Makeovers at Mary Kaye

We got back about 11:30 last night from Oklahoma. It was a short trip - a 5 hour drive both ways is hard when you're only there for a day and a half. On Saturday, us older girls and my mom went for a Mary Kaye makeover for my mom's birthday. It was so much fun.... we all got a kick out of Vanessa clumsily trying to put on eye shadow. :) Here's us after the Mary Kaye treatment.

Afterwards we went to lunch at a French cafe and saw the Nativity movie. We ended up spending all day in Tulsa, which made the trip seem shorter since we were split up from the rest of the family and didn't get to visit with them as much, but we'll see them again soon. The kids have their state basketball tournament in OK City in March. I think the kids and I are going to try to drive up for that.

I'm so tired from the trip. The drive back is always torture since we're already super tired from running nonstop the entire weekend... I have trip stuff to put away, dishes to do, laundry to fold and a lesson to prepare for ELO on Wednesday, but I just want to veg. Or sleep. Yeah, sleep would be even better. :) Oh yeah, to top it all off... my youngest sisters were sick with something (fevers and fluish symptoms) while we were there and my mom came down with it Sunday! AS IF we need anything else!! I'm trying to stay positive and hope for the best, but it's almost inevitable. I'm so sick of being sick! I need to go pick up some airborne but I'm just too tired to drag everyone out in the rain. That would probably be counter productive! :P Maybe when Tom gets home from work....

The Boys' Birthday Bash

Boys' Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese!

What a fun party! This was the boys' first real party and I wasn't sure about Chuck E. Cheese... it's such a rip off sometimes. But we had pizza and tokens out the wazoo and everyone had a blast - especially the adults! :) The favorite thing was the photo sketch booth. Stephanie, Jess and I tried at least 4 times and in everyone one of us was doing something goofy. And then Dave and Tom had to get their picture taken together. So silly. The ice cream cake was Yuuuummmmy! (yes, I had some when we got home, Jess... I was trying to be good, but it looked so good and I had to do my part to eat up the leftovers! ;)) The boys' made out like bandits... thanks everyone so much! What a blessing... I think. They did get an awful lot of music/noisy toys. lol It really surprised me, I guess since we'd never done the friend party before. :) Have fun browsing the pictures of the night!

We're leaving for OK this evening, so I have tons to do! See you when we get back!

Spur of the moment home improvements!

Today we had to stay home from church yet another Sunday to make sure we didn't pass around the virus that Brayden had. Thank goodness, he seems to be quite recovered!

Anywho, Tom had picked up a few supplies from Home Depot on Friday so on a whim, we started moving out furniture to prime and paint the living room!! I'm SUPER excited!

Tom has wonderful, grand plans for the architecture, lighting and decor of the house, it's just that it takes much planning, time and money to make happen! I'd somewhat given up on ever getting the painting done and despaired over never having anything hung on the walls. :) So to finally be moving forward with painting has made me the happiest wife ever! I love you, Honey!! You're the GREATEST!!

Today we got the ceiling scraped, the spots spackled, and sanded and tomorrow we'll be priming. The next day painting!! The plan is a caramel with a slightly darker glaze to make a leather finish. :::Happy dance::: I'm simply giddy right now! We're doing the hallway the same as the living, the dining room red, I think.. and the bathroom might even get done too! I don't know what color yet though. :)

Here's the dining room filled to the max with all the living room stuff. I LOVE the part where it's like this... it's so fun to live like this for a few days. If Tom would let me, I'd switch the living and dining furniture around just for kicks sometime. ;)

Tom scraping the ceiling acoustic in preparation for priming.

Me up high -- I was sanding the spackle near the peak of the vaulted ceiling. :) Ooh ooh, with my new Zune!! Yeah, I'm cool.

And this is what it looks like now. So messy. We moved the couch back into the living room for the Super Bowl -- of course! -- and I dragged the elliptical back in from the playroom to work off all the cheating I did tonight. (Super bowl munchies are the devil) I was on that thing for 75 minutes and burned over 1000!!!! calories!! Woo hoo! (Notice the empty water bottle-- I went through three of those things) Seriously though, I cannot sleep now to save my life. lol

Past few weeks

Weeks have past and I haven't even thought about blogging. It's germ city here! I swear, I'm scrubbing every surface in this house and even changing our diet trying to stay healthy! If you think of it pray for us. :)

So, first it was the flu thing that all the kids had, back to back with the chicken pox .. we finally got over that a few weeks ago. Then on Monday Brayden came down with some sort of virus from he-double hockeysticks. :P He was vomiting and had constant diarrhea. Yuck! We got the diarrhea under control and by Wednesday he was feeling much better. Then, on Thursday Piper arrived all nice and spotty... her turn with the chicken pox!! Sigh. And on top of that, today Brayden relapsed big time, causing us to have to delay our weekend in Oklahoma. He's still not feeling well now. My poor baby.

