last days in kansas

These pictures are from the last couple days in Kansas.

My Grandad Beckman wanted a pic with my kiddos.

Sisters, sisters!

There were never such devoted sisters.

My mom and me.

This was right before we had to leave for the airport.

Mom, Dad and me.

Mom and Dad

and their grandcuties.

Our 6 weeks vacation to Kansas was fantastic.

It was brutally hot but we enjoyed all the time we had with our family.

We are home now and getting back into the groove of homelife.

Naomi got us back to reality fast by waking up with a stomach virus this morning.

I'm praying the Lord sustains everyone else's health!

coronado heights

The evening we went to Coronado Heights
the weather was absolutely gorgeous!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in grammy's backyard

The kids and I are visiting my family in Kansas until the first
week of August.

We have been enjoying our time with cousins and my sister
as well as my mom and dad (Grammy and Grandad).
 
Lily loves her fingers

Chloe, my mom and Lily

Mom and Lily

 

Sean Donovan

Splashing in Grammy's pool

Henry 

Henry loves to help Grandad around the house

Sean is thinking

Marcail, Eleanor and Naomi

Sweet Chloe

grandparents

I love this photo of Naomi and my dad
relaxing together.
Naomi loves her Grandad; I'm so happy I caught this
sweet moment together.


My mom and her Grand-"cuties" nestled together
on a cold Winter night.
I think, if I were to take a wander
down memory lane at all the
past 5 years photos,
I'd find that I have several of these such images,
Everyone cozy together on the black couch.

As you can see from the expressions on
everyone's faces,
we were giggly and happy.

birthday wishes

My Mom's birthday is today! She's a beautiful 50!

This expression on my mom's face is one of my favorites.
I can tell she's happy and also getting ready to
give someone a hard time!
When I was a kid I used to call this look her
"soft" look.
I knew she was in a good mood when she looked like this.

My sister took this picture of her
at her surprise birthday party on Sunday
at my Grandad's house.
I know this birthday was hard on mom.
Her first birthday without Grandma.
However, I know that the Lord is sufficient.
He will bring mom up out of the pit.
I only wish I could have been part of the celebration.
I wish her a blessed birthday!

I love you mom!
Love Sweet Love

my mom says...

REPOST:
When I'm having a bad day or week I usually call my mom and vent and complain and basically look to her for some encouragement. She is a wise woman and was, is, has always been a fantastic mom!
I have the hardest time with Henry. For some reason he has been the one that drives me to almost drink. He irritates me, aggravates me, angers me and sometimes I just plain don't like my little boy! Is that normal for moms of boys? I love him with all my being but ugh!!! sometimes!!! Anyway, when I've ranted and raved about my kids (usually Henry) to mom, she calmly and rationally, with amazing love and sweetness, reminds me that I am my kid's world, their sun. Their lives revolve around me and my mood and my love and re-assurance. She reminds me to sit with them, love them up, kiss their sweet, chubby cheeks. I always feel refreshed and calmly reprimanded for my bad attitude. I don't mean that she did reprimands me, but I always come away from our conversations with conviction that I am probably more the one to blame for my bad attitude toward my babes than they are! I know I'm not making a lot of sense but anyway, all that to say that if my kids look up to me so much I should be happy and joyful to have a happy face and ready smiles for my little loves instead of frowns of frustration for taking time from my day. It's like, waaaaaaaait a minute here! They are my day! They are my job and wasn't I the one who wanted to have babies since I was two? So, stop being selfish, Tab! Take those blessings that the Lord saw fit to give to you into your arms and hug and kiss them up! And let me tell you, when I do it is amazing the response I get in return! What a blessing indeed!

My sis, me and our mom

Liv snapped this of my Nay-Nay and me. I like it.

My little Henry-boy

He's a poser and is becoming more and more photogenic.

cooking out on coronado heights with liv

So, when us sisters (Liv and I) are together when we have Coronado Heights cookout we get giggly. We think everything's funny and just have a goofy time of it! Things could go disappointingly wrong and we'd still find humor in it if we are on Coronado Heights and cooking out. We always make Mom and Dad laugh too and usually we can be found around the sandstone picnic table doubled over in silent laughter over something that was said that probably wasn't even that funny!

Liv is a master cookout preparer (is that a word?) She is also the mama of an almost 1 1/2 year old girl. So, when Liv went out to her car to get her stroller for Chloe and also to bring in the supplies she brought to the cookout that night I couldn't help but roll with laughter when she rolled in with this:

99% of that is all food for the cookout, I kid you not! And it all came in very handy and appreciated! Let me just say, we know how to have a cookout!

Another example of our silliness is the fact that I found the stick I'm holding funny. I thought it looked like a funny cane and it had a double use as a stoker for the fire. Liv took my picture by the fire.

When I say that we know how to have a cookout I mean it! My dad configured this 6 count weinie roaster to be longer for fires that may be, shall we say, a bit large. It's long, let me tell you! And, it's for 6 hotdogs at once! I'm just saying! We get the job done around here!

Here, I caught some of the silent laughter around the picnic table I was talking about.

They contained themselves for a minute so I could take a more posed picture.

We also know how to make a mean S'more! Yum! Graham cracker and Hershey bar are prepared beforehand and as soon as the marshmallow is good and toasted (sometimes burnt which, in my opinion is so much tastier) we slide it onto the waiting chocolate with the graham cracker. Delicious!