Notes from my noggin

Princess Tea Party

2009-07-26T18:41:00.003-05:00

I am a little late but here's our princess tea party which I believe was a success.

One of the little tables all set up for the party.
Princess crown covered cupcakes

All the princesses and 1 prince enjoying their tea and lunch.

The Birthday Princess with her face covered in cheetos.

My baby girl is 4 today!

2009-07-06T01:14:00.005-05:00

Four years ago my BIG 10lbs 1 oz baby girl was born. Time flies too quickly....

1 day old

3 Months!

5 months!

9 Months!

Almost a year!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated a day early because Nate has school tonight.

Happy 4th Birthday!

And modeling her new Snow White costume.

We have a princess tea party planned for Tuesday morning!

Where oh where have I been??

2009-06-20T22:55:00.006-05:00

We've had a super busy summer! Between swimming, summer school, my sister's bridal shower and playdates I just haven't had any extra time. And the time I do have I am either cleaning up or playing Bejeweled on Facebook. I must admit I am addicted. =)

The kids LOVE the pool. We must go swimming everyday.

I secretly love it. It tires them out and they go to sleep so easily.

Right after Memorial Day we took a little trip to Branson. We hadn't been in 5 years so I thought it was time to go and also Natalie got in free to Silver Dollar City because she's still 3.

Our good friends, the Sheriffs, were in Branson camping at the same time we were there so we all decided to go to Silver Dollar City together. We had so much fun!

Kelli and I rode this new ride called the Electrospin. It was crazy! It spun in a circle while going side to side. But as it went from side to side it also climbed up higher and higher and got faster. Here is us after it was over.

Yeah, I felt like I was going to puke.

Well, we were having a good time until our girls decided they didn't want to ride on the Happy Frogs together and Bryce didn't want to sit with them, either. Here's their grumpy faces.

Of course, as soon as it started they all quickly smiled.

When we went to get lunch we saw this watering fountain and of course had to take a pictures by it. It says McCoys Only, No Hatfields!

Unfortunately, we can't seem to pose for a picture.

We ate at The Mill and we were seated at the table that magically starts to rise while you are eating. The table was up to our necks by the time it stopped rising. The little ones had to stand in their chairs just so they could eat. We magically lowered the table by using the weight of our elbows to push it down. =)

The next day we rode the Ducks. Both kids got to drive it while we were in the water.

The next day we went back to Silver Dollar City. I had to take the kids' picture here. I have an almost identical picture of my brother and me back when I was 8 and he was 3.

It was much warmer that day instead of the first day we went so Bryce played in the wet area and got soaked! Note to self: Bring swimsuit next time we go to SDC.

And here's what happens after a Very fun day at an amusement park:

And finally before heading home we had to stop by at the fish hatchery. Those crazy fish jump out of the water for the food.

We had so much fun, but it's just as nice coming home.

Now I must plan a Princess Birthday Tea Party for my little Princess.

She turns 4 in just 2 weeks.

Our Memorial Day Fun

2009-05-26T16:48:00.003-05:00

We spent most of the weekend at home and by Monday I was itching to get out. Thanks to the new Metro Family magazine: Exploring OK with children we found a neat spot to go to that we had never even heard of before. We went to Chickasaw National Recreation Area about an hour south of us. We went to hike, but the best part was playing in the water. It was so beautiful down there and we will most definitely be returning.

And in honor of my anniversary tomorrow here is a picture of my husband of 9 years. :)

We had such a good time. I wish I would have brought our swimsuits. Bryce was sopping wet when we left. We had to stop at Walmart to get him new clothes. Thankfully, I had a change of clothes for Natalie in the car. We ended our day at Pizza Hut. Yum!

The new Natalie

2009-05-14T14:22:00.003-05:00

I finally took Natalie to a salon to get a haircut. I trimmed her hair up in the fall, but she has never had a real haircut until today.

It all started good. She's too busy watching the tv to look at me.

About midway through the haircut she started to get a very grumpy look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she didn't look like a princess even though I had promised her she'd look like a princess.

Then the hair stylist cut her bangs. That ruined it. Natalie was almost in tears by the time we left. She didn't talk to me the whole way home. Once we got home she kept telling me how she wants her old hair back.

It took several tries to get a picture but she finally smiled after I told her that her hair would grow back out to the way it was again.

So here she is with new bangs. I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first, but it's growing on me.

Arrgh Matey!

2009-05-13T18:28:00.000-05:00

Will it ever stop?

2009-05-13T18:19:00.002-05:00

Blah blah blah... It's been on and off raining here for 3 weeks.

I am watching the news and it's not good. Storms are rolling in tonight and they could be severe.

Wait--Just saw the 7 day forecast--After Saturday there appears to be no more rain for a few days. Yay, it will stop raining.

mei tai and am I crunchy???

2009-05-02T20:23:00.005-05:00

My very sweet neighbor is having her first child this summer. She's so giddy with excitement and that makes me so very happy for her. Well, silly me decided I'd make her a mei tai baby carrier for her baby shower gift. Umm.. yeah... I don't sew. I suck at it. But I somehow managed to get it done after a lot of cussing and screaming. The stitching doesn't look all that great, but it's made. I even tested it out by carrying a nearly 40lb Natalie in it so I know it will be fine for an infant.

If you don't know what a mei tai is-google it. It's seriously the best baby item out there. I carried Natalie in mine almost everyday for a year and carried in it regularly up until age 2.

Here's the one I made. It's reversible with polka dots on one side and stripes on the other.

I am disappointed. As much as I carried Natalie in it I only have 1 picture of me carrying her-at least only 1 that I found. Here she is happy as can be while riding on my back. Her little face was covered in eczema.

So while at the baby shower this afternoon someone brought up cloth diapers. I mentioned that I tried them and used them with Natalie and suddenly I looked like the freak in the room. Which leads me to my question--am I bit crunchy? Crunchy as in hippi, natural, organic, etc.

Let's see:

I have cloth diapered.

I wore my baby in a baby carrier.

