Well, my sister and her family have come and gone. We had fun visiting with them and I could not believe how grown my nieces are getting! Below are photos from our visit. While they were here, we went to Fort Worth to the Stockyards and rode the vintage steam train. It was fun. This is my new favorite picture of me and Todd. He loves trains so much and we were having a blast standing on the front of the train car right behind the engine. One of the train workers came and let us out on the deck where it was roped off. The kids loved it. It was fun waving at people as we rolled through intersections. We had an entire train car to ourselves. The train was full but the front car didn't have anyone in it and it ended up being the BEST car! It was great! One of the pictures of me and my sister is on Sunday morning inside Sarah's rose petal cottage! Me, Cindy, Jason, Sarah & Karlee were inside of it! It was a wee bit crowded to say the least! LOL No, we didn't have on makeup of fixed hair, but it is a good memory anyway! :) Two of these pictures are of Sarah wearing ALOT of clothes! A few days ago, she came into the living room wearing 9 blouses and 4 skirts! It was so funny! All of the clothes are too big, playclothes, etc...........but she got them ALL on at once! LOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY< NICHOLAS!!!!

Friday was my dear friend, Anna's little boy, Nicholas' birthday! I was sooooooooo busy I never got to call him to wish him a happy birthday and wanted to say on my blog officially....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is a precious little boy who is growing up much too fast just like my children! I know he gets on this blog to read it because his mom told me so, so I hope you see this, Nicholas!!!!

We miss you and love you and hope you had a great birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MY SISTER IS COMING, MY SISTER IS COMING!!!

When I was little, if you had told me I would be anxiously awaiting the visit of the tiny child photographed beside me in the picture above, I would have said you were a liar! LOL We fought the whole time growing up but there were some good days, too! For the most part, though....my sister and I had to grow up to get along really well! Well..............right now....I AM ANXIOUSLY AWAITING HER ARRIVAL at my house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is a great day! I am waiting for my sister, Cindy & her family to arrive at my house tonight and I am super excited! I am very close to her and my nieces. They are precious. She has 3 daughters that I love spending time with. I can't wait to paint their toenails, fix their hair, take them swimming and all that fun stuff that aunts get to do! Not only do I get to do fun stuff with them, but Todd & my brother in law David will have fun with Jason playing video games and doing the boy stuff! My sister and I will stay up half the night making hairbows, talking and being sisters! I can't wait! So, I am up early....cleaning the house...finishing laundry, etc. Not because my house has to be spotless for my sister and her family, but because I don't want to touch it once they get here! I want to spend my time doing quality things with them!

Tomorrow, we are going to ride a real steam train! Sunday.....swimming at the water park with the kids and then grilling burgers at home! Monday, we will all head to my dad's to hang out for a few days! Summer is blissful and wonderful! Yea!



I cannot wait! Did I say that already!? Well, I can't! But I will! About 12 more hours.

This is a photo from one of our previous visits! We are always silly! LOL

Okay, Jason has been to camp and back since my last posting.....this is really a busy summer and I have been super busy entertaining these 2 little people in my house! LOL They are having a great summer, though and we have stayed BUSY! Once a week, we have a "nothing day" where we don't go anywhere or do anything and we rest. Even on that day, I haven't felt like posting on the mommy blog.........bad mommy! Well, I'm going to catch it up this morning! I've had a few cups of coffee and everyone is resting still, so I should be able to do it! :) Here goes....

Jason's ready to leave for camp! Mommy cried! He was gone for FIVE days!

When he left for camp, we had to take Sarah to do something fun. She was sad she didn't get to go with him! haha SO, we took her to the Fort Worth Stockyards to ride the vintage train! We had so much fun! She loved being the center of attention for a little while.

Okay, during June, one of our highlights of the month was going to Lufkin for Mimi's birthday Bash! We surprised her by going a day early and also my sister & brother in law & niece surprised her by coming in from Birmingham in the middle of the night! It was so much fun! I knew they were coming so I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. to let them in. The next morning, Laura & I were standing over Carolyn at 6 in the morning trying to figure out if Davy was still in the bed or not and we started kind of giggling. Carolyn woke up and squealed like a little girl because she was so excited it was Laura standing with me! She was thrilled! We had a fabulous birthday weekend! THEN, my mom & step-dad called and said they were coming through Lufkin and could stay a few days, too! (He drives a truck so he was working!) I was so happy to see my mom. It had been over a year since I had seen her and she couldn't believe how big the kids were. They grew a lot in a year!!! It was great because Jason & Sarah saw ALLLLL of their grandparents in one weekend which is something that never happens. These are some pictures from that! We got to go to church at my dad's church and hear him play piano on Father's Day which was great. He even sat with us during the service. (He plays for the whole service, so this is a big deal!)

Jason had fun seeing all of his family in one weekend!

Sarah & Presley had fun together, as you can see! They are hilarious together!

Sarah & Presley were so glad to see Pop! He had already gone to work before they woke up and he came back home to give them some sugars!

Mimi got to go the Tea Room with her "girls"....Me, Laura, Sarah & Presley....
Pop took Jason for a "men's" lunch at McDonald's!I love this picture of Sarah & Mimi at the Tea Room!
This is Carolyn and one of her BEST friends! It was both of their 60th birthdays in the same month! We celebrated together! Don't they look GREAT!?
Mimi & Pop

Sarah & Jason had so much fun swimming at Mimi & Pop's house...

This is the birthday paddle that I made for them! It was so funny! It said "Bottom's Up" on it and had the number "170" all over it with their names. This is Todd's uncle! They all had a birthday together and their combined ages was 170! That's the candles I put on the cake, too! It was so funny! They loved that their ages weren't "singled" out! For the night, I told the ladies they could pretend they were however old they wanted.....as long as all 3 of them added up to 170! They decided to be 40 each and that makes Todd's uncle 90 years old! LOL I think he got the short end of that "whoopin stick!" My friend, Jennifer....Karen's daughter....made the most awesome cake ever! It was DELICIOUS! THANKS, JENNIFER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Carolyn, Karen & Johnny!
The following are pics from my mom's visit! This is my step-dad and mom...

Mom & The kiddos....

And that leaves Me & My Mom....

These next photos are from a few weeks ago. I was getting ready to take Sarah to the Children's Museum and this is what I found when I walked back into the living room! She had a whole bottle of cake sprinkles and she was "cooking"! I got onto her, but not much. It was so cute and she didn't realize what a mess she was making. She was just being creative!
SUCH A MESS! The vaccum took care of it, though! :)
The following pics are actually from before Jason left for camp, but I forgot them almost, so they are going here! LOL We took the kids to Oklahoma to a train meet at Todd's friend's house. It was fun. They loved seeing the trains and riding them. We stayed all day. I had to snap some cute pics of them, of course! I love this one of Sarah on Todd's shoulder! This will be in her wedding slideshow someday! hahaAwwww.....sweet kids.

I think this picture of Jason is so cute! Even if I am biased!

Having fun riding the trains.....

Well, that pretty much catches us up from all of June! The latest thing is the portraits I took of them and they are in a smilebox below! Enjoy! I hope you are all having a great summer and I promise....I'll be better about posting for the rest of the summer! My sister & her family are going to be at my house tomorrow night and I can't wait! I will be posting lots of pictures of that visit, too! Have a great day! Sharon

Oh, yea! I have been posting on the cooking blog and would LOVE for you to check it out! There are tons of fun things and recipes on there!

http://www.cookingwithsharonswan.blogspot.com/

New Portraits of the kids!

Sorry, everyone! I've been super busy with the summer! I haven't been posting much. I will get back in line! LOL

Hope you enjoy these!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Sweet Kids...

Well, summer is finally here and on the 2nd day of no school, I was already thinking "uh-oh"! Sarah kept asking what time we were taking Jason to school and when I explained that he didn't have to go, she was a bit upset! LOL She is used to being home by herself and ruling the roost all day and now, she has competition! Oh, well....She'll get used to it and grow to love it, I hope.

With Jason here, she doesn't nap very well. Yikes! I didn't think about that before school let out! haha This means that I don't get to talk on the phone hardly at all! Just so you can get a clear picture of my problem.....here's an illustration.

IT IS EASIER AND LESS PAINFUL TO GET ONE OF THOSE BIORE PORE STRIPS PEELED OFF OF MY NOSE THAN TO PEEL HER FROM MY LEG WHILE ON THE PHONE!!! At other times, I feel like a tree. She climbs me all day! If only my trunk were thinner and taller, she'd have a harder time, but I'm the short kind of tree with the bigger base and shorter limbs so it's easy to grab on for her! LOL

I went and got a new calendar to hang on the fridge night before last. It's a dry erase. Seems like our plans change all the time and I needed to be able to change it up! We have lots of summer activities scheduled to stay busy! We also have lots of "down days" though where I plan to do absolutely nothing with them. We love to sit and watch movies and eat popcorn. I love spending the afternoon curled up on the couch with the two of them!

I hope all of you have started your summer out on a positive note. I know ours will be busy, but fun. I love the summer and so do the kids!

I did manage to capture this one photo of Jason & Sarah getting along! LOL They were asleep.

Sarah had gone and climbed in bed with Jason early one morning last week!

Catching up.....Sarah's First Dance Recital!

Peace, Love & Dance....Sarah's first recital!!!!!!!!








The stage was so awesome! They really did a great job decorating!
















Sarah and her gal pal!












Me & Todd were so proud of our little girl!


and our handsome little man!


























At the end, Sarah was so excited she got flowers from mommy & daddy & brother!





















Funny girl!









She LOVED putting on make-up! Although I had to do some damage control! LOL




















Sarah & Mimi









Waiting backstage with the girls!











Jason & Mimi















I don't know WHAT they were talking about but doesn't it look really important?!















These are actually pics from the rehearsal but SO cute!















At the end of the night..........we had a slight meltdown. It was SO over!