Trick or Treat with the Old Ones!

You can see the hands reaching out to pinch her cheeks:)

Emma's personal "stroller"

Mr. Irvan, a sweet man from our church that happens to live here.

"mama, mama"

As most of you know, I work on Wednesdays and usually late into the night. I love it becuase I get to stay home on all the other days, except for Monday afternoons. But the reason I start wtih that is because I am sitting up at work at 9:45 pm at night, should be doing something productive, but I have decided to take a break and blog about my morning with Emma. Our MOPS group has started a tradition of visiting the local Retirement center and trick or treating of several of their floors. Brock has got to go the last 2 years and so i decided it was Emma's turn this year to go. Brock was in school and they were cooking pumpkin seeds, and he had been so excited about that- so he did not go to the retirement center. Emma dressed up in her cute Raggedy Ann outfit and her plastic pumpkin (she thinks it is her purse) and off we went. I put some of my blush on her cheeks, so she just looked sooo precious. When we got there- I promise you there were about 30 bright eyed elderly people in the dining room just waiting to get their hands on these precious children. Emma was not to sure about the large amount of people when we got there. She started the "mama" pretty quickly and stuck to my leg like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth. BUT.... there were two sweet old ladies that started dangeling a package of chocolate candy bars and twizzlers at her..... that was all it took. She let go of my leg, took her pumpkin over to them, and started to catch on to what this trick or treating was all about. She really loved the older people. She does not say "thank you" yet, but I would have her wave bye or blow kisses to each person who gave her candy. She really liked one lady because I think Emma thought she had a stroller that she could push (but it was really the little old ladies walker) but Emma wanted to push it. The lady got a kick out of it. Overall, it was a great time and we left with a loot of candy that we got to share with brother.

Overall, my deep thoughts of the night are this... I think it was so important that I grew up in a home that exposed me to "kids from the state school"and nursing home services we would have to "sing to the old people who could not hear us". Did i always appreciate it at the time- that would be a big NO WAY. I remember many frightful moments I did not understand why a grown person was sounding like a 2 yr old, or why it smelled funny when we would go and do nursing home services.. but it made me who i am today. Now that I have 2 kids of my own, i want to pass that service heart to my kids as well. Not only did those older people love seeing my little one today, but I was truely blessed to get to watch them interact and feel like i had some tiny part of making their lives brighter today. As a Mom, I pray that I can somehow instill a heart in my kids to love people and want to make other people's days brighter. So- it was a great morning, and Emma loved blowing kisses to the people at Golden Oaks. I hope my family will never loose sight as they get older, schedules get crazier, and time gets shorter, that people are what matter in life. It took little effort on our parts to make a 2 hour visit and i am still reaping the heartfull of blessings we recieved from it today! What am i saying??? Trickor treat at the nursing home- no but love people and you will be blessed in return! Now i better get back to work:)

Good friends are a blessing.

This weekend, I had the honor of meeting the newest member of my dearest, dearest friend Kerri's family. He is 4 weeks old and they got to come to Enid for an appt. and we got some girl time as well. I will not share their personal story on my blog... but I do have to say that they recently got to experience the blessing of adoption. Their story will make you just say "miracles do happen in 2008." Kerri almost died from fertility treatments in December of this past year, and long story short, 9 months to the date, they were involved in the birth of a little Miracle.... Mr. Kyson. She even got to be in the room to cut the cord and witness his official start of his life on Earth! Is God not so amazing. I get chills everytime I think about their story. I was so fun to see my dear friend as a mom of a new baby. I just makes me think of how GOd must feel to watch us down here on Earth. It is a joy to get to see people's lives expanded, growing, and they just so happy. MY friendship with KErri was very God given. I know there is a saying that goes a little like "people may not stay in your life for long, but their footprints will be there a lifetime." (OK- not exactly how it goes, but kinda). All I say is thank you GOd for creating frienships for us to enjoy! And thank for your little precious mircles like MR. Kyson. Such a little precious dolly!

Busy week.

WE have had a wonderfully busy week. This week included a variety of things. We had too much rainey weather and by the end of the week, we were ready to get out of the house! Mops had asked me to speak this summer for thier meeting in October. Back then in June, October felt miles away, but it crept up on me. I was honestly a nervous wreck up until the talk. It sort of felt I was speaking infront of my peers..... and they were but all Mothers. I was worried that the moring of that I would be tested because that happens sometimes when you know you are doing what the Lord asks you to do. I am guessing God knew how worried I was because I was able to get ready before Dennom left for school. Brock got dressed all by himself and was a perfect Angel, Emma got dressed and let me fix her hair with no problems, and we got breakfast down in record time. Amazingly enough, we were all three out teh door, looking good, and I had not cried that entire morning:) haha. I am saying this as a little testimony to say the Lord looks out for his people. I felt great about the talk, and my prayer was that at least one mom heard what I had to say about getting help if she needed it. I have to say that I as so glad God called me to therapy. It is the coolest, greatest profession next to being a MOM. I think MOM is harder, but I really do love my career. I don't know were I am going with this, but I just think it is note worthy to give GOd some praise for my work, my talk, and being with my in this week in many ways!

