Christmas #1

We are very blessed with Family!  ...so it takes us several days to complete all of our Christmas gatherings.  It's very tiring and hard on us, however at the same time I realize how blessed we are!  My children have THREE great grandmothers still living, and I want them to get to spend time with them and we always enjoy our gatherings.
Sunday we had Christmas in OKC at Cathy & Steve's house!  It was wonderful!  Cathy is an amazing hostess, everything was picture perfect.

 Kate having fun coloring!

 The Grandkids!  They all fight over who gets to hold baby Will!  (Guess Kate won this time!)

 My family!!!!

 Our whole family!  P.S. It's VERY hard to get 5 kids

to cooperate for a picture!

 Kate passing a gift to Bo to open. 

She loves her cousins!

 Kate and G.G.

 New Cowboy boots from G.G.

 Jaxen excited over his new toy!!

Madi somehow convinced Heidi to let her paint her nails...

Heidi is a great cousin and Madi worked real hard to make them look really good!

Jax making fun of Will who can apparently

just snooz whenever and where ever!

We love Aunt Cathy!  What a great day - she's the hostess with mostess!



FAMILY FUN DAY ~ NIGHT...

 

I have been really excited for our Family weekend!  We had a Christmas on Sunday at Aunt Cathy's house so I thought it would be fun to take the kids up to OKC on Saturday, see Santa, and have a FUN day!  I had big plans... however, here's how it unfolded.
...we decided last minute not to try Bass Pro for Santa because OKC was crazy, so we went farther North OKC to North Park Mall, and waiting in line for a few minutes and got to see Santa. 

The kids did so good!  They all told them what they wanted, gave him a hug, etc - task #1 = success!

Next stop... Check in the hotel.  Will and I have stayed at this hotel in Bricktown and it has a really neat pool for the kids.  It has a little slide and various activities so I knew they'd just love it.  So we check into the hotel and try to avoid the pool until we tackle some of the other fun tasks I wanted to take the kids to do. - task #2 = success!

So here we go to "Tubing at the Brick" - it's a manmade moutain/slide that the kids can tube down and I just knew the kids would love it.  So we walk over to the Bricktown ballpark where the sign reads "All sessions for tonight SOLD OUT!" What????!!!!!  How can this be, there's a session every hour!  Bummer!  The kids were very disappointed, as was I! - task #3 - Fail!

So we opted to watch the tubing for a moment then headed on to find something else fun to do....

A boat ride on the canal!  Oh they will like that... so we wait til dark and go down the canal where there is approx a mile long line waiting for the boat to take them around and see Christmas lights.  My kids aren't going to wait an hour or more to do this...

Task #4 = Fail!

So time for another game plan.

Let's go bowling at the Red Pin!  Yay!  That'll be fun!

So we walk over the Red Pin Bowling alley, Will goes inside to see if it's "kid friendly" make sure it's not too expensive, etc.  I wait outside with the kids -- take their pic:

.....and Will comes out and says, "All lanes are booked until 11:00" --- OK! 
Task #5 = Fail!

I give up!  Let's go eat.  So we went to eat at Earl's BBQ, had a great dinner with the kids and asked them what they wanted to do --- SWIM!  That's all they cared about so back to the hotel we went and they got to swim the rest of the evening.  They had so much fun! 

Then back to the room for baths and snacks!!!
 Love my kiddos and my hubby - SO enjoyed this fun day with them!

 

The Bunko Girls!!! This is my bunko group (well 4 of these lovely
ladies were subs this month) - regardless they are fun too!!!  We
play Bunko once a month and it's always super fun!  Christmas Bunko
was at my house this year... we enjoyed yummy holiday food and a
great game of Dirty Santa!

Fun times!!!

 My girls!!

(Kate doesn't like to wear a shirt at home??)



Annual Christmas Party!

Every year we have our Church Class over for a Christmas Party.  Last year we did an Ugly Christmas Sweater party...and this year - we went for REDNECK Christmas!  We always have a "Friendly" game of Dirty Santa and have tons of laughs and great fellowship.  Will and I are so blessed to have these amazing friends in our lives!  Love getting spend this time with them each year.

Christmas Lights

Loaded up in the Church People Mover...(Church bus) -- and went to Yukon to see the lights!  Here's most of the kids that were on the bus, not real sure why they can't just smile for the picture??? 

Then on to Orange Leaf for some Ice Cream! 

Fun night out with our friends! :)

Favorite Things...party!

First Party of the Holiday season!  So much fun, we went to this old pharmacy in Hinton and my awesome friend Melinda planned this great gathering! The party was called "Favorite Things" - each person brings  of their favorite items (all the same) and each item has to be less than $6. Then you put your name in the drawing 5 times and everyone went home with 5 different things.  I got a scentsy bar, kitchen towels, bath and body soap, comfy socks, and Burt's Bee's chapstick!  This pic is about half of the girls that were there.  It was a super fun night!!

