Cook Creations

Future Class of 2023

2010-03-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

Just got Jaycie's first class picture and had to share!!! The future Class of 2023! :)

Literacy Night

2010-03-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

I enjoy doing things with Jaycie at her school. We went to literacy night at Lake Park last week and it was a lot of fun! She read (told the story of) "Goodnight Moon" to Fletcha the black lab...visited the Cat in the Hat...played Starfall of a big touch screen...made a trash book....described how to eat an oreo...did more coloring and art work....and got to pick something out at the book fair!

CRUISE!!

2010-03-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

I never posted my cruise pics!! What have I been doing?? We had a wonderful, awesome, amazing Carnival cruise from Galveston to Progresso and Cozumel. We spent the night before boarding at my Grandma Dobbin's house in La Porte, TX. We enjoyed Grandpa Don's dinner and breakfast meals! Before getting on the ship, we found a shop in Galveston that had our flip flops that we have wanted since we bought some a few years back there. :) The ship was great. HUGE! Our room was just right...little but everything we needed. We were comfortable and had a window to see the ocean. Here is our map from our TV in the room that always showed us where we were. Here we are at our dining room table on captain's night. We dressed up and took pics and had prime rib (some had lobster). It was fun! We loved dinner every night in the dining room with our new cruise friends. Here is the party crowd.

We enjoyed sharing our day's events with our table each night. It was nice to get to know some new people and have some friends to hang out with and go watch karaoke after dinner!

In Progresso, we took a bus to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We loved seeing everyting there. This is the ball court where the losers were sacrificed. Our tour guide gave us some really cool history! The stone carvings were really neat in person!

Cancun was too windy and not quite hot enough to enjoy. Our snorkeling trip was cancelled, so I was very sad. We shopped instead. It was good to get home to the kiddos, but so nice to get away for a week! Thanks to family for taking good care of them and returning them rotten!

Cinderella

2010-03-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

We went to the Putnam City West's play Cinderella with our friends. It was a fun little mother daughter date and the girls got to dress up like Cinderalla for the occasion. Catherine and Heather Thomas (our friends at church and occasional babysitter) were awesome as usual...the little drama queens. Jaycie enjoyed finding them on stage. Catherine was gorgeous as the fairy Godmother and Heather was hilarious as a step sister. Lovely evening!!!

We got to take some pics after the play with Cinderella too! As you can see...Jaycie loves Heather!

Spring Break 2010

2010-03-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

We went to see the new Children's exhibit at the OKC Zoo. It was really nice and lots of fun even though it was a chilly day! These girls are always great posers! Will have to get more pics of the boys to share!

Jaycie and Margie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

This is a classic Jaycie picture these days, so I had to share. She is writing her name really well now, including the last name (dunno why it is there twice however) She has always colored beautifully and with detail..especially with crayons. I am proud of her! Her teacher, Mrs. Owen loves to show me her work. I get plenty at home too though. She draws hearts and writes ILU (I love you) frequently too.

Nathan on the other hand has never shown an interest in coloring until now. I am excited to see that he is beginning to trace things and will occasionally color something for fun. These are great pre-handwriting skills that I was hoping would come soon since he starts pre K THIS August!! Crazy!

*Hope everyone has a good St. Pattys and that you always find "pots of gold" at the end of your rainbows!!!*

Birthday nails

2010-01-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

For Jaycie's birthday, Grandma Brown treated her to professional finger and toe nail polishing. She felt like a princess and it was fun to watch her pick her colors, etc.

Happy Birthday Jaycie

2010-01-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Jaycie's 5th birthday at the Little River Zoo September 26, 2009. We were happy to have lots of family and friends able to attend even though it was a little drive there...especially for our out of town families. We had great weather though and it was fun! We had a guide that showed us the animals, taught us, and let us touch some.

The group was hopping like kangaroos before we went into the kangaroo habitat.

The kangaroos were a highlight for sure. The kids got to feed them bread and walk through their habitat. Other favorite animals were monkeys, a bear, foxes, etc. The petting zoo was also fun.

We had hot dogs with chips and apples. Cake for dessert, of course.
Presents!!! Thanks to all for coming. It was a great time!

Date Night 9/12/09

2010-01-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

The kids love to play with their friends. I am happy with the group that we have had for almost 4 years now to have a date night every once in a while. When it is our turn to have the group, it is always a party. We feed all of the kids and they play and make messes until clean up time. The kids think that date night is designed for them. Everyone benefits, Iguess!!

Here are classic pictures of the girls playing dolls and the boys watching a movie.

8th Anniversary

2010-01-03T18:47:00.001-08:00

Tommy and the kids came and picked me up at the airport late the evening of our anniversary August 4th with pink roses. I was so excited to see my family. It had been a long day in the airport with 2 connecting flights. My kids were missing me..they told me on the phone many times. I missed them terribly too. It was too late to do anything for our anniversary, but I took a couple of pictures holding the camera out because we don't have hardly any together! It is amazing, but Tommy is smiling. It has been a great 8 years. I can't believe how time flies. I am so grateful for a wonderful husband that is a great daddy too!

California part 2

2010-01-03T17:39:00.000-08:00

Mom and I had a day to go to the Oakland temple. It was a wonderful day and an adventure. We took the Bart by ourselves and we could see the temple on the side of a mountain from the Bart. We were glad that we got the right stops because we had to catch a connecting train to Oakland. When we got off at our stop we walked a bit toward where we saw the temple but we never found a taxi. We found a pastry shop in Fruitvale and had some breakfast. No one we came in contact with spoke English to direct us toward a taxi except for a boy in a group that was about 6 or 7. We had turned the wrong way from our stop. When we got to the taxi, we were in business. The driver knew where to go. We were amazed by the beautiful flowers and palm trees when we arrived on the grounds! We had lunch there in the cafeteria and went to the visitors center.

The view was amazing.

Another one of my favorite little trips was to the Redwoods. It was truly mesmerizing to see how tall and beautiful the trees are. I could never fully explain the feeling, so I really want Tommy and the kids to go there with me. There were campers there, and that would be my dream camping trip!!

We are standing by some of the redwood trees. You could get inside of the middle of the trees, the trunks are so huge and so tall.

This is the beach of Santa Cruz. We went for a walk along the beach and had lunch on a pier. There were shops selling fresh fish and crabs on the pier. We watched the sea lions and birds. It was beautiful but the water was very cold. Ryan went for a swim and was ok, but mom and I didn't.

Mary got to join us for a few evenings for dinner. We had some very nice and different foods. Argentenian food...Kobe mini burgers, brisket tacos, ceviche, etc. Of course we had to try In N Out burger. It was good and fresh. Mary took us to Palo Alto to see the campus at Stanford. It was very nice. Thanks Ryan and Mary for an amazing week!

California visit 8/1/09

2010-01-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet my mom and visit my brother Ryan and sister-in-law at their home in Freemont, California. It was such fun and I really enjoyed visiting. Ryan was a great tour guide, and Mary stayed very busy with her Anesthesia work as she is knee deep in

her residency. They have several lime and fruit trees in their back yard. The weather was amazing there.

Our main source of transportation was the Bart railway transit system. This was (for good reason) very foreign to me. There were all types of people to watch on the Bart. Mom and I were a little scared of it all at first, but we got the hang of it. We took it to San Fransisco for my first day. Here is Alcatraz. It was very cool from a distance. That is a close as we got this time.

