The pox have hit!

So after a whole week of being sick with something else, the dreaded chicken pox has made it's appearance. Chandler started breaking out on Saturday and felt fine until last night. He started running a fever (see top pic) and was NOT in the mood for pictures. :) Today he had even more but his fever was down and so he's back to his cheery self. After his bath I slathered him up with calamine lotion -- he kept saying his bottom tickled from the spots. :) Brayden has a few but seems to have a super mild case of it. Chandler doesn't have many either really. And Taylor shouldn't get it since she's had the vaccine. Thank goodness for small blessings! :)

Day 6

....of the kids being sick. I told Tom last night that I haven't had shoes on my feet since SUNDAY!! That's what happens when you don't ever leave the house. I'm feeling VERY cooped up right about now. I'm looking forward to getting out sometime this weekend... provided *I* don't get sick. lol



On a side note, I found a new internet obsession to consume my time. (Like I need something else!!!) I finally entered the world of myspace. I swore I never would, but it's really been fun. And waaaay too time consuming. I'm just glad that since they're sick, we haven't been doing school and it was valid for the kids to be watching movies back to back. lol The newness is wearing off now, so I think I'll be better about it. :) www.myspace.com/tatcab (as in an acronym for tom, adriana, taylor, chandler and brayden)

Ok, I'm going to go hang out with my sick kiddos. Have a great day everybody.

Meet our family's newest additions!

We got two hamsters tonight. We had a hamster on our Christmas list for the kids, but they were sold out so we had the cage set up Christmas morning so they knew they were going to get one. I took the older two with me and I surprised them and let them each get one. That way they could each get the pick and name theirs. They were soooo excited. :)

Brayden is CRAZY about them. He gets positively giddy when they even move. :) He follows the ball around saying their names over and over "Rowie! (Rosie) Sissos! (Scissors)" He's such a funny guy.
This one is Chandlers, he named her Scissors. She's VERY skittish and will jump out of your hands into midair if you give her the chance. She goes to town on the wheel and in the ball. Lola has no idea what's going on. She's used to being the queen bee around here. She's very intense when she sees them... visibly shaking with.... excitement? jealousy? lol. She doesn't seem to like them much. She barks at the ball and makes Brayden laugh hysterically. :)

This is little Rosie, Taylor's pick. She's a sweetie, she'll let you hold and pet her as much as you want and never tries to bite. Taylor named her Rosie after my dad's (Poppy) hamster that he told her about while they were here. :) I thought that was so sweet. :)

Hooray for homeschooling :)

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

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Very Merry Fry/Reagh Christmas

Christmas with the Frys!

We celebrated Christmas with my family Saturday after Taylor's party. It had been a long day so we skipped the traditional desserts and munchies (all the stuff we wanted to have at the New Year's Eve party the next night anyways!) and just had sandwiches. Dad read a devotion and we had prayer time as a whole family. It was awesome. Then the presents came out... I'd made a collage frame with b&w pictures for mom and dad. I meant to take pictures to post on there, but I forgot. They turned out so nice. Most of the pictures were the same in each ( I did several for different family members) and in a few of the spots I'd put pictures of the kids with whomever I was giving it to. They really liked it. I had also found a beautiful wooden plaque at Lifeway with their family verse on it (Ps. 37:4) and just had to get it because it's so special to them.

After presents, we watched an old Christmas movie I'd tivoed called Holiday Affair. We have seen almost every old movie ever made, but we'd never heard of this one. It was a gem of a Christmas movie and instantly went on our Christmas-movies-to-watch-every-year list :)

Sunday morning we went to church in Shreveport with my dad and the kids to visit their church's sister church! It's neat that we live so close to it. This church in Shreveport sent two men from there to plant a church in Tulsa several years back. It's been flourishing ever since. My siblings know many of the youth from there because many of them have come to Tulsa for the summer to help with VBS and the inner city kids outreaches that the church has. They were excited to see all of their friends. Both churches are really cool and have hearts for the inner city kids.

