8 children, 44 grandchildren, 82 great grands

And most of them were at the reunion! Here is the group that made it to the Tri-Cities for the 2011 Bleazard Reunion!

Since I print this blog each year for our family scrapbook, I wanted to add some pictures of just family...

Lynn and Lloyd, grandma's oldest kids. Lynn on the left (I think!)

My cousin Jill, with her daughter Olivia in the front.

My cousin Melanie, and her husband Ben Winfield. They live in Arizona, so we get to see them once in a blue moon when we visit Nicole.

Grandma and Andrea.

Our wonderful host, Karl and Debbie. Most of the reunion was held at their amazing house. I don't know how Debbie does it all. She is up by 5 and works till who knows when at night. She is one amazing woman! And Karl's not so bad himself! :)

My cousin Ann, and her 3 of her 4 kids. Her son Andrew was baptized on Sunday, the last day of the reunion.

Me and Alayna. One day we're going to live closer to each other, and she's going to teach me how to do a tiny bit of all the amazing things she does.

Kevin - my cousin, Alayna's husband. Kevin and I went to Ricks at the same time. I sure wish I would have known him better sooner than that. I was so glad to have him there, and so glad every time we get to see him and their family!

Me with my Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle John.

Shaye spent a lot of time with Jessica! She had so much fun with her. Jessica did her hair, took her on the horses, and played with Shaye a lot. Shaye loves her!

Our cousins - Scott and Jared, with Nicole and Uncle Phil.

Shaye also had a lot of fun with Melanie's son Devin. She met him a few years ago in Arizona, and went right back to playing. She told me she made a new best friend! I guess we'll have to plan a trip to Arizona soon.

Jared and Mindy Peterson. Mindy is great! Every reunion I enjoy talking and catching up with her. Such a sweet person!

Jaxson with Brooks' son Bryden, and their 2nd cousin Devin.

Nicole with MaryAnn and her daughter Casey.

And there were so many more at the reunion. I am so blessed to have a lot of wonderful relatives on both my mom and dad's sides. I love having a big family!!

Preschool Begins

This week Syd started preschool. She goes twice a week - Wednesdays and Thursdays. She has been so excited to go. Ever since the big kids started school 2 weeks ago, she has been asking every day "is it time to go to my school?" She woke up Wednesday morning and got herself dressed and was anxiously awaiting the time to leave. This is how she felt about having to wait longer to take pictures...

Once we got there, she went right to work and was much happier. She goes to Holy Covenant Child Development Center. We were given so many recommendations for this preschool, and have heard wonderful things! We are looking forward to a great year with Ms. Wanda.

Labor Day 'Bash!'

Every Labor Day a group of friends from our ward here in Katy go tubing on the Comal River in New Braunfels. We missed it last year because we were still getting moved in, and I have been looking forward to it ever since. I love to float the river! Mainly, I love to swim when the water is fresh, cool, and clean. We didn't get that growing up in Lake Jackson, so going to New Braunfels was always a treat. I was able to snap a few pictures of friends getting ready to head down river before I had to stow my camera away and jump in!

The float was great! My cousin, Shannon, who lives in Austin came and I had a lot of fun visiting with her and our other friends. It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time, big hit all around. Until.... we got dropped off at the Texas Tubes parking lot when we were done and this is what we saw.

Actually, we were walking in from the left of this picture and we couldn't even see our cars at all. It took us a minute to figure out why the bushes had appeared in the parking lot. Then we realized our cars were UNDER all that mess. Shannon's van, our car, then our friend's van, all under the tree. And the top of the tree scratched and dented another friend's car right next to us, so 4 cars in all.

As you can see, it was a big tree, and there was a lot of damage. But, cars can be fixed, their insurance is covering it, and in the end it'll be fine. We are just grateful that none of us were there, nobody got hurt, and that the tree didn't fall in the river and hurt people floating by. It really was a blessing for everyone around.

I Hope You Dance

Sydnee started dance in August. She has had a couple classes, and loves it! She was very excited to start dance class, and here she is holding her toe out for a pose!

She is taking a ballet/tap class at Becky's Academy of Dance and has Ms. Kathy as her teacher. Ms. Kathy is wonderful. Sydnee listens really well and Paige and I enjoy sneaking peaks at her through the window. It is so cute! These sweet little girls jumping and pointing toes, I just love it! And so does she.

School is in Session...

The first day of school was August 22nd. Both Shaye and Jaxson go to Griffin Elementary. Shaye is in 3rd grade and has Mrs. Lentz. Jaxson is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Heinold. Two weeks in, they both like their teachers and are enjoying their classes.

