Look at this cutie pie

Visit from my Sister Sherri in November 2009

November 13th we went to Raleigh to pick up my sister Sherri from the airport. She came for the weekend and I was so happy to see her. I really look forward to her visits. We always have so much fun when she is here. It is like we have on Big FAMILY FUN NIGHT WEEKEND.

We got in late Friday evening, so we dropped Sherri and Lilly off at the hotel. Then everyone met at our house for one huge family breakfast. We had 10 or 12 people here and had to bring in an extra table and chairs. Jeremy and I cooked, while everyone socialized. However, Jeremy and I had our own fun cooking. I really like that guy. He cooked my favorite, biscuits and gravy. I love you Jeremy. Yum. I cooked grits, eggs, and pancakes. Then we ate.

Later that day, we met at Jaymi and Paul's house. Sherri cooked yummy mexican food. She had the help of Jaymi and Patti. Patti made an awesome guacamole dip. Loved it!! There was music, lots of conversation, games, and laughter. I love my family.

A Day at Greenfield Lake

Neal took us to Greenfield Lake one warm November afternoon. We brought the doggies along. Neal took the children on the paddle boat around the lake. I was too chicken to go. I enjoyed basking in the sun (with my sunscreen) and chatting with friends on the phone while Neal spent some Daddy time the our offspring. Have fun looking at the pics Trev the muscle man.

Family Home Evening-One night in October

I decided that the children and I would make a Noah's Ark and the animals one night for FHE. We made it out of construction paper. It was simple and fun and we used our imaginations. Take a look.

2009 Galloway/Kopecky Thanksgiving

This year was the best Thanksgiving I have had in a long time. It was really laid back. We spent the afternoon with Neal's Aunt Wanda, Uncle Gerald, Austin and their family. The children had a great time with all of the neighboring children. The food was delicious and I really enjoyed the company of the Leggett Family.
After we had all of the fun with the Leggetts, we went home to start our dinner with my family. We had my brother, Alex and his partner, Jeremy, and my Dad over for dinner. We didn't start cooking until late in the evening. Our day was so busy that I forgot to take pics. I am getting slack in that area. Please forgive me.

I have learned over the years of hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day dinners, that the later the dinner, the better for me and my family. I don't have to wake up early in the morning to start cooking the turkey and speaking of cooking the turkey, it is no longer my responsibility to cook!!! Woo Hoo!! We are now the proud owners of a turkey fryer. So Nealsie is in charge of that. I cook and bake the rest. And so by starting cooking later in the afternoon, we get to enjoy time together as a family. That is very important, especially on Christmas day. We love to wake up at the butt crack of dawn with the children and watch them open their gifts. Then we play with their toys and I don't have to worry about dinner until later on.



HAPPY THANKSGIVING. GOBBLE GOBBLE.

A tribute to my father Victor Daniel Kopecky

I am uploading some wonderful pics that my father took when he was in the navy. My dad was an aircraft mechanic, so he had the privilege of taking wonderful ariel photos of volcanoes (Mount Fuji) when he was stationed in Japan. He was also stationed on the U.S.S Coral Sea and he has many interesting stories to tell about his experiences on the aircraft carrier. I love to hear his wonderful stories. My dad may tell the stories over and over again but they never bore me.

Among with Japan (where he served during the Vietnam War), my dad was stationed in Keflavik, Iceland, and San Diego, California.

In California he met his first wife, they were married at 24 and moved to Iceland. Later, she became ill with lung cancer and requested to be close to her family, so my father moved to Wilmington, NC. Carleene died in 1976. My Dad retired from the Navy that year with over 20 years of service. My Dad met my mom through his real estate agent (now my Godmother) a year later. He wanted to sell his home at Wrightsville Beach but instead of taking the commission, my Godmother set him up on a blind date with my mom. They were married May 6, 1978. And the rest is history.

Also, there is a great pic of my Czech grandparents on their wedding day. Don't they look happy? LOL

And then there is a sweet pic of my mom with her sister and her mom.

There will be captions at the bottom of these pics. These truly are priceless pics to me and my family. I am so glad my dad took the time to share them with me. I hope you enjoy the true history of these pictures. So click on the highlighted link and check out all of the black and whites.

A video of Baby Lilly

I pulled this video out of the Galloway Family Vault. It is now yours FREE! Download this baby for years and years of digital enjoyment. I promise you, you will like it!!!!

