What a difference a year makes...........

Today was Addi's actual birthday and we just took it easy. KK and I decided to cut our hair and boy did we ever, each cutting off many inches. Addi went along for the girl day as did Garrett since school was out for pre-k for parent-teacher conferences. This afternoon we made her cake that you see pictured and she absolutely loved it. We spent about 30 minutes lighting, blowing out her candles, relighting and blowing out her candles over and over. She loved it! It's so hard to believe that she is already 2 yrs old. Where did the time go? I added a pic from her 1st birthday a yr ago and my how she has grown. She is really becoming an independent person with a strong personality and she really believes that she is a princess. Of course we treat her like a princess so why wouldn't she think that way. She loves to shop and do all things girly. Pink is by far her favorite color and she has a great appreciation for bows and pretties. The birthday celebration will continue next week during our family Thanksgiving when we have the extended family party while we are all together for the holiday. And then just when it seems as if the birthday drama is coming to an end it will suddenly be Garrett's actual birthday which is Dec 16 and Mark's which is Dec 28. So I think we'll just leave the banner and streamers up till then.....

Birthday replay...........

So the party was a success and I for one am glad it's over and that everything went well. As many of you know, Addi and I had been very sick the week leading up to the party and I was worried that we wouldn't be well in time or that Mark and the boys would come down with it. Addi did still have fever the weekend of the party but you wouldn't have known it to look at her. She was right in the big middle of the action although she was scared of the inflatables.

This week has brought Logan and Addi's actual birthdays on Wednesday and Thursday. I hunted all over town for the requested birthday present of Optimus Prime for Logan. Much to my relief I found it in the nick of time, just hours before he opened it. I went into work late on Wednesday, which was his actual birthday, so we could deliver the football cupcakes I had stayed up late Tues evening making for his class. I think he had a great day. He is still going to the mailbox each afternoon, looking for a belated bd card.

Haapppyyyy Biirrrtttthhhhhddddddaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!

Around here, we like to stretch birthdays out as long as possible. So we got an early start last weekend as we celebrated Logan and Garrett's birthdays in a joint friend party at a place called Pump it Up. For those of you without children or not in the OKC area, this is a gigantic warehouse full of rooms of inflatable toys such as the moon bounce that many are familiar with. The boys each got to invite 12 friends and we had about 18 kids that were able to come so all in all a good turnout. It was a blast and I loved it as well because there was no cleanup for me. We arrived, we played, we ate, we opened presents, we paid, and we left! I've attached several pics of our fun.

The many faces of a princess...

I couldn't resist adding a little special photo shoot of my precious princess. She is after all my only girl and this was her 1st Halloween to really care about the event. As I said she recovered just in time for me to feel ok about taking her out to trick-or-treat. She was all about her costume, hair, and makeup. She didn't want to take it off when it was time for bed. She did look sweet if I do say so myself. A special thanks to my sweet friends Denise and Maddie who gave us the costume. Addi even had her picure taken at our church fall festival by the local newspaper so we'll let you know if we make the Piedmont Gazette tomorrow. The paper is weekly and sometimes a little behind the action. I'm not sure if Halloween will make the paper this week as it comes out tomorrow or if it will be next week. Addi made the entire route of trick-or-treating and while she hasn't mastered saying trick-or-treat, she learned quickly to walk up to the door, give her cutest princess pose, hold up her bucket, and say more peeaas!! These are some great days in the life of our parenting journey. We are so blessed!!

Trick-or-treat, smell my feet.....

Well another Halloween has now come and gone and I must say it was a great success. Despite some drama last week awaiting the late arrival of Logan's costume, everything went smoothly and what a blast! The kids all looked awesome as you can see and Addi made a terrific comeback from her illness just in time to trick-or-treat with her bubbas. Logan was Zorro, Garrett was a knight, and Addi was Snow White just in case you couldn't make it out from the pics. The only disappointment was that due to Addi's stomach bug yesterday I didn't feel good about taking her to the boys' fall parties today which I had taken off work to attend. It was just as well that I already had the day off as I would have had to have called in sick to stay home with her. It was evident early this morning that she was making a rapid recovery but I didn't want to chance a relapse during a school party. I would forever be remembered as THAT MOM who brought her sick child to the party and exposed the entire class. So we stayed home and took it easy. After we picked the boys up from school we got everybody dressed, had a little photo shoot, and headed for the church to attend the fall festival. It was the usual hotdogs and burgers, followed by games, candy, and inflatables. We headed out for the real deal trick-or-treating with some friends of ours around 7:00. Our friends live out in the country without neighbors so they came to our neighborhood where we made the rounds. The kids cleaned up and now we have more candy than we know what to do with. The night was a great success and everyone had a ball. And as Logan said as I tucked him in tonight, "Well mom, I guess now it's time for Thanksgiving and turkey stuff...." and so I guess it is!

A Good Old-fashioned Halloween Party...

