Daddy's Great Find

Daddy made his girls day yesterday when he came home with this great find. If you don't' know, Chris is a always looking for a deal on things. He hates to by new unless it is necessary. I always give him a hard time about it, but I have to say he did good on this one. A friend of his at work was selling their trampoline, so Chris bought it off of him for 25.00. When Chris called me and told me, I thought what kind of condition is this trampoline going to be in if he got it for 25.00. He brought it home and it is still in great condition. I have to say great job Dad! The girls were beyond excited that they got a trampoline. It was taking a little while to put together so the girls wanted to jump a few minutes before they had to go to bed. Here they are taking a trail run before daddy put up the net.

Okay daddy, let's try it out. Samson was a little concerned. When they were on the trampoline he was underneath running around trying to watch them. I think he thought they were going to fall through or something.

When I see this picture I can just here Bree's little giggle that she lets out when she is having fun.

Jump, skip, bounce

You can guess what they will be doing tonight. :)

Kitchen - Phase One Complete

Updating our kitchen has been on our to do list since we bought our home a few years ago, so a few months ago Chris and I found a good deal on some solid surface counter tops. We decided to buy the material and Chris wanted to try and do the project himself. After reviewing exactly all that goes into installing new counter tops he thought it might be best to get some assistance. We found a guy named Jim, that does this kind of work and he came out to help us out. A little over 4 weeks ago the project started. I had no idea I would be without my kitchen for 4 weeks, but in all fairness they only worked on Friday and Saturdays so I guess 4 weeks is not too bad, but you have no idea how much your kitchen is the central part of your house until you don't have it. I had no running water in the kitchen. I had to use our bathroom to wash any dishes or if I needed water to make tea or lemonade. It was crazy. We started using all paper products just so I didn't have to wash dishes everyday in our bathroom, we ate out a lot which sounds nice at first but then it just becomes old and having to think of places to go and eat. So needless to say I am ecstatic that my kitchen is back to normal, this was the biggest part of our kitchen renovation, everything else we are going to do is minor and won't require loosing my running water. :)

So here are some kind of before pics, I was out of town when Chris and Jim started on the kitchen so I don't have an actual before pic, but I do have pics of what I came home to.

We had a cream color lament type counter top and as you can see it is all gone. My lovely new sink was put in on the first day. So I got to look at each day dreaming of the day I would be able to use it again.

Here are the after pics. The color of the solid surface is about the same of our old. We wanted to stay neutral. I have to say I absolutely love the new counter tops. It makes the kitchen look so much different to us.

We still have a few things we want to do in the kitchen, we are going to put a tile back splash, add some hardware and trim to the cabinets and paint. We hope to get all this done by end of the year but we will see. For now I am just enjoying the fact that for the first time in 4 weeks I cooked dinner in my kitchen. I definitely will not take for granted the usefulness of my kitchen and running water.

My Extended Family

I am not sure I will every understand why my God chooses to continue to bless Chris and I the way that he does. I mean by no means are we worthy of what he has done for us. All I know is that lately God has shown an out pouring of his love and grace to Chris and I through our "extended family", which is our church family. They have just gone above and beyond for us during this time we are dealing with Brad's health issues.

Last week I get a message that contains a list of people who are bringing dinner to us every day last week. They knew that our kitchen was unusable because we are having new counter tops put in, plus they said they didn't want Chris and the girls to have to worry about dinners if I had to go back out of town again. So last week we has some amazing dinners provided for us. I can't even begin to explain how thankful I was to not have to worry about going out to eat or trying to fix dinner in a kitchen without running water and no countertops to actually prepare the food.


As if this wasn't enough, I get a call on Friday from our friend Sydney and she says she has something for me. She asked if I could pick it up before we left town to go back to Texas. When I went by her work this is what she had for me.


Several of our friends got together and made this amazing basket for my parents full of snack, drinks, some coloring books for the girls, a book of encouragement, a word puzzle book and also gift cards for places to eat. When I gave this to my mom it brought tears to her eyes. She was so overwhelmed with the generousity of people she had never even met. All I know is that we have a great family here in Broken Arrow that supports us no matter what. I love each and every one of them.

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was the big day...the one that seems forever away is now here. Katie was up at 7am and dressed and ready to go to Kindergarten by 7:15am. I think I broke her heart a little when I told her we had over an hour before we had to leave for school. She helped Bree get ready for school and we talked about how this was a big day for Bree as well. She was a big girl going off to school without her big sis. She didn't seem to mind and only asked daddy a few times where Katie was at on the way to school. Here they are before Bree left. Bree told me i could only take their picture if they could sit down. Bree has her "homework" she is doing. She has been pretending to play school lots lately.

