Valentines Day

I hope everyone had a nice Valentines Day!!! My husband is in Colorado at the moment, but I still got a present from him, he's so sweet! Thank you Ryan!
As for our trip to Colorado, me and the kids are probably leaving this Friday. We don't know if we will get to go to Oregon, it is a possibility, but we can't say if we are going to go for sure. (I sure do hope so!!!)

Happy New Year!

Hello again everyone! I feel awful that I haven't been on here near as much lately. I am SOO far behind on commenting on everyone's blogs, so I may just comment on the latest one and TRY to keep up. We got our computer back a couple days ago. Plus, the busy season is over at work, so I won't be working near as much. Ryan has been working lately, thank goodness. However, his job is temporary, and will only last one month. At the end of January or beginning of February, we will be getting taxes back and plan to take a trip to the Northwest (yes Oregon), and stopping in Colorado, and Montana. We are praying for a change, we MAY be moving, but where to is still unknown. Until we KNOW where we are SUPPOSED to be, we are going to stay put. But I am REALLY in NEED of a change, of getting away from here. Life has been getting better, in most ways. I am thankful that Ryan is working, and for other reasons. But we're not completely out of this trial. But I am confident that we are getting back on track.

We had a GREAT Christmas. I had thought that only half of Ryan's siblings were going to be here (the ones that live here), but the other 2 were able to make it and it turned out to be a great Christmas. I actually made 2 projects before Christmas, for my mother and for my in-laws. I made a picture calendar for 2009. I scrapbooked 24 pages altogether (12 for each family) and took them to Office Depot and they took the pages and made the calendar. They all REALLY loved it, it turned out nice. I couldn't think of anything better to give for Christmas. I somehow forgot to take a picture of Ollie and Sharon opening theirs, but my sister e-mailed me a picture of my mom with hers:

Then came New Years. It was actually not as great. We REALLY wanted to be invited somewhere, anywhere, but no one invited us to come over and spend the evening. That little fact actually brought me to tears. We don't feel like we are even thought of here. But, we watched the countdown on TV, and then went outside right after 12:00 am and lit off some fireworks. There were several people on our street doing the same thing, that was the highlight of the night.

Then yesterday morning, my niece from Colorado called me and said that she had flown in Oklahoma City for a wedding this weekend, and hoped that we could come see her, (because she was without a car). So we got in the van and headed to OKC. Normally we wouldn't be able to afford going to OKC, but the gas prices are AWESOME right now ($1.35)!!!! We didn't do much, just ate lunch and went to see a movie. We watched "Bedtime Stories". It was a pretty good movie. But it was nice to see some family. I always take advantage of that :) I have a nephew that is actually moving to Oklahoma in January. Btu unfortunately he will be on the other side of Oklahoma. He will be about 3 hours from here, but maybe we'll get to see him once in a while.

The first half of 2008 was a great year. My two highlights of 2008 were: Ryan and I got to got to Dallas for our 9th anniversary, and I got to go to Colorado for 1 1/2 months with the kids . Then when I got back from Colorado, things really unraveled. I hope that 2009 will be full of highlights that can be remembered forever. There are several big things in 2009 that I do have to look forward to: Mine and Ryan's 10th anniversary, my best friend's (from high school) wedding in Colorado, my 10th high school reunion (also in Colorado), and HOPEFULLY a fun trip , and POSSIBLY a big move for us :) I hope everyone else has a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pics from Halloween

I know this is a little late for these, but better late than never :) Here is the whole group of children that went trick or treating (lots of Star Wars ;) There was Derrick - (SW) Clone Trooper, Jordan - (SW) Clone Trooper, September - Cleopatra, Bradley - Scary clown, Dylan - (SW) Storm Trooper, Autumn - Pink cat, Blake - (SW) Obi Wan Kenobi, Aiden - Batman, Wynter - Brown cat, Anakin - (SW) Darth Vader (BTW, Darth Vader's real name in the movie is Anakin Skywalker, so I thought it was cute that they made Anakin...Anakin), and Taylor - a zombie. The kids had a blast!

