MER-MAN, Pool Play with KEMP!

I tried, at first, not to get  a picture of Kemp's "Bathing Suit". Why? Because he doesn't have one on! Instead, he is wearing a LITTLE MERMAID "swimmie" diaper! Don't tell NAT! HAHA! With that LONG hair of his and Little Mermaid swimmie, he looks like a pretty little girl! (He's too pretty to be a boy anyway!)......Kemp has been at GranJan and Big "T"'s for a couple of days while MOMMY is at the beach with her "Little Lambs" (Riverchase UMC Mother's Day Out program) workers/ friends. Of course, she has called already a gazillion times!!!!! Brad will be picking him up after work today. Notice on the pictures Kemp's little MOSQUITO EATEN LEGS! Poor baby! The mosquitoes LOVE him ! (I would love biting those fat chubby legs, too!).  MAN, is there a difference to the way HE plays to the way LILY plays! And people say that toddler boy/girls play alike? NO WAY!  Kemp runs like a wild man, so fast I could hardly get his picture! Goes 90 MPH! Lily was content to play in the pool, softy splashing and "washing my car". Kemp "washed the car" for about 20 seconds, then he was off running in the garage , "playing golf" (YES, Big T wants another TIGER WOODS so he's gotten him some clubs!) or climbing on his riding car or splashing like an orca whale in the pool, not splashing softly, that's for sure! I spent the entire time outside chasing him or saying, "NO NO! DON'T get near the fan! DON'T run towards the street! DON'T run on the wet floor! DON'T scratch your mosquito bites! DON'T jump into the pool!"! (When Lily was in the pool, I sat and looked at a magazine!!!!!!!) HE'S ALL BOY, that's for sure! But, what a SWEET boy he is! And a chatterbox to boot! I've NEVER heard one talk so good/early as he does! Yesterday when I picked him up from Mother's Day Out he was in the hall and he saw me and screamed, "GRAN JAN! GranJan!" And grabbed me around the legs. He was so excited on the way home he talked the whole way! I mean TALKED! "GranJan's Car, bye bye!" and "Butterfly gone byby",  and "Where's Big T?"etc etc.  He NEVER stops talking ! (like his GranJan and MOMMY! haha)......He has been a joy to keep and just wish his cousin LILY was here to play with him, too!  Lily calls Kemp "KEMPER" now! SO CUTE!  Of COURSE both are beautiful geniuses! (sounds like a grandmother, huh?)

WHere is he while I type  and journal this? You guessed it! SOUND ASLEEP after a swim in the pool! Just like Lily did! (Again, don't tell Nat, but all I had was a PINK SHIRT for him to sleep in!).........

P.S. my favorite shots are the ones of his little wet footprints on the garage floor!

POOL PLAY and Volkswagen times two!

AHHHHHHHHH ! Those wonderful HOT SUMMER DAYS! Today we put the baby pool inside the garage  (with the fan blowing!) so it wouldn't be so hot! Lake Cyrus has no trees!!!!!!!!! YIKES! Lily had fun playing and splashing in her little pool AND washing the TWO Volkswagen BEETLES! She knows which one is GranJan's and which one is CUTIE'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Later on in the week, I'll put Kemp in the pool and make his pix too! (I'm keeping him some while his mommy goes to Fla. with some of her fellow workers at Little Lambs Playschool!)......

Brad's Birthday!

JUNE 24th, 2006

Brad Horne's 38th birthday!

Brad's birthday party started at 12:00 P.M. and we left their house @ 9:30 P.M.!!!!! Brad, Natalie, Terry, Pat, Jon, Michael and Kadie all PAINTED the outside of Nat/Brad's house while Katie, Stephanie and GranJan babysat the two munchkins inside the house all day long! The babies were GREAT---only a FEW fights, mostly they hugged each other today! Auntie Katie had one of them in her arms most of the day! We did get a LITTLE tired of watching THE WIGGLES, however! HAHAHAHA!! The others had the hard job of painting! And what a job it was!!! Lots of PAINTING! The WHOLE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE! It looks FABULOUS! Like a different house!!!!!! 

