My sister is an awesome photographer

All of you who know her already know this. I just have to point it out again because today she posted pictures of my boys on her blog:

My very handsome sons

Check them out! I am bursting with pride over them and her, both!

Chris has a new hobby...

And Moses has a new tormentor. He doesn't seem to mind all that much, but then again, we are pretty sure Moses is from outer space. I think this was Chris' way of exacting revenge upon a cat who WILL NOT leave my yarn alone. Not the synthetic stuff, no, he never gives that a second glance. It's only when I have really yummy kid mohair or silk and Romney wool that this part of his personality surfaces. Hiding it from him is not an option, since he knows how to open doors and unzip zippers. Chris has this theory that if we wear him out enough, he'll just sleep and night and not destroy stuff. So here you go. Cowboy Moses.

Next, we have Corporate Climber Moses. He's tired from a hard day at the office.

Chris, I would watch my back, if I were you. I think Moses has figured out how to use the camera. You know that picture of you asleep in Timothy's bed? Yeah, that was ALL him!

These are a few of my favorite dads...

Happy Father's Day! I felt that I should take a moment to write a little tribute to some of the great dads in my life. In no particular order...

My dear, sweet husband, Chris. Here he is, introducing his eldest son to his youngest son.

Next, we have Pawpaw. Here he is, meeting Timothy for the first time.

Here's my own wonderful dad, or "Popple", as he is now know. Here, if I recall, he and Timothy were discussing key battles of the Civil War. No, I'm not kidding. If you ever wonder about some of the strange things my kids seem to know from a young age...he's your guy.

Here's Grandpa Jasper. Timothy was completely fascinated with him during this particular meal.

Another one of Pawpaw, Timothy and Gabe. I just realized how much Gabe has grown. He looks so little in this picture!

Timothy's favorite place to sleep (then and now!). Chris doesn't seem to mind it much.

Popple and his boys.

Chris and Timothy, as you might recall from previous posts, have birthdays two days apart. Thus, Timothy turned a year old right around the same time Chris turned thirty. There was cake. Lots of cake. There is always lots of cake.

Father's Day 2006.

Chris is wearing the very special apron that Gabe made him for Father's Day. Aren't they cute?

Here are my boys at the petting zoo.

Pawpaw and Gabe, in October of 2006. What a little ham I'm raising!

Here's one from Father's Day last year. Look, I'm on my blog!

Grandpa Jasper and the boys, last summer. These boys love their grandpas!

Chris and Gabe from this year's Pinewood Derby.

There are no pictures of another very dear dad, because Chris' dad, Pop, passed away before we owned a digital camera. It was fun going through all our old picture files, but there are so many more pictures of all these great men in my life. Some of them are in boxes or albums at my mom's house. Some of them exist in my mind alone. I just wanted to take a moment to thank them for all that they do, and all the support they've given me over the last 28 years. They're a wonderful bunch, and I'm sure that someday my sons will grow up to be wonderful dads because of the example these guys have set. When that happens, Gabe has already warned me that I will NOT be allowed to babysit his kids, because I will be sure to spoil them rotten and then send them home. He knows me well.

A little lesson in genetics: Amy's wedding rehearsal

I'm back, posting in illogical order, as promised. Here are a few shots of Amy's and Matt's wedding rehearsal. Nobody remembered to take any pictures of my wedding rehearsal (which is too bad, since the florist and the church's wedding coordinator almost got into a fist fight!) so I was determined to make sure Amy got some pictures of her rehearsal. Looking at these pictures caused me to ponder genetics. You'll see why in a moment. First, here is Amy. She is adorable, as you can see.

Next, ,we see Matt. He, too, is a good-looking human being. His groomsmen look considerably happier than he does here, but I think he was just perplexed at why I was taking pictures of him every three seconds.

These lovely people are Amy's parents (and just a teeny little bit of her cousin!). Amy's family is a lot of fun. Nice, normal people, all of them. I like them.

Now we see Matt's parents. You probably already figured that out by the fact that Matt looks exactly like his dad. Again, great people. Admittedly, Betty does have rather an odd look on her face here, but in all fairness, I wasn't warning people before I took pictures. Still, pretty normal couple, wouldn't you say?

Here are Raymond and myself, practicing our walk down the aisle. Raymond is Matt's brother. He is a great guy. I had a good time talking to him.

Now we see my dad, explaining the procedures to everyone. I believe here, he was telling Matt and James that at this point in the wedding ceremony, the dowry would change hands. I was hoping it was going to be sheep, but all anyone could produce was about $0.37. I think you'll all agree that this is NOT a normal thing for the officiant to put into the ceremony.

Here we see the happy couple, wonderful people who were produced by two other happy couples, also made up of wonderful people. Good genetics at work.

Someday in the very distant future, this happy couple will probably pool their genes and produce more adorable, wonderful people. VERY distance future, I'd say, since they have done a little babysitting for me lately, and that tends to be a 10-year birth control plan.

Here I am again, with Raymond, and my fellow bridesmaids in the background. Note that I have a stupid look on my face in both pictures. Also note that I had passed the camera off to Mom at this point, so she could get a different perspective. I am not normal. I have often wondered how that happened.

So again, cute, normal parents produce cute, normal children. Everyone with me? Much later, I got my camera back from Mom and decided to take a look at the pictures. And lo and behold, here is what I found among all the pictures of nice, normal gene pools...

