Christmas Eve

I got my wish this year and we had a white Christmas, but that also meant hazardous road conditions. We had to change our plans and do Christmas Eve in the morning/afternoon instead of the evening. Kelly, Thaylia, Uncle Bill, Julie, Alyssa, and Susie made the trip to Grove to celebrate with us. We had a great dinner and lots of fun playing Wii Sports Resort. Everyone had to head out about 3 o'clock because the snow and blizzard conditons were moving in fast. Everyone made it home safely! The boys, Adam, Nana, Papa, and I had leftovers for dinner then we played the Wii and watched movies. The boys got to open their Christmas pajamas before they went to bed. Grandma and I had to stay up and finish wrapping last minute gifts. We headed to bed about 11 o'clock, but I was so excited I couldn't go to sleep. Adam and I stayed up until almost 1 playing games on the computer. We made a deal with Jacob that he could wake us up in the morning anytime after 7. This was the first Christmas in several years that we didn't have to get up at 5:30 to do gifts so Adam could get to work.

Here we are.....

It has been 5 months since I have posted anything on here. Wow, I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. Jacob started 2nd grade in August and ended the semester with perfect attendance! He played tackle football for the first time this year and LOVED it. He wanted to play basketball, but mom and dad needed a break before baseball season. Nana did sign him up for karate and he is really enjoying it. Peyton is ornery as ever, but he wouldn't be Peyton any other way. Pey has been going to karate with his brother, but will start a Mommy and Me class in January. He is going to play baseball this year and is very excited. Adam is still workig at Quiktrip. He has been in a north Tulsa store for about 6 or 7 months now. I am teaching special education at the middle school in Collinsville this year. I LOVE being in the same district as my children. I have had my challenges this school year, but I love where I am at. We had some chamges occur at semester, so I will have a new schedule when we go back in January. I will go from co-teaching all day to teaching 4 hours a day. I am very excited about the changes. Hopefully, I will do a better job at keeping this blog updated. I will put that on my New Year's Resolution list!

The Design Girl Giveaway

The Design Girl is giving away a free standard blog makeover! Go to http://designgirlblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/giveaway-5.html#comment-form
to read all the details and enter to win. The makeover is valued at $70.00. Hurry the last day to enter is Tuesday, July 21st.

Dallas Trip

Jacob and I headed to Dallas yesterday. I was a little nervous about the trip since I was coming by myself with Jacob. Jacob kept me entertained the whole way to Dallas. It was nice to spend time with him without Peyton trying to get all my attention. We made it to the hospital with no problems at all. Maq Quest directions took me right where I needed to go. We spent about 2 hours at the hospital with Baby Kate, Jason, Em, and their families. Baby Kate is absolutely beautiful and perfect. She made me want to have another one. She was so sweet! Leaving the hospital to head to Uncle James and Aunt Belinda's house was quite an adventure. Map Quest did not take into consideration all the construction and was sending me on exits that didn't exist. We were right in the middle of downtown Dallas and the last time Jacob counted we had turned around 6 times. The trip to North Richland Hills should have taken about 40 minutes and ended up taking us well over an hour. We finally made it and have enjoyed spending time with our family that we don't get to see very often. Jacob and Tyler have been playing World of War Craft on the computer the whole time, and Jacob is now trying to talk me into buying it. Adam and Jacob would become addicted to in no time. We will be heading to take newborn pictures of Baby Kate later this afternoon and then make the trip back to Oklahoma. Jacob really likes Texas and has repeated informed me that he wished we could live here. Maybe bringing him to another state wasn't such a good idea. :)

Update

Baseball season has started! Jacob practices two days a week and on Sundays right now. He has his first baseball tournament the first weekend in April (his birhtday). We went to the lake last week to visit Nana and Papa during Spring Break. We all had a great time. Peyton went shopping in Joplin with me and grandma. He had to approve of the Easter outfits I picked out along with everything we bought for him. I am in trouble....he is the fashion police. Adam got a phone call on Friday that he was moving back to Tulsa starting Monday! We knew that he wouldn't be in Bartlesville forever, but the move came unexpectedly. He is excited to get back to the Tulsa stores and he is enjoying the change. I think not seeing family and friends everyday is the hard part for him. I have been substituting this week and trying to work on photography stuff. I am actually running behind...which I guess is a good thing. Our first ever Easter Ministry was a great success last Saturday. We had 32 children signed up, and the pictures turned out great. I just got them in a few minutes ago, and I am super excited. I will be doing that again this Saturday. God is being very good to us! We are all healthly again and enjoying life. Below are the Easter pics of the boys!

