Celebrations

You know the saying "when it rains it pours?"  I think that saying can apply to both the good and bad things in life.  This past weekend it applies to the good.

Friday May 25:
Samuel turns 4 but we don't celebrate it until Saturday because...

My sister graduates from High School.  I sadly do not have any pictures because I forgot to pull out my camera (so Dad, if you're reading this, I would really like some copies of the pictures you took).  However, I do have pictures of an awesome cake I "helped" make (and by "helped" I mean I paid for all the ingredients and showed moral support while my friend, Erica, used my kitchen to make it - she's awesome). 

It was for KeLei's graduation party. 

The next day was Samuel's birthday in which we went bowling. 

He loved it.  He also loved all his gifts including a train table Grandpa H. made him.  (Didn't get a picture of that either).

Sunday, May 27 welcomed 6 years of marriage for Carlin and I - to celebrate we went "camping" with Carlin's brother Mitchell and wife Heather in their backyard.  Yep, we're that awesome.  We grilled hot dogs, roasted marshmallows, made shadow puppets, slept in a tent on air mattresses, and topped the experience off with a rooster crowing first thing in the morning.  Nope, they don't live in the country, they live smack-dab in the middle of a the city in an established neighborhood.  We have no idea why someone owns a rooster. 

mmm...smores!

Can you tell how awful I was at pictures this weekend?  I didn't even get a picture with my sexy husband. 

And to close this post we had severe weather last night and my backyard looks like this:

 P.S. I officially give up on blogger... for all their fancy updates it still isn't giving me an option to rotate my pictures.  Am I doing something wrong?

Breaking News!

Lillian, after two years and four months of denying her mother's attempts to tame her hair, has finally let her mother pull the wild curls back into "two-ponytails."

Lillian only commented: "I so pretty."  Lillian's mother is thrilled with the progress but says "now, I just have to figure out how to part her hair evenly!"

In other news...
 

The kids and I took a quick trip to Washington to see my MIL's family.  It was fun and I loved getting to know Carlin's cousins and family. 

We did a lot, including family pics in matching red shirts and American flag bandanas...

Seeing Mt. St. Helen's from afar... it's snow covered peak.

But the highlight of the trip was definitely the beach.  The kids LOVED it. 

It's Bigfoot!  Oh wait, just Samuel.  And once again Blogger has a mind of it's own and puts the pictures in all crazy like, I give up. 

Hopefully this video works, we shall soon find out. The kids were both fascinated and terrified by the waves.  Weird to have moving water like that... :)

Where's Lillian?

Lillian is a big girl now having moved into a toddler bed.

She is also our little climber.

Sorry, you'll have to cock your head to the side for this one...

One night I couldn't find her.  I looked everywhere, on her bed, on the floor, under the bed, in the closet.  I could hear her snoring so I knew she was somewhere in the room.  I grabbed a flashlight and looked under the bed again.  I was sitting on the floor trying to figure out where the soft breathing was coming from when I looked up...

Freedom of toddler bed + Climbing = No good.

Imagination

Did you know the zoo has dolphins?

And sea turtles, giraffes, elephants, ducks, dogs, cats, monkeys, fish... I think you get the picture.

Did you also know Samuel can drive us to the zoo?

Because he did. He "drove" us to the "zoo" and we walked around the house -er, I mean zoo and saw all kinds of animals including monsters.

You have no idea how much I loved using my imagination again... and seeing my two beautiful children exploring their world with imagination.

March Happenings

and a little bit of April too.

I figured since I hadn't posted in a while I would just add a plethora of pictures for ya. So here goes:
The kids insisted on wearing Daddy's green shirts.

Oh, so that is what the little loopy thing on Daddy's pants are for! Who knew?

Cuddled and comfy on the couch.

We took a trip to see Carlin's brother Ben in Tulsa and of course had to stop at the aquarium.
While the kids tried to pet the sting-rays all I could think was "Wasn't that how the crocodile hunter died!"

