Road Trip 2011

So instead of spending wads of money we don't have to fly 5 people from Seattle to the middle of no where Oklahoma Panhandle, we drove 3,400 miles round trip in my big, bad, black SUV. Nope, no mini van around here. Anyhoo, here are some pictures I took with my phone along the way.

Dinner the first night in Ellensburg, WA and I happen to read the ingredient list of the apple juice.  Why is our apples coming from other countries when the state of Washington is known for their apples.  Just saying People.

My oldest wearing his In-N-Out hat.  We drove 20 miles out of the way for a double-double on the second day of driving.  Love me some In-N-Out.

My second born son showing us his sticker page courtesy of the gal who took our order and handed over the goods :)

MMMMMMM, dinner

Our third day of travel. I-80 cruising eastbound through Wyoming

Just east of Green River, WY. Crystal clear blue sky and white snow covered plateaus.

My little man listening to his big brother's ipod.  He wasn't a happy camper being strapped down in a 5 point harness for days on end, but he still loves me :)

It seemed the further south we drove....

the colder the temperature.

Western Kansas around 2 am.  Brrrrrrrr!

Now for the return drive home. This was Western Kansas, flat land and lots of snow.

Not the best picture, but as we entered I-70 westbound to Denver, the moon was just beautiful against the darkening sky.

DINNER!!!!! Oh, how I love Chick-fil-A but despise the fact they are no where near me at all :(

After 11 hours in the car, we had finally arrived to Laramie, WY where we stayed the night.

More beautiful Wyoming landscape.

And even more headed westbound on I-80.

Oh yes we did :)

Hello normal winter temperatures.

We had a great trip seeing 8 states, driving 3,400 miles round trip, loving on grandparents and cousins and Praising Jesus for a SAFE trip too.

Homemade Christmas Gifts

I have two new nieces this year and I am so excited to get to make girly things now.  Both my brothers each had a girl, one in January and the other in April.  So this year for Christmas I wanted to do something fun for Christmas gifts rather than some cute outfit from the mall or a toy.  A gal on Etsy sells these absolutely stinking cute ballet shoes and I purchased the pattern from her to make my nieces gifts.

All I have to say is I had SO MUCH FUN making these shoes.  One of my sister-in-laws was a dancer and I'm sure she will  *hopefully* love these shoes.  I have another niece from my husband's side of the family that I may try to rework the pattern to fit the other sister-in-law i.e. straps versus the ribbon.

I may have three boys and am truly thankful for how crazy filled my house is, but I am also very thankful that God gave me some nieces to spoil too and get my girl fix in :)

Christmas dinner

The other night was the annual Ladies Christmas Dinner at Crossroads Bible Church. I usually host a table with my mother-in-law and we decide on a theme and run with it without going garishly over the top.  We ended up doing a winter white theme with these really cool frosty plates from Pier One and white dishes to accent.  I have no idea as to why I have no pictures from that evening as I had my iPhone, but alas, I took no pictures.

I did get to sit at the table with my mother-in-law, Mike's grandma and my lovely friends from our home fellowship group.  Some of these gals are friends that I have known almost as long as I have lived in Washington and others are newer friends.  I am super blessed to know each one of these ladies.  It was a fun evening to chat with one another without our passel of 21 children asking us questions, requesting food and needing our attention like they do every other Friday when we get together for bible study.


We had a yummy dinner and then fun entertainment courtesy of the local Christian university's jazz ensemble. I am thankful that this year we were able to eat dinner together and begin our Christmas season together.

Peace, peace, no peace in a house of boys

Tonight I decided if I was going to get any Christmas decorating accomplished, then I better get a move on and do something.  This is my something.

Yes, it's only the stocking and the pretty Pottery Barn stocking holders, but it's about all I'm excited to do.  If I had started decorating before Thanksgiving, then my house would have been all decked out for the season, but once Thanksgiving came and went, so did my motivation for Christmas decorating.

I have to laugh that Mike and I ended up buying the PEACE stocking holders. At the time we only had two boys and because discussions about a third child were underway, Mike chose the peace.

Yup, there is lots of peace in my house with three boys.....I do love each and every one of my boys.

Bedlam 2011

In the grand tradition of college football, tonight was the yearly rivalry game of the great state of Oklahoma universities, University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University.  The game has been played 106 times with OU winning many more games than OSU, but this year was to be different.  See OSU has a record of 10-1 with the only lose coming from Iowa State of all teams on the eve of very tragic news in the Oklahoma State athletic department.  We won't dwell on that sad day, but remember the wonderful people who are no longer with us.


It is a game of bragging rights, a game to somewhat determine the conference champion of the Big XII, a game that means so much more if you are a Cowboy fan.  And tonight's game was definitely one for the record books.  It was fun, exciting and a great day to be a Cowboy fan.  I wanted to watch the game with some friends and of course, one of those friends grew up in Oklahoma as well, but he is on the other side and wears red.  I let him in my house anyway, I do love his wife, heehee.


I have to say the evening was a lot of fun, with good food, yummy treats to snack on and great friends to spend the evening with.  I had to laugh as my dad, who is an OU fan, called me during the game to ask me a question about my boys for Christmas.  He wasn't enjoying the game too much so he was online finishing his Christmas shopping.


Now, we hope and wait to see who is playing in the BCS Championship game against LSU.  Please vote for Oklahoma State and not the other SEC team who already played LSU and we all know the outcome of that game.


OSU COWBOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

A New Direction

Long story short:

I was behind on my picture blog - SHOCKING!! I was trying to catch up at least the year 2010 when my lovely PC kicked Windows 7 to the curb for I believe the final time. Oh joy..... Frack! I do not believe my computer had been recently backed up on the external hard drive so I have no idea what may or may not be saved or buried somewhere in the depths of my former hard drive. Some things I do not give a you know what about, but my pictures and PDFs of jewelry and quilting I would like to retrieve.

Add that project to my husband's ever growing honey do list.

Anyways, I'm changing this blog into whatever my happy little fingers want to complain/chat about. You might find out about things not posted on Facebook or Twitter, but I doubt you wouldn't find out much I haven't already blabbed about on Twitter at least.