Top 5 Pictures- Talia

 I have the cutest little cousin, Talia who is full of energy and it has been so much fun watching her grow up!  She is very close in age to my other cousin that I posted about, Keyon, and I decided to use her as the Top 5 Pictures of the day.

 This is from the annual beach trip in June of 2007

 

Making goofy faces at Grandma's house in the summer of 2007 

 Christmas 2008

 

Christmas 2008

 

At the cabin for the Fourth of July, 2010

 

Now she's grown up so much!!  I can't wait to watch her grow up even more and watch her play ice hockey since she can hold her own when playing!!  Love you Talia Ruth!!

 

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!!

 



Top 5 Pictures- Grandparents

We have been blessed by some awesome grandparents, so I thought I would post about them tonight.  We are lucky that many of our grandparents are still with us, and we get to spend time with them pretty regularly.  We definitely miss our far away grandparents, but have an awesome time when we are together with them. 

 

On my Dad's side, my Gram has supported us through many sporting events and occasions. 

 Here she is with my at my college graduation from Shippensburg in 2010

 

Here we are at our wedding in June of 2011

 

 This is her husband, my Grandpa Barton, who unfortunately passed away when I was little

 

On my Mom's side, we have my Gammy and Pappy.  Pappy also unfortunately passed away last year, but we got to spend lots of awesome memories together.

This was my college graduation party in 2010

 

Here we are at our wedding in June of 2011

 

This is my Mom's Dad, my Grampa, who is also known as The Italian Stallion

 Here The Italian Stallion is during a beach trip with his Stallionettes

 

 Here is a picture from our wedding in 2011

 

 Dancing with Grampa

 

When I married into the Kelly family, I also got to spend time with two great women.  My Father-in-law's mother, Nanny, who unfortunately passed away shortly into our relationship, and my Mother-in-law's mother, Nana.  Nana lives in New York and although we don't get to see her as much as we'd like, we love spending time with her when we are able to!

 Here is Nana with us at our wedding in June 2011

 

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!

Top 5 Pictures- Alivia

I thought I would pick my second cousin Alivia for my Top 5 pictures post.  It's been entirely too long since I've done one of these, and it seems fitting since she's now a big-bad tenth grader!!

 

 Absolutely love these pictures from the beach in June of 2007.  Here we are with Brie and Talia too!

 

 This was at a get together at Gram's old house in the Summer of 2007

 

 This picture was from July 2012 when Kadence first got sick and Alivia organized a Kills for Kadence volleyball tournament

 

 So proud of her and all she put together!!

 

This is from our annual beach trip this year, 2013.  We had a blast!!'

 

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!!

Top 5 Pictures- Gary and Sue

I've always heard horror stories about getting married and then not getting along with your in-laws, but that couldn't be more far from the truth in my life.  Not only have I been blessed by wonderful, supportive parents, I married into a family with another set of wonderful, supportive parents.  From going to baseball games together, to sitting on the back porch in Harrisburg for dinner (and running from bees) to playing horseshoes in the backyard, to relaxing on the beach, to seeing the amazing mountains of California, we've done many things together.

 

Way back in the day watching..... you guessed it, a baseball game!

 

Visiting St. Louis, Missouri for the College Baseball World Series!  An experience I'll never forget!  Here they are with the St. Louis Arch.  We even went the whole way to the top of it!

 

The first vacation I took with the Kelly's- to the Outer Banks in North Carolina

 

Right after we got engaged, we spent a long weekend together down in Virginia Beach

 

Visiting the old ships in Virginia Beach

 

 Our first whole family trip to California in July 2010.  This is after dinner at the Hogs Breath Inn- the restaurant that Clint Eastwood owns 

 

 Our Wedding- June 25, 2011

 

 How great do they look?!

 

Thanksgiving 2011

 

I wasn't able to narrow it down to only the top 5 pictures (what's new) so sorry about that!

 

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!

Top 5 Pictures- Trista

I have a few cousins who I do not get to see nearly enough.  Trista is one of them.  She is two cousins older than me, but we have always had a great time together.  She always tells the story of spending the day at my house and taking a "nap" in my parents room, where she was really playing with my Mom's makeup and made a huge mess.  She says my Mom yelled at her, but Mom swears she never did.

This picture is from Christmas of 2006 with Trista's sister Jenna too

 

One specific moment that I think of immediately is our drive with a few of our other cousins to Tennessee in the summer of 2007.

Here is one of the many pictures we took together in the car on that trip.

I love this picture.  We all come from the same family, but look so different!  I have such gorgeous cousins!!!

