Show Us Your LIfe - Your Kid's (or future kid's) names

Over on Kelly's Korner each week she does a post titled Show Us Your Life-...! Well, this week's topic is Your Kid's (or future kid's) name.

As I have mentioned here before Bob and I are high school sweethearts, but I have never really mentioned how we actually started dating...that I remember at least. My dad died of cancer my 8th grade year (16 years ago this year). I liked Bob at one point in 8th grade, but never said anything and eventually started dating another guy. Jump ahead to our sophomore year and Bob's mom had been battling cancer and his dad had a woman that worked for him that was a friend of my mom's and she gave my mom's name to him and told him she knows what you are going through maybe she could be of help. So needless to say he called my mom and we all started hanging out, and my mom would go set with Bob's mom so that dad could go home for a little bit and unfortunately she lost her battle with cancer. Bob has a younger sister that I had become friends with and as a result of spending so much time together I started liking Bob...again. So long story short we started dating and here we are today.

We had talked a few times when we were dating and before we had Anna about names and pretty much had it decided well before we knew we were expecting.

Girls name: Anna Christine...Anna is Bob's mom's first name and Christine is my great-great grandma's name. My middle name is after her but my parents had changed it to Christina. Bob has always liked my middle name and will actually call me by it sometimes...so it was only fit to use my middle name, but we switched it back to its original.

Boys name: Grant Alan...Grant is my dad's first name and Alan is Bob's middle name. We decided that we were going to honor our parents with using their names some how and when we had decided on the girls name and going to use my middle name we decided why not use Bob's also. 

So, there you have it...the meaning behind the name. We are set for a boys name if ever needed, but as far as another girl or even another boy I am not sure. I would like to make sure they are family names seeing how we started out that way, but we will have to see if that time comes.

Fall Festival 2009

Our home town, which is only like 10-15 min. from where we live now host a Fall Festival every year from Friday-Sunday! The Fall Fest usually consists of Friday: City Wide Garage Sales, Friday Night Football, Wrist bands for Ride-A- Rama, some kind of "teen dance", of course all the vendors, and other little events through out the day and evening. Saturday: Several events going on through out the day and evening, Parade, craft fair, carnival, vendors, and the "Street Dance", which this year was a Local that has made it pretty big Logan Mize!!! Sunday: A local church will have worship in the park, ice cream social, and rewards handed out for all the events throughout the weekend. It is usually the first weekend in September but this year they moved it to October 23-25. Some of the reasons I heard for this change was because here in KS it is usually still pretty warm if not hot the first part of Sept., that date also falls on the opening weekend of the State Fair, and they wanted to book a different carnival and they weren't available until the later date. Anyways, it ended up being a beautiful day!!! It had been freezing all week and garage selling to say the least was a little chilly!

The parade started @ 10 and by then the sun was shining and there was just a little breeze. We actually got by with wearing just our sweatshirts! My twin sister came for the parade also and Anna loved it! After the parade I had told a friend that I would help with registration and stats for the Soap Box Derby event again, so we headed off the get set up for that. After that was over we ended just heading home to get some lunch and Anna was in need of a nap!

Bob and I don't usually go anywhere to often that we don't take Anna with us, but this night my mom had offered to watch Anna so that we could go into the "Street Dance" for awhile and seeing how it didn't even start till 8 we wouldn't of been able to stay long if Anna would of went. So, we went in and grabbed supper at one of the pizza places there in town and then had a nice night with some friends. Fall Fest is always a nice time to catch up with old friends! It seems like that is a time when people that are around this area come home!

Here are a few pictures that I got at the parade! I wasn't able to get any pictures of the Soap Box Derby because I was to busy trying to get people signed in, keeping track of times and making sure I didn't mess up the bracket!!!

