Being Busy

I am going to attempt to post a full month's happenings in 1 entry. Life the last several weeks has kept us very busy in a very fun sort of way. Abbigail and Phoebe had their birthday on May 5. We celebrated Phoebe's 5th birthday with a tea party at a cute little coffee shop, Cuppies and Joe. We drank pink lemonade "tea", enjoyed yummy cupcakes and listened to tea party stories. For Abbigail's birthday-the big 10!- we went to Frontier City-a local amusement park. The kids all rode on their first roller coaster. They all loved it-It looks like Forest is crying here, but he is actually having a great time. Just don't ask him about the Pirate Ship-not a good experience there. :/
We are enjoying life with a baby in the house again. Josiah has been such a wonderfully content baby. He sleeps great and seems to always have a sweet smile in exchange for a good conversation. He's 2 months old now and I just can't picture life without him!
This is a photo of Josiah in one of his favorite contraptions- his bouncy seat. And here he is in another favorite contraption- his swaddle, with one of his favorite people- Daddy.
Another big event this month was the outstanding performance of Forest and Phoebe as ring-bearer and flower girl in a good friend's wedding. Kenny preformed the ceremony for Adam and Maria. He did such a great job. Here is Forest and Phoebe at the rehearsal.

We have also had a lot of fun just for the sake of having fun.

We celebrated the coming of summer with watermelon and a pool party...

Playing at the Paseo Art Festival...Silly faces..
And tearing down the shed in the backyard!

It Was the Worstest Day Ever and the Bestest Day Ever

Today was the first day of Champs Camp for Abbigail, Abbiyah and Forest. Champs Camp is a day camp that our church hosts over Spring Break,where kids get a chance to play several different sports. They all had a blast and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Phoebe and I had big big plans since it was just her and I and because this will be our last chance to spend some time alone together before the baby comes. We went to the grocery store(not a part of the big big plans, but a necessary part of the day)and got locked out of my van when the alarm malfunctioned. To this Phoebe said, "This is the worstest day of my life," with a sigh. But, she got to ride on the toy truck outside the grocery store twice and have a juice pack while we waited for my heroine friend, Annie, to come rescue us. I got the alarm turned off after some extra effort and we got ourselves and the van home safely. After lunch we went to a yummy cupcake place, Sara Sara Cupcakes, and enjoyed wonderful strawberry cupcakes and chocolate milk. Phoebe then decided the day wasn't so bad after all. I thought it turned out pretty good, as well.

Funky Town

I guess you could say that Kenny and I just don't know how to act "normal." We dressed up for Valentine's Day and met up with friends dressed just as crazy for dinner. Needless to say, we had a few stares at the restaurant. But, It was tons of fun.

Back in Action...Finally

After a very long break, I am finally back to blogging. My computer was down for awhile and life has been busier than what I have been able to keep up with at times. As I had posted before, Kenny has been pastoring a church part time. Well, tomorrow is his last day at his old job and starting Monday, he will officially be pastoring full time. Again, we are so excited and having a great time. I am now 33 weeks pregnant and looking forward to the arrival of our new little one. I am hoping the next 2 months will pass quickly. We are now half way through our school year and moving right along. Abbigail, Abbiyah and Forest have started playing basketball. Just this past Saturday was their first game. Abbiyah and Forest are actually on a team together and Abbigail is on another team. They did such a great job. I was so proud of how hard they tried. Abbiyah and Forest's team doesn't actually keep score, as everyone is still learning the game. But, they both put all their energy into the game. Abbigail played 2 games on Saturday, and her team won both games. I just hope as they get older they will stay interested in the same sports, as I can't imagine what it will be like running from one sport event to another on different days and at different times. I'm excited to be blogging again and will be more faithful this time around.

Yesterday morning around 8 o'clock I found out that it was $1 day at our state fair. So, by 9:30 the kids and I were there.
Forest was excited about the insect exhibit. He's been collecting bugs for some time now. His most prized find is the robber fly. It amazes me how much he actually knows about different bugs and their behavior.
Phoebe discovered these huge pumpkins. And all the kids had fun at the petting zoo. We also enjoyed a funnel cake-'cause you have to get funnel cake at the fair- and a yummy cinnamon roll.

