My little Sooner
Monday, October 31, 2005
Kid's fall pictures
I had the hardest time getting Chandler and Brayden to look at the camera and smile all at the same time... this one turned out the best pretty much and it's not great... but oh well... the others are just fun. 
Meet my new little sister!
This is my mom with Suzannah. She is my new sister! Suzannah is two and was born with cerebral palsy. She was from a sibling group DHS took away from a couple living in their car and on all sorts of drugs. It's a really sad story. She's been in the Children's Hospital in Tulsa ever since she was taken away from her biological parents, over a year ago. My family has been visiting her everyday for months now, caught in all sorts of red tape to get her placed with them. DHS has some sort of rule about foster care that they won't place with any family that has over 6 kids. So they're trying to get her transferred to the cherokee nation from DHS so that she can get out of the hospital to the family that loves her!! When they get her, it will foster care at first and they will adopt as soon as it's possible. It's not official yet, but I wanted to share. :)
Christmas shopping... already???
Can you believe it's only 55 days until Christmas?? It's sooooo close! I can't stop thinking about it.... it's my favorite holiday of all. It's the birthday of my precious Savior, Jesus Christ. And it's very much a sensory holiday - I'm very much a sensory person. Every year the smells and sounds bring back sweet memories of my childhood. (That's me hugging my daddy's knee) Sounds - I only listen to ONE Christmas cd - the Time Life Christmas Treasury I grew up listening to - anything else just doesn't seem "Christmasy" to me. Smells - The popourri my mom always made with apples, oranges, cloves, allspice and cinnamon on the stove... pumpkin pie baking.....boxwood - we used to have a Christmas candle I'd unpack every year. I'd always close my eyes tight and breathe the boxwood in and that to me meant Christmas was really here. I have a lot of wonderful memories like that.
Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to recreate my childhood, I have to stop and kick myself - or rather Tom kicks me - he's good at reminding me that we need to create our own family memories and traditions. This is our third Christmas together and I'm looking forward to the new traditions we'll come up with - memories for our kids that will last a lifetime.
But my title was Christmas shopping - Yep, I've already gotten some people crossed off my list... for the most part. This year I'm doing gift baskety gift for each family (aunts' families, grandma, bro-in-law's family, etc) it makes it easier on me, plus I'm doing up gifts that the whole family can do together. We're the freaks of both our families in that we actually LIKE to do things together... lol... not really, but sometimes feels that way. :) Anyway, I've gotten most of the stuff for baskets for several families on my side. One I'm doing that is so cute - I got this ceramic popcorn bowl at Target for $15 (it's huge), I'm going to fill it with homemade caramel popcorn and stick some a blockbuster gift card in there - and there you have a family movie night for a family of 4 and it's only $30! For Tom's sister and brother's families, I think we're going to get year-round family zoo pass. It's about $45 and it's a gift that keeps on giving all year long!
Now, please don't think I'm one of those people who totally skip over Thanksgiving in preparation for Christmas.... actually this is the first year I've bought anything until two weeks before Christmas! (Bad, I know) I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fall and Thanksgiving, as I think I adequately conveyed earlier. :) Thanksgiving has many of the same family centered memories that Christmas does for me, and is a very close second when it comes to favorite holidays! Right now, I'm in the process of making a Thanksgiving menu. And I keep finding cute fally stuff on clearance! I got some fall leaves potholders, a horn of plenty guest towel and a pumpkin soap dispenser at Target for just a few dollars... I can't resist good deals!
I need to get going, I've started a massive decluttering mission today. Pray for me - and I'll update later!
I hate trying to be orgainzed.... it never works!
I wrote this after all my other posts today, but thought that it'd make more sense if it came right after mentioning my decluttering mission... the FAILED mission... :(
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I'm so bummed. I had EVERYTHING from the playroom, the storage room, the kids' rooms and my closet pulled out into the backyard - a la clean sweep - and was going to sort into piles: sell, throw away, and keep. THEN it had to start raining! I frantically shoved everything back inside... SO NOW, my house looks even worse and I didn't get anything done!! Those areas were going to be my accomplishment of the day and now I feel like I have nothing to show for the day except school and a moderately clean kitchen. WAH!
On the upside though, Tom (the BEST husband in the WHOLE world) sorted through the massive amount laundry last night and got a bunch done while I was out gallivanting! (Starbucks with the ladies from church). So, laundry is take ncare of for the time being, but still... I feel like a total failure as a housewife. I'm so not cut out for this keep the house clean and spotless and organized part of marriage... whine whine....
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
One more post today
We got this a few weeks ago, but I needed to just praise and thank God for providing it for us! TODAY the transmission went out in the jeep! I was shocked. I don't know why I'm so surprised though. God is so great about timing! I was hesitant about taking on more debt, but He knew we would need it and is providing so abundantly for the payments!
Yummy fall flavors!
This is my absolute favorite time of the year! The smells, the colors and oh the flavors of fall!! Fuzzy sweaters, a crackling fire, anticipation of all the holidays coming up... there's nothing better! Tonight is life group at the Crowe's and I'm bringing snacks. I'm going all out fall with pumpkin bread, homemade apple cider, chex mix, and hot cocoa! Yummy!
