"Wrestle Hug"

Maclaine and her daddy have always loved to wrestle...me on the other hand...not so much! Every night Maclaine says, "daddy, can we have a wrestle hug tonight?" It doesn't happen every night but I would say 3 nights a week, there's some wrestlin' going on in our house.

I'm not sure where the name came from but these pictures will show you what us Morgan's call a "wrestle hug."

This is how it starts...






Clainey girl trying to fight back...


Atomic wedgie...OUCH!


Regaining her footing...
kinda....


"You're going down, daddy....!"




"Get him, girl..."


Almost down...


"1, 2, 3, I win...."

Spirit Week!

Maclaine had Spirit week at her school last week and although she didn't participate everyday she had fun with the days she chose to dress-up. They had decades day which they were allowed to pick whatever decade they wanted, then they had fancy day which ended up falling on a half-day, thank goodness, since the kiddos were dressed in their best. Then there was pirate day, school spirit day, and one more that for the life of me I can't remember.

Here are the ones Maclaine participated in...

Decades day, she chose 80's of course...




Fancy day...


Pirate day...

NOTE: She picked out all of her outfits herself :)

Ellie & Donovan day!

My niece Ellie and nephew Donovan got to come over a couple weeks ago while their parents went on a date. Maclaine always LOVES to be with her cousins and since Ellie and Donovan are younger than she is she ends up playing the role of helper, teacher, & event planner of their play time :). She does a fabulous job with them! They had tons of fun and were very well behaved. They played outside, watched TV in my bed, and played with every toy we own. We really enjoyed having them!

Here's some pictures of their time over...

Where oh where is Maclaine?!

In the tree reading, of course!

I couldn't find her one afternoon after I told her she needed to have some reading time and this is where I found her...

This is her homemade swing in her favorite tree...

Granny's B-Day party!

To celebrate Granny's birthday we went over to my sister DeAyn's house for a good old fashioned BBQ. We got a nice surprise when my cousin Russell and his beautiful wife Tess showed up with Olivia and their new baby Logan. It's kinda nice to have a baby around again, it's been awhile. My cousin Michael also came by for the fun.

Here's my brother-in-law Kenny BBQ-ing...

Notice the stuffed jalepeno's...YOWZA, they were HOT!!!

Niece Mallory holding sweet Logan...




Niece Aubrey with Olivia and Maclaine...


Russell's beautiful wife Tess, she's so sweet....


Granny, lovin' on Logan...


Granny with most of the great-grandkids, Jamie's family was home sick...


Everybody getting ready to leave...


Good Times!!!

Happy Birthday Granny!

Today is my Granny's birthday and although she doesn't have a computer and may never see this I just wanted to tell the world...ok, maybe not the world but tell the 5 of you who read this blog, what a wonderful Grandmother she has been.

My papa died almost 2 years ago and we miss him terribly but when he was alive there was not an event that they didn't attend of us grandkids. They were always there to support us kids. One of my favorite childhood memories is having them spend the night with us Christmas Eve. There was never a need for them to stay with us because we lived in the same small town, but we looked forward to them being there with us Christmas morning to open our gifts. We've continued that tradition in our little family having one of the grandparents spend the night with us, now it's something Maclaine looks forward to every Christmas. This year, guess who stayed with us...yep, it was Granny! We loved having her.

For Christmas this year, my granny gave my sister's and I a hand written "book" all about her life. What an awesome gift! I've learned so much about her by reading that. She was an only child raised by older parents during the Depression and World War 2. I found it facsinating! No wonder she washes out disposal cups and re-uses ziploc bags more than once :). It sounds like life at home might have been kind of boring being an only child and all so she spent her days outside playing with the neighbor kids. I loved hearing about all the shananigans her and her friends got into! They really knew how to play back then...no TV, no computers, no cell phones...just pure fun!

My granny has always been an extremely thoughtful person. She's had many friends in her life and continues to keep up with those friendships. Unfortunately, she's lost many of them throughout the years due to cancer and other illnesses but she still has her group of girls who she goes to lunch with on a regular basis. She would do just about anything for you. She's a behind the scene kind of woman, she doesn't brag about herself or put the attention on herself, but she's done many kind, wonderful things in her life that I probably don't even know about.

Those are just a few of the fond memories I have of my granny, I could go on and on....

I love my Granny dearly! She's the only grandparent I have left and I hope we have many more years of making great memories.

Happy Birthday Granny! I love you!

Here she is last May with the girl grandkids at a Mother's Day tea....



Here's my Granny and Papa at their vow renewal party, I believe this was 2006...



These next two pictures were taken at Maclaine's 4th birthday party....

Birthday and Good News!

As we were celebrating my "bestest" friends birthday on January 19th, we found out some wonderful news. Did you know that you could eat for free Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner on your birthday? Yep, you can! For Shannah's birthday we decided to try something new so we went to Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert and as we walked in we were told by a very sweet girl that if we were celebrating a birthday that we could get $10 off of our meal! We also found out that Joe's BBQ across the street gives a free birthday meal and so does Joe's Farm Grill. So, if it's your birthday anytime soon you should check out the freebies...don't forget your license though.

Here's me and my BESTEST!



Here she is with her other bestest, Nikki....they recently went to the Ellen show and were actually shown on TV quite a few times...they're almost too cool to hang with me now :)