Sunday, August 31, 2014

Texas Part 3: Good ol' Paris Cousin Fun!

After a very hectic 10 days, things slowed down a bit and we just played all day everyday. I did things like sleep super late, go to lunch with my brother, eat Taco Delite almost every day.....the list of indulgences goes on and on! Pretty much we spent as much time together as we could and I was so glad my brother's fams were willing to pretty much put life on hold and hang out the whole time. It was awesome! 

The sprinklers came on and there was no question what everyone was going to do! 



Marion Jayne 


Gay Gay and Jaylie June


Here's our Ollie boy.  He's happy at my parent's place but we sure miss him! He's the only dog left there now so he gets all the attention and seems to soak it all in.  


Uncle Clint made towel Togas. 


jjp and her Paw Paw


Brothers in the pool.


More of Ollie. I couldn't stop taking pictures of him! 


There was no shortage of Mule Rides.  Gay Gay bought the boys Ninja Turtle hats to wear on their Mule rides.  They were pretty excited! 


Quinn and Paw Paw picked lots of things from the garden.  This was the giant watermelon my dad had been waiting to pick! 


Juney enjoyed her cute gourd.  


Clint somehow landed at the "kid table" this time. I'd love to know the conversations happening here. 


Gay Gay and Jaylie June all dressed up for church. 


My dad said he planted carrots for the sole purpose of letting the kids pull them up. He knew they would like it and he was right! That was Q's favorite thing.  We cooked a few and he was proud to eat them since he picked them.  (Also, I promise we feed him. I realize his ribs stick out like he's been starved.)


Showing off another nice carrot!


My cousin Jay and Aunt Mary Lynn came to town one day. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them. The boys were in the little pool while we were all shooting and it looks like somewhere between taking off his swimsuit and putting on his clothes, Q got distracted watching Jay shoot.  



As always, Jay was a great sport letting kids climb all over him! 


Jay even went to the pool with us.  Now THAT'S love--letting the kids hang all over him, throw them, and play whatever games they wanted him to play. 





Quinn liked to run behind the Mule like Ollie so Jaylie decided she wanted to do that too!  You can see Q up ahead of the Mule while jjp runs as fast as her little legs will carry her. 


One night we had a boys sleepover.  Nolan came and they had so much fun together.  He's our only boy cousin so we gotta take advantage of the boy time! Gay Gay got them all some Ninja Turtle sleep shorts (that looked more like capris....they didn't care though).  I sure do love these 3


Sweet Nolan said, "Here KiKi, I'll help you walk."


Its things like this that caused me to gain 20 lbs. while I was in Texas.  After kids are in bed, it was  Mom's GIANT milkshake complete with whipped cream and a cherry.  Mmmmmmm.   And that was just ONE example.  There were HUNDREDS...and thousands of calories. 


Kan, June, and Ellie takin' a spin




Marion and her prissy self. 

Mom took this "Mule Selfie" one night when they went for a night ride.  The lightning bugs were everywhere so it became a nightly ritual to get all ready for bed and then go check the lightning bugs. 


There was lots of drawing with this crew.


The babies goin' solo on the Mule.  


Silly Jaylie with her bonnet on. 


Jaylie loved this bib. She would never wear a big when she was little, but I guess I just never had the right ones. 


My dad took off work for a week while I was there and with his long weekends there were only about 3 or 4 days the whole time I was there that he had to work.  This was one of them.  He was usually met at the door with at least 3 kids begging for a ride! 


Its not all play around there.  A girl's gotta earn her keep. 


Ellie girl found the chips. 


POPSICLES!



Back in May when I went to Texas Ro was talking about Banana Splits and I told her I'd take her to get one.  Well....I finally made good on my promise one night.  We had so much fun! We just talked and laughed. I can't believe she's old enough to for real hang out with.  


Paw Paw putting lighting bugs in the jar. 


Aunt Nancye came to town! Of course she brought Quinn their favorite cookies. Only with Aunt Nancye do you get a cookie with icing 1 inch thick for BREAKFAST! 




She brought treats for the kids and she got June this vest. This was several days after Nancye left and she was still requesting the vest all the time! So what if its August in Texas....she was lovin' her down vest! 


Ollie was being a very good sport.  


This was an old bib of mine and it was a hit with Jaylie too. 




The fun just kept on going. And the noise was through the roof.  Everyone stayed up late and woke up early (except me...I stayed up late and slept late {thanks again, mom and dad}), and played hard all day long! It was awesome! There's still one more post of pictures from our last couple of days and out trip back to Montana.   

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Texas Part 2: Paris! The Greens and Jaylie's Birthday




This picture was actually taken about 10 minutes after we drove up to my parent's house Tuesday evening.  They were so ready to ride the Mule while Ollie ran with them! The only thing better than a Mule ride is one with cousins. Mallory was there for the first ride! 





Montana--->Greeley, Colorado--->Longview--->Paris--->Camp Deer Run--->Paris 
and if that wasn't enough, after getting in at 2am from CDR Wednesday night, Kory and I took Kanyon to Dallas Thursday for a Dr. appointment.

Mom sent me pictures of all the fun going on with the other 2 while we were with Kanyon in Dallas.  

Juney girl feeding her baby.  Vintage toys abound at my Mom's house (aka she kept most of our toys so now our kids play with them!).  Also....do I even need to point out the rat's nest hair and the giant belly on this child?!




