Weekend Recap

We went to the Home & Garden show on Saturday and I wore Brooke in the little snugli all around the show. When we got home and Riley wanted her turn. It was kinda funny so I thought I'd share a picture.

She's such a smart little girl. On Friday she drew a picture of our family beside a Christmas tree. She pointed out who everyone was - but she was bigger than daddy. So when I asked her why she was bigger than daddy she said, "well mommy, daddy is just farther away that is why he looks smaller". Do most 4 year olds think that way? Maybe I should call MENSA and have her tested. :)
And not to leave the other kids out, here are more...
Cade, what does a dinosaur say?
ROOOAAARRR!

Last but not least our little Brooke...

Hope you all had a good weekend. Some good news: Heath is back home!

Moments from a photo shoot

My old roommate from college, Harrison, knitted sweaters for Cade and Brooke when they were born. So I was trying to get a picture to send to her with both of them wearing their little sweaters. I probably took 15 pictures to get one that would work, and thought I'd share.

How cute are my munchkins?

Thought you might get a kick out of some of the rejects...Cade did not want to slow down for a picture.
I don't want to smile...

Fine, I'll fake a smile so I can get up...

But I'm still not going to like it...

Well I guess if Riley gets in, ok...but who needs the baby.

Still no school today...today marks day 7 of "togetherness". Snow coming tonight. Channel 6 says up to 8 inches. Are you kidding me? I may not be sane by the end of the weekend (not that I ever was before).

Stir Crazy

Everyone is physically well, but mentally is another story. It didn't snow here, it iced for 3 straight days. We have been trapped together since Friday. This picture was taken when they were getting along. Any of you that have or are a sibling know that is not an easy thing to capture, especially when you've been trapped with each other (and only each other) for nearly a week.

The kids have been sledding a ton. They even got a ride to the sledding spot because its strictly ice. Cade's hands got cold so Wade gave him his gloves. I thought this picture was cute.

I was going to go home (St. Charles) this weekend, but we have more weather coming and I just cant do that with the kiddos. School has been out all week and it's been cancelled tomorrow too. Remember how we LOVED snow days when we were a kid? Completely different when your the parent.

I'm including this picture because it's my favorite of the month so far. (My 2 favorite bald-ies.)

In other news, my dad is leaving for Afghanistan on Sunday. When he gets back Brooke will be walking. Cade might (but probably not) be talking--I hope he's using the potty by then. He'll be gone for a year. But as he put it, we are trading him for Heath. Heath comes home in 8 days!

Congratulations to

• Jess who just celebrated Anniversary #8. Truly Fantastic!
• Emily who just announced she's engaged!
• to the "person" who just found out she's expecting but hasn't made it public yet. I'm really glad you told me but it's really hard to stay quiet...especially this long, so hurry up already :)

It's going to be a great year, except for turning the dreaded 3-0, ugh!

Swimming w/ the fishes

So everyone is feeling better now. Cade and Brooke still have those continually runny noses but that is much easier to deal with. There is someone that isnt so well. Ariel.

Ariel was a member of our family for a whole 2 days. She is no longer with us. See Ariel and Dash here..........
Now had it been a week and Riley might have lost some interest in her little gal but no...And had it been Dash, Cade wouldnt have noticed that his had been "replaced"). But somehow our family has to do things the hard way.
We did replace Ariel. With a new fish named...Ariel. (Can you guess what theme Riley wants for her birthday party??)

Happy New Year

Hi everybody. Sorry its been so long. I know lots of you have called/emailed and yes, we are still alive. But most of the family is sick and mommy is the one with the job of trying to make everyone somewhat comfortable. Brooke is just now starting (as of yesterday) to keep some food down. The kids are up coughing all night which means rounds of medicine and "boogie sucking" as my friend Micki puts it. So its hard to get much done, like checking email, cleaning house or showers. I'm tired & running on empty.
But a quick update...Christmas was wonderful, but hectic. Although brief, I got to crop with my sister-in-laws. Wade and Chad made my brother Heath (who is serving in Iraq and unable to be home for Christmas) a batch of homemade beer. The "Wilson" Girls went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and it was awesome, I highly recommend it, if it comes to a town near you. And we got all the cousins together which was truly chaotic, but lots of fun and impossible to get everyone happy and still for one picture.

I even squeezed in a double happy hour one night, first in St. Chuck with my old buddies, and second in Clayton with my old Tulsa friends that were in "the Lou" for the holidays. That was the only night I got to see any friends -- so I missed seeing Mandy, Micki, Christine & Jess, among others...seems there's just never enough time. Hopefully we'll get back when Heath comes home and I can see the others then. We raced back to Tulsa early to get Brooke in to the doctor (she's been very sick) and then we had our Clark Christmas which was also wonderful, but we are just now getting back to normal.

