November 23, 2013

  Have you ever been to a book signing?  Did you know that you have to call ahead to reserve a place in line?  I did not know these things.  By the time we learned these fun facts and called for our reservation, we were in the thirteenth group of fifty in the line.  Which meant we wouldn't get a chance to meet the Pioneer Woman before more bad weather rolled into town.  Annoying.  So we swam and shopped instead.
The kids discovered the Lego store in the mall. 
  On our way out of town, we stopped at the bookstore to sneak a peek.  It's not like we're super-fans, but it was cool to see her.  



November 22, 2013

  Have you ever seen the cooking show Pioneer Woman? We like watching it around these parts.  About a month ago I saw that she would be in Oklahoma City this weekend signing her new cookbook.  "What a fun weekend trip we could have," I thought to myself.  So Jeff booked us a hotel room and we were excited to go spend the night, eating at The Cheesecake Factory, doing some shopping, and meeting Ree Drummond.
  OF COURSE, this was the first weekend this season to have bad weather forecasted.  But we were confident in our timing and figured we'd be off the road for the worst of it.
  Not so much.  3 miles per hour was our average speed for about an hour, until we were stopped completely for an hour and a half.


  This was my view for that hour and half.  I'll be honest, I was going out of my mind a little.  I felt pretty helpless.  It was dark, dangerously cold outside, and we were trapped between trucks.   Not that this was a totally hopeless situation, but I can see how people go crazy in actual crises.  
   After a seven hour drive, that should have taken four, we pulled into a miraculously empty Cheesecake Factory parking lot.   A delicious meal in our tummies, take-out cheesecake in our hands, we finally made it to the hotel.
 The kids relaxing while Jeff checked us in.

November 21, 2013

 Happy birthday to the big guy!  His day was filled with sleep (he's working nights), laryngitis (that's why he's not really blowing out the candles), and a steak dinner (mmm, steak).  Sure love him!

November 20, 2013

   It's a good day for Erik when we've gone to Wendy's for lunch.  He gets to finish off our french fries after school, and there's nothing he loves more.  Except maybe hot french fries.  

November 19, 2013

  I went to the elementary school open house tonight to see what the kids have been working on.  This was one of Ryan's projects:
 This turkey was hanging in the hall.  All of the 1st graders added a feather.
This green one is Erik's feather:
Nice little boys.



November 18, 2013

I may have burned the rolls for dinner.

November 17, 2013

  Why is it impossible for kids to eat pudding without getting it all over their faces?

November 16, 2013

2006
Jeff in his burrito.

November 15, 2013

IHTBB

November 14, 2013

  I pass by this restaurant marquee about once a week.  They recently changed it, and I know it's really blurry, but it says, "Now serving livers and gizzards."  Um, gross.  I can understand that there may be a portion of the population that's really happy about this, but is it really enough to warrant excitedly advertising it on your marquee??

November 13, 2013

I love this morning face/hair.

November 12, 2013

I suppose it's time to finally clear out my flower beds.  In all fairness, they still looked relatively good until just this week when it decided to freeze.  I kind of have to laugh at my neighbors who are still covering their plants overnight when it's going to get colder than freezing.  I mean, it's November.  At some point they're going to have to accept that their plants are going to die.

November 11, 2013

Killing time at Sears.  Every time Ryan sees something like this, he wants me to take his picture in front of it.  

November 10, 2013

The kids have been on a Clue kick lately, especially Erik since he just learned.  He's probably my favorite person to play it with.  Who wouldn't want to play with him when he call things Mr. Plumbs (Professor Plum), the reverent Mr. Green (Reverend Green), a bludge pipe (lead pipe), and a governor (revolver).  

November 9, 2013

  After rescheduling it two times, we finally had a free night for Shelbi's birthday party.  She wanted to got to Pizza Hut (for the salad bar), play night games, and watch a movie.  It's always interesting to me that she had a totally different set of friends year to year at her birthday parties.  I must say that this year's set was my favorite.  Shelbi was comfortable being herself and her friends were respectful.  Except for a few scheduling glitches, it was a success in the end. 
  And here's the one picture I took that night:
I'm not proud of myself.

November 8, 2013

November 8, 2009

November 7, 2013

  Another couple photos from the archives.  
   While decorating the tree in 2010, I noticed that Ryan kept taking the same little gold ball ornaments and going to the same part of the tree to hang them.   I followed him and discovered this:
Of course I left them just as they were.

November 6, 2013

We're living like this:


But it's going to be so worth it.

November 5, 2013

   I took this picture of the poor kids eating a sorry cold cereal breakfast on the play picnic table because there's nowhere else to eat.

  Our lovely waitress at Cracker Barrel took this picture of our delicious breakfast of french toast, eggs, bacon, juice, and hot chocolate.  Don't tell the other kids.

November 4, 2013

Jeff finishing the cabinet trim before the painters, that's right PAINTERS, start working.

November 3, 2013

Sent to Jeff's phone from Bailey's church nursery leader.
Of course she's posing.

November 2, 2013

My day started out like this:


With a lot of this in the middle:


And ended like this:
From the look on my face, it was a pretty good birthday.

November 1, 2013

  This evening I went to pick up Shelbi from band practice.  When I returned, I came upon a rousing game of musical chairs.
  The official rule was whoever had the most buns on the chair wins.  Poor Syd didn't stand a chance.

October 31, 2013


 This was the best shot I could get of them all actually looking at the camera instead of the approaching trick-or-treaters.  The best part of this Halloween is that all of the costumes came from our costume box.  The only thing I had to purchase was Ryan's clown make-up.
Out trick-or-treating.  Incidentally, this is the house we almost bought instead of ours.  I really wanted to go peek inside as my kids trick-or-treated here, but they were handing candy out on their porch, front door closed.

October 30, 2013

  What is it about a church Trunk-or-Treat that makes everyone attend?  I suppose it's the simplicity of it.  You show up, open your trunk, and hand out candy.  No one needs to be in charge, no sign-up sheets passed around in Relief Society.  Another successful year, right down to the rain that ended it just in time.

October 28, 2013

Goofballs.

October 27, 2013

  The is pretty close to the time of Shelbi's first Primary sacrament meeting program.  Today was her last.  I remember the Primary president telling me then that Shelbi was the only child to have her part memorized for their program practice.  I knew then that my child was brilliant (just like any warped-minded parent of a first child).  Today Shelbi chose to read her part instead of memorize it.    Totally fine.  She also got to play the flute.  It was a very nice program, but boy am I glad it's done.