Christmas Eve in the New House!

I am beyond behind on my blog.  I have never had a hiatus like this, but things have been beyond busy.  And I so wanted to keep everything in chronological order, so I wait til I have til time to post the things that have already happened, which only puts me further behind! So, forget that idea--It's Christmas Eve, and everything that has happened in the last 6 weeks can wait a bit longer.  I have had this blog for 6 years and have done a Christmas Eve post every year....I'm not changing that this year!
I have been under the weather the last week and a half, so I am so happy to finally get out the last couple of days and see the world.  Last night, we did the annual "Christmas in Oklahoma with my Mom's real dad and that side of the family.  The event never disappoints! However, I felt like I disappointed!! The last few years since our grandparents have retired, we have drawn names and bought presents for each other.  Well, we have spending caps on the age groups....why have them if people don't follow them? I felt horrible because I don't know my aunt's boys very well and wasn't sure what to get them.  They are "tweens" and so I thought iTunes gift cards can't ever go wrong with that age group...but they do if they don't have iPods.  Oops.  So, I offered cash to the boys and "bought" their gift cards back from them.  Then, my kids got nice gifts from my uncle and his family (that's who drew their name).  So, I felt horrible when I had stuck to the spending limit.  Oh well, I'll do better next year--I drew the exact same people!
Last night after we got home, Landen had such a horrible cough and it got much worse.  It was very warm at my grandparents' house in Oklahoma (we check the thermostat--they had it set and it was 76 degrees in there!). With all the people and the heat on high, we were roasting and it only made Landen's cough worse.  By the time we got home and put him in bed, he was wheezing and gasping for air while he tried to sleep.  Well, it scared both of us.  So, we put him in bed with us.  Well, we never slept--he coughed, turned, gagged, wheezed, gasped, and flopped! Then, he would wake up and cry and shake.  It was awful.  Finally, he threw up and threw up.  I felt so bad for him.  We bathed him and he asked to "take a nap in his bed", so we put him in his bed and hooked up a humidifier.  Before, we could turn the light out, he was fast asleep.  At this point, it was 3:30 am and Richie and I were past exhausted!  We slept in this morning only to hurry and run late to make it to my Mom's house for lunch! After lunch and presents, Landen and Richie grabbed a quick nap.
Then, it was off to Christmas Eve service at our church.  It was such a GREAT service! They sang and read verses from the Bible of the Savior's birth. It was the only place I wanted to be today.  I loved it.
From there, it was off to my MeMe's house for Christmas with that side of my family.  We had a great time, got lots of great gifts and just got back a few minutes ago.  Santa has already come to our house this evening! The kids were so excited and ready to get to bed.
It is so wonderful to be in our new HOME...the place where my kids will grow up and my husband and I will make great memories and spend our 1st Christmas here.  I can't think of anywhere else I want to be tonight than here with my family.

Kaden, Chad, and Landen with the Singing Reindeer!

Chad in his "Christmas Sweater". LOL.

Alyssa and Kaden

Landen

Weston and Kylie...couldn't get a good one of all 3

Reindeer Richie!

Me and MeMe just relaxing!

Oh No! Someone got an Angry Birds shirt!

The Christmas Present Dance!

The Christmas Present Richie and I gave ourselves...a picture over the fireplace! Thanks Shannon for an awesome pic!

Santa has made his stop here!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

My Little Man

I haven't done a post just on Landen and how much he's growing in such a long time.  He cracks me up all the time.  He is talking SO good--3 and 4 syllable words, big long sentences, and his conceptual understanding is phenomenal.  Smart little guy  (just like Momma! LOL!)
Today, when he was at preschool he had a funny conversation with one of his teachers that went something like this....

Landen: "You got glasses on your face?"
Teacher:  "Yes, I've got glasses.  And so does _____ (insert random kid's name here) and ______ (insert another random kid's name here).  Do you have glasses, Landen?"
Landen: "No, I've got eyes on my face."

Funny little man!

A few weeks ago, his buddy Addi came over to play and I got a couple of cute pics of the two of them.  

Weston's 2nd XC Event

Weston ran in his 2nd cross country event (yes, a few weeks ago, I'm THAT behind again) and did SO good! I was really impressed with how well he is running and how much he enjoys it.  He finished 11th overall for the 6th grade class out of like 30 or so runners.  I can't wait until 7th grade when he can be "officially" on the XC team! Right now, he and a few hand-picked 6th graders are allowed to run with the older kids, but they have to keep this on the "down low" because the coach doesn't want the other kids to know they have been invited and the others haven't. It's funny because they have a code name "our house" for the times they talk about XC! But these kids are a great group of guys who really enjoy running and their Coach sees that in them! I am so happy he's looking out for them and their running futures!