We couldn't get Samuel to smile and then suddenly he did some crazy pose and we captured it on camera.

Ben took us on a tour of the University of Tulsa (he is currently working on his PhD, yep, I married into a family of smarties). It was gorgeous (the campus that is). Made me want to go back to school... longing sigh.

We ate at Arby's. We originally found Samuel here, but Lillian was the only one who would pose for a picture. She's such a ham.

On our way home we drove into a huge storm. The kids and KeLei slept through it all.

We finished this puzzle almost a year after starting it only to find a piece was missing! Grrrr.

Samuel and his cars...

And now for today. I told the kids they could go outside and play in the puddles (it had finally stopped lightning and they were pretty excited). Guess I should have taken into consideration how muddy those puddles were.

Let it begin: Basketball and Hooliganism

It's here!

And I'm sooo excited.

Carlin and I even filled out brackets and have a bet going to make it a little more interesting. Since our brackets are a bit arbitrary (I kept my favorite teams in as long as I could...) we decided it will be whoever gets the highest percentage of games correct is the winner.

Yes, I'm aware OSU is not in the tournament this year, but I still had to show them, because if they were they would be my top pick. However, to remain Big 12 loyal, I have Missouri upsetting North Carolina in the final game.

The bet? If I win Carlin has to clean the kitchen every day for a week, to my specifications. If he wins, I will treat him to a buffet breakfast. I think I'm getting the better part of the deal, don't you?

And here's my juvenile delinquents getting into the suckers (which are on the second shelf of the cabinet). Notice how there is no chair under them? Yah, they climbed over the breakfast bar on the right side of the picture... (the dining room table is on that side, they pushed the chairs up to the breakfast bar).

Excited

I love this time of year - it makes me all excited and hopeful. Maybe something to do with everything in bloom or just the fact that it is getting steadily warmer and I've become the biggest baby to cold weather. Whatever the reason, I wanted to list a few things that I get entirely too excited about along with pictures of the kids (for those of you who only come to my blog to see said pictures).

Election year. I have a love/hate relationship with politics and politicians, but I absolutely love election years. Not sure why... considering all of the very strong opinions and the heated arguing that ensues, maybe I just love seeing people be passionate about something that matters. I think apathy is the poison of society. Seeing people form opinions and vote for something other than American Idol makes me happy.

This was taken today after Samuel dumped the entire, brand-new bag of candy all over the table and floor.

Country music. It gets my toes a tappin' and makes me want to learn to two-step. I just love how country music can and does sing about everything from their dog they love to politics to making love to their wife. What other music genre does that? To quote Marcus from "About a Boy" when speaking about rap "...they're pretty angry most of the time. But sometimes they just want to have sex." Sometimes I feel like you can wrap-up most of today's music into those two categories, anger and sex. With that in mind, country music (at least when it comes to listening to the radio) can be a breath of fresh air.

In our efforts to potty-train we turned on a movie for Samuel, which resulted in a movie-watching party on the bathroom floor.

Easter candy. Do I really need to explain this one? My most recent find: gummy SweetTarts. Oh yummm...

Exercising. I always like exercising, but whenever the weather gets warmer and the days get longer I find I have more motivation. Combine this motivation with my desire to try something new and look good in my swimsuit this summer and it leads to my decision to race the Warrior Dash. Yep, I even talked a friend into racing it with me.

Books. I get excited about my books no matter what time of year it is. However, I really just want to curl up under a tree and get lost in a good a book. Sigh.

Gardening. Nothing in the world I love more than fresh veggies from my garden and the vibrant colors of ornamental plants overflowing my front yard.

The backyard. Sending my kids outside to enjoy the sunshine and the warm weather. Most of my memories from my childhood are playing outside, I want my kids to have that same opportunity to explore the nature around them and use their imagination. Even if our backyard is a bit small and full of weeds.

Future astronauts maybe?