We walked all through main town San Fransisco. It was very windy, of course. We went to the Fisherman's Warf for lunch. We saw Pier 39 and all of the sail boats and sea lions on the way.

Ryan and mom are both seafood fans, but all who know me know that I am not! Here is one of the dishes that I ate (for documentation). We got crab legs, swordfish steak, and this seafood stew in the picture called ciopinni (sp?). It was acutally not bad. I avoided the tiny purple cuddlefish though. I was already out on a limb tasting everything. Those would have put me over the edge.

Chinatown was pretty cool. Mom got us sweatshirts and we got a smoothie. We drove through a small part of Castro (to catch mom off guard).

It was neat to see these famous things that I have only seen in movies or heard about. The streets are very steep!

Another day, we went back with their dogs and took the scenic tour. We walked across the Golden Gate bridge. It was very foggy and windy there!

We hiked some hill that had a great view of the bridge before we got on it. Kermit and Blakey had a nice walk.

The view from the bridge was awesome too, even though I am not sure exactly what it all is.

Where did 2009 go???

2010-01-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

Oh my, my last post was in July. One friend (Tammy Jo) keeps reminding me of that, but other than that I haven't thought about my blog. (I almost forgot how to log in) I have been so out of touch because of it. I am excited to get back into my routine. It keeps me on track taking pictures and keeping record of the kids, etc. My only excuse for all of this time passed is ..........CHEMISTRY!! I have decided that if I am going to get my master's degree like I have always planned, I need to get to it. I feel like the timing is right with the kids starting school. So..I took Chem II with lab at OCCC with Dr. Zhu on Tues and Thurs evenings. There were moments through this past semester that I thought I was crazy! Some of those times were when Zhu said "remember from Chem I..." I realized that it has been 10 years, marriage, and 2 children since Chemistry I and there was no way I knew the remainder of his statement!! However, after lots of class and study time, frustration, and a horrible sickness on the day of my final.........I got an A. That makes it all good. So, now that it is over I am going to resume normal life and get back to blogging and I have a lot of time to make up!!

Fireworks

2009-07-11T12:59:00.001-07:00

James did a great firework show over the water on the 5th. (We missed most of things of the 4th and the kids fell asleep in the car)

I was shocked that Nathan joined in with the sparklers. Fireworks have not been his thing thus far. Last year he was scared of them and this year he held his ears because of the noise. I was glad that he gave it a try!

Family Reunion

2009-07-11T12:50:00.001-07:00

My grandma hosted the reunion this year. Here she is with her brother and sisters. Corky, Edith, Ben, and grandma. (not able to make it this year, Jerry Sue)

Here is grandma, mom, and her sister Jacquie. It was so wonderful to see Aunt Jacquie and her daughters Dawn (and her 2 boys) and Angie. It has been over 10 years since we had seen them, but I have great childhood memories with them!

Here is Jaycie and my cousing Angie! The kids loved all of our extended family members!

Grandpa Don Dobbins, the fisherman, did a wonderful fish and shrimp fry for us the evening of the 4th. We had the standard auction at the hotel meeting room and games in the afternoon. I won the "guess how many monkey finger puppets are in the jar" game. We had a good time with everyone together.

Kemah Boardwalk

2009-07-11T12:36:00.000-07:00

There was an amusement park, shopping, aquarium, etc. downtown in the city of Kemah. We spent one HOT afternoon there.

We all met up and rode the train.

A "blue" snowcone saved the day while we were waiting on a ride to be fixed. Jaycie had been talking about riding on an airplane earlier in the day and it took us a while to figure out that the ride is what she was talking about. Great grandma had told her about it and we thought she was talking about a real one that some of our family members flew on to get here.

Finally...the airplane ride.

Beach walk with Grandma

2009-07-11T12:25:00.001-07:00

We wanted a little bit more time at the beach, so we went another day for a short trip. It was very nice, but windy.

Jaycie was very much in to seashells. She took a waterbottle from the car and began filling it up. We found lots of them on the seawall that we had to have! It was a great little day trip.

Schlitterbahn!!

2009-07-11T12:07:00.001-07:00

We loved the water park!!! Thanks to the reunion for paying for half of our ticket.

The kids were able to do so many things and we could do lots together too! Some of our favorites included the river that goes all around the park. There were waves that pushed us a long. Mom and I had 2 person rafts that had an enclosed kid side and we held on to each other. We also did a family slide where we sat in a big circle raft and went down a curvy slide.

Jaycie went on the yellow slide a million times, Nathan did it too and a few time they went together. We fit the blue one in at the last minute. I never expected her to ask to go on the blue one...it was a big girl slide!! I was so proud and she loved it. She is just like me as a kid.

Nathan really liked the kids areas the most and of course the little frog slide.

Galveston Beach

2009-07-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

We went with everyone to the beach our first morning. It was very hot, but the water was nice. Here are Jaycie and Nathan with Raylee, mom's cousin hanging out in the shade of an umbrella.

Jaycie loved her cousin Samantha, and referred to her as her mermaid friend the whole time. Nathan didn't like the salty waves splashing on him, but he did enjoy the sand.

Texas Vacation

2009-07-11T11:53:00.001-07:00

My mom and the kids and I drove a rental car to La Porte, TX for our family reunion this year. We stayed at the Best Western. Here we are at the pool, and this is part of the clan....

Darrel, Dawn, Tyler and Nathan, Jessica and Jaycie, Chance, me and DeAn in the back

Jaycie and Nathan in our room. Jaycie made a picture for her cousin Samantha.

Turtle

2009-06-28T21:33:00.001-07:00

This morning before church, Tyson was barking a lot so we went outside to see what was going on. This is what we found. I am not sure what kind of turtle this is, but it isn't the box turtle that I used to find. I am not sure how it made it's way into our back yard either. My kids have seen all kinds of animals, but this was our closest encounter with a turtle. They were very excited. They sat and watched it for a while. When I came into the kitchen after some last minute sharing time preparations, the kids showed me how they made a bed and got some toys for the turtle. Too cute!

On our way to church, we took the turtle to the pond by Steve Bailey Honda where we were glad to see other turtles that looked just like this one. I am sure that primary teachers, friends, and school teachers will hear about their turtle friend. They really thought it was neat.

Date Night Party

2009-06-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

For Date Night at our house, we decided to have a little party. We used Nathan's new slip and slide and snow cone maker. Here is the clan having some pizza.

Everyone enjoyed swimming and Jakey, Jackson, and Nathan did some batting practice. They did such a good job at sharing and taking turns....(all of the hard work is paying off!)

Everyone also took turns on the trampoline. They really liked it when Tommy held the sprinkler over it!!

I think that the snow cones were everyone's favorite.

Jakey and Jaycie on the slip and slide.

We love to hang out with our friends.

Saturday Fun

2009-06-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we had plans to be downtown so we decided to go out for breakfast at the Crackerbarrel. It was a fun treat. It has been a long time, but I like to go out for breakfast. It keeps the mess out of my kitchen!!

