~~Ketchup~~More Seago Fun!

And here are some more fun pics of our Kansas City trip. Jim and Shawna's house was so fun and their backyard was pretty big! The kids played in the back a bit, and for some reason, Alex and Lucas thought they should pick up sticks and throw them over the back fence into a stream lol.







Yeah, this is my game!

Little Jakey got jealous of his mom giving Olivia attention!

Here they are both hungry and waiting for their daddies to return with the food!

We got Oklahoma Joe's which was a place John saw on the Food channel---great BBQ from a gas station!...the line went around the building!

Pretty good BBQ!

Jim fell asleep with this pony so I had to have some fun:




There was a really nice mall with a huge play area and carousel--the babies loved it!

Lucas is like, "Come on! Start the car!" and Olivia's like "hang on, i gotta put my seatbelt on!"

His excited face:

Olivia loved this so much she got PISSED when the quarter ran out and the machine stopped..








And we got Lucas' hair cut--once again he was so good! Of course this first pic he is giving me the dirtiest look!




We had fun in KC--Thanks for being so hospitable! We hope to visit again soon!

~~Ketchup~~Grandpa's St. Joe MO

While in Kansas City visiting the Seago's, I decided we'd take the hour or so trek to St. Joseph MO which is where my grandpa Charles was born and raised. While staying with him earlier this year, I got to look at old scrapbooks and photo albums that I'd probably always seen as a kid, but now I got to hear all the background on them from Grandpa. He has a very good long-term memory! He had a panaramic frame of St. Joe Ave, the main drag in town. He told me about how once he was old enough he and his brother knew they had to get out as there "was nothing out there for young people", so they moved to California and worked hard at various jobs and lived wherever they could to get by and make something for themselves. He met grandma Emma at church, they married and had 3 boys and they eventually saved up to buy the house he currently lives in, for which he paid $13k! He's had a very interesting life, full of hard work and great memories. He always made a point to say "You know what the population of St. Joe was when I was a kid? 70,000...Do you know what it is now? 74,000...that should tell you something!" There really wasn't much out there for anyone, and the town hasn't really expanded, but I can tell it was still important to grandpa, and I really wanted to see it for myself briefly too.


It was pretty cold that day, most likely in the 40's, so we didn't get out of the car, but it was cool to recognize things grandpa had talked about like the Orpheum- a blacks only theater, Roubideaux Row, and Krug Park--a one time happening, beautiful park. Here are some pictures:












It was sorta sad to see the town so old and abandoned as grandpa talked about. But then I suppose people driving through my hometown would feel that way too, whereas I still have a lot of memories tied to Littlerock that make me still like it despite all the druggies that live there now.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed the pics grandpa. Thanks for all the stories!
On the way back to Shawna's the babies woke up happy :


So welcoming huh?:

~~Ketchup~~~Game Night Returns!

Before we even knew John got the job, we planned on spending a few days with Jim + Shawna up in Kansas City. We got the good news, the day we left!
We drove a long time, over night and finally got there a little after noon. It was so amazing to see Alex make such progress over the last year. And Jacob was so adorable in his interaction with Olivia. All in all, all 4 of the babies were pretty good at going to sleep and letting us play our beloved games! Jim has a pretty complex job, with lots of travel, for which he recently finished training. But he was still as into the games as ever. Shawna also stays pretty busy with her work, so lazy John and I were the only ones who thoroughly enjoyed our time! lol...it was so nice not to be in a hotel, but the Seago's also made us feel right at home--we ate soooo good (read: BAD) too. My weight loss went downhill from there lol.
We kept the babies entertained with activities, but I think they were happiest just playing at the house:

Playing on Jim's work supplies!




The next morning we went to a cool gym/playdate place. All the babies enjoyed it:



Pizza night! mmm...

I love this pic..Alex gets into character for a western episode of his show, Backyardigans lol:



We took them to some kid's pirate island thingy, which turned out to be closed down...so we resorted to Chuck E Cheese's..for like 10 minutes...way too full of hot dirty unsupervised kids! But I LOVE this pic of Olivia...if there was a caption for what she's saying it would be "F*** Yeah!" lol...


They are about the same size, but Jacob is a few months older than Olivia :)
Geez...remember when we were both pregnant Shawna!?
More to come on Kansas City later...

We're Back!

Finally, we have internet and cable!! It was such a hassle to get anything in our apartment because certain companies don't service our area, and then we had the problem getting out of our contract with direcTV from VA...they don't get signal at our apartment, so we EVENTUALLY were let go, of course they did try to charge us hundreds of dollars in cancellation fees, which as of today, I have bitched my way out of...

Anyway, there is so much to post, and so many pictures, so expect lots of new posts about the past few months! John had his first day of work on monday, and thinks he is really going to enjoy his job. I can't wait for him to come home tonight...it's our 7th Anniversary today and that means only one thing...Red Lobster! Classy :)
I am excited to show pics of the apartment, as we have only recently received all our stuff, which was A LOT! I have unpacked, stored, and built it all...which to anyone who doesn't own IKEA furniture...is a LOT of allen-wrenching :)
For now, here are my babies ready for summer: