Good Ol' Rooster Days

Come rain or shine... we must go to the Rooster Day parade! It's become a tradition for us. It used to be us, and Jani, and our friends from the hood that would all trek up to Main St. This was our first year with just Steve and I and the kids. Which really made me realize that life is changing, and change can be good. Of course, some things could be better, but we are very fortunate for what we have. This had to be the coolest (temperature wise) Parade Day that I can recall, which I am so grateful for. The rain wasn't so nice for my camera though.

Addy couldn't wait for the parade to start. She kept running out in the street to see if it was coming!

Everybody is happy when they see the Blue Bell truck coming. Ice cream!

And, our new favorite thing this year was the petting zoo. I think it's a great addition to the Rooster Day festivities. It's just a rip off to feed the animals! I love Camo's face!



Addy loved the little baby goats. They were so cute..except for this one that had a 5inch snot string hanging from it's nostril. Eewww.....Well, until next year....

Little Dresses for Africa

This is a post I meant to write two days ago...

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attended a wonderful brunch at Ashley's house. ( I am throughly convinced she is SuperWoman!) She had a group of us over to honor a group of Mother's. We'll never meet them because they've died mainly due to Aids. Our group made pillowcase dresses for the many daughter's that don't their Mother's anymore. It's so hard to even imagine one little girl...let alone nations that have this problem. Please visit Ashley's website and see the amazing work being done there. It's http://www.ashleyannphotography.com/. You might have to go back a post or two. Like Ashley said, if you know some friends that you could get together with to make these dresses it makes for a great Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to making more. I can only imagine the little girls faces after recieving these dresses. You can also visit http://www.littledressesforafrica.org/ where they have all the information on these girls, and how-to's for the dresses.

I take ALOT of pictures! I've always had a hard time getting a great picture from the boys...together. I found a neat boy spot across from the Farmer's Market and thought we'd give it a try. I wonder if other photographers ever worry about trespassing when they find somewhere they'd like to shoot. I do! I kept waiting for somebody to come walking out, asking me what I'm doing. It's right by the transmission shop so I'd probably get some guy who could care less why I'm there. It's worth it though when I get pics like these!

This one is my favorite!

I can't wait to get these printed!

I woke up this morning to my first rose that has bloomed this season. I love roses! I love all kinds of flowers, but roses are so elegant and romantic. I also love that they are climbing up the railing of my porch. So far, the kids haven't tried to touch them. Once would probably be enough because those suckers are sharp. I look forward to all my other blooms opening up!

Lovin' Spring

I know I've been terrible at keeping up with my blog lately. I thought about not doing it anymore. Then I thought about all my pictures I'm not sharing with you! How selfish am I! Seriously, I'm going to try to do a better job.

Today we went to Conrad Farm's in Bixby. Love that place! I needed strawberry plants for Cameron's mobile garden. We're a little late for the strawberry planting season, but we thought we'd give it a go anyways. I want Cameron to plant something he'll be able to enjoy the fruit of his harvest. Since my boys are the pickiest boys around, it didn't leave us many options. I also wanted to try out an idea from Ashley... taking kids pictures at a flower nursery. She's a genius! Considering we had straight line winds gusting upwards of 40 miles an hour or so, the greenhouses we perfect! My biggest problem was keeping Addy from picking the flowers. They are so pretty, you can't hardly blame her. I got some great pictures! I would show you more, but I'm saving them for her birthday! Thanks Ash for your awesomeness!Thank you Mema for all your beautiful clothes you've been making Addy! I feel like everyday is dress up... for me and for her.

Our snowy Saturday

Man, the weather here is nuts, but you have to love it. It was nice to have a good snow for the kids to play in. Addy wasn't so happy with the boots I put on her. All they did was accumulate snow on the bottom of them, so she couldn't walk around.

I think it really ruined the whole experience for her....

We were just getting ready to change her shoes, when her a rogue snowball came and slammed her cheek. She wasn't having it anymore after that and she was done!

You can see where the rogue snowball's were coming from!

Noah enjoys the snow to the fullest.

So, after it's all said and done...I was very happy to see all the green return today as the snow melted to our very nice 60 degree weather. I hope that was the last...until next year.

P.S. Please pray for Steve's Dad, Jerry. He hasn't been feeling well for a few weeks. He's been waiting for an appointment to see the specialist, but he still has 17 more days. He was admitted to the hospital tonight for dehydration, and fluid in or around his stomach. That's all I know right now.

We now know that he has a mass on his small intestine, and they plan on operating on him at 7:00am Monday morning.

Update 1:00pm: Jerry had 15 feet of his small intestines removed this morning along with a tumor a little bigger than a baseball. We won't know for a few days if it's malignant. Please continue to pray for him in his recovery.

RIP

It hasn't been the easiest day around here. Today, Steve and I attended my Uncle Stan's funeral. It's never pleasant to lose a family member. It is comforting to know that he's with Our Father now. It was also nice to see other family member's that we haven't seen in a long time. Then, when we returned home this evening, we found out that Bentley had passed away too. We love all our pets, but Bentley was probably our favorite. So, on that note we'll miss the both of them a great deal.