I homemade her babyfood.

I use mostly vinegar when I clean.

I make homemade laundry detergent.

I make our pasta sauces and breads from scratch.

I try to buy foods without high frutose corn syrups.

I recycle on a regular basis.

I no longer use paper plates and paper napkins.

I try not to use as many paper towels.

Yep, I think I am towards the crunchy side. Yikes!

Touch a Truck

2009-05-02T20:01:00.005-05:00

Every year the Mom's Club of Norman hosts Touch a Truck. It's where all sorts of trucks/buses/and even a helicopter comes together in one area. The kids get to climb in and honk the horns. They love it. The best part is all the proceeds go to the children's area at the Norman library. Natalie and I visit that library on a weekly basis for storytime so I love that we get to help out the library while having lots of fun.

Natalie hanging out in the police car.

Bryce also in the police car.

Natalie getting a hug from the Braum's cow. We got to ride a tiny elevator to get into the truck. Once inside we quickly wanted to leave--It was cold! Actually it was colder in the front and back of the truck. It has three different temperature ranges so that the different dairy products stay at the right temperature.
They gave us free ice cream coupons! Woot!

Natalie and Bryce got to hang out in a hummer.

Bryce pulling the cord to honk the horn on the big semi. It was super loud!

Bully?

2009-04-22T08:44:00.003-05:00

Natalie to Bryce while holding a fist up: You had better knock it off!

The next day

Natalie to Bryce in the car: Be Quiet or I'm going to hit you in the face!

Nice, she's a bully at 3 years old.

Orange bathroom and Easter

2009-04-17T14:11:00.004-05:00

I thought I had some more pictures on my camera, but evidently I haven't been taking as many pictures as I used to take. I had better change that.

Anyway, here's my great orange bathroom adventure. I was sick of blah and boring. I bought the bright flowered shower curtain at Target and it helped to brighten it up, but the room needed something.... ORANGE!

Here's the before:

And the after although the pictures aren't as good as I would have liked. It looks much better in person.

I still need to hang my curtain. I have a lime green one, but I am not sure if I like it. I guess I need to get a curtain rod and at least hang it up to see.

We went to Norman's Easter Egg hunt. The kids loved this Easter Bunny. =)

Natalie won a chocolate bunny which she promptly ate in the car on the way home. We didn't realize she had eaten the entire thing until we got home and asked where the bunny went. She showed us her hands which were a chocolate mess. She was covered in chocolate from the top of her head to all down her dress.

One of these days

2009-04-09T22:45:00.002-05:00

I'll actually post something new. I need to get my camera out of my purse which is in my car in the garage and upload some pictures. I am too lazy to do it tonight.

In other news Natalie tested into speech and tomorrow I'll go to her IEP meeting and she should start speech on Tuesday. My other child is also being seen by the school's speech pathologist. They are doing a 14 day intervention in hopes that they can help him with his "th" problem. If it doesn't work he'll go to speech starting in 2nd grade.

And the best news of all:

The kids are spending the night with Papa and Gramma tomorrow night. I love them bunches, but I've been needing a break for a while. My parents have lots of fun Easter activities planned for them so they'll have a grand time. We are going to my friend's wedding reception. I am excited.

Fun in Dallas/Ft. Worth

2009-03-28T09:03:00.007-05:00

Last weekend we went to Dallas/Ft. Worth for a little spring break getaway. We started our trip off at the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was a tad bit expensive, but worth every penny. It was so much better than our zoo here. There was one bit of a problem. Everyone in the Ft. Worth area also thought Saturday would be a great day to go to the zoo. Well, not everyone, but at least 45,000 people. It was so crazy busy, but we still managed to have a great time. Well, until the kids got hungry. We tried to get them to eat before we went into the zoo, but of course they weren't hungry. About an hour in they were suddenly starving. Poor Nate had to wait in line at Burger King for 45 minutes as I tried to entertained the kids at a picnic table.

The Primate section was first on our list. We love the primates the best, but unfortunately it was so busy with people we didn't get to look long. We did see this guy hanging up on his fort.

This is the start of our long lunch wait. They were being silly and acting like they actually love each other. Okay, they do, but I hardly get pictures like this.

She was excited to find a penny!

Nate is in the red hat. He had already been waiting in line for about 20 minutes.

Natalie is still in a good mood!

Bryce is not so much in a good mood.

Yay, we ate lunch and got to move on.

This Rhino was super funny. He was running all over his yard and then laid down and rolled in the mud. He even scratched himself on that little tree stump that's in front of him.

These little guys are so cute.

This is what happens after a long day at the zoo.

When we left the zoo we went to my friend, Jennifer's house. She used to live here, but moved down to the Ft. Worth area almost a year ago. She invited us over for a very tasty dinner. The kids got to play with each other again and we got to visit for a while. It was nice.

But our fun little trip came to a rapid halt after we left her house. She lives about 35 minutes from where we were staying in Frisco, TX. That 35 minute trip became a 2 hour trip. Our car kept randomly dying while we were driving on the highway, at stop lights, or really wherever. I was nervous wreck and so was Nate. We missed exits because of it and got lost.

At one point we needed to take a potty break and ended up at a really cool McDonalds. It happened to be next to the Dallas Zoo so it was all decked out in wild animals. Quite appropriate since we were just at the zoo. That was a small highlight in our otherwise scary trip.

Finally we made it to Frisco and our really cool hotel. It was modeled after a New York loft. Everything was super modern inside it. Unfortunately, we were too upset about our car to really enjoy it. The kids loved this cool bench, though.

The next day we went to Ikea since it was just down the road from the hotel and the mall to shop. I love Ikea. They should really build one here. The best part is they have a childcare watch so we got a whole hour of shopping kid free!

Then we started on our scary trip home since our car was still dying. Everytime we passed a mile marker I said a silent prayer of thanks.

We took our car to the Honda dealership but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. But just last night Nate thinks he figured it out! He's going to buy the part right now so cross your fingers that it works.