While we were there, we found these cute dress up sets that were very inexpensive. We thought it would be fun to get one for each of the kiddos. Here they are all dressed up. Nathan is a race car driver. Jaycie loves to pretend she is a hair stylist. She went a little far when she actually cut her and Nathan's bangs last month. I hope that this keeps her from doing it for real. Oh, and she had to practice on Daddy!! :)

After breakfast, the girls went shopping at Garden Ridge and the boys went downtown to the bike ralley. Here are the cushions that we found. We were very excited to complete our backyard set up....the grill, gazebo, and finally our chairs have cushions again. I am happy to be able to sit down in the shade now while watching the kids swim!

June activities

2009-06-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Jaycie had swim lessons twice a week for the month of June and she loved it. Every lesson she advanced and I loved to see her excitement for learning. It really helped that there were only 2 in her class. Every one was like a private lesson. She just had her last class and she got her passing certificate to move on. It was fun, but I am excited to not have to try and keep the schedule. It took up our afternoons on my days off!

I loved that the Bethany YMCA was right next to the library. We went after almost every swim lesson. We have been doing the summer reading program at the library. The kids have enjoyed it, and I challenged myself by attempting to find all of the books on this list from READY for Kindergarten. There are 100 books on the list that all kids should hear before starting school. I figured that we had the summer until Jaycie starts Pre-K so we could do it. And we have. With the exception of 5 or 6 that I haven't found yet. It has been good for the kids to be excited about reading. It seems like we couldn't fit reading time in for a while and this little challenge sparked our interest again. Jaycie got to color the star of the books that we read. I learned that I need to read in the afternoon around "quiet time" instead of trying to squeeze it in to the bedtime routine. This list helped us find some really good books that we haven't come across before. (Many award winning books and authors). I also re-learned how to find specific books in the library. Thanks to Marilyn Barta, our parent educator with OPAT for getting us involved in the READY program. It has helped me so much stay focuses on education at home. We are done with OPAT now that Nathan is 3, but we loved Mrs. Marilyn's visits!!

Swim with Friends

2009-06-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Christine and the boys invited us to swim at their neighborhood pool. Charly and Ethan came too. The pools were great and we had a lot of fun. The kids jumped in and splashed most of the time. Nathan jumped in without me catching him because Jackson did. Here we are during a safety break. Jaycie Nathan and Lincoln at the picnic table having a snack.

Then Ethan and Nathan wanted to play catch. Swimming is the only thing that we want to do in the afternoon in this 100 degree heat. Thanks to the Poyners for all of the fun!

Father's Day Eve

2009-06-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

Poppy and Grandma were able to come and visit for the evening on Saturday. They came for Nathan's birthday and I took the opportunity to do Father's day too. Dad brought down buffalo burgers, baked beans, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

The kids played and swam. Nathan got a slip and slide and a snow cone maker for his birthday.

This is our neighbor Bradley's motorcycle. We all like it though. My dad and his little buddy are checking it out. Dad has always appreciated Harleys. This was the picture that I gave him and Tommy for Father's day. 5 x 5 picture collage in a black frame. It turned out cute even though it was an afterthought on Nathan's picture day. Jaycie just happened to need to be in one of Nathan's pics and it worked out.

Everyone was worn out when they had to leave. It was pretty late too. We always have so much fun when they come. We love grandparents!!

Father's Day

2009-06-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

We made a sign for Tommy. Jaycie mainly and Nathan decorated it! Here are their cards too that we gave dad. The primary sang 2 Father's Day songs, but Jaycie didn't go up until the second one. She didn't want to sing "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" for some reason. Tommy was in the bathroom with Nathan anyway. I enjoyed the song.

The kids made some cute things at school and church. I loved the one with the sticks of gum.

After church on Sunday and dinner, we went to the Lindley's to swim. They were out of town and we were adding water to the pool. It was a lot of fun, and Jaycie jumped off of the diving board for the 1st time. She loved it and even tried to dive. She jumped lots of times, and in the shallow end was practicing swimming without any floaties. It was a good day.

Nathan's school party

2009-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Nathan brought his birthday balloon and sign to school for his actual birthday. We brought cupcakes to share with his class. He was really excited to celebrate with his school friends.

Omniplex

2009-06-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

We went on Tuesday with Grandma to the Omniplex. It was great! I haven't been there in so long that I didn't remember it much at all. There is so much to see and do. The kids were in heaven.

My little astronauts went into a shuttle simulator that "took them to the moon." The lights flickered and it moved as they wathced a screen with the moon on it and someone talked to them through head phones and did the coundown to blastoff 10..9..8..7...
They were so brave. They were the littlest kids that were interested in trying it out.

Nathan loved the kids area with the water you could play in and the treehouse.

Jaycie's most favorite thing to do was definetly the gymnastics area. She couldn't wait to get there because we told here that it was there. Both kids did forward rolls down the mats and walked on the beam and the parallel bars. They loved it! It was hard to peel them away, but there were so many other things to check out.

Week with Grandma

2009-06-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

I love it when mom is on summer vacation from school! She came to visit for a week. Friday night after her temple session, we played as substitutes in 2 softball games on Bishop Tanner's team. Even though we were a bit rusty, we had a good time. Mom played right field and I played 1st and 2nd base. We both got base hits a few times at bat. We were sore the next day. Saturday we did Nathan's party and the ward party. Sunday Jaycie gave her talk in Primary....

I can talk to Heavenly Father by praying.

He blesses me and my family.

When I am scared or need help, he will comfort me.

I like to pray with my family.

I know that Heavenly Father loves me and will listen to my prayers.

He wants to help me.

She did a great job, even though her voice was too soft to hear all of it.

Monday after work, we went to Pelican Bay for their twilight hours. Mom got one picture of Nathan coming down the slide before she was told that they don't allow photography.

Tuesday we went to the Omniplex...........

OKC 3rd ward summer party

2009-06-28T17:34:00.001-07:00

We continued Nathan's birthday at the ward party. It was lots of fun! The "big kids" put together segments of a complicated puzzle, so it was quite an accomplishment to put them all together.
Picture above: Dan Martin, Zach Richards, Becca Martin, Me and Tommy and Eric Roth...in the back companion and Elder Klineman
Picture below: Jaycie, Margie, Londynn, Gabe, Joby, and Jackson

Cotton candy was a big hit! Here is Nathan giving his ticket for his, and Jakey and Becca getting ready to dig in!

We also loved the Root Beer floats that James made
and the moon bounce that Lexie and Aiden are in front of!

Nathan's Suprise Party!

2009-06-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Granpa Brown, Huddson, and Hollister were visiting for Nathan's party. He has been asking for a Spiderman party all year. Mom and I set up the party while the kids played outside. Nathan was so suprised and excited when he came inside! He got a big boy bicycle from Grandma and a Lightning McQueen backpack from his cousins. Right after this pizza party, we all went to the ward party to continue the fun!

Nathan's 3 year pics

2009-06-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here is my little 3 year old. He is such a stinker, but I love that boy! It worked out well that Target had this cute little set up the week that we had pics scheduled! Nathan loves motorcycles!!

For Mandy

2009-06-28T15:49:00.001-07:00

My friend Mandy has always gotten the kids cute clothes for their birthdays!!

They usually have their pictures made in them (because she is a better shopper than me)

We had to take pictures for her of Nathan opening her gift...since she lives in Texas now!

Ray...Miss you and love you bunches!! Thanks for the cool spiderman gift!

