Friday Day 4 of our trip!

Day 4 of our trip began with lunch at Jack in the Box. We were craving Jack in the Box. There isn't any around our area in Oklahoma. Byron wanted their tacos and I wanted their Ultimate Cheeseburger. Then we stopped by the Family Christian Bookstore for a little shopping.

That afternoon we headed out to Nooksack. We stopped by the ole neighborhood. It looked great. A few more houses were built since we left. Our place looked very nice. The buyers have done a nice job and all of our plants were still there! We were able to visit for a few minutes with our corner neighbors. We got to meet their new addition, baby Kai! He is adorable!

We also hung out for a while at the Meixner's house. Tom and Judy are such wonderful people. Jaycee loved to pick flowers and berries at their house. Also, right before we moved Miss Judy had a wooden Nativity Scene on display at her house. She would allow Jaycee to play with it. She has had it for quite some time. Recently, she had been out antique shopping and found the exact set that she had. She purchased it and gave it to Jaycee. The best part was that Miss Judy was going to set it up on her table and Jaycee said no. Jaycee wanted to play with her set exactly where Miss Judy had her set displayed on a shelf. Amazing that Jaycee remembered that! So that is exactly what Jaycee did. It was fun to visit with them and also to see Daniel and Jackson play together. I have the best picture of the 2 boys showing off their belly buttons!

After that we went over to Josh and Susan's. They were throwing a celebration BBQ in our honor. It was a great evening with all of our Nooksack friends. This group has grown a lot too. The kids were all great! In a few years, I think we will be sending them outside b/c I am sure that the majority of them will be wanting to play any sport that has ball in it! We also tried for a group picture of the kids! As you will see it was difficult getting 11 children to cooperate.
















This picture was taken By Tanya-

Thursday August 28th!

I have lots of pictures documenting this day. Not that a lot took place it was just a lot of fun to have the cousins together. Evalin, Kathryn, and Isaac came over to Nana and Papa's house for a little visit while Amanda took Lukas to the doctor. We enjoyed lunch together, played lots of games, and even watched a Tom and Jerry which is a favorite among the kids.

The kids all did very well and enjoyed playing together. It was great to see the personalities of Evalin, Kathryn and Isaac. The kids made a "dog house" out of Nana's coffee table, piano bench and blankets. It was quite a sight to see 5 kids piled underneath all of that.

Later that afternoon, Marilee, Jaycee, and I went to Creativitea. Its a little pottery store in Fairhaven. Marilee and I are huge fans of Jon and Kate plus 8. We had seen an episode of Kate taking the girls to a store similar to this place. We both thought it was a neat idea and so we gave it a shot. Now, it will be a yearly tradition for us. Jaycee had a fabulous time painting. We picked out 4 small items for her to decorate. She did great! So I highly recommend doing this! You can even have birthday parties there! It was a great outing for just the girls! I look forward to doing this for many years to come.

Now here are all of the joyous pictures from Day 3!

Day 2!

On Wednesday, we had a little grocery shopping to do. That evening we would be getting together with our small group from North County Christ the King. Marilee, the kids, and I went shopping for all the ingredients we would need for the caramel apple cake and salsa.

The kids did a lot more playing that day as well. It was a good day for catching up on some rest and just staying low key.

We left early for our small group get together to stop by our dear friends Josh and Susan's house. It was wonderful to see them and to see how much their little guy Daniel had grown. The kids had a great time playing with more toys.

At small group dinner that night it was amazing to see how much the families had changed since we left. It was great! We had so many kids running around Caleb and Hannah's house. Jaycee wasn't around too much. She was busy "hanging out" with Aurora. Aurora is 13 yrs. old and is Caleb and Hannah's daughter.

The food was great and the fellowhip was even better. The small group started in January of 2006. Aurora and Jaycee were the only children. Since that the group has had 6 more kids and one on the way in February. Only one couple hasn't had a baby, but hopefully "baby fever" will catch them soon! We miss our small group and we love you all so much!

I wasn't very good that night with my camera. However, Hannah made sure to get a big group photo before the night was over so I am uploading it to the blog!

This is one amazing and beautiful group of friends! You all mean so much to our family!

Washington Trip 2008!

I have lots and lots of pictures to share. I am trying to figure out the best way to blog our wonderful trip. I think I will do a couple of days together or if we had a lot happening on one day just blog about that day. Hope you enjoy the stories and all of the pictures! I am so proud that I came home with so many pictures!

We left our house Monday August 25th. We stayed at my sister's house and she took us to the airport on Tuesday. We flew out of Dallas on US Airways. We had 2 really good flights. Everything went smoothly and on time. Jackson was very entertained by all the activity going on before we took off and after we landed. He loved being able to watch out the window. The first flight was a little tough, because Jackson was all over the place. The second flight was much better. He actually slept for most of it and then the kids watched a Veggietale and had snacks. We arrived to the airport and actually surprised Nana and Papa when we came down the elevator instead of the escalator. Jaycee took off running and shouting, N-A-N-A! It was priceless!

After gathering our luggage we made it out to the van. We ate at Red Robin at South Center in Seattle. Very delicious. It was a very peaceful drive to Bellingham, with both kids snoozing away.