He escaped!

2009-03-17T09:56:00.005-05:00

Our leprechaun came last night, but he escaped with a grappling hook. He left behind some surprises!

If you look closely you can see the green string hanging from the door. He used hook and string to climb out of the trap when he fell inside.

Our leprechaun had very dirty feet. Do you see all his little black footprints?

He left shamrocks on the floor near the trap.

The leprechaun turned our couch cushions over! He's small but strong.

He tied two of our chairs together with the dog's leash and blocked the way into the kitchen.

He put a green tablecloth on our table and left green plates and green plasticware and also left more shamrocks. He even turned our chairs over and wound a green ribbon through them.

He left us a note!

Turned our milk green.

And our juice green!

He also peed into our toilet and it was green! He was a sneaky guy again this year, too. He put the Rice Crispies cereal into the Lucky Charms box and put the Lucky Charms cereal into the Rice Crispies box.

Disclaimer: Yes, my house is a bit of a mess. I was too tired last night to pick it up.

We are going to catch a leprechaun!

2009-03-14T20:29:00.003-05:00

For the past couple of years we've had a sneaky leprechaun visit our house. He turns the chairs and sofa cushions upside down. He also turns our milk green and pees green into our toilets. So this year we've come up with a plan thanks to Family Fun Magazine. This month the magazine had several different leprechaun traps so we made one tonight. According to the magazine leprechauns have a big ego so the big leprechaun hat will get his attention. Then he'll see the sign that says Do Not Climb Ladder so of course he'll go ahead and climb the ladder since leprechauns like to break the rules. Then when he reaches the top he'll see the gold and try to get it. But if all goes liked planned the leprechaun will fall into the hat because we've cut a hole in the top of it. We'll see how it works on St. Patrick's Day.

Beauty Queen

2009-03-14T20:27:00.003-05:00

Natalie loves make up and she loves to apply it herself. Isn't she gorgeous?

Where did the pretty weather go?

2009-03-10T19:42:00.005-05:00

We had such a beautiful weekend and then bam today it's gone. I am tired of winter and want it to stay spring. At least we got out and played this weekend. We went to Southlakes Park and then Natalie played in the backyard. Normally, she just plays in the sand, but she had such a fun time swinging. I got all sorts of goofy pictures of her on the swing.

Cinderelly Cinderelly night and day it's Cinderelly...

2009-03-09T22:04:00.003-05:00

Is it wrong that Natalie cleans this table every single day and loves to do it?

Disclaimer: She's only got a bottle full of water. I don't make her use real cleaner.

Yay Bryce!

2009-03-06T13:16:00.002-06:00

I am so proud of my big guy. He's been struggling with reading, but in the past month he's blossomed. Last night he read Hi! Fly Guy and Super Fly Guy to me. He barely needed my help. This morning he reread one of the books perfectly. =)

Riddle me this..

2009-03-03T22:31:00.003-06:00

I've been exercising consistantly for 2 months.

My scale has not dropped in the number of pounds I weigh.

My jeans will not stay up. They are loose and baggy.

My size down jeans can't be buttoned up. If I squeeze myself tight I can button them for oh 30 seconds.

What the heck am I to do?

Stretch pants?

Why are my one size super loose and yet I can't get into the smaller size? I hate jeans. I refuse to buy anymore. I have jeans in 4 different sizes, but none of them fit.

Outer Space Birthday Party!

2009-03-02T10:31:00.006-06:00

I think our party was a success! It seemed like all the kids had a great time and even the parents that stayed were impressed by what we did. We had 13 kids total! Yikes! We started off the party by having the kids paint Moon Rocks with glow in the dark paint. Then they had to decorate their space shuttle aka two papers plates stapled together. Then we played a few games, had a snack of UFO sandwiches, ate Moon Cake and Alien Slime Cupcakes. Then we went outside to fly the space shuttles and football rockets and shoot off a rocket which was the highlight of the party.

We transformed our garage into outer space. On this wall we put glow in the dark stars and wrote out Happy Birthday Bryce with glow in the dark gel.

We strung stars and planets from the ceiling along with some Christmas lights for extra stars.

More planets and stars. And Nate was hanging Saturn's ring in the back. We flew the decorated space shuttles through the ring.

This is the Comet Toss game I made. You have to try to toss the comet onto the sun or one of the planets.

Nate made this. It's pin the eye on the alien.This is Alien Knockout. The kids really got into this game. I thought they were going to throw a bean bag through my wall!

Nate made this photo booth. I took pictures of all the kids in it. I'll print them off and give them a copy with their thank you.

Here's an alien slime cupcake.

And the moon cake.

Here's all the kids ready to launch their football rockets.

I wish I had gotten more pictures, but I just didn't have time to stop and take them. I was too busy!

Happy 7th Birthday

2009-03-01T08:22:00.003-06:00

It's Bryce's 7th Birthday! We are having an outer space birthday party later this afternoon. The garage has been transformed into outer space with planets, stars, and black lights.

Here's Bryce the day he came home. It's not the best picture but it's all I had on my computer.

Bryce's 1st Birthday! Poor boy was so ill on his actual birthday. This was taken a few days later when he was back in the game.

I don't have any 2nd year pictures of Bryce on the computer. :(

Bryce's 3rd Birthday!

This is Bryce with Natalie right before his 4th Birthday. I don't have very many old pictures on the computer so this is what I got.

Again I am short for pictures. A while back our computer crashed so I lost many of my pictures on the computer. Thankfully, they are backed up on cd but I've only put a few back onto the computer. This is right after his 5th Birthday at the zoo.

Happy 6th Birthday!

We went to the Wichita Mountains that day. It was beautiful there.

Earlier this year at the zoo with sister Natalie.

The day that never stops

2009-02-26T20:48:00.002-06:00

My goodness I feel like I have moved nonstop today.