Got to keep this brief but will try to start being more regular with my updates when things settle down. Until then check out this sweet pic of my girls...(taken before we left for Christmas therefore everyone is well).
Got to love them. They are adorable. Although I could do with out the puking.
Wishing you all a happy new year...

Ready for Santa

You cant tell but those are our stockings on her feet. We cant hang them up because the kids yank on them and our stocking holders crash down and clunk them in their heads. We learned this the hard way last year, and I swear Riley had that huge puncture wound for at least 2 months. And I didnt really want to clean up blood this year. Head wounds bleed too much.

Sampson gets a mention...

We love our dog. He was our first baby. But Sampson is a dog...and therefore, is not and never has, been allowed on the furniture. But while Riley is at school, Cade takes his naps and I guess Sampy feels like Cade needs someone to "nap" with him. Shocked when I went in to check on Cade, I found Sampson resting on Riley's bed (yes they are in the same room). The funny thing is, Sampson did not even move a muscle when I came in, not even raise his head to look at me. He was awake, his eyes followed me while I took these pictures.

But did I make him move? Not this time. Poor guy has been demoted with each new kid. Now he's just one step above Wade. Just kidding! -not really :)

Here is one more cute picture I wanted to post. Riley loves Brooke so much. We are so lucky we've never had the jealous thing to deal with. Here she is reading Brooke her latest library book.

This was not a "posed" picture...this is as candid as it comes. I snuck up on them to get it, and I zoomed in so they wouldnt notice me.

Ban in the kitchen

There is now a ban on Wade making pudding. Here is his second attempt at pudding. This time he did use milk, but he scorched it to where it litterally tasted like we were chewing charcoal. I seriously almost hurled. This time I documented it...

You can actually see the chunks of scorched milk.
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The snow is pretty much gone now, but I took the kids sledding and thought I'd post a couple of pictures.

White November

Thursday morning we woke up to this...

Anyone that has spent anytime in Oklahoma knows that Tulsa goes nuts over heavy flurries. We just dont see a lot of snow here - maybe once a year. So the schools were shut down (I remember thinking how easy these kids have it...back home they would NOT shut down school over this). But Riley and Cade were ecstatic! So I tell Riley that she wont be going to school today, and she says, "Why, is it on lockdown?" She missed school a month or so ago because the Bass Pro Shop is close to school and someone stole a "weapon" - so school went on lockdown. I thought that was funny. Back in my day we had to deal with the crazys that came in and out of school.
Anyway, the day went on and it would not stop snowing. And this is what we woke to this morning...

Notice the trampoline is buried. It is a record for Tulsa. The airport's official reporting is 10.4 inches! If you want to know how amazing this is, the previous record was 3/10ths of an INCH set 51 years ago.
Wade is hunting with his uncle in Antlers, OK, left me with the kids (snowbound and all sick...Brooke and I included). But he called this morning and said he got a 10 point buck. He hunts ducks a lot, but this is his 1st deer. I'll spare you the poor bambi pictures, but here is a picture of the snowman Riley and I built this morning...

Christy---I think its actually colder in Tulsa than Boston today.

Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast

So Riley has been excited for a while now about this big FEAST her class was throwing before Thanksgiving Break. They all made paper sack vests and head pieces with paper feathers...its a very big event in our little world. It was today. Since I'm a home-room mom I volunteered to bring some things - including the pumpkin pie.

So you know on the "Christmas Story" where the dad is ga-ga over his turkey and the mom wont let him sample even a bit...the turkey takes all day - and all day he trys to get just a little taste. That was my pie. Not that it was a masterpiece in itself (cause lets face it, pumpkin pie is pumpkin pie, not difficult to make)...BUT to keep pie out of the hands of 2 little ones and 1 big one is a task.
Well for all that know the "Christmas Story" - the dad never got to eat the turkey...because it ended up on the floor and in the dogs stomach. About an hour before Riley leaves for school I'm messing around in the kitchen. I turn around for a split second to check on where the kids were. Now do you ever have one of those moments where you see something but it doesnt quite register til a second or two later? (Like you see someone you know but dont realize you know them until they've passed). I see Cade behind me, I turn back around for maybe a mili-second and do a double take. He is on his tiptoes, pie teetering on the edge of the counter, half of the filling hollowed out with his four finger scoop, shoveling it into his face as fast as he can fill his hand.

I dont have any pictures because I was too bitter to snap them. But I'll leave you with this picture of a Turkey that Riley colored for the local grocery store's contest. Also a "turkey" that she made in MOPS last tuesday.

Happy Thanksgiving if I dont get back on before then...

Rolen, Rolen, Rolen...

