Grandma's 80th Birthday Pics

My beautiful Grandma!! My Mom, Aunt Vicki, Grandma and Aunt Carolyn

Jordan, Great Grandma Margie, and Dakota

Jordan, Grandma Trish, and Dakota

Twins holding twins! :o) Jordan and Dakota with Rook and Rowdy

March 2011

It's been a busy busy March!!! The girls have been busy with trackmeets. Supposed to have one today but it was cancelled due to the weather. So, I'm taking this opportunity of staying home to get caught up on some things that I've been putting off, like my blog! lol March 1st brought Ed's 41st birthday!! The 2nd brought Grandma Margie's 80th birthday. The girls and I enjoyed going to Laverne for the day and celebrating with Grandma Margie, Mom, Aunt Vicki, and Aunt Carolyn. We had a lot of fun spending some time with everyone for a few hours. March also led to another loss for our family. We lost a very dear friend, Johnny Hairford. He was the man in charge of the youth trap shoots that Jordan has been attending for the past coupld of years and had become an "adopted" grandpa for Jordan. Our whole family thought the world of him and we all (especially Jordan) took losing him very hard. He was a wonderful man and everyone is going to miss him terribly. With the loss of Johnny, his family asked if Ed would take over the youth trap shoots and keep them going for the kids. Of course he was very honored and plans on continuing the shoots in May when they were to start up again. We had a memorial shoot in honor of Johnny at our house on the 20th of this month. 5 of the 7 kids that Johnny took to Kinsley the past couple of years were able to attend and enjoy the day shooting trap, having lunch and spending some time together. The girls and I had a nice Spring break, we spent the week hanging out together and doing some shopping. It was nice to just have some mother/daughter time. I really enjoyed it!! March has been especially busy for Jordan, as she was in her first beauty pageant. Miss Hooker Princess!! Although she didn't win anything, she looked beautiful and did an amazing job and she had a lot of fun. She's already looking forward to the pageant next year!! Dakota's knee has still been giving her a little trouble, so she's been having to take it easy in track. Which of course she is not liking at all!!! But like I told her, it's better to take it easy for this season than to mess up your knee from now on!! She's getting excited about softball season starting up and is ready to get back to meeting with her pitching coach and get back in practice again! This coming weekend (April 1st and 2nd) we'll be traveling to Enid for the all Corvette show!! I'm so excited about this one, this is my first time to get to go to this show with my vette!! Ed and I have spent a lot of time getting it ready for the show. We have decked the motor out with so much and Ed spent the day Saturday polishing up my exhaust. They look like brand new!! The girls are looking foward to the car show too, but I think it's more because they will probably get to hang out with their friend Jett that moved to Enid a couple years ago. lol I think that about catches me up (for the most part anyway) Gonna put on some pics of various events too though!! :o) Hope everyone has had a great March!!

Finally got my tag for my vette. Not the first choice I had (actually ended up getting my 4th choice) but I like it. Wild Side is one of my favorite Motley Crue songs and we always have Motley Crue blaring in the vette! lol The girls have told us several times that we are going through our second childhood! hehe

RJ playing pool

Jordan playing pool

RJ and Jordan trying to figure out a good move

Ed trying to be a pool shark

uh-oh, looks like Jordan wasn't too happy with her shot! lol

Dakota's birthday cake (Dakota and Brandon)

Jordan's birthday cake - (Jordand and Tyler)

Jordan and Tyler -

Jordan

Dakota

My beautiful 14 year old girls!!

Jessi Abbate, Tyler, Jordan and Matt Duff

Friends of the NRA pheasant hunt

Devon, Tyler and Jordan

Tyler and Jordan (her new (old) boyfriend)

Feb 10, 2011

Wow, so much has happened since I posted last. We all had a nice Christmas. Bryce came out and spent the holiday with us. It was nice for all of us to be able to spend some time together. Since then our world has been turned upside down. The day after Christmas we lost Terry, he had been in Wichita in the hospital since the 7th of December with pnuemonia. We traveled back and forth to Wichita several times during the month of December to see him. We made our last trip on the 26th and got to see him. We thought he was doing a little better when we left late that afternoon, but by the time we got 4 miles from home the hospital called and his heart had stopped. We all took it very hard, Terry meant the world to all of us. He was such a big part of our family and it's never going to be the same without him. Ed of course was and still is devastated, him and his dad were more than just father/son - they were best friends. Terry's funeral plans had already been made several years ago and he was to be buried in Independence, MO. with Grandpa and Grandma. We all traveled to MO. to finish arrangements and the funeral was planned for the 30th. However, late the 29th our family was dealt another setback, Ed's sister Brenda suffered a heart attack while trying to finish up final arrangements for the services. It was mild, but she was in the hospital for a few days and the funeral was postponed until the 4th of January. We once again traveled back to MO. (came home just for the weekend to check on things at home, ect...) And as if we hadn't been through enough - the night before the services again (3rd) Brenda suffered another heart attack. Although still mild, it was worse than the first one and this was her 2nd heart attack in 5 days. She's only 43 years old and in excellent health. Very upsetting for all of us. There was no way to postpone the services again, so we had to have the funeral without Brenda. This was so very hard on her and on Ed. But we all made it through and she is doing very well now. Since then we've been very busy trying to get things gone through at Terry's house, everything done that needs to be done and of course trying to deal with our loss of our precious Dad/Grandpa. Things get a little more bearable day by day, but of course it will never be easy. The girls also took it really hard, they were very close to their Grandpa. Dakota wrote a beautiful poem for him and Ed read it at the services. I'm still not sure how he did it, there is no way I could have. We love you and miss you Dad and you will always be with us in our hearts. After trying to get back to a somewhat normal routine, the girls celebrated their 14th birthday on the 24th of January. It's so hard to believe that they are 14 years old now. They have also finished up basketball season for this year. They had a pretty good team this year. I don't remember what the overall record was, but they won several games. Dakota was out for 2 weeks with an injured knee and she was not very happy about that. But she's doing fine now and the girls have started running track now. Won't be long and track meets will be underway and we'll be on the go again! Also in January Jordan participated in a NRA pheasant hunt with her trap shooting group. It will be airing on TV (The Outdoor Channel) on March 27th at 9:30 p.m. The name of the show is Friends of the NRA. She was pretty excited and had a lot of fun that day. I'm so anxious to see the show, they got some great footage of Jordan and even had a mic attached to her, but not sure what all they'll actually use. Should be fun to watch though!! Of course there has been so much going on that I could literally write a book this time, but this covers the basics. I have some pics, I'll add a few posts with them next. Hopefully I should be able to at least get back to monthly updates after this. :o)