We always go to storytime on Thursday mornings so our day started there. After that Natalie and I had lunch with some friends, ran some errands, picked up Bryce from school, went to the park with more friends, went out to eat using our gift card we won at bingo last week, had dessert at McDonald's since it was fundraiser night for Bryce's school, helped Bryce with homework, and finally settled in to watch American Idol. But now I have to go exercise and do all the tasks on my chore lists. Yikes! Can I jam pack anymore into my day? Oh yeah, I have to pick up the mail at my mom's house since they are in Texas and get some milk. So yes, I can add more stuff.

But the greatest thing happened while we were at McDonald's. Bryce saw his friend there and turns out they live just a few streets away from us. Yay! Bryce had no friends in our neighborhood so it's exciting to know there is a classmate just around the corner. And his friend gets to come to Bryce's birthday party on Sunday. Woohoo!

Speaking of which my big guy is about to turn 7. I swear it seems like he was just born the other day. My chunky chub roll happy baby has turned into the sweetest lovable little boy around.

In other news I took Natalie back to the speech pathologist to be retested. This time around she did not pass the evaluation and now has an appointment in a couple of weeks for more testing. If she qualifies she'll receive speech therapy through the local school system. I really hope that she does qualify so that she can get the help she needs. It's so frustrating when I have to ask her several times to repeat herself just so I can understand her. The funniest thing happened when she was being tested. The pathologist asked Natalie what color the apple was and Natalie happily said, "Rojo!" The lady looked at me funny and I told her Natalie watches a lot of Dora. Later instead of counting in English Natalie counted out in Spanish. Yes, we do watch a lot of Dora... and Diego, too.

Homemade Pretzels

2009-02-23T14:45:00.003-06:00

Today I stayed home all day so after I cleaned I had the whole afternoon to do whatever.

I decided to make Alton Brown's Pretzels. Omg, yummy goodness melting in my mouth. They were fabulous.

Haven't been in the mood

2009-02-21T22:48:00.003-06:00

to blog lately. I guess there hasn't been much to say. But here is a picture of my wonderful family. :)

Goodbye lovey

2009-02-10T15:47:00.002-06:00

So I am 28 years old and I still have my blankie. I've had it for as long as I can possibly remember. At one time it was a white twin size comforter, but as it aged it became a dingy worn blankie. I have slept with it nearly every night of my life. The only time I am without it is when we stay at a hotel. I sit her at my computer with it wrapped around me. I watch tv with it draped over me.

Last night Natalie had a peepee accident. Right on top of my blanket. I was more upset that she peed on my blanket than the fact that she had an accident. I threw it into the washer thinking no big deal it will get clean. It didn't survive. The stuffing came out of it and one of the holes became huge. :( I am so sad. I even shed a few tears for it.

I tried to throw it away. I started walking with it towards the trash can. But I couldn't do it. I pulled all the stuffing out of it and am going to keep the worn dingy white fabric and rub it against my face every now and then to remind of the good times with my blankie.

Do I have a future cheerleader?

2009-01-31T22:50:00.002-06:00

Potty Party and Ice Storm

2009-01-31T22:20:00.004-06:00

So I have an incredibly stubborn child. Even though she is 3.5 she has absolutely refused to have anything to do with potty training. I have been so frustrated about it. Especially when children a year younger than her were getting potty trained. That has changed!

I recently read the book How to Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day .

The premise of the book is to have a potty party for your child. The whole morning of the potty is spent potty training a potty doll. You act like a overly caffienated cheerleader. After lunch your child is suppose to magically want to pee in the potty. I was most skeptical but at this point it couldn't hurt to try.

So I spent a month working myself up for the big day. This past Monday was potty party day. She was very excited to see her new potty doll and absolutely loved teaching Peepee Doll to potty. We named her Sarah, but halfway through the morning she just became Peepee Doll. We read potty books and watched a potty movie. We got hyped up on sugary snacks because each time Peepee Doll went potty we got to eat a treat. Everything was going well.

Then I noticed it was sleeting. Well, I knew it was sleeting, but it started sleeting much harder. I was afraid I was going to slide all around when I went to pick up my son from school at 3:30 so I decided to check him out early. That ruined our party momentum. Plus, now I had an extra kid that wanted my attention. I was afraid we were doomed.

But after lunch we picked it up again. I bribed her into panties and loaded her up with Dr. Pepper. I know bad, but it's her favorite drink and I knew she'd drink lots of it. I even got her to sit on the potty which in itself is a huge accomplishment. But after nearly 4 hours we weren't getting anywhere. I was starting to get discouraged, but suddenly I had an idea. I put her potty chair onto the computer chair and let her play computer games while sitting there. And you know what after a while she finally peed! I was suddenly flooded with emotions and started crying. It was like I thought this day would never ever come. And what do you know we got her to pee again later before bed!

It's now Saturday night and she's done fairly well. She still has no desire to potty train but after some protesting she will sit on the potty and she will pee. She's had more successes than accidents so I am happy. Oh and she still only pees when the potty is on the computer chair, but I am sure it won't be like that forever.

So thank goodness for that book!

On the other front the sleet kept coming and school ended up being canceled for 3 days. Here's a couple of pictures of the kids playing in it.

7.45am

2009-01-17T08:24:00.002-06:00

Is entirely WAY too early to wake up on a Saturday when you have absolutely no plans.

Why did I wake up do you ask?

Because my children were up coloring in the kitchen. One is the same child that I have to struggle to wake up during the school week at 8am. The other went to bed early so I kind of assumed she'd get up early, but not before 8am early.

At least they found a way to entertain themselves before I pulled myself out of bed.

Bargain High

2009-01-16T19:38:00.002-06:00

I swore I wasn't going to spend any money this week besides Nate's birthday present. But yeah, I blew that out the window today. That's because Old Navy had all their clearance marked an additional 50% off! Woot! I got mostly stuff for Natalie for next winter, but the rest of us got a few things, too.

I spent $116 total, but look at all I got:

3 winter coats
2 jackets
3 pairs of pants
3 pairs of jeans
2 pairs of shoes
1 dress
3 tank tops
3 pairs of boxers
3 pairs of panties
1 pair of gloves
and 18 shirts

That's 42 items at an average cost of less than $3 for each thing. Woohoo!
I am a happy girl tonight.

