Baby Rocky

Poor baby got her first black eye, when she literally ran off the top of a set of steps at my in-laws this past weekend.  Luckily it was only two steps, but she hit her eye.  To those fellow mothers, you can probably understand how my heart pounded when I ran to her and how I just wanted to cry along with her.  Her poor eye swelled up and the whole bottom was black and blue.  The picture does not even capture it well at all - it actually looked horrible in person.  Overall she handled it like a pro, but I felt SO bad for her!

Life is Never Boring...

Samantha is a rambunctious, creative and funny little girl - she is drama at its best.  She'll sing you Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star, walk like an old man, turn and dance, talks up a storm, will chase you all over the house and go about 100 mph...she keeps life anything but boring!  And, we are loving every minute!

Samantha loves to grab your hand and bring it to her, to love on.  She is also a kissing machine, and if she kisses one person she'll make sure to kiss everyone.  So precious!

Silly girl :)

Showing off her new lawnmower - now if we can get her to truly mow the yard - we are set!! 

We have taught her to do fist pumps - yep...cool kid!

Like I tried to tell my Mom - she is obsessed with anything from a straw.  Here she is trying the remains of an Iced Coffee...no lectures, there was barely any left.  But, she'd keep coming up for air saying "MORE!"

Always on the go - moving and grooving.  Usually by the time you snap the picture, she is gone!

She will stop for the misc. bugs all around - she loves them and will just scoop them up in her hand.  However, sometimes to her dismay they don't love her!  She had her first bee sting on her finger the other day and yet she still chases them and blows kisses at them.  Maybe I have a budding entomologist on my hands.  :)

Look at them Daisy-dukes!

Father's Day

I felt so blessed to be celebrating Father's Day with the two most amazing men I know -- my dear husband and father! These two men have been great examples of faith, love and hard work. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I thank God everyday for the joy they bring me.

For 30 years my father has been my hero, my friend, my support system, and my encouragement. I have looked up to him and have held every man in comparison. It is amazing now to see my husband also becoming that kind of father and how our daughter looks at him with that same doe-eyed expression of love. Something about Daddy's and their baby girls. :)

As part of Father's Day, we all went to our church for a special service and I got some pics of us all outside and in the church.  At one point, I look over during the service (when a Father/daughter video is playing) and poor Keith had tears streaming down his face.  Just another reason why I love that man so much!  He's a keeper.  

The competitive streak definitely comes out during the weekend's corn hole and scrabble competitions- I swear I married my father.  ;)

To wrap up Father's Day we all went and pigged out at the Outback.  YUM, YUM!

Date Night and Anniversary

This past weekend Keith and I got a rare date night - 2nd in 17 months!  A friend's daughter watched Samantha while we went to a dinner for Keith's residency.  While we missed Samantha, it was nice getting dressed up and eating a fancy meal.  This date night coupled as an anniversary date as well, which was the following day.  We celebrated 6 years married and have been together a total of 13 years.  We just feel so blessed to have found each other so long ago - what a blessed and loving life we have together!

Papa and "Ninny"

My parents came to visit for a few days last week.  They drove from NC, visited friends in KY and then stopped here before heading to see one of my sisters in CO.  Yes, I know we are nomads -- but traveling to our family is a must when we are all so close, yet SO FAR!

We only had a few days with them on this end of the trip, but we made the most of it with playing outside, great food (we made our first Tiramisu cake, a tomato pie, veggie quiche, and my favorite cream spinach broiler -- check out these recipes on Mama's Recipe Swap -- yum, yum), shopping, seeing Prince of Persia at the movies (SO GOOD!!) and just catching up.

Samantha has definitely picked up the name "Papaw" over the last couple of visits with both of her grandparents, but has finally gotten down the name Nana -- or as she says it "Ninny."  :)

Mom and Dad brought their dog Mikey with them, and Samantha decided that his bed was just another laid down for her.  She literally would scoot him out to lay down.

Okay, don't call child services on me.  Samantha also took to Mikey's cage and thought it was hysterical to open it and close herself in -- it was so funny!  Later, we would even find her putting her stuffed animals in there, too.  :)

For all of you that think my child loves the camera - or must due to the amount of photos I take - this is actually the easy picture to take.  If you want a front "pose" of her with anyone, she runs!  It takes 50 shots to get 1 good one, but heck...sometimes these funny ones are the best anyway.  :)

"Whoa, Ninny...what happened to the cat in the fiddle?"  

Nana got this great pic of our cute little sailor girl.  :)

What a great few days with Nana and Papa -- can't wait until they come back through for Father's Day!  Love you guys!

Strutting her stuff

Not shy to strut her stuff!  Hey good lookin'! :)

Flower Child

Samantha loves being outside and loves flowers.  She kisses the flowers and even chases and blows kisses at the bees -- it is precious!  She esp. loves to take her water bucket and water the plants on her own.

Indy 500

For Keith's birthday in February, I got him Indy 500 tickets and his family and friends got tickets to join him for a guy's weekend. Memorial weekend was the big race, and we had our house packed as Keith's dad, brother-in-laws, nephew, and best friend came up for the game. With them, came Keith's Mom and two nieces for Samantha and I. We might have been scrunched at times in this little house, but we had a wonderful weekend filled with cook-outs, work-outs, and races. Samantha of course loved the full house and all the attention!

Jeff, Ken, Logan, Keith and Randy getting ready to head into the race.  It was around 96 degrees in the stands - the hottest day of the race every recorded!  Their only cure for the heat, was the coolers packed with beers and sodas.  

Logan, Ken and Randy at the Hall of Fame Museum at the Motor Speedway.  One of the rare "people" photos Keith took -- give a guy a camera for the day and he comes back with 30 photos of museum cars and since ladies mostly look at this site, I will spare you those photos - despite the coolness of the cars.  ;)

What a great experience the guys seemed to have at that race!  Of course, my favorite part was seeing everyone the day before during a grill out and a corn hole competition at our house - by the way, I have pictures of this corn hole competition, but due to the heat all of the guys were shirtless and I got threatened with death if I posted the pictures!  However, they all better be PRETTY NICE TO ME -- you hear that men?!  (Okay, maybe actually I am just doing it to protect the vision of those that look at this site - jk ;) )

While the guys were out at the race, I got to spend a lot of quality time with Mackenzie and Haley.  Karen unfortunately was down with her hip and back the whole weekend, but the girls and I had a shopping day, went to the pool and I even got them to Zumba with me!  :)

Haley, Mackenzie and Samantha

Some more pics of our weekend together....

Ahhh...she fell asleep in Logan's arms -- Daddy was second fiddle momentarily.

Just wanted to also say a special thanks to everyone who made this such a great weekend - and esp. a great guys weekend for Keith -- we love you all dearly!