A few weeks worth of memories...

My superheroes.

  My sister in law Lacy had a birthday and we had the sign out so we snapped a sweet (and sassy Creighton) picture of them and sent it to her via email....Happy Birthday Aunt Lacy and Uncle Clay's is coming up this week!

 my kids are PKs and so they sometimes get to spend lots of time here :) they're just random pics...but had to add them too....since this is all very random

 my kids were not going anywhere but just wanted to dress up with accessories! LOVE THIS STAGE

 This little peanut is ADDICTED to the ipad. She thinks it's hers and that she should be able to watch Tangled AT ALL TIMES. We have lots of temper tantrums because of it, but it is nice when we need to accomplish something because she will just watch it so quietly you almost forget she's there!

 Creighton wanted curly hair for picture day! :) I hope by the time she had the pictures taken that she still looked somewhat presentable.  She looked so big and grown up!

 Love my girls!

 My handsome man picked out his own picture day outfit!

 All my babies!  They are getting WAY too big for my liking!

 We had Grandparent's Day at the MDO program at New Beginnings.  Nonna got to join us and Charleigh sang her ABCs and sat through one other song.  :)  SHe was really tired as this performance is during her usual naptime.

 Creighton has made a sweet friend Lillian in her PreK class.  Yesterday we had Lillian over for a playdate and they had lots of fun.  This is at their jog-a-thon!

 Creighton with the other PreK ers

 Rae made it 14 laps!

 Jackson's K class did it later in the day. Jeff and Creighton went to support him.

  Jackson had a big day that day at school. He crunched into a cheese ball and LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH. He didn't seem overly anxious to tell Jeff, in fact, Jeff just noticed and then he showed him.  Nonchalantly he said he lost it at lunch! I thought for sure he'd be crazy about it...  But later that night he was playing with it (after I told him not to) and he lost his tooth (technically again :)) but oh well.  Not having the tooth fairy issues was nice.  He never even mentioned it (although he was VERY sad he lost his tooth and couldn't find it).

 THis is Jackson and his class at the Jog a Thon. (well part of them).  Sam is his best bud on the right side of the picture. Max and Sam are on either side of Jax and they are both super tall boys! I think they have lots of fun!

 Jeff and half of Oklahoma ran in the Warrior Dash Tulsa 2011.  Jeff of course loves any opportunity to paint his face and don a kilt :) My manly man looking so "manly" in his skirt kilt!

 Elmo and his 3 Ladies came to our house and Elmo and Jeff left together to go be in the madness. We came later to watch them cross the finish line.

 Starting off...

 We were entertaining the kiddos while waiting.  There was a huge crowd! Early in the day Debbie and Jessica had also run the Warrior Dash and had already finished. They stayed around to watch Jeff. When you race you get a Viking Helmet hat. Rae wore Gramma Debbies.

 Jackson thought Aunt JEssica's was TOOO SWEATY. :)

Matt's kids were there too, since he was racing! My kids love hanging out with them.  THis picture cracks me up.  Look closely at what Jackson is holding onto. :/

 There is Pastor Phil finishing... (jumping over fire!)

 Matt finished WAY ahead of everyone else from our group.  Matt, Phil, Mike

 This is Jeff finishing...yea! I was worried he'd broken something.  But he finished in less than an hour!

 His shorts weren't making the cut so they finished the race in his hands.... My word they are all so mess it's disgusting!!!!!

 Charleigh with Grandma Debbie! :) Love that full face grin

Happy Warrior Dashing all... and no, I don't think I will be doing that next year...

New Sweet Friendships

We've made some friends at New Beginnings! :) The part-time guy that has been at New Beginnings for 5 years is an amazing young dad of 3 of the cutest kids! His name is Matt and I am so excited that our kids are all around the same ages.  Creighton and Mati are a few months apart and have formed a very sweet little friendship! Creighton and Mati played and played and played nonstop!!!!!

 Brooks just turned 8 this month and Chandler and Jackson are only a few months apart.  Brooks is sweet to play with just about everyone....that kid is awesome!  Jackson and Chandler really like playing together, especially video games and rough housing! ;) Jeff of course was in on the action and EVERYONE had a great time!