I went to the movies

2009-01-11T23:10:00.003-06:00

The last time I went to see a grown up movie as in not an animated movie was I believe The Family Stone. Yep, Nate and I don't get out to the movies much. I really hate to waste money at the movie theater when in just a few months I can check it out at the library for free. However, my dear sweet sister bought Nate and I gift certificates to the Warren Theater for Christmas.

My mom called me this morning saying she'd babysit the kids because we Had to go see Gran Torino. They saw it last night and loved it. So even though it was my mom's birthday she watched my kids for me for a lovely 2.5 hours while Nate and I saw the movie.

It was fantastic. Seriously, it's been a long while since I've really felt a movie was that good. Clint Eastwood was awesome. I think I may actually buy it when it comes out on dvd.

Oh and this is definitely NOT a movie for children to see. The people next to us brought there maybe 5 or 6 year old son. The poor boy was covering his eyes and crying at the end from being so scared. Also, he didn't need to hear the foul language that was spoken almost every second of the movie. I felt sorry for him and ashamed of his parents for making him sit through all 2 hours of the movie.

It's been 2 weeks...

2009-01-08T14:50:00.002-06:00

since my Christmas post. I guess I am slacking again.

We had a good Christmas. The kids got everything they wanted and more. I am pleased to say that I don't think we had any bad gifts. Everything gets played with but the winner gifts were definitely the two Nintendo DS systems. The kids figured out how to chat back and forth with each other on them. They draw silly pictures and send them to each other.

We just went to Little Rock to see Nate's family. It was a quick weekend trip, but we were able to visit with two of his brothers, his grandma, cousin, aunt, and uncle. Not too bad for 3 days. His aunt gave him an awesome Christmas gift. She collected a bunch of old family photos dating as far back as 1920 and gave them all to Nate. She also included his great grandfather's Marine papers and dog tags. Which reminds me we need to write a thank you note to her for that and we still need to write thank yous for Christmas gifts.

My sister and I started exercising on Monday. I am really mad at myself for putting 25lbs back on after losing so much weight 2 years ago. It creeps back on so easily. My goal is to be back where I was by sometime around my birthday. That gives me 4 months. I hope I can do it.

I have some pictures to post soon. I just have to take the time to upload them. I'll get around to it eventually.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T00:07:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

Santa just came to our house! Natalie's gifts are in red and Bryce's are in Green. It looks like she's getting more, but Bryce's gifts are all tiny. The cradle was made for me by my Grandpa about 20 years ago. I am passing it on to Natalie with new homemade baby bedding.

Blah

2008-12-20T20:04:00.002-06:00

I don't know what's up with me. I haven't been my usual cheerful self lately. I love love this time of the year, but I can't seem to enjoy it as much right now. I seem to get cranky super fast and and I am so weepy.

I did have loads of fun at our 2nd annual Christmas cookie exchange last night. It definitely put me in a much better mood. The cookies I made were fantastic!

I got them from Parenting Magazine. Here's a link. They are worth the trouble.
http://www.parenting.com/recipes-article/Recipes/Desserts/Million-Dollar-Caramel-Cookies

I also made these. They are good, but not as good as the others.
http://www.parenting.com/recipes-article/Recipes/Desserts/Smookies

I've been around..

2008-12-11T19:10:00.003-06:00

I just don't have much to say.

We went to see Sugar Plum Fairy at the Children's Theater on Sunday. So very cute! The kids loved it and Nate and I loved and it was cheap to see. I am thinking about getting a season pass so we can go to all the plays.

Bryce learned how to ride his bike this weekend as well! He was so happy. My parents are going to surprise him with a new bike for Christmas since his old one was way too small for him.

Oh and we did go see Christmas lights. Natalie loved them. They were most definitely AWESOME!

Awesome!

2008-12-03T23:01:00.002-06:00

That's Natalie's new word. Everything is awesome. It's so cute. We drove through our neighborhood tonight looking at the Christmas lights and every single lit house was "Awesome!"

I can't wait to take her to see Christmas lights at the park. It's really going to be awesome.

I am pleased to announce...

2008-11-30T21:39:00.004-06:00

that I got 3 cute pictures of the kids and have ordered my Christmas cards. WOOHOO!

And my Christmas village is up. It's all lighted and pretty. :)

And I hung my wreath that I made.

Unfortunately, I now have to clean up my living room, put another layer of mod podge on my Christmas coasters and wrap some more books. We have a tradition at our house that we unwrap a book every night from Dec 1-23. I leave the Night Before Christmas unwrapped so we don't accidently choose it before the 24th.

Sunday morning

2008-11-30T08:41:00.002-06:00

I love Sunday mornings. Everyone is sleeping so it's so peaceful right now.

I just got the stocking stuffers out and did a test run on the kids' stockings. I had to make sure I had bought enough stocking stuffers. I like my stockings to be overflowing and the stuff spilling out of them. They were filled to the top but I still need to get Bryce a drawing pad and Natalie a new Care Bears coloring book. I also may throw in a few more art supplies. We can never have enough at that this house. That should make them overflowing. :)

Now I am trying to decide what kind of pancakes to make. We have a tradition that every Sunday I make pancakes and it's hardly ever just regular pancakes. I made cinnamon banana pancakes last Sunday. They were pretty good. I am thinking we may have chocolate chip pancakes. It's the beginning of the Christmas season so we should have something fun, right?

Speaking of which I need to get working on the rest of my Christmas decorations. We got the tree up on Thanksgiving night, but we still have our village to put up. Nate swears he's going to make a side table today to put it on. We shall see. That's if he doesn't sleep until noon and waste half the day away, because he also needs to get outside and finish putting the lights on our house.

My biggest goal for today though is to get my Christmas card picture. I have to order the cards by tonight so I can use a 30% off coupon code that expires today. I have a plan so we'll see if it works. I think I am going to try this morning after their bellies are full. Surely they'll cooperate, right??

