We'll miss you Papaw!

I found out today that my Papaw, (my Dad's dad) passed away. My mom's dad passed away when she was 7 so I never knew him. He just turned 85 years old and was a real character. We lived far away from he and Grandma Mayhle when I was growing up so I only got to see them about once a year. He lived a long life though, a lot longer than he should have! He survived fighting in WWII as a paratrooper and received a purple heart (I recently found out it was from eating poisonous berries and suffering stomach problems,ha!) He was a coal miner in Pennsylvannia and while many of his peers suffered an early death from "black lung" he never had a trace of it. Also, in 2003, we were told he only had about 6 months to live so he sure proved them wrong! He was a fiesty devil and wasn't afraid to tell you what he thought. Some of my favorite memories of Papaw are of having a blast at my grandparents' house in the Pennsylvannia mountains. He always tried to bite my ears off and I liked peeling skin off his sunburned bald head (gross I know!). My last conversation with him was a few weeks ago when I saw a documentary on coal mining and called him to ask some questions. He and my Grandma have been married 61 years, have 6 children, 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. I'm glad he's not suffering anymore but its hard to believe he's really gone. I wish Jensen could have know him better.

Here are some picture we took last summer at our family reunion

Ira Finley Mayhle

My dad, his wife Sharon, my sister Carrie and us

Great Grandpa with Jensen

Me and Papaw hamin it up

Jensen's pics with the girls

Kristi, Jamie and the kids


Jensen Drew
Jillian Nicole
Jenna Marie

Jensen had professional portaits taken since he's 2 1/2 and we thought it would be fun to get some shots of him with his cousins Jenna and Jillian who are 3 1/2. They turned out pretty cute but it was a bit like herding cats trying to get all of them smiling and looking at the camera at once! We didn't get as many shots of Jensen by himself either because while we were outside he was wandering off to explore. Its so fun seeing them grow up together and they have lots of fun playing.

Happy Birthday America!!

We were excited to enjoy Independence Day this year with our little guy Jensen since he is older now and can enjoy it. We went to a parade at 9am and managed to find, I believe, the last little spot in the shade. Jensen really liked it but we started baking toward the end and headed home. Later, we went to dinner then back to the house to do some little firecrackers of our own (ssshh don't tell the police!). They were too loud for Jensen though and we had to stop, poor guy. After it started getting dark, we went to UCO to watch the fireworks show there. We parked Jeff's truck and made a cozy little spot in the bed with pillows, blankets and snacks. Jensen started talking to a lady next to us and told her "daddy has worms!" We were dying laughing and were barely able to tell her that we had been eating Gummy Worms. I'm still cracking up! Once the show started it was really loud and even though he had headphones on, Jensen didn't care for it. He warmed up some after a while but wasn't too impressed. Oh well, maybe next year. Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday!

Home Improvement Hell

As I have mentioned to everyone, we are in home improvement hell right now trying to get our house on the market. The goal is to update it enough to get more money out of it to put down on our next house. We'd like to move closer to our parents who live 30mins. away because driving back and forth has been a pain. I have mixed feeling though about moving south because I love our community and the friends I've made here. The process of updating the house is VERY slow because we are doing it all ourselves and daily life (and a curious 2yr old) get in the way. So if you ask me if the house is on the market or how its going and I snarl at you, I promise I'm mad at the situation not you. I keep telling Jeff the same thing...."I'm mad at the house honey, not you" (sometimes I am really mad at him though, hehe). We have learned an important lesson and that is that we are NOT home improvement people and do not enjoy having a fixer upper. We are making SLOW progress though so maybe by 2020 we will be done.

Lets Get It Started in Here!

I was a little reluctant to start a blog since I feel like I already share just about everything about us whenever I can get someone to listen. I wondered if anyone would want to read it but I have really enjoyed "stalking" my friends who have moved away so I thought, what the heck. So here goes. By the way for those in my family who recieved the 100 page update on us at Christmas last year....good news maybe this will help you avoid having to go through that trauma this year. :)