Busy in the kitchen.  


Catching cicadas/locust


Jaylie LOVED Ollie! She would wave at him the whole time he ran beside the Mule.


Meanwhile Kan was getting to eat a yummy burger at Daddy's favorite Dallas burger place...AND he got Lemonade! He was pumped about that! 




When I told him where we were going he asked about the shadow wall! Its in the waiting area at this particular clinic in the Scottish Rite Hospital.  Its so cool! I gotta get one of these in my house! 



They have updated the playground there too and its AWESOME! He had a blast! After a long visit he deserved to get the wiggles out.  We met with his neurologist who monitors his seizures. We haven't been able to get them stopped so we are changing meds (again) and hoping this one does the trick.  Its an annoying process to get off one and on another so it will be a while before we really know if it works, but of course, we are hoping this one is the one we need to get his seizures under control.  


Q and Jaylie June got to have dinner at Clay and Mo's house that evening before we got back.  




This was the night my Mom caught possibly one of the best pictures ever.  She snapped this of Jaylie and Ellie on the couch.  Not sure what June was telling her, but it must've been GOOOOOD! 




We were FINALLY back to Paris for a bit and had a blast doing all the usual things...

swimming in the lake....



riding the Mule in a life jacket and PJ's.....


And of course....FISHING! 




This was a different fishing adventure with just Quinn and Paw Paw.  Q really loves to fish! 





Uncle Clint getting some cuddles from Kan Man




Weeeell we all thought Ellie was gonna be the forever Baby of the Spencer Clan, but we were all WRONG!  Clay and Mo are expecting again and in the humor of it all, I got this Tshirt from another friend who had a similar "bonus baby" experience.  I just had to give it to Mo.....haha! We can't wait for the next cousin coming in January!!!!!  


Pizza time! 


Friday our friends Eric and Amber Green came to town for the weekend. We were so glad it worked out that they were in town while we were.  It was such a fun weekend.  They have been family friends our whole lives and our kids all have so much fun together.  We raided the Hargis's pool Friday afternoon...Here's the whole crew! Plus Alison's sweet baby Miles.  He came by for a visit too! 




Jaylie and Easton



We filled up the entire pool! 



After a fun day of swimming, our whole crew plus the Crocketts came over for dinner and Jaylie's "Birthday Party".  Its a party anytime the whole gang is together, so add in a cake and its a birthday party! 

Jaylie was loving baby Miles.  He tolerated all the girls mothering him and the NOISE in our house very well.  I just couldn't get enough of his chubby sweetness!  


Aelyn and Jaylie playing with Miles.  Glad Ali was there to protect him from Jaylie's "love".  



Maybe my favorite picture of the whole night!!!  Jaylie was trying to kiss Miles and he was having NONE of it! haha! He was looking at him mom like she'd dropped him in the lion's den! haha!!  I'm sure their love will be mutual someday, but for now its pretty one sided! Martha...(I know you're reading) we LOVED being with y'all that night! So happy you were there! Love y'all!

Ali tell Miles I miss him! :) and you too!



This is by far my laziest cake ever.  Jaylie had told me she wanted a baby on her cake a while back, so I figured I'd use the retro babies from the 80s that I knew were at Mom's house. The ones she used to put on baby shower cakes back in the day! At 5:00 I still had no plan for a cake, so we decided to cover it in sprinkles, slap a baby on top, and call it good.  The sprinkles turned out to be pretty tricky....and messy.  When Jaylie saw her cake she yelled "BABY!!!!!" That's a total success in my book! 



wohooo! Baby!!! 


Q and Mallory eating supper


Jaylie and Ellie enjoying the birthday meal. 


She was a little overwhelmed by the whole singing experience. 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JAYLIE 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!! 


Me and my cray cray 2 year old! 



Auburn is such the Mommy and she cut up and fed Jaylie her birthday cake! So sweet.  




Opening presents was fun! Especially the super hero duds from The Crocketts! 



Clint and Miles.  I need to squeeze that boy....Miles...not Clint.  


Jaylie showing Ellie her new book.  Please take a moment to enjoy Ellie's teeny tiny ponytail! 



Auburn, Quinn, Avery, and Easton playing outside before the Greens left on Sunday afternoon.

Quinn, Mallory, Easton


They all spent so much time drawing in the living room Sunday afternoon.  They were so cute staying so busy making all sorts of creations.  



AND this is the lineup of kids......Aelyn Green (8), Avery, Roselyn, Kanyon (7), Landry and Auburn Green(6), Nolan (5), Quinn and Easton Green and Mallory (4), Marion and Jaylie (2) and Ellie (1).  Such a FUN group of kids! The Greens were some of my parents best friends from their Dental School days and we grew up vacationing and visiting them our whole lives.  Matthew and Eric were always some of our favorite friends and after fun times in college and then Eric in dental school with my brothers, the next generation of friendships continue (and so do the ski trips!). So it makes us SO HAPPY to watch our kids play together!  


Mo, Clay, Eric Green, Rachel, Clint, me, and Amber Green. As you can see, Kory is gone.  I had to take him to the airport Saturday evening so he could fly back to work for a couple of weeks while we stayed in Texas. 



We were sad to see Kory leave, but glad he let us stay and play for another couple of weeks!!







Lilypie
Lilypie First Birthday tickers