Happy Birthday Cindy!

Happy Birthday, Sis, I love you! She is soo cute she sings this song to me on our bdays, You are the bday girl, bday girl, bday girl, all day long. She is very musical. She is an amazing friend!

I love it when she comes over to "hang" out. I see her almost every day, but still miss her. So every once in a while she has a day off w/ nothing to do and she'll come over to "hang' She gave us all manicures this day, even Keagan, no polish for him.. She also loves smoothies.

Wasn't she adorable!!!

Look at those Rosy cheeks!

Getting into trouble together, Cindy is in the diaper.

Me & Cindy

Me & Cindy

We were soo excited when she was born!

Me holding her.

Me & Cindy

birthday... birthdays!

January and February are busy bday months for us! My mom is a new years baby, then mine is the 12th, Ray's is the 18th. We get a little break and Ray's aunt Darlenes is Feb. 3rd and my step dad - Thom is also Feb. 3rd. Then my niece, Aurora, is the 21st, my brother, Adam, the 22nd, and my sister, Cindy, the 27th. Happy birthday everyone! (And march is my SIL Lauras and nephew Jesse)
Heres Darlene at my wedding shower. Someone dressed her up in tp for a wedding dress.

This is one of my favorites of Grandpa Thom and Keagan. Grandpa is so good playing w/ the kids and having fun.. not sure which one is having more fun!

A few years ago going on a "camping" trip w/ my mom and Thom. We always have soo much fun when we go!

Happy Birthday Adam!

Today is my "baby" brothers bday. He turned 27 today. (When he tuned 9 he almost convinced me that he was 10, so now we have this running joke w/ how old are you?

A few of the things I love about Adam: He makes everyone feel special and loved! When he was in HS I would take him places and he would hold my hand. He didn't care if he got weird looks. He has always been very kind hearted and generally just a nice person!

One of my favorite stories of Adam was when I was at college he wrote me a letter - (I was 19 or 20 - he was 8 or 9)and he wrote to me Donna, You're my favorite sister... except for Cindy. As you can see I have 1 sister! :) So now I ask him how my favorite brother besides Eric is doing.

He recently moved to Arizona. :( But he got to come visit a couple of weeks ago. So whenever my siblings all get together I make us take a picture together. They all humor me, but they hate it. Here Adam is giving me that look. (I know I should of cropped me out, I'm blurry..)
Here is the one that turned out. Adam, me, Cindy, & Eric. (Right before I got my hair cut short)

Here he is in HS, he graduated in 2000. Melissa "graduated" from Joy school (preschool). Now Melissa proudly wears his letterman jacket. She has gotten a couple of .. WHO's jacket is that .. when they hear it is her Uncle's jacket then they're ok w/ it! ;)

Melissa has always LOVED her uncle, too!

We love you Adam and miss you! It was soo good to see you!

Happy Birthday Aurora!

Some random Aurora pics

Happy Birthday Aurora! We love you! Her birthday was yesterday and we got to celebrate it with her. She is now 6! We had a party over here w/ her friends. It was nice, not too many girls, and they had a great time. She is soo funny she is getting to the point she doesn't want her picture taken all of the time. I'm lucky I get to spend so much time w/ my niece. She is a lot of fun to have around. She has quite the imagination! She loves animals and pretending to be them!

I haven't downloaded pics from her party yet..

pictures from the park

Pictures from one of our favorite parks, I'm not even sure of the name of it, Woodlawn Creek? It is behind the Lacey Community Center. That day it was freezing! We pretty much had the park to ourselves.

Keagan

One of the greatest things happened! Keagan finally learned how to ride a 2 wheeler bike.

Wow! I can't believe how long it took me to post this.. Keagan has had some physical delays since birth. Now, most people wouldn't even know. We finally got some answers about his delays. I wrote about it earlier here. So we have tried and tried to get Keagan to ride a bike and he just hasn't been able to do it. In January we took him to the park, a flat surface and tried and tried again. He was getting embarrsed that he couldn't do it. My heart was breaking for him, he really really really wanted to do this. I thought he wasn't going to be able to do it again. So I worked w/ him and taught him to lean to the opposite side when the bike starts going down (you know what I mean) and all of the sudden he had it. He finally just took off. I couldn't believe it! He was soo excited!! I was soo excited!! Melissa laughed at me because I was clapping for him and crying at the same time. This is something that he wanted so badly! He still has a hard time going on areas that aren't flat, but he has even managed to start off by himself. I am so happy for him!

(This is at the newer park behind the Lacey community Center, it is an awesome park!)

