Our Christmas vacation started like most people's with kids in elementary school did...a week full of Christmas parties. Owen had his on Friday and got to wear his pajama's to school as well. That pretty much makes for a perfect day for any 5 year old. Owen loves his teachers and I truly feel they were chosen just for my son. He has thrived in their class this year and continues to grow. I am very much looking forward to how much more he will learn and grow in the second half of school. Thank you Mrs. Wheeler and Mrs. McGivern for all you do for Owen. I know and realize he's not the "easiest" child and so that makes me even more thankful for both of you:)
Another thing I am BEYOND thankful for this Christmas break? Our oldest son Will accepted Jesus into his heart on December 22nd at the age of 8. He has been asking a lot of 
questions over the last few months and I knew he was right at the cusp of wanting to make the life long decision. Of course, Steven and I wanted it to be his decision to make. I don't believe in pushing something like this on my children because it needs to truly come from his heart. And, we believe it finally did on the 22nd. He was ready and it made us so proud as parents that he will now be joining us in Heaven for part 2 of our lives. I am beyond thankful that Jesus gave us His son this holiday season and now MY SON will also be given Jesus for all eternity. What an amazing Christmas present for our family!
Hope all of you also had a great Christmas together with family and friends. Great blessings to you for 2015!
To have to pick only a few pictures to show in my blog was pretty hard. I just picked a good collage of pictures. To say they are my favorites would be a lie because every picture my 
friend took was my favorite. Melinda Hunley at www.melhunphotography.com does great work (just in case anyone was or is needing a photographer).
We went to TU in the late fall (I think it was sometime in October) and got all 10 of us together for a little 
shoot. Of course, the girls were perfect little smilers and my boys were off running most of the time and getting their knees wet and muddy. In some shots you can even see their knees all wet. I guess I will remember that years from now looking back at these photo's. My boys and their skinned and torn jeans at the ages of 5 and 8.
Make some memories with your family today. It's worth it.
This boy Owen melts my heart. He also can make me the most mad and crazy of either of my children. Overall, he's a lover and a charmer and a clown. Friday he proved that in full force.
My dad took the boys bowling after school as a Christmas break celebration. They played and snacked on all kinds of food.
More than that though, my sweet lover Owen found a little grandma to charm. She was old (in her 80's), named Alice, and had just finished chemo treatment to beat cancer. He saddled his way into her lane and she ooh'd and aww'd over him the whole time. She fell in love with him and his willingness to love on her, speak to her, and make her laugh. This, my friends, is one of Owen's strongest traits (and I love that about him). After a short while he noticed her hair and bluntly asked, "Is your hair real?" After she said no, he then proceeded to ask if he 
could try it on. What 5 year old's do this? Apparently this one!
After they returned Alice's hair and she went on her merry way, the boys and Pappy hit up the arcade. I am sure my dad dropped some good money on these plastic hillbilly teeth. Those teeth were most likely a good $20! Thanks Pappy for the taking the boys on Friday. They enjoyed it so much and did NOT want to come home with me 3 hours later when I 
picked them up.
On another note, I wanted to include this super cute picture of me and my running buddies that we took this week at Maxson's 2nd birthday party. I love these girls. Unfortunately, life got in the way this week and we weren't able to squeeze a run in but I know we will again soon. It's great to have people that keep you accountable in life. I would recommend finding some friends like that. They really are a blessing!
Happy Sunday everyone!
Most of our weekends are spent driving here, going there, doing this, watching that, get this DONE, finish that homework project, go to this game, watch this practice, LAUNDRY, and the list could go on and on. I am sure most families during this stage we are in feel about the same way. This weekend was different. We, for once, in a 
LONG time had a very non-busy and relaxed time together as a family.
Steven got a round of golf in on Saturday morning, I got an afternoon run in, we went to church, Will had a sleepover that he completely enjoyed, and I got caught up on all 
housework, laundry, SAM's trips, and Christmas cards. For some of you that might seem like a pretty busy weekend still. For us, it was nothing and that felt entirely Heavenly.