Float Trip 2009

2009-06-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

My mom and the fam went camping and floating down the Illinois River over the weekend. The weather was perfect!! We stayed and floated from Peyton's Place. We loved our campsite, especially before we found out that is was surrounded by poision ivy. We set up camp, ate some sandwhiches for lunch, then set off for our float trip. Nathan really liked the bus ride. The river was a little cool, and it felt great after floating in the sun for a little bit. We stopped a few times for a swim. Jaycie and I enjoyed a float together for a while before I caught my back on a rock.

After our trip we showered, which felt great...then headed back to the campsite to grill our hot dogs. We had worked up quite an appetite. We all slept pretty well too. Jaycie slept with grandma in her tent, which helped Nathan get to sleep better than usual. It was a great trip, even with several ticks found and the scare of poision ivy.

Jaycie's swim lessons (and Nathan)

2009-06-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

Jaycie has swim lessons at the Bethany YMCA every Tuesday and Thursday in June. She loves it and is doing very well.
Her first class, the instructor didn't show so she joined another group. I was not really thrilled with everything that day. The second class, she has a swim instructor and only one other child in the class. It was great for her because she gets a lot of one on one attention. She is learning so much and should be swimming by herself soon, I think!

Nathan at Jaycie's swim lessons...

Day 1

As we walk in to the pool area, there are several parents and children hanging out waiting for instructions. As I am scoping out the area looking for a good place to plant ourselves, Nathan is preparing himself to swim. I don't notice this until much damage is done. I look beside me and Nathan is stark naked. He sees my expression and innocently states, "I wanna fim mommy." I promptly dress him and look around to see how many people were watching.

Nathan Day 2

Nathan is very active on day 2. We were sitting on the side of the pool in a corner. I brought books to attempt to keep him entertained...they did not. He slowly scooted toward the water and put his feet in. When bored with this, he got one of the swim noodles out of the bin and pretended to be fishing. I allowed these small things to keep him quiet and not drawing attention. I was able to capture a few pics of Jaycie during these times. He then wanted a picture of him. Shortly after this picture was taken, he decided to take off sprinting beside the pool. So much for not drawing attention to himself. With all of the instructors being lifeguards, their were several shouts of "Walk!!!" Nathan didn't seem bothered by any of the pleas. At this moment I was torn between following him and pretending that I didn't know him. Of course, I followed him...but he made it back to our spot before I was half way around the pool. I felt like I was on stage as I walked in front of the other parents on the bleachers. I knew what they were thinking.... I am glad that my kid didn't do that! This was one of my proudest motherly moments.

Playtime!

2009-06-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

One of the days Becca was at girl's camp, Margie and Jakey got to come play!

All of the kids started in the pool, but the boys soon jumped ship. The girls got used to the cool water, and the boys decided to play baseball and jump on the trampoline.

We love our nighbors, the Martins!!

Our new pool

2009-06-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

We got a little 10 x 3ft pool for the backyard to beat the heat this summer.

Jaycie was so excited that she swam in the freezing water from the hose, and Nathan resorted to his 4 wheeler that he loves!

We are ready to swim a lot this summer in our yard!

I have 2 monkeys!!

2009-06-09T18:27:00.001-07:00

These monkeys keep me on my toes!! They are very busy and active! Anyone that knows them would agree. They do things I couldn't imagine (good and bad) Here, Jaycie climbed up her swing set with her jump rope and secured it to make a rope swing. Keeping in mind that she can't tie, she wrapped and looped it enough that it worked. Things (like my step stool) disappear from my house frequently for these type of projects. She is very creative and strong and nothing stops her! I love my monkeys though and feel very blessed to be their mom!

Primary - My Sunbeam

2009-06-09T18:15:00.001-07:00

This picture is probably from January or February, but I never posted it and I really like it. In Sunbeams, they made these feet representing "walking in Jesus' footsteps." I am really grateful for Primary teachers. Especially since I have been a teacher for the 7 turning 8 year olds for a few months now.

I love the kids in my class and their enthusiasm for Baptism. Zach knows the articles of faith and usually answers all of my questions. Isabel has a good vocabulary, and I love her prayers. Eric is a wonderful helper and is very thoughful. Savannah is my little buddy and has a great smile. Nicholas can make anything oragami out of paper. They each are unique and I enjoy them all!

Memorial Day cookout with friends

2009-06-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day, we went to Harvest Hills park with lots of families from our ward. It was a nice warm day for playing in the splash park! We had a cook out and potluck and enjoyed hanging out.

The girls laying out in the sun... Londynn, Jaycie, Kailee, and Emma

The boys hanging out in the shade...Tommy and Nathan

We love the spray park. Nathan getting revenge on sister with the water gun! It was a nice day off of work!

Tyler Graduates

2009-06-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

We went to Arkansas 5/15/09 to watch Tyler graduate from Gentry High School. We spent the night and had a cookout before the ceremony.

Lacey, Tyler, Tommy, Rissa and baby Gabe in tow (this was our first time to see him face to face) There is some of a firework in there too. They were a big hit for all except Nathan. He cried, but I assured him that it was ok and they wouldn't get him and all was well.

Jaycie was sooooo excited that her cousin "Emma from Boston" could be there. They had lots of fun!!

There were not a lot of graduates, but we played outside on the grass toward the end of the ceremony. That was much more fun for them. Jaycie, Nathan, Emma, and Miguel.

My 30th Birthday

2009-06-09T17:26:00.001-07:00

This was the highlight of my birthday! My dad and Rita paid for us to stay at a bed and breakfast while they watched the kids. We picked the Garden Room at the Arcadian Inn in Edmond. What more could a girl want!!!! We grabbed a Red Box movie and On the Border on our way there. I watched some of the movie from the hot tub. It was beautiful and peaceful and breakfast was amazing! I loved that it was delivered to our room. I had a candle in my waffle and my napkin ring paper said Happy Birthday Kimberly. There were so many personal touches. It just makes me want to go back!! Thanks Dad and Rita!

Mother's Day 2009

2009-06-09T17:11:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed my Mother's Day. My Mom was here, so it was so nice not to travel for the first time since I have been a mom. The kids made very nice gfts for me at their school (Council Rd Baptist Church Day Care) Jaycie made a flower pot with flowers with typed little jobs for her to help me with. All were very nice. The primary sang and did sign language to the song....

"Mother tell me the stories that I love to hear

Tell me of heaven and why I came here.

Mother tell how you love me and gently speak,

and then I'll go to sleep."

That song is so sweet when the children sing. I did the Mother's part with the other female teachers and presidency....

"Child, I am here.

Can you feel that Heaven is near.

Sleep. Sleep. A love watch I'll keep

to protect you through the night."

It was fun to learn that song and practice it with Jaycie!

We had a nice steak and baked potato dinner with Mom and gave her the magnet that the kids painted and her cards.

Thanks for coming, Mom! I hope that you had a wonderful day like I did.

You inspire me! I love and appreciate you tons!

Jolee's Birthday 5/3/09

2009-06-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Jaycie and JoLee (cousins)

We love Pump it Up! The kids play all over the slides and inflatables and wear themselves out!
Nathan loved boxing with dad even though everything was too big for him. The gloves together probably weight as much as he does!