Trees for the Kids

On Landen's birthday weekend, my Dad and Grandpa came to the house and planted 3 apple trees in our yard.  He wanted to do something special for the kid's birthdays and felt like planting trees would be something that would "last".  I thought it was a great idea and I was so excited that he and my grandpa wanted to do this for the kids.  It was a really special day because my Grandma died almost a year ago and it means a lot to have my Grandpa here when the trees were planted.  He's not doing very well and hasn't been for some time, so it was nice to have this time with him and make a memory as a family.
 Here's some pictures of our tree planting and the kiddos!

Mud Run (from September)

Laura and I did a Mud Run back in September and with life so crazy lately, I am just now putting up pics from it!
We had such a blast--it's like a 5k race/cross country race, but with 16 obstacles along the way.  We got a little crazy and dressed up in tutu's and tank tops to show our spirit!
I did pretty good during the race.  It only took me an extra 3 minutes to complete the course!
Here's some pics from the race!!

Mud-Slingin'!!

Me, Dr. Sanders, and Laura

Mud Slide!!

Beginning of the race--our kiddos were kind enough to take a few pics 

Tu-Tu Girls (notice our shoes taped? That was for the mud pit!!)

Pittbull Cheer Time!

Kylie is doing Pittbull Cheerleading this year and loving every minute of it! Here are pics of her at the Kick-Off as well as at her first game!  She is doing so good and her tumbling skills are really standing out--very proud of this little cheerleader!! :)

We were meant to be COURAGEOUS!!!

Well, it finally came--we went to see the movie Courageous that you see a banner above on my blog.  I have been looking forward to this movie for awhile.  And let me say, it was SO worth the wait! I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, and I cried some more! What an awesome message and a great story! You must go see this movie! And, if you are a Dad (or a Mom who wants to influence a Dad), then GO SEE! Everyone can relate, but to me, it has such a special message for fathers.  At the end of the movie, we were all wanting to stand and say "I WILL" with them! The whole theater (which was packed by the way) clapped at the end...it's that inspirational!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Landen!!!

Today Landen turned TWO! Oh my, that cannot be right! I remember being pregnant. And I remember sleepless nights...to think he is two already is so sad to me.  I guess it's because he's the baby and I know he's the last! We had an Elmo (and Sesame Street) birthday party tonight and he had such a great time!  He got TONS of Elmo stuff which just made his day.  It was so cute watching him open all of his presents--he loved it every time he opened a box and Elmo was in there! I made his cake and although it came out pretty good, I wasn't 100% pleased.  The icing was a little runny so it wasn't very smooth.  Thank goodness Elmo is supposed to look furry, huh? Plus, red is the absolute hardest color to dye icing and so he isn't quite the red I wanted, but guess what? Landen loved him and that's all that matters! He was so tickled when he saw his Elmo cake!

Elmo Cake! Not perfect, but just right to a 2 year old! :)

Landen's new hat and singing Elmo (p.s. he insisted on putting the hat on himself!!)

Reading one of his new books--he said it was a big scary dog (it's Clifford)...

New guitar like Bubba!!

His new Elmo blankie my Mom made him--he would NOT let it go!! We had to fight to get this pic!

Cake-cake time...I couldn't get the paper off fast enough for him!

All of his new Elmo goodies! He was in heaven!! And no two were the same!! :)

The First Six Weeks!

I just realized I didn't post a pic from the first day of school and it's already the end of the first 9 weeks.  I have to say that life has been going at lightning speed lately and I just can't seem to keep up.  I used to blog at least every other day or so and now I go weeks without a post--it's just crazy and chaotic around here.
So, here's a pic of the kiddos on the first day of school--and their 9 weeks report cards were just fantastic! Weston has all A's and is doing phenomenal in school! Kylie has all A's and one B, but I know she can bring it up if she just tries a little harder! She really enjoys class and her teachers as well!
And not to be left out, Landen started "pre-school" after Labor Day.  He's in the 2 year old class, so I don't know how much you can call it preschool, but to him, he is going to school.  The first day, I asked him if he wanted to go to school and he asked if he could ride the bus with Kylie and Weston! It was just so cute--he thought he was going to BIG school!
So, great job kids on the first 9 weeks of school! Now, if Mom could just keep up with all of this stuff.....