 We had hotdogs/hamburgers/potatoe salad/cole slaw for lunch with a home made  chocolate chip/M & M COOKIE CAKE (compliments of GranJan) and home made chocolate ice cream (thanks to Pat!). We used leftover BIBLE SCHOOL decorations for Brad's birthday party decorations (see TIKI MAN! HAHA). We nibbled on the cookie cake until it was gone! And, the ice cream?????? DELISH!!!!!!!!! Back to work, painting and babysitting! Couldn't get the kids to take naps at the same time today! Lily was awake when Kemp was up and vice versa!

 For dinner, we ordered from P.F. CHANGS! YUM YUM!!!!!!!!!!We had sooooooo much fun and the evening was even better when we got to SKYPE with Ants, Karyn and Kristy in Australia!!  Chatting and SEEING them at the same time, all the way from OZ is awesome! They got to see all the crazy Frys in action! Anthony's b'day is tomorrow but tomorrow is TODAY in OZ so Brad and Ants BOTH had birthdays today! Does that make sense??????????????? HAHA!........HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite son-in-law! The BEST Aussie Son-in-Law in the whole whole world!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU, BRAD!!!!!!!!!!

Fry Family Album!!!!!!!! (you asked for it!)

For those who have asked  to see ALL of us---here we all are!  Some of you , who don't know "the order" Here are the Fry Kids and their families!  CHARLES, married to Rachel; MICHAEL married to Kadie and baby Lily; NATALIE married to Brad and baby Kemp; Patrick and Katie. I tried to put the pictures kind of in order: (Charles/Rachel; Michael/Kadie/Lily; Natalie/Brad/Kemp; Patrick; Katie; Terry; Jan and some of my mom, MIMI. Of course, I have THOUSANDS of pix---Here's just a SAMPLING! Of course, you could always come here and look through my million scrapbooks for more pix!!!!!!!

Angels, angels everywhere! (Hebrews 13:2)

Everyone always says, "How many angels do you have?" Well, who knows?! I was cleaning up today (*  yes, sometimes I really do!) and dusting ANGELS and grabbed my camera to take a few shots for my scrapbook!  Most of these were given to me which is why I love them so much. (One of my favorite "non-angels" is my "You are my angel" pillow Natalie gave me!).I have many more than the ones I made pix of (but I've got lots more, like my HUMMEL angels  put up b/c we're fixing to paint and put down a new floor!) but it was fun running around making shots of the ones I do have out right now. I love knowing my little angels are around and know that REAL ones are here , too! (also I put my mom/dad's a few of the kids and grandkids pictures down as ANGEL PIX, too b/c they are angels to me!).......A funny thing about the word "ANGEL" ! Terry used to write to me from Korea and say, "Hello angel", well, he misspelled it several times and wrote, "Hello ANGLE" so I called him ANGLE for YEARS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Mimi and friends!

Katie, Lily and I went to see my mom (MIMI!) today! At just the exact moment that we walked into HearthStone, one of Mimi's friends, Mrs. Bradley, just got her DOLL she ordered off of E-Bay! (she's obsessed with dolls!). One of her friends even put a little nurse's cap on as she DELIVERED the doll to Mrs. Bradley! It was hilarious!!!! As you can see, she LOVED her new BABY BOY! Everyone was in the front waiting to see Mrs. Bradley's face and guess what? I caught it all on film! SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....Then, Katie, Lily and I went to Mimi's room (#60!) for a visit. Lily was a little shy at first, but soon was feeding MIMI , NEMO'S (goldfish!). We had so much fun! Mimi thinks, (just like the rest of the world), that Lily is the SPITTING IMAGE of Michael!....Then, Katie showed Mimi her dress that she's going to wear in the Miss USA/Alabama Pageant in September! (It's gorgeous!)....Then, I showed Mimi my scrapbook I made of our beach trip--she enjoyed looking at that, too....we had so much fun today @ HEARTHSTONE and I'm still chuckling thinking about how funny Mrs. Bradley was when she got that DOLL! (I'll probably be just like her when I'm her age!! Either ordering dolls or DOING SCRAPBOOKS in a nursing home!)hahahaha

My COMPUTER room (it's clean!)

