My cousin's Wedding

All ready for the wedding to begin. Eli looks excited. :-)
G and S and I think it's Uncle Shane's head. :-)

The girls found the chocolate!

Emily really wanted to catch the flowers. She tried hard but didn't catch them. Alyssa and Anna didn't really care. And Eli slept on Grandad's lap. He's a trooper.

We traveled home the next day. It was quite a whirlwind of a weekend but I'm glad we went. Thanks, dad, for all the help. Love you!

OU / Texas

Well, we were down in Austin for the big game. So we watched it with one of my Texas fan cousins-the one I've rivaled with for some...15 years? Wow, I'm (we're) getting old. Anyway, we all know the outcome. Thankfully I didn't make a bet with him this year. :-) Here is the Texas JD holding OU Eli just after we lost the game.

Back to Texas

Well, we headed to Texas once again. Another cousin of mine was tying his knot. :-) I'll post pictures from that in a day or two. Casey wasn't able to go but my dad bravely took the journey with us. I have no idea how many stops we made. I think the first one was about 35 minutes into the trip. Anyhow... the girls are trained to stop at the border and they wanted a picture with Grandad.

The hotel is always lots of fun. One of the fun parts is riding on the luggage cart. Does it have an official name?

















Eli didn't sleep well on the trip. As a result, neither did I. And neither did Emily. And even Alyssa found herself awake at 3 o'clock in the morning. Anna, however, slept like a rock. An upside down rock that is.

Field Trip to the Fire Department

We have been talking about communities, so we took a field trip to the Muskogee Fire Department.

The firemen were great to host...only us. They gave the girls the complete tour of the facilities and all the trucks. Anna didn't want to sit in the truck but Emily and Alyssa enjoyed it. One of the firemen even suited up in his complete gear to show the girls what they would look like if they cam to our house because of a fire. The finished the tour with a quiz of safety precautions, as well as, crayons, coloring books and fire badge stickers.

Good Friends

Some good friends from Texas stopped by a few weeks back. They were some of our first friends when we moved down there a few years ago. Their kids and ours have a blast playing together. They were off playing so well, that I almost forgot to take any pictures! ( I was enjoying time with adults!) Anyway, here are the two pics I did get. T and K, you are welcome anytime! We enjoyed the visit.

Eli's new car seat

Here is Eli - his first time facing the front!

Tulsa Fair

We took the girls to the fair this year. It was pretty fun. I had forgotten just how crowded it is. But all the fair food smelled just the same.

Of course the rides where the highlight for the kids. They didn't care for walking through any buildings. :-) I never did as a kid either.

Emily...she's just growing up.

And Cathy, this corn dog is for you!

Family Picture

Emily drew this family picture. Can you guess who is who?

Finally Back On

Well, I can't believe it's been so long....I'm slacking again, I guess. Life for us has been...non stop. And I haven't been functioning so well. (By the way, Thanks, Jamie, for all the encouragement. You are a great friend.) My den appears as though it threw up clothes! We have been doing the 'ole switch from summer to winter with three girls (and their help) and it has been quite a task. For those of you that actually saw the chaos, you'll be happy to know that I've finally got a handle on it and yes, we do have couches! Anyway, I hope to get some pictures and updates of what we've been doing on here soon. Love you all! Here's a snapshot of Anna and Eli. All the girls love taking turns holding him.

Tulsa Zoo

We went to the zoo to see the "Read Between The Lions" puppets!
Anna was scared of them. :-) And I guess I didn't do so good taking the picture. Oh, well.

Alyssa is just about as big as an Emperor Penguin!

Anna is haning out with the chimps.

And of course we had to ride the merry-go-round.

More Zoo

The girls are getting a little taste of what it's like to be in an earthquake.

There weren't any animals that got Eli's attention...except this crow. He was very loud and as you can see, Eli was fascinated. Emily sure enjoyed showing him the animals.



And here is the crew enjoying a picnic lunch. Well, I'm not sure Eli is thrilled yet but when I feed him in a minute - he will be.

Eli's 1st Birthday!

Well, it's hard for me to believe but my baby boy is one year old! He has brought us so much joy in this one year, we are greatly blessed that God has given him to us.


He quickly learned how to pull out the tissue paper from the gift bags. And he really liked all the envelopes the cards came in. :-)

Eli laughed a lot as the girls rolled cars down his new Little People Garage.

All of Eli's grandparents and my grandmother and Walter came to celebrate with us.

Cake Time!

Here is the cake. I'm so thankful for a nice friend from church. She made the cake and the icing. I just had to decorate it - it's not professional but did the job.

Eli wasn't sure about the icing at first. I think he was a little unsure when it stuck to his hand.

Well, he was pretty tired tonight. He pretty much just laid his face in his cake. And then, he rubbed his eyes...yes, with all the red icing still on his hands. He was a mess.

Happy Birthday, Little Man! I love you!

'Lil Kickers

Alyssa had her first soccer game for the fall season on September 6th. She had a smile on her face the entire time she played. The uniforms should be in by this week's game. She has a great coach. It should be lots of fun!

I'm not sure why the video color is so bad...if anyone has any ideas on how I messed up, please let me know.

Dinner

The girls helped with dinner the other night. They love corn on the cob.