I hope everyone else had a great weekend too. Now, I am going to go snuggle up with my boys on the couch and listen to the rain pouring down outside while we watch "The Grinch". A perfect end to a great weekend.
I truly am blessed and take nothing for granted. Thank you Jesus for all our blessings.
This is a blog about a watch, and only about a watch. If I have already bored you, feel free to resume your regular life. If you're interested than let me fill you in on my super cool watch that I got for Christmas from Steven. Yes, I'm already wearing it because it's the ONLY thing I got from him and I want to begin using it. I'm an adult and don't have to wait for the 25th if I don't want to:)
Anyways, this watch tracks my speed, distance, pace, mileage, heart rate, etc. It does everything. In fact, it does so much that it has taken the better part of two evenings for Steven to "train" me on it. It's a rather large face (which I'm going to have to get used to) and seeing as how I have a super skinny wrist the watch appears to be larger than my actual arm. It's close, but not larger:)
I love this watch and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone that runs. It even tracks inside running on a GPS. For those that run, you know most running programs like RunKeeper CAN NOT track accurately on a treadmill. This Tom Tom does and I can officially say I am in love with a Tom.
The End.
Any parent of children know that a successful road trip requires at least the loudest child (extra blessing if both) fall asleep at some point during the journey. We scored big 
on the way to Dallas over the weekend with BOTH boys knocking out out of boredom and tiredness from Thanksgiving. Steven and I scored about 1 1/2 hours of true peace and quiet on the way into Grapevine. A.maze.ing. Now, if 
this only could have happened on the way home that would have been great. But, alas, we got stuck in a flipped semi wreck on a two lane road that made our 4 hour journey about 5 1/2 hours, no children fell asleep, and we were too late to Tulsa to pick up Norman in time so he had to stay kenneled 
one more night. Can't have it all right?
For 6 months we have told Will we were going to take him to Great Wolf Lodge over his birthday weekend. Lucky for us, Thanksgiving weekend is the second busiest weekend of the year. *Happy Dance* (the first busiest is Christmas weekend if anyone was wondering). People 
everywhere. I'm talking, sounds of kids laughing, crying, screaming, falling water, splashing water, a constant drone of sounds. Some people might find this a little off 
setting after awhile and even I had a hard time with it after 48 hours. The boys seemed totally fine and in their element at all times of the day.
You know how swimming takes every bit of energy out of you? I always thought it was the sun bearing down on you 
while you were swimming but that proved not to be totally true because we didn't have the sun factor over the weekend and we
still were super tired. Case in point, I went to take a shower after several hours of swimming and I came out from the shower and this is how I found my family. I thought it was pretty funny. Will even fell 
asleep holding the remote while watching college football. That's classic for him.
Overall, we loved GWL. The only thing that Steven and I didn't like were the prices. Man, when and if you go there make sure you plan accordingly. It is a one of a kind place but you will spend one of a kind prices as well:) It's worth it and the memories my boys made are worth it but I just need to remember that when looking at my checkbook in these next few weeks.
Hope you all enjoyed your weekend too. Maybe got a little Black Friday shopping in? If so, you're crazy but I still love ya!
If only I could travel into this child's brain....What would I find? What would I hear? What would I see? Who knows the answer to all those questions but let me inform you that it would be quite the HILARIOUS journey.
I could blog daily on Owen funnies and don't do this as often as I should. This boy has me laughing nearly everyday. He also has me yelling most days and running ragged by the end of the day but that day is also filled with lots of laughter and hugs and kisses from him (if you've never experienced Owen loves than you are missing out).
Let's see...just this weekend he said a few funny things. 1. While at Bass Pro with his Pappy he informed him that he wanted to go into the bathroom so he could take aim at the "sinks and toilets". Who knows where these things come from? Of course, since he was with Pappy he was allowed to do just that and the above picture is him in action. This boy loves ALL THINGS outdoors and that even means he has to practice in any bathroom wearing any Daniel Boone hat he can find at any given time. Why not?
