best bud birthday!

Happy 9th Birthday Taylor!!

Mackenzi wanted to send a birthday shout out to her bestest friend in the whole world, Taylor!
As you can see from the number of pictures(and this is only a few of the many we have ended up with), these two are practically inseperable. They do almost everything together and can hardly stand it with the other isn't around. We have pictures of these two together on most holidays, special occassions, birthdays, and just every day outings. What are these two going to do next year when they are seperated by many miles instead of only a few houses? I plan on making the last year here the best for them and will make sure they make many more memories together that will last forever.

Taylor, we hope you had a great birthday with lots of fun and laughs.

happy birthday jessica

Happy Birthday Jess!!

Today is my sister in law, Jessica's birthday. Hope you have a fun filled day with great memories, lots of laughs, smiles, giggles, and love. Know we are thinking about you today.

happy birthday nana

We just wanted to wish Greg's Mom, aka Nana, a very happy birthday. Hopefully having to babysit our three girls will not spoil your day. Thanks for being willing and loving to kid watch whenever you can. Hope your day was full of fun, smiles, and great memories.

birthday girls

Birthday shouts going out to the July 27th birthday girls!

Happy 4th Birthday Kallee

Today I wanted to wish my niece Kallee a very happy 4th birthday. Kallee is my sister, Allison and her husband, Max's oldest daughter. I can't believe it has been four years since I raced from San Antonio to Beaumont (a 4 1/2 hour drive) to make it for her birth. My brother called as I was pulling into the parking lot to tell me to run once I had the car parked because my sister was starting to push. I made it just in time to stand in the doorway to watch her come into the world. What a special blessing it was to witness the miracle of birth.
Kallee we all hope you have a great day with lots of fun, laughs, smiles, and Casa Ole' desserts. Eat some for us. We love you and wish we could be there to celebrate your day.
Uncle Greg, Aunt Angie, Mackenzi, Maci, & Maryn.

Happy "31" Jenny!

Jenny, I hope you have a great day today and are surrounded by lots of laughs, smiles, giggles, love, family, friends, California beaches, and many, many, great memories. Thanks for your friendship, listening ear, example, kind heart, and support. Where would I be without someone that understands my complaining, frustrations, moodiness, goofiness...?
Thanks for being My "you understand because you have been there" friend...
and My "help-it's one of those days" friend!

We went to Chuy's last night to celebrate your birthday without you but, be assurred our lunch date is still on whenever your get home. Have a great day! I'll see you soon.
Love ya,
Ang & the gang!

kitchen's closed!

This is two, of my three sneaky eaters. Maci and Maryn searching for food after their bath and teeth brushing.
A scene I find way to often.

Do you ever feel like hanging a sign in the kitchen letting everyone know that the kitchen isn't open 24/7 like Super Walmart? I have been struggling with my girls grazing all day this whole summer. Obviously they must be bored because I'm not starving them. I make them breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but find them in the fridge and pantry all day. I am torn knowing what to do. Should I just let them be, and continue to have to buy them new clothes every month? I just went through thier clothes on Saturday and many of the clothes I bought them near the end of the school year are already too small. Do I put locks on the fridge and pantry door? I have told them a million times to stay out of the kitchen but when I am in a another room or maybe taking care of my business in the bathroom they sneak in and get junk to eat. Now Maryn, only 2, is learning their bad habits. I wouldn't mind them having a snack mid morning and mid afternoon occassionally, but they always seem to find MY junk food stash. What happened to grabbing a piece of fruit or something else healthy? I guess I am going to have to quit buying all of the chips, cookies, crackers, that I love so much so they won't have anything junky to snack on.
How did they survive during the school year with just having breakfast and lunch, without all of this random eating? I'm sure some of you are thinking I have no control, if my kids are not listening and doing the total opposite of what I ask them and tell them. You're right! They don't listen. It's like I am speaking to myself and they go right on about what they want to do. I'm losing it and need some help. Should I not be worried that they love to eat more than they love to play?

*Any suggestions on how to keep normal kitchen hours?*

sleepover sillies and sadness

Maci finally was able to invite a friend over for a sleepover on Sunday. Every time Mackenzi has Taylor over or she sleeps over at Taylor's I have screaming, squealing, fit throwing five year old on my hands. She doesn't habe many friends her age that are girls so our choices are minimal. I always forget about our friends the Arnolds have a daughter, Rachel, who is just eleven days older than Maci. What kind of mom am I? I never think about them playing together because they aren't in the sam e school or church and they live about twenty minutes away(without traffic).
Anyway back to the sleepover. After having dinner with the Arnolds on Saturday, the girls wanted to have asleepover, but it was a bit late. They would have just gone home, had a bath, and gone to bed, to wake up early, not to play, but to go to church. It took a lot of begging and pleading to convince them another night would be better. We opted for Sunday night. I didn't really have any set plans for Monday morning so they would be able to play as long as they wanted and not feel like they were cheated on time spent together.


