Missouri 2008

I love my grandma!
Katie the dog is the new addition to the farm. She was so cute and lovable.
Here is my uncle Jimmy trying to amuse me by pretending like he is shorter than me.
Grandma and the kids in front of the barn. Even Bubba came over to the fence to be in the picture.
All the cousins climbing all over Uncle Gaylord's truck when he took us all out to the field. (shhh, aunt Pam don't tell Gaylord)
All the kids visiting their Aunt Sarah's grave. She is buried in the same row as my grandpa. Such a peaceful and beautiful cemetery.
It was funny to my kids, Sheila's kids and my cousins' kids together in Missouri. It use to be us running around together on the farm playing ghosts in the graveyard, picking apples, fishing, taking long walks, playing with the animals and whatever else we could find to explore. Now it's their turn to sit at the kiddie table when we all get together for dinner.
Feeding Bubba an apple. His tongue was really long.
Sheila, Jennifer, me and Jason. (can you tell I missed the tall gene somewhere along the way?)
Me with my VERY favorite Aunt Pam.

Grandpa 1930~2008

We went to the funeral home, the church, the cemetery, the farm and even the field where the tree had fallen on him...yet it still doesn't seem real. It was so sad sitting there in their family room looking at his empty chair. I love him and miss him so much! I suppose the hardest part is now when you need to get back to your normal routine but you feel like your world is flipped upside down. I'll always cherish the many memories I have of my grandpa.

September 17, 2008

Just going through some old photos and thought I'd post a couple of my favorites. I love the picture of my grandpa with the kids on his farm because I have the same picture of me with him in that same spot when I was a kid.

This picture of my grandma and grandpa is the last photograph I have of them together (everything else is digital since this one was taken) They are standing in front of their church which is next to the cemetery where we will bury him on Saturday.

None of this seems real yet...

Mmmmmm

With every new season comes a new favorite food for me to enjoy. All I have to say is goodbye to summer and sweet corn.... and HELLO to autumn and taffy apples. YUMMO!!!!

Rain Rain on my face

The kids had fun playing in my parents' street when it flooded. We were on our way to pick up the kids from their house when they called to tell us that we'd have to park our car and wade through water to get to them because the street was flooded and water was coming up the drain in their garage.
This was what was left of the back part of their yard.
Luckily our house is dry, but down the street the neighbors weren't so lucky. There is a creek that runs through our subdivision so when we get a ton of rain (especially 4 days straight) it floods pretty bad.
Brian and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Friday by having a weekend getaway at a resort and spa. We had planned to go to the beach where Brian proposed to me and go hiking and go there at night to watch the stars. Obviously NONE of that took place this weekend due to the weather. We did enjoy just getting away and being together. We had a couples massage and ticklish Brian giggled through most of it. Thanks mom and dad for taking the kids for us while we escaped for a few days.

Schererville Couple Olympics 2008

Kelly and Tony took the gold in the strength contest.
Kristi guiding Jason through the obstacle course blindfolded while holding an egg on a spoon.
I wonder what all the neighbors thought as a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds were taking turns pushing each other in the wheel barrow.
Gold Medalists for this year Olympics. I already feel the pressure to keep the title for next year.
The lucky bronze medalists won a quesadilla maker. I have a feeling we might be seeing that again at this year's white elephant gift exchange.

Excellent effort diving for the water balloon, Dustin.
After the first event the Sandovals were sad to be without a medal.
Sarah and Dustin got the silver medal and the back of Dustin's shirt says it all.
Henry and Traci took the gold in the volleyball event.
Lisa and Carl getting ready for the 3 legged race.

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

Pictures with Grandma before saying goodbye!
We had a great time with Brian's family when they came in town a week ago. We all went to Movies in the park down the street and saw "Wizard of Oz" We also spent a day at the waterpark and car races in the evening. Brian, the kids and his dad spent all day Monday in Chicago. (I had to work) They did a lot of fun stuff at Navy Pier and even went out on a sailboat. Of course they forgot to take the camera with them!
We'll see you all again in October for Cassy and Chris's wedding day in Disney!!!

Is anybody out there???

I noticed when I wrote my last post that it was number 115 since I started this family blog one year ago. That's a lot of photos to view and a lot of stories to type. So it made me wonder who reads this out there. Many of you I know because you leave comments from time to time. (thanks we all love to read the comments) And them some of you... eh hem... read but never leave comments. So to celebrate the one year anniversary of our family blog... I was wondering if EVERYONE who reads our blog could leave a comment this time just to let me know you're out there.

I hope everyone enjoys checking up on us to see what's happening in the lives of the Sandoval Family.

Thanks for reading!

Let's go GNO!

It's that time of year again where Brian and Austin spend their Friday nights going to prep football games. Madison knows that when they go to football games that means it's Girls Night Out (GNO) for us. We both really look forward to spending those evenings together. We made a list of all the fun things we plan to do this year.
First on the list was to get spa pedicures. This was Madi's first time getting a pedicure. I told her not to get use to being spoiled like that because it is expensive to pay for two pedis. My friend gave me a gift certificate for mine (thanks Sue) and so that helped with the bill. We sat in a massage chair for 15 minutes while we waited for them to start and I think if Madison wasn't there talking to me the whole time I would have fallen asleep.
It was so beautiful and relaxing in the spa. Madison was done before me and she just walked around the spa singing Hannah Montana's song "Girl's Night Out" I kept telling her she needed to stay quiet because people were trying to relax, but they all seemed to be very entertained by her.
I opted for the french tips while Madison chose pink and blue mixed.
Then we went shopping at Old Navy to pick out PJ's for our slumber party together. We planned to make cookies when we got home from our pedis and shopping trip, but we were so tired we just fell asleep watching a movie instead.

Next week we're off to the roller rink!!!!

Uh... what did I do wrong?

Aren't sunflowers suppose to be at least 6 feet tall? Madison and I were so excited to plant this one in our yard this year. Unfortunately it's only about a foot tall. Very cute, but not what we were expecting.