Festival of the Child 5/2/09

2009-06-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

We really had a good time at the Festival of the Child in Yukon. Because of rain, it was all indoors. I would recommend it and will try to make it again next year. These pics show some of the highlights, but there were so many things to see and do for kids! This was our first time to attempt face painting and hair color spray. I was suprised that the kids did it, but they really liked the result! You can also see the necklaces that the kids made, the sand art bracelet, and the sticker from the clowns (U R A QT) Of course we kept tabs on Snow White the whole time we were there. The train went all over the parking lot. Other favorites were the book walk, the baby opossums and other animals, and mother and father's day gifts that the kids could make. We topped the evening off with free ice cream for the kids at Braums that night! What fun!

Veterinarian Jaycie

2009-04-26T15:47:00.001-07:00

There has been talk at our house about what Jaycie and Nathan are going to be when they grow up. Jaycie has stuck with cowgirl for a while now. Nathan wasn't sure what to be, so I gave him some ideas. The final result was that he would be a veterinarian and Jaycie said that she would bring her horses to him when they are sick. She decided, however, to try her hand at veterinary surgery the other day in her bedroom. She got into the dress up chest for the clothes (my favorite is the 1 princess glove), and the scissors are from her playdough kit. She gave me a thorough description about how she would have to fix the whale's heart because it wasn't pumping enough blood. (She's heard too many cath lab stories I think!!)

Fun in the Tub

2009-04-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

We were just being silly with the shampoo making crazy hair. The kids enjoyed it a lot, so I thought that I should capture the moment. We could only accomplish the mohawk with Nathan, but Jaycie likes the "who" look.

Preschool Zoo Trip.....Dinosaurs Unearthed

2009-04-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

We are very in to dinosaurs since my dad brought us the Jurassic Park trilogy. I wasn't sure if the movies would scare them, but the kids assured me that they were ok with it and wouldn't let me hide them for a few years.

Jaycie found several tracks and matched them to the chart that showed which dinosaur track she found. She was all about this because they do this in the movies when finding bones. Nathan was mainly slinging sand with the brush. These were neat because you could move their tail, arms, etc. by pushing the buttons. They also roared very loudly.

We couldn't get out of the zoo without stopping for this kid planned photo opportunity. We never made it to see the lions, but the statues are nice!

Margie, Jackson, Nathan, Jaycie, and Joby

The kids found a mister that was on and took off to check it out. It was pretty hot and one of the only days without enough wind to cool us off. After this they were able to play at the play area for a bit before it was time to go. It was a fun afternoon at the zoo!

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

2009-04-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

On Friday, my day reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books--Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day. I think that I have that right. It has been a long time since I have seen that book. I pulled into my parking spot at work and I heard something pop. I looked around my car and didn't see anything until smoke began billowing from my hood. I thought my car was on fire. I looked under the hood after I finally figured out the latch and there was fluid all over the place. I called Tommy and he figured out the problem quickly. Thankfully, I made it to work because the pop was a radiator hose. OK, no major problem...Tommy can fix it easily. Then as I am just beginning my first procedure of the day, the day care calls and says that Jaycie has pink eye. What in the world was I to do about that with a patient on the procedure table and a non functioning car in the parking lot. I was able to hold the day care off for a bit. I really didn't (and still do not believe that she had pink eye) She got something in her eye playing outside on Thursday and we rinsed it out and I think that it was irritated. Tommy came up to work on his lunch break to fix the car in case I could get away to go get Jaycie, but I was scrubbed in and was unable to bring him my keys. Not that it was going to happen for me anyway on a crazy busy day at the Heart Hospital. Tommy's job is still a bit tender because he is so new and I hate to do anything to compromise his job by having him leave for the day. It has been wonderful to us!!! And then, we were rescued by Tammy who I work with. She offered to help and was our angel for the day. She picked Jaycie up from school and made it to the pediatrician's office (without much notice). Totally took care of everything at the office and even paid my copayment. She then proceeded to take Jaycie for ice cream and lots of shopping. What a day she had...and continues to talk about. She came home with a bag of dresses, 2 pairs of flip flops, a pair of sunglasses, and a few McDonalds toys that she had stashed and entertained Jaycie with. When they came back to see me, one of the surgeons took this picture in the hall of the hospital with his phone and sent it to me. I am glad that Jaycie had a wonderful day because mine was quite stressful being at work and unable to take care of anything...especailly not getting the keys to Tommy because I was in the middle of a procedure. My procedures for the day were long and frustrating too, which added to my anxiety. A "special" doctor flipped out on us all and was careless and sprayed blood on me and the scrub tech while screaming etc. etc. That's what I felt like doing too throughout the day. Many many thanks to Tammy for saving the day. Jaycie and I love her and are so grateful for a wonderful friend!!!

Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T18:22:00.001-07:00

The LOOT!!!

It was a very wet and a little chilly Easter Sunday today. There was no egg hunting for us today, but we still had lots of fun! The kids were excited to wake up to this!! My mom and I went shopping with our coupons yesterday and we just added the clothes to the baskets. Tommy said that it looked more like Christmas than Easter.

We colored eggs before church after we peeled the candy out of the kids hands. We also had our own little fashion show. Jaycie loves to try on clothes, and Nathan was thrilled with his 2 sets of Lightning McQueen jammies!

One of the things that I was most excited with today was Jaycie giving her scripture in Primary. I shouldn't mention the bribery that went in to it......but she did a great job. The last 3 times that she was supposed to give a talk or something she never did. It was getting frustrating for me. We have been making slow progress though. Her last talk she at least stood at the podium when Daddy gave her talk about families. But today, she spoke audibly into the microphone and did the whole scripture

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Sister Hickey reminded us that the Easter egg represents life and we color it to make it new. I liked that because I often forget what eggs have to do with it. Primary was spiritual today. The kids all did wonderfully with their talks and prayers. I am especially grateful today for my Savior. Jaycie's scripture reminds me of that. I am grateful for my family and for my Mom today. We had a nice weekend with her and I even got an Easter dress (or 2) and some jammies. We had a ham dinner with Grandpa and G.G. (and celebrated her birthday too) and then enjoyed decorating our colored eggs afterwards with glitter, pains, and stickers.

Happy Easter!!!

Easter Pics 2009

2009-04-12T18:13:00.001-07:00

Grandma loves to do pics...and I let her! We went to Portrait Innovations on Easter Eve and had pics of all of the grandkids (Jaycie, Nathan, Huddson, and Hollister) Here are my favorites. Huddson and Hollister weren't very excited about picture taking, but the grandparents got one good group pic of the 4. It is hard to get 4 toddlers all looking at the camera at the same time...especially while people are jumping around trying to get them to smile. Anyway, I was happy with the pics even though Nathan kept biting his lip. Thanks Grandma Brown for the cute Easter clothes!!!

Grandma Rita's B-Day at Arcadia

2009-04-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

We made the most out of a cold weekend for Grandma Rita's Birthday. They came up for the day and we met at Arcadia Lake in Edmond. We found a nice campsite protected from the wind by the trees and made a fire in the fire ring and a fire in the grill. Dad was the chef and made buffalo burgers and dogs. We had a nice picnic. The kids wore out grandma at the playground and down by the water throwing in rocks. We fed some ducks one of our hot dog buns down by the water too! After lunch, we took a hike close by and saw some large deer tracks! We wrapped up the day by going to Pops down the street and loaded up a 24 pack crate of different sodas. Lots of root beers for me and cream sodas for Tommy. It was a fun stop and a great afternoon.

