HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Here is your official 2009 Naked Turkey picture from Portland, Oregon! Thank goodness the other turkey's dressed! Ha ha ha!!

Pregnant Sisters-in-law!

Playing with Aunt Terri - while Kyle "rolls" Trevor's dry paint roller across Z's head.

Aunt Kyle came to visit!

Ears Pierced

Well, unfoturnately I don't have a picture of this other than on my phone, but I got Jazzy's ears pierced yesterday. It was easy and simple.... minus the nervous, gone pale white, nauseous, grandmother trying to convince me to not do it! She was a nightmare, but once it was done she settled down again.
We were able to have both ears done at the same time to save on putting her through pain twice. MUCH easier and HIGHLY recommended to Trevor (if they decide to do it)!!
She screamed for 2 seconds and then took her bottle and that was it.... no problems! She has little gold balls in her ears and will add a picture to this later when I take some.

Rain

So it actually rained last night. I know, I didn't think that it rained in the dessert either. Much to my surprise, while I was getting ready for the gym this morning at 5, it rained again. I guess all of my requests and prayers have been answered. I may not have to water this week.

Daily Puppy

Mookie felt there was really nothing to bring him to this blog, so he asked me to add the Daily Puppy! Enjoy! (That is IF you ever look at this page!)

Spring has sprung!

We planted tomatoes and strawberries earlier this spring and we are starting to see results!! Who knew a bunch of city slickers like us had green thumbs!!

First harvest! Yep only three, but the sweetest strawberries ever.


Don't they look yummy?? Went out to pick the next batch that I had seen ripening, but by they time I got there someone, or something had beat me to it!! So we had to put up some "protection". Since Kevin and I couldn't figure a schedule for sitting on the roof with a bb gun we had to improvise....

Nope! That's not the protection. Think of it as a commercial break. Just the lillies in our front yard! Pretty!! And there's a ton of them!

Can't really see it that well in this picture of Kevin musing over all the things he's going to put tomatoes in, but we put up a "cage" of bird netting around our garden. As well as the tomatotes and strawberries, I planted some basil, cilantro and oregano!! If only I knew what to do with it!!

The fruits of Kevin's labors!!

I've gone all newfangled and I'm using the Topsy-Turvy!! AS SEEN ON TV!! But purchased at Fred Meyer at a fraction of the cost! So far, so good! Got a bunch of Juliet tomatoes growing at the moment. Also put a plant for Big Boys, but I dropped the whole thing while I was putting soil in it, so I thing Big Boy was really a wuss, 'cause it's not doing as well.

3 years

Hard to believe that it has been three years since my Mom passed away. I still miss her so much. I had a few cries today and posted a bunch of pictures of her on Facebook. I wish I was close enough to put flowers on her grave. We are planning a trip down to CA in August, so I will deliver some then.

It's A Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Natalie and I found out recently that our baby will be a girl. Not sure how much of a girl it will be, but it will certainly be female. I'm very very excited to know this news. As soon as we found out we hit the Lowe's and bought the paint for her room. The strangest thing is that a few days before finding out we finally decided what we would name a girl. We shall call her Kara Diane Hopkins. Kara is a bit of a tribute to how Natalie and I met, Kara Goucher being one of our favorite runners. Diane is a tribute to mom. Not sure if mom liked the name Diane or not, but we're using it.

The Reece Family Visits Texas!

Watch out Rich, our soon-to-be reality could be yours one day, too! Here are Brooke, Jazzy, and Z traipsing across the fields at Rice.

A "Forrest Gump" moment at Rice University.

Kissing cousins! Zachary giving Jazzy one of his trademark open mouth kisses!

Brooke, Zachary, Brandon, and Jasmine on May 30, 2009 in Houston. Zachary decided he wanted the camera.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is a special day; it's Mom's 57th birthday!

Here is a excerpt of some conversation between the kiddos earlier today.
Trevor: "Happy Birthday to mom. She would be 57 today."
Kyle: "I was just about to send that same email out!
It’s crazy because I was thinking about it on the race in Corpus…how much of a “soccer mom” that she was…somehow I know that she would have found a way to be at every segment of the race course so that she could cheer everyone on…probably with the cooler of cold towels at the end no less! Haha. It was a good thought to have in my head while running at least."
Brandon: "I wish that was in my head. That would have made the run less hot."
Brooke: "Kyle, I cannot tell you how much it means to me that I have this ring on my finger. I look at it every day and it has allowed me to remember a few things about her every now and then that are brought back at times I have needed them most."
One memory is when she was working out so much with Keith and she weighed herself and lost 5 pounds and she couldn't believe it so to celebrate, we ate milk shakes and popcorn for dinner!!"
Kyle: "I also still love pancakes for dinner…mom had a knack for really weird dinners."

Popcorn, milkshakes, and movies; now those were good times. No matter what we were doing, she was always available to keep us going or lift us up when we fell down.

Baby Number 2

Well, it's official. We are having a boy!



We are of course very excited. Everything is checking out just fine, momma and baby are progressing as expected. Zachary still does not realize what is going to rock his world come late October, but we're working on that.

