The New Year....

For this new year, I want to make some changes.

• Get organized
• Stay organized
• De-clutter
• Finish house projects
• Start a blog for each boy and print it out at the end of the year just for them. (I may do a catch-up blog for Zac starting when he was born, just for my benefit. Hey, he's only 1, I can easily do that)
• Make some money from photography
• Read 1 book a month
• Finish some scrapbook projects, so I can catch-up to the digital photos.
• Have 1 date a month with my Husband
• Have 1 day a month to myself (no husband or kids)
• Lose about 15 lbs.
• Read my bible every week

I would love to finish the house projects soon! They are mostly do it yourself things, except carpeting. But our bedroom is in dire need of repair! Scrape the ceiling, retexture, paint and flooring. Then there is the kitchen backsplash and a section on the ceiling that needs to be fixed and add a light that we have had for about a year now. I don't think that it will take long to do, just the knowledge and stamina to do it!

Finally the last thing on my list is too

• Sell our house and move to a "new" house

You should know that this is always on my list of things to do, but we never get to that. I think that the older my kids get the more important it is to do this last thing! I like my house now and really like my boys school and the fact that we live 2 blocks away. But, sadly, there is no room to grow or play here and my boys do not have friends that we can go see. We need some space (like a few acres) to move around and get outside. So hopefully, this is the year to try and move.

Any Hoo, that is all. See ya next year

Christmas Time

This is just a portion of how we spent our christmas this year. It was so fun to watch the little ones open gifts and be excited! We visited lots of family and had such a great time and received wonderful gifts. Thank you all so much and we love you. Have a great new year!

Mitzi's birthday

Today is my great-grandmother Mitzi's 95th birthday. We celebrated by going to her birthday party at the 1st baptist church in Waurika, about 2 hrs away from our house. She has lived in this town forever and her children were raised there and my mom lived there till she was 5.

It was always a treat to drive there to visit when I was younger and I still love the drive, (minus Zac's crying there and back). It is what I think of when describing a small town in Oklahoma. There is a main street with a brick road. Railroad tracks thru town. A drug store with an old fashioned soda fountain. The house are old and historic. You can drive around till you find the place you were looking for and not be lost. The streets are names of trees and the letters of the alphabet; Walnut, Hickory, Elm; A, B, C....perfect setting for a story!

2008 Picture

We Baked!!!

Saturday Kathy, Kristen, and I got together to bake for Christmas at Kathy's house. We started about 10:30 in the morning and didn't finish until around 3. Kristen made candy pretzels and toffee. Kathy made a norwegian cookie and sugar cookies for the grandkids to decorate. I made truffles and fudge. It was very yummy and so fun to do!

Kristen's grandma used to do this with her sister and mother when her kids were young and Kristen thought that it would be such a cool tradition to start. I can't wait till next year. Good thing it is only once a year or else I would put on too much weight eating everyone's goodies!

We Baked!!!

My anniversary gift

Aaron made me a Photo book of pictures that I had taken in 2008 for an anniversay present. He had to edit them to be on the pages the way he wanted instead of the way the book recommended. I think that he literally spent hours on this gift. On the cover is a flower photo from our garden and the spine says "Photography Vol. 1. I was really shocked when he gave it to me. I thought for sure it was a Pyrex dish. He handed me the book and I thought why did he give me a Photo mounted on a board. Duh, it took a few minutes to figure out what it was. I love it. It is the most AWESOME GIFT EVER! Thank you so much and I love you...Here is a sample of some of the book. Enjoy!

My anniversary gift

My anniversary gift

Merry Christmas from Kathy and Family

This is our annual Christmas picture. Merry Christmas!

The boys at night

Happy Anniversary

(picture in 2004)

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary Aaron, and I can't wait to spend more years with you. It has been an exciting time so far, full of andventure, love, and happiness!

Aaron and I met in college in the fall of 1994. We went on a few dates and then didn't date again until the fall of 1996. We married in December of 1997. It was a beautiful day, the weather was mild everything went great! We had a fabulous honeymoon in Cancun for a week and came home to celebrate our first Christmas.

Aunt Linda

I just want to say Happy Birthday to Aunt Linda.

You are a very inspiring person to me.

I love reading your blog and hearing all

the great stories and testimonies of your life.

Have a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Joe

Well, today Joe turns really old, like 28!!!
We hope you have a Happy Birthday and get to enjoy some of it.
Do good on your test!!

pics of my baby's in 2004

I took the boys to the park for pictures and this is what happened. Lots of sticks and dirt and boy stuff. Oh, and Alex fell off the playground steps right as I was taking a picture. So I have that too. Check the last pic. After seeing these, I have decided that Zac looks like Parker minus the white hair.

4th photo

This is the 4th photo, from the 4th file on our computer. It is Parker's 2nd birthday. He just woke up from his nap and we had presents for him. I was reading someone's blog recently and they were tagged to put the 4th photo from the 4th file up as a post. I was really curious to see what my photo would be. Thank goodness it was this! I want to know what other bloggers 4th photo, from the 4th file is. Let me know.....

