July Part 2…Lots of homecomings!!!

July has been a pretty special month because we have had 3 family members come home after being away for awhile!

All in the same weekend…My sister Amanda…aka Flo came home to visit.

I wish it was to stay but maybe soon! She lives in Arizona and decided to surprise us by coming home for about a week. She was dying to see her nephew Preston seeing as the last time she saw him, it was his birthday.

It took him a minute to warm back up to her…not long though! After awhile he was showing her his Dukes of Hazzard Moves (see above picture).

All she really wanted to do was pinch his little muscle thighs!

Her sad face of course! I hate that she had to leave so soon!!!

Next, My Grandma came home from her mission in Hong Kong…

Unfortunately I had to work so Timmy took all the pictures at the airport for me! Thanks honey!

Preston waiting anxiously for her arrival! The last time he saw her, he was 3 months old!

There’s nothing quite like sitting at the airport waiting for a loved one to come home! November 2011, my little brother comes home from his mission and i’m anxiously awaiting that day!

Here she is…I must admit…even though i’ve seen her since she’s been home, this picture still chokes me up! I’m so proud of her and missed her so much!

The next group of pictures all speak for themselves really…

Tears of joy I tell ya!!! There is nothing like family and I mean NOTHING!!! I love all the pictures of Grandma seeing her Great Grandchildren and even meeting some for the 1st time. It’s great having her home and I look forward to taking Preston over to see her so she can get to know him better!

My Brother Jimmy is the other person that came home…he enlisted into the Army Reserves and he’s been gone for the past 10 months or close to it. He’s home until September and then is being deployed for a year.

This was at the airport while waiting on Grandma but I love this because you can see how much he has missed his kids since he’s been gone!

I was able to take family pictures for him and his family last weekend since he’ll be leaving soon. While i’m no professional, it was something that I wanted to give them because he’ll be gone for so long and I want him to have pictures to take with him.

Here are just a few…

I hope they like them and know how much I enjoyed doing this for them! It was one heck of a humid morning that’s for sure!

Later that day, Jimmy and I got together and took the boys to Monkey Joe’s. It was great being able to spend time with my brother and letting the boys play!

All in all, it’s been really nice having family home!

July part 1…

It seems i’m a tad bit behind on my blogging because I just went though a gazillion pictures and decided I didn’t want to stay up all night!!! So…here’s what went down July 4th weekend or really the day after!

We took my Dad up on his invite to come over July 5th for a small family cook out. He wasn’t up for doing it on the sabbath so…Monday it was! Thank goodness I didn’t have to work! We enjoyed some ribs or shall I say Preston enjoyed some ribs…

Afterwards, the kids made use of the hazardous playhouse in my Dad’s backyard that hasn’t been used in years! I think it’s time to get it fixed b/c the kids had a blast!

 

My sister Sallie brought one of her Dogs, Rexie which has to be the sweetest Pit bull EVER! Not even kidding…and Preston LOVED her!

and so did Ariel…

and here’s my beautiful siiissster Ashley! I just wanted to throw this one in there! She’s such a great Aunt!

After all of that, I headed on over to my friend Alicia’s for a LONG OVER DUE play date!

I’m so envious of her ginormous back yard!!! The kids had a blast playing on this…

I was really glad to see Ariel and Nicholas working together playing with their little brother…

He wasn’t really feeling it at first…

So he decided that he would go play with handsome little Brody…the most laid back kid ever!  Love him!

Unfortunately this is WAY out of focus!  Oh well…too cute not to post…

Alicia and I just sat and talked trying to play catch up when her absolutely adorable little Brea came up to her and let me capture this…

and this…

LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!

Nicholas discovered this and now begs me for one…Sorry son…our backyard isn’t as amazing as Alicia’s!  :(

All in all, we had a really fantastic day and I was thrilled to have actually had 3 days off in a row! August can’t get here soon enough it seems! That’s when we take our family beach vacation! 5 days off from work!

Stay tuned for July Part 2…

Finally...

a peaceful dinner thanks to my awesome new phone! The HTC EVO....sucker has a kick stand so Preston can watch the Disney channel and we can enjoy our dinner for once! My sister snapped this picture BC he was so into the Mickey Mouse club! I think it's hilarious! !! oh and btw...I'm even posting via my phone! Loves it!!!

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Ariel & Nick go to Colorado

The kids had the opportunity to fly to Colorado with Timmy’s sister Sue to go visit their other sister Lan and her husband Dan. We missed them for an entire week while they had an absolute blast!

Aunt Lan set up quite an itinerary which kept them very busy. A few that top the list were….

Driving to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore

 

Next on the list…Bear Country USA

Apparently, you can drive in your car around wild animals like Bears, Lions, Wolves, Deer, etc…Pretty neat…

Then back to Colorado to go hiking with cousins that they haven’t seen in awhile.

 

After that, they went to Watiki Indoor Water Park…

Then it was time to come home where they were greeted with this….

and as the night went on, it looked like this…

It’s safe to say that while they had a lot of fun, they were glad to be home and so was Preston!