Note: This was our last outing with the 4Runner! :( Farewell picture...Maybe someday again!!!

Red Rock Camping

2009-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Tommy went to help on a boy scout campout to Red Rock and we got to come too!! The Poyner's were going, so we decided to join them. We had a wonderful time!! The weather was great! Jaycie, my little monkey, loved to climb the canyon rocks!
Of course we had smores!! (My favorite, but my fam just likes to make them) Here we are with Jackson Poyner

The 4 kids had a great time and explored all kinds of things! This is Jaycie and her friend Lincoln Poyner.

One of my favorite things that we did was our nature hike. While the big boys went on their hike...we did a kid (and mom) friendly one. It was awesome. It is beautiful out there and there were cool things to see. Thankfully, we brought Jeff Poyner because we got into a steep drop and had to be helped a bit. We made an assembly line in getting the kids down safely and well, Christine and I made it too. That's all that I can say for us! It may not have been pretty. Nothing broken though!!! At the end, Jaycie found a rail to climb on like a balance beam. She loved these, but it slowed down progress a lot because all of the kids had to try it out. We had a great time though!

Field Trip to Express Clydesdales

2009-03-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Our preschool field trip this week was a lot of fun!

Aiden, Margie, Nathan, Emma, Jaycie, Jurni, and Joby

The kids loved the miniature horses and the donkey and zebra.

The clydesdales were showering for their big trip in the morning to Chicago for a parade.

Open House at "School"

2009-03-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Open House at Council Rd. Baptist Church Day Care was great. It is so funny to see the toddlers perform. One girl messed with her tights and skirt the whole time and didn't ever sing. It was hilarious. We took our video camera to capture the moment.

Jaycie's class -The young 4 year olds sang "Oh what a miracle am I" Jaycie suprised me an actually went up on stage and sang almost all of the song...most of the kids did not!

Nathan's class - The older 2 year olds singing "If you're happy and you know it." (or at least doing a few motions that go with the song)

After the presentation, I went to Jaycie's classroom (with the camera) and Tommy went to Nathan's to see their friends, teachers, and artwork. Then we enjoyed some cookies and lemonade. It was a short, sweet, and fun evening. I am so grateful to have found a school that we are all really happy with.

Valentine's Day 2009

2009-02-17T20:09:00.000-08:00

Emma, Jaycie, and Margie at Preschool at our house on the Tuesday before Valentine's Day. We had several Valentine's parties this year. At preschool, our shape of the week was a heart, so we decorated cupcakes with conversations hearts. I have to read all of them to Jaycie. She likes the one that says "marry me" She thinks that she is still marrying Jackson Eddleman, but apparently at date night he said that he was marrying Margie. Oh the drama of being 4. She'll usually revert to marrying her dad or brother. We went to the Bethany Library on Thursday where the kids heard Valentine stories and made Valentine's and decorated cookies. We had sprinkles everywhere. The kids enjoyed it very much! Friday was the parties at school. Nathan and Jaycie both came home with sacks of candy, etc. Date night was on Valentine's day at Lexie's and the kids had more Valentine fun. Tommy and I enjoyed some peace and quiet and watched "The Notebook" and ate a Wendy's hamburger. I really liked the movie. We discussed going to a store and picking out a card for each other, reading them, and then putting them back. I kinda liked the idea!! :) My mom sent some Valentine's with Curtis, and my Dad sent some in the mail. Curtis gave us a Valentine check and took us to Chick Fil-A. Good times! Thanks to all of our loved ones!!!

Jaycie's Special Friend

2009-02-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

At the last Primary activity, Jaycie made a new friend. (Dimitri Brewer)
She insisted that his name was Petri. He was the talk of our household for several days. The next day was Sunday, and Jaycie had to bring him this present to church. Every picture she colored that day, etc. was for "Petri." Here is the flower that she made and decorated.

2009-02-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

This is my attempt at capturing a moment. I figured that I should just take a picture of times like these so that I can remember them instead of flipping out on the kids for their behavior. I'm pretty sure that it was Jaycie who climbed over the couch, on to the kitchen counter, and up in the top cabinet to get the forbidden band-aids. This is why we don't ever have one when we need one!!!

Photography by Jaycie

2009-02-17T19:49:00.001-08:00

The kids love the gadgets that I do...camera and phone. I love to take pictures (especially of them) and that apparently is genetic. Jaycie has found the camera and she knows how to use it. When I upload my pictures, there are always some random shots of Nathan's nose or something like these that I posted. Jaycie decided to do a photo shoot of her toys. If only Nathan and Jaycie would pose as still as these!! They both will swipe your phone if you leave it in arms reach (which is pretty much anywhere) I learned that the hard way!! Had to share!

My Artist

2009-02-17T19:41:00.001-08:00

Jaycie has become quite the artist and musician these days. She got a hold of my tape and made a display of her work all down our hallway. I just can't take them down because she would be devastated! I have to continually encourage her about the beauty of her coloring her strawberry shortcake pages!! She will ask me if I don't! She also has been singing her own lyrics lately. You never know what you are going to get with that. It is usually turns in to a blend of Primary and Christmas songs after she makes up a few lines!

We were actually leaving early for church and it was a beautiful Sunday, so I grabbed a picture before we got in the car. These moments are rare, so I decided to post it!!

OKC Thunder

2009-02-17T19:29:00.001-08:00

Dr. Abbas, one of the cardiologists that I work with, gave us tickets to see the new OKC professional basketball team (OKC Thunder). We had a great time, and beat the Grizzlies in overtime. The seats were very close!

Nathan seemed to be a Thunder girl magnet!! As you can see, he liked that!

Snow Day

2009-02-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

We had to get out of the house on our snow/ice day. We bundled up and the pictures can speak for themselves. Our "sled" is the lid to the rubbermaid trash can that we use for pet food.....whatever works, right?!! I'm not sure who had more fun...Daddy or the kids!!

Young Women

2009-01-04T18:40:00.001-08:00

Our ward reorganized the primary and young men and young women's presidencies, so I was released today. I didn't realize how hard that would be on me. I love those girls sooo much! I have been thinking of all of the fun things that we have done this year. One of my favorites was camp of course and the float trip down the river. There are so many others like the lake trip with the Polings and tubing behing the boat, bowling, craft making, etc. Here are the Beehives...Kim, Kayla, Megan, Camilla, Heather, Zoe at our "P" party (Pizza, Pigtails, Pajamas, and Personal Progress). I will miss all of the Young Women so much! They have such sweet spirits and are so much fun! It has been a wonderful learning experience to serve with them and the presidency!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

We had outstanding weather New Year's Day!! We decided to finish putting together the trampoline that the kids got for Christmas. We had a lot of fun together! Tommy and I worked together on the enclosure because the instructions were not to be found. I had to pull out the CD that came with it for one part. It all worked out though and I think that the kids are going to have a great time on the new trampoline. It seems to wear them out nicely too which works for me since they have way more energy than I do. Yes the cat in the picture. I'm not sure why, but Tommy thought that would be a good idea. It was short lived!

