family wedding

We enjoyed a weekend with family celebrating the wedding of my cousin, Justin & his beautiful bride, Kelsey! It's always good to get together with extended family, if even for just a short time. All together, we represented Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, & Tennessee!

The wedding was held in the small town of Mason, TX which is near Brady, TX where my cousin basically grew up. For us, it wasn't too bad of a drive, about 5 hours.

One of the things I was the MOST excited about was getting to meet my cousin, Andrea's son, Jackson! I had the name Jackson chosen for "my boy" before I even got married. Jackson being my maiden name, it wasn't just a trendy name choice. Well, obviously, I never got to use the name Jackson since God knew I needed 3 sweet girls as my children. When Andrea ended up being pregnant the same time as me, and when we found out it was a boy after I knew ours (Ellie!) was a girl, I practically BEGGED her to name him Jackson since I'd never had the chance. :) Well, she went with it (after praying about it too!) So, Jackson was born about 3 1/2 weeks after Ellie was, and this weekend was our first meeting!

Andrea & I, all of our lives, were mistaken for each other. My dad & her mom are twins, so I guess it kinda made sense. The funniest part was that we both had red hair, but mine came from way back in the family on my mom's side......Anyway, Andrea & I think Jackson & Ellie look a bit alike as well.

I was so happy to be together to take this picture! I just wish so bad that Maw Maw could have been there with us! I miss her all the time! She passed away when I was pregnant with Katie. Those 2 would have had a blast together for sure!

Here is my dad & his twin sister next to him, along with my mom and some of the grandkids. Aunt Sandy has another grandson, Hayes, who wasn't able to make the wedding. My brother's family wasn't able to come either.

Here are Andrea & I again with our beautiful cousin, Jenny! Aunt Nanette, my dad's other sister, is her mom. Jenny is an inspiration to so many with her strength & courage. She was in an accident and broke her neck July 29, 2000, the day after Gracie was born. The doctors told her she would never walk again. She did though....6 weeks later. She went on to get married & have a son, Kelby. A few years ago, her husband was in an accident as well and broke his neck. He is now paralyzed from around the neck down I believe it is. Jenny is with him every step of the way and does all she can for him. She is amazing!

Here is my brother, Josh, with our cousin, Justin (the groom!)

Josh with his nieces!

Our sweet girls

Kelby made it into this picture. He will be 6 in December. He & Katie had fun playing together. We wanted Jackson in the picture, but he had other ideas. LOL

The rehearsal dinner was outside, and the temperatures were so nice....not like Houston! :)

My Aunt Nanette & Uncle Rick (parents of the groom) with the girls. Gracie & Katie got to be flower girls!

Jenny with Nanette.

This picture is out of order, but this is where Gracie & Katie got flower girl gifts. Very fun for them!

Gracie & Katie, the flower girls, with Kelby, the ring bearer.

The 3 girl cousins again!

Andrea with her sweet husband, Steve.

me with my honey

Kelsey was such a beuatiful bride!!!!!!! Her dress was amazing!

flower girls in action

Katie & Uncle Josh enjoyed being goofballs together!

My cousin John made it into this picture.

Dad with his sisters.

Uncle Josh dancing with Ellie.

The girls with the beautiful bride!

On another note: Gracie won her student council election!!!!!!!!!! Yea! 5th grade class representative!

family tidbits

We're busy, busy here in the Shanks household....always something going on.

Last week, Ellie enjoyed a little painting & Play Doh time while the bigger girls were at school.

She was proud of her masterpieces.

Our snakes were trying to get each other!

Gracie is into politics again this year. 5th grade representative speeches & elections are this week, so she got her posters all ready to go!

Ellie is enjoying her little 'preschool' again this year. She goes on Mondays & Thursdays. She loves her little backpack, too! We love that now she can carry this to church also which means that we don't have to lug around the diaper bag anymore!

The mornings & evenings are getting a LITTLE better as far as weather goes, so last night Chris & the girls enjoyed a little time in the backyard before dinner.

Katie loves playing baseball with her daddy!

Don't you love Chris' pink helmet?! The life of a man with all girls! LOL

2 different people have made little boards like the one I made for Gracie after seeing the one I did for her. Glad I could be of some inspiration. Of course, I got MY inspiration from Jennifer, and she got hers from someone else, too! That's the way it works! I made this one for the kitchen. I'm not convinced I'll stick with this paper. I may look for something not quite as bright white and a little less busy b/c it's kind of hard to read what's written. The girls like it though. I've been writing what we're having for dinner, and I think Gracie likes checking it when she gets home. Katie wanted to write something, so of course she wrote, "Go Cowboys!" She makes her daddy proud! :)

something cute for Gracie's room......

The other day I gained creative inspiration from Jennifer when she wrote about a really cute thing she made. You can read about it here. I had fun choosing paper & decorations, and it looks really cute in Gracie's room! She likes that she can write on it with the dry erase markers and simply use a sock to wipe it off.

She added some cute flowers. She's quite a good little artist.