Merry Christmas!

Our dear friends and family, we are so blessed from the Lord to have yet another blessed year, filled with love and health.  We have had such a great year. Busy as always!  Jeremey is still working at Farmer's Oil and the farm and flying not near enough for him!  He put the Roadhammer in the Guitly By Association Truck Show in Joplin this year and took home a trophy.  The kids were in a tractor pull there too and all took home trophies!  It was a good day for the Graves Gang!  Abbey is a 4th grader and starting her barrel racing career and having a blast.  Her new horse is Jessica, she sounds like a winner doesn't she?  Natalie is in 1st grade and is a "rock star" on the playground as Jeremey puts it!  She gets to sing at St. Mary's Assumption in Wakita on the first Sunday of the month.  She loves the spotlight and holds her own!  We are so proud of her!  Zachery is almost 5 and in preschool.  He has a great buddy Tyce and they are inseparateable!  He is still the protector of the girls and loves all things boy!!!!  Our baby Miss Emalie is also in preschool and turned 3 in August.  She is a mamma's girl and I love it!!  It is amazing just watching her grow!  Abbey and Natalie are in Girl Scouts (cookies anyone in January?) and Natalie and Emalie are in dance and gymnastics.  Zachery tags along sometimes willing and also hangs out with Jeremey for some male bonding!  We have such jewels in our crown!! We truly are lucky parents!!!  I am busy just trying to keep up with everyone and the places they need to be!  What did we do before kids? 

Our Christmas Tree 2010

The 4 best present under our tree!  Natalie, Zachery, Abbey and Emalie

This Graves Family wishes you all the best for this blessed Christmas season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord!  Merrry Christmas and a Happy 2011!!!!

October part I

 The kids have such a great dad.  He does so many great fun things with them.  Each year he is in charge of the pumpkin decorating.  If it was up to me, I would give them markers and let them go to town.  BUT Daddy on the other hand makes elaborate pictures in the pumpkin!

Emalie with her Daddy and the Kitty Cat Pumpkin

Abbey is getting big enough to carve her own. Wouldn't you know she carved a HORSE!

Zachery, Daddy and Frankenstein

Natalie (notice the pose) with her Daddy and their ghost pumpkin. 

BIG SMILES

 We have found a Showdeo to go to with Abbey near Attica.  She has a great time.  It's very low key and fun!  She took Jetta Dawn to this one because Jessica had a small cut on her back leg.

Horse girl no.2. Thank goodness Jetta is so calm.  Emalie just loved all over her and she didn't seem to mind at all!

This boy LOVES to cook.

He loves it when I go shopping and bring home strawberries.  We have this awesome chopper and he does almost everything himself!  It builds his self confidence and I just love that! This time I didn't even get all the bags unloaded before he started chopping.

August and September rolls on through

I love our gk (Graves Kids) t-shirts again from www.emtannerdesigns.com  This was a cute pict that they hadn't taken before.  After all with 4 kids there are only so many in studio shots a one hour place can pose you in!

 Abbey, Natalie, Zachery and Emalie

 I love it when I ask what the kids want on their birthday cake and the answer is simple...like balloons!!!!  So happy that The Perfect Touch cake store is in Anthony!  What a treasure it is!
Can you believe that my baby has turned 3???  And is now in preschool 2 morns a week??  ME EITHER!
Where exactly did that time go and can I please have my memory of that lost time back please?

 Here are the big girls starting school.  Abbey is in 4th grade and Nat is in 1st grade. 

Miss Natalie turned 7 and got to go to BOSTON with Nana to the American Girl doll store!  She LOVED IT!!!!!!!!  She wanted a beach birthday cake...again simple and I had fun making it with the other 3 kids while she was gone.  They returned home on her birthday!  It was quite a treat!!!!

Speaking of Miss Nat...in September we went to a truck show and the kids stayed with Nana and Papa.  They got to miss a day of school and were excited.  On that Sunday night she was getting ready for bed and the conversation went like this:

Nat:  Mom, have you ever loved someone so much you can hear their laugh in your head?  (holding her head low and fingers to her temple) Then looks at me.

Me: Well I love your daddy like that.  Do you think you love someone like that? 

Nat:  (Head bent down, low voice almost at a tremble)... The principal's son.

Me:  Well, lets just get out of 1st grade and see where this progresses?  Okay?

Nat:  Okay, but the whole time I was gone  I could just hear his laugh in my head, all day long and I just missed him.

Me:  Okay, baby, go to bed, Good night, I love you!!

Nat:  Love you too Mom.

I ask myself is it to early to build the convent next to the house???????????????  There will NEVER be a dull moment in our house!!!!!