Ryan's pumpkin

Me and my WONDERFUL sister-in-law, and even more... FRIEND, Melissa

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and Happy Halloween! I thought I would post a picture of what my kids are going to be for Halloween. Taylor, a zombie. Blake, Obi-Wan Kenobi (from Star Wars). I TRIED and TRIED to get Taylor to be something more "girly" but she refused... She wanted to be something SCARY. We were invited by one of Ryan's cousin to attend his work party at Dish Network last night. It was really just for kids. They had lots of kid games and prizes. They also took pictures, and that is what is below. We had fun :) Tonight will be really fun! We are going trick-or-treating in Ryan's aunt's neighborhood, which is a nice area. Anyway, again, I hope all of you have a great day!

1 week in Colorado

I have been in Colorado for 1 week and already have SOOO much to write about. The only thing I can do is start with the day I arrived and go in order in what I have done since I've been here. I arrived Saturday, June 28th and that evening I went to my cousin, Arlene's wedding. It was very nice, and I LOVED seeing surprised faces ;) The next day, I went to church in Montrose and LOVED the new building. For the last 17 years, Montrose has held meetings in a TEENY TINY little building that just wasn't the ideal place for holding meetings. But they were blessed with a church just down the road from the old building. It was a church that had caught fire (while the people were in there) and so our church had a lot of work ahead of them. It took almost one year of cleaning and rebuilding, but they finally finished. It is SOOO nice. I will try to take some pictures sometime and post them. But it was amazing being able to sit in a nice building for church. After church, I went to a double anniversary party. This is pretty amazing, the girl that got married on Saturday, it was her parent's 25th anniversary, and her grandparent's 50th anniversary. So they all were married 25 years apart. I thought that was neat. It was my Aunt and Uncle that celebrated the 50th anniversary. It was a VERY nice turnout, I think there was around 250 people there. I enjoyed it :) Monday, I didn't do a lot, but did visit with my immediate family. Tuesday, I went to see my cousins, Jeanette and Amber, they are also out of towners ;) I had a nice time visiting with them. Wednesday, I didn't do much, I had severe allergies :P Thursday, I went to see my good friend, Beth. We always have good things to talk about, and I'm so happy to have a friend like her!!! Then I left from her house, to my sister's house in Ouray.

(These are taken from my sister's deck)

Ouray is seriously the most beautiful place I've ever been to!!! My sister has lived there for around 13 years, and I don't think she will ever leave Ouray. It is a tourist town. Ouray has a big July 4th festival, and I had never been to the day festivals. I had been to the firework show once, and it was amazing. Every time a firework boomed, it echoed because Ouray is a valley town surrounded by gorgeous mountains! SO it sounded like thunder all around. My sister, Peggy took me up into the mountains a little ways. There is this one cliff that is SCARY. It doesn't go straight down, it goes in a little bit. I love looking down from that cliff, but it always scares me!!! So Thursday was basically a sightseeing day. Then Friday was the best day ever. There was a July 4th parade. It was a very fun parade. Lots of water was flung to and from the floats. They really get into water fights there ;) Then, to our surprise, 2 (1940's) fighter planes flew over us, and I was able to get a great picture of one of them. It made the whole town cheer, and it was a very exciting moment. Those planes were very brave to fly in between mountains like they did. It was awesome. The parade ended and we immediately went to the park for the childrens races. They had a lot of different races for different ages of children. Taylor won the sprinting race, and the gunny sack race. She got $2.00 for winning. She is my little athlete. Then after that, we (me, my niece, Kayla, and the kids) went back to my sister's house and ate lunch and rested for a while. Then we went back to Main Street for the water fights. When you think of water fights, you think everyone had a water gun and was shooting everyone with it. NOPE that's not what this water fight was... This one is where the firefighters hook up two hoses and they have groups of 2 people spraying each other with those POWERFUL hoses. They spray each other until the other team either falls down, or loses control of the hoses. It was very intense. They also sprayed upwards and drenched everyone in the audience many times. After that, we went back to my sisters house and rested again. Then I took my kids to a place called Box Canyon. It is a MAJOR tourist attraction, you walk right up to a VERY powerful waterfall that has carved a small canyon. It is one of my favorite places to go. After that we went back to my sister's house and watched the fireworks from her roof. They were so amazing, I LOVED hearing the rumble all around me!!!

