Robin on the job

When we were in Wichita awhile ago, I twisted my sister's arm to show us around her job. She does cool things like fly small airplanes. :)


She brings sexy to a flight suit. No joke.


Erik and I sardened into a cockpit.

Lindsborg for an afternoon

When my in-laws were here last month, we went to the Salt Mines. We also took a day trip to Lindsborg. They're famous for the Dala horses. They're everywhere in that town.


Even outside of the senior center.


This horse makes me giggle, with its hearing aide + Ben-Gay.

Swim time! :)

A few weeks ago, I took my No. 1 nephew swimming in the big pool for the first time! :) Theodore has fun with his wading pool at home, but this was his first foray into the big leagues. :)


I thought this Y was zero-depth entry, but I was wrong. Oh well, good times were still had.


The lifeguard turned on the big slide and told me I could take him down. Mommy Robin agreed, and we hit the action.

Here's a video from the event.


This was his FIRST time down, and I used the sides to slow us down. I didn't know if he'd freak out or anything. Also, at the top, we put our fingers in the moving water to let him experience it. The next few times, we went down more quickly. :)


And here is the water feature. Later on I stood up and we went under it. I think that was smarter. The water is really choppy at the bottom, and is more smooth and "together' up high.



All done! (his "deer in the headlights" look highly amuses me).

Almost famous

We had a little gathering last night at my 'rents in Wichita to celebrate my belated birthday. It was a great time. I held 3 babies and was totally slimed by 1 of them. No tattling on the guilty party, though. ;)

My biz partner, Mike, keeps a blog of his kids' first year. It's a BIG undertaking, and he strolled into the party, baby on one shoulder, camera on the other. I snagged the camera immediately.


Of course, parents of young children have so much in common, so my sis, Robin, was chatting Mike up. They're also sort-of neighbors.

You can SEE THE POST HERE on Tommy's blog.

Mike's kids' blogs have quite a following, so I'm waiting for Theodore to be discovered by a talent agency, because he's so cute and all (his daycare peeps call him "Theodorable" — pretty cute!)).

More to come from the fun + frivolity. Also to come: my taking Theodore to the BIG pool for the first time. It involved at least 4 trips down the water slide. AND no screaming! :)

Oh, and for anyone out there wondering if I'll be doing something similar to a photo a day blog when kids become a part of our life ... the answer is a big fat NO. With kiddos, they'll get their own special tag here on our blog and I think a weekly photo to track growth the first year is probably in order for me, but I'm not sure I could handle the time/commitment to a photo a day for the first year.

Nephew Theo's first out of town/overnight sleepover!

On Labor Day, my fam was up to just chill with us. This included Baby Theo! We were honored that Theo's first out of town/overnighter was to our house.

As you can see, Esse didn't give one flop about the baby.


Uncle E helping work out a burp.


Theo's awfully snuggly!


One thing my sister and I agree on is that kid/baby JUNK can take over a person's house and life. She didn't feel compelled to pack a bed for Theo. And why should she? We have a drawer which he fit into perfectly! (one made by my father in law, I might add).


This was as close as Esse got to Theo on her own. She really didn't care, which was a surprise to me. But I wonder if so many people weren't over if she might have been more curious.


After Theo left, though, she didn't waste time in making herself at home in his bed.

Little Laws is here! :)

Ok, so I know I need to post baby shower pix, but c'mon, the arrival of my nephew is the main event right now! :)


Yesterday morning, he was ready to make his debut.


At 6 lbs, 12 oz, he was a cute little tyke. And as a trivia note, Erik's thumb is bigger than Theo's footprint.


Grandpa Wayne.


Granma Carol (Chris' mom).


This is dark and moody, but I like it. Theo would sort of pull his hand over his face to block the light as he slept. Pretty stinkin' cute.


And Auntie Teresa was also on the scene. :)


Last photo.

Sneak Peek — Robin's Baby Shower

Yesterday was my sister, Robin's, baby shower. It was TONS of fun.

I promise to blog/share more photos and such later. But just a quick teaser here. I was REALLY excited because I envisioned this little flag/banner and mom helped me to do it ... and it looks JUST Like I wanted! And the same for the balloons.

Fun fact: 3 dozen fully inflated balloons will fit into my Nissan Alatima, but only barely. And driving is tricky. But balloons are my new favorite way to decorate. Seriously, excellent, fun, festive and really reasonably priced! :)

Baby belly

Cruise over to my sister's blog by CLICKING HERE to check out the growing progress of my new niece/nephew!

I'm excited to be taking belly pix Friday night with Robin and Chris! :)

Braggin' on my bro

I know ... no posts for awhile. Sorry peeps, but I'm wicked busy right now!