Rachel came over they played games, giggled, we went for our usual Sunday evening stroll,giggled some more, took baths, giggled some more, and watched a movie and had popcorn. It was getting close to 10:30 and the giggles were still bellowing out of their room, in full force, so I made Greg be the bad guy and tell them it was time for lights out. I'm not sure if that is what triggered it but two minutes later Rachel had had enough of the sleepover and the Gordon Gang. She wanted to go home. I convinced her to just call her mom and dad to say goodnight and then she would feel better. Boy, was I wrong. As soon as she said goodnight to her daddy, there was no going back. She wanted to leave then. Not in the morning, not in an hour, but right then. Maci was bawling by this time kot wanting her to leave, having forgotten the time we has to pick her up from a sleepover, about bedtime. Chris said he would be on his way and to call him if she happened to fall asleep, no such luck. She fought going to sleep and was wide awake when he arrived. Poor thing, I felt bad for her. I hate to see children sad and scared, and that she was.
This morning I listened to the same screaming, sqeauling, whaling, from Maci when she realized Rachel had gone home after she had fallen asleep. I consoled her and reminded her that it is hard for little girls to be away from their mommies and daddies. We called to check on Rachel and she was feeling better and decided next time she would bring a picture of her mom and dad(we have some, but I wasn't smart enough to ask her if she wanted to look at them.) so when she got lonely she could see them.
Wish us better luck on our next attempt at a sleepoever for Maci.

saturday scenes

This is such an embarassing sight that I can't believe I'm even posting this for the world to see. We have been putting off cleaning out our garage since, probably last summer. We finally agreed it was a job way over due so we decided to tackle it tiday after we went for our Saturday morning workout at the gym. Even though we knew we only had a few hours to get this project done (we were meeting some friends for dinner) we decided to go for it. I didn't think to take a real "before" picture until we were well into it but this does show how much junk the Gordon family can accumulate and keep around. We needed to defrost our standup freezer so Greg and Mackenzi did most of that, while Maci and Maryn tried to sweep up trash into between their bike rides and playing in the water hose. We got most of it done but I wanted to add the "after" picture when it is completely organized(hopefully by Monday).
The van carpets had gotten pretty dirty this last couple of months so I took them all out and scrubbed them with water and lots of elbow grease while Greg worked in the garage. They came pretty clean but will never be like new with kids constantly in and out, with dirt, food, and drinks. As you can see from the pictures, while the mats were out drying, a thunderstorm decided to blow in and before I knew it, the almost dry carpets were soaking wet again. No worries though, the mats will dry all over again and we did need rain desperately.
We met up with our friends Chris and Cindy and their three adorable kiddos, Rachel, Reece, and Addison. We headed out to Red Robin for dinner(this as become a norm for us when we meet them) and had a fun time catching up on happenings with each of our families.
After dinner we decided to go back to Chris & Cindy's to make ice cream and to hang out some more. They had one of the cool ball ice cream makers that you put all of the ingredients in (we opted for cookies n cream) and then roll it around for twenty minutes. The kids loved it for the first ten minutes and then Greg & Chris took over the task of rolling it around until it was frozen enough. It was really good, not to mention probably loaded with fat and calories. The kids ate it up!!
We met the Arnolds when the guys began med school at UT Houston in the summer of 1997. Greg and I were the only couple that had a baby when we began so Mackenzi had lots of "aunts and uncles" to spoil her. Cindy and I became pregnant about the same time, with Rachel and Maci, and delivered them 11 days apart, during 4th year. After graduation they went to residencyy in Corpus Christi and we came to SA. Chris & CIndy both grew up here and always planned on moving back when they were done and have been back for two years. They are living not too far from us and from where they were both raised. It was a lot of fun visiting our friends and catching up and then kids really had fun laughing and playing. Even though we only live about twenty minutes from one another it is sometimes hard to get together with our busy schedules and say we need to do it more often each time we are together. We cherish all of our friends and our relationships with them. Thanks guys for a fun night.

special day

Happy 4th Birthday Hunter!Today is our nephew Hunter Cade Humphreys' 4th birthday. Hunter is, Greg's youngest sister Ashley, and her husband Danny's, little boy. We hope you have a fun day with lots of smiles and laughs. We wish we could spend your day with you. We love and miss you bunches.

Uncle Greg, Aunt Angie, Mackenzi, Maci, & Maryn

Happy 38th Anniversary Mom & Dad

Happy Anniversary Nana & Papa! Today is Greg's parents 38th wedding anniversary. We hope you have a great day today. Thanks for your example of a love filled marriage. Enjoy and cherish each other today and know we are thinking of you. We love you.
Greg, Ang, Mackenzi, Maci, & Maryn

making a list and checking it twice!

