Becca's Visit

Last weekend one of my besties, Becca, flew into Baton Rouge from NYC. Since I don't get to see her that often Abby and I drove down to see her. Tracy went dove hunting with the boys.

On Friday we drove to Lafayette to stay with my brother. My nephew Andrew turned 1 the day before and Abby had to see her cousin Andrew and Hailey!

On Saturday, Abby and I drove to Baton Rouge to see Auntie Becca! We dropped Abby off with Polly and Bill and off to the LSU football game we went. It was super hot, but super fun too. We tailgated and scored some pretty amazing tickets from one of our friends. LSU won the game...yay!

On Sunday we spent some time in the morning with Bill, Polly and Cam and then met my sister and Dad for breakfast. Then back to College Station.

It was a short trip, but was great to see everyone. We are going to visit Becca and Parham in NYC next April and I can't wait. Love you Acceber!

Abby turns 1

Above is Abby when she was born and Abby turning 1! My baby's birthday party was on Sunday, September 6th (yes I know it has been awhile and I should have blogged sooner) because Aggie football was on her birthday and we can't interfere with Aggie football!

Abby had her family and friends there to help celebrate. Among the friends were Max (3 months), Ina (11 months), Colin (2 years), Ashley (2.5 years), Luke (1 year), BFF Alex (1 year), Logan (2 months)..............Among family were Grandma and Grandpa James, Aunt Denise and Cousin Katie.


Mister Max enjoying his first ever birthday party!

Ina enjoying the festivities (her 1st birthday is in a couple of weeks)

Ashley and Luke Harris

After munching down on a build your own taco bar, we dove into the gifts. Abby wasn't quite sure what to think about gifts or the wrappers they were in.


Little People legos!


What is in this bag?






Above is Abby opening her Little Einstein Rocket...she loved it and then daddy took it away to the other room...see below for her reaction!


After opening all the wonderful presents, it was time for cake. I have not let Abby eat any cake because I wanted this to be her first experience with it. She seemed to like it a lot. We had to rush her immediately to the bathtub. After her bath, I had to let the tub soak so it could get the pink icing out :).



These were the cakes for the adults. They were ice cream cakes. One was chocolate chip with devils food cake and the other was pralines and cream with wedding cake.




It was a fun day and she was completely tuckered out after the festivities!

A wonderful mother

So...68 years ago today a beautiful baby girl was born to Etna and Norman J Stafford. They called her Etna Lou. She grew up with 3 other siblings...2 brothers and 1 sister. She was the 3rd child of the 4. She went to school in little bitty Franklinton, Louisiana and was crowned homecoming queen and graduated valedictorian. When she was 38 she was told she was pregnant with a baby they told her she would never have. That little girl grew up wanting to be just like her mommy and also graduated valedictorian. Etna Lou and her daughter had the closest relationship you could imagine. They talked 4-6 times a day when the girl moved away.

Almost 4 years ago, my mother, Etna Lou Stafford East, died of a heart attack. Today would have been her 68th birthday. We were so close that sometimes it still seems so surreal that she isn't here and I find myself talking to her over and over again. The littlest thing sets me off and I can't quit crying.

This week Abby turns 1 and all I can think about is how she would have loved her granddaughter so much and would have doted on her as much as she could...and Abby will never know that and personally experience her love. I get so jealous whenever I hear my friends talk about their moms and what they do together. It makes me miss her even more.

Tracy thinks it is so weird that I won't show my emotion around any of my family, but for some reason I just can't...even though discussing her anytime makes my heart ache and I want to burst out crying. I think about the 1000s and 1000s of calls I have missed and hearing her voice....hearing her call me sweetpea. Shoot I don't even know why I am blogging about this and may end up deleting it, but it feels so good to let this out.

I see other girls with their moms and grandmoms and wonder why it had to be my mom that was taken away....

She was so wonderful and sweet and had the most AMAZING cooking skills anyone ever had.

I miss you mom and Abby will know how great you are too. Please watch over her.

Horrible Blogger...but really cute pictures!

So I have been horrible blogging. With 3 kids, it makes it kind of tough to want to get on the computer late in the evening after doing stuff with all of them. Austin and Riley are back with mom and Austin started his first day of 6th grade yesterday! He is getting so grown up..my how time flies.

Before the kids left, we did family pictures on the A&M campus with Traci Jones. We got some really good ones and I plan on getting prints and some blown up, but below are the ones I like the most.

The picture above was so interesting to get. Abby wouldn't stay still and kept wanting to crawl around with Hippo (because he is part of the family as well) so we had Riley crawl around too! Riley really wanted to take this picture in their matching outfits that Grandma got them.

More to come.....