a few pics

Birthday Extravaganza 2010

Well it's officially been a full year since my last entry but I have had so many requests to keep posting, I'm gonna try and keep it going or should I say get it going again. This weekend has brought us around another full year and finds our kids aging as follows: Logan age 10, Garrett age 8, & Addi age 5. This has been a big fall with lots of changes as Addi started all day pre-k and we became the parents of all school-agers. Slowly but surely our home is losing it's babyproofing in exchange for video games, MP3s, and sports equipment. It's bittersweet to lose my babies but oh so fun to be able to travel easily and buy birthday gifts like college football tickets instead of mega blocks. I have to say though that children only get pricier as they age. I thought daycare and diapers were bad, but oh here comes clothes (designer), cars, & college!

The birthday extravaganza kicked off last weekend with our trip to Stillwater to watch the Cowboys beat Baylor. Mark's parents came and entertained Addi with her own shopping day and then met us at our favorite OKC landmark restaurant, Cattleman's. Our best friends and their 3 boys spent the day with us, a great time was had by all. Our week was busy as usual and out of rhythm for us as I rearragned my work schedule to accommodate the kids parties this weekend. I made 48 cupcakes for Logan and Addi to take to school on Friday. Then I spent all day Friday cleaning and baking Logan's pirate cookie cake. I chickened out and ordered Addi's Princess Belle cake so I didn't have to stress out about getting it done during Logan's sleepover party. Friday evening we hosted 5 fun-loving male youths to celebrate Logan's 10th birthday. We ate, had Wii tournaments, ate, played GI Joe, ate, had Nerf gun wars, and watched movies and cackled till well past midnight. I was beat!

And as if that wasn't enough, I decided to host Addi's party a mere 3 hrs after the boys headed out. So we quickly transformed our man cave to a princess castle and welcomed our 4 beautiful princess guests. We had cupcakes, decorated crowns, played dressup, and had a delightful relatively quiet afternoon. AND THEN we had my parents and sisters and family here for a family party. WOW! What a weekend so far. We are gonna need tomorrow to recover for sure. One more full week of school and then a short week as we head to Sallisaw for Thanksgiving. I'm gonna post this before I lose it and then try to add some photos. I am a little rusty and as you can see my background was so old it got deleted automatically!

Birthday Extravaganza......................

Birthday Diva

Sleeping Beauty cake

Watch out, Garrett on wheels.

Logan has become very aware of money and the spending of it.

These were a hit all around, thanks Aunt Nancy!

Boys and their posing, made me laugh.

WOW! Where did 9 yrs go and how did I get old enough to have a child this old?

Well after many months of my idle blog I have decided to make the time tonight to update, plus it has gotten me temporarily out of the turkey decorating project going on at the dining room table. Garrett had a homework "family" project to decorate a turkey. I know you other parents out there know exactly which turkey I am talking about. This surely seems like the 100th time we've done this and it's only our 2nd child. I think the teacher got the memo wrong and this is a kindergarten not a 1st grade project!! Anyhow, the turkey is taking shape and I will hide in the office and just accept it for what it is when done rather than try to guide the placement of the macaroni, glitter, etc. Besides I think the boys are having burping contests and I'd just as soon miss that too.

I am pretty beat after all the birthday goings on that have ensued here the past 72 hrs. We kicked it off Friday with Logan's sleepover which turned out to be a go home at 1 AM party but that suited me as I didn't have to get up early and feed them breakfast. We did a low key friend party with pizza, cake, gifts, movies, lightsaber wars, boy mania, etc. Fun was had by all and we certainly considered it a birthday success. Logan's actual birthday was Sat and we got to share that day with Grandma Jiji, Aunt Sue, and Granny Jackson (Mark's grandmother). These ladies came bearing pizza, gifts, and more party magic. Thanks to each of you and to Aunt Nancy who sent balloons and monkeys which were a hit as well. Addi got an ironing board which she wouldn't even recognize what it was if it weren't for the movie Cinderella. Garrett got some roller blades which he loved (not his bd till December but was nice to get something now as it's tough to wait when both your siblings are back to back days). I keep telling him his time will come but so hard to wait when you are 6. I spent every free moment and some not so free moments on Addi's princess cake. I had previously decided that I was going to save money and make my own cakes. Well now on the other side of the experience I realize why cakes cost as much as they do. It was still fun and I am so pleased with how they turned out and they were certainly unique and special to my kiddos.

So that brings me to today, Addi's birthday!! 4 yrs ago today after a short and sweet induction this fluffy 9.5 lb angel came into our lives at 12:35 pm ( had to look that up in her baby book) and changed our family forever. I had wanted a girl since my first positive pregnancy test but God knew she needed 2 older brothers. Well the pink has arrived and we all treasure her. She has been planning this princess party for weeks, I shudder to think what planning her wedding will be like. Being her first friend party, I wanted it to be smallish enough to handle but big enough to seem like the end all for her. So we invited 3 friends and were so thrilled that all our invited princesses were able to come. Everyone wore their princess attire and we ate princess cake, opened princess gifts, and watched Snow White! And it all ended happily ever after.....

