Baby it's cold outside..................

Happy Birthday Garrett and Logan

On the candy tour

On the way to Branson

and a mermaid birthday!

Our sweet baby cousin!

It was a Go Pokes Birthday!

Well my friends, it has arrived, the bitter cold arctic air, and I can't say I am too fond of it. Now if I could just hibernate in my home around my fire in my jammies with a cup of hot tea, I could really get into this. But seeing as how I have to drag 3 sleepy children out of bed, layer them in 18 articles of clothing topped of by hats, coats, and hopefully 2 gloves a piece, get them to school, and then drag myself to the hospital and hike the 1/4 mi into the facility (b/c nurses do not get to park anywhere near the door) I could just as soon live without the 40mi/hr wind on top of the air temp in the teens. But I guess it is winter and all and not my 1st winter in OK so this doesn't come as a surprise, just a nuisance. Even worse is the threat of the ice storm and the effects it could have on travel and our electricity, not to mention that this is supposed to last all week. Now since the great weather forecasters have been warning us about this for approximately a week, we were out today in the balmy 65 degree weather stocking up on supplies like every other prepared Oklahoman. Mark and I were thinking that since we have enough wood to keep a fire going for a week, enough fuel for our Coleman stove to cook all winter, and more batteries than even our children could run down, maybe nothing will come of this!

So now that you have my thoughts on the weather, here are our latest undertakings. Most recently like this weekend we have been taking in some awesome Christmas programs. Our church hosted a Christmas contata last night complete with full orchestra and choir which was awesome. We even took Addi Grace who was enthralled with the instruments and danced her way through the performance. The boys enjoyed it as well and played their air drums right along with the percussionists. It really got me in the Christmas spirit. Today was church and the kiddos program was tonight. The boys spent the better part of the day at dress rehearsal. Addi napped and I worked on our Christmas cards which I hope to mail this week. So if you don't get one and you want one, you can email your address (http://www.tracistites@yahoo.com/) and I'll send you one. It may take me all week so just be patient. Like I said, I have to drag myself in to work the next 2 days and I may spend all my xtra time (like I ever have xtra time) thawing. Anyway, the children's program was entitled "It all happened in the country" and was a story about how these city kids got stranded in the country and learned to appreciate the simple things in life including the simplicity of the surroundings that our Savior was born into. It was cute as could be and the kids did an awesome job. I wish you could have seen my oldest son and his solo part. Now it wasn't a singing or speaking part, but rather a dancing part. There was a song called Jingle Rap and as you can imagine was meant to demonstrate the secular side of things as a demo of the city kids lifestyle. Well Logan was the breakdancer and he stole the show. We are so proud! No, really he did the part proud and it was stinkin funny! The best part is that I have the whole thing on video to hold over his head when he is 16 or sooner if need be. Garrett was in the choir for the production and also did a great job.

As I missed the entire month of Nov, I shall cover that briefly. We were busy with birthday marathon as Logan and Addi's birthdays are back to back on the 14th and 15th and lest you think I exaggerate on the marathon part, Garrett's birthday is around the corner on the 16th of this month. So we had friend party, family party, actual day celebrations, etc. And then came Thanksgiving which found us in Branson, MO, with Mark's family. You see some years ago when Mark and I were engaged we went to Branson with his family for Thanksgiving and had so much fun that we have talked about it for the last 12 yrs. So over the summer we decided that we needed to go back so I made some reservations and we did just that. For those of you that don't know, Mark used to live there for 2 summers in college and work at Silver Dollar City. He still knows some people there and we were blessed to get free tickets. Mark worked in the candy shop there and the kids even got a private tour of the candy-making facility. Talk about feeling special, that was cool! We also went to the Dixie Stampede Christmas dinner show, Branson Landing, and of course, my mom-in-law and I breezed through the outlet mall. It was a great trip and a nice change from just a turkey dinner. Thanks to my inlaws we did manage to have our traditional turkey dinner even on the road. I had been ill the week of Thanksgiving and had a terrible sinus infection but I forged on and finally felt better, you guessed it, the day we came home! So in a nutshell that's what we've been up to. Sorry I don't have time for my details but I must get my sweet Addi to bed. I"ll try to post some pics of the above-mentioned fun. Keep warm and get your flu shot if you haven't already, it's not too late. I got mine last week! Just a last minute nurse suggestion!