BUT today I was forwarded something kinda cool ... the student paper at Paul's University wrote a story about his travels last semester. You can check it out by CLICKING HERE. :)

Happy anniversary, sis

Yikes, did my little sister really get married 2 years ago?!?!??!?

Well, I'm still thrilled, despite my expression in the photo.


;)~

Halloween

Friday night, my mom called to see what I was up to on Halloween.

One of Erik's co-workers lives on a popular trick-or-treating street ... we showed up with our bags of candy and watched the frivoloty.


Dad, of course, brought festive hats. :)

Anywhere from 1,800 to 2,000 kids came by to collect candy. It was .... Norman Rockwell-ish to watch. Had a small-town feel, but ... not .... all at the same time. Hard to describe.


Isn't he a cutie?!?!?!?? :)


And this? Well, guess what he is?

A pothead.

Gotta love those literal costumes. ;)


Closing with another window decor shot.

House Blessing

Fr. Nick blessed our house several weeks ago ..... and we had plenty of family and friends in town for the festivities. :)


The dudes doing the grill thing.



And of course, after a good meal, this is what the men in my family do ...

Killer kitty?

Two things today.

1) My youngest brother, Paul, started a blog. YESSSSSS!!!!!! Another convert! ;) He's living in Taiwan and i suggested a blog would be a great way to keep us updated without having to e-mail everyone the same thing. Ya know? Oh, for those of you who are interested, HERE is the link. I'll also add it on the right side of our blog here ... under "family blogs."

2) Our cat. I think now that it's getting colder, she needs to be more warm at night. So she hunkers down on the far edge of the bed, thus pushing me into the middle. Which unfortunately results in Erik getting pushed OUT of the bed. :( Poor Erik.

More on the kitty:


I went out to the car one evening to see this. There's the cat in the chair ... and do you see the rabbit in the upper right corner of the photo?


This glance was about all Esse gave to the rabbit.

A rabbit seems to like hanging out on our new porch .... *sigh* .... Erik might be right .... our cat has lost her killer instincts. I think Erik feeds her too much. Maybe if he stopped feeding her, she'd annihilate the rabbit population in our yard.

Cuzzzzzzins

As you can see, I'm beginning to catch up on blogging. :)


A few weeks ago, we got together in western Kansas to celebrate Grandpa John's b-day. When we were there, we were able to see cousin Jen + her cute little boy, J-Bob. Errrrr ... Jackson. :)

Geeking out :)

When Robin and Chris' wedding album came in .... Robin wanted to fly up here and pick it up ..... but I told her NOOOOOOOOO. Amy had to see it first.


See how EXCITED she was, Robin?


Thanks for being so patient, baby sis!

On the wall ...

In my grandfather's room at the care center, there is not a single photo of me. I sound vein, I know, but .... he always asks me who I am when I show up. Yeah, he could be joking ... but at the same time, it can't hurt to help his memory.

Wall before:


Grandpa examining the goods:


Wall after:


All better! :)

Independence — Burmese Brother :)

Ooooooook, so we were driving down to Independence .... and who should call me but my Burmese Brother, James.


Let me rewind here. When I was living in Indy, James and his family moved in upstairs. They are immigrants from Burma. His father was a freedom fighter and they're a lovely family. Anyhow, James basically adopted me ... and I he. He calls me "big sister" and so he's my Burmese Brother.

So ..... he called Sunday afternoon to tell me he and his mom were going to see Fr. Steve, who lived about 30 minutes from where we were traveling. COINCIDENCE!!!!!!!!! We could have tried to plan a rendezvous for MONTHS but it would probably never have worked out so well. :)


We went to the Tropical Sno stand ....


Who doesn't love a good tropical sno?

Hired Help

Robin chats w/ her boyfriend over the weekend. She came down to help me in Oklahoma w/ my portrait sessions. Basically, she was my slave in moving chairs, etc. Thanks SIS!!!! :)

Blog header — Christopher Robin

Sooooooo, I've been meaning to do this for awhile.

Tonight, I created a custom blog header for Robin and Chris' blog. They didn't really ask for my help, I just did it and then sent it to them. I hope they like one of these, because I do!!!!




For those of you who don't know what a blog header is, it's the photo or words at the TOP of a blog. See the photo strip of Erik and I? I put it together, but it was a quick/temporary blog header.

Isn't it nice how Chris is actually on the left side and Robin is on the right, so "Christopher Robin" makes sense with people's placement in the photo? (YES, I am a TOTAL nerd!)

I TOTALLY can't wait until Mike takes my engagement photos with Erik, because I TOTALLY want to make one of these for US!

Soooo...which one is YOUR favorite? Leave a comment!