We also ate these pig candies that my dad gave us in our Christmas basket in the hotel. We were instructed to eat them on New Years Day for good luck. I hope they work!

The Grinch

2009-01-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

I just walked through my living room and noticed that the Grinch movie is on....Still as of 1/4/2009. (Happy Birthday to our little 2 year old friend Emri today) Anyway, it made me think of how much Grinch we had this Christmas. My kids love it for some reason. Starting about November, we have read the book, watched the movie a ton, and listened to the neighbor's Grinch on the porch sing a million times...even in the freezing cold temperatures. This was a die hard situation. I would have to bundle up the kids to go to Brad and Suzy's porch and make the Grinch and Santa sing. We missed the family appointed Grinch this year...Uncle Brett. Oh the excitement of Christmas! I am glad to be starting a new year though. Happy 2009 to all!

Tagged...

2009-01-04T17:23:00.001-08:00

This is my 6th picture from my 6th album for Becca and I am tagging 5 friends. At first I was concerned about how to find the correct picture because I haven't kept picture books very well. I was very good at cataloging pics on Shutterfly.com for the first couple years of Jaycie's life. I shared pics with family and friends that way. Anyway, it was very easy to find the 6th on Shutterfly! So...here it is. Tommy with Jaycie when she was about 3 mo old. I loved that little green suit she has on. She was so chunky that she couldn't wear it for long. It looks like a picture taken after Tommy got off work at Steve Bailey Honda since that is his old work uniform. Well, it was fun finding it. I haven't logged on Shutterfly in forever so there were lots of pics that I haven't seen in a while.

I TAG....Rissa (love to see your blog and you are falling behind), Val (enjoyed seeing you so much at Christmas), my friend Charly, Bronwyn if you happen to see this because I haven't figured out how to get to yours, and Lexie --who I know has already been tagged, but I haven't seen it and I am out of untagged friend bloggers. Happy posting!

Christmas Night with Buga Buga

2008-12-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Evening, we went to Grandma Buga Bugas and had some more presents. What a day!!! Nathan got a Lightning McQueen race track that he loved when his cousin Miguel had one. Jaycie got the boy Diamond Castle Barbie. They also each got a sweatsuit. We had fun playing for a short time before we went back to the hotel to swim with Poppy and Grandma Rita one last time.

Christmas weekend

2008-12-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday morning Grandpa Cook was supposed to meet us, but was delayed by a storm. Grandma Brown pulled out some games and we had lots of fun while waiting. Finding Nemo Go Fish was one of our favorites. We also played Little Einsteins memory and Candy Land. Grandpa Cook with Tyler and Rose made it in time for lunch, so we ate a On the Border. I never got to my camera unfortunately to get their picture. We went to Toys R Us and Grandpa got Jaycie a Barbie Mermaid bath toy, and a Barbie pet trainer and Nathan a Cars Dinoco helicopter with Mater inside and the Cars stickers for his wall. It was fun shopping and good to spend a short time with Don, Tyler and his girlfriend.

Big Boy Room

2008-12-30T20:48:00.000-08:00

When we got in to town Sunday after Christmas, the kids found that Santa had come to our house too! Nathan got his big boy car bed, and Jaycie got the trampoline she had been asking for. We began setting up the room right away and washing his new car bedding! The crib was disassembled. The kids were buzzing around the house (especially Nathan). After the bed was set up, we put the car stickers on the wall and set up the hot wheels track....I think that daddy enjoyed that the most. The picture of Nathan captures the moment the best. He was beaming!!! He was all about cars all evening. He had a great first night in his new bed and had to kiss it all in the morning before he left for school. He is such a good boy, full of excitement. I feel blessed to have him as a part of my family. He has a very sweet and special spirit. He keeps me on my toes too!

Christmas with Mom

2008-12-30T20:36:00.000-08:00

There were lots of wonderful gifts awaiting us when we arrived Christmas afternoon. Grandma passed out presents while Nathan and Jaycie waited patiently (shocking). They got cars, barbies, skates, paper dolls, books, etc. Tommy and I opened a GPS and digital photo frame. We were excited and grateful for grandparents!!! We had the adult dirty Santa with our $10 gifts, which is always fun. Tommy got a water rocket and I got an Obama T-shirt...that I traded with Curtis for some jellies. We ate mom's traditional Christmas dinner of ham and all of the fixins. It was great. After dinner (to stay awake) we had to try out the new gifts with the kids.

Christmas at the Renaissance

2008-12-30T20:14:00.001-08:00

This was where we stayed Christmas Eve in Tulsa!!!

It was beautiful! We swam with Aunt Mary and Uncle Ryan and watched the sunset out of the windows. Then we had a very fancy dinner at the restaurant Christmas Eve. Tommy and I shared French Onion Soup, a nice salad with spiced apples and bleu cheese, and a steak with smoked cheddar mashed potatoes. I mostly ate the soup and salad and Tommy ate the steak. The kids shared a cheese pizza. Nathan fell asleep at dinner, which was nice. After we got Jaycie down, we called everyone to set up Christmas. The kids woke up about 730 and we made the calls again for everyone to join us in our room. The kids were so excited and we all enjoyed watching them open gifts and opening a few ourselves. My dad and Rita opened the sand art and water color painted picutres the kids made. Everyone got new pics from us. After gifts, we enjoyed the hotel breakfast buffet. It was a great Christmas!!

Jaycie's Week

2008-12-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

We met Poppy and Grandma Rita at the Stroud McDonalds on Tuesday for her to spent the week in Bixby. She just got back Saturday night. We were worried how Nathan would do
at home without sister. I think that

he enjoyed being the center of

attention. Jaycie had a great time. She tells us about having a picnic in the caves by Grandma Rita's house. I am sure that she wore them out. She loves them so much because they focus all of their attention on her when she is around. She loves the way that they tune in to her and listen to her. I love and appreciate that about them too! When we get to visit, nothing is more important than the stories she has to tell and her thoughts. It is the same for Nathan too, but he still follows in her shadows right now. These are old pics, but they show some things that we love about them. Nathan sees dump trucks on the road and tells me that his Poppy drives one of those....(and a scoop too)

Weekend with Grandma Brown

2008-12-14T12:31:00.000-08:00

When Grandma Brown was here and we got family pics made, we also wanted to do some home pajama pics. She brought the kids some cute ones to wear! She also got us a gingerbread house to decorate. It was a lot of fun. Jaycie was in to decorating and Nathan just wanted to eat the decorations. It was a great weekend. We also got to eat dinner at Teds with Grandma and she and I did a little shopping too. Thanks Mom!

Preparing for Christmas

2008-12-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

Here we are setting up our tree right after we got back from Thanksgiving. It was fun to get out all of our things and listen to Christmas music. We showed the kids some special ornaments and they got to hang up a lot of them. The Christmas spirit carried on to the bath tub, where the kids put bubbles on their faces to look like Santa. They are soooo excited for Christmas to come this year. It is fun for me to see their excitement.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-14T12:03:00.001-08:00

I can't believe that I forgot to post our Thanksgiving pics.

