Family

[Christmas 08 - My parents, brothers, husband and I]

Family means the world to me. I know a lot of people say that - But it's so very true to me. I absolutely love my family. It's big - But not huge. And I love it. And we're all very close.

[Scanned picture - The majority of my family & DH and I on our 'big wedding']

My immediate family consist of: My mom, who is an amazing woman. My dad, a recovering alcoholic. My half brother - Danny, who is 30 [the dark haired guy in the xmas pic]. My brother - Garrett, who is 25. And then myself. The baby.

And then my mom has 1 brother & 1 sister. . . Her brother has a wife & 2 kiddos - Evan, who's almost 16, and Sydney who is 12. My Aunt & Uncle are on the left of this pic - Evan is the red head & Syd is the big girl in the dress - She was a Jr Bridesmaid. Then there is her sister & her wife - And their amazingly beautiful little girl, Gabby, who is already 3. She was my flower girl at just 13 months! And of course, my awesomely adorable Grandpa.

On my dads side. . . Eh. There's nobody as far as I am concerned. He has a mom still around who has a husband whom she married sometime when I was in my early teens. She is a trip & is a whole blog post in itself. A very angry blog post, at that. I have nothing nice to say about her any more. I do not refer to her as my Grandma. Because she isn't. To me, she is Judy. My dad also has a brother who has 2 kiddos whom I haven't seen since our big wedding in 08. And before then - It was a while. So as far as I know - There's nobody there and I was surprised they came to my wedding.

Now - I do have a wonderful Great Aunt & 2 2nd cousins (who are the same age as my 2 brothers - So we don't think of each other as '2nd' cousins) who we are close with. There's a whole lot of people from there that are family in some way or the other. Be it they're just REALLY good family friends for YEARS. Their family. My mom has aunts & uncles and cousins still around - And they're great people, we just rarely see them. Her mom died when I was 10, so she is sadly no longer with us.

Straight up - My family is awesome.

[Halloween 09 - I was pregnant and just starting to really show. We convinced Evan to let us dress him up as a girl. It was awesome. He was embarrassed at 1st but loved it as we got going with the night. Probably because people REALLY thought he was a girl. . . Until he spoke. And then his sister, Sydney)

These kids are the best. I love them to death [as well as Gabby, but her & her moms moved back to NY in Oct]. Evan & I have always been really close. . . Sydney and I are close too, just not as close. I miss them. Terribly. Before I moved to San Diego, the 3 of us went to the water park and had a great time. I will never forget that. Since moving, our time spent together has been few & far in between.

Well today we spent all afternoon together. Swimming. Being kids. And having a blast. And I enjoyed every minute of it. My mom, Emmersyn, E (Evan), Syd and I went out to the pool. Emmersyn had a blast. She was enjoying it greatly. My mom even dunked her. I was nervous at first - But my mom has done it to many babies and I trust her, so I let her do it. [Blow in babies face hard/fast and dip them under water REAL fast. Blowing in their face makes them hold their breath]. Emmersyn wasn't a fan of it the 1st time - And the 2nd time was still a bit unsure, but it wasn't bad. But she just loved being in the water. After about 30 minutes my mom took Em in and the 3 of us 'kids' just hung out.

It was nice. A ton of fun. I acted 16 and had fun. We were ganging up on E with the pool noodles and attacking him with them. Yes. Probably sounds dumb and immature reading this. But yanoe what? Oh well. My child was in great hands. And my mom knew I would  get her if needed. But she was fine. It was nice to get a little break. Some time away from Em. Without being away from her. I love her to death - And I LOVE staying home with her. But sometimes, mommah needs a breather. And I got that today. And I got to spend the time with my little cousins. And it was awesome. Every minute of it.

[Desert sunset - Oct 09. I truly believe the desert has better sunsets then the beach a lot of the times]

I love my family. And I miss being just minutes away. But I am so, very thankful that we're only a 2 hour drive. It could be a million times worse. My family is the best. And even with us kids all grown up - We still spend a lot of holidays together and get together at times just because.

Tomorrow my brother & his fiance are coming over for more pool time and to BBQ hot dogs & hamburgers.

With that said. . . I miss my little family.

DH is camping - I haven't heard anything from him since they left at 2pm today. I am sad. I know he has reception - My texts are getting out to him. I am not asking for much. Just a simple 'hello, I love you' would be nice - To know that he's thinking about me, or at least Emmersyn, like I'm thinking about him. Yes, I can be a bit insecure. But that's okay. We've been through a lot & are still working through it.

I cannot wait to get home to him tomorrow. Sometime. Hah.