And it continues...

 And the blog continues...The kids got mom flowers for Mother's day and they helped her plant them out front.

 I can still not get over how quickly the school year flies by.  This is Abbey on her last day as a 3rd grader and Natalie as a kindergartner
.

 We celebrated the end of school with a trip down to OK for a few days of just doing nothing.  Z was quite a sight getting ready to swim.

Em

Emalie got used to being pampered by Lisa.

 Mom and Dad with their kids and grandkids to celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

 We also threw in a quick trip to Disneyworld in May.  It was a much needed time with Daddy!

 The coolest thing for Jeremey and I was that we got to watch the last launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.  The kids weren't as impressed as were we.  But maybe someday they can tell their kids that they got to see it happen!

 Natalie continues to sing her heart out at church on Children's Mass Sunday.  FYI  they are the first Sunday of each month in Wakita if you would like to hear her sing!

 The kids love it when Daddy's mows the yard because he lets them ride.  Here Emalie gets a turn.  And believe me EVERYONE gets to ride. I'm surprised they haven't started timing each other yet.

We had a pretty good rain this summer and part of our yard filled up with water.  This kept them busy for an entire DAY!!  It made for lots of laundry and clean up for me...But it was worth it!

 Daddy's annual harvest picture with the kids on the combine.

 For the girls' 6th bday Mimi gives them the gift of an ears piercing.  We tried Natalie last September, but it took until June to get it done.  SHE DIDN"T EVEN WINCE.  I was so proud and she was too.

 If I was a calf and Zachery was chasing me, I would run too!

 Keeping with the farm theme:  Zachery is giving the girls a ride on Jetta Dawn.  So lucky to have such a gentle horse.

Meet Midnight the calf.  His mama wasn't taking care of him and so he came to live with us for a while.  Emalie fell in love!  Midnight is back on the farm and she still asks about him!

 We had a GREAT family 4th of July at Grand Lake. LOVED it and really loved the shirts that my family will wear for me!  They are such troopers.  I got them made at www.emtannerdesigns.com 

 My very blessed family!

 This was Abbey's 1st official Rodeo!  She had such great time!  She is definitely a horse girls!

 This is one of the funniest things I have ever done in my life.  And by far the best group of women to do it with!  The I'll Pray For You tour traveled to CO for hiking rafting and fellowship!  THANKS GIRLS!!!!!!!

Abbey getting ready for her first Showdeo.  I was way more nervous than she was.  She is looking forward to more this season!!!!!!

So now you are caught up thru July!  And look you only have August and September and Most of October to see and you are up to date!  Hopefully later this week!
Until then,
Love and Prayers,
This Graves Family

Let's Dig In

Abbey the birthday girl in 3rd grade.

 Forgive me for the jumble of pictures just thrown in here willy-nilly!!!  I forget that I need to upload them backwards!

Celebrating her birthday at Nana's house.

Mother's day with Momma and her crew!  I LOVE THEM!!!

Zachery is my name and soccer is MY GAME!

Natalie's ballet outfit.

Natalie in her dance outfit

Abbey and Natalie on the last day of school

Abbey and her music project.  Jeremey and her made it together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will be such a whirlwind to get you caught up in as little posts as possible.  And for as a Type A these posts are going to be all over the place chronologically.  But for now I will be happy that you will be up to date! 

Oh Where Begin...

It has been a long 8 months since my last post. So much has happened of course. Mostly I took some time off of the blog to regroup myself and spend some time the the kids. That of course is happening and it kept getting easier not to get on the computer and post pictures. Well that is coming to an end. Especially since I see Kara Christy's awesome blog and how she updates it so well. AND I am ordering Christmas cards soon and put my blog on it again!!! Well for now I am going to go find some awesome picts to upload to you all to get you very quickly caught up from 8 months of an empty blog!

Natalie's Singing Debut

You know when big stars like Jessica Simpson and Beyonce became really big and they say they got their start singing in church? Then they show the video of them singing? Well....we would like to be the first to introduce to you, live from St. Mary's Assumption, Wakita, OK....
Miss Natalie Rose Graves!!!





She always sings so good in church and gets many compliments. This Sunday was the Kids Mass. Natalie got to be the Cantor along with Mary. She was so excited and we practiced all week. She didn't seem nervous at all and just got right up there and sang her heart out! We are so proud and can't wait to see her do it again next month!

Happy Birthday Z-Man

Our little pirate at Disney Land!

Fishing at the Ponderosa

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture of Z at Cowboy Camp this fall!

Its hard for us to believe that Zachery has already turned 4! WOW! Time has just flown by!