Peyton's Birthday Party

With all the sickness going around this week, I never got around to posting pictures from Peyton's birthday party.

Fighting Bad Guys

All of a sudden Peyton is into this "Bad Guy" thing. He is always talking to bad guys and fighting bad guys. He wouldn't go get his clothes out of his room yesterday because he said there were bad guys in there. This has been going on for weeks now, and I don't know what started it. We did sit down with the boys about a week ago and talk to them about strangers because of the incident in Owasso and Tulsa, but this started way before that. He tells the bad guys he is going to knock their heads off and his daddy is going to shot them. Adam does have his concealed weapons license, but Peyton just started this out of the blue. We are very careful about what we watch around the boys, especially Peyton. The only thing we can think of is he has gotten this off of some cartoons the boys have watched. It is pretty funny to watch him act out what he is going to do to the bad guys, but it worries me that he is constantly talking to bad guys and about bad guys. He informed us there were bad guys in bubba's room the other night, so he had to come sleep with us. He is definitely a handful, but I love the little handful very much!

A week of CHAOS

This week was supposed to be a good week since it was the last week until Spring Break. Monday I realized that I didn't have all week to get my taxes to my accountant like I had thought. They were DUE to the IRS by the 15th! I spent all day Monday and most of the day Tuesday trying to get all my business stuff together and personal stuff organized. Peyton woke up in the middle of the night Tuesday running a fever and coughing all over me all night. I woke up at 6:30 and called Wilson to let them know I had a sick child and couldn't substitute. Thinking it was just allergies and they needed a break (mom just being lazy), I let both boys stay home Tuesday. They seemed fine after sleeping in, so we went to Claremore to the accountant, Wal-Mart, McDonald's drive thru, then to Jacob's 1st baseball practice. Everything seemed fine when we put them to bed, but at 5:00 here comes Peyton into our room running a fever again. I checked on Jacob and he was also a little warm. They both stayed home again Wed. and went to the doctor at 3:00. My little Peyton tested positive for strep throat and Jacob's throat looked like he was getting it, so they were both put on antibiotics and couldn't go back to school til Friday. I called my doctor and told them what was going on and they were calling me in a prescription to for strep. We ran to Wal-Mart to get their prescriptions and a few groceries. After being in Wal-Mart for 45 minutes, I started getting hotting and fatigue. I went to the pharmacy to get the boys prescriptions which were going to be another 30 minutes and they didn't have our prescription cards. I went to get out the cards and Jacob's was missing. I called Adam and he said he didn't have it. I got mad and said forget it, I'll go to Walgreens. They informed me I would have just as long of a wait there and I explained that they had had the prescription for over an hour and that I would proceed to Walgreens. The boys had been pretty good up to this point, but they were getting restless and Mom was getting sicker and sicker. Peyton was trying to help unload the cart and broke the eggs all over the counter. Adam was calling me in the process of this to let me know he did have the cards and wanted to know if I wanted the number. Jacob is acting like a wild animal touching evrything and harassing his brother. I'm feeling worse and yelling at them so that wasn't helping anything. I called their doctor and had them send the prescriptions to Walgreens for me. I'm sure the people at Wal-Mart were glad we were leaving. We ran to Walgreens and Jacob's was ready but not Peyton's. I called Adam and said I'm going to Urgent Care, so he meet me there and got the kids. I waited at Urgent Care for an hour only to be told my throat looked like strep and my nose looked like the flu but both tests were negative today. He told me if I came back tomorrow they would both test positive. Luckily, he went ahead and treated me for strep and the flu, and saved me another $40.00 trip. The boys stayed home Thursday and drove me CRAZY all day. What happened to laying in bed watching TV when you're sick? Not my boys, they were just fine running and yelling through the house all day. I made them lay down and take a nap Thurs. afternoon and Peyton woke up with a fever again. I had to call the High School and tell them I couldn't sub Friday because Pey was still sick. My accountant called at 7:30 Thursday morning to ask a few questions on my tax stuff, so much for sleeping in. Her secertary called back Thursday evening to let me know that Adam and my license's had expired and that they would have to have a copy of current license before we could get our taxes back. Jacob went to school Friday and made a 100% on his spelling test after missing all week! Since I have a CDL license, I had to go to the Department of Public Safety before I could renew my license. Peyton and I waited for over an hour there and it was crazy. We went to the tag agency to get my license and then to our accountant's office. Peyton ended up with a pocket full of candy before we left there, so he was a happy camper. I had planned on stopping at Sonic on our way to Claremore, but Peyton feel asleep before we made it there so I just went onto Claremore. On our way to back I asked Peyton if he was hungry and he said Yes. I asked Peyton if he had eaten anything all day and he said, "No mom, no you feed me!" I felt so bad...I forgot to feed my child! We got Jacob from school and headed to Sonic before going to Bartlesville. We spent some time with grandma and grandpa and went out to eat then headed back home. The boys both crashed on the way home, but Peyton ended up in our bed again last night! We have a birthday party to go to today and then we are relaxing! Nana is coming to get the boys tomorrow and Adam and I are heading up to Grove Tuesday night. I am looking forward to a nice week and not a hectic one again!