Well there were hotdogs & hamburgers, a pumpkin pinata, apple bobbing, smores, scooter rides, friends and family galore, all the key ingredients for one awesome old-fashioned family Halloween weekend celebration. Mark's brother was in for the weekend from Detroit so the extended family jumped in and made it a regular holiday. We don't need much excuse to get together to eat and play but it is special these days to have Uncle Gary in town since he lives so far away. This was our first visit since we traveled to Michigan this past summer to see his new place. I think the pics tell it all, that we had FUN, FUN, FUN. The weather was a picture-perfect fall day which made the outdoor festivities even better. The kids had fun just playing around, not to mention getting to bob for apples ( I think this is a dying game due to sanitation concerns in the general population party), bust the pumpkin pinata, and eat, eat, eat. The food was great and I want to say thanks to all those who provided. This was a great weekend for me because other than getting my family there and helping out, I wasn't responsible for providing one thing. We wrapped up the weekend with our own recent family tradition of pumpkin-carving. It was great to visit with Mark's extended family and friends especially since we won't get to do Thanksgiving with them. We have the dilemma every year of which family to spend the holidays with so we long ago started a routine of trading holidays between Mark and I's respective families as we simply cannot be 2 places at once. Getting everyone together has only proved to be more challenging as the years have gone by and the families continue to grow. This year we will be in western OK with my family for Thanksgiving and in eastern OK with Mark's family for Christmas.

Well without being too graphic let me just say that I had to take a little break just now to clean up after my sweet baby girl. Addi came home "sick" from the daycare yesterday afternoon after one episode of vomiting. It was our consensus that she had a bunch of mucous on her tummy from her cold drainage and just had a little upset stomach as she proved fine the minute she rolled through the door at home. Well that is not the case today. The vomiting started around 5:00 am and hasn't let up as yet. She also seems to have diarrhea so we are having a not so great day around here. As Garrett says, I sure hope I don't get as stinky as Addi. I pray we don't pass it around whatever IT is. And most importantly I hope she gets well before Halloween. The long-awaited costumes ordered online have finally arrived and the boys are so excited to dress up tomorrow. Both selections of Zorro and a Knight have been a hit. Addi is supposed to be Snow White so we'll see how it goes. Tune in Thursday for the Halloween recap....

Oh how good it feels to be clean....

As some of you may know, this past week was fall break and we had been planning a camping trip for the last few months. The whole family packed up and traveled to Natural Falls, in eastern OK, with some friends of ours from church. We left out Thursday morning and made a day of the trip which took us almost to the state line. The kids did well on the trip although they were anxious to be there from the minute we got in the car. We stopped in Tulsa for lunch which was a nice break in the trip. We arrived mid-afternoon to find we had 2 awesome camping spots. The entire campground was really great, wide open and roomy. Since our friends have a pop-up camper they just spun theirs around on the slab and we had a great little mini-camp between our campers. We had a great fire pit which we kept pretty busy with fires in the morning and evenings. The weather couldn't have been more perfect with cool evenings and mornings with a nice warmup and sunshine during the day. Friday morning we hiked up to the natural falls which was really pretty and just about the right amount of hiking for the whole gang. Even Addi was able to make the trip and did a surprising amount of walking on her own. Our friends have 3 boys so Addi was a little outnumbered but she loved all the attention. Being the youngest and the only girl, she pretty much gets everything she wants and then some. After our hike it was time for lunch, then our afternoon consisted of time at the camp playground which was great, games with our friends, snacks, and just hanging out at camp. Next thing we knew it was time for dinner. Yes you guessed it, we ate well on this trip. The boys were always hungry and we were challenged to fill them up. Our friends introduced us to dutch oven cooking with a great mexican casserole dish which we loved. Our friends are relative experts in the area of camping, and I mean camping without amenities. I admit I am a little spoiled with my camper which connects to running water with a bathroom readily available. Anyway we had a blast cooking and eating which consumed a great deal of our long weekend. On Saturday Mark and I took the opportunity to take our friends and our own children to New Life Ranch, which is the place where Mark and I met. For those who have never heard of this place, it is a Christian camp in eastern OK that is an awesome place for kids, families, retreat groups, and just about anybody looking to have a great time in the great outdoors. We got to eat lunch with some of our friends from our camping days back in the summer of 1995. After lunch we took a little tour of the new stuff at the ranch and wrapped up the day with some canoeing which was by far the kids favorite part of the day. After a little freshening up we drove to Springdale, Arkansas, and met Mark's parents for some chicken at the infamous AQ chicken house. As long as I've known Mark, this was my first trip to the chicken house and boy was it good. The kids ate like horses and we got our money's worth. Sunday was just a lazy morning spent mostly eating, packing up, eating, loading up, eating, and heading for home. The trip home was long as they usually are when your vacation is over and you're thinking about the week ahead. I can truly say that it was a restful and rejuvenating time, spent with good friends, just taking some time to appreciate all we are blessed with. It's back to the grindstone this week as we finish out the fall semester. I know that before we turn around again the holidays will be upon us. It seems we are in for some real changes in the weather this week. As I sit at my computer composing this it is storming outside and it looks like snow with the ground covered by hail. We drove through the front on our way home today and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees between Tulsa and OKC. It was nice to unload in the cool. We arrive home safely around 5:00 and had everything unloaded by about 6:30 but it will likely be days before I have it all really put away. I am saddened that the trip is over as I usually am but have great memories and stories to tell for it. I am happy to say we escaped with our most severe injury being a spill Garrett took into the concrete picnic table. In his haste to roast his marshmellow he tripped on the concrete pad and went nose first into the concrete bench. He is still quite swollen and bruised and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it's broken but we'll see. I guess we'll be in for a trip to the pediatrician later this week. Having broken my own nose as a child, I know there is nothing they can do about it until the swelling subsides anyway. We were just happy to get it to stop bleeding which proved to be quite a challenge in Garrett's state of drama after the fall. I knew he was going to be ok when about 45 min later after some recovery time in the camper he wanted to know when he could have a smore. All in all, an awesome fall break!!