Summer Fun

We have had a lot of adventures this summer. Phoebe has been taking care of her own flowers in the flower garden. She got the seeds for her birthday from a friend and has done a great job growing them. Our library has this big chair in the children's section and I couldn't resist getting a picture of the kids in it. The last picture is of the kids at a soda fountain that is just down the street from our house. We took Kenny for ice cream on Father's Day and the clerk gave us all these hats, though the kids were the only ones brave enough to wear them. Abbiyah didn't like them at all.

Crazy Creatures

We have had several animal friends around the house this summer. Forest has some sort of inch worm on his arm. These things look crazy when they crawl. Very cool. Abbigail and Abbiyah tormented our dog by dressing him up in their own dress up clothes. Baxter was not impressed....Forest found this frog (or is it a toad?) at Will Rogers park. It was so fun watching him trying to catch it. He chased it for awhile before he was able to get a hold of it. We had a lot of fun that day walking on trails and crossing bridges("How romantic" as my Abbigail would say) and walking through flower gardens... Phoebe is holding a jar with a caterpillar that we had hoped would turn into a butterfly...sadly we found Catti on the floor one morning half mutilated. Maybe next year...

I'm finally getting my Christmas pics posted. We had a great Christmas. Most of the day our family was home by ourselves, enjoying the day. In the afternoon, my sister and her family came over. Then my mom and my dad. My aunt and uncle came as well with their grand daughter. We had a great meal together and had fun opening gifts. The first pic is of my girls with their cousins and the second is of Kenny and the kids Christmas morning. The best part of the day was just before we opened our gifts. Forest shared with everyone that the night before while he had been laying in bed, he started to pray and was asking Jesus to be a part of his life and then started thanking Him for different things and also prayed for different people. There is nothing like seeing your children begin to fall in love with Jesus!

I admit it, I'm a wimp!

After only 3 days I was dieing to bring our cute little puppy home. I just couldn't wait any longer. Not so much to give him to the kids, but more so because he was just so cute and i was worried about him too. So, he's here and the kids love him so much. Abbigail cried and Abbiyah just kept giving her daddy hugs because she was so excited. Forest thought it was someone else's dog. Phoebe was too sleepy to show excitement, but she has declared many times since, "He likes me!" I think that means she likes him too! The kids were still very surprised and didn't expect it at all. And, yes, his name is Baxter for certain. He's cute!

11 Years!

Last night Kenny and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. Thanks Kenny for being so great! You're the best husband ever! The kids stayed the night with friends. (Thank you John, David, Jacob, Amber and any others who were there to entertain the troop!) Kenny took me out to dinner at Legend's in Norman and we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. Very fun!

Shhh! The best kind of prize is a SURPRISE!

Kenny and I drove over 400 miles yesterday to pick up this adorable puppy for our kids. We decided on a fox terrier about a year ago and finally found this little guy yesterday. We are thinking about naming him Baxter. He will be staying at a friends house for the next three weeks, until Christmas Eve. Thanks Malthaners! Remember, its a surprise, so don't tell our kiddos!

Henry and Betsy

The world's coolest cats! These are our friends', Keri and Reagan's cats- Forest's favorite is Betsey, the black and white one.

It's All About Technique!

We went bowling last night with our good friend, Reagen. It was great fun!

Random Recent Happenings...

We made a map cake for geography. Can you tell that is North and South America?
Our friend, Crush (ode to the best animation character ever in Finding Nemo). Sadly, he has escaped and we haven't seen him since....
Forest climbing a restaurant.
These were too cute not to share...

Field Trip

My kids with their friends- Judah, Nathan and Benjamin
A butterfly
A bromeliad
Phoebe enjoying the waterfall

Abbigail, Abbiyah, Forest and Phoebe
This past Friday, I took the kids to the Myriad Botanical Gardens. It was open for free in celebration of Oklahoma's centennial. We went with my friend, Tamara and her kids and had great fun. We have been studying rain forests in school, so it was cool to see some of the same plants we had been reading about.

Big Day!

The kids were recently in a wedding. Congrats Jay and Amanda! These pictures are from the rehearsal dinner and the wedding.

Some old pictures I came across...

The first picture is of my 2 oldest girls. This must have been almost 4 years ago. Abbiyah (left) would have been 3 years old and Abbigail (right) would have been 4 years old. How cute!
The second and third pictures were taken a few months later. Forest is in the middle and that's him with the crazy hair.