Today I decided to take the girls and get their school suppiles while there was a good supply of them. In the past I have thought I was heading out early but always found myself having to go to three or four different stores to get them all. We did pretty well on finding everything we needed at Target and only need two items to complete the list for both our Kindergartener and 4th grader. The summer started off dragging a bit but has realy picked up steam. The girls only have four weeks left of their vacation.


Swim team is now over and not much going on on a daily basis. I have to get them signed up for their EXTRAS in the next few weeks but and trying to figure out what days and times to put them in their activities. Maci wants to do dance agian and Mackenzi really wants to ry out year round swim but is quite a busy schedule for a third grader. I think they practice three night a week and that doesn't include the meets she will compete in. Woah I'm exhausted thinking about taxiing them around when all this begins.

Mackenzi and Maci are planning a trip to see Grammy and Poppy for a few days soon but other than that we are just going day to day until school starts. We are still on the hunt for the perfect job and place to raise our girls, so that will consume most weekends until they head back to class. We wanted to take a little mini vacation down to Corpus Christi to the beach. Hopefully we won't run out of time but if we do I guess we can just go on a weekend after school starts. It's not like it will be cold anytime soon.

there's no place like home

I have decided Greg and the girls were trying to out do me on the welcome home surprise(I posted the daddy's girl t-shirts when Greg came home form his trip). Jenny and I walked out of the airport to find my car a bit covered in car window paint. I was a bit taken back at first and then loved it eventhough I was a little embarrassed at first. Even though I had drank my fair share of diet coke while I was gone I picked the LARGE Sonic cup up as soon as I buckled my seat belt. Thanks Honey, I can always use a diet coke fix.
I took these pictures before we washed the windows off. The girls had their feelings hurt a little when I wanted to get the paint off so soon. I just didn't want it to bake in the 100+ sun for too long and then never get it off. Girls I really did love it. It made me feel so special.

It always feel so good to pull in your own driveway after being gone. There really is NO PLACE LIKE HOME! When we arrived home I was surprised to see that my nice green yard was no longer grass, but more like hay. Greg said he watered it but not as much as I do and I don't blame him after getting our last water bill I decided I needed to cut back on the watering anyway.
I was relieved to walk into a clean home with everything in it's place and a beautiful vase of flowers on the bar. I was feeling fet lagged and was so glad all I needed to do when I got home was unpack my stuff and just do my laundry from the weekend.
Thanks for all you did while I was gone and spending so much fun time with the girls. Seaworld, Fiesta Texas, the lake, the park.....you way out did yourself. The girls are going to want me to go away more often and leave them home with you if you do such fun things with them all the time.

Greg,thanks for letting me have this time away to rejuvinate myself and to spend time with my friends. Thanks for your hard work and endless giving for our family. I love you HUGE like the world!

Happy 30th Birthday Alli!

Happy 30th Alli!
I just wanted to wish my little sister, Allison a very happy day. Today she is turning the big 3-0! I can't believe it. She still seems so young to me. I realize we are four years apart and always will be four years apart but, she has always seemed alot younger than me. I think it has to do with how small she has always been. She was only 4feet 9 inches when she was in high school and now she is still a little under 5 feet tall. Even though she is married and has two little girls of her own she still is referred to as the "baby" of the family.
I know this post is coming out late(my blogger has been doing wierd things and hasn't let me post anything lately), but know that you were thought of on your special day.
Thanks for being a great sister and friend. Also, thanks for being such a great aunt to the girls. Maryn will one day know she has a very special namesake in you.(Maryn Allison Gordon) Hope your day is filled with fun memories, lots of love, and tons of smiles and giggles.
Welcome to the over 30 club! Love and miss you!