Da Boys!

I thought this was a sweet picture of my boys from the other night and I just had to share!

CRASH!!!

Last Friday, I had just eaten lunch with Richie and was heading back out of Greenwood when I stopped at Denver/Center St intersection light.  I had just gotten stopped when I looked up in my rear view and see a big truck coming very fast right at me.  I knew he wasn't going to get stopped.  I pushed hard on my brake and braced myself (of course all of what I described happened in about 3 seconds).  The man ran smack into my van and my head ended up hitting my head on the steering wheel. The impact also pushed me into the vehicle in front of me, but luckily she didn't have to much damage.  It was so scary! I haven't been in many accidents and I've never been hit quite that hard before.  I called Richie who had headed back to the office and luckily he wasn't too far and turned right around and was there in about a minute. Then, while the officers were working the scene, a driver wasn't paying attention (probably checking out the wreck/damage) and rear ended the car in front of him in nearly the same spot as my wreck.  His impact caused damage to the 3 cars in front of him.  So, in less than an hour, there were 7 cars in a wreck!
 Now to just deal with all the administrative stuff that comes with having a wreck in a company vehicle.  Even though it wasn't my fault, there is still a lot of paperwork to do--mostly because I carry medicines in the car and they have to be accounted for and I certainly don't want to give out damaged medicine.

Run Weston Run!

A few weeks ago, Weston mentioned that he was interested in doing cross-country.  He ran the 4th of July 5k with me and did an awesome job! So, I was all for him doing it! Well, he brought the paperwork home and we signed up.  He now practices 4 out of the 5 days each week and his buddy JT is also on the cross country team! The guys have really bonded through their running time and Weston always comes home and gives me a report on how great they are improving every single day! He seems to really enjoy it and I am so proud of him for taking the initiative! I can't wait to run another 5k with him!

Fall Baseball!

Weston is playing fall baseball this year and the season has just gotten started! A couple of weeks ago when I went to pick him up from practice, he got in the van and handed me his new uniform shirt.  I unfolded it to get a good look at it and here's what I saw.....OOPS!

Kylie's Cheer Award!

Kylie is doing Pittbull Cheerleading this year.  She loves to dance and after a couple of years of competitive cheer and then a 18 month break from it, she was ready to get back into the cheer scene.  So, at their practices, they have an award they give to one girl from each color's squad for their teamwork.  Well, they only had one of the awards at their first practice, so they decided to pick one girl from all 3 squads and KYLIE got the award.  She said they gave it to her for helping some of the other girls with the dance routine.  I was just so proud of her!!

Kylie's 9th Birthday!

Kylie opted for the "no big party, but nice gift" birthday this year and so we took her out to eat to Fuji's and Goody's with her friend Aaron.  We had a great dinner and after-dinner yogurt! Then, a few nights later, we had the "family" birthday where my parents/grandparents came over for pizza and ice cream.  Nothing fancy.  Her present was a new chair for her desk in her room.  It's a really nice and cute zebra chair that matches her new room decor! It's hard to believe that she's already 9 years old.  Time is passing much too fast....She had a great birthday and got lots of birthday money! She even got her very own hair straightener and blow dryer which she loves! Please pray my house doesn't burn down..... Happy Birthday Kylie-Bug!

Sleepy Head

Ever since we let Landen "cry it out" several months ago, he does AMAZING at nap and bedtime at home! It was so hard to do those few nights, but well worth it! Now he sleeps "like a baby"! And yes, that is a pacifier in his mouth--he only gets it at nap and bedtime (in fact, it isn't allowed to leave the bed), but I really need to break him of it....UGH.

My Lil Bro Turns 24!

My baby brother celebrated his 24th birthday a couple of weeks ago.  His girlfriend threw him a surprise party--Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme!  He loved the Ninja Turtles as a little boy, so she really went all out for the party.  We were also able to keep the party as surprise and used Kylie's birthday as the cover for getting him to my parents house.  It was so funny because that day was his actual birthday (13th of August) and he was SO mad that I would schedule Kylie's party for that day when her birthday is the 16th.  He never said anything to me, but had made comments to my Mom about it--he was pouting all week! I LOVED IT! I gave him so much teasing for that once he showed up for the party! Here a few pics from the night!

Jordan's cake that Joy made--she did an AWESOME job!!

Jordan in his TMNT "outfit"!

The cake and cupcake table! Joy's sister even hand-painted the balloons!