 

This one is from Christmas in 2007

Here is the annual Christmas picture with Karli included this time from 2008

This picture is from decorating gingerbread houses in November 2011.  Trista and I had missed decorating gingerbread houses with the family, so we got our own private decorating session!

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!

Top 5 Pictures- Drew

I have been lucky in life to grow up with an "older brother" since my Mom and my Aunt Lee Lee spent so much time together growing up.  We went from sharing bagels (okay, he stole mine from what I have seen in quite a few home videos) and singing along to Beatles songs to wearing matching ankle bracelets during our whole childhood.  Drew got married this past October and he and his wife Melissa are expecting their first child, so I thought it was perfect to write about Drew tonight!

 This is a picture from the hospital from what I believe was when my brother was born in April, 1989.  That necklace was, hands down, my favorite necklace ever!!

 This picture is time stamped, luckily!  It is from Christmas 2001 when I was in 8th grade at West York and Drew was in 9th grade at Red Lion.

 Here we are in front of Gammy's Christmas tree a few years later at Christmas.  The blonde hair is now gone (thankfully) and we had many takes before we got a non-laughing picture together.

I must love you Drew, if I am putting this one on here.  This was the morning of my wedding when I was getting my hair done, obviously.  Drew went shopping the day of (nothing like procrastinating, haha) for his wedding attire and came back while we were in the process of getting ready.

I was extremely lucky that Drew flew home to PA for my wedding so that he could sing in it, as promised.  Someday I'll figure out how to separate him singing in our wedding video so I can share it with everyone, but let me just tell you, it was AMAZING!!!  Drew always promised he would sing in my wedding, and he made good on that promise in June of 2011.

Drew moved away for college and never returned to live in PA because he found jobs elsewhere, but we miss him tremendously.  We love his new wife Melissa, and can't wait to meet their new bundle of job in a few months!!  I love you Drew Drew, and I can't wait to see you!!!

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!

Top 5 Pictures- Brie

Just about every summer (minus the one that we got married) my Dad's side of the family and my family go to the beach for a week.  I don't have as many cousins close to my age on Dad's side as I do Mom's, but even though there are more age gaps, we still seem to get along great!  For many of the years, my roommate at the beach was my cousin Brie.  We have been roomies from the time we were in middle school and high school up until college, and we have had many great nights walking the boardwalk together as well.  

This picture isn't from the beach, but it is from Disney World from when I was in high school.  Like I mentioned before, we alternated sides of the family who went with us on the Disney trips, so this was a trip that we spent together.  This specific picture is from the 50's Prime Time Cafe, which is one of our favorite restaurants there where they treat you like you are their child and make you eat everything off your plate and keep your elbows off of the table.

This picture is from when we took our cousin Talia on the boardwalk for the night.  We rode some rides and did sand art, which looking back, we should do again this year!

This picture is from a night on the beach from a ladder golf tournament.  Talia is so stinkin cute and I am not even going to mention the cell phone holster that is attached to my skirt (nice one...)

Each trip to the beach, Gram takes us out to dinner as a big family which is a lot of fun!  This picture is from one of those dinners.  We always seem to pick out interesting dinners, and mine usually consist of chicken fingers, if possible... yes, I'm THAT girl.

This picture is from the beach as well.  We always get dressed up for those dinners that Gram takes us to, so here is everyone all fancy!

As you can see, the beach pictures are the majority of the pictures from Dad's side of the family, and we have such a great time!  I wouldn't miss that for the world, and I know Brie will not be able to attend this summer since she is in grad school, so we will definitely miss her!!!

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!

Top 5 Pictures- Keyon

On my Dad's side of the family, we are much more spread out in age, but there is one little man who has stolen my heart from day one.  My cousin Kate and Edwin have the MOST adorable little guy, Keyon who has amazed me over and over with how much he has learned and grown in his short life so far!

Look at this little dude when we took him to Chuck E Cheese in July of 2005.  Is he not the cutest??

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of the two of us.  He was sitting on my lap and literally fell asleep like that, toy in the hand and all.  This one is from November of 2008

This is a tickling war in action.  We were getting our picture together during Christmas of 2007 and we were caught mid-picture

This picture is from January of 2010, and we are snuggling as always, he is SUCH a loverboy!!

Here we are dancing at our wedding in June of 2011, and I'm sure he was telling me a very important story!!  He is hands-down the best information giver, whether it is about the weather report, or how he is feeling, he's one of my favorite people to listen to!!

Keyon has proven the impossible and he has become incredibly smart and an amazing little man!  I look forward to seeing him grow up even more, but of course not too fast!!!

Friends may come and go, but family is forever!!