I am so tired

2008-11-25T23:09:00.003-06:00

And yet I can't sleep. I just got out of bed after laying there for 30 minutes. I feel like I am going to pass out at any second, but the minute I get into bed my mind starts thinking about a hundred different things.

But since I couldn't sleep I found a new blog I am liking. It's all about cooking. Mommy's Kitchen
Of course, that's right up my alley so I'll be pouring over it tonight while I am not sleeping.

4 generations of girls!

2008-11-24T21:17:00.001-06:00

My grandma is visiting from St. Louis and tonight everyone came over for dinner-lasanga, homemade bread, and vanilla cream pie!

Here's a picture of all us girlies. Unfortunately, the lighting in my house is not good so it came out dark and blurry. We'll try again on Thanksgiving at my mom's house.

2 things...

2008-11-22T23:03:00.002-06:00

I finished our felt Christmas Tree Advent calendar. I think it's pretty good. The orange round thing is not a pumpkin, though. It's suppose to be an ornament.

And 2nd! I cut about 5 inches or more off of Natalie's hair! She loves it and so do I. No more knots!

It's been a bit of a quiet week..

2008-11-19T18:50:00.003-06:00

Not much to talk about this week. I am trying desperately to keep the house picked up because my Grandma is coming for a visit from Friday until the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Woohoo!

Nate and I have been making crafts after the kids go to bed. Last night he made a bag hanger. I have lots of reuseable shopping bags and other bags that were cluttering our laundry room so he put together a board with knobs for me. Then he painted it. I think it looks pretty good.

I've been working on an Advent Calendar. I made a felt Christmas tree and now I am making felt ornaments for each from Dec 1-24. I've got 8 more ornaments to make. Nate helped me make a couple so I am hoping he'll help me on the last few.

I've also been making more Happy Holidays signs. I've finished 2 and I've got 4 more started. They are going to be small little presents for Bryce's music and pe teachers, the crossing guard at his school, and a couple of other people.

I'll post pictures when I am done.

Somewhat of a photo session

2008-11-15T09:44:00.003-06:00

Nate got out the camera the other night and here is a small sample of what he got. Nothing great, but the pictures are a little interesting.

Natalie's first pose:

Then some sort of kissy puckered lip face:

Then Bryce decides he needs to pose:
Oh wait, Natalie has to jump on and join him again. I actually like this one, but the camera flash is in the background.

And well since Bryce laid down Natalie decided to lay down. I hope this doesn't mean she's going to pose for a male magazine in the future.

Thanks Amber!

2008-11-13T19:00:00.002-06:00

My new friend, Amber, is a crafter. She makes and sells bow holders, tutus, and more. Well, she made a sign very similar to this and she told me how to do it so I did! Thank you Amber for helping to become more crafty.

Fallen Leaves

2008-11-12T14:15:00.002-06:00

We went to Little River Park to play in the leaves. It's one of most favorite fall activities. We had to hurry, though, a big hail storm was about to come. We left right before the storm hit.

Chasing after a squirrel.

There he is!

Peek-a-Boo!

Letterboxing

2008-11-10T11:51:00.004-06:00

A couple of weekends ago we went Letterboxing again. This time our adventure took us to Draper Lake. I wish I would have made Nate stop while we were driving there. The tree leaves were a brilliant shade of red. I love fall!

We found the letterbox rather quickly, but Bryce still had fun on the treasure hunt. Natalie fell asleep in the car so she missed all the fun.

After letterboxing we decided to stop by the new park over at Draper since we were so close to it. Natalie woke up for that. =) It's a very nice park, but quite small so we didn't stay too long.

We ended up going to the welcome center park in Midwest City. The kids love that one, but since it's so far away we don't go all that often.

The lovely voting line

2008-11-04T13:46:00.002-06:00

It took me an hour and a half to vote. We had to stand outside in the 50 mph winds for that entire time. Okay, so they weren't really 50mph, but it sure as heck felt like it.

Natalie was an angel, though. She was so well behaved and even the other people around me commented about it. Makes me feel like a good momma.

But now I have done my civic duty so all is good.

Halloween Fun!

2008-11-01T08:29:00.005-05:00

We've had a quite a week with Halloween Festivities. We carved pumpkins on Wednesday night. Natalie's official thought on that was "EEEEWWW!"

On Thursday night some area high schools put on Halloween carnivals. We started off at one school but it was way too crowded. Thankfully, the other school we went to was not crowded at all. The kids had a wonderful time and the teens working it did a great job.

And of course, last night was trick or treating! Natalie got quite good at saying trick or treat and thank you. They made out pretty good, too, since my neighborhood doesn't seem to have a whole lot of kids at least back the section we live at.

Here's her eewwy face.

Our finished product: a pirate, Scooby Doo pirate, and two faces.

It's a shame they didn't light up that well. We used fake candles and they don't glow as bright. In person they looked good, though.

Here's the kids at the first school we went to. We ended up turning around and leaving!

Getting ready to trick or treat!

Isn't he the cutest Harry Potter ever?

Sick day

2008-10-22T16:05:00.004-05:00

Bryce has a cold so I had him stay home today from school to get some rest. It was such a dreary morning so all of us laid around on the couch until mid morning. After a while the kids got restless so we decided to make a couple of halloween crafts and decorate the sugar cookies we made yesterday.

The kids made a mummy out of popsicle sticks. If you look closely you can see the popsicle stick body of Natalie's mummy.

We used toilet paper to wrap the mummy. Here's the finish products.

Then we put blobs of paint into the middle of a paper. We folded the paper up and squished the paint. When we opened the paint back up we got some nice ghost blobs. Bryce made a skinny white ghost and Natalie made a fat purple ghost. As soon as the paint dries we'll add eyes to the ghosts.

And finally the kids decorated their cookies and ate several!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-21T16:38:00.006-05:00

Every year we go to TG Farms pumpkin patch and again (like the Tulsa Zoo) we take the same pictures every year. :) This year we brought Aunt Kelly with us.