Lilly's Baptism on 11/7/2009

Lilly's special day was on Saturday. We had our closest family and friends from church celebrate this special day with our Lilly. I just wanted to share some pictures with everyone. I wish I would have remembered to have a picture taken of her and I together but at least I got these special moments. (poor me) LOL.

Halloween 2009 & FFN Halloween Spook-a-Spectacular

This Halloween was a fun one. On 10/24 we had Family Fun Night. Halloween FFN's are always my favorite! We enjoy seeing our family every month. We are such a crazy bunch! We decorated the house for halloween like we do every year. My favorite was our Bat Cave, which was the foryer. This is the only pic that I have of it but in reality it was so much cooler than what you see in this pic.









On Halloween FFN Spook-a-Spectacular we had a costume contest, a costume walk off, doughnuts on a string eating contest and lots of spooky food, like cat litter pan cake, blood to drink, a spooky cookie cake, salsa and chips (as always) and queso. I think there were some other yummy things to eat but I can't remember right now.



On Halloween FFN our little family of 4 was The Adam's Family. Here are some more fun pictures.



On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with our good friends and neighbors The Reed's.




I hope everyone's halloween was as fun as ours!!!!

Trevor's Birthday

Trev's birthday fell on Saturday. We decided to spend the day with our little family. We took Trev out to lunch at Red Robin Burgers (YUM). That was his choice. Again, I tried to get him to choose Macaroni Grill but that wasn't happening. The staff sang happy birthday to the little man.

Then we took him to Toys R Us. That place is so much fun!!! He got a skateboard and Lilly decided to get one as well. They love their boards. I am glad they got them. We really enjoyed our special day with Trev and Lilly. Our sweet little family that we created. What a miracle! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

That entire day I thought about the day that Trevor Nolan Galloway made his appearance into the world. I would think, "Oh, at this time Lilly came to visit her new brother." And "This is the time that we went to have lunch in the cafeteria." Year after year, the birthdays of my children are exciting to me.

We decided to have Trev's party on Sunday! It was one of the best parties I have ever done. If I do say so myself (big head). We had close friends and family over. It was a chilly day so we decided to do hot dogs and smores in our fire pit in the backyard. Everyone loved it. We drank hot chocolate and snuggled in blankets. I am so happy that Trev has a birthday in cool weather. I made a partysaurus cake and he was pretty snazzy. Enjoy the pics and video.

Today is a special day

Today is the day that I went into labor with Trevor 4 years ago. It was a full moon!!! Oh yeah, thank you full moon. It is such a special day for me. 4 years ago when I went into labor it was the promise of a new born baby boy coming into our family. Childbirth is probably the most exciting thing that I have ever experienced!!! Getting pregnant is almost as exciting to me but to know that my child is ready to meet me and look into my eyes...let's just say it is powerful. And the work that it takes to bring a child into the world is very empowering. It really gives a woman a huge sense of confidence. If I can conquer child birth then I can do almost anything. This is why today is a special day just for me.

And a special thanks to Trevor for being very unique and giving me a unique birth experience. It has taken me 4 years to appreciate that unique birth experience, but I am finally there. And a very special thank you to my husband Neal for being such a great partner during labor and delivery. If it wasn't for Neal, I would have probably been too frightened to accomplish my goal of natural childbirth. And I have to mention my wonderful midwife. She made my birth experience a positive one. And last but not least, the biggest thank you to Heavenly Father, who has given me the opportunity to create life with my husband.

On August 26th Trevor learns to ride his bike

Trev and I went for a bike ride the morning of August 26th Grandma Rosie's birthday---Hey!). He had only 1 training wheel left on his bike, so he began to lean to the side. There will be no "leaning to the side bike riding" in my house!!! LOL (Let me give you the picture of what that quote means for all of you who have never heard of this or seen it. It is when a child becomes so dependent on that one training wheel, they begin to favor that side. Sot the child rides crooked.) So I took that training wheel off and away he went-in circles. Kind of like if you threw a quarter and it slowly came to a stop, round and round, until plop. After a few tries, Trevor was off riding down the street. Seriously, it only took 5 minutes for him to get it. I am a proud mom. Shouldn't this be in the Guinness Book Of World Records? I haven't met a child that could ride without training wheels before the age of 5 or 6. I am just amazed at this little guys awesome balance skills!! So check out this entertaining video! You will like it!!