Aunt Leigh, I wish you were here. I love you. I had a lot of fun playing hide-and-go-seek! I can't wait to see you again. I hope I get to go to your place! Love, Cameron

Aunt Leigh, I'm glad you came to my house to see me. I liked playing checkers with you. I hope you come stay with me. I love you! Love, Noah

This is very cool!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x84l2p_oren-lavie-her-morning-elegance_music

I can't get the video to play here on Blogger, but you should definitely watch the video from this link. I like things that brighten my day, and this sure does! People can come up with some of the coolest stuff!

My Sugar Bear

Man, Noah is growing like a weed! People are always asking why I'm so surprised by this....and I don't know. He's my baby boy. Now he's almost 70 pounds (66 to be exact) and 4foot 1inch. He's technically bigger than Cameron. On the growth chart he's 115% on his weight, and 110% on his height. Cameron finally hit a slowing down period. Maybe Noah will too.

Our President's Day

Today we spent our President's Day at Kaleidoscope Children's Museum. If you have kids, this is a great place to take them. It's a hands-on experience for them and it's educational. They have themed rooms: like the store, where kids can shop for groceries and use money to pay for them at the cash register.

They have the Jail. They had handcuffs that were nailed to the floor. Now we all now some kid was going to try that out, and sure enough they had to call security before we left for that reason.

This better be the last time I see him in this outfit!They had a huge stage for dress up and shows. My kids really had fun with that. They all are such characters anyways!

Addy really stole the stage!And, I really just don't have any comments on this one...Hopefully, I don't see him dressed like that anymore either!

I was watching Addy on the stage, when I got a tap on the shoulder from Cameron, and I turned around and jumped a little when I saw this looking at me. It was pretty funny.

There is also the CSI Room, the Blacklight Room (I think that was Addy's favorite), the Mail Room, etc. They also had a huge play room with a rock climbing wall. My kids had a blast, and they came home and passed out. You can't beat that!

Meet the Newest...and hopefully last member of our family!

This is Ebony. She's our new puppy.

Why do we have a new puppy, you might ask....?

Well, I guess God just felt like our house wasn't full enough. A friend of ours found her dumped at a Kum and Go last Sunday when it was freezing outside. She couldn't just leave her there, so she took her home. She already had five small dogs herself, and couldn't keep this one. So, she thought of us. At first, I said no! But, as fate would have it, they had her out in the front yard when I was driving by and once I saw her I knew she was going home with us.

She is an absolute doll. We think she's about six weeks old (shame on whoever dumped her!), and pretty sure she is close to a full black lab. Harley was a little uptight the first few hours after we brought her home. Now Harley loves to play with her, and is always wanting to know what she's doing. I'm just ready to be past potty training! She is doing much better than she was three days ago, so I'm happy. Only one accident today!

Warning!

I wanted to share this with you so that maybe this won't happen to anyone else.
I went over to Stacy's today, and parked in her driveway. It's a pretty steep, inclined driveway. The ice is starting to melt and get really slushy. I put my Suburban in park , and put on my emergency brake. I got out and walked around to the other side to get Noah and Addy out. All of a sudden, my truck was sliding backwards! I was able to throw Noah in the truck. I had no idea where Cameron was. My first reaction was to try to stop the truck. In the process, I've pulled a muscle in my arm. Thank God, Cameron was able to get away before it started moving, and I didn't slip and get run over. And, thank God there was no traffic coming because we rolled right out into the street (almost into the neighbors driveway). So, nobody got hurt. I was just really shook up. Please be VERY careful on this stuff. I think with everything melting, it's making some places even more slick!
BE CAREFUL!!!!

Day Two

BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ivy hates the cold! She cried the whole time (5minutes) she was outside. I don't blame her, it hurts the face to be out there. Addy loved the cold. She threw a huge fit when I made her come inside. Her little cheeks are still red 5 hours later.
My brother, Sean, brought over his go cart for the kids to ride in the culdesac. Oh, my... did they have a BLAST! Cameron really loved driving. I can't wait to get ours running. We basically have a mini track right in front of our driveway.



I almost got run over a few times. I guess I need to teach Camo how to drive.


Becca had so much fun riding with her Daddy!

Well, I'm tired! It's been fun, but they better have school tomorrow!

Cold January Days

The boys had a ton of fun today riding the laundry basket down the driveway. We had just even sleet to cover the ice, where you can walk and not bust your rear. It's just too dang cold!

At least somebody enjoys this!

Addy is much to good for the cold. No, she just has a runny nose and I won't let her go outside. She had fun anyway inside, in the warm house, reading a good Curious George book. Who wouldn't, right?

The girl LOVES to read! Just like her Momma.

I even got a picture of the three of them together, which NEVER happens. I can't get Addy to sit anywhere long enough.

Well, I hope everyone is staying warm, and has their power still on. We are very thankful for our fireplace!