Father's Day Daughters

 

 

These are my daughters; the reason I am a Dad.  I loved my Father's Day with them, just like I love every day that they come over.

 

Angela (top photo) is the one with black hair, and most closely resembles the Fournier side of the family with appearance; though definitely has more of the Hajducek personality.

 

Jacqueline (lower photo) is the one that bears no resemblance to me, but is a mini-me clone of her Mom from 20 years ago. 

 

A spooky sense of Deja vu when Mom and daughter are together.  Jackie thus definitely resembles the Hajducek side, but has the Fournier personality.

 

They are 180 degrees opposite with personality and appearance.  Always have been, always will be.

 

They share a love for God, country, husbands, children, parents, family, and Jesus as their Lord and Savior; but that is about the only things that they have in common.

 

Not to sound cliché, but I love them more than life itself.  I am so proud of my daughters.

 

Thank you for making my Father's Day such a special day.  I love you!

 

I am a blessed man.

 

Baseball with Boogie's Boys

Last week, I was able to steal away one evening and take WP and oMike to a Drillers ball game. We had great seats, 7 rows back on the 1st base side, and with no one on either side of us, it made for a perfect 4 innings of baseball not being routinely interrupted by someone walking in front of you.

I say 4 innings, because that was 4 innings past oMike's limit.  He began asking me before we made it to our seats to go to the splash pad, and I knew that if I did, that WP and myself would not see one out of the game.  And, I was correct.

WP was consumed by the game, just like I am.  He looks for the batting averages, for the position, for the pitch count, for the score, the inning, all of the 'numbers' thing that makes baseball so great.  He asked me 100+ questions about the game, though it was probably more.  He loved it, and I did too.

oMike; not so much.  He could have cared less.  It was torture for him to last 4 innings, but being the great boy that he is, he agreed to be on his best behavior for those 4 innings, as I told him that he could play in the splash pad for 4 innings after WP and I watched 4 innings of the game.

Upon venturing into the land of water (curiously blocked off so that adults can not watch the game), the boys loved that aspect of the night all over again.  WP's girlfriend was there too.  Gorgeous little girl; and WP was clueless that this little girl liked him, but he did know the girl from church, and school, so they talked a little. 

I was on the lookout for Casanova to appear at any sec and steal this one away from WP too since he was not giving her a lick of attention; and that is all that this little girl wanted.  She wanted WP to notice her, to compliment her, to play with her.  Poor boy; he's going to be a super slow one in the girls department ~ just like his Pappy was...

Such great memories.  I love my boys.

I am a blessed man.

Jack Arthur

NOTE TO READER: You know how Saturday Night Live is prone to exaggeration?  Well, I might have taken a wee bit of SNL persuasion in that department when describing Jack for this blog, but not much; I promise, not much.

~

This is Jack Arthur.  Mr. everything, Mr. all around, Mr. top jock.  This child is amazing, and he is only 6!

You know those incredibly great Dos Equis beer commercials on TV right now?  I love them; so original.  Here is this Mr. Everything in the commercial (about age 60), in one scene he is wrestling a great white shark, the next scene he is standing bare chested on top of Mt. Everest, the next scene he is walking on the moon, and the final scene has him with a dozen Barbie's and a dozen Bambie's wrapped around his arms heading to the academy awards to pick up his Oscar.  That is Jack.  No kidding, that is going to be Jack.  This child is an animal.  A beast.  A force to be reckoned with!

Jack Arthur is the winner of the 2nd annual Pappy Awards for "Most Competitive" grandchild.  Matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and award him the trophy for the next 100 years, as there is no one that will every top Jack's competitiveness.  Never.  Ever. 

This boy is a machine.  Jack might lose a game now and then, but in his mind, he is still the best.  And he really is the best.  He is a natural athlete.  A natural talent.  He is good at every sport he plays.  He loves sports.  When I see him, his first comment is usually something about a game he just came from, and his greeting goes like this: "Hi Pappy, we won, but the left fielder is no good, and I caught all the balls, and hit 10 home runs." 

As of today, this is his weekly schedule that his Mom has him enrolled in:

Monday: Indoor lacrosse, outdoor water polo, shot put, ballet (you ought to see him nail the Pirouette!) and cross country skiing.

Tuesday: Football, baseball, Foosball, volleyball, and competitive kite flying.  I had no idea that kite flying could be so competitive until I went to his first 'game', and saw the way he was taking out all the near by kites with moves of stealth!

Wednesday: Basketball, competitive checkers, Nerf darts, and disc golf.

Thursday: Boys high school triathlon, girls softball, girls hockey, and speed skating.

Friday: He starts his day by seeing a shrink over playing with girls, as he gets so frustrated that the girls on his softball team don't know how to run to first base, nor why the girls on his hockey team always miss the goal.  But, from there, he moves straight to high diving, low diving, weight lifting for youngsters, and finishes the day with his weekly 13.1 half-marathon run.  His time is down to below 4 hours for the 13.1!

Saturday: Boys soccer, bare back bronco riding, goat roping, and gymnastics (specializing in the pommel horse and rings).

Sunday: Competitive charcoal championships (he grills up a wicked Brat!), turkey shoot, skeet shoot, mud wresting with hogs, and competitive ax grinding.

I'm pretty sure I have left off a few things.  I can't remember them all.

When Jack goes pro, I want to be his Agent.  This little boy is going places.  Write it down, write it down now; this little boy is going to be playing pro something, someday.  Guaranteed.  You can't have his winning attitude, his winning personality, his killer smile, and his gorgeous looks without being a pro something.

He's got the goods! 

Go get 'em Jack Arthur ~ go get 'em!  I love you!

