Sunday, November 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Sabrina!


It's hard to believe that our youngest grand daughter turned 2 today.
She is a very sweet little girl and growing so fast.
On a visit to the waterpark in Grandpa and Grandma's neighborhood in Sugar Land
Nothing makes grandpa happier than being in the middle of a Grace and Sabrina sandwich!
What a sweet heart!
The perfect way to spend Spring Break ...with Ben, Grace and Sabrina!
We hope you have a wonderful time as you celebrate your special day. Happy Birthday from Grandpa Gary, Grandma Kathy, Uncle Eric (in Iraq), Aunt Whitney (in Russia) and Uncle Stephen! Wish we could be there to give you lots of hugs and kisses. We love you!!!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

In the blink of an eye

It seems like just yesterday when we were honoring Whitney and all of the other members of the amazing Stephen F. Austin Band and Angels Dance team at their Senior recognition night during the half time of their last football game of the season.
But here we are 5 years later honoring her younger brother Stephen and at the same event. Where did the time go? Hard to say ...all I know is that it went by fast!


Congratulations Stephen on 4 amazing years. We are proud of all you have accomplished and look forward to many more exciting adventures in your future. Here are a few pictures to recap his high school band career.


It's been an amazing journey. Thanks for letting us be a part of your adventure ...it's been an honor!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Welcome home soldier!


Just before I headed up to Tulsa we were able to have a nice long visit with Eric. He was home on leave from Iraq. I'm not sure how much fun he had but at least he was able to catch up on some much needed rest. He is doing a great job helping to keep the troops safe in Iraq. He found out that he had been promoted to Sergeant while he was on leave and the official promotion took place after he got back. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon. It was great to see him and as always tough to say good bye. We are looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas when he will be back for another visit.


Life in the burbs


Jessica (and Sabrina) drove up with her family to Utah last month to meet her two identical nieces and a nephew who were recently born into the family. That gave Grandma Kathy the chance to come and help out while they were gone. Mike and Jess now live in the town where we used to live when our kids were young. It's so amazing to see how things have changed and yet stayed the same. Makes things a bit confusing at times but fun to go back and see where our kids spent some of their early years. Here is a video of story time at the Broken Arrow library with my cute grand kids. Oh yeah! Grandma still has it ...check out Gracie's french braid!
I love owls!
Of course my all time favorite place to visit has always been the Tulsa zoo. Here are a couple of videos of our wild adventures with the animals. (You will have to forgive the quality of the videos ...I'm still getting used to my new camera!)
"Where's my lunch!"

Lions and tigers and bears ...oh my!
Sssssnakes!
I guess it isn't hard to figure out where they get their fondness for snakes!
And last but not least ...the grooming of the lamb!
Mike and Jess live in a beautiful neighborhood. The weather was perfect while I was there (a welcome change from the heat and humidity of Texas) and it was fun just to play outside with the kids ...blowing bubbles, playing red light green light, catching crickets, kicking the soccer ball and riding bikes.
Safety first!And a good time was had by all!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

God be with you too

One of the things I've missed most since Whitney has been in Russia (well besides her numerous phone calls through out the day!) is being able to hear her sing and play the flute and piano. Imagine my excitement upon receiving an email from the Cameron's who used to work in the office of Whitney's mission in Rostov, Russia. They recently concluded their mission and as they were leaving to return to their home in Nevada, Whitney and her companion Cepta Fourtina sang "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again" as a way to say good bye before they left. They sing the song in Russian and in English so be sure to check out both. The Cameron's posted it on U-Tube and sent me the link so I could see it too. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqeGkDetx8 (Russian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kVxFnA6a7Y (English)

Saturday, September 20, 2008

I don't like Ike

We did get hit by Hurricane Ike. Even though we are about 65 miles from the coast this hurricane was so massive that by the time it came to our city we still suffered from hurricane force winds and wind gusts. Fortunately we didn't have any flooding. Our electrical power was out for several days but came back on Sunday. We lost cell phone, telephone and Internet service too but fortunately they are back now too.

We were very fortunate not to have had any injuries to our family or damage to our home. A metal fence in our back yard was broken and swinging in the wind, a large maple tree in our back yard lost most of its branches and may have to be cut down, and we had a lot of leaves, a few shingles (are they ours or the neighbors???) and branches all over our yard. So not bad, as it could have been much worse. The biggest thing we lost (according to Gary) was the ability to watch and record the BYU vs. UCLA game! Quite a win with the cougars coming out on top ...59- 0. Wow!
The funny thing is all of the (above) pictures I am posting is the damage and debree from just one maple tree! We lost most of the center branches from our tree.

We provided housing for 2 then later 6 missionaries from our church who stayed with us during the storm. They were from areas closer to where the hurricane made land fall so they had to be evacuated. Originally the mission president feared it wouldn't be safe for them in Sugar Land (what about us?!?) but in the end it turned out to be not as bad as they feared.

Many people evacuated but we decided to stay to keep an eye on things. (Hide from wind, run from water.) We prepared well with lots of food, ice, batteries, and paper goods. We cleared our yard of things that could be carried by the wind and cause damage to us and our neighbors. We also made sure that our laundry was all done and the freezer and refrigerator were well organized in case we lost power. We stored lots of water in case the cities supply became contaminated. Everything we could think of to do to get prepared so we would be as ready as possible.

The wind started picking up by mid-afternoon but the hurricane force winds were predicted to arrive around midnight so I stayed up most of the night keeping an eye on things by flash light. The wind was wild and our dog was freaking out but we made it through just fine. Everyone else had gone to bed and I think they slept just fine knowing I was on patrol and would wake them if there was any thing to worry about! (Hello ...tornadoes!) They reported that the straight winds in Fort Bend countly reached about 65 miles per hour with gusts up to 90. This is much less than originally predicted which we were very grateful for.

The cities of Houston, Beaumont, Galveston and others didn't fare as well. They suffered much greater destruction from the wind and the water surge. We have had and will continue to have for some time a lot of opportunities to serve, as we help our neighbors and friends in the recovery process. The following pictures are of some of the damage that happened to our neighborhood and surrounding community. The last picture is of the tree that took out the power lines and caused a lot of homes to lose power for several days.


Friday, August 8, 2008

Welcome to my new blog

I have been wanting to start a new blog for our family. My first blog was started as more of a personal journal for my random thoughts and memories. So this past year I've been thinking about starting another one to include the rest of my family. A place where we could post pictures, videos and more of our day to day adventures for our long distance family members, grand kids and friends to be able to access. We are becoming a global family and even though we are not quite empty nesters I wanted to be able to have a place for people to come to find out what's happening with all of us. We still have one son at home who will be a high school senior this year, a daughter in Russia serving a mission for our church and a son in Iraq serving our country. Last but not least is our married son, his wife and our 3 amazing grandchildren who live in another state.

Actually I'm hoping my sweet daughter-in-law will take pity on me and be willing to help me tweak this blog a bit so it will eventually look amazing! More importantly, that I will be able to figure out how to maintain it so it will continue to look great! Well that's the plan. I hope that you will all stop by now and then for a visit with us. We look forward to hearing from y'all.