I'm so excited! I cleaned out my computer room! Here's how it looks---CLEAN! Notice the BEAUTIFUL built in cabinet????????? BRAD built it for me 3 years ago for Christmas! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!! I went into the attic today (and almost passed out from the heat!) and dragged out Katie's old  wooden sink/hutch and stove that my Daddy stained and fixed for Katie on her 4th Christmas!  (she got the kitchen set and Natalie got THE doll house! Daddy made Natalie a doll house that is her prize possession!). I have pictures of Katie with the little chef hat and apron Mimi found to go with the ktichen set!! I don't know who was more excited that Christmas morning, Daddy or Katie!!! Both were ecstatic when he walked in with that on that memorable Christmas morning! Katie will probably come in from work today and  cry when she sees it all cleaned up! I HOPE she'll let Lily play with it! HAHA! Now Lily will have something to do when she's  upstairs  and GranJan wants to check her e- mail!!!!!! WHAT ABOUT KEMP you're thinking? Well, never fear, GranJan kept EVERYTHING so I found PATRICK'S old TONKA TRUCK and it's waiting for him downstairs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Things I love!

While Kemp was playing I started snapping some pix of things around here that I thought I'd label: Things I love! OR "pieces of me"!  Here's some "things I love" in my house, like framed photos/my CRAFT ROOM (messy and all!)/my EXTRA big stove/my precious pup, BUDDY/My oil paintings of the kids/the babie's room and just some random shots!  I might have to make more later. Like Katie's MESSY room????????.......

Lazy Summer Daze!!!!

Kemp loved playing out in the sprinkler this afternoon! He took his new WEED WACKER and ran in and out of the sprinkler and kicked the ball as well. WOW, that little boy is soooooooo busy !

Lily LOVES Barney!!!!!!!!!

I've done it again! This time I've gotten LILY obsessed with BARNEY!  First, It WAS "PO" from the TELE TUBBIES, now it's BARNEY!!!!!! She talks about "BARRI" constantly and carries him EVERYWHERE! IT's so cute! For her nap today, she had about 10 stuffed animals around her, including MEEKO  the raccoon from one of the Disney movies (Mimi/Daddy gave to Katie when she was little!). Anyway, she LOVES her stuffed animals and I think she really got that from me b/c I always loved mine, too!  Also, be sure and check out her adorable painted TOE NAILS! SOOOOOOOO CUTE! She did NOT want her daddy to take her home today (that makes me feel good!) so , to make her happy, I gave her a new teddy bear I had bought at Lifeway that says, "God's not the only one who loves you" with MY picture (yes, GranJan's!) in the frame around it's neck!....Oh, the first picture (the cookie cake pix!) is of the cookie cake we took to Konie and the kids on Wednesday!  I had teased Konie that I was TIRED of so many people around her all the time---that I , and only I, was her best friend! HAHA!  She says, "but you are!"We have teased her  so much about it that Katie and I bought them a giant cookie cake (the kids were kind of sick of pound cake---plus Katie said Jess loves cookie cakes!) and we had them write on it from your BEST friends! She laughed and laughed! We (Katie and I ) spent the night with them on Tuesday night b/c Terry was out of town. It was bittersweet. We laughed and cried together. All of us. They are doing really well but it will be when everyone does finally quit coming that she'll really need her "Best friend". I'll be there!

Kemp spends the night

Kemp spent the night last night. GranJan picked him up from the nursery from Bible School and when he saw me he WIGGED OUT! Started screaming and running and stepping over all the other kids! READY TO LEAVE BIBLE SCHOOL! HAHA! I brought him here to surprise Big T (but he is now called BIG B by Kemp!)! Big T was thrilled to see his little buddy! I put him to bed after reading books and playing with BIG B and having had a bath by Auntie Cutie and he SCREAMED b/c he didn't want  his fun to end by having to go to bed! (BTW, those are LILY's PINK BOOTS Kemp is wearing, haha! We've GOT to get him some BOY ones!). Anyway, Kemp did NOT want his fun with BIG T/B to end and "pitched a hissy fit" (as my mama would say) when we put him to bed. Terry said, "let's get him back up!" and I said "NO WAY!" I went into my bedroom ignoring Mr. Kemp's wails and Terry's begging to get him and  heard, OVER THE MONITOR, BIG B say, "Shh! Big T is going to get you up and ROCK YOU!" Next thing I see is Kemp cuddling and going RIGHT TO SLEEP in Big T/B's arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vacation Bible School--Natalie's 4th graders! "Discover the RICHES of Christ"

