the family tree

There's a saying, right, that says "Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts"? Well, I'm not necessairily saying that's my family, but we sure can scare onlookers when we all congregate together!

Such was the occasion one saturday morning when we gathered from all parts of the globe for a family picture (actually, only people from dallas and asia made the trek, but it sounded much more fun to say it that way). There's quite a lot of us, and I think we might have stressed the picture taker out, but anyway, that's another story.

Since it was a big day, and since emma's hair can sometimes be a little out-of-control, we decided to do a little beauty-shopping to it. My sister katie was a great help getting emma's curls to chill out and have a bit more straightness to it.

...but then of course, you can imagine that samantha wanted a turn, so holly helped her out and added some curls for her. Now that we were all pretty and everything, the whole group congregated together. For privacy reasons, I won't post the massive group picture. I'll only jeopardize my immediate family! :) My parents, two sistes, brother and josh and I with the girls.



After all the picture drama, we went to cool-nana's house to eat pizza...Hideaway Pizza! Yum Yum! The girls were delighted with the large number of children their own age. Here are two of my cousins' kids who were playing so sweetly on the steps wiht my kids. My brother dustin playing pinball with samantha (still at my nana's house)... ...mimi reading to emma... The next stop that day after nana's house was to my brother dustin's house, where his dog Chewy had been waiting to meet emma. I guess I should probably say Emma and Samantha had been waiting to meet Chewy! They were SO excited to play with him. He was a great dog, and certainly an exhausted one after meeting my kids!
...whoa, emma...chill out a bit with the dog! In a quieter moment, emma decided Dustin was a good pal to have around. He played endless games with them, and pretty much gave in to any request they had! No wonder they loved him so much!

Emma and samantha invaded Chewy's room...that's right, I said his room. Chewy lives a life that should have been documented in Beverly Hills Chihuahua. (ok, maybe not that extreme!) But really, chewy has his own tv, a staggering array of toys, plush carpet, a soft fleecy bed, and actually only lets dustin stay in the house because he pays the bills. Emma and Samantha thought his bed was so much fun. Chewy didn't know quite what to think. That evening, we went back to my parents house where the girls had a much needed bath, and then ended up cutely on the bed with all the gals in my fam. Finally, jammies on and snuggling with holly, I think everyone was ready for bed! It was a long day!