{Family is what it's all about}

This Labor Day weekend we drove up to my Aunt Donna's house in Olathe, Kansas. I have not seen my cousin's in nearly 7 YEARS! That is WAY TOO LONG to go without seeing your family. We arrived saturday morning. It was awesome being there again. I cannot even tell you in words what i felt. I was just overwhelmingly excited to be there again and see them again. We were together from bright and early morning, until way late at night on saturday, sunday, and part of monday(which is the day we left at about noon) One night some of us were up until 2 a.m. talking. Yes, that is how much fun we have together. Anyway, We got there and they all just are so welcoming, accepting, genuinely helpful. They wanted to get their hands on Jaydon and they all passed him around the whole weekend, taking care of him, squeezing him, feeding him, changing his diapers, WISHING he still took the bottle so they could feed him like a baby...hahaha. It was so funny.
That family of mine knows WHERE it's at and knows WHAT it's about....life. They put their heart and life into their family. They know family is what it's all about. They take care of each other and are there supporting each other at ALL their events. They might as well live in the same house. No, just kidding. But seriously, they are at the heart of what this life is about. They know who they are, they know what they want, they know what's important and what's not, they don't sweat the small things in life, they stay close to each other, they put family before anything, they have nothing to complain about. They have it all together. I love the way i feel when i am around them. They make every single thing in life exciting. They make life exciting. When we are all together we are laughing all the time. Some people would call us crazy, but boy do we have fun. We are the type of family that can sit and talk about farting and our farting stories and laugh about it. We can talk about anything and everything under the sun. There is NEVER a dull moment. When we get together we sit around the pool and talk and eat and laugh....we sit around the bonfire and talk and eat and laugh....we sit around the kitchen and living area and talk and eat and laugh. We sit out on the patio and talk and eat and laugh.

Here is my dad and my favorite Aunt....Aunt Donna. :)
The boys had tons of fun with their cousins whom they have never met before. Hudson is six i believe , and stella is in first grade. She is either six or seven. The boys loved playing with them. They played all day and we NEVER saw them the entire day except when we were all swimming. There was NEVER a single fight. Never one complaint. It was awesome. They were such nice well mannered well behaved kids. It was awesome to meet them for the first time. Olivia, the oldest, who like like 11 years old is such a sweet girl. She has her own rock band and apparently sings really well. I still need to get on youtube to listen to her.


Out on the patio, talking, eating, and laughing.... There house is surrounded by trees. I absolutely love their home. Out on their patio they have 4 different sets of patio furniture. That is b/c that is where they like to spend a lot of their time. Plus they always have family and friends coming in and out. There home is a HOME.

My grandma, which is my mom's mom was there too. She is visiting my parents in Minnesota for about a month and she went along for the ride to come hang out with our crazy, loud, probably shocking family.

Here are the boys inside chatting it up. I took this picture from outside looking in....

Erica, my cousin, might kill me for posting this. I caught her making a pretty funny face! :) haha

More and more chatting. Brion, my brother, sitting there on the left had been in south korea for a year teaching english. He came there and surprised ALL OF US. He suddenly just showed up by walking in the room. It was awesome to see him and he surprised us all. He is heading back to south korea for another year in a few weeks.

We were all together again, except for stephen who couldn't be there. There were 20 of us. It was my aunt donna, uncle zip, cousins stephanie, erica, and lyndsey, erica's two kids, and stephanie's one girl and of course my sister and brother, husband and kids.

