My Family

Note: Not sure what is up with the washed outness of this photo.

(Because I have been an absentee blogger and I am desperately trying to cram in all of my happenings over the past 6 weeks, this post and subsequent posts are going to be lackluster in imagination and humor. My sister is having a cow because I have not posted in a while.)

June 8, 2008

I have a fun family.

My husband and my kids = tons of fun. But I am blessed to have a super fun extended family. My aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and sooooo on are a blast to spend time with.

But, for some reason that I can not quite comprehend, I don't see them as much as I should or as much as I would like. Why is that, I wonder. That one has me scratching my head.

Anyhoo, a few weeks ago, Jacob turned 10. So I thought we would have a family party, everyone would come, blah blah blah. But as I was planning it, I realized that not only did Jacob have a milestone birthday, but many people in the fam did as well this year. Karen is 50, Cecil is 75, Nick is 50, Kristen 45, Steven 35, Brandan 5, and I well, I turned 39. Is that a milestone?? So we decided to have an all-family birthday party.

This is my uncle Cecil. He is the Patriarch of this motley crew of people. He celebrated his 75th birthday.
My cousin, Jody and my sister Karen. (Karen is the one that was having a cow). And by the way, good thing she looks great on this day because she is in a lot of pics!

Now it would have been more fun with loads of presents and pin the tail on the oldest family member but we nonetheless celebrated being together.

Kristin my niece, Karen, and me

Shelby, her mother Karen and Aunt Sandra.
Uncle Don and his grandsons, Michael and Daniel.

Julie and Aunt Carol.

Shelby, Karen and Kristen.

Jacqueline (Lenny's sister), my cousin Kristen, Lenny, Cousins Jody and Julie. Shelby and Sarah

Steve my nephew and Karen.

Here is the cool part. My sister Brenda, (the mom of Steve above) who lives in South Carolina, had 4 of her 5 kids and grandkids (yes I have a sister who is a grandmother, ohhhhh), my brother and his family for a family birthday party too that day. So we all kind of celebrated together in a weird long distance kind of way.

Rich (he's a hunk) and Karen.

Another shot of Karen and Nick.

Karen (we used to call her Baby Karen because my older sister is also named Karen), me and Kristen.

My cousin Julie, me, and my other cousin's son, Brandan. He is in commercials! I knew him when......
Cecil, Bob and Sandra
Laughing. Yes, there was wine.

My mother's brother, Don and her sister, Sandra.

Something quirky about my family. There are:

• three Roberts. One has passed away, one goes by the name Bob, and the other is my brother who goes by Steve.


• two Steves. One is my brother and one is my nephew, who is also my brother's nephew, not his son, so not carrying on his name. Weird, huh?


• two Karens. My sister and my cousin


• two Krist e/i ns. One is my cousin and one is Steve my nephew's wife. Different spellings thankfully.


• two Brand e/a ns. One is my nephew and one is my cousin Karen's son. Another blessing of different spellings.


• two Daniels. Both are cousins. One goes by Dan and the other goes by Daniel.

Thankfully, though, there is only one Donna and only one Lenny!