Beach to Bay

All the boys are heading to the coast with their families to run in the Beach to Bay team marathon this weekend. Six legs, each about 4.5 miles. Should be fun if we can actually make it to our starting points. I'll provide an update later this weekend.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Just wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and soon-to-be Moms!! I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for all your hard work! Better you than me! Ha ha! Love ya'll!

At The Zoo

We had a great time in the rare Seattle sun and a zoo that had hardly any people. This one is of Jazzy posing on the fence with her daddy.... she just sat like that and it was too funny!!


This is a photo of Jazzy sitting on George the Giraffe that I bought at the mall and she LOVES it!!

Below are some pictures of Hippos just for Martha!!!

I hope you enjoyed! Hopefully we'll see everyone really soon!!

7 mile Bridge run

Well, I had a ball running in the Seven Mile Bridge Run. It's actually 6.8 miles, but who's counting? I was not able to beat my Brother-in-Law, Michael. But I am very proud of my accomplishment and my time (56.04). I'm looking forward to running in the Rock-n-Roll half marathon this November in San Antonio. Ya'll are welcome to come and cheer me on, and of course see the new little one.

So I picked up a new vehicle. Well actually it's just new to me but that is perfect!! It's an 06 BMW X5. I'm very happy with it, next up a house?? Well I gotta find out where I'm living next first...haha

Hope everyone is doing well, I'm excited about seeing Brandon and Samantha and Z here in a couple of weeks. Then shortly there after seeing the Tx clan for the Beach to Bay marathon. Then get to see Brooke at the end of May before I head out to Germany for 12 days!!!!! Needless to say May seems like it's shaping up quite nicely!

Kevin and Martha, hopefully i can make my way up to your neck of the woods soon. I was hoping we would get out there in February, but we'll have to plan a different trip.

Brothers / Sister / Babies / Cousins!

Brooke, Jasmine, Kyle, Brandon, and Zachary together in Seattle on Feb. 7, 2009.

Sweet, sweet Jazzy

As mentioned in the post by Brooke, Jazzy made a visit to the Portland area. I guess this was her first big trip and we were glad to have her!!! Kevin was even excited!! Here she is on her first visit to Aunt Martha and Uncle Kevin's house. Very thrilled by it as you can see.

We went back to Mom's hotel and visited in the lobby before going out to dinner. This was also very exciting for her.

She got a new outfit from her Aunt Martha she can't wait show off! (Zachary, I think that she is hoping you don't end up with something like this! Beware when you come to visit!)

But really this is why she loves her Auntie! What a great sedative she is. You can tell because Jazzy is sleeping in all the pictures!!! Honestly, she was awake for part of the trip!!!

But this is the reason that Jazzy was able to sleep so well. She knew her cousin Mookie was on the job. Making sure that is was safe for her to sleep.

Can't wait to see Jazzy again when Kevin and I go up to Seattle for his company Super Bowl party. Maybe I will get some pictures of Jazzy with her eyes open?!?

Jazzy meets Martha/Kevin

I was in Portland for a showcase college tournament and had the priviledge of being with Martha & Kevin for Sat. and Sun. They did a big favor of watching Jazzy while I was coaching and we had a great time getting together for lunches and dinners. I only have one photo, so Martha will have to upload hers that she took.

Thanks for watching her and it was great to see you guys!!

A special visitor

Zachary had a special visitor today.


Uncle Kyle and Auntie Teri came to watch Z at his gym class. We all had fun jumping around on the play mats. Then we went to dinner at Taco Cabana. We were even able to take a group picture.

It's Swim Time!

Zachary started his swim lessons again today. He was a bit hesitant at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea. It wasn't hard to warm up since the water was a steamy 90 degrees. Mommy took pictures because she had another fertility surgery. We are having so much fun with Z, we decided that he needs sibling.


Here is a video as well. Samantha was sitting outside the pool area, so the conversations you are hearing are from the other observers.

So needless to say we have been a little bit behind on posting to nakedturkey. We didn't technically get any pics of the "turkeys" that we had during thanksgiving. And yes we had turkeys, multiple turkeys thanks to the kind people at Kroger that give free turkeys to everybody that is a card member. We ended up eating two of them then and another two at Christmas. Terri and I also had to work non-stop throughout the holidays, this is of course one of the wonderful bonuses with working in retail.

Now that the holidays have passed I get to have multiple vacations over the course of the next month or so. I will be heading out to NC next Friday, and may be taking a trip down to San Antonio before I leave for NC. I hope that everybody had a fantastic time during their holidays, and I'm anticipating seeing everyone early on in the new year. Terri and I will also be heading out to Seattle for our visit of Brooke, Rich, and Jazzy in February. We are also looking to do a little snowboarding and use some of the 6 weeks of paid time off that I have accrued. Miss all of you and love you lots...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here's to a Happy New Year to all!! With much prosperity, health and love!
Ours started out the same ole way. Kevin snoring the New Year away.

For Martha though, the day ended right...

the bottom of the champagne bottle is clearly in sight!!