Merry Christmas!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!  We've been so busy with all the events of the holiday season, and it's been so much fun!  The parties, festivities, and gathering have began and we are enjoying every minute of it!  Took the kids last Saturday to see Santa and here is their 'request'...
Jaxen - Football helmet and pads
Madilyn - American Girl Doll
Kate - Motorcycle
... piece of cake!  ;)  The kids are anxious for all their upcoming Christmas' and Will and I are looking forward to spending time with them. 
From our family to yours ~ Merry CHRISTmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morning breakfast

I have to brag for a moment... Will and I have really tried this year to read our bibles daily, pray daily with our children, and we pray for our children.  Not that we didn't pray or read before, but we are wanting this to be our goal in raising our children.  Each night we say a "family prayer" together.  Sometimes the kids say it, sometimes one of us says it but regardless it's part of our bedtime routine.  Then after the kids are in bed, I do my daily bible reading.  Well pretty much every night Kate gets out of bed to tell me 'one more thing...' and asks me what I'm doing.  I say "Mommy is reading her bible" and then she goes back to bed.  So a few times lately I will go check to make sure they are sleeping and tucked in and she will have fallen asleep with her bible in her bed.  She loves her little pink bible!
A few weeks ago the kids were eating breakfast and I was rushing around the house getting ready for the day... when I went to clean up the table this picture is what I saw.  Wow!  My hurries quickly subsided and I sat there with a smile on my face, then grabbed my phone to take a pic and capture this moment.  ...a moment that I want to forever remember that even though my kids don't understand everything they are reading in the bible, or maybe aren't even reading it.  They love their bibles, they love Jesus, and they are always watching what we as parents do.  If I do anything right in my life I pray that I raise my children to love God and to walk in his ways.  I pray that I can always lead by example and I pray that they know they can always come to either Will or I for anything.  My kids are my whole world, I am so very proud of them, and am honored and thankful that I was chosen to be their MOM!

Deut. 4:9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things our eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.  Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Deut. 6:7 Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Prov 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Ohhhh my lil baby girl...

So Kate has been telling us for weeks that she wants a motorcycle for Christmas. We had no idea where she got this idea, didn't really know what kind of motorcycle she was referring too.... just didn't know what to buy her! Well, one night while at Wal-Mart we took her to the toy section and she screamed, "MOTOCYCLE!!!!!"
....and right there in all it's beauty is the bright blue motorcycle..dirt bike...bicycle!  Of course, why didn't we think of that!  She was beaming, she couldn't contain herself!  She rode it around the toy section for approx 30 minutes and couldn't quite talking and smiling.
...Needless to say she's told Santa she'd like this blue motorcycle and a blue Toy Story helmet for Christmas :)  ....and I bet she'll get it!  Ohhh my lil Kate, she is too funny!  I cannot wait to see her face on Christmas morning.  This will be ONE happy GIRL!! :-)

Love this girl!!

Madi has gymnastics and cheerleading on Monday afternoons and I usually have the whole crew with me, but a couple of weeks ago, Madi and I got to go all by ourselves.  On our way there I asked her if she'd like to go to dinner afterwards...she picked the place and we had a great time!  I love getting one on one time with my kids, they talk and tell you everything when you get them by theirselves!  We had so much fun, she cracks me up, and made my day!  Love you Madi!!!

Thanksgiving with Family!

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Rushed around and made it everywhere, but time with family is precious and I'm Thankful that we were able to see everyone.

Our first time to meet Jett.  Josh and Hillary's precious lil boy!

He was SO good all day!  We got to love on him a lot, he's precious!

YUM!!!  Think I will take a sampler platter!

 
 Madi coloring with her cousin Amanda.  Madi
kept her right next to her and got lots of coloring time!!

 Madi with Jett

Kate sure liked Jett.  He didn't really want her to hold him,

but cooperated for just a minute for a pic.

Next stop...... Mema and Papa's House ---

 Crazy Cousins!!!!  My kids are crazy about their cousins - Zachary & Isaac!

 Papa and his 'boys!'

 Kate getting a ride on Jaxen's motorcycle.

 Of course, Brandon -- just a big kid ;)

Isaac and Jaxen on Papa's Harley, mama can breathe

again they are pulling back in the driveway!

My awesome brother and sister-in-law! 

They kept all 3 kids on "black Friday" so we could work.  The kids

had a blast and I think Aunt Jenny and Uncle Brandon were worn out! 

I appreciate them! ....and my "too cool" Nephews too!!

We had ONE more Thanksgiving before concluding the weekend at G.G.'s house.  It was another great time with family and was so good to see Cathy and Steve.  Didn't take any pics that day but we were thankful for another great lunch with our family!



Thanksgiving...

The Kindergartners had a little Thanksgivng program at school.  They sang a few songs and had some 'lines' then served us some yummy pumpkin bread and tea!  So thankful Madi has an amazing Kindergarten teacher, she's very creative and teaches them so much!!!  The program was really cute!

It's a jungle out there!!!

The kids had their fall program mid-November.  It was really cute!  Madi's Kindergarten class wore green and were 'frogs' -- Jaxen's class was monkeys.  The program was called "It's a jungle out there!"

I was really surprised that Madi wasn't shy at all.  She knew every move to every song, and sang every word.  She was right there on the front row so we could see her the whole time.

This is the first year that Jaxen had a speaking part.  He did great!  He talked really clear in the microphone and made everyone laugh!

Then he ended the program with his 'signature' bow! 

What a character!!