Trunk or Treat! Smell Our Feet!

Last night we had our church Trunk or Treat/Chili Dinner at our neighborhood park. The girls were little geishas. They wore some silk outfits that my parents had sent them from Cambodia. We painted their hair black. You should see our bathtub this morning! Anyway, they had a great time, but not near as good a time as was had by Bryant. He has been meticulously planning his costume/demeanor for the past month. He dug out his old roller hockey costume from the garage. He went out and bought some bubba teeth (and he absolutely detests shopping.) Anyway, he was so proud of his tough outfit last night. He was even prouder than all of the tough pirate or scary monster little boys at the park. I could just picture him as a child getting excited about his costume at Halloween. (He is really going to kill me when he wakes up and sees what all I typed about him.) I was surprised when I woke up this morning and downloaded the pictures to find some that he must have had the girls take of him while I was getting ready. See what I mean? How excited was he if he was willing to resort to asking the girls to take his picture rather than waiting a few minutes for me to finish getting ready? (My favorite is the one of him acting suprised.) Once we got to the park, I noticed there were several small holes in his hockey socks. I asked him if he knew he had moth holes in his socks. His reply was that those were not moth holes, but rather battle scars from his hockey days. He then proceeded to physically demonstrate how he stopped so many pucks from making it into the goal. (I don't ever remember him being goalie, do you Josh?) At any rate, he had me laughing all night and the pictures will keep me laughing for days to come. Enjoy!

P.S. I am throwing in some pictures from the fall festival that we went to a couple of weeks ago too.

P.S.S. If y'all are lucky, I will throw in some of the girls goofing around with the camera. Occasionally I will go to take a picture and find that my camera is full of pictures despite the fact that I have not taken any. Upon closer inspection, I will find pictures such as these.

P.S.S.S. I added one from the Greek Festival too.

P.S.S.S.S. Do y'all like my bangs?

Why will no one leave comments?

Thank you Melissa and Arah, my only real friends!

Ode to my Girls

If Skyler wasn't the cutest baby ever, then "grits ain't groceries" as her Grandmama says. She came to this earth with such a sweet little spirit. She had the best disposition as a baby and is still so good. Grandma Slade said she was so responsible while we were on our cruise here recently that I could just leave Sibley with her and didn't even need a sitter.






And then there was Sibley, or "Payback" as my mother likes to call her. (She took this picture of herself by the way. Doesn't she look like Emily here?) Anyway, she keeps things exciting and she is always making us laugh. She says "No can duke", instead of no can do. We have a small observatory at a local park here. We like to go some nights and look at the stars. One night we were discussing where the Big Dipper and Little Dipper were in the nightsky. She asked us where the Medium Dipper was. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Easter 2005

For Easter 2005 we still lived in Alabama. Farrah brought Tatum and Judd to the Easter egg hunt at church and we had tons of fun. On Easter Sunday, Laura was kind enough to take some family pictures for us after church.

Also, we had four new additions to our family. "Hundred Dollar Cat" (as my Daddy calls her because I once had to pay a $100 fine to rescue her from the pound) had kittens!

Joe, I miss having you over to eat at our little Henry Street house. I can't wait to have you over to eat at my new old house here in Arizona.

Spring Break 2007

For Spring Break we went to San Diego. We had never been to Sea World before and they were having a special where if you bought a one day pass, then you got admission for the rest of the year for free! So we went two days in a row and had ourselves a good ole time! We also enjoyed a few of the other sights San Diego has to offer.

Disney Cruise 2005

The great thing about the Disney Cruise is that the parents get to have alone time while the kids party with the characters!

The Enslen family, except for the Josh's, had a family reunion on the Disney Cruise. We had a blast. I would highly recommend it. In fact, Bryant and I will definitely go again once we have another baby and he (hopefully) gets a little older. (I am not making an announcement. We aren't pregnant yet. Hopefully sometime in the near future, though.)

Our .15 milliseconds of fame!

Jenny and I made it on to the Ellen Show website. We had our picture taken with Mary Steenburgen at the wrap party of The Grass Harp. I'm sure you've heard of it - a huge blockbuster.

Catch of the day!

When we go to Orange Beach, the husbands go fishing, the wives talk and eat, the kids play, and everyone's happy! Thanks for the meals and the memories Keels!

the funny papers!

Jacob and Lulu with George Wallace.




A couple of oldies, but goodies!

