Our Weekend

 While Steven and the boys were off enjoying their camping weekend (more on that in a second) I enjoyed a very rare, and I mean VERY RARE, night to myself without any kids or hubby.  What did I do with that time you ask?  I cleaned my house.  Fun.  It needed to be done and I had the time so I got off my lazy butt and did it.  To reward myself, I went and had dinner with my sister and girls.  Delish!  Then it was back home to me to watch my beloved Sooners lose and make yet another Christmas blanket gift.  This blanket was made for my niece Sailor.  Her favorite color is purple and what little girl doesn't like monkey's?  I thought it turned out cute!

I finished my new James Patterson book "NYPD Red" and shut out the light at midnight and slept 8 1/2 straight hours.  It was heaven!

Like I stated earlier the boys went camping with Daddy last night.  They have a friend that was turning 4 and his birthday was spent roasting hotdogs, roasting marshmellows, playing at a park, and sleeping in a tent with all their daddy's.  Will was supposed to be the only one going but Owen wanted to go so badly all week and just broke down when he realized that I was going to keep him home.  Steven, being the excellent Daddy that he is, said he would take them.  It got down to 29 degrees last night so I was thankful that he had the great idea of bringing extension cords and running them to his tent to hook up a space heater.  Thank you Jesus for heat!

Steven said they all had a great time and he really enjoyed the time with just his boys doing "manly things".  Don't know what that entails and don't think I will be asking.    

He said Owen held up pretty well, obeyed him, didn't run away, or fall in the fire.  Successful night as far as I'm concerned:)  I cracked up when I saw this picture though because I guess he just cuddled too close to brother, got too warm by the fire and guess what happened???  So funny!  Happy weekend everyone! 

Spider Cookies

 Tonight we went to Angela's house for some yummy stew.  When it drops 35 degrees in one day stew is the perfect meal:)  The kids all enjoyed their delicious dinner and were super excited about the activity that I had in mind for after they ate.  They scarfed down dinner and were ready pronto to make Spider Cookies.  

I stole this idea off of someone else (that posted a picture of it on Facebook).  I think it was originally a Pinterest idea but since I DO NOT get on that site for fear that I would become hooked, I just stole the idea from her.  Easy enough with only 4 ingredients.  Oreo's, M @ M's, Pretzels, and Icing.  All the kids really loved making these yummy cookies.  They would make one, eat one, make one, eat one....I think you are getting the idea.  

There was one kid (who shall remain nameless again) who didn't really complete even one cookie.  He ate on it, threw it, pounded it, ran around with it.  Here is his best (and I do mean best) cookie that he made.  Who wants a bite??? 

OU Game

 Saturday night was OU game night.  I am so thankful we were able to attend a game this year.  We actually will probably be able to go to the Baylor game in Norman next month too.  That would be awesome since last season we could only go to one and it was rained out.  We waited for 2 hours in the dungeon of the stadium only to leave because we were freezing and soaking wet.  We left and 5 minutes later they kicked off still in pouring rain.  Such the luck.  

Saturday there was no rain.  It was a beautiful day/night for a game.  Low 80's and little wind.  None of us even had to wear our extra sweatshirts we brought for when the sun went down.  

We had great seats only 7 rows up from the field.  We were so close to players that I could hear their grunts and calls while they were playing.  I normally don't like near the end zone seats but these seats were awesome since OU made a considerable amount of touchdowns.  Will got to see first hand action of the guys flying, diving, catching, and throwing right in the end zone. Chris got to watch the cheerleaders.  Everyone was happy:)

  I thought it was funny that we were playing the Kansas Jayhawks.  Will secretly wanted to cheer for them since their school colors are blue.  He loved that about them:)  The jayhawk made its way near our seats and he demanded I snapped a picture of him.  He loved him and kept talking about him throughout the game.  He would say (whispering), "Go Kansas!  You can do it!" and then scream, "Go OU, you're beating Kansas!"  I think he might have been a bit confused!

I am thankful to Bob and Denise who stayed home to watch Owen for us so we could enjoy the game with Will.  Owen is still not ready to make an entire game yet and probably still won't be for a few more years.  As much as Will has loved football (even last year), this was the first year he sat and didn't want to get out of his seat every 5 seconds to go explore.  He wouldn't leave his seat this time until the game was TOTALLY over even though we were blowing them out by about 50 points.  We were made to stay until the last seconds of the 4th quarter.  My boy loves some football and I love watching him enjoy it.  Every single second of that game was so fun to watch with him.  GO SOONERS!!!! 

A Weekend with Cousins

 This weekend we went to Norman to see family and to attend an OU game (that post will be tomorrow).  The boys LOVE going to Norman to see all their cousins and their Nana and Papa.  They have so much fun playing (to all hours of the night) and waking up early to start all over again!  