*Anna getting candy!*
*Friend from high school and her son, my twin sister, Anna and me-This picture was taken on my friends camera phone...not a very good picture of me or Anna (not sure what she was looking at)!*

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader-Halloween 2009

We started off the evening by going to one of my sister-in-laws to drop off my nephews candy buckets...I try to do something small for the little ones every year and then we went by grammy's to show her Anna's costume and then we headed into town. A neighboring town, actually the town I grew up in and the town were Bob and I went to school about 10-15 minutes from where we live do a Trick-or-Treat Street. Downtown they have a Hamburger and Hot dog feed complete with chips and a drink for donations starting @ 5:30 and a parade from the school down the street to downtown, which we missed because we were running a little behind. Lets just say when mommy says you might want to lay down and take a nap because we are going to have a busy evening you might want to take my word for it! When it came time to get dressed Anna was getting sleepy and was fighting to get dressed! But after we got dressed and she realized what we were going to do she was all better...good thing or it might have been and even longer night!!!

After dinner from 6-7:30 all the businesses downtown and even some from around the rest of town line the streets and you walk down each side of the street and get your goodies! One of the local banks was doing a "Hunted Cellar" in the basement of the bank and we walked through it. It was set up pretty good! It was really dark and had strobe lights going and it was almost like a maze and there were people jumping out at you and you had no clue they were even there! I ended up in front of Bob and Anna and Anna was walking with Bob so I couldn't see her reaction, but I never heard her yell or anything. When we got done I asked Bob if she got scared and he said no that she just looked at them weird and after the first one she kept looking all over trying to find more and watch for them. I asked her if she liked it and she said "yes and it was scary"...lol!!!

After leaving we went to one of the churches in town and did there Trunk-or-Treat, which there is like 3 churches that do them but Anna's bucket was so full we decided to skip the rest. We still needed to go by a couple of friends houses, so by the time we hit those her bucket was completely full.

We hung out at one of our friends house for a little bit and Anna helped pass out candy and it was so cute because every kid that came to the door she would chat with them and ask about there costume and then she would tell me when she was done that "that was her friend!!!" After we left there we went by another sister-in-laws house to drop off my nephews candy buckets that I made and then hit my brother-in-laws house on the way home!

All in all we had a good night and Anna had fun and that is all that matters!!! We usually go to the pumpkin patch, but with the weather here and just the way things worked out we never made it, but my brother-in-law had some pumpkins that he planted in his garden this year and sent a small one home with Anna, so she was thrilled and at this age she didn't really know different!

I took a few pictures...sorry my camera has been acting up lately and after it starts getting dark it really does some funky things! Really need a new camera! I know a friend of ours took some pictures so when I get those pictures I will do a little update! But for now you get the point...

*Halloween buckets I made*

*Anna and Grammy*

*Trick-or-Treat!!!*

*Daddy and Anna Trick-or-Treating*


*Downtown-This was @ the end of the night when the crowd was thinning out! This was a sea of people @ the beginning of the night, but didn't get a picture!*

L/O Family Reunion 2009

October 9-11, 2009 was the family reunion for my Bob 's mom side of the family! It was the first reunion in about 17 years I am told. A little info: Bob's mom passed away in 1997 of breast cancer, which is who are daughter is named after! Well...her first name and her middle name is after me and my great-grandma! We had names decided from the very beginning whether it was a boy or a girl...sometime I will have to explain that and how Bob and I started dating, even though we went to school together!

OK back to the point of this post...sorry! Bob's grandma passed away in 2006 and Bob's aunt passed away just a few months ago. With the passing of Bob's mom and aunt it leaves 1 sister and 2 brothers and unfortunately it took a funeral for me to meet one of his uncles and some more extended family and for Bob's family to see each other after several several years. But that day brought about the decision to have a family reunion that got scheduled and held in a few short months by one of my sister-in-laws!!!