My Gang

 

Owen Michael (oMike, age 5).  He loves the outdoors, camping, fishing, and animals; especially dogs (e-gads!, he got that part of his DNA from someone other than me, as I do not like any of that).  He is loud, brash, funny, super smart, kind, tenderhearted, and with self-confidence off the charts (a few things that my 25% of the DNA strand did contribute to). :-)

 

Ava Corinne (Monster, age 8).  A mini-me knockout with her Mom's great looks, this full blooded Italian loves to cook, loves to watch Giadi, Bobby, Guy, and Rachel.  She is an exceptionally great girl (1st born, so that has a lot to do with it), kind, tender, loving, and obedient.  She loves to show off her style with colors, hair, and accessories.  Totally and completely a girl.  A great girl.

 

Emma Jo (Spaz, age 6).  She continues to be the best hugger and kisser of the lot, so genuine, so pure, so loyal.  She just this past year started to come out of her shell and talk, but she still only gets in 1 word per 1,000 to her older sister Ava.  Emma Jo is best friends with Owen, the two are inseparable, and are forging a life-long friendship.  Emma loves to 'rest'.  A lot.  She also loves to eat.  A lot.

 

This is the gang in one of our oversized chairs.  We have taken this picture now for 4 years in a row, with the kids all in the same location.  We have outgrown the chair.  Next year we will move to the sofa.  This is the only picture of Will Parker (WP, age 7).  The solo picture of me and WP was not blog worthy, but this one is.

 

WP is Mr. Mercy. He consumes sports like Ava consumes chocolate cake.  WP is soft spoken, gorgeous, and incredibly obedient (the other 1st born).  He loves to do just about anything with me, from checking on job sites, to bowling, to Bass Pro; he is so easy to please.  And man oh man does he ever love baseball and OU football, a great pair if I do say so myself.

 

My gang.

 

I am a blessed man.

 

Happy Father's Day to me!

My Girls / Our Heritage

There are not a lot of old photo's of me that I don't want to shred or burn the moment that I see them, but this is one that is borderline acceptable.  It is back when I had bad hair and wore glasses.

It was Angela's 12th birthday, which makes Jackie 14, and me 36.  Such great smiles; all courtesy or orthodontics's :-).

Last Friday, I listened to a sermon from Joel Osteen (one of my all time favorite preachers), and this sermon was on family, focusing on Dad's and their children.  It was encouraging and uplifting at the same time, as it made me so thankful for the great life we have had with our daughter's, and also for the overwhelming amount of great memories that we have made together.

To this day, we still continue to make great memories with them and their children as we see them at least weekly at our home. I love the memory of our girls constantly bringing their friends to our house when they were teenagers (well, at least one of my daughters did, the other one was like me and was not much of a social butterfly :-).  Their teenage years are some of my most cherished memories with them and their friends.

Both of my girls have stable marriages and great husbands, Angela married 8 years to Joe, and Jackie married 14 years today to Steven.  Both of my son in laws are Christians too, attend church, and raising their children as well in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Happy Anniversary today to Jackie and Steven, I love you.  Both of my girls are building the same type of family heritage that we built with them, and to me, that is the ultimate compliment.

Love, honor, cherish.  Daughter Daddy's have a special calling.  If you are a daughter Daddy, you know what I mean.  God made a special crown for daughter Daddy's, and I where mine with the highest level of pride and sense of urgency.  I am not going to fail.  I am not going to let them down.

I want my girls to know they are loved, they are beautiful, they are smart, and most of all; when they were children, I wanted my girls to know Jesus so that we would spend eternity in Heaven with them.  What a calling.  What a heritage.  Why would any Dad not want that for his daughters?  It's sad, but I know there are millions of daughters that don't get that.  Mine did though, that's what was important to me.  Mine did.  Thank you Lord.

These are my girls.  They made me a Dad.  I usually am not at a loss for words, but I truly can not explain how deeply my love runs for these two.  Since before they were born, to every day of their life, my love for them has never wavered.  To this day, every time I see them, I still want to hold and shower them with hugs and kisses.

The only problem now with that though is that there are grandchildren also vying for my attention; and while I could certainly stand to use a little more kissing and holding time with my girls; the world's best grandchildren are wanting the same thing from their Pappy.  What a great problem to have!

Emily Giffin said it best: "Your son is your son until he has a wife; but your daughter is your daughter for the rest of her life." 

I am a blessed man.  Count your blessings, name them one by one.

I name Jacqueline Renee Fournier Kueny, and Angela Corinne Fournier Franco as two of the best blessings in my life.  I love you girls.  Now and forever.  You are blessed going out, and you are blessed coming in. 

- Dad

A Perfect Sunday!

Somehow, here at "Nini's House" (which I am so thankful that she lets me live in), we inherited an inflatable water slide last month.  For the kiddo's, it is near Utopia.  Last time we had it up, it created a huge mud mess, so this time, we decided to erect it on the driveway.  Much better solution. 

 

Almost 6 hours of water sports, with a fast break for dinner where 8 lbs. of pot roast, 5 lbs. of mashed potatoes, and 2 lbs. of corn vanished before our eyes at dinner time.  Snack time consumed a gallon of ice cream, multiple bags of popcorn, untold numbers of flavored waters, pops, and Popsicle's.  Hey!  This is Nini's house!  You get to eat as much of anything you want!  Anytime :-) 

 

 

Best buddies.  Owen Michael almost (5), and Emma Jo almost (6)

No need to dare this one.  He will try anything.

Ava Corinne (8), Jared Henry (9), and Emma Jo

Will Parker (7), and Jared Henry

Jack Arthur (6)

Emma Jo and Pappy

Will Parker

Ava Corinne

Owen Michael

Emma Jo

Will Parker, Emma Jo, Ava Corinne, Owen Michael

 

What a fun day.  Perfect weather, sun, water, and grandkids!

 

I love my family.

I am a blessed man.