It has been a full but wonderful weekend. Just a little update for those not as involved in our daily lives. School is of course in full swing with half the yr almost over, where did it go? Logan is thriving in 3rd grade, a spelling whiz and recently got his mini facts master (a math achievement he has been working on). His football season is over, Praise the Lord! Although it can't be called a winning season to the average spectator, it was to Logan. He has wanted to play for yrs and held us to our promise to allow him in 3rd grade. It was a big time commitment and one I am happy to be done with. He is busy with church activities and has a big part in this years children's choir production. I actually started teaching choir this yr (no, I didn't assign the parts) so it has been fun to watch the program take shape. And all you who are laughing at me teaching choir can stop now. I may not sing but I do have a knowledge of music :) Garrett is also having a stupendous year in 1st grade and has really amazed us at how gifted he is with his studies. This has been a real answer to prayer as his kindergarten teacher was a little concerned a yr ago. But he is doing so well, his teacher actually thought I must be a teacher because of some great phonics knowledge he had. I assured her while I was honored that she would think so, I promise he didn't learn any official phonics from me. Garrett was playing fall baseball which is also over, yeah! His team was playing a practice season as they were crossing over from tball to machine pitch. Now Garrett has long been known as the daisy picker in the outfield and wasn't terribly into anything but batting. Well as almost all kids can hit a ball off the tee, that didn't make him terribly special. But wait what's that, Garrett hit a home run in almost every game of machine pitch and was on many nights one of the only kids to even hit the ball. This made Garrett famous on the team and he ate it up! Looks like we'll be playing baseball again in the spring. Addi is just mostly along for the ride, having to take a break from dance and gym to accomodate her brother's schedules this fall. She goes to preschool 3 days/wk when I work and although she tells you she doesn't like it, she is always having a blast when we pick her up. She is growing like a weed and we continue to be amazed at her antics and the differences in girl dramarama she brings to our family.

Well the boys are now running around playing with the princess toys (the princess missed her afternoon beauty sleep and is crashed out) that their sister rec'd today so that must mean the turkey is done or worse they've lost interest and it still lacks completion despite the fact that's it bed time. Either way, I should wrap up and post some pics before I have to get them to bed.

Technical difficulties...........

Technical difficulties...........

Back in business..................................

Well whether you missed it or not I am happy to say my blog is back in business. I have a new and highly functional I might add, computer that is ready at my every whim to access the internet at an amazing pace and has enough virtual memory to accommodate my needs. My old computer told me about every 5 sec that is was low on virtual memory! So I didn't really look back to see exactly when the last time I posted but I feel pretty sure it was before school let out. So I'll just see how much of the summer I can remember and then try to post some pics of our recent travels.

June was pretty much just work, work, work, and planning for our crazy July. The kids got to go on some cool field trips with their daycare summer program and I stayed quite busy at work. Recession or not, plenty of people have been having surgery at my hospital. The plastics business might be down but we are plenty busy patching people up who find ways to destroy their bodies. I'll try not to preach about this but I must say as someone who has to live with a neurologic problem that I can't control I have little sympathy for people who knowingly participate in activities that destroy their health. You want to know what's wrong with health care, well here is my opinion. We live in a society full of people who want to go and do with no regard to how it will affect their future, then they expect to be provided with a quick fix to keep the going. Well I am tired and frustrated with people who don't care enough to take care of themselves burdening our system to the point that those of us who work so hard can't even get healthcare for reasonable cost. Ok, so too late, got to preachin, back to update...

Is it spring or not???????????

Logan at country school.
One of our attempts at family photo

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Do you think she looks disappointed to get toothbrush from Easter bunny?

Our neighborhood snowman, pretty good for <2 in snow!

Garrett just about frozen in the miserable north wind, time for hot chocolate!

determined to make snowman

just days before the snow in bricktown

more fun in bricktown

Garrett's lapboard I made

Addi's

Logan's

Well life continues at a fast pace around here as we race toward the summer and the last day of school. We have passed several milestones, spring break, Easter, etc. On the home stretch now in the last 9 weeks of class, just finished parent-teacher conferences last week with glowing reports that all our hard work is keeping the boys on track with their education. The weather has been crazy up and down as my pics will reveal, sunny and warm one day with snow the next. Tball is in full swing with our 1st game a victory! Scouts is winding down thankfully as that will make tball easier. We had to cancel our plans this weekend due to a very wrong weather forcast for 100% chance of rain that we rec'd not one drop of, but I guess we shouldn't be too surprised. So we are now thinking about camping next weekend at Roman Nose as the scouts have a hike planned there. Logan and I attended his 2nd grade field trip to the musuem in Kingfisher yesterday which was fun. We got to see a gun fight, attend a 1900's school, wash clothes with a scrubboard and ringer, ride a steam engine tractor type, ride in a horse-drawn carriage, and see all kinds of neat old things that were not so long ago part of everyday life. Logan really enjoys history and this was right up his alley. We have been to this museum before 2 yrs ago but he was enough older to enjoy it even more. I was disappointed as a whole at the children's response to the collections and info from our past but I guess I am just getting old enough to really appreciate those things. I can't imagine what hard work it must have been to live without our modern-day conveniences but sometimes I think it would be fun to return to that simpler way of life.

In place of our camping trip we had a fun evening with our friends that we going to camp with us. As the weather turned out pleasant, we spent the evening on their patio and the kids had a blast playing outside. Today is housework, bills, laundry, tball, and restless kiddos with dreary weather outside. Hopefully it will brighten up before our Sunday school cookout party tonight. If this post is crazy, please forgive me as I have been interrupted no less than 6 times as I have been composing. Since I began this post approximately 1 1/2 hrs ago, I have unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, done 2 loads of laundry including folding and putting away, prepared 2 different breakfast dishes for 2 different children, refed my child who slept over at friend's house, bathed and blow-dried Addi, answered 2 phone calls, and managed to get my teeth brushed, so you can imagine that my mind might be clouded. At least I can now check this off my to-do list and move on to exercise, bills, etc. Oh where is my husband and why did I say it was ok for him to go off and do guy stuff all day?????????