My Baby Is 3 Years Old

Peyton turned 3 years old today and he is so excited about not being 2 anymore. Mommy on the other hand is a little sad about the whole situation. Time has gone by so fast and it doesn't seem possible that he is already turning 3. Papa Greg and Grandma Jill called Peyton early this morning before papa had to leave for work. He didn't want to wake up and he pushed the phone away, but he heard papa say "Happy Birhtday Peyton" and he got the biggest smile on his face. He got up and came into my bathroom while I was getting ready. He wanted to take a bath in the "big" bathtub but I told him no. He looked right at me and said "Yeah, it's my birthday and Pey Pey take a bath in your big bath." I couldn't hardly argue with the birthday boy so he took a bath then Daddy fixed him french toast for breakfast. He took cupcakes to school today and played with his 2 friends, Jacob and Trace. They played outside this morning and wore themselves out because they slept for 3 hours this afternoon! Peyton had McDonald's for dinner and got to open his gifts after Daddy got home from work. He had a great day and just crawled into my lap and is ready for bed.

The last several weeks everytime I call Peyton a baby or say something about my baby he has looked at me and said, "No, Peyton a baby...Peyton a big boy!" When he came into the bathroom this morning he said, "Pey Pey be your baby mom." I think he knew mom was having a hard time with him turning 3. He had to reassure me that he would still be my baby. This child is wise beyond his years which really does worry me because he is quite a handful already. I can't even imagine what life would be like without him. He is a spitting image of me in so many ways, so I know I am definitely going to be paid back for everything I put my parents through growing up. He is already so stubborn and strong willed, but he is also one of the sweetest kids I know. Happy Birthday Peyton! We love you so much and can't wait to see what adventures we are in for this next year!

Campbell's 1st Birthday

I usually don't post my photography sessions on my personal blog page, but I am so excited about this session that I dedcided to post the slideshow on here. The cake pictures at the end of the slideshow are adorable! I hope you enjoy!

Seeing Your Marriage Through God's Eyes

Adam and I attended the Focus on Marriage: Seeing your marriage through God's eyes simulcast today at our church. It was absolutely AMAZING! Grandma came down last night and kept the boys for us today so we could go. It was definitely worth going to. It is nice to know that everybody stumbles and not just us. All of the speakers were good, but Beth Moore was amazing (like usual). We took away so much from the simulcast, but I would like to share a few important points that we learned today.
1. We all stumble in many ways.
2. We begin to see our spouse for what he/she ISN'T instead of for what he/she IS. We must seek first the kingdom of God in order to become a God centered spouse.
3. Our marriage becomes the best way to worship God.
4. Women are infactuated with GREAT and NOT satisfied with good.
5. Not all fights are bad. Fighting for your marriage is a good fight.
6. People are broken and messed up, but they need to be healed.
7. LET GOOD BE GOOD!!!
8. The pernicious lie...it's all about YOU!
9. The lie of the enemy is that we just need a little more to be satisfied.
10. Jesus Christ is the vine & we are all just twigs who can do nothing without him.
11. All of our stress is from the expectations of the world!
12. Start making changes 2 degress at a time instead of trying to make them 10 degrees at a time. We think big problem, big solution instead of Small changes = BIG RESULTS