Is this sweet or what?

Don't hate us because we're beautiful. Georgia, don't you wish you were in this one?

Jenny Sue's Trip

Troy, aka "Twelve," took Bryant to practice and he got to meet Lavell Edwards.

Jenny must really love us because she brought Isaac and Elsa to visit us in Arizona in July. We went to Rawhide and various other local places. Elsa is so teeny-tiny and cute. What she is lacking in stature, she makes up for in attitude. Isaac is a quirky genius. He is always good for a laugh. Seriously, though, he gives the most beautiful prayers. He always prays for the starving people in Africa and offers up other eloquent vespers. I really wish Jenny and I could live closer together.

We also got to see Jenny Sue and fam in Utah in September 2006. We drove up for the Tulsa-BYU game. We went to breakfast at Sundance and did some reminiscing. We took the kids to Thanksgiving Point. We stayed with Amanda and Jeremy and we got to see the Atwoods and the Cornwells while we were there as well!

Halloween 2006

There is a great fall festival at a local farm here. Last year we went with the Tuckers and we went on a cart ride. When we crossed the finish line, Sibley threw her hands in the air and declared, "We are hideous!". I think she meant victorious.

Sibley was a kitty cat. Skyler was a Mardi Gras Queen. I was an overweight 80's lady. I guess you could say I was Delta Burke. The overweightness was really just part of the costume - yeah, that's right, the costume. Bryant didn't dress up, but this year he will. Thanks to Skyler's promptings, he has decided to be a hockey player, complete with missing teeth. I plan on knocking them out myself. No, he will just use oreos, or we could just have him stand behind Josh with a golf club. I'll let him decide. Can't wait to post those pictures.

Thanksgiving 2006! What happens in Vegas, goes on to my blog!

Josh as "The Rail Baron"

Skyler, Sibley, and Sophia love to make lantana blossom soup in Grandma Slade's backyard.

For Thanksgiving, we got to rendezvous in Vegas with the Josh Slade family as well as the Pinkstons! Are we lucky or what? We had a blast. We stayed at the Excalibur and the Circus Circus. Josh and Melissa stayed at the Winn and so we hung out there some too. We met baby Jack for the very first time. We love to spend time with Jack and Sophia and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next member of the Josh and Melissa Slade family.

We ate with the Pinkstons at the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM Grand. I couldn't believe how much Rhett had grown. He went straight to me at first, but then he realized I was not his mom and wanted her back. We had adjoining rooms with the Pinkstons at the Circus Circus, and so we were together nonstop.

Then we went back to Arizona and had Thanksgiving with the Keith Slade family. We had a Bingham family reunion the day after Thanksgiving and Amanda broke the news that she was pregnant. Josh and Bryant had both had the idea to grow out their beards for Thanksgiving. Neither told the other. They only mentioned that they had a surprise for the other. It was a hoot when we saw each other and they both had beards. Do they think alike or do they think alike?

Note to self: Take more of the pictures myself, so as to avoid being in the pictures so much as well as to have more pictures of Bryant. Also, spend less money on vacations and more on my desperately in need of a renovation, nasty, 15 year old carpet-havin' house.

Christmas 2006 - BITTERSWEET!

In Arizona, Santa Claus brought the girls a new playroom!

For Christmas 2006 we flew to Alabama. My parents had gotten their mission call to Cambodia and I was an emotional wreck. I was so preoccupied with and distraught over the thought of them leaving the country for two years that I did not take that many pictures. [I love to spend time with my family and I am so sad that I won't be able to go home for Christmas or Thanksgiving this year. I am planning on a month long trip this summer, though.] Anyway, we did get to meet our niece, Ila, for the very first time. She is such a beautiful sweet baby, just like her mother in looks and temperament. Cole loves to fish in the "magic pond," and so we did some fishing with him while we were there. Josh wanted to take some fish that we caught to a poor old fella' who lives down the road from my parents, but Cole begged him not to. He tried his best to convince Josh that the poor old fella' "already had a sandwich" and did not need his fish.

While in Bama, we drove down to Orange Beach to see Farrah's new house. There was an accident on the interstate and so we took some country roads. We went to Monroeville and visited the courthouse museum. For those of you who don't know, Harper Lee was from Monroeville and it is the real-life setting for the story on which To Kill A Mockingbird was based. It is a beautiful old courthouse and the girls enjoyed exploring it. Thank goodness Bryant likes history too!