The next morning, I woke up and my niece and I took the kids and went to Grand Junction for another wedding, Nicole and Jered. It was a short and sweet wedding. Then we came back to Olathe (where I'm from). Then Sunday I went to church in Montrose again. It is Monday again, and I'm ready to slow this week down a little. The last week was so busy for me, I was running so much last week that I'm just not wanting to do anything this week, except spend time with my immediate family.
Whew... Sorry for the long story of my first week here. I hope I didn't bore anyone with it ;) I hope everyone else had a great July 4th!!!

Happy Mother's Day to you all!

Mothers Day Graphic Comments

I've decided to delete my blog

After giving this a lot of thought, I've decided to delete this blog.






















NOT! April Fools Day!




There's NO way that I'm going to quit posting now, I love it way too much! Sorry everyone, I just really wanted to to SOMETHING for April Fools Day. hope you're all not mad at me ;) Have a great day!

Easter Fun!

We had a great Easter! We went down to Ollie and Sharon's. Lee & Cherrie and Kevin & Michelle brought their families down as well. We all went to church, came home, had a great lunch, and then we hid a VERY large trash bag full of eggs all over Ollie and Sharon's yard. The kids had a great time while they stayed with them for a few days but Blake was READY to come home. I was ready for them to come home also. Ryan is going to be working out of town all week, so I'm already missing him! But I do hope that everyone had as nice of an Easter as we did :)

Lee was doing his annual "tricking the kids." He ties fishing line through some eggs and when a kid goes for them, he moves it. It is hilarious! Blake fell for it last year, but this year was Samuel's turn ;)

Valentines Day

Well, we did go to dinner last night. I was mistaken, it was called "The Gaucho". It was very good, and very different. They had a salad bar that also had more than salad. It had like Beef Stroganoff and Salmon, etc... And the main meats were brought to you by "Gauchos" that walked around with meat on a skewer, and they ask you if you want meat, and then they cut off a piece for you. It is a great place to try, but not a place that I want to go very often. Lee and Cherrie also went and I thought it would be funny if they sat us close to them, and guess what, they did ;) HEHE. But I really enjoyed it. Ryan and I hadn't been out on a date in... I don't even remember when. It was great. I'm hoping we can go away for a weekend on our anniversary in May. I hope everyone else had a great Valentines Day :)

Happy Valentines Day everyone :)

Myspace Comments

Ryan and I are going to a Brazilian Steakhouse called Gouchos tonight. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't remember when we went out on Valentines Day together. I'll be sure to blog about it soon though :) I hope all of you have a nice evening also.