Lilly's Birthday and Birthday Party 8/21 and 8/22 2009

We have had a busy month! And now for Lilly's birthday. Even more Exciting!!!! On Lilly's birthday we took her to the wig shop to get another wig. She had a great time with the gal's at Sheila's Wig Shop. Then we quick stopped at Pap's Manor, so he could see the birthday girl in all her glory. Then we took her to a restaraunt of her choice, Red Robin Burgers, of course! They sang happy birthday to Miss Priss and she sat and smiled at them as they sang. It was a sweet moment. After that we went home.

Now, the next day was the party. Let me tell you, I spent about 2 weeks preparing for this big event. I spent about a week making her cake! It was cute and the weeks worth or work was worth it. Lilly loved it. I think she said, "This is the best birthday ever!" And it was. It was awesome.

We invited about 50 people and 39 people came. It was a large crowd but everyone was spread out in the backyard and in the house, so it didn't seem crowded. We had hotdogs & hamburgers that Neal and Ed prepared & cooked. We also had a veggie tray and of course salsa and chips from San Felipe!!! Yum. My dad helped us by paying for half of the HUGE waterslide rental. Thanks Dad. Neal's parents came by early to help with preparations. They were such a big help and we enjoyed seeing them. The waterslide kept the children busy for the entire party. Then we sang Happy Birthday and brought out the cake. It started to thunder, so we took the large crowd inside, along with all of the chairs and towels. My house began to feel very small!!! Amber thought of a great idea. Let's have the children put their towels on the floor and eat their cake (she is a 3rd grade school teacher and I wasn't thinking straight-she was a huge help). After that, Lilly opened her presents. She got some really cute clothes, shoes, make-up, lotions, gift cards, and fashion designer paper dolls.

Later that night, we had a private party. We invited over Alex and Jeremy and we slid on the water slide until dark. It was so much fun!!!! You are going to enjoy the videos and pics.

We were worn SLAP out people. I laid around all day Sunday and even fell asleep a few times. Neal talked about being sore from all of the water slide fun. Poor guy. Fun comes with a price.

Enjoy the pics. And thank you to everyone who helped us get ready for the party and who helped clean up afterward.

(The highlighted links will take you to videos and pics on my flickr account...so get to clickin' people!!!)

Pullen Park and Hair Club Visit August 13th 2009

Lilly had a hair club appointment on August 13th, so I decided to make it a fun trip up to Raleigh for me and the children. We kicked off our day at Pullen Park. We went in the old train car and took some pics. But then we had to take a potty break because we had been in the car for 2 hours. After the potty break, it was time for lunch and quick it on up to the hair club. I was lucky lady, Pullen Park, hair club and subway were all minutes from each other!!! This hair club visit was short and sweet. Then we headed back to the park. We went on an adventure. We took a ride on the train (click on the link to see the video of us). Then we took a walk through the park. This park has a lot of history and it was fun to imagine the people who strolled through the park from 1888-present time!!! It was North Carolina's FIRST public park! This was absolutely intriguing for me. And we didn't get to see the park in its entirety, 72 acres is alot of ground to cover!

So take a look at some of the pics and if you ever visit Raleigh, you have to visit Pullen park.

Visit To Charlotte to See the O'Briens and the Galloway's

On August 2nd we went to see Neal's family. We were especially excited to see Kylie!!! She is our niece and Lillly & Trev's cousin. We were happy to spend a little time with the fam. We went to dinner at a pizza place and then listened to music on the lawn of the shopping center. It was very nice. The children enjoyed it and we always enjoy dancing with them and playing with them.

Since our visit was so short, there's not much more to say. So here are some pics of the happy event.

My Tribute to Gordon B. Hinkley

I was sitting here with my daughter thinking about strong, powerful, and amazing people. One man came to mind-Gordon B. Hinkley. I truly think he was a very special man. A very nice man. A very caring man. A man who not only dedicated so much of himself to the people in the church he presided over but to the people all over the world.
When I looked at Gordon B. Hinkley, I got a feeling a comfort and I had a great amount of respect for him.
Neal and I had the greatest privilege of seeing President Hinkley when we visited SC (I think it was Greenville, not sure). I went because I new it was going to be a once in a life time chance to see him. And I loved him so much, I just had to go. I remember seeing him and his wife and they just looked so sweet and kind. Gordon B. Hinkley was a true to character individual. What he said, he lived by. He was not a judgemental man. I can't imagine one ugly, mean, or hurtful word ever coming out of his mouth. He truly lived, as best as he could, humble in the image of Christ. What a wonderful man and example he was and still is to me. There will always be one special place saved in my heart just for him.