On the first day, there was excitement for everyone! We had a great summer, but it was time to get back to a normal routine and a little more quiet time around here. :) So after a good breakfast of pancakes and sausage, they got ready, and off we went to the bus stop.

Both kids had a great first day, and we are looking forward to a wonderful year!!

Off Shore in the Gulf

On August 15, Sam, his dad, and Jaxson went on the off shore fishing trip they had been planning. They went 15 miles off shore and fished around an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though they had to get up exceptionally early, Jaxson loved in every minute of it. Look at my little stud...

Every time Jaxson threw his pole in, he would hook something. He caught the most of anyone on the boat. He caught 10 king fish (which is the limit), a ling, and he even caught a hammer head shark on his second cast, which of course they threw back.

The Great Outdoors

After having so much fun in Washington, and doing so many activities, I was determined not to return to city life and spend our weekends shopping and eating! So the next weekend, we loaded up and went camping... in August.... in Texas... in a drought.

We went to Huntsville State Park. When I was growing up my family would camp here every Easter weekend with our ward. Crazy how you remember things as a kid! Let's just say the shelters were not quite "gigantic" and the swimming hole was not exactly "a huge lake."

Despite the heat, we did some fun things and tried to make the most of it.

We made foil dinners, which the kids loved. They filled their pouches with chicken, carrots, and potatoes and thought it was so cool to cook it all on the fire.

And of course there were smores. You can't go camping without them! Notice how filthy Sydnee is? Her and Paige were covered in dirt, every inch. That was the hardest part for me... the dirt that stuck to the sweat that you couldn't avoid.

So Sam says paddleboating as the only paddler is not as fun as it sounds. Best workout he'd had in months!

We rode bikes, built a fire, did a little fishing and slept on cots and bedrolls. All the must haves for a family campout! Even with the triple digit heat, the kids said "can we come back sometime" when it was time to go. So I count it as a success!

On the way home, we stopped to get a close up look at Sam Houston. This enormous statue was just up the road, and in all the times I've been past it, I have never stopped to see it. An added bonus to our outing!

It was a Great Vacation

We got back last week from a week long trip to Washington State for the Bleazard Family Reunion, that's my mom's side of the family. We go every 3 years, and its always a blast! We did so many things - rode 4 wheelers, went water skiing, went on a zipline over a canyon, rode down a homemade water slide off the edge of the canyon, sling shot watermelons, and caught up with all my cousins. I'm always sad when it's over. With all that fun, I have lots of pictures to sort through, hundreds of them. And a task that big always makes me procrastinate! So here are a few of the kids at the airport on our way. They were so excited to ride a plane and get to the farm. I will get the rest of the pictures up as soon as I can narrow down some favorites!

Poor Syd

A week or so ago we had a little scare with Sydnee. It lead to a trip to urgent care, to the ER, an appointment at her pediatrician, and two trips to the ENT. But let me start at the beginning...

On a Thursday morning the kids were upstairs playing and watching tv. Sydnee got on the tv stand and was blocking the show. Heaven forbid they can't see the tv, so Jaxson grabbed her and pulled her off the table (which of course she shouldn't have been on anyway!) She hit the ottoman when she fell, and was crying and very upset. I didn't think it could have been too bad since the ottoman is soft, and not a hard table or wall or anything.

After she calmed down, she took a nap. After her nap, I noticed her ear was real oozy and had blood coming from it. This alarmed me and I called a nurse. The office was closing, so she said we should go to urgent care. They were very concerned with blood from the ear. Sam took her to urgent, and once he started telling them she fell, they said they couldn't see her she should go to the ER. At this point I started being concerned. The fall couldn't have been that bad... is was a cushioned surface! But off to the ER they went.

Sydnee was a trooper waiting in the hospital and getting a CT scan. The scan showed no head trauma so they sent her home and said to watch her while she slept.

The next two days I watched her and checked her ear, and it continued to bleed and ooze. So I took her to her pediatrician. The pediatrician said it had nothing to do with the fall, it just ended up being a coincidence that it showed up on that day, and that she had a really bad swimmer's ear. Her ear was swollen so the doctor couldn't see it. She made us an emergency appointment with an ENT and the ENT cleaned it out, checked the infection, and gave us some medicine. So too many appointments, and too much money later, the ear drops cleared it up. All that work for peace of mind I suppose. And I guess I'm not surprised with all the swimming we've been doing!

Just some Fishin'

Sam, his dad, and Jaxson went fishing in some of the bays on the Gulf a couple weekends ago. They caught a lot of fish, most of them were not "keepers," but Jaxson loved it! They are looking forward to a deep sea fishing trip soon. They have had it scheduled a few times, but the weather has forced them to cancel. Jaxson goes on the countdown whenever they schedule one. "How many hours from right now?" he ask me for days!!