Bee sting

Can you believe I got stung by a bee?!
Just last week or the week before (they all run together sometimes..) I was getting dressed and I felt a sting on my side and had no clue what it was. I thought it felt like a sting, but didn't think it could be, sadly one of my first thoughts was, I exercised yesterday for the first time in a long time.. and I've never felt that kind of pain before... So I went into the bathroom and and lifted up my shirt a little to look at the spot that stung and I saw a sting mark.. and a bee flew out of my shirt!! How weird is that?!! I have no idea how it got there (I had just put on my shirt in my bedroom) How did a bee get into my bedroom?! (the next few days, I shook my clothes before I put them on)
Then I had a bee stuck in my bathroom! I opened the window and shut the door and it wouldn't go outside. I guess its not stupid, it was freezing outside! But I didn't really want to take a shower or get ready with the bee in the bathroom! This is when I was thinking... I really hate being the grown-up sometimes! It flew up high into the skylight (way too high for me to reach.. or anyone) So I got the broom and FINALLY it was on the broom and I transfered it out the window. Wheww!!

lds.org

I just got called last week to the Laurel's advisor (to teach the 16-18 year old girls at church every Sunday). I'm excited and a little nervous, but mostly excited. I have never been in the Young Women's program as an adult. Today I get to teach my first lesson.

I also think lds.org is amazing! I can't believe how much information is on that website! Did you know that now you can listen to parts of the church magazines? And the priesthood/Relief society lessons. They also have a link for youtube! Go check it out if you haven't for a while. I have made it my homepage.

computer time & facebook

I've been trying to read more and stay off the computer. It seems like once I get on the computer I get "sucked" in and don't get anything done. Lately I have been on facebook a lot, too. I remember my cousin Heidi telling me I should get on facebook, it is a lot of fun, but I thought it was evil (maybe it is..) but then another friend got on it and then I did, too. It has been a lot of fun reconnecting w/ "old" friends. So now I need to start blogging again..

my dad

This is really long and little rambled.. but I have been wanted to get this story written. It is prob. one of my favorite stories of my life.

When I was 6 or 7, my parents got divorced. My dad was my favorite person! He spoiled me and I could do no wrong.. I was daddy's little angel. My dad was (still is) a truck driver, he would be gone for long periods of time. I know this was really hard on my mom. Sometimes she wouldn't know when he was coming home.
My parents were high school sweethearts. My dad went to war in Vietnam. Unfortunately it really changed him. He saw some awful things!! When I hear the stories from my uncle, it really makes me sad. For some of these reasons, he wasn't in the best time of his life, and my mom left him. She left him and didn't tell him where we were, she didn't want us (my brother Eric & I) around that kind of lifestyle. (drugs & alcohol) This was really hard on us, especially me, because I only had good memories of my dad. Father's day was always painful. (Luckily I had a wonderful grandpa that was always there for me!!)
I would always look at truck drivers and see if I could miraculously find my dad.

Me and my dad

my dad's military picture,

isn't he handsome! I carried this picture in my wallet until I found him.

This is one of my favorite pics of my dad and Eric & I

shortly after this was when I didn't see him anymore.

Well, when I was 23, I got my dad's address. I hoped it was still the "right" address. I knew he moved around a lot. I wrote him a letter, letting him know how much I loved him and had missed him, but didn't know where he was. I was nervous all week and could hardly wait for a reply! One week later, we got a phone call, Ray answered, someone asking for a Donna Kay.. it was my dad! Even as I write this I get teary eyed. It was sooo wonderful! Both my dad and I could hardly get anything out we were blubbering so much.

My dad gave me my aunts and grandmas # and told me I needed to call them right away, they had missed me, too. In all my excitement and wondering about my dad, I hadn't really thought about other missing family, too. I immediately called my aunt Ellen. She wasn't sure whether to believe my dad or not, I guess the years had been really hard on him with out knowing where we were and sometimes in a drunken state he would call and tell them he had found us. Well, I called my aunt and there were more happy tears.., it just happened to be memorial day weekend- 1994- and my grandma just happened to be visiting my aunt - and my cousin Joy just happened to the Rose parade queen in Portland that year- and all my family would be gathering for that. So my aunt said, what are doing tomorrow, so we drove down to Portland to re-meet my aunt and grandma. My aunt was soo cute, she was soo excited she couldn't even think of her address and how to get to her house, so she told me to meet her at the corner of a plaid pantry. I remember being soooo excited! When Ray & I got to the Plaid pantry, it was lots of tears and hugs w/ my aunt and grandma! It was wonderful!! I had never realized how missed I was.

My aunts had taken care of me a lot when I was very little, they hadn't seen me since I was 4. When I walked into my aunt's house, there in the hallway was a 8x10 picture of me when I was 3 or 4! So then the next few months I had reunions with several of my dad's side of the family. It took a couple of weeks to have my reunion with my dad and it was wonderful, too.

Now, my dad & I talk every week or so, he lives in Elma about 45 minutes away (when he's home, he's still a truck driver)

I get to see my aunts and uncles and cousins when I can. Some of them I don't know really well, but others I do and love dearly and am so glad I have in my life (you know who you are...)

And we all lived happily ever after

The end ( or something like that..)