Rattlesnake Round-Up

We went to the Annual Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up with Cory, Courtnee and Addison this year. We always enjoy walking around looking at all things snakes.

Hannah, Rylee, Addison and Cutter

The girls are watching them take the venom out of the snakes...gross!

Silly girls!

Addison and Cutter playing in the air castles!
Cutter, dear, please excuse your haircut. Daddy took you this time, and it turned out to be a 'bowl' haircut like Uncle Wormie used to get. I absolute despise it, and have taken you every time since then!

Our 'GREEN' Park

When Rylee was little, she had a colored name for each of the parks in town. One afternoon, Justin and I took the kids to the 'Green Park.' The 'Green Park' is also know as Fort Imagination near the Abilene Zoo.

Just to use as a reference point for the kids when they get older:

Green Park=Fort Imagination (Nelson Park)
Red Park=Rose Park
Yellow Park=Vaugh Park (by Gran and PaPa's)
Brown Park=Redbud Park

Easter at Nanny's

After dad's house, we went to join in the family fun at Nanny's! Justin's Nanny became my Nanny from the very beginning! She is such a loving and caring lady, and my kids are so lucky to have such an active great-grandma in their lives!

Wow! We were all together on a holiday!

This year, Rylee took over the Easter Bunny costume!

Cutter had been waiting on the Easter Bunny since the moment we pulled into the drive way.
When it finally got there, he couldn't find his Roo. Then, the little turkey noticed the Easter Bunny's toes were painted the same as his Roo's!

Karsen, on the other hand, wasn't so sure about this hairy thing!


The kids were ready!

Cutter got side tracked when he found a confetti egg. Poor Chad had to show him how to do it, and then was nice enough to be the guinny pig! Once again, Uncles have played a huge part in the kids lives, especially Cutter's! I thank you ALL from the bottom of my heart!





We had a fantastic time visiting with family. We played ladder ball, had a Thanksgiving style meal, which is always delicious, played more games, and some of them napped.

Easter at Grandad and Hanaba's

One of the blessings of living in the same town as most of your family is that you get to spend time with everyone during the holidays! Our first stop on Easter was Grandad and Hanaba's. As usual, they had prepared something special for the best grand kids anyone could ask for.

Here's the group shot before all the festivities.




This year that had Rylee look for one specific egg. In that egg was a clue that began a scavenger hunt for her surprise.

Cutter playing with his loot...a balloon!

Rylee searched high and low, and finally unwrapped a Children's Dictionary!

Afterward, we all went outside for a little backyard fun, water guns and confetti!



It's times like these that make me appreciate and love my family even more than I imagined possible. Ryan, I'm sorry you had to go back to Cleburne before we got there. We missed you and love you like crazy!

Baby Showers for the Keesee's

During the end of March and the beginning of April I was honored to help host two baby showers for sweet little Payton Jacob, Brittney and Chad.

Here is the group picture from the first shower. It was at our house, and turned out beautifully. Payton was so blessed and received so many presents, as did Chad and Brittney!

Here is the second shower hostess picture. This one was held out at Jerry and Susan's in Ovalo. Payton's room was almost complete after both of the showers. All that was missing was his precious face!

This is a painting Rylee did for Payton. The name isn't spelled correctly, but pretty close.

Fort Worth Zoo

On Tuesday, of Spring Break 2010, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo with Tyler, Ashley and Karsen. The weather was great, even though we got showered on on several occasions. It wasn't too hot, and it wasn't too cold.

Rylee, Karsen and Cutter

The kids riding on the turtle.

Cutter and the humongous snake!

Rylee and her hidden animal.

Karsen was such a big girl the whole trip. Even without a nap, she was in the best mood!

Tyler and Karsen

My big boy!

Justin and Tyler took all the kids into the bird cage. If you know me, I'm not an animal person, much less birds. Anyhow, they all got to feed the birds with a popsicle stick, and were so excited to be so close to the birds. Me, I stood outside and took the pictures from behind the gate!


All of us on the trolley ride to the opposite side of the zoo.

Tyler with my kids.

Wrestling the big alligator!

We had a wonderful time and really enjoy our day out of town!

Spring Break at the Farm

The kids and I had a busy Spring Break 2010. The Friday they got out of school, we packed up the car and headed to Vernon. Dad and Hanaba had a roofing project that could use a little help.

As soon as we got there, the kids climbed up the ladder to take a look at the project on hand. Not really, but they enjoyed going up there.

Vernon's dirt is more of a sand consistency than Abilene's ole hard dirt. The kids had a blast digging to China!

We had lots of picnics outside!

Here's proof we really did work! It took all three of us, Dad, Hanaba and myself, to even make a dent in the reroofing endeavor. We took all three layers of wooden shingles off on day one. Day two we rolled out the felt paper, and started laying the shingles. I'll speak for myself, but know the others felt the same, I was EXHAUSTED. I used muscles I hadn't used in months. It felt good, but was oh so hard to move! I can't imagine how I'll feel doing this in thirty years! My hats go off to Dad and Hanaba. They worked just as hard as I did, and didn't complain at all!

This is just a picture to show the tractor my dad and Hanaba bought. Cutter thinks it is his, but I'm sure they'll share. Dad was so proud sitting up high in the tractor.