"Tradition"- Flower pumpkins

A tradition that got started a few years ago ( I think Aunt Amelia had the idea first if I remember correctly) was planting mums in pumpkins. They last for the whole season, and then you can just burry the whole thing in teh ground for it to come up again the next year. This year cousins Nick and Sarah came over to join in the fun. Sarah made a delicious pumpkin pie, I (in my true cooking talents) made halloween oreo's, and had apple cider. Emma loved putting her hand in the goop, bt her brother enjoyed watching someone taking out the goop. I have to say they turned out really cute and we all have some nice Halloweed/Thanksgiving decor on our porches. I am a huge freak about traditions. I just think they are awesome. I think this will be added to our list of "Things I want to do with my kids each and every year" traditions. Brock still can not figure out why I put flowers in the pumpkins instead of lighs. I promised him we will still do that with Daddy next week. He keeps saying every time we pull in the drive and see the pumpkins, "mommy, I just don't like flowers in my pumpkins." His is such a boy!

Piano lessons at Nana's

Ok- in the last blog I wrote about all the fun things Brock and I got to do, but I want to share about Emma's first piano lesson. While we were gone, Nana and Emma had fun of their own. Princes Emma is definately into purses. Mom has an old purse from Grandma Joan and Emma just loves it. That is what she is playing with in one of the pictures. And I have to say that I am a proud Mom that is eagerly waiting to sing my first duet with Emma. She loves to sing. A little to early to tell if she is an alto or soprano, but she loves to sit down, play (ok bang and hit) the piano, and while she was a mom's, she got captured singing and playing the baby grand. How fun the kids get some genes from their parents. I don't care if Emma ends up being a musician, but I love watching her have such a great love for music at this age. The dancing is still a mystery as to where she gets her moves from? Maybe our Cuz Cassie? Dennom would like to think they are from him, but we all know neither one of us can dance.

Date morning with Mommy and Brock

This past weekend was our Fall break. Daddy and the boys went on a hunting trip to Beaver, OK. That left me, the kids, adn Nana for a lot of fun times. Due to the fact I live only a mile from Nana's house, spending the night is not something I do very often. As a matter of fact, it had been since Emma was born since I can remember staying- so we had a night at Nana's house. It was fun, low key, and we enjoyed our time over there. Brock got to sleep in nana's bed and was in no hurry for Mommy to take them home. Since the guys were all gone, Nana volunteered to keep Emma so Brock adn I could have a date. As much fun as it is taking both of them place, I really do love getting to take them alone sometimes. I use to take that for granted before I had two kids, and now I realize how special it is to have alone time that you get to focus only on what they are saying- and not 2 at a time. So... Brock and I went to the Library. He got to play computres and we put puzzles together with out sissy walking over them and "helping" him push buttons on teh computers. I think he really enjoyed it. He loves that he has his own library card that he gets to give to the lady at the counter. He thinks he is really big stuff. A second thing we did on our date was to empty his piggy bank. For some reason, he loves to go inside the bank. With two, I try as much as possible to drive thru, but today we both went in and he got to dump his piggy into the change counting machine. This is a new thing we started. I made a chart (with the help of my preschool teacher mother) that had 7 pics of things he has to do to get ready for school (brush teeth, put on underware, hang up pj's, shirt, socks, pants, shoes). It helps me a bundle that he is learning to get dressed wout all my help. He gets a penny for every picture he completes on his own. For a grand total of 7 whopping pennies a day. I added several hand fulls of change when he was not around so it would add up to something at the bank. SO he counted all his money and he had $4.15. HE ws so excited. He used it to ride a pony at the Pumpkin patch on Saturday. ohh and buy chicken feed. Needless to say, we had a great time doing fun things that a 3yr old loves to do.

Shoo flue don't bother us!

This will be a short blog. Brock woke up last night about 9:00 and he had thrown up all over his bed. Poor baby. He was up most of the night and I think we don't have a sheet or blanket clean in the whole house. He was pretty low key until lunch time and he wanted some pancakes. Thank goodness for NAna who came and spent some quality time with Emma after lunch so Mommy and Brock could take a good long nap. And boy we did- I think we both slept 3 and a half hours. He was full of energy tonight and no explosions of any kind since lunch! SO we are back back in good health and I am doing LOTS of laundry tonight. So far Emma is not showing any signs- so lets keep it that way! Thank goodness we are home tomorrow and can recoop!

TIDBITS of info from our house this week!

OK- IN no particular order I have decided to list a few crazy random things that have happened this week that I think will be worthy to remember in 70 years:)

1. Brock got a new big boy bed this week. He is soo excited to sleep under his window with all his blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. It was a little bit hard to see him turning into such a big boy, but I am so proud of what a great boy he is. I just love the little man.


