Perfect Pairings--Matthew 18:20

Haven't done a Perfect Pairing in awhile. I realize that everyone has used this verse, but I love it and it's completely appropriate for this photo. This photo was taken last weekend when my sister and I drove up to Kansas to go to my uncle's memorial service (I'll blog about my uncle another time so you can get a glimpse of his amazing life). God was most definitely there with us on this day.

For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them. --Matthew 18:20

Who are these people?

L to R: Korinne (my sister-in-law), Nick (my brother), me (me), Bonnie (my step-mom), my dad (his name is Mike, but I call him dad, so I wrote "dad"), Laura (my cousin), Amy (my sister), Michael (my brother), Jenny (my sister-in-law).

Amy and I drove up and back to Hutchinson, Ks together in one day to go to the memorial service, to spare our children A LOT of driving, we left them at home with our husbands, that's why they aren't in the pic.

Snow Fun for Them...Snow Fun for Me

Most of you know (because most of you live around here) that the "Great Christmas Blizzard of 2009" hit on Christmas Eve. Everyone knows I don't like cold weather so I wasn't really looking forward to this. When we left for church it was sleeting, when we walked out of the church it was a full blown blizzard. Good thing it was Christmas Eve or I would have been grumpy. Now that it's all said and done, I have to admit it was so fun to wake up to a (big) blanket of snow on Christmas morning.

And the kids loved it.

Here are our adventures in snow land...

Snow angels are necessary.

So is sledding.

Josie feeding daddy some snow.

Patrick nailing his sister with a snowball (in the back).

Proof that I went out sledding with the family.

Josie hitching a ride back to the car.

I hear there is maybe more snow on the way??? Oh well...the kids love it, and that's what it's all about!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Three Little Lams and WM and me!

(This was the best I could get of the three of them last night at church.)

Twins, circa 1973ish

In a post while back I mentioned that I dress my two girls alike...a lot. And especially for holidays like Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, St. Patrick's Day, etc. And usually Patrick has is matching shirt or sweater vest. This year he has a matching sweater. I've got all the outfits ready to go. Photos will be taken and shared...pending no one spills or throws up (last year Patrick threw up all over himself and Katie and the car and the Walgreens parking lot...no photos from last Christmas).

Now...when we were at my mom's over Thanksgiving I was looking through old photos and discovered my need to dress my children in matching outfits truly is genetic.

Therefore, I'm going to swallow my pride and share just a few of the photos of my sister (who is 19 months OLDER than me) when we were younger. (Note: these photos are a bit blurry and ragged...someone in my family wasn't that great of a photog. Sorry...I think you'll get the gist).

Also, just for the record...I was an ugly baby/little girl.

Here we go...

I think this is either Easter or my aunt's wedding (we were flower girls). But we matched...even the ribbons in our hair.

This is just probably some random Saturday afternoon. But we...matched. (Seriously, look how much cuter my sister is than me).

Christmas 197???. Not exactly matching, but coordinating. That's my mom sitting, how cute was SHE? And young. Dang, I wish I had that thick, dark hair. (My sister and I defined the term 'mini' skirt/dress, huh)?
This plumb cracks me up. My sister was so much cuter than me that this is my revenge. Hee hee. Not really, I'm not a revengeful type. It's just funny. And we match, except I'm not picking my nose. And I'm not as cute as her. Oh--and that's my mom, again. Beautiful!

Still, I have the best sister ever, EVER! She brought me Starbucks this morning! I got to have my Starbucks in my jammies!!! Seriously...betcha wish you had a sister like her!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Meet Jose'

I would like you to meet the newest member of our family, Jose'.

Now let me explain.

I have the best, BEST in-laws in the world, my mother-in-law will get a chuckle out of this. This past summer when we visited WM's family in KC my mother-in-law gave me these cute little Christmas ornaments that she had found with the kids' names on them. Here they are:

One for Katie:

One for Patrick:

And one for our new family member, Jose':

Poor little Josie didn't get one. She's feeling so left out. And I can see how this pasty white little Irish girl could be mistaken for a little Hispanic boy. It's an easy mistake.

Christmas, 1975

It's finally December, therefore, I can now get out the Christmas decorations and starting blogging about Christmas. I'm one of those hold-outs who thinks Christmas starts AFTER Thanksgiving. Each holiday needs to have it's day...give poor ol Thanksgiving a break...celebrate her and all her glorious, food-filled goodness.

Anyway...I digress. We went home to my hometown/parents for Thanksgiving and I ran across the below picture.

This is my sister and I--probably Christmas 1975 (could be '76 but I don't think so, my hair style is SO '75). I'm the one standing-my older sister is sitting. Looking at this photo...I'm wondering how I grew up to be normal. Maybe I'm not normal. My good, dear friend Susie like to tease me about how I dress my girls alike for special occasions...Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, 2nd Tuesday of the month (just kidding on that one...kind of). But as you can see from this photo, it's genetic. My mom dressed my sister and I in matching outfits for MANY years. These particular dresses had our names on them. In case we got our matching dresses mixed up, or our great-grandmother couldn't tell us apart. Who needs name tags when you've got your name sewn on your dress in huge letters?

How 'bout that rocking gold carpet and drapery?

And I know that your jealous of my bangs!

Call yourself lucky that you can't see our shoes. Pretty awesome that we had long dresses on, huh?

Man, my dork-hood started early. I look like the biggest DORK!

Merry Christmas from 1975.

Visiting, Visitors, Visited.

Whoa--it's been awhile. Almost a WEEK?!?! That's just craziness. My goal this month was to try to post something every day. Well...so much for that. But to our defense, we've been a little busy. It's getting to be that time of year, we've been on the go a lot and we've had visitors. Here's a little bit of our fun...

We had a fun get together with a couple of my girlfriends and their two precious baby boys. I'm very lucky to be friends with these two uber-cool gals. The three of us used to work together for the greater good of healthcare marketing and PR. :) (Starting on the left)...Hether is a media guru, used to be on Tulsa's "talk radio" station and is married to one cool cat and pro photographer of Cuervo Photography. And that's there super cute little guy, Baby MAC--one cute little dude! Then there's the not-so-supercool-me and my crew. We're just a bunch of ragamuffins. Then next to me and my wild bunch is the super cute Betsy ("Betzer")...she's Pioneer Woman's sister, but that doesn't make any difference to me. Betzer and I knew each other before Ree's leap into stardom. Betzer also used to make me get up at 5:30 a.m. to run. But I still love her. And one time I tried to kill her with pumpkin pecan butter. Long story. Man, I have a bunch of funny stories about Betz and equally as many funny photos. She has the super-stylin' little guy, Elliot. He's great-so cute!! And next to her is Reagan, Betzer's step-daughter. I can't believe that she's a grown up--last time I saw her she's was like 5 (ok, maybe 8). But, dang, she grew up! And she's gorgeous (good luck with that one, Matt & Betzer). Aren't we cool? It had been too long since the three of us had gotten together--I had so much fun catching up and getting to know their little guys. Miss you girls!

Then we had a fun visit with my cousin, Adrienne. She lives in Colorado and is going to be going into the Peace Corps sometime in the next year/year and a half. She's a TU alum so she was here for homecoming weekend. We had so much fun with her...my kids loved her! Of course they did!

And last weekend, the big dog came! Uncle Greg (WM's brother)! He was here overnight to a 2 day golf extravaganza with WM. My kiddos were all over him. Especially Josie...she was quite smitten with Uncle Greg. We all think he's pretty great.

So there's a small glimpse into what we've been doing lately. I really do promise that I'll be better about posting. It might even be just to say "hi" but there will be something there!

Happy Tuesday!