Unfortunately, this year the How Tall this Fall sign was off a few inches. Nate is exactly 6 feet tall and this has him more at 6 foot 2 inches.

Kelly and Bryce on the hayride and the kids were standing on top of the haybale slides.

The kids led us through the corn maze!

Natalie was filthy by the time we left. If you look closely you can see all the dirt around her mouth.

I got tagged

2008-10-20T21:45:00.002-05:00

Christine has decided to tag me so I guess I'll play her game. ;)

6 things that make me happy (in no particular order):

My family

Dark Chocolate

Steamy romance book

Shopping particularly bargain shopping

My kids' smiles

Good friends

I would tag someone else however I don't think anyone else reads this but Christine. hahaha

More Catching Up

2008-10-19T21:37:00.005-05:00

I am little irritated, because I can't find our old Tulsa Zoo pictures. I am missing a whole set of photo cds. But in the meantime I have more pictures to post.

We went to Martin's Nature Park a few weeks ago. While there we decided to Letterbox for the first time. www.letterboxing.org The kids were so excited when we found our first and second letterboxes. We are definitely going to have to go letterboxing more often.

Natalie being Goofy as usual!

Not quite sure why Bryce had his arm up in the air.

The kids were studying the map so we knew which way to go. Natalie felt like Dora.

We figured out how to use the self-timer for the first time! Yay, a family picture.

Taking pictures of two

2008-10-19T13:00:00.005-05:00

I have to take a detour from playing catch up. I'll get back to playing catch up very soon.

So my mom asked me if I had a recent picture of Bryce and Natalie together for a 4 x 6 picture frame she had. I went through the last few months of photos and I don't have even one picture of the two of them together that's frame worthy. No problem I thought-I'll just take some pictures and surely I can get one good one.

I am by no means a photographer or even close to being a good picture taker. I had trouble with lighting and shadows and it's quite difficult to get both kids looking in the same direction and both smiling at the same time.
Here's some of what I got:

At least I got a few decent shots. I am going to print them all out and let my mom choose which one she likes best.

Catching Up!

2008-10-18T18:38:00.003-05:00

I finally downloaded pictures onto my computer so I am going to play catch up.

Earlier this fall we took a trip to the Tulsa Zoo. Everytime we go there are certain pictures we have to take everytime. These are the ones from this year. If I can dig them up I'll post some from past trips to the zoo as well.

Of course, I don't have any more Tulsa Zoo pics on my computer. Later tonight or tomorrow I'll get the photo cds out and try to find older pics.

And of course, I have ran out of time so I'll have to do some more catching up later.

I am a such a blog slacker

2008-10-08T13:47:00.004-05:00

I am on the computer every single day multiple times a day. You'd think I'd have plenty of time to update this thing and I do, but I admit I am a slacker.

Bryce is doing fantastically in school. I am so proud of him. He's learned so many new words in the past few weeks and he's gotten every spelling word correct on his spelling tests. He's also donig great in swimming. He moved up to the next level this month. We watched him swim on Monday and he's doing just as good as the strongest swimmers in his class.

Natalie and I are enjoying all our time to ourselves during the day. She's such a joy to be around these days. Today we went shopping, had lunch and then went to the park.

We are sad, though, cause our friends moved away. Today was especially hard at the park because usually I am there with Christine. There were a couple of other moms chatting and it made me think about all of our park adventures from the past year.

More random thoughts

2008-09-08T16:23:00.002-05:00

We went ice skating yesterday for the first time. So much fun! Bryce did well for his first time. He clung to the wall for a while, but eventually got brave and let go. Natalie just held our hands and glided along with us.

Today was a perfect day. We spent 2.5 hours at the park! I didn't want to leave, but knew we had to come home eventually.

My brother is coming home from overseas on Friday. Woohoo!!!!

Heavy Heart

2008-08-29T15:45:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately things in life aren't always happy. This has been one of the saddest weeks of my life. My dearest friend's 3.5 year old nephew died earlier this week. I am so sad and have shed so many tears for his family.

1st day of school

2008-08-15T20:43:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was Bryce's first day of first grade. He loved it! As much as I was looking forward to him going to school I was sad that he was gone all day. I missed him terribly in the afternoon. Natalie and I kind of didn't know what to do with ourselves. We are so used to having him around. But all that matters is that he had a great first day and second day, too.

First day pose

Walking to his "Cottage" classroom

Natalie's in love

2008-08-07T23:10:00.004-05:00

We went to storytime at the library with Christine and her kids. When we left Natalie said bye to Benjamin, but he wasn't paying attention to her. She got upset and wouldn't leave until he gave her a hug. She even chased him down the sidewalk to get him to hug her. Then when they hugged it was so cute. They gripped each other tight. I think Natalie loves her BenBen. I just wish I had a camera handy. Here's a pic of them together from the 4th of July.

pictures

2008-08-07T00:43:00.006-05:00

I love this picture of my son. It's my favorite right now.

I also want to thank Christine for taking this awesome picture of my son.

Last year I read an article in a parenting magazine about taking your child's picture in the same grown-up outfit every year. The article used a bathing suit from I belive the 1950s. I decided to do this with Natalie using my wedding dress.

Here she is last year at age 2 and this year at 3.

She has more hair now!

aww wonderful summer evening

2008-08-06T22:12:00.002-05:00

The temperature was finally below 100 today! Woohoo. The news said it hasn't been below 100 since July 17. I Hate the heat. I hate Cold more than the Heat, but this 100+ temps have been killer.

Anyway, the evening turned out to be fantastic. The kids and I went over to the Apples park and they played with Benjamin and Emily while Christine and I chatted. It didn't matter that we had spent nearly all day together. Somehow we never run out of things to say. It's amazing really. We go on and on and on and on. :)

Bryce read most of Great Day for Up this evening. Yay! There was no way he could have read that much at the end of May so he's come a long way in just a couple of months.

A new beginning...

