Losing a friend

Yesterday we got bad news. Shanes friend Dan had fell off of his boat while working in Texas and had not resurfaced. It happened around 8pm Sunday night and rescuers had searched until Midnight for him with no luck. Monday around 9:45am they found him.




There are no words to describe how sad this is. Dans mother passed away last year from cancer and it was a very hard struggle for their family to get through the pain of losing her.
Dan was a great guy. I had only been around him a handful of times but everyone always had a story to tell about him. He was a great father, brother, son, husband and friend. He will be greatly missed.





Last year I had the great opportunity to take family pictures of the Parkers. Being around them all was so inspiring. This was a family going through something I hope I never have to experience. Ann had cancer and they werent expected her to live very much longer. I had only met Ann a few times and I felt like I had known her my whole life. She was an amazing woman. The thing that sticks in my head the most is that even though Ann knew she didnt have long to live, she never gave up hope. She had a shirt on that said "Never give up hope."
The Parkers have been through so much and have grown with each other along the way. They are very strong people to have endured the pain of loosing two very special links in their family chain within the past year and a half. It wont be an easy time to get through but as Ann would say - "Never give up hope."







There was a very powerful quote on Amy Parkers blog: "You cant put a question mark where God put a period". This is so true.

I hope that Dans girls grow up knowing how special Dan was. He loved them more than anything and you could tell just by how he was with them.



"How lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard"

And for every yellow belly drank - it will be drank for you my friend...

Our Wedding Party

My mom, grandma and aunt threw a wedding party for Shane and I yesterday. Besides it being HOT, it turned out nice. Brody helped us cut the cake and he fed it to us. He was nice to me but got it all over his dad. I got him back though. We had a good time.

Thanks to everyone who came.

Angelle

We were able to watch my cousin last night for a few hours while her parents went to the movies! I just love watching her. She is such a girl and little girls are SOOO super cute! Especially Angelle. She loves to dance, giggle, chase the dog, tease Brody and give loves. We had so much fun and I think she did to. Her and Brody played cars,ball and chased Bailey.

Brodys Fort

We recently moved. We are renting a house from a friend at work. Its a cute house, were just trying to find room for all our stuff. You dont realize how much you have till you move, thats for sure!!
Anyways, when we moved in, they left a playset for us in the backyard. We set it up and cleaned it off and Brody LOVES it. Its his fort. When him and Bailey are playing in the backyard he runs and jumps on his fort so that she cant get him. He climbs on it like a monkey.











When we were little Kayla had a playset exactly like this. She loved playing on hers as much as Brody loves his. Plus it has a green side - his favorite color!!

Slip n Slide

Brody has water day at school every friday and he wanted to have water day at home. So, I told him if he was good at school I would have a surprise for him when we got home today. So, we got a slip n slide. It was so much fun but the water was super cold!! We only played for about half an hour. Bailey even wanted in on the action.

We had lots of fun!!







Brody liked to lick the water off the boogie board



Bailey watching the water







Miss Bailey


She likes to keep her eye on Brody... hes always up to something

4th of July and Brodys first fish!

We had a lot of fun on the 4th of July weekend. We went and and stayed with Cody and Vanessa. Cody took all of us fishing and we had a blast! Brody caught his first fish. He thought it was so cool and he was super excited! So was I.




We also went to Grandma and Grandpa Hickmans house down at the ranch. Grandpa had a box full of saw dust and he hid $30.00 in change and a bunch of candy in it for the kids to dig through. Brody thought this was so cool. Brody and Emma were excited to find all the candy.



It was as so cute seeing the two of them eat watermelon with each other. Aunt Mary was trying to teach Emma to spit the seads out and she tried but spit everything out of her mouth when she did it. Brody was trying to show her the right way to do it and it was funny.



We all had a lot of fun!

Lazy Saturday

We were so glad that today was Saturday. No waking up early, no working... just relaxing. And that we did. Brody didnt even get out of his PJ's all day. We played, took a nap and cleaned up a little. Finally at about 5 I went to Verizon and got new phones for Shane and I. We needed them. Our old ones were about to take a dive. So, the phone I got allows me to publish posts to my blog!! Im so excited about that... I just have to figure out how to get that to work.

Anyways, Brody and Bailey are doing so good together. She is a great puppy. She has had a few accident but on the tile so thats nice AND she loves her kennel. At night if she has to go, she pees on her training pads that I put in there and in the morning I just throw those away and all is good. So, Im pretty excited. Were trying to teach her to get her to fetch and "give" and it seems like shell catch on pretty well with more training.

Tomorrow we have a lot of work to do. Shanes going to mow the yard and I have more unboxing to do. I told Brody if it wasnt raining (like today) that I would blow his pool up and we could go swimming. So, hopefully well be able to do that.

Well, Brodys sleeping, shanes watching tv and Im ready for bed so Ill talk to you later.
Amie

Our wedding - Sneak Peak

We had a wonderful day!! It poured all day until we got out of the car to have our ceremony. Then, when it was over it poured! But, it was perfect. Our photographer did an awesome job and I cant wait to see the rest of the pictures. She posted one on her blog for a sneak peak... katewall.com

Were getting married in Sedona on May 21, 2009

Im getting everything set up now for our wedding. Shane and I have decided to get married in Sedona on our way to Arizona for Memorial Weekend. We are so excited! It will just be Shane,Brody and I. Brody is being so cute. He keeps asking me if we are married yet. He thinks he is marrying us. I finally found a dress and this weekend my Mom and I are going to work on making a bouquet. I dont want real flowers since were travelling and I wont be able to dry real ones on the road.

Were getting married by www.TwoHeartsOneLifeWeddings.com

Im so excited about our photographer... she has some great images on her site: katewall.com You all know how much of a freak I am about pictures so Im so happy I found her.

Happy Easter

We had quite an eventful easter. We house watched my Cousin Codys house this weekend while they went camping. We watched their dogs and had lots of fun playing with them. Saturday we were going to color easter eggs and Brody came down with a sudden fever. He threw up everywhere and got so tired. We think he got food poisoning... not sure. So, we were up all night. Every hour we were up with him. It was so sad not being able to help him. Needless to say, the Easter Bunny was not able to hide eggs because Brody wasnt able to color them and if he had, the Easter Bunny couldnt even sneak into the house because Brody was constantly up. But, he did stop by in the morning to drop his easter basket off at the door... Brody thought it was so cool.

We woke up this morning, made easter bunny pancakes, finally colored out easter eggs, checked out the fun goodies the Easter Bunny left us and played with the dogs.

Brody getting his easter basket. He was so excited, he dumped it out all over the floor before he even got in the house!




Brody reading his letter from the Easter Bunny


Coloring Easter Eggs



Brodys Easter Bunny hat from school



Brody making Easter Bunny pancakes


Brodys cute smile that I love



And now on with the fun...







Happy Easter Everyone!


Love Brody