Oh, my big girl. I think she looks so much older with her haircut. She is so ready for this day. Mommy and daddy not so much.

Backback and lunch.........that is all she needs.

Giving mommy some attitude.......showing off her new school outfit.

Katie didn't want anymore pics taken before we left, but we talked her into just two more. One with Daddy and on with Mommy. It was very sweet, before we left Daddy said a prayer with Katie. Asking God to give her protection and to be with her in her new school.

We drove our 2 miles down the road to school.........on our way in to go to her class.

Katie leading us to her class. She walked in like she had been there hundred times. Walked straight back to her class. That is one little confident girl.

Outside of her class

Found her cubbie and put her lunch and backpack in. She was then off to say hi to her teacher and check out the room.

Katie with her teacher Mrs. Brown. I got to meet her on Tuesday and she seems like a wonderul lady. So excited to see the kids and you can tell she has a love for them instantly.

We gave her good-by hugs and kisses and then she was off playing.
They had a quick orientation and meet the principal after we dropped off Katie. I just can't believe my first born is now in school on her way to becoming anything she wants to be. I know I can't wait to pick her up and hear all about her day.

All Grown Up

Today, I took Katie to get her hair cut. I asked her how short she wanted to cut it and she pointed up to her ears. I told her maybe not that short. I asked her how about mid-neck lenght. She agreed.

Here she is with her new hair cut. I think it makes her look so grown up. She probably had at least 3 maybe 4 inches cut off. She starts Kindergarten on Thursday. I just can't believe the little girl I gave birth to 5 years ago is now ready to start school. Time does go by way to fast.

I just hope daddy doesn't kill us. He hasn't see it yet as he is having a night out with some guy friends tonight. He will see it in the morning. He loved her long hair. I know he will love it, but I think he will be a little sad at how grown up she looks.

Check out her shiner. Last night she was playing on the slip n slide with Braeden and they had a little collison. She walked away with her first black eye. I told her it just made her look tough and that no one would mess with her.

Birthday Boy

Yesterday was Chris' birthday. Our wonderful friends, Stefanie and Jeremy actually planned out the evening for Chris. I had a busy week as I ended up taking a last minute trip to Dallas to be with my brother. My week was more than a little crazy and I wasn't even sure I would be back for his birthday, so my friends stepped in and took care of the birthday details. I did end up making it back for his day. I am glad I did as we had a great evening.

Who's ready to play on the slip n slide??? We are!

Our wonderful chef...Jeremy was actually on duty that night, but came by for a few hours to cook us dinner and eat. What a guy! He cooked us steak, potatoes and zucchini. It was very yummy!

Playing in the tent

The girls helping daddy blow out his candles

The birthday cake. Stef said she picked it out because it had Tennessee orange on it.

Stef had to relight the candles again because Katie blew them all out and Bree didn't get to help. Oh, the important things to kids.

Little Lydiah enjoying herself some cake. I love this little girl.

Saturday Fun!

Saturday was nothing but a day of fun for the girls. Chris wrapped up his summer school, so Saturday was a little bit of celebration for that as well. Chris only has one more class left for his MBA...Whooo Hoooo!!! The summer has been brutal for Chris with his school. It is nice that summer school is done and he had the whole day free to focus on us. So we decided that Saturday we would do only stuff the girls would want to do...no running errands, no cleaning house, no doing laundry. Just fun!

We started the day out by going to the zoo. Even though it was going to be 110 on Saturday we decided to still go but go early. We got there as soon as they opened and lots of the animals were out before it got to hot. As soon as we got there the girl ran up to their favorite thing. The big globe that floats on water.

Checking out the elephants....they were all out eating and roaming.

My two little monkeys

Petting the animals. Bree wanted to look at them but did not want to go close to them.

The zoo has a nice play area for the kids that is in the shade. So we took some time to play in the shade.


We left the zoo around lunch time because it was getting seriously hot. We headed home to eat some lunch and rest. After naps we headed over to one of the community pools we have in our town. The one closest to us has a great area for kids. It has a zero entry pool and two small kids play areas. It was the best way to spend the rest of our day with 110 heat outside.


Katie and Bree racing each other down the water slide. Bree wouldn't walk up to the slides by herself because you basically get dumped on by all sorts of water coming out of the pipes around the slides. By the end of day Bree was going up on her own and even going down the enclosed green slide. She was so proud of herself and each time she went up on her own and came down the slide she came over and gave us a high five. I told Chris it is so cool to see your kids triumph over something they were afraid of doing.

The lifeguards called time out in the pool so adults and parents with kids under two can swim in the big pool, so we took a break and got some snow cones.

After we were done swimming we headed back home and Chris grilled us out some steaks. Yum! We had a fun day with the girls and some good family time.