Last post of this year

Wow, this year has went by SO fast! We started the year out in Clifton, Colorado. Ryan was working on the oil rigs and we lived in a LITTLE townhouse. We took a family trip to Denver in February and went to Casa Bonita and the Denver Zoo. Then Ryan quit the oil rigs and we moved to Oklahoma. We moved into the nicest house we've ever lived in, we love it! My niece, Stephanie got married in June (in Colorado). In August, Ryan and I had a brief separation. We got back together in September and things have been great since then. That's basically all that happened to us this year. My hopes for 2008 are: To get out of debt, and stay out of debt; To lose weight; To continue to get stronger in the faith; And to just do more as a family.
We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent it at Ollie and Sharon's house. The only sibling that wasn't there was Chantel. We really missed them :( Taylor got a new bike, an MP3 player (her FAVORITE gift), a sock monkey, new bedding (I'll post pics soon), new clothes, a pair of Heelys (she LOVES these, and is getting good at using them), and other small items. Blake got a new bike, a helmet, new bedding (Star Wars, I'll also post pics of his soon), a Star Wars poster, a talking Parrot, Pajamas, and other small items. I got Ryan a telescope,and he loves it. I had found an amazing deal on it! And I got a new pair of Clarks shoes, clothing and my favorite show's 1st season on DVD. We had a great time.
Then the day after Christmas I went to Oklahoma City to get my niece, Savanna. I take any chance to get to hang out with family. She came up and spent a couple days with us and then I took her back to OKC. I enjoyed having her. The kids basically had a 2nd Christmas when we brought her up here. My sister, Sue, had sent a bunch of presents and Steph and Vanna had also gotten them presents. Savanna works at JCPenneys and got a lot of clothing or them ;) Oh, and my other sister,Peg, had gotten them this set of Fairy Tales on DVD, plus Wal Mart gift cards. So they absolutely had a great Christmas!!!

They were all so cute!!! I loved Samuel's face in this picture ;)

Stormie and Taylor wearing their BEST FRIENDS necklaces

Merry Christmas

I will be leaving to go to Ollie and Sharon's for Christmas, so I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

Christmas 2004

I am a little sad today. I just came across this picture and just started reminiscing of when I still had my dad in my life. He died April 13, 2005. But the whole year before that I lived in Henryetta and my mom and dad came 900 miles to see me a lot. I saw them 7 times in one year (for a week or two at a time) with them coming to Henryetta or me going to Olathe. I cherish those days. Well, Dad's last Christmas, they came to Henryetta. They stayed like 2 weeks. It was so wonderful. I wish I could have known it was his last Christmas, I wouldn't have left his side! He was such an affectionate person. There was NEVER a time that I had to wonder if he loved me. He was always showing love. And not just showing love, but he said it ALL the time. I miss his hands, he was a cabinet maker, so you would think with all the splinters and everything they have to deal with that he would have rough hands. NO. His hands were as soft as a child's hand. I miss feeling his hands. While they were in Henryetta for his last Christmas, we all piled in their car and drove to Muskogee (about an hour drive) just to see the famous Muskogee Christmas lights they have in a beautiful park. My parents never stopped doing wonderful things for us. Taylor was 4, almost 5 when he died, and Blake was 2, almost 3. Taylor remembers him quite well, but Blake just kind of remembers him, which tears me apart, because he is one person that deserves to be well remembered. I'll never forget that Christmas. I always had Christmas with either Ryan's parents, or my parents, never both. But that year, 2004, I got to share it with both. It was by far the best Christmas ever, for me. There's not ONE day that goes by that I don't think of him. Some days I have a hard time coping with it, like today, but I feel better now that I've gotten it out. But I will always love and miss my Dad.

The picture that had me worried for years!

When Blake was a baby (4-5 months old), I had our family pictures taken shortly before Christmas. I ordered a package deal. But there was this one picture that didn't come in the package that I KNEW I had to have. It was of Blake sitting in a present box with a Santa hat on his head. And he had the most ADORABLE smile. So I ordered 1 sheet of wallets (8). I knew that would give the grandparents one some Aunts/Uncles and I would get to keep at least one. I lived in Colorado at the time so I mailed Ollie and Sharon an 8 X 10 of the family picture and a wallet of this pose. Well, Sharon didn't realize that the wallet was in the package and accidentally threw it away. I gave out the other pictures and thought I kept 2 for myself and Blake. Well I asked Sharon if she liked that picture and she told me she never got it, which I told her she must have accidentally thrown it away. She was so upset about that. So I knew that I had 2 so I sent her one of mine, which left me with one. Well...shortly after that we moved back to Oklahoma, and moved again, and again, and again. And somewhere I lost my copy of that picture. I was devastated. I loved it so much! I started asking my mom, sisters, Sharon and sister-in-laws to keep an eye out in their pictures for it, because I wanted to make some copies. Everyone looked but never found that picture. I don't what happened to all the rest of the pics, but no one seemed to remember it and couldn't find it. It was just a little wallet. So I'm getting more and more upset the more time goes by and thought I'd never see it again :( Well, one day, I was at Ollie and Sharon's and decided to try to find it, because Sharon couldn't remember what it looked like and I could. So I looked all through her pics and didn't find it. Then I thought to look through her China Hutch drawers... and I FOUND it!!!!! I immediately scanned it and e-mailed it to myself and saved it on my computer and kept that wallet. Since it is a Christmas picture I didn't post it before, but I just want everyone to know how important this picture really is to me. Sorry I have rambled on, but I just had to tell everyone what I went through to find this picture. I think you guys will understand why right about now ;)