 After dinner (and after Charleigh went down) we calmed things down with MOVIE TIME! They all were so cute and had so much fun.  6 kids within 7 years of each other under 8 was a little crazy, but never not fun! :) It was easier than I thought though...they entertained themselves for the most part!  We had them all together for almost 10 hours!

I am so grateful for these sweet kids who have accepted my kids as their friends...and likewise.  It's the beginning of a great relationship on all ends.  We are getting to know Matt as well and I love that Jeff has a friend in Matt as well!  Sweet times...

Snow Day fun

 Our first snow day!  We invited friends over.  Jax and Rae were just beside themselves waiting for them to get here!  But they played hard for the first 30 minutes and then we had a yummy lunch!  After lunch we found every pair of snow gear we had and outfitted everyone's needs!  SO fun!

 It only took me about 10-15 minutes to outfit them

 Cute smiles! Love this picture.  Maddie, Creighton, Jackson, & Colton

 The boys were all boy! Swords, snowballs, guns, and falling all over the snow

 The girls did snowangels, sliding, and played in the playhouse.

 It didn't take them but about 15 minutes to be too cold.  So we warmed up with hot chocolate and a movie Toy Story 3. :)

 The boys!  They are wild together, but I love it. The girls played so well and were so quiet in comparison.

The girls are now playing barbies and the boys are playing wii.  Everyone is playing well and getting along. I just love little friendships!  We will miss the Barnes family for sure!

A whirlwind week!

This past week has just been one for the record books!!  It started with grieving news of a friend of ours.  Everything surrounding that was never really without our thoughts, as we had lots and lots of conversations, phone calls, etc. all week long.  So with that as the overcast for the week...the rest of the week went a little nuts. 

We had two sets of company, totalling 5 days between the two of them.  It was so much fun having folks over, but it's also tiring, when you are already tired, to be any kind of hostess, amid the chaos.  Monday was just a hard day altogether in lots of ways.  Tuesday we had bible study, then a playdate at the Duck Pond, then Ladies Night Out! We had Nikao Vespers Night which is always a good time, but lots of prep work for Brit and Jeff.  We took a trip to the Zoo to get away from it all for awhile.  I wrote more about that day in this post.  So that was quite the crazy day.

Friday night we had the "self divided" football game (Enid vs Bartlesville) and we stayed to the end of the game!  Jeff invited people over 2 nights in a row and they stayed way late...little sleep! 

Then this weekend we had Walk This Way, which went amazing!  But again, just a little crazy and puts us way off schedule.  My parents came up for dinner on Saturday night.  Then Sunday, we had WTW again, then we went to meet Jeff's parents at the Scottish Games (festival) in Tulsa.

 This is where I tried to win $100 carrying 2- 100 pound barrels (one in each hand) as far as I could. I got second place, traveling 41 feet, before my left hand just could not bare the pain of my wedding ring digging mightily into my hand.  I may not have gotten the money, but I have a nice souvenier on my left hand :( I really think I could have beat that girl who won...although she was WAY bigger than me in every category.  I was too competitive not to at least try...but oh man those things are SO SO heavy! It was unbelievable.

Anyway, to say the very least, I was CRASHED last night in bed long before I usually even think of being tucked away.  Too bad Creighton was up at 3am.  I was up from 3-6ish and so I am still very tired.

 But today wouldn't wait. I had to work up at the school because it was picture day!  We had fun. The kids were So SO SO cute, I just hope some of the pics turned out. 

Pressing on through this week!  And, of course, in the forefront of all of my thoughts are the baby...and all the questions that come along with that.  The ever-increasing excitement, yet, at the same time, wonder...it's just a lot for my little brain!

I have done 3 loads of laundry so far, and have 4 more piles to do, and a trip to Walmart! Whew...it's all good.

***Edited to add: I just remember two more things that were HUGE in our week!  Jeff and the other youth ministers set out on a task of passing out 3500 Bibles to Washington county Public schools!  It was insane, but it was all completed! Yea God!  And the other thing was the kick-off to one of our biggest ministries for Nikao--Life Hurts God Heals was on Monday night!  Thank goodness it was a reminder that yes, LIFE DOES HURT, but more importantly that GOD HEALS!  I am sure I am leaving out other things...but I just wanted to document it all so I can look back and remember that our life is/was a little on the insane side and we all made it out okay :) (atleast that is my prayer)