2. While I was trying to unload the 2 new matresses into my house Sunday night, the kids were in the car. Brock shut the door while I was carring the matress to the porch and needless to say... keys were in front seat, door was locked, adn Emma was inside. So- now I can say I am a fair mother and have equally locked both of my children in teh car. Thank the Good Lord Above, my neighbor got the door unlocked in record time (under 5 min) so all was well.


3. Emma decided also that night- to take my cellphone (which I may add is also my home phone,) for a dip in teh toilet. She was sooo proud to bring it to me all wet while saying "at oh". All you can do is give the: I could scream, or just cry- but you are so stinking cute, I am going to kiss you for ruining my phone look. So I got a new phone this week.


4. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Volleyball ended 2 hours ago- not that I am counting..haha. I know Dennom has enjoyed his Varsity volleyball season, adn the girls were really great this season. BUT I am going to be so glad to have a husband again. He has been really swamped and we are all three sooo glad to get Daddy home again. We have a sports break until next baseball season. YEA>


5. Today we visisted the pumpkin patch. Each year it gets more and more tricky to get good sibling pics, so you will barely see them in a frame together... but they had a great time. Brock did not stop long enough to get his pic taken. Maybe another trip will be planned to get a family pic???


6. So glad this week that it if Friday tomorrow. We are going to have a "play at home" field trip and just hang out tomorrow. We had MOPS today and it was great, but made it a busy day. We had a picnic lunch on NANA's front porch and just made the afternoon great.


7. Overall, I am blessed to have 2 great children. Perfect- no- but lights of my life- YES! I jsut look forward to seeing them every moment, and honestly can say look forward to every day with them. I at times, get tender that brock will go to school full time soon, then I have to realize i am being a drama queen and just try and embrace the day with him and Emma. I do have to add that I am really enjoying my private time with Emma while Brock is in school. I did not realize how much time I don't get to spend with her alone, so that has been soo much fun. WE play with necklaces, she loves for me to put lotion all over her, and most of all she loves to be read to. I love that. She has an addiction to dogs, and bunnies so she loves to read book with pics of animals. I just am blessed to have a girl and boy. They are so different but such fun people.

BOTH dressed up for Fun!

My typical life cycle

OK- sorry that I have fallen off the face of the Earth since the End of SETPEMBER. I hate to admit this, but I think I get really excited about things, then life happens and I just am a slacker. I like to say that I draw a yellow line of what "has" to get done for example- shower, eat, dress chillins, and then if anything falls under that line, it just sits and sits and sits.... kinda like my poor blog journal. So anyways. I am determined to keep this up unlike my paper journals that i seem to write faithfully, then never open again for a year. So here is a quick update from the past weeks. Brock's Dr. appt went well. She said is was allergy related to that was a HUGE relief to me to know it was not lung related this early in the cold season. We then went directly into a HUGE weekend with lots of great company. Brock and Emma enjoyed seeing their cousins for last Thur- Sat. They got to play at Brock's fav. hangout- Leonardo's and also got to go to the ballfield and "hit bats" as Brock calls it. WE even got to have a sleep over with all 4 children and cousin Sara in our Baseball garage. It was alot of fun and we loved seeing my cousin Cassie, Angel, and The Hillman group from Kansas. Family is just priceless. I wish we all lived with in walking distance so that those times were not so few and far between. BUt maybe they would not be so precious if they happened every day. So anyways- great time had by all and Brock is still trying to figure out if Noah is coming back to see him tomorrow. He just can't get the distance thing yet.

As for the rest of the week, it has been a good one. WE have made several visits to our pumpkin patch and they both LOVE it. I mean LOVE it. THey could stay all day if I would let them. IT sparked our Halloween costume thoughts. Brock is down right determined to be SPiderman. I was hoping to get one more year of a cute matching costume in for him and his sister ,but I guess it has begun.... his own opinion. Well, every time I mentioned how bout you be a cool super dog and sister can be a cute poodle( old navy has precious French poodle pink costumes for EMMA) brock would say, "Mommy, how bout you be a dog with sister and I will be.,.,SPIDERMAN. I finally just decided to listen to him... no i am not going to be a dog, but he did get his spiderman costume. I let him ware it on Tuesday when we were home all day. Emma put on Brocks old lamb costume from his 2nd Halloween. This is worth sharing. I was a new Mom to this costume thing back then adn just thougth Brock would look SOOOOO cute in this wolly lamb costume. I did not even ask Dennom, I figured he would love it. Well, I got it and spent way to much money on an Ann Getties costume. It was absolutely precious. Only problem was, the ears were lined in shiney pink metalic material, along iwth the feet and hands. He looked soo girly. I took him anyway to the patch to get his pic in it- but looked like to saddest little boy in the world in that lamb costume, so last resort, my mom bought him a boy frog suit for his trick-or- treat night. Point being that Emma decided to put that on as well. We had a fun day.