I say we went with my dad and the kids because my mom ended up having to stay home with my sister Angel because she had curious "bites" on her that looked suspiciously like chicken pox! And that's exactly what it is.. a few hours after getting home from church, Judah had spots too!! So much for not passing it around. lol They were both broken out a lot when they left monday. My kids got exposed, of course AND I had to call all the kids from the party to tell them that they had been exposed too! :-P I had to alert Ginger (Piper's mom) and she decided to just take the chance. The incubation is 10 days to 3 weeks! So it would not have worked out well to try to keep her away that long. Not to mention the time it would take to finally get over it! I'm sort of glad my kids will get it now -- better young then when they're older.

Sunday night we all went to the Bourcier's for New Years Eve. We made TONS of food.... every holiday treat you can think of pretty much! It was a blast. (And I forgot my camera! When I get the pics they took from Janet and Erika, I'll post 'em!) I love hanging with the older ones, it's just like we are still kids. We played several games with Lauren, Gracie, Avery and Bailey Bridges was there too. Both games were very loud and we turned Midnight Madness in to a contact sport! The Fry's are very physical as the girls quickly learned. lol We had Lauren in stitches with our antics. We rang in the new year with sparkling cider -- "bubbly" as Ness calls it -- and some fireworks Dad held over from the 4th. :) We stayed visiting even after that and finally got home and crawled into bed about 2:30. Too many late nights for this tired mama!! :)

Monday was lazy -- my family took their time getting ready to go, the packing being generously interspersed with movies, football and talk fests... :) We said our goodbyes (sniff) and they got on the road about 5.

Such a long weekend - but I wouldn't trade the fun and family we had for all the sleep and peace in the world! :)

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Taylor's Birthday Party!

We celebrated Taylor's birthday on Saturday. She LOVES art and so we had an arts and crafts party for her. It turned out great and everyone had a great time! My whole family had just gotten into town the night before (morning rather) at 4! I was still busy doing stuff for the party so I never went to bed until after they got here. I think it was around 5:15. :) I was pretty much running on pure adreneline by the time the party rolled around.

We "got creative in the kitchen" (as stated in the invitation :)) making pizza and decorating cupcakes. BIG hit. We also had tshirts to paint and take home. The tshirts were set up in the playroom and we had the fooseball table set up in the garage; with so many people here (about 20 kids and 20 teens/adults!!) it was nice having the playroom and garage to spread out a bit. We had butcher paper covering the tables so the kids could write messages and draw pictures. They could also color on the big Happy Birthday sign Erika made. I told her my idea for it and she ran with it. She did a great job. I thought I was going to lose my mind during the first 15 minutes... it was downright hairy when everyone was arriving! But after a few min of utter chaos, I was able to delegate and get kids occupied in different stations. It all want super smooth after that. I tell you, it made it so nice having my family here. My mom was making icing, Vanessa was supervising the tshirts and Erika did almost all the decorating before hand(artsy primary colors). I don't know if I'll attempt another big party like that again, but it sure was fun!

Christmas with the Hedricks

Christmas with the Hedricks

Christmas day was spent with Tom's family. It was a blast! Great food, presents and a nerf gun battle. :) We got there about 12:30 after we had picked up Taylor. We eat Christmas dinner around 1:30 (Yum!) After presents, we just hung out and picked at the leftovers all day. We got home around 10 and Brayden promptly passed out in his new Cars chair he got from Grandma and Papa. :)

Or not-- I just realised that he's wearing a different outfit! lol.. this was the next night, I think. :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve morning we went to church. It was so wonderful. I got to help lead worship and it felt so good to be serving in that capacity again! Bud Miller's sermon was very powerful. I was barely able to make it through the closing song because of the tears. If you get a chance, listen to it on CCC's website!

After church we made some cookies and a birthday cake for Jesus. I forgot to get pictures of the cake. We spent some time talking about the cake and again why we celebrate Christmas and then Tom read Luke 2. The kids loved singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was a lot of fun.

That evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was beautiful time, with a harpist playing while families took communion together. Then we sang Christmas carols. It was the first time we've been in town for the service and I was so glad we were able to be a part of it.