She made it!!!

My oldest niece Mandie graduated high school this past Friday. It's so hard to believe she's old enough to have graduated, it seems like only yesterday she was born. She plans on going to UTD and majoring in Psychology and minoring in Spanish. She wants to go on and get a doctorate and be a Psychologist. (she's from the right family for that!!) I believe she will achieve this and have a very successful future!

Getting ready to hear her name

The famous walk across the stage

And she gets it!!

A rose for her mom


Mandie and her Spanish teacher



Mandie and another of her favorite teachers

My sister Tonya (the proud mom) and her daughter Mandie

Isn't she beautiful? (I mean Mandie)

The Group. Bryan, Dad, Tim & Ann, Jay,Tonya, Jay's mom, and Mandie

The proud parents! Jay, Mandie and Tonya

The proud grandma! Mom and Mandie

The proud grandpa! Mandie and dad

Me and Bryan

Mandie opening our gift to her

Her senior board Tonya and Jay made. They were all set up on tables at the reception (there were only 30 something graduates)

Rian (her best friend) and Mandie. What gorgeous young ladies!

Tayler

I thought I would put this out there for those who don't know. No, we did not forget all about Tayler. She has actually moved in with Greg. That is why she has been absent from pictures and family events - and she has been absent from these events.

Hopefully she is where she needs to be in order to get better.


Tayler - if you are reading this - I love you and think about you everyday. I hope you are happy and are getting the help you need.

Memorial Day

We had a great Memorial day at our house. We had a big BBQ, with both families and friends over. Bryan did his extreme cooking again - including smoked brisket, smoked ribs, beans, potato salad, cole slaw and roasted corn. It was a great day of food and visiting.

I hope everyone had a great holiday!

Mandie at her finest

Yes...she is 18....and sober!!

Amanda Rey turns 18

Reef tank

I finally got some good pictures of our tank tonight.

Just a refresher - it's a 135gallon saltwater reef tank. The stand it sits on was built by Bryan. The tank has all live rock in it, with some corals and fish. We are just starting out - so we are adding stuff slowly. We will have some fish, I will get my Moray Eel, but mostly it will be differnet corals.

A view from our entryway

Our first corals - they are Zoanthids

This is a rock with mushroom corals on it.

This is Jaws - our Jawfish. He mostly hides under that rock - he's still shy.

See him watching me from under the rock

This is Scooter. He is a Scooter Blenny

These are Pajama Cardinals, we have 3. They are finally starting to color up.

This is Ringo, he's our Peppermint Shrimp.

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was afraid that somebody would see

One, two, three, four
Tell the people what she wore

It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today
An itsy teenie weenie yellow polka-dot bikini
So in the locker she wanted to stay

It's that season again....the season I dread for so many reasons. We took Kati bathing suit shopping (Tayler was with Greg that weekend). She made Bryan go - because she said he picks out cuter suits than I do. I wonder what she has against 1 piece suits that go down to her ankles? She finally settled on about 7 suits that she tried on. Bryan was walking around singing this song...and then there it was....he actually found a yellow polka dot bikini! And just our luck - they had Kati's size. She was not too thrilled with it - but we forced her to try it on. I snuck my camera phone in so when she came out to show us I snapped her picture. You can imagine how thrilled she was with that. I feel like we had to get our laughs somewhere that night - and the thought of taking this picture to post gave that to us. Sadly, this bikini did not make the cut. But it will forever be immortalized here for all the world to see. Feel free to sing - and good luck getting the song out of your head!

Kati's Formal

Tonight was Kati's 8th grade formal. It's a formal dance for all of the 8th graders in the district. Hayley and Kati got ready at our house before the dance....it only took a little over 2 hours! But..it was worth it...they are gorgeous! How she has grown.

Oops..how'd that get in here? (Tayler exhibiting how we all felt after 2+ hours)

This and That

I just realized it had been awhile since I blogged. Our house has been crazy the last several weeks. Who am I kidding - it's always crazy.

Tayler is home and trying to adjust. She is doing well at home, but is having a very hard time with school. If we can just get her through the rest of this year, next should be better. Her meds have been adjusted so we shall see what that does. Please keep us in your prayers!

Kati has a formal dance this Friday night. We went dress shopping last night. I will post pictures this weekend. She is going with a group of friends - I don't think it's cool to go with boys yet - you go with your friends and meet up with the boys there. Which is fine by us!

Kaylin was here a couple of weeks ago for the weekend. She has finally given in and decided riding a bike isn't so bad. She now cruises down our street on only 2 wheels - and is learning the fine art of stopping, starting, and turning around!

Bryan has been busy getting our saltwater reef tank set up going. We have had live rock in it for about 3-4 weeks now. This past weekend we went and bought some "cleaners". We got 1 shrimp (whom Tayler named Ringo), 15 crabs and 20 snails. Hopefully soon we'll get more excitign stuff in there.

That's all I have for now. Hopefully the next post will be more interesting!