Oklahoma burning.....well, almost....

This past week we were able to go spend time with my family in Oklahoma. It was HOT!!!  Now, I lived in Phoenix for 5 years, so I know hot and this was hot.  105 for Tulsa is hot. Especially with the humidity. They tell it has been over a hundred for like 6 weeks.  That is crazy. So, it was nice to come home to Missouri where it was only 95. :)  Sam was there only for a couple days....I had given him tickets to a concert for his birthday in Tulsa last January, but it got cancelled because of the massive snow storm that hit Tulsa. He was stuck for a week! So, they rescheduled the concert for last week. Unfortunately, he had to come back to work. We had a great time though.  Lots of fun, good food, and good company. The kids had a blast. They each had special time with Aunt Krissy. Which they both loved!!  My mom took them all over....basically anything they wanted. :)  They enjoy getting spoiled by Grammy. Build a Bear, Aquarium, shoe shopping, pottery painting, eating out (which we never do at home) and lots of other fun things. Papa took them to the Porter Peach Festival. It was stinkin burning up, even at 9:30 in the morning, so, we didn't get to stay quite as long as we normally would have. They had some little carnival rides which I will post a few pics of and that is where i got my peaches, peach jam and peach salsa. YUMMY!!! We got to celebrate my brother's birthday, fight over who got to hold new baby Khloe and just spend time together. I always enjoy going to spend time with my family. We have to take advantage of being close enough to see them often....who knows where we will be in 2 years. We had a fun, eventful and exciting time last week, but its always nice to be home. I was only gone a little over a week, but I feel so out of the loop!! :)

 

He was so excited he got to ride it by himself!




I love Aileen's face. She really wanted to ride some bigger rides, but after she said this one made her queasy, we decided that probably wasn't a good idea ;)

 



What you don't see is me taking Parker down earlier.
I'm sure it was a humorous sight to behold. :)



Happy Birthday Elijah

One year ago....my sister delivered her sweet baby boy at 22 weeks.  He may not have taken a breath in this world, but he impacted it still the same.

A day or so after his birth I wrote a song and recorded it for my sister.  It was played at his graveside service.  I've held off sharing it, but a year later I feel comfortable doing so.

Elijah's Song

Sweet little baby wrapped in my arms

No bigger than Daddy's hand

Quietly entered this beautiful world

I'm trying to understand

Silent and helpless I hold you near

as you take your place in my heart

This sweet little angel given to me

Angel of Innocence

I wish I could hold you until my last breath

but Jesus will while I can't

One day he'll hand you back over to me

and we'll be together again

Until that day He'll keep you safe

while Angels sing you lullabies

My sweet little angel given to me

Angel of Innocence

We miss you little Elijah.

We have babies in bulk in my family.....



In 2007 my sister, my sister in law and I all had babies in a 6 month period! It was grand baby heaven!!!  I realized I haven't posted recent pictures of them!! 

Parker



Jase



Alyssa



This past May my sister had a baby girl and this September my sister in law is having a baby boy!! 

Khloe

Aileen was the first grandchild...and she was, for a long time, the only one. Needless to say, she was SPOILED ROTTEN!! Well, spoiled just right, if you ask me. She loves her little cousins.  We tease her that it won't be long before she will be left in charge of them ALL while the adults go party.  I'm not sure she's too hip on this idea. They can be a handful when they are all together. :)

Cool bugs....



Praying Mantis



Katydid



 We have loved all the cool bugs we've seen while living in Missouri!  Seems like we have a new one on our porch every night!!  I just think they are super cool. :)



Walking Stick

Megamind head and Fireworks

Its a good thing Amanda and I are REALLY good friends, cause I needed her medical knowledge a lot this past weekend!!  I am so lucky to have such an amazing friend who helps me out and calms my paranoid mommy-ness when needed. :)  She is amazing and I LOVE HER!!!

So, Parker ended up having a bladder infection! Weird, right? I took him to Urgent Care Sunday morning because his frequent trips to the bathroom were now causing a little pain. He got some meds and we came home. Then a couple hours later I heard a super loud bang and hysterical crying. The poor dude slammed (and I mean slammed) his head into the door frame. It was awful. It took me a long time to get him settled down and his head immediately bruised and swelled up. After I got him to calm down we noticed his toes were bleeding......he must have scrapped his toes when he fell. Now, my kids HATE to have ice on them. So, I tried frozen corn this time. I kept "icing it" throughout the day and Parker would say, "get the cold corn, mom!". I don't know if you can really tell from the picture, but this goose egg was huge.  We kept calling him Megamind. :)

We had a fun week though.  We've babysat, had the missionaries over and I went to girls camp. We had plans on the fourth.  The Watkins had so kindly invited over for fun in the sun, food and fireworks.  I felt really bad we ended up not being able to go because of Parker. I had told Sam and Aileen to go ahead and go, but while they were out buying fireworks, they decided they wanted to be with Parker and I on the Fourth, so they stayed home with us. I love my family. :)

As I have loved you.....

I absolutely LOVE my young women. They are amazing in their testimonies, their love for each other and their willingness to serve.  Last year, I was able to go to camp for the whole week, and luckily, I was able to go up last night for the final program and testimony meeting. The girls have been working all week to help a young woman earn her YW Recognition award. Terese is an AMAZING young woman with such a special spirit, but there are many of the activities in the Personal Progress program that she simply can not on her own. The girls at camp have done this for her by proxy and she received her medallion last night. It was so unbelievably touching and special to witness that. While we sang the camp song for this year, "We Believe", all who had participated in helping her complete her personal progress stood in a big circle and passed the medallion around....each girl getting to see and feel what they helped her earn. It was AMAZING!!!  Her young women's president then put the medallion on her.  Her parents were there and it was so incredible to feel the love that has been shown to her and her family this week.  The girls have been working so hard all week to make this happen and I am so proud of them and hope it inspires them to work harder on their own Personal Progress and continue to find ways to help each other. The night was beautifully tied together with an amazing testimony of the Savior and His atonement.  These young women are so beautiful. I hope they know how special they are to me. They probably think I am super cheesy cause I tell them all the time, but I don't want there to ever be a doubt in their minds how much I love them. How much their Heavenly Father loves them, and that He knows exactly who they are. 

The PP project the St Robert girls did for Terese was learning a song and performing it.
They are singing, "Walk Tall You're A Daughter of God" It was beautiful. :)