. It was a perfect place to break and relax. The boys even got some fishing in.

OK to TX

Luke behind me.

My new best friend

I had to tell Cam 5 gazillion times to "turn it down!"

Olivia was just perfect!

Ryder did great in the car, the DVD player was a life saver. Like his baby doll?

Blaze doesn't do too good in the car. Seems to upset his stomach. It wasn't easy trying to catch the dog's vomit in a bowl while drive 80 mph. oh - and also taking pictures! jk.

Saying good-bye to friends

Before we moved we had a beautiful, warm day so we took the kids and some friends to the park for a picnic and to play. Above and below are some pictures.

Moving South

Sorry I haven't been blogging. This wknd we are moving and it is a wee bit crazy right now. I will blog again as soon as we get settled and I promise lots of pictures will be with it!