Here's a few pics of things have gone on -- (click on the picture)

Past few weeks

I realised the Sat before last that kids had not been out of the house in two straight weeks in attempt to not spread our germs. :0) They were about to go crazy! So, I loaded up the older ones (Brayden was still iffy) and let them expend all their pent up energy at KidStation for the afternoon.

We got some bunk beds for the boys! I'm so excited and so are the boys. I've always wanted ones just like this, but I've been patient and I think God blessed that. :)

Um, oh yeah. It snowed in Texas! You can't see it in the pictures and it certainly didn't stick, but it did indeed snow! The kids loved catching it on their tongue. Chandler wanted to hold it in his hand first and then put it in his mouth. :)

The last one is Little Brady (that's what Phia calls him) -- he's so sick, but he's still smiling!

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!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

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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.

Our Christmas morning

Our Christmas morning

We had our Christmas morning today. This year, Taylor will be with Nikki the early part of Christmas day. When this happens, we always do ours early so we're all together for opening presents. We would have done it on Christmas eve morning, but since I have to be at church at 8:30 for worship practice, it just wasn't practical to try to cram everything into tomorrow morning. We surprised the kids having everything out when they woke up. They were expecting to do it tomorrow. :) It was so much fun watching their faces. We let them have all of their birthday presents from us too since all of them were big and we were tired of hiding them!! :)

(btw, the pictures are for the benefit of out of town grammy's, grandma's, papa's, poppy's and great mimi's and great papa's -- it's just a whole lot of "variations of the delighted face". lol)

After the presents were opened, Tom and I let the kids play while we took a nap. :) About midmorning we all got around and went out together to enjoy my grandma's gift to us, Christmas brunch! We were all famished by 11 so it sure was good!! We were lazy the rest of the day, playing with the kids, watching football and the like. Finally about 4 we all got up and did individual 15 minute scrambles in separate rooms to get the house all put back in order. It was fun and got the house in great shape!

As a reward for helping, Chandler helped me make puppy chow and I let Taylor make sandart cookies all by herself! It's a fun way for her to use her fraction skills. :) After dinner, we snacked on our culinary handiwork and watched a Veggie Tales Christmas movie. Before they went to bed, we talked about the movie. It was cool to know that they really do grasp the fact that presents are fun, but they are only secondary to the true meaning of Christmas. Then we carried on a tradition from my family, and turned out all the lights in the house except for the tree lights and sat around the living room singing Christmas hymns. I had to teach the kids some of words of the verses... which appalled me. lol... but I guess it does take years of exposure to get them all down!! :)

Ok, I'm heading to bed! Happy happy Christmas, everyone!

Oh just a heads up, there's going to be some GREAT old Christmas classics on the Turner Movie Classics channel over the next week or so. I have about 8 of them set to tivo. Bishop's Wife, White Christmas, I Remember Mama, Meet Me in St. Louis.... oh the simplicity of yesteryear. sigh.... You can stop laughing now, Tom... Stephanie.... :)

Taylor's first recital!

Taylor's First Recital

Taylor had her first piano recital this evening. She did such a wonderful job. She played three songs that she had memorized: Jolly Old Saint Nick, Jingle Bells and Ode to Joy. I gave her her Christmas dress early so she could dress up. She was so happy. She looked absolutely gorgeous and so grown up! Pam and Coy (Tom's parents) and her cousin Daven came to watch her play, as well as her friends Sarah and Hannah Johnson. They had a great time together. Afterwards, we all went to Posatos to celebrate her musical accomplishment. :)

I have a long rant in my head about it not seeming like Christmas and how I'm not excited... or rather it just hasn't sunk in yet that it's only 5 days away. I don't know which. In any case, it was too long and rambly to bother with.

I finally got the last of my Christmas cards signed today and 97% are even mailed! I have a handful that I still have to get addresses for. That's so annoying. It was such a big deal getting the pictures in with the cards this year and it really delayed me! I'm usually right on top of it and have them out the first week in December. Not so this year. It's irksome to me. :)

Ok, I'm done being negative. Merry Christmas!! :)

Ha! two posts in one day! lol

Christmas fun

Tonight was awesome. The movie was cute, the courthouse was great and pizza is just always good. :) And the crowning glory to the night was that Santa Claus walked down the street and let us try on his wig! lol Don was nice enough to put everything back on for the kids to see him again when we got home. The kids ran out and were so excited to see Santa walking across the yard. Our kids know the story of the real St. Nick so Santa isn't a really a big deal for us but it was still so much fun to hang out with Don and try on his costume. Thanks Don!! L(

Agh

Goings on

You know it's been a long time between posts when your husband even comments on it. lol

Quick run down of our jam packed, fun and exciting past few weeks and the pictures you'll see -- playing in the yard.. ok that was just a random pic.