That's a shout out to our world champs. But in our house it means something else now. For you non-"Lou"-ers, I'll spell it right..."Rolling, rolling, rolling..." Our baby is mobile! Brooke rolled over on Friday.

Front to back. Very Exciting!
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We also found a catapillar (is that spelled right?) that Im sure was fearing for his life.

He was nearly smushed a dozen times before we "lost" him in what must have been a suicide attempt/jump on behalf of the worm.
Documented here...

Bad camera angle due to sudden shriek of little girl as if her own life was in question.

Nothing New

Nothing new to report.
Just wanted to get this cute pic of Brooke out for you.

Clear as Mud

I guess I need to be more specific when I talk. I let the kids in the backyard to play today (since they say this is our last 80 degree day for a while). Now last week they got their shoes all muddy from playing out after a big rain. So I said, "Now I dont want you all stepping in the mud...we dont want to ruin our shoes again". And this is what greets me at the door after I took my eyes off them to do some things around the house.



Technically she cant get in trouble. She didnt actally stand in it.

Still Learning...

I used to think those people that said. "my kid just wont take a pacifier" just didnt try hard enough. Riley and Cade both rejected it at the beginning until they learned to suck right. But we just kept pushing it and they succombed. Then I had Brooke. This one just refuses. She is a true blue thumbsucker.

She spits the paci out and goes for the thumb almost every time. Oh, sure, she'll suck the paci for a few minutes, but never very long. We keep pushing it though. I take too many long car trips to "the Lou" for her not to take a pacifier. And I do NOT want a thumbsucker. Breaking the kids of the paci has been pretty easy for us...but I dont really want to cut off a thumb.

So like I said...I used to think those people that said "my kid just wont take a pacifier" just didnt try hard enough...I've changed my thinking. Much like I used to believe it was the parents fault of those misbehaved children at Target that threw full out and out tantrums.

Back at Work

So I worked my 1st crop on Friday night since Brooke. Dont know if I can handle crops yet. The working part was fine, and we have a ton of new stuff it really makes me want to scrapbook A LOT. And it was fun to see everyone...of course everyone wanted to see pictures of the baby (which, no I didnt have with me). But getting home at 1 and taking to till 2 to fall asleep then having Brooke get up at 3 and 6 was very un-fun.
Then my hubby...God Bless him. Everyone was asking how he was doing with the 3...so I called around 9-ish to check. He answered the phone asking me if there was a fire. I said no. He said (gruffily), "well Im trying to feed Brooke, and I've got 2 kids that need to be in bed, and the phones ringing..." (Inside I was smiling...not so easy, huh?) He tried to make the kids pudding. Which turned out to be 4 bowls of yellow and brown colored runny substance. I never really got an answer on that. I asked him what happened and he said he used water instead of milk. (Not sure if he was trying to save money by doing water, or if we were running low on milk and wanted to make sure we had some at breakfast)...he just said, "I dont know why I did water". Dont know if hes planning on drinking it, but they are still in the fridge (Sunday afternoon). I never found out why he did it twice either. I guess after he did the chocolate he thought it might work with the butterscotch?

Closing out October

Ok, so I'll probably only get to update this once every week or two (if that). And with the weekend coming up, I thought I better put some pictures out of what we've done the last 2 weeks.
2 weeks ago we went to the Pumpkin Patch in Bixby. Lots of fun...at the beginning. Leaving was rough.

They make it so fun that the kids dont want to leave.


Brooke had her 2 month check up. Shes up to 11 pounds. Started off the smallest but may be our biggest kid. Shes in the 50th%...both others have always been in 10th% (except Cade when he was born). She has also started to smile this week. Thats fun.

We got Family Portraits taken, dont have them back...more on that later.
I started back at Scraphappys on Saturday. It was fun to see everyone again. I only worked a few hours because of the nursing with Brooke, but they are letting me start back slow.



Riley had her final Soccer game on Saturday. She got a trophy, that she is SOOOO proud of...she loves it so much we found her LICKING it. Guess she gets that from Sampson.


Then there was Halloween. Only in Oklahoma can it be nearly 80 one day and the very next its in the 30's. Its insane. Then back up to 70 the next. Its not consistent...except in July/August...with 100+ weather. Back to Halloween, this year Riley KNEW what she wanted to be...I guess my years of picking out costumes are over with her. I still have Cade and Brooke for another year or two.


I did not get a star quality photo as these kids have minds of their own...wanting mommy scrapbooker to work for that layout.

However I must say my kids were among the cutest of all the kids we saw (and we trick or treated 3 different times this year).



The cold didnt seem to bother the kids much, but it took away from their costumes.

New Blog

So my friend Jaye has a blog set up and I thought it was way cool. A great way to keep everyone infromed of what was happening in their world up in the Dakotas. So Im gonna give it a try. Lets see if it works.