My Uncle Zip is a big time designer/decorator. He owns a REUSED furniture consignment store. He KNOWS how to decorate and design. They all do. They all have it in their blood. So, we went and looked at his store. I wanted to buy lots of stuff , but we don't have the room in our car for it all. The one thing i was going to get i ended up not being able to get b/c gavin got sick. He had to lay down on our ride home and in order for him to have a comfortable spot to lay down he needed to lay down in the back. We didn't have room for my piece of furniture plus gavin, so i didn't get it. Anyway, then we did a PARADE OF HOMES. I made sure to carefully look all around my aunt and uncle's house and soak in all the awesome ideas and decorating tips, then we went and walked around erica's and stephanie's home. Erica and her family live just down the street from my Aunt Donna. SO, get this...they bought a golf cart, with pimped out rims. They use that for transportation to and from her house. It is such a FUN and awesome idea. AND they live set out more in the country in a small little neighborhood so it works out perfectly. Then there is Stephanie and her family who live about 3-4 miles from my aunt's house. Soooo, we drove over there. Can i just say , woah! It was b. e. a. utiful. The neighborhood was the prettiest neighborhood i have ever seen. The community was the most awesome and beautiful i have ever seen. The landscaping was gorgeous. I so want to live there now. Anyway, her house and the way she decorates is beautiful. They have one little girl and when you walk in her room you walk into a room that looks like a room that walt disney world would decorate for a little princess. Not kidding. It was amazing. and i wish i would have brought my camera to take pics of it but i didn't. poo. My cousin erica's house is awesome too. She has a more contemporary retro style, which isn't my type of style, but it looked awesome still an i did like their kids rooms a TON. Now i know where to go to get advice on my boy's rooms when we decorate and design. They all have an amazing gift and talent when it comes to decorating and designing. I didn't get to see lyndsey's house b/c they lived about 45 minutes away and we didn't get over there to see it, but i hear it is so cool.

Anyway, one of the nights we were there we went out in the back, back in their woods where they cleared out some of the trees to have a little open area in the woods for bonfire and swingset. And they cleared out a path in the woods for their grandson, hudson, for their 4-wheelers and motorbikes. We had a bonfire....we sang, we showed our talents, we imitated someone in the family and had to guess who we were imitating, we hummed songs and had to guess what song it was, we talked and laughed, we roasted marshmallows, etc. It was so fun. If it sounds like i am bragging about my family, well, i guess that is what i am doing if that's what you want to call it. To me, it's just being proud of having such an awesome family who i feel like ME around. I can get lost in all the chaos of life, but when i get around them i am reminded of WHO I AM, my routes, WHAT I LIKE, what is most important and what life is really about. They are such genuine people and make you feel so loved, important, and are so accepting. They just have fun. You will learn quickly what life is supposed to be about after being with them for awhile.

my aunt donna is an amazing host. She had huge tupperware buckets full of diced watermelon, grapes, diced up cantelope, strawberries....she had loads of different kinds of breads, lunch meats, everything for lunch sandwiches, chips, veggies and dip....it was all prepared and ready and just needed to be set out. She was completely prepared. Every morning we woke up she already had everything set out neatly waiting for us with a little note. She had the cereal out, bagels out, toast out, butter out....she had a little bowl and sippy cup sitting on the highchair for jaydon. she had a note telling us where the frozen waffles were. She had soda's, lemonade, drinks ....she had them in a fridge out in the garage, she had them in a fridge in the basement, put a little mini fridge out on the deck, along with two coolers. She had it all set up. She had towels out in a basket for us for after we were done swimming. She is AMAZING and that is the kind of host i want to be and will be from now on. They go above and beyond and WANT to. Gosh i love em. I hope to be able to live close enough to them one day to where i can make the drive within 6 hours. I so want to be able to see them more often.

We had an awesome time there with them. I wasnt' ready to come back to real life, but i will make sure i remember everything i took from them to use it everday in my life. Remembering that family is WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT. Nothing else is. They would drop everything to help and support each other. And they will do what they can to help someone out. They make sure that you know you are loved. They are just wonderful people and i am so proud to call them my family and i have missed them so much and hope to get to see them more. All i can say is that i am one darn lucky and blessed girl to have such wonderful families in my life. My side and Shane's side. I am sooooooo grateful for my families. Sooooooo grateful.

I am working on being a better mom and wife right now and making our home a home. That is what you will be seeing a lot of on my blog from now on. :) FAMILY. The only thing that matters in this life.