We rented a house in the town that we live...this house was a doctors house located outside of town in the country on several acres and a pond and when it sold the people that bought it turned it into a "Lodge" and rent it out for events! It worked out very well because it is huge and has a very open floor plan and we had several coming from out of town and this gave more time for visiting and hanging out together verses everyone having to rent hotel rooms and be split up! It has like 4 or 5 rooms but with all the open room we could very well put down air mattresses if needed...which they supply for a little extra fee! Talking about things they supply that are nice and we didn't have to worry about having to rent was table and chairs (had enough tables and chairs set up for like 75-100 people and there were still more in the storage room if that gives you a clue how much they supply) and pretty much anything we could think of...it is set up just like a house with all your appliances including washer and dryer and any kitchen utensil you could possibly need for a weekend! They also provide eggs, bacon, and milk for the weekend! They also had a ping pong table downstairs for the kids to play! I believe we ended up having like 70 some people show up. We had planned on about 100 some but with work, illness going around, and other last minute obligations I think we had a really great turn out!!!


Friday night we went down to the Lodge and we had pizza and visited with the family that had arrived from Texas...we had decided not to stay at the "Lodge" because we didn't live to far away and we had some other events that we were trying to fit in also...busy weekend!!! Saturday was the main get together at noon with a potluck dinner consisting of everyone bringing a main and a side and I think it worked out really well and there was more than enough food...I brought BBQ meatballs and a family favorite PePe Salad, or I have also heard it called frog eye salad! Saturday night we just had leftovers and I had brought loaves of bread for Sandwich stuff for anyone that was still there. Then on Sunday morning we got up went to church and then went back out and did some more visiting, had some more leftovers, said goodbye to everyone that was traveling back to Texas, cleaned everything up, and then came home caught the end of the KC Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys game and just relaxed after a long but enjoyable weekend...by the way the Cowboys won in overtime...Go Cowboys!!!


Here are a few pictures...didn't get very many I kinda forgot...to busy chatting!!!

BEAUtiful Day...

Saturday, February 7, 2009, was gorgeous out...especially for February! It was about 71 degrees! So, we literally spent all day outside!

DD started the morning out by going to ride with Daddy in the tractor or I should say by sleeping in the tractor. Something about riding in the tractor puts DD to sleep, so she will take her blanket and pillow and there is enough room on the floor beside the door and seat that she can curl up and sleep. It must not be to bad because she will sleep the majority of the time!

This picture is from a couple days before, but you get the idea! The little ball that you see through the glass on the right side is DD curled up sleeping and she was only riding for a little bit when she crashed!
After riding with Daddy on the tractor we went out and helped Daddy clean up and re-arrange the big shed.



After we finished with that it was about 12:30 and we had been talking about taking DD down to Donut Bay, which is a park and pond in town to feed the geese and ducks. So, we decided to go buy and pick something up for lunch and go eat at the park and then feed the ducks. I gathered up all the old bread that I had been saving...we had planned to do this a couple of times when it was nice and one thing or another kept us from going... and headed to town! We went by Taco Bell and grabbed lunch and went and sat at the park and watched the geese and ate our lunch! Then fed the geese and ducks when we were done!

After we got done at Donut Bay we headed home and stopped at Uncle M's and Aunt E's. Cousin C was outside riding his 4-wheeler and then he decided he was going to wash his because big brother T was washing his 4-wheeler. DD decided she was going to help and C was so sweet about showing her how to do it and letting her help! After they got done washing the 4-wheeler he was back to riding his 4-wheeler. DD wanted a ride so C took her on a short, very slooow ride. Then they went out back and played on the swing set and in C's clubhouse!
When we got home DH needed to feed and water the cows and heifers and of course DD wanted to help! She has started this deal with grabbing her little wagon and wanting DH to put the bucket of feed for the heifers in it. It doesn't fit very good but she tries it every time and then decides against it and then just helps Daddy carry the bucket.
When we finished feeding and watering it was almost dark so we went in and fixed supper because DD informed us that she needed supper "I eat, I eat supper" as she says. We had a very eventful day, but we sure enjoyed it and it was such a beautiful day for it!!!