Some of the things couples can do to strengthen their marriage is:
1. Pray together
2. Bible Reading together
3. Bible Studying together
4. Attending Church together
5. Memorizing and Meditating
6. Christian Radio
7. Christian Worship and Praise Music
8. Christ centered movies

You can go to the Focus on the Family website and check out all the great things going on there. I am so glad that we went to this today! God is an awesome God, and I have learned that he is in control even when we think he's not. He will take care of us!

Family Visit

Grandma Jill, Papa Greg, and Uncle Jordan came down to visit last Saturday. We have not seen or talked to Jordan since Christmas vacation because his phone only works at selective times. In other words, Jordan doesn't answer our calls or call us back but since I pay his cell phone bill I have records showing his phone works. Anyway, moving on, sorry about that. I just had to vent for a moment. Peyton has missed his Uncle Jordan, but he was also very upset with Jordan so he spent quite a bit of time beating Jordan up and wrestling with him while he was here. Of course, Jordan had to play Rock Band while he was here so I have some video of Jacob singing. Enjoy!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Park

Last Friday it was beautiful outside, so Adam and I took the kids to the park along with Jacob's friend, Justus. The boys wanted us to push them on the tire swing so we did. Adam ended up making Justus throw up before it was all over. Once he throw up, Justus felt better and we played at the park for over an hour. Once it got dark outside, Adam started chasing the boys around the park and they had a blast (the park has lights). He are a couple of video clips from the trip to the park. The tire swing video is hard to wath. I found myself feeling a little sick. :)


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Valentine's Day

This was the first year that Adam and I have not been with the boys on Valentine's Day, and I have to say it was wierd not having them home. My grandma came down Wednesday night to watch Peyton because he was sick and we had church that night and school on Thursday. The boys were out of school on Friday, so they went to Grove until Monday. Peyton was so excited to go see his Papa. Adam and I enjoyed the time to ourselves, but we were so tired we didn't do anything. We talked about going to a movie but then decided staying home sounded better. We had a nice steak dinner at home and watched a movie together. We decided no presents this year, but he did "cheat" and get me a card. It was very nice to just have a lazy weekend at home together. I guess this is a sign that we are getting old! I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day with their families.

Birthday Pictures

I have been wanting to try out a new location for portrait sessions, so Grandma and I took the boys yesterday for their birthday pictures. I LOVED the scenery and can't wait to go back and take more pics. Another photographer came to do an engagement session, so I let them use the waterfall area and then they would not move. They were there for over 30 minutes and half the time they were just talking. I was so frustrated, but will get more pics next time we go. Enjoy!

Our Little Muscle Men

We went to take the boys' birthday pictures yesterday, and Nana promised them ice cream if they were good. Since they both had on white shirts and Peyton ordered a red slush, we made them take their shirts off in the car. They thought they were so cool and had to show off their muscles for the camera. They are definitely our little hams. Peyton will probably kill me one day for posting the pictures of him "spanking" his bare butt, but I couldn't resist. It will teach him to quit being such a little show off all the time. LOL!

Jacob's Valentine's Party

Jacob had his Valentine's Day party at school today. He received 3 lolligrams and a flower. He had a great time at the party, but was hyped up on sugar by the time we left school.

Super Bowl Party

Things have been so CRAZY around here lately. It seems like we are always on the go and don't have any time to relax. We hosted the Super Bowl for our Sunday School class this year. We had so much fun getting together. The guys watched the game while the ladies chased the kids around and visited with each other. We are so glad that we have so many great friends! We love you all!

Snow Day

After being cooped up in the house for 3 days, it was nice to go back to school and work yesterday. We did get a lot accomplished during the snow days. The house got completely cleaned and we got Jacob's new bedding and curtains all in his room. We did go outside on Tuesday and Wednesday and let the boys play in the snow/ice. They had a blast. Thursday my friend Andrea brought her 3 kids over while she went to work for a few hours. The kids had a blast playing together. Here is a slideshow of some of the pics from the snow.

