Taken with my iPhone

A beautiful fall Saturday turned into an impromptu maternity session for my sister Lindsey.  Assuming Baby T cooperates, we should find out tomorrow whether she is expecting a boy or a girl.  I can’t wait!

Taken at an old church in Powell

Taken at the historic Powell bridge

Taken on Lindsey & Grayson's farm in Rocky Comfort

All of the photos from this session are available here.

For those that don’t know, this is my sister Lindsey and brother-in-law Grayson.  Last weekend, we took this special photograph at the end of our family photo shoot.  We didn’t explain anything.  Shelby just handed them the picture frames and I snapped away.  I’m not sure who realized what this meant first but there were a lot of excited screams in my ears.

That’s right!  I’m going to be an Aunt!!!

Aren’t the next two pictures precious?

Congratulations, Lindsey & Grayson!  I can’t wait to meet Baby Taylor in March 2012!

Lindsey, Mom, Shelby, & I - 5/7/11

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

You are the best mother any child could ask for.  You are a great role model and help me more than I’ll ever be able to make up for.  I love you!

Love, Tara Ann

Powell, MO has an old bridge they have restored which is where we started the day.

There was also an old store in Powell that was a nice backdrop for some photos.

From Powell, we moved onto the farm.  An old logging truck that is temporarily on the farm provided some cool photos.

Lindsey & Grayson have a really neat old barn and then an old chicken coop that provided the final settings as the sun was starting to set.

Mom & Lindsey even got in on the fun throughout the afternoon.

Each year, we spend Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family and then Christmas with my dad’s mom.  This year was no exception.

This year I was off work on Christmas Eve since Christmas was on Saturday.  That meant I got to go to my grandparents’ house early to hang out (and, this year, help cook).  This year we decided to have Mexican food.  My uncle made chicken enchiladas and I made beef.  Yum!  (I got one of Trisha Yearwood’s cookbooks for my birthday and decided to give her jalapeno bites a try too.  I’m still partial to the bacon wrapped cream cheese stuffed jalapenos but these did go over pretty well and were easy to fix.)

This year we decided to make sure we took lots of pictures of the family and make sure there were several with my grandmother & grandfather included.  I’m pretty sure we spent a good 30 minutes taking all of the pictures.  We even managed to get multiple pictures this year of some that practically refuse to have their picture taken.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Me, my younger sister Lindsey, Mom, & my youngest sister Shelby

Lindsey & her husband (my bro-in-law) Grayson

Me, my sisters, & my grandmother “Nana Pat”

Me, my sisters, & my grandfather “Papa Jay”

The Grandkids (minus Jeff, who lives in Scotland)

Nana & Papa Kissing under the Mistletoe – I’m just gonna say that I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed my grandparents kissing.  Expect for the occasional adorable hand holding that we witness, they just aren’t into PDA.  Evidently, earlier in the day Christmas Eve before anyone was there to witness it, they did this.  Nana had him reenact in front of all of us.  It was hilarious but so adorable!  I’m glad I got the photo to remember it.

Shelby & Papa “Dancing” – We call this dancing.  It lasts only about a minute but Papa gets into it and, as you can see by the smile, has a blast.  It’s moments like this one that I so enjoy witnessing.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single photo Christmas Day.  It was a great day, though.  We also have the traditional Christmas dinner – turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc, etc.  Mom made a lemon pie this year, which was yummy!

I hope you each had a great Christmas holiday.  Thanksgiving & Christmas are the best times of the year for me.  It’s just a festive time and I love getting together with family and friends.

If you want to see all of the pictures we took on Christmas Eve, check out my Christmas photo album.

Day 4 – Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The first location on Tuesday’s agenda was the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  The Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.  It was called the Sears Tower until a year ago.  I still want to call it the Sears Tower, mostly because that’s the most popular and recognized name of the tower.

A relatively new feature of the Willis Tower Skydeck is The Ledge.  One side of the building’s skydeck has 4 sets of plexiglas boxes protrude out from the building.  You can stand on the ledges and find yourself essentially standing over 103 floors of air.  I didn’t experience The Ledge.  My sisters & mom did, though.

After we left the Willis Tower, we took a taxi down to Chinatown.  I’ve never been to NYC or anywhere with a Chinatown so I had no idea what to expect.  The ones that had were pretty disappointed.  They expected some good deals but over half of the shops were groceries and/or restaurants.  All I know is that it was HOT.  Some of the shops we went into weren’t even air conditioned.

Click here to view my photo album from Chicago.

Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

I hope you are having a wonderful time in Washington DC this week.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mother!  I love you!

I know we won’t be home to celebrate this day with you until this evening but I wanted to go ahead and post this as just a little reminder to you of how much I love you.

PS…Get ready for Saturday!  Lindsey, Shelby, Rachel, & I have a great day planned for you, Nana Pat, & Carol.

At the time this entry is posted, Lindsey, Shelby, & I will already be well on our way to Junction, Texas.  Our cousin Paige is getting married Saturday evening on the family’s ranch down there.

We really aren’t going to be there long, given the amount of time (probably around 12 hours) it takes to get down there.  We’re leaving bright & early Friday morning.  (Well, if I get my way, I’m actually thinking it will be more like dark & early Friday morning.)  Then, we are coming home Sunday morning.

We’re excited to go, no matter how long we get to stay.  Plus, I wouldn’t miss Paige’s wedding for anything.  She is the cousin on my dad’s dad’s side of the family that is the closest to me in age.  (I’m exactly 6 months older.)

Congratulations, Paige & Cory!

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that rain is causing weekend plan problems right now.  It is after all April.  Rain just seems to be throwing kinks in the weekend plans constantly right now.  Yesterday was supposed to start with the Race for the Cure and then heading up to Missouri to Lindsey & Grayson’s to help with their flower beds.  Instead, we had pouring rain that lasted off and on all day.  We did end up going up to MO for supper so the day wasn’t a total loss but it is still disappointing, nonetheless.

Last weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway.  The forecast was showing a small chance of rain all weekend.  Our hope was that 30-40% wasn’t going to hurt the race on Sunday.

We went down to DFW on Friday.  We stay in Frisco right next to IKEA and Dr Pepper Ballpark, which is home of the double-A Texas Rangers team the Frisco RoughRiders.  Our hotel room had a great view down into the ballpark.  It’s too bad they aren’t ever at home the weekend of the NASCAR race.

We spent Friday evening at my uncle’s house in Dallas.  It was a great visit with him & Rod and a great home cooked meal!  I took tons of pictures of their flowers & plants while I was there (of course).

On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  We left there with several fresh vegetables & some berries.  We also left seeing all of the great flowers blooming and wishing we could go home and plant them all in our yards.  Saturday night, our group of 13 met at Babe’s Chicken House in Frisco for dinner.  For those unfamiliar with Babe’s, it is a restaurant where you pick your meat you want to eat (fried chicken, chicken strips, pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc) and then all of the vegetables are served family style.  (NWA Peeps:  Think Monte Ne Inn here in Rogers, except there are other meats to choose from besides fried chicken.)  This is our second year in a row to eat there.  It’s very good!

Sunday was race day (or at least it was supposed to be).  That 30-40% chance was pretty well 100% at the track.  We headed out there hoping the rain would stop and the track would get dry.  No such luck.  The race was postponed til Monday.  (Shelby, Mom, & I headed on home Monday so Shelby & I didn’t get to see the race.)

While we were at the track on Sunday, NASCAR 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson held a Q&A session at the Chevrolet stage.  The major topic of the questions was that he & his wife Chandra are expecting a baby girl in July.  His words…”I hope she comes during the off-weekend in mid-July.”