bringing back memories

Well Jenny and I made it to Utah Friday morning safe and sound. As soon as we got our car and started driving it was like no time had past since either one of us had been here. Even though some things are very different we remebered street names and how to navigate ourselves around Salt Lake. We met up with Jenny's freind Allison and went to an outdoor mall, similar to LaCantera, an shopped and had lunch at Rumbi's. We went to Nordstoms big anniversary sale but didn't find much. We walked over to Temple Square and had one
of the sister missionaries take a few pictures of us. It was as so pretty, as I remembered it being. I haven't been back here since 1999 and it is so funny to see so many churches and LDS people strolling around. Of course there are many people that aren't LDS and a few of those were working the makeup counters in Nordstroms in drag. Guys in full on makeup. They had more makeup on than I have ever worn in my entire life. It was so funny because we tried to be discreet and take a picture of them but I think it was obvious when the flash went off what we were doing.
After we left Salt Lake we stopped by and really surprised Jill at her house. We felt we couldn't be this close and not just stop to say hi. I hope we didn't throw her in to panic mode when she realized we were in her driveway. I admit I would have freaked if two people I didn't know just popped in. We chatted for a few minutes, had a quick blog lesson, and took some pictures. Thanks Jill for being such a great sport about our surprise visit.
Finally we made our way to Orem and Provo. I stopped at my old apartment, College Terrace, across from UVSC (UVCC when I was there) and took a picture of me standing in from of my apartment,#18. I was having flashbacks of the 18 year old small town Texas girl, with a strong southern drawl, being so scared when my parents drove away that first semester. I remember falling in the snow/ice trying to walk to class. I rememeber taking huge spill on my way to church and busting my elbow open, I remember having to walk every where I went or ahving my roommates take me. I remeber going to Institure dances hiking th e"Y". going to Sundance, Bridal Veil Falls, and walking across BYU campus and wishing so bad that I would have been going there.
We made it to Steph's house and were so happy to reunite with her after two years. It ws great. Gracie has grown up, Jake looks totally the same jsut a little taller. Isabel was a mini Gracie. It was like seeing Gracie again and her not ever changing in two years. Caroline, whom we had never seen looks a lot like Jake and Mitch and is darling. After Mitch came home, just us girls headed out to Brick Oven for dinner. Of course, the first words out of our waiters mouth was, are you sisters? It is so funny that people say that about us. None of us reallu look alike we just all have blonde hair. Any way we got a few surprising comments while we were eating. One of the waitresses came by and said, " I have to ay you three are so beautiful." We all just giggled like we were little embarrassed kids. We stuffed ourselves and then went home and stayed up way too late chatting. It was so fun remisncing and catching up after so long.
Even though I am having so much fun I am missing Greg and my girls.
Greg thanks for letting me have this fun getaway. You will never know how much it means. Thanks for spending time with the girls and taking care of them. Mackenzi, Maci, & Maryn, know mommy loves you and misses you so much. Kiss each other and Daddy for me and I will see you all soon.

happy friday, happy valley

Well it's finally Friday and in less than thirty minutes Jenny and I will be on our way to the airport. A little sad to leave Greg and my three little girls but gald to be able to spend time with friends doing girl things. I have always said I wanted to do something like this once a year but never thought it would ever happen.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart, Greg for letting me take a break and get away. I know your shedule isn't suitable to take two days off very easily and know you are sacrificing much fo rme this weekend. Thanks for all you do and know it doesn't go unnoticed. Give the girls kisses and squeezes from me often while I'm gone. Have lots of fun daddy/daughter dates but don't spoil them too much. Know I will miss you and the girls so much. I love you BIG like the world!

Reasons today I'm happy-

*I know I'm loved
*I have a family to love
*A wonderful husband
*Three beautiful girls
*Great friends to spend time with
*Wonderful parents
*The gospel
*It's Friday
*I'm getting a much needed rejuvination break

Hope you have a great Friday. I know I will. Happy Valley here we come.

thursday thoughts

Tomorrow Jenny and I leave for Happy Valley. I am really excited to go and visit friends and to have a little break from my hectic summer routine with the kiddos. I too am a bit sad and nervous to leave as well. I haven't left them all with Greg for more than a day. I know he will do great and maybe even get rid of a few problems we have been having.
I am excited to see SLC and the Provo area since it has been about eight years since we have been to visit. Hopefully we will get a chance to go to Temple Square and maybe even go to the Temple while we are there. I have always loved the peaceful feeling surrounding Tenple Square and always said if they would let me choose where I wanted to serve a mission I would have gone and I would have chosen to be a tour guide at Temple Square. But since that's not how things work I never served a mission and I still am a bit shy and reserved. Maybe Greg and I will get the chance to serve later.

I go this book back in when Time Out for Women was here and totally forgot about it in til just the other day when I was going through books and came across it.

The Temple Our Home Away From Home by Ardeth G. Kapp

"The temple is the bridge between mortality and immortality. It is the place where we receive comfort, vision, hope, and promise. In the temple we are reminded of our identity--who we are and who we are to become--and we prepare to fulfill our forordained mission."

I love this quote about being reminded of who we are and who we are to become, and how we should prepare ourselves acoordingly. I love attening the temple to recieve the peacefulness and comfort that is there. To escape the world for a brief while and ponder the promises and the hope that lies within the walls of the temple.

tuesday twins

Mackenzi a fews weeks before her 4th birthday and my sister Allison. They looked more like sisters in this picture than aunt and niece. Allison has always looked younger than her age and believe it or not she is 25 in this picture. They looked alot alike back then but Mackenzi is about to outgrow her aunt pretty soon. Allison will be 30 next week and is a little shy of 5 feet tall, so Mackenzi will surely be taller but, still resembles Allison some.

*I am posting this now but will add and edit more twins later*