Here's Natalie's class at Riverchase UMC's Vacation Bible School! She is teaching the 4th graders. Last night she was freaking out because she was orginally scheduled to work the Prayer Chapel and found out they needed a teacher at the last minute. She called together a group of us to go and help decorate her room! Suanne Parnell, Cathy Eades, Katie and MAMA helped pull together a tropical paradise room for her! Suanne, Miss Creativity herself, made a VOLCANO in about 10 minutes! Unreal! Here's the cute room and the even cuter 4th graders! Also note the Riverchase DUCK who has a nest RIGHT OUTSIDE THE SDL DOOR! She stood up and you can see her eggs. 11 of them! There's a lake across the road and somehow she waddled over the street and made her nest at the church! I guess she needed lots of prayers for her ducklings! Of course, all the children are fascinated by her!........Enjoy the VBS pix and let it remind you of when your kids went or when you went yourself! I told Natalie when I was little we went for TWO SOLID WEEKS! Imagine that! Imagine how the teachers felt the last Friday of the 2nd week! HAHAHAHA

Memorial Service for Bill Bryant

After 3 years, Bill Bryant finally lost his courageous battle with lung cancer. We've lost one of the best Ortho. Doctors; old neighbor; friend and Hoover High School team doctor in the world. Even continuing to be the team doctor at HHS , that man continued to press on. Watching his kids graduate from high school and college and share all their many honors and achievements kept him alive and beating the odds for such a long time.

 What I'll miss about Bill? I'll miss our rivalry most of all! Mr. Auburn vs. Mrs. Alabama! We played many capers on each other on Iron Bowl Days! I remember Pat, Katie and I decorating the whole outside of their house SEVERAL times! HAHA! AND, him getting me back throwing TIDE in our swimming pool on one of those days when 'Bama lost!  And, after he got sick, I would always tell Konie to whisper ROLL TIDE In his ear when he was sick so he'd perk up!

Konie kept us ,( & almost the whole city!) ,updated on Bill's progress the past 3 years every week. So many people who were praying for him---nurses/doctors/friends/church friends/neighbors/HHS kids and friends. Each time she wrote an "update", her optimism but most of all FAITH, was evident in all she wrote about Bill. It was uplifting to those who didn't know him, but for those who did (and who loves the family like I do) it was heart warming and encouraging.Of course she ended with scriptures each week at the end of the e-mail and it showed her deep rooted reliance on God during those difficult days.

The  funeral service yesterday was amazing. To see those 4 kids get up there and share some of their personal memories of their dad touched every single person---I saw grown men crying alongside the ladies! Their stories of their dad so embodied who he was with them and the people he healed by surgery  and loved. The loving dad who never missed a recital/football game or school function and the funny guy whom Jess said,"was always right" (we know a man like that, don't we Fry kids?! HAHA). Each one: Jessica/Jenna/Jarod/Justin brought things to our ears about their dad to share and how proud he must be as he listens now, not from the audience , but from heaven. 

Rest in Peace, Bill. I will always miss you (especially during IRON BOWL week)-- I'll miss asking you medical questions (that you never tired of answering--and I still miss living across the street from you/yours. WOW we had some fun times on ROYAL FERN LANE! All those KIDS! (9 between us!). And, I must brag, I think all our kids are among the cream of the crop. We shared raising our kids much the same way---lots of discipline and love!  I promise to be there for Konie and the kids and Terry is already saying he wants to take Konie (and me!) up to watch Jarod play for Navy this Fall. I love you and miss you already but whenever I want to see you all I have to do is look into the faces of your 4 beautiful and courageous children. (and please, would you say hello to Daddy for me? I miss him so much, too!) 

 

Alan's 50th birthday party

Michael and Kadie had a wonderful surprise birthday party for Alan (Kadie's dad) 50th birthday ! We had so much fun and the food and company were great!! Here's a few shots from tonight! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALAN! Glad you FINALLY joined the 50's club! )The pictures start off at GranJan and Big T's house , (we kept Lily while her mommy and daddy got ready for the party ) and we (Katie and I) dressed her in her pretty little dress (Aunt Rachel gave her) and fixed her hair like Pebbles (from the Flintstones! HAHA). Lily and Kemp just might have been the cutest ones there (they were definitely the YOUNGEST!). Lily showed everyone her "BARRI" (Barney the dinosaur) and Kemp enjoyed going out the DOGGIE DOOR all night! We had so much fun! Maybe Kadie and Michael should do this EVERY Friday night!