Very near Nana's house is a cool little pond with a fountain, fish, turtles, and frogs.  The boys and the girls all love walking to this pond and feeding all the creatures.  We have to really watch a certain someone because he "tries" to pretend jump and this weekend he actually "tried" to walk on water. I guess he believes he is Jesus.  We know otherwise:)

  

We were celebrating four birthdays while in Norman also.  The twins turned 1 just a few weeks ago.  Sophie turns 7 next week and Lola turns 4 just a few weeks after that.  Rachel thought "what better time to have a quadruple birthday than when all the family is here?"  Yep!  I would have probably done the same thing to get 4 out of my 5 kids done in one big celebration.  It was crazy with all those people but thanks to Rachel hosting at her new 3,000 square foot house in Edmond we weren't too crowded!  Congratulations Rachel and Charles on your new home.  You totally needed it with a family of 7 and I am so thankful God blessed you with such a beautiful home!

 Here is Oliver enjoying his special first birthday cake!  Oliver got all the hair in this twin thing.  It sticks straight up all the time and is so cute.  He doesn't have many teeth yet and walking is SO not his thing.  He lets brother do that. 

 And here is Anderson enjoying his cake.  He does have teeth and a lot of them.  I think I counted 6.  He doesn't have much hair though because brother has all that right now.  To make up for his lack of hair, he decided to walk first.  He was trying to show off his mad skills but everyone kept holding him all the time so he didn't get to perform as much as he would have liked.

 Lastly I will leave you a picture of Nana and Papa with 8 of their 10 grandchildren.  7 boys and 3 girls.  Someone needs to start popping out some more girls.  That someone will not be me.  I am not volunteering.  Happy birthday Anderson, Oliver, Sophie, and Lola.  We love you all very much!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!

 This last Friday my dad had a birthday.  A 55th birthday.  He doesn't look a day over 52 I tell you!!!  

I started the morning off right with a a little 5:30 am pumpkin workout with 24 other insane women.  The only good thing was that it was dark the entire hour so no one could see my scary makeup less, in pain face!  Seriously though, I couldn't move my arms over my head for the entire weekend after that little workout.  Even today (Monday) I can still feel it in my abs.  I am probably just out of shape but you try hauling around a 15 pound pumpkin for a whole hour and tell me how you feel afterwards.  I had another friend there that weighed her pumpkin when she got home and it was 19 pounds.  Guess I won't complain about mine.  

Okay, but back to Friday and my dad's birthday! My dad is a great man.  Now, being a parent, I know when I fail my children but I can't remember a time where my dad has failed me, my sister, or my mom.  He loves us all un-condionally and never fails to impart useless knowledge (I mean wisdom) to us, hand out kisses and back breaking, boob smashing hugs, and painful high 5's.  

He loves my sister and I tremendously but now his heart is geared more toward his grandchildren.  That's okay.  We are grown and don't require his love quite like we used to.  I know he will always love me and I will always love him, but to see how much he loves those grandkids is sweet to watch.  It makes me excited about seeing my own grandchildren in a LONG LONG LONG time! 

Happy birthday Dad!  We all love you very much:) 

Pumpkin Patch 2012

 My oh my...my baby has grown.  This is Owen at the same patch 3 years before!  He was 3 months old in the picture on the left.  Now, he's 3.  He's adorable and I feel no shame in saying this is one of the cutest little smiles and happiest boy ever in this picture.  My two favorite pictures of my O Man and they are both at the pumpking patch:)

The boys always have a great time when we go to the patch.  They really could care less about all the pumpkins though.  Tonight they were excited about starting at one end and seeing who was the fastest to crawl over the 500 pumpkins to reach the other end first.  This game took some time during our trip.  Also, the pitch black hay maze was a hit this year.  Last year, at 4 3/4 Will was still too scared.  This year at 5 3/4 we couldn't keep him out of it.  I think he went through it about 15 times.  Owen wasn't interested the first 10, but then seemed to clue into how cool the maze was.  He went 1 time with Daddy and then was hooked.  The smallest one in there and with no fear.  I was proud of him!

Every time we go to Carmichael's Patch one of the highlights is feeding all the animals.  For .50 cents you get a bag of feed for any animal you want to feed.  Of course, Owen had to try to eat it first thing.  He stopped eating it once he realized it was pretty nasty.  I guess he is learning.  Maybe.  He was super thrilled about feeding the baby goats.  Too bad all of Tulsa had already fed the baby goats because they were not too interested in eating.  He was patient until he realized that right next door the sheep were eating.  See ya goats, he was off to the sheep.  He loved it.  Perfect activity for an animal lover like my Owen. 

We enjoyed our time together today on Fall Break and at the patch.  Hope everyone has a great Fall together with their families.  Even if it is 82 outside.  

Gingerbread Men Time!

 Every fall/winter Will requests to make gingerbread men.  This year it was a little early but it was the middle of October.  It just felt weird for me to be making a "holiday" cookie when it was 80 degrees outside.  Oklahoma weather?  Who knows though.  Next week it could snow.  

Last year when we made these special treats I did the whole process while Owen was napping.  This year, I let him be involved in the dough making, rolling, shaping, and cuting out of the actual men.  This was about all he could handle before I kept catching him walking by the cooling men and eating and/or ripping them apart.  

Will's favorite part every year is decorating.  This year he used Skittles, Dots, marshmellows, icing, and cake decorating blue icing tips.  He did very well.  I did more of the detail work and he put his finishing touches on everything else.  He lasted through all 33 cookies we made. Here's a picture of 30 of those cookies.  Can't explain what happened to the missing 3, but let's just say it MIGHT have had something to do with a certain 3 year old who shall remain nameless.....