Church ladies Treats and traditions -- didn't get any pictures, but what an awesome night out with the girls!!

Putting up the tree family party! Oh it was so much fun -- eggnog, puppy chow, apples and caramel, cookies, and warm soup.

ELO Christmas party. The kids had a blast with all of their friends.

Ladies Craft Brunch -- again, it happened, but I didn't get any pictures! Bummer! It sure was fun though!

Daven's 8th Birthday Party at the pizza place in Gladewater... missed you Pam!!

Taylor's Soccer -- they haven't lost one game of the indoor season! Yah, Firecrackers!

Church Christmas program and dessert party - yummy fun. :)

Couple of everyday pics and today's gingerbread decorating party with the kids. I've always loved the idea, but I'm too busy to mess with all the hassle... UNTIL I found this super cute kit at wally world! The kids loved it. I fought the control freak in me and let the kids have free rein with the decorating, and it really did turn out great! :)

Tonight we're going to a movie, dinner and then Christmas at the courthouse where our friend Don is playing Santa. :) It promises to be a great family evening! Take care! :)

Greg's leaving the Wiggles :(

I'm a grown woman - this shouldn't make me this sad. :) Greg Page is leaving the Wiggles! A chronic disorder that causes nausea, fatigue and fainting spells when he stands up has made it impossible for him to continue preforming with the Wiggles. It's just so sad. His understudy, Sam, is taking his place as the yellow Wiggle. You can more about it here and there's also a video message from Greg explaining about leaving and introducing Sam.

Happy Thanksgiving!

WARNING: Tons of pictures to look at (or not) in the album! :)

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving weekend. I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well.

Quick rundown of the events that have made up Thanksgiving 2006: Wednesday: 6am - I was up making pumpkin bread and signing Thanksgiving cards for my family. (so yummy - saved some for us!) I spent the rest of the day packing and picking up the house. 7pm - Finally got on the road, quick stop to drop off Lola (our dog) with my inlaws and visit a few with Tom's family and then back on the road! We got to my parents house around midnight and got to bed around 2. :)

Thursday - Had a leisurely morning, the kids played football with Tom and my dad. I went to Mimi's house about 10 to make pies because she was not feeling well, we we had no room in Mom's oven for more pies! We had dinner about 5ish. Itwas a super yummy!! I had no room for pie until much later. :) Afterwards we sang Thanksgiving hymns and then visited with family long into the night. Another grand Fry Thanksgiving!

Friday: Another leisurely morning! (lovely) Tom and I decided to go out for an afternoon date and had lunch and did some Christmas shopping. It was so fun! It was so nice to just be out and have no time limits and go in as many shops as we wanted and browse and must be together. :) The hustle and bustle of Black Friday was still there a little bit and it was fun to be in on that. That night we had pizza and watched movies with my family. Then we were up until late playing Trivial Pursuit with my dad and older siblings. So fun!

Saturday found my and my siblings scrambling to find a place to watch the OU/OSU Bedlam game! My parents don't have satellite so we went to McD's first, then Monterey's, where on Friday Tom and I had seen most of the Texas game, but still no luck. FInally we ended up in the plasma section of Best Buy!! We were quite a sight to see... 8 of us standing around, cheering and then trying to act nonchalant. lol We watched the first half and then listened to the second half on the radio at home, munch on puppy chow. :) And all I'm going to say is --- the sooners won --- There, see I'm not gloating. :))))

Ok, I thought this was going to be a summary -- agh -- so Saturday we all went to my sister Vanessa's school where they were having a concert and the lighting of the campus, and lots of fireworks. It was really nice and so pretty. The hot cocoa was good too. :) Grandma came with us and it was great getting to spend more time with her.

Sunday we went to my parents church. We have several friends there, so it's always nice to see all of them. :) We went to lunch with Mimi and Papa to spend some time with them before we left. We all enjoyed that. Then we headed back to the house to pack up and say goodbye to my family. We got on the road about 5 and made it home by 10. It's so nice to be home! :)

Fall Party

Just now getting these off my camera! :) What a fun day it was. I'm already planning the next one: Decorating Christmas Cookies Party. :)

Lot'o'pics

Recent pics

Just thought I'd get these up -- don't have time for labels yet, so check back for explanations some other time. :o)