Driving Adventure on Ice

I can't believe how fast everything changed yesterday. By the time school let out yesterday, all of our cars were iced over and frozen. Jacob and I left school, went and picked Peyton up from the sitter, and started our 5 mile adventure home. It took us 36 minutes to get home. We saw several cars go in the ditch, a school bus full of children slid all over the road, and a semi was stuck in the middle of a two lane highway because it couldn't get up the little hill. Jacob was a very good boy on the car ride home because he knew the situation was serious. Peyton on the other hand, just wanted to be home and kept telling saying, "Mama, GO, Mama, GO NOW!" Needless to say, by the time we made it home safe and sound (which I am very thankful) I was a nervous wreck. To make matters worse, Adam was still in Bartlesville. Jacob and I finally convinced him that making the drive home only to have to be back at 6 am was not a good idea. Jacob was watching the news with me and was very concerned about his daddy. He even called his grandma Jill's house to check up on his dad and make sure he was there. Adam ended up having to work a double yesterday, but he has today off. He didn't get off until midnight but he followed his other assistant all the way home and they both made it home safely. The boys crawled in bed with me since Daddy wasn't home, and they know I don't like being home alone. Peyton woke up about 2:30 this morning and heard me talking to Adam. He sat up in bed and yelled "DA---DAAAD" with a smile on his face and then immediately feel back down and was out in less than 20 seconds. It was a great ending to a very stressful afternoon/night.

A Year In Review

I decided to post a slide show of pictures from 2008. I had to create three different slide shows to get all the pictures I wanted uploaded. The first slide show is of my family, the second slide show is of friends, and the last slide show is of our whole family at Grandma Lawler's funeral last January. This was the first time a lot of us had all been together in who knows how long, so I wanted to share it with everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I can't believe it is already 2009! 2008 was a great year and God blessed our family with so many wonderful things and great people! I am so blessed to have such an amazing family and wonderful friends. I want each and everyone of you to know how much your friendship means to me. I would be lost without you all! The boys rang in the new year at Nana and Papa's house while Adam and I rang in the new year with friends and family. I did decide that I am going to quit doing parties at my house though.....they are a lot of hard work! LOL! Last year Adam and I made a new year's resolution to start attending church regularly, and we kept it! Not only did we start attending an amazing church but we also became members and were both baptized in August! It is amazing how much things change when you start giving everything to God and trusting in him 100%. We lost some amazing women in our family throughout the year, but we know that they are in a better place and as Jacob says looking after our baby we lost in January. Just when we were thinking about closing my photography company some amazing opportunities became available and things really took off for me over the year. I just can't wait until we are able to build my studio! Jacob and Peyton have both grown up so much over the past year. It is amazing to look back at everything they have accomplished. Enough of looking back at 2008 and onto to another amazing year! I hope everyone had a great ending to 2008 and an even better beginning to 2009!

Rock Band

Once Jacob opened up Rock Band, we all entertained each other the rest of the night. The video is full of pictures from everyone playing even little Peyton. Thank you grandma! This was Jacob's present but I think we all play it more than he does. I don't think Uncle has left our house since Christmas! I don't know if we will ever get rid of him. Grandpa Archie even got in on the action. If you watch the video, toward the end you will see him practicing on his "air guitar" as Jordan played the real guitar. This has definitely been keeping us all entertained.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day mom's family came over to celebrate Christmas with us. We cooked a big dinner and enjoyed spending time together. We had one last round of presents to open and this was the big one for Jacob. Grandma bought Jacob Rock Band for the Wii but she tricked him. She also bought him the extra Rock Band Vol. 1. We were all so excited when he opened it, but he was almost in tears. Grandma said "Jacob, that's what you wanted. Aren't you excited"? Jacob was trying so hard to be a big boy and explain that he couldn't play it because he didn't have the drums or guitar but he was close to crying. About that time, grandma said "Let's see if we can find something like that then". As soon as Jacob saw the box, he was so excited! The family was entertained the rest of the night taking turns attempting to play the guitar and drums.