We had a great time in Broken Arrow with Tommy's family for Thanksgiving. We started out the eating and visiting at Grandpa and Grandma Owens of course. Grandpa has battle wounds on his head from a fall. Later we had a nice meal at Buga Buga and Papi's house. In the evening, we went for a walk at the Riverwalk. On our way home, Tommy and the kids and I went to the house in Broken Arrow that we have gone to for years that is very decorated with lights. The decorations are a tribute to a girl that lived there that passed away at Christmas time. The kids were mezmerized with all of the things to see at that one house. The day was also filled with card games and Wii games as well. Jaycie and Nathan boxed each other and it was cute!
Our evening walk at the Riverwalk in Tulsa

Preschool Christmas Party

2008-12-13T17:26:00.001-08:00

We had our annual Preschool Christmas Party on Tuesday!

It was a fun and crazy morning.

Here are the kiddos anxiously awaiting presents!

Sydnee, Jaycie, Margie, Joby, Emma

Here are the future preschoolers

enjoying decorated cookies

Aiden, Nathan, Jake, Egan, Emma

Becca reading Christmas stories

The kids made necklaces, and colored pictures too!

Family Pics Finally

2008-12-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

When my mom was here last weekend, we took family pictures at Portrait Innovations. Our last family pics were when Nathan was 6 mo. old, so I decided it was time (and had to convince Tommy). He came kicking and screaming and obviously didn't smile. Thank goodness the kids did. They did a great job and I was thrilled because that is rare to get them both at the same time. Jaycie can be a real picture taker these days and Nathan is getting used to it. He took our camera to Tommy yesterday and told him that he wanted to take a "smile" of him! Here are some pics that I liked that we will not be sending out.

Jaycie turns 4

2008-11-22T17:03:00.001-08:00

So much fun with friends at

Eldon Lyon Park

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Happy birthday Jaycie!

Chester's Party Barn with Papi and Grandma

2008-11-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Papi and Grandma came up with gifts for Jaycie's birthday!

Fun beautiful day at the pumpkin patch!

My little dare devil walking on the big hay bales

Nathan and Papi

My little cowgirl and boy

We ate at Poblano's before going...yummy!

Bikes Blues and BBQ, Fayetville AR 9/2008

2008-11-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

We spent the weekend with Grandpa Cook for his 50th birthday. The festival was fun (Tommy says like a mini Sturgess) We watched a stunt bike show and Nathan loved it! He was silent until the end of the show when he said again, again!!

The kettle corn was a big hit with the kids!

Nathan with cousin Connor and Aunt Lacey before our cookout at the house!

Daddy and Nathan going for a ride!

We love Preschool!!

2008-11-22T16:23:00.000-08:00

Jaycie, Margie, Sydnee, Joby, and Emma

Thanks Jenn for the pics and for so much fun decorating cookies!

Welcome Tara

2008-09-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

We spent last night a Todd and Sarah's house so that we could take care of Emri when she woke up. We had a really fun morning playing and swinging on the swingset. The weather was beautiful. I was able to go to the hospital to see the new little princess when Millie came home to take care of Emri and watch my kids for a short time. Tara is so precious...she weighed 6lbs 4oz and is 17 inches long. She is tiny and looks just like her big sister. Congratulations Lindleys!!!

Happy 30th Birthday Daddy!

2008-09-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 31st was an eventful day! On our way to church, Nathan put his arm behind grandma while she was getting in the car and hurt his arm. He cried for a while and held his arm and wouldn't use it. At the beginning of Sacrament meeting, he was very whiney and I had to take him to see if it was broken. I made our first urgent care trip! The doctor was nice and they took good care of us, so it wasn't too bad of an experience over all. X-rays showed no major issues so we went back to church with a wrap on Nathan's arm to make him feel better (and a Mater sticker--which really made him all better). After church I made Tommy favorite meal...grilled corn, steak, salad, and baked sweet potatoes. After rest time, we had his birthday party with the kids--cake and ice cream and presents! Here he is in his birthday clothes from my mom.

Birthday Dinner at Red Robin

2008-09-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Tommy's birthday was on Sunday, so Saturday night we went out to eat with the Johnstons at Red Robin. My mom was up for Labor Day and she watched the kids so that we could have a peaceful meal out. Grandma Vicky was finishing her management training here at the OKC Red Robin and invited us. It was a lot of fun and Vicky led the crew in their birthday song. The food was really good!

Library/ Myriad Gardens Playgroup

2008-09-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

At our last playgroup was at the downtown library. We had a good time with books and puzzles and had a picnic lunch. After lunch, the kids were ready to run! We walked to the Myriad Gardens right behind the library. The gardens are beautiful and we all enjoyed a walk along the path. We had a small challenge when we found ourselves at the bottom by the water with 3 strollers and no way up but stairs. Good times!!

Nathan and Jeff

2008-09-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Nathan taking a guitar lesson from Jeff (or just posing)

Centennial Waterfall 8/26/08

2008-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

We found the centennial waterfall at the fairgrounds when we went to the consignment sale with Charly and Ethan. We were not too excited about the sale, but the kids enjoyed the waterfall (and Jaycie was working the poses as you can see) It is rare that they allow me to do these type of photo shoots that I love to do. Nathan was not really sure about it, but I appreciate Jaycie playing along!! Thanks to Charly for bringing her camera because I did not have mine. Who knew we would find this opportunity at the fairgrounds. Must be new...we had a good time.
Ethan was up for a few pics too!

Ryan and Mary's Wedding 6/7/08

2008-06-16T18:38:00.000-07:00

My Brother, Ryan, got married last weekend at Grand Lake. Our family had so much fun. We enjoyed hanging out with lots of family, went swimming in the lake, 4-wheeling, and hung out in the hot tub at our mobile.
Jaycie and Nathan in front of the lake. This is where the wedding was. The view was so pretty!
My brother Ryan with Nathan
Nathan hanging out at the old lodge car
Tommy , Nathan, and Erik at the Laughlin's Red Boar Ranch
Jaycie was a flower girl. She did such a good job and was so adorable!

YW Camp

2008-06-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Kimberly, Heather, Heather ("H"), Me, Kristina and Ashley in front of our cabin at Sequoyah State Park... We floated the Illinois River and had a blast. After we got back and waited a while to get a cold shower, Kristina braided all of our hair. (I did Kimberly's to get some practice. I am trying to get the french braid down so that I can do Jaycie's someday. Kristina coached me a little and it actually looked pretty good!) YW camp rocks!

Renaissance Festival

2008-06-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Renaissance Festival in Muskogee. We watched a cool show with acrobats and saw lots of weird people.

Carnival

2008-06-16T18:11:00.001-07:00

We had a blast at the annual carnival at the Heart Hospital this May! Nathan was good (with Daddy) at the midway games and won the hat. Jaycie loved to bounce and ride the rides...both kids loved all of the junk food (unlimited snow cones, funnel cakes, etc.)

It's Alright, I'm here

2008-06-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

After Charly had baby Ethan, Jaycie couldn't wait to hold him. One afternoon she wanted to stay and "help" with the baby while I ran some errands. While she was "helping" with Ethan, she was so cute. She was holding him telling him "It's alright, I'm here - You're OK". She said all kinds of cute things to him. She is so tender and sweet with baby Ethan!

Cute

2008-06-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Jaycie loves getting her hair done. She was going to visit her Buga-Buga (Tommy's mom). Charly was babysitting and curling her hair, so Jaycie decided she needed her hair done before going to Buga-Buga's. She looks adorable!