This is my father. He is in my gene pool.

This is, apparently, what he does as the wedding officiant, when nobody is looking. I wouldn't call this normal.

...And here he is with the other half of my genetic code, my lovely mother. Nobody's accused her of being normal, either. At least, not since she married my father.

I'm thinking this could explain a LOT.

Oh, and just in case anyone wondered, Dad's shirt reads, "I'm sick of being my wife's arm candy".

Amy's beautiful wedding!

Yesterday was Amy's wedding day. If I were a logical kind of blogger, I would start with pictures of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. However, no one has ever accused me of being logical, so I'm starting with the morning of the wedding. We'll come back to the rehearsal later. There are pictures that need to be posted. Mom and Dad, you know what I mean!

Here is how I found Amy at 11:30 Saturday morning. She had a smile on her face and she was as cool as a cucumber. In fact, that smile stayed on her face all day long, and she never once lost her composure!

First look at the wedding hair! Isn't she pretty??

It took two stylists to tackle my hair. I have a LOT of hair. Raeven did a terrific job of taming it, though, and eventually it was all curled and forced into submission.

Almost done!

We headed off to the chapel ahead of schedule, where Katie, Amy and I decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if we scuffed up our new shoes a bit before the wedding. That turned out to be a VERY good idea. During the reception, I went trotting out into the foyer, hit a wet spot on the tile, and nearly went heels over head. It wouldn't have been pretty.

While we were scuffing, we noticed how enticing the fish pond looked. We decided to check it out.

We still had a couple of hours before the ceremony, so it was time for champaign. Amy has fabulous taste in champaign. It was delicious!

Amy's brother, Stephen arrived next, with our missing bridesmaid, Alicia. She wasn't technically missing, she just had issues with her salon that morning, when her stylist never showed up. She had to make last-minute arrangements, but her hair still looked gorgeous. Here we see Amy, helping Stephen cut the tags off his socks.

Time for make-up! Here are Alicia and Katie, starting the process!

Mary arrived next, to do Amy's make-up. She did such a great job! She's a pro at wedding make-up! If you look closely, you can see April in the mirror. By then, she and Dre had arrived to start shooting. Hi, April!

Time for the dress! Have I mentioned Amy's fabulous taste? Her dress was so beautiful, and the style was perfect to show off her lovely figure.

Almost time go to! Hey, look, I think that's me in the mirror!

The ceremony was beautiful. Dad preaches a heck of a wedding! I didn't get any pictures of that because I was a little busy being the matron of honor at the time. I have confidence that Dre and April captured the moment, though. And speaking of Dre...

Look, a photographer in her natural habitat! Let us not go to Camelot, it is a silly place! I have no explanation for why this picture makes me want to quote Monty Python.

Weird weather

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we had a couple of big wind storms last week. One of them uprooted a tree in the back yard. Chris is still in the process of cutting it up so it can be hauled off by the crews coming through to clean up storm damage. Unfortunately, there was another storm a few days after this, and a second tree sustained so much damage, it's going to have to be taken down, as well. Enough with the wind storms, already! I know this is Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains, but the song never mentioned anything about widespread power outages and falling trees!

Still life

Recently, I vacuumed out the couches. It's amazing the things you can find inside a couch. In this case, the items included a computer cable of some sort, a card from my grandma, a matchbox fire engine, two safety pins, a couple of paper clips shaped into some weird form of origami, a broken crayon, a comb, my missing size "N" crochet hook, some nicotine gum and part of a banana peel. Not pictured: several metric tons of crumbs. I don't know why this amused me so much. I think maybe it's the banana peel that did it. I'm glad I found that while it was still relatively fresh. Otherwise, I could be writing a far less amused blog about a mystery smell!

Fifth Night at Utica Square

Summer is in full swing, and most Thursday nights now find us at Utica Square, for the Fifth Night concert series. We tried it a time or two last year, but Timothy was still pretty high-maintenance then. This year, he's all about picnics. We meet Nichole, her parents, and various other "regulars" at the Square. We decide on a menu in advance, and everyone brings something to share. This last week, Janet brought the most delicious key lime pie cups for the adults, and pudding for the boys. As you can see, Timothy really enjoyed his pudding.

Here are Cindi, Nichole and me, on a night so windy, we couldn't leave our seats for fear they would wind up in another county!

Two weeks ago, Gabe discovered a school friend who also attends the concerts. Meet Caroline. She calls Gabe "Gabriel". He calls her "Caroline", as this is her name. Timothy calls her "Care-a-lot", for reasons best known to himself (and possibly fans of the CareBears). She and Gabe spend a lot of time dancing and running back and forth between her parents and our group. Timothy likes to tag along, because Caroline's parents gave him oreos once, and he's not going to forget about that anytime soon!

Can we say "little brother"???

Depending on who's playing, we sometimes have to get there very early to get a good spot. When "Midlife Crisis" plays, it's packed by 6 o'clock, half an hour before the concert starts. On those nights, we bring along sidewalk chalk, bubbles, kites, etc for the kids. When the Light Opera group played, there wasn't so much of a crowd.

The boys are happy to run around and be boys.

Their Mama is happy to sit around with Miss Nichole and sip sangria. Or margaritas. Or something!

The first time we went this year, this motorcycle showed up. Cool sidecar, huh? Apparently, this Great Pyranese is the permanent sidecar passenger.

He even has his own "doggles"!