This cold front caught me by surprise for some reason. I've been looking forward to it for so long, but here it is and my little kiddos had nothing to wear! I had to run out to Target last night to get them some warm clothes just so we could go to Walmart for groceries without being accused of child neglect! My boys are just the right sizes to get matching 
outfits! Aren't they cute?? I'm a little prejudiced, but all through Walmart people were ooohing and aaaahing over them.... so there must be something to it!
A great idea for little kids if you have a fireplace is to roast marshmallows and make s'mores! If you don't have one you can roast them in your oven on broil. We did this the first night it was cold and the kids had a blast!
I've been meaning to do this craft with the kids, but haven't yet. I think it's a great idea... you've probably heard of it, but you take a pine cone and spread peanut butter all over it then roll it in bird seed. Hang it outside and take up bird watching with your kids. :)
Chandler just asked me to show the picture of him in his new Bob the Builder pj's. :) Here you 
go... see my pretty fall/Thanksgiving decorations in the background!? I love fall decorating. :) We're making a thanksgiving tree today in school to add to our decor - I'm going to make a big tree trunk and branches out of construction paper, and cut out leaves from all different colors and then we'll write things on the leaves that we're thankful for! Growing up, my family did this every Thanksgiving. We also made pictures of pilgrims and indians. We had this one book all about how to do all sorts of stuff with cutouts of your hands... use them for hair for a pilgrim girl, feathers for an indian man, feathers on the back of a turkey... etc, etc. Making paper decorations for Thanksgiving brings back a lot of great family memories. It's a tradition I want to carry on with my own family and give my kids the gift of wonderful memories.
My baby cracked his head!!
This all started Thursday evening. While I was cooking dinner, Taylor sat Brayden on the low counter/eating area between the kitchen and dining room and walked outside. I turned around to see him shove himself backwards and to my horror he was right on the edge. (the one farthest away of course) He fell onto the carpet in the dining room on his back. I was panicked that I'd let this happen!! What a terrible mother I am! But he seemed to be fine after fussing a bit. Then on Saturday morning, I noticed a large lump on the back of his head that was soft and squishy. I 
rushed him to our pediatrician who said she thought he was fine, but wanted to get an xray just to make sure it wasn't a skull fracture. So, over to the er we went. After the xray, we were told quickly that there were abnormalities and he needed a ct scan! WHAT?? But they wouldn't tell me anything else. It was so frustrating! Anyhow, it turned out that it was a skull fracture, but nothing else was wrong, THANK THE LORD! They wanted to keep him overnight for observation. So we spent the weekend at Good Shepherd. Fun, fun! Brayden was in a great mood the whole time, as you can see in these pictures. :) Especially for sleeping as little as he did for two whole days! Everytime he'd fall asleep the nurse would come in to poke and prod him. I tried to show the lump, but you can't see it much in the pictures. It's on the right side, towards the back when you're looking at him from the front, on the left from the back. 
This is the second Sunday in a row that we've had to miss church and it's taking it's toll on me! I miss my friends! I was looking forward to worship so much - Jonathan had some great some picked out. I missed my little guys for sunday school... and I missed hearing Ken Turner (I think that's his name) again! (Last time I was in the nursery) Nothing will keep us from going this Sunday! I can't wait!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
Can't make up my mind
I've changed my template three times since starting this thing... I don't like any of these much, but I'm not java script savvy enough to come up with something better on my own. Ugh. I'm about to go skin searching....
Check these girls out!
I have to let everyone know about this Christian girl band, Barlow Girl. I've known about them for awhile, but just recently was able to listen to the whole cd. These three sisters from Illinois speak about purity, not dating, modesty, self-image issues, not conforming, and many other things the teens of this world deal with today.
The first song I ever heard was Never Alone. I loved it!! When I heard it on the radio I thought I was listening to Evanescence, who despite their negative attitude about being a Christian band, have awesome vocals and music.
When I got a hold of the whole cd, I listened to the other songs and I was almost a little disappointed that more of the album didn't follow the Evanescence vein, then I came to the song, She Walked Away. I was sobbing by the end of this beautiful song. It was like it was written about me. I'm aware that's the most cliche thing you can say about a song, but it's the only way to describe it. From my feelings of being trapped and wanting my independence to the gut wrenching pain I put my family through as they prayed fervently for my return, it was so right on. I could only weep for joy at the end of the song as the question is asked, how will this story end? God mercifully granted my family's prayers and I did return to my faith! Praise God for all He's done!
Now, I don't want you to think that these two songs are the only good songs on this album. Every one of the tracks on Barlow Girl is phenomenal lyrically, and though the lyrics outperform the music in a few songs (Average Girl, Clothes), I doubt most of their target audience will even notice it. This cd needs to be listened to by every teenager in America. Barlow Girl has managed to grab the truth and record it for today's youth to examine.
Ok, I just came from the Girls' site, and I may be a bit behind, but they have their second album out and it sounds awesome! I can't wait to get it!
Visit their website - http://www.barlowgirl.com/
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Happy??
I've posted a ton of pictures, even written a few lines... Hope you are happy, because I'm totally put out! (Just kiddin')
Anyone who knows how to edit the order of text and pictures all posted in the same day, please let me know. :)
I don't like pressure!!
Haha... I told you guys I'm not good at this. And you're only adding to the pressure!! Here's some pictures to tide you over anyway.... lol
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