Holiday decorating

Ryan and I thought we had SOOO much Christmas decorations. I mean, we have like 3 storage totes of lights, garlands, stuffed animals, etc... We decided to clear out our bookshelves and decorate for Christmas in the room with the bookshelves. Well, we cleared everything off and started putting decorations on the shelves but it didn't cover NEAR as much of the shelves as we thought it would. So you will have to forgive the empty spaces for now. I'm sure we will buy a few more decorations here and there. I just didn't want to wait to show our decorations. Also, as you all know,we moved to Sapulpa in March and we have some ADORABLE stockings, but I searched high and low for those in our garage, but never found them. Blake's is a Denver Broncos, Ryan's is a Santa Clause, and mine & Taylor's is a snowman. So I am bummed about that. I don't know if maybe we left them at Ollie and Sharon's house last year or what, but the ones in the picture will also have to do for now.We also didn't have a tree. When we moved to Grand Junction in October of last year, we had been borrowing my Mom's tree, so we gave it back to her. Well, I was reading the after Thanksgiving sale papers with Cherrie and Melissa and found a Christmas tree in the Target ad, so I went with Cherrie and her mom to all the sales. I bought the tree, and it is a pretty nice tree, just a little smaller than I want. But that's okay, it too will also do for now. Ryan likes LOTS of colors and sparkles on the tree, so that is our style we use. We haven't put on icicles yet, but will very soon. Oh and by the way... my kids put on 90 % of the ornaments, so they kind of look uneven in a few places ;)This is Taylor's first Christmas ornament. It is already her 8th Christmas. I can't believe how the years have gone by!And here is Blake's first Christmas ornament. It is his 6th Christmas. Wow!

Happy Thanksgiving

Ryan and I started working on Christmas lights 3 days ago and I worked some more last night. Can you tell we are stoked about the Holidays ;) I plan on putting up a few more color lights around the windows and on a bush. But that won't get done until after Thanksgiving. It is an AWESOME day today, it is really chilly outside, and leaves are falling all over the place! It is supposed to be like this all week. Ryan said he heard it may snow on the weekend. But we will see about that. We are going to head down to Henryetta to be with Ollie and Sharon; Christopher, Melissa and Aiden; Lee, Cherrie, Elisha, Stormie, and Samuel. I WISH Dale, Chantel, and Andy were out here also :( I miss them. I also miss my family very much. I don't think we will have the money to go to Colorado for Christmas. But you never know. But way more than likely, we will be having Christmas in Henryetta also, which I'm not complaining about, I LOVE Ryan's family's traditions. I just wanted to show everyone our lights so far. I will probably have more pics of inside next week sometime.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween! We are planning on trick or treating from about 5 to 7, because tonight is church. But I think the kids will get plenty candy :) We will just stay in our neighborhood. We carved pumpkins last night. The kids really enjoyed that, although I ended up doing most of the work :P Here a couple pictures of what my kids are for Halloween. Taylor is a black cat and Blake is Captain Jack Sparrow from pirates of the Caribbean.