Here is a better picture from that same file

Mitzi

Thanksgiving 2004

Thanksgiving 2005

Thanksgiving 2007

We went yesterday to visit my mothers family in Duncan. My great-grandmother, Mitzi now lives with her son and his wife. Every year they have a thanksgiving dinner, and all of the family comes to visit and get re-acquainted. Mitzi will be 95 this December. She still paints, knits, croquet's and gets around very well. Mitzi had 3 children and they had children and then they had children, then they had children.

My mother is the oldest granddaughter, I am the oldest great grandchild and Alex is the oldest great-great grandchild. Mitzi has made a blanket for every grandchild and great-grandchild and now, great-great grandchild. My boys have OU afghans that she knitted herself. They also have baby blankets that she made too. I still have my afghan and even use it in the winter every year. I feel so lucky to have this wonderful christian woman be a part of my life and my children's lives. Zac got his blanket yesterday and I know that he will treasure it his whole life!

Gift Ideas

Well, this list is hard because we have so many things! We have lots of action figures, legos, guns, and games. I would personally like to not have more of those things, but by-golly boys are hard to buy for. You could actually wrap up the toys they already own and give it to them again! So this year I am trying to come up with things that they could use over and over and not get bored. See how hard that is! Creative things. Here are a few things....

A Box, all kids love boxes, so there is one idea for everyone.

Books about things, like science, folk lores, and myths, monsters, ect....

Music, they use their cd player now and only have a few things to listen too (spongebob and a karoke cd.)

Cool clothes, you know the kind other kids wear

Cool shoes, Parker especially would love it!

Alex loves bad guy action figures, (he says they look cooler), creepy crawly stuff, science stuff.

Parker likes to be creative, he sits in bed at night and writes and plays toys and colors

Zac would love to have the wrapping paper and boxes that stuff comes in .

All the boys would love boxes big boxes!

fun with the camera

How do studio's do it???

I tried to take photos of my boys together one evening and let me tell you, I do not have the patience. I think that next time I will just go to JCpennys. How can these places do it? We are probably in there about 20 mins and then done. Pay and we go home.

But when I try to take my own, I can not get my kids to be still or listen. I am fine with other people and their kids, but mine, OH LORDY. I still think I am having heart palpitations!

I did laugh later when I looked at the photos. They are pretty funny. First one, the kids are in the picture and the next one arms are waving and it looks like a cuckoo's nest. It made me laugh out loud, although, I didn't think it was funny in that moment. I keep going back and looking so I can laugh some more!

Fall

We spent halloween at my friend's house this year. They had a party and made dinner and lots of scary desserts. Then we took all the kids trick-or-treating. There were 7 kids and 8 adults, go figure. We had a blast and the boys have been talking about it non-stop! We were a little sad that we didn't see family on that night, but I know that everyone had a great time anyway. Here are the photos...

I voted

Aaron and I got in line at 9am, and were done at 10am. I was #751. Zac went too and ran around the gym playing with a basketball. As I was voting, an older woman came to me and said "Thanks for bringing the little guy, you made my voting enjoyable".

Then we went to starbucks to get free coffee and tea. Of course, we had to have a blueberry muffin and pumpkin loaf. The line there was just as long as it was for voting, but oh so yummy!

We voted! So get out there and vote!!!!

A Few Things....

We went camping last weekend. Aaron didn't go because of being sick, but the boys and I went anyway. I wasn't worried about taking them myself but Aaron was. I assured him it would be fine and off we went. When we got there, I realized that there are things you just need Daddy for! Like picking a camping spot with a fire pit, taking the boys to the bathroom and making sure there no snakes in the rocks where you fish, (thankfully there wasn't).

The boys went to the bathroom when we first got there. I told them to go together and I was right behind them. They ran back to me and told me there were only showers. I told them no there are bathrooms too and said come on. They said that they didn't need to go anymore. When I asked why, Parker said that he peed in the shower. You see, the showers are on the opposite side of the building and they didn't look on the other side. We had a good time anyway, but I doubt I will ever go without Aaron again!

I applied for 2 jobs and haven't heard back yet. The first one I applied for 2 weeks ago and even called to check up. It is a part-time oncall job where you staff hospitals for nursing positions overnight from your home. The second is stocking american greeting cards at retail stores. I think that might be kinda fun, so we will see. I am anxious to do something though, I hope one of the places call me. I am working at Affair of the Heart at the end of the month with a girl from church. I know that will be fun, especially the shopping!

I am ready to buy x-mas presents, so people send me your list! I think I will do a post about things I would like for a gift or to add to a collection. Maybe even things the boys would like. Who knows, might be fun. Let me know what you want for a gift too. I am in the shopping mood!

Oh yea, the deck is out! Woo-Hoo!!!