I just wanted to quickly share some photos of my family to introduce you to some of them.
This is my dad's dad. I never got to meet him-he passed away shortly after I was born. I took my first plane ride ever to attend his funeral (my dad had driven down to IA, so mom and I flew down there). I hear he was ornery and stubborn. Evangeline gets that from him. :-)
Oddly enough, I don't have a picture of my dad's mom on the computer. I know I have some because a) I have all of my parents' pictures and b) I took quite a few of her before she died.
My mom's parents (and all but one sibling). I assume she is the one taking the picture. They look so happy, huh? :-)
This is how I remember them. My grandma was so happy when her hair turned white because she had bright red hair and loved the color pink. So when her hair turned white, she bought all sorts of pink to wear. Doesn't my mom look like my grandma? I have a feeling I'm going to look a bit like them as I age as well, sometimes I glimpse my mom in the mirror (but I don't mind at all). My grandma died of cancer in 1998 and my grandpa died a few years ago.
This is my grandma (before her hair was white) and my mom. I love this photo because it's one of the few where she's wearing her leg braces.
My grandma and my mom. I think you can really see the similarity between them here.
One more of them. My mom's in the front and you can see my grandma and my great-grandma. My mom laughs at this picture because "he kept saying 'turn around' and so I did" but it was backward to everyone else. You can see all of that in her face. :-)
This is my mom's family-her siblings, their spouses and some of their children and my grandpa on the right. That's me holding baby Emily (my cousin). Yes, I am a baby hogger. I always have been. I told you that my one desire in life was to be a mother. :-)
These are my parents. I took this a couple of years ago.
This is my oldest brother, Scott and his gorgeous wife Lisa. I am very close with him despite a 15-almost-16 year age difference. I love this shot taken at Brian and Evangeline's wedding. It cracks me up.
And another one that I love.

This is my other older brother, David and his wife Susan. They got married this past June, and both are overseas. He's in Afghanistan in the Army and she's in Baghdad, Iraq with the State Department. I miss him so very much, and I can't wait to get to know her a little better.
This is my younger sister and very best friend in the whole world, Robbie (and her boyfriend Brady). She is so full of personality and I love her so very much. (Isn't her nosering awesome?)
This is my youngest sister, Evangeline and her husband, Brian. She is stubborn, but so very giving. She would do anything for anyone to help them out if they needed it.
This is one of my older sisters. I have three, but only a picture of Jolene. She is a tomboy and tough and if anyone messed with me too badly she would come and kick their butts in a second. I'm not even kidding. We always stay with her and her husband, Joel (a very, very amazing wonderful man that I'm so proud is my brother-in-law) if we go to Iowa. This is their only daughter, Sharla on her high school graduation (yup I have nieces and nephews that are only a few years younger than me).
This is Sharla again with Jolene's youngest (she has three-Sharla is in the middle), Aaron. I remember vividly when he was a little baby. He has grown up so much. He's a little more shy than he used to be, but I still think that little ham is in there.
And I had to include this one. Look at my dad's proud smile! She was salutatorian of her class.
This is Jolene's oldest, Nick and his wife Katie. He's a sailor in the Navy and they live in California right now.
My oldest sister is Crystal and this is her oldest, Jessica. She's so beautiful and smart and talented. She's currently in college and loves softball. I don't have any pictures of the rest of her family, but if you picture her older you have my sister. Seriously, Jessie is the spitting image of Chris. Crystal is married to Craig and they have five kids all together. Jessica, Clayton, Matthew, George (who are ten months apart-yup), and Megan.
My other sister is Candis (we call her Candy), and she lives with her boyfriend of many, many years Roger and they have a son Tony who is either in high school or almost in high school.
And that's my family. :-)