We went that evening to Phil and Amanda's to return the van and to see them and meet the new cousins. It was wonderful seeing them all. Jaycee and Jackson were excited to play. Jackson wasn't too sure of Isaac when he put on his Spiderman outfit with the mask. He didn't quite understand that.

The rest of the night we spent at Nana and Papa's getting settled in and letting the kids play with all of Nana and Papa's toys. Let me tell we had them all out. I don't think Jaycee forgot about a single toy!

Home Sweet Home!

We are at home! YAY! We had a wonderful trip to Washington, but we are thrilled to be back in our house, sleeping in our beds, and playing with our dogs. All of the flights went well yesterday. We had no delays at all. The kids did great for kids. They are not at all loud or anything, they just got extremely restless on our flight from Phoenix to Dallas. They both ended up falling asleep so we all took a little nap! It was one long day of traveling though. We made it home at 11:30 pm. The kids slept great. Jackson and I were up about 9am and Jaycee was up about 20 mins later. Just wanted to let everyone know we are HOME! I will be back soon to post stories and pictures of our wonderful time in Washington!

My mom, Marquita Sutton

My mom Monday evening had her 4 grand kids. She actually had watched Jaycee and Jackson Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday she got Kiley and Keely for a few days before they start school on August 25th. Monday, she had taken Kiley and Keely to Duncan to do a few things. She called when they were leaving and asked if Jaycee wanted to come to her house to play with the girls and to stay the night. Well, of course Jaycee said YES! She kept looking out the window asking where is Mam Mam? Anyways, mom arrived and they came into the house. Well, immediately the house was filled with screams and laughter. Jackson crawled up in mom's lap and said Mam Mam Go! So he thought he needed to go as well. So mom said okay we will take him. Earlier I told Jaycee that Jackson wasn't going it was just going to be a girls night at Mam Mam's. When Jaycee discovered Jackson was going she wasn't too happy! I told her he would go for a few hours and then either mommy would come get him or Paw Paw would bring him home. She was okay then. Mom and her 4 grand kids loaded up in the pick-up and off they went! Dad did bring Jackson back in a few hours.

Then yesterday, mom made a big lunch for us all. We had brisket, green beans, macaroni, sweet potatoes, corn bread, and strawberry spinach salad. Oh, Jaycee had mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets! Anyways, I asked how the night went with the girls. Come to find out right after dad left with Jackson, the 3 girls started playing in the mud! I guess Dad actually started it by allowing Jackson to play in the water. Well, the girls decided that wasn't enough and got in the mud in the back yard. Now, for all of you who haven't seen Oklahoma dirt its red clay not your typical dirt okay! Mom just sat back and let the girls have a ball in it. They rolled in, they threw it at each other, and just got nasty. I said Mom what were you thinking? You totally allow so much more work for yourself. She was like oh they were just having fun it was fine! I am thinking it definitely must be a grandma thing b/c there wasn't a chance that Amy and I would have EVER been allowed to do that. Maybe the reason behind that is b/c my mom made us wear those frilly itchy dresses all the time! When the girls decided they were done, mom laid out towels from her backdoor in her bedroom into her bathroom. Mom said Jaycee had a big pile of mud in her ear and she really didn't think they were ever going to get all the mud out of Keely's hair. I just can't even imagined what they looked like. I was bummed that she forgot to get her camera out and take pictures of them.

Bath time at Mam Mam's house is the best. Well, when Kiley and Keely are there. They take a bubble bath in mom's big tub. They will play for a good hour in there. Jaycee usually has to stay in until the very last bubble goes down the drain. After the bath, I guess Jaycee decided she wasn't ready to put her pj's on. So my mom allowed her to run around her house for 2 hours with no clothes! Mom said it was hilarious. I guess the girls had a big pillow fight in the living room. Well, actually I think it was more like Kiley and Keely throwing them at Jaycee. Jaycee loved every minute it. Also, they were trying to catch grapes in their mouths. Mom still can't find one of the grapes that landed up by her TV that is on a shelf above the fireplace.

I guess all that matters is that the girls had a great time together. My mom enjoyed every moment with her granddaughters. I am sure my dad was glad that peace and quiet was back in the house last night. Can you imagine 3 screaming girls?! What wonderful memories they made together and I am glad that they have those memories and that it wasn't at my house!

Rain, Rain, Go away come again another day!

This picture is to the North side of our house looking out our back patio.

As you can see we have a waterfall in our yard now!

This is the fenced in yard! You know the dogs are loving this right? Not a chance!

This is a wider view of the first picture!

This is the road in front of our house and all the water running into this culvert to make another waterfall for us!

The is to the North of our front yard!

This is the road in front of our house! Well, actually its totally covered by water at this point!

This is part of our back yard under water.

This is the other part! Looks like we have lots of lakes now!


I am so thrilled for the ample amount of rain we have received. BUT we are leaving in a week for Washington and we don't want to be welcomed by the jungle when we return. We have some lawns that NEED to be mowed.

We received 3 1/2 inches of rain yesterday. It stopped for a while and picked back up last night. Probably in that time we have received at least another inch of rain if not more.


Here are a few extras! The last is Zoe! We call her our Mexican Terrier now! We LOVE her short hair!