2008-08-06T19:05:00.003-05:00

Bryce starts school in a week. He's going to be in 1st grade. How did that happen? That's the grade I taught. When did he get to be so big?

He'll be going to another new school. He's been to 2 schools already-1 for preK and 1 for kindergarten. Hopefully, this will be the last new school until junior high.

I think I am ready for him to go back to school. I am sure it will be an adjustment for us all. He'll be gone all day long for the first time. It will be just me and Natalie all day for the first time.

He read most of Go Dog Go to me the other day. I think he's ready for school, too.

Whitewater

2008-07-27T10:17:00.005-05:00

We have double park season passes to the local amusement park and waterpark. We love Whitewater. We go late in the afternoon and spend 4 wonderful hours there. Natalie is my little dare devil. She loves to go down the purple tube slide Backwards! Yesterday, we found out she was tall enough to go on the Tallest tube slide, Bermuda Triangle. She went down it 3 times!! Bryce is also getting braver. He went on a new slide yesterday that he was scared of in the past. I am so proud of him for trying something new. It was a huge accomplishment for him to go down the slide.

Getting things accomplished

2008-07-23T23:47:00.003-05:00

I crossed off another item on my to do list tonight! I did an overhaul on my office. It's so nicely organized now. I feel like I can breathe again in here. Please let me keep it this way.

In other news we went to BK today with Christine, Benjamin, and Emily. :)
Also I am on a huge bargain high. I got 20 items from JCP for under $50! Woohoo!!!

Oh and the kids are cavity free. They have the best dentist ever. I am so glad I found him for the kids. The whole office puts my kids at ease and so they actually love to go to the dentist!

Time flies...

2008-07-17T22:10:00.003-05:00

It's amazing how fast time can fly. This week seems to have flown by quickly, but overall I feel like life is slipping away. I've been shopping for clothes for next spring/summer since all of those clothes are clearance right now. I am buying Natalie shirts that aren't in the baby/toddler area anymore. That makes me incredibly sad.

It has been a fun week so far. We went to Frontier City on Monday with E. and A. They are friends from Bryce's first school. The kids had a grand time playing with their friends. Went shopping on Tuesday with Christine, went to the Splashpad yesterday with Mel and her kids and today we all went to McDonald's for lunch. I've spent way too much money this past week so I need to lay off of the shopping now. I must not go to stores!

Sunday Morning

2008-07-13T10:36:00.002-05:00

I love Sunday mornings. Usually we aren't in a rush to do anything so we just kind of take it slow.

Natalie's playing SuperWhy on the computer. This girl is going to be reading before I know due to the show and computer game.

Shoguns

2008-07-13T10:34:00.002-05:00

We went to Shoguns last night with Christine and Jason to celebrate Christine's birthday. I would have never went there alone. We had a really nice time even though half of the food wasn't too my liking. The steak was super yummy, though.

yellow

2008-07-10T15:06:00.002-05:00

I love the way Natalie says Yellow.

It comes out sounding like YO!

lazy

2008-07-10T14:13:00.003-05:00

Yep, I've been super lazy today. I have a headache and can't seem to pull myself off of the computer.

Here's some pics from 4th of July. We went to Bricktown to celebrate with my best friend, Christine and her family. We went to Spaghetti Warehouse and then to the ballpark. Yeah, it rained on us for a bit, but the kids liked it.

Natalie's Birthday

2008-07-08T11:25:00.004-05:00

Just thought I'd share some pics from Natalie's Birthday

I suck

2008-07-07T23:59:00.005-05:00

Yep, it's July 7th. I haven't been on here since February.

But in my defense a whole heck of a lot has happened.

Let's see here:

Bryce's birthday happened

We went to the Wichita Mountains and hiked. So much fun!

We sold our house and was homeless for 5 weeks. We moved into Nate's mom's stinky RV for a week, but that sucked horribly so thankfully we rented a cabin at the RV park for a month. That also sucked, but not as much as the stinky RV.

May 1st was moving day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've been in our wonderful new house for 2 months. I love love love love love it. :)

Yesterday was my sweet baby girl's 3rd birthday. We went to the Cheese Mouse and then had a family bbq. Daddy made her an awesomely cool Dora Backpack cake and Dora cupcakes which I will post a picture of later.

Yay

2008-02-28T19:20:00.001-06:00

We sold our house yesterday. Oh Happy day!

eyebrows

2008-02-28T19:19:00.001-06:00

We are watching American Idol and Bryce just said, "Look, My eyebrows are dancing."

Things I want to remember

2008-02-24T21:22:00.003-06:00

Natalie's bandaid addiction: She loves Dora bandaids and Needs one anytime she has an owie.

Natalie's weird arm band thingy: When we go somewhere and she gets a paper armband she won't remove it for DAYS. Right now she's had a Science Museum arm band on for a whole week.

Natalie's refusal to bathe: She hates with a passion to get into the bath, however, she also hates to get out of the bath.

Natalie's Mine phase: Everything is hers and I mean everything-don't you dare try to take it from her.

Natalie has a new interest in baby dolls. We have to bring her baby, baby carrier, and baby boobah (bottle) with us everywhere we go.

Bryce's love for drawing: He's been writing and illustrating books-Bat's New Friend and right now he's in the middle of Adventures of Super Nana

Bryce's passion for space: He knows all planets in order and can tell you about other space things. Thanks Planet Heroes for teaching my son well.

Bryce's love of girls: He loves all the girls in his class as well as his old favorites Madison and Sarah.

Bryce's love for talking: Oh My Goodness---Can we say Mr. Talksalot? He can go on and on and on about anything and everything.

Kissing Game

2008-02-24T21:18:00.004-06:00

Yesterday at dinner Natalie became lovey dovey. She gave us all several smooches before she settled in to eat.

Stressed...

2008-02-24T21:16:00.002-06:00

We are having a new house built and have had our old one on the market for about 7 weeks. We've shown it loads of times and yet nothing. I am sick and tired of showing it and stressed about showing it. It's all I think about.