2. He also informed Pappy and myself that he wanted corn. Right then, the child wanted corn. He wanted it with melted butter, on the cob, and he wouldn't eat it with his feet (like Curious George), he would eat his corn with his fingers. Allrighty then. Glad we got that figured out. Since he was with Pappy again, guess what the boy came home with? Yep. You guessed it! A bag of frozen corn on the cob, straight from the grocery store, instantly cooking as he got home, and devoured shortly after by both boys as they finished playing at Nini and Pappy's. This boy cracks me up!
1. This was Owen's first time to have a Thanksgiving feast and be a "Pilgrim" at LCS. It's difficult to properly fit a giant 5 year old so his hat was a little snug...
2. This was the first time I have ever had a place mat made for me out of my child's footprint:)
3.This is the first time I have ever had a child who can sing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth" and it actually make sense. FYI...the Tooth Fairy just randomly grabbed into her coin jar and collected money. Once the morning rolled around Will counted $4.05 worth of jingle. A little pricy (in my opinion) for a tooth but that fairy was sleepy and didn't feel like counting the money before donating it to Will's tooth fund.
4. This was the first time I ever had to dress up my child like a "dirty snowflake" for a musical. It was super cute by the way and he actually sang and did the motions the whole time (that surprised me a bit).
See that medal? Yep! I FINALLY did it. I reached a goal that I have been striving for for quite a long time. I got 1st in something! My boys always ask me when I come home from a race, "Did you win?" They don't realize that most people that win the races I run are professional athletes. They are racers from all over the world that pull off spectacular times to win these Marathons. "Did you win?" is most often answered with "No, but I finished and I hit a goal time for me, and I didn't quit, and I kept going, so that's good enough for me." They walk off saying, "So, you didn't win." Well, that went over their heads!
This last Saturday I had a chance to run in a much smaller race, hence much better odds that I could actually place. 
It was bitter cold and super windy but it was only a 5K and honestly that helped me out a lot because I don't think I would have want to keep up that pace much longer than 3.1 miles. I finished the race in 23 minutes and some change...
I was the 1st woman in my age group to cross the finish line and the 2nd woman OVERALL to cross the finish line. I was proud of that one. 1st woman to cross was a 27 year old cross country running teacher at Jenks HS. She runs for a living. Every day of her life. I just run when I can. Not a cross country coach here:)
My good running buddy Kristi ran this race with me too and she also earned a medal. You only got a medal if you were top 3 in any of the categories. She won 1st place for her age group too. I was so proud of her! She's worked really hard, is a mom of 2, and also has a full time job. She gets out there and does the training and I couldn't be more proud. Shout out to Melinda (our other running buddy) who heads up this race every year and does such a great job for a wonderful organization!
Get out there today and set a goal for yourself. It feels pretty darn good when you reach it. And YOU WILL!
This year was no exception and we went to see "The Hobbit". Not my choice but there wasn't too many good movies out this year so Hobbit it was. Okay movie, but more about the tradition and memories. I'm glad we could do it again this year.
Christmas Eve is usually spent with my family. This year we decided on making it an overnight and we let the kids play games, watch movies, and just pretty much destroy my parents house. Finally around midnight we all gave in and fell asleep. Dad woke up early and started a big yummy breakfast of french toast, bacon, and eggs. Everyone had a great time.
Christmas morning we left and headed off to Norman to see all the Kueny side. There's tons of cousins for the boys to play with and lots of adults to get together with and play games or go grab a movie with. Kueny and Fournier Christmas's are pretty different but I love and enjoy both of them for a variety of reasons. I look forward to all the family, friends, and foods of the holiday season. This time next year the boys will have yet ANOTHER cousin to play with as Aunt Lauren is pregnant again with their 3rd child. Bring it on baby. We can take another one:)
