Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Chicago Trip

My Uncle Tom turned 60 this past weekend and my Aunt Jan threw a (surprise) party for him. He knew about some of the events of the weekend, but the surprise part was all the out of town guests coming to help celebrate. UT and AJ mean so much to me so it was important for me to go. Unfortunately Brad wasn't able to join us because he was out of vacation after our Disney cruise earlier this year and then he took vacation when Aubrey was born. So the 3 kids, mom, and I hopped a plane and flew to Chicago. The plane ride was easy and Alex and Abby thought it was so fun to fly again!  Sweet Aubrey was awesome and didn't fuss at all on the plane.



We flew into O'Hare.  I haven't been there in about 10 years and had forgotten how wild it is!  Last time I was alone and it didn't seem so stressful.  This time getting luggage for 5 people with 3 kids and 3 car seats was a bit of a challenge.  Thankfully, my cousin Clark was there to help us out and made it so easy!  AJ picked the kids and me up and showed us the way to the hotel while my mom and Clark got the rental car.  As soon as we got to the hotel, my brother showed up in the lobby so he was recruited to help the kids and me upstairs with all of our luggage.  Then it ended up being a party in our room!  My grandparents, other cousin, brother, sister in law, niece and nephews all came to hang out for a bit.  I'm happy we had a suite with two rooms so the kids could go destroy play in the other room while the adults got to chat.  

That night we just got settled, took the kids to the pool, went to the happy hour and snacks downstairs, had dinner and crashed.  The kids slept in the "living room" on the hide-a-bed.  It was so cute to see them sleep in the same bed!  





 The next morning was one of the surprises for UT.  Papa and Grandma and Grant and Vikki and Jack have been at UT and AJ's house since before Christmas so AJ suggested that instead of cooking breakfast again, they all head over to the hotel for breakfast.  It wasn't real out of the ordinary, but part of me thinks that he knew something was going on.  So as they arrived we were looking down on them from outside our room.  After we knew they'd been seated, part of the out of towners started showing up to surprise him.  Not only were all of the Okies there, but friends from several other states, too.  Everyone just kind of trickled in one group at a time.  Finally it was our turn to walk in and say hello.  He was so happy!


Then everyone just hung out and had breakfast, drank coffee and chatted.  One of the funniest pictures (to me) below is the girls hanging on my brother's feet.  And of course Alex took a picture with Vikki, because he loves her.  :) 


Then of course there was more swimming, a grocery store run, a failed attempt at a nap for Abby, and getting ready for dinner that night.  The dinner was at a really neat place called Cooper's Hawk.  It is a restaurant and winery.  There were wine barrels in our private room filled with wine!  It was such a cool place and the food was delicious.  




After dinner we went back to UT and AJ's house for coffee and the gift AJ had for UT.  I am just in awe over what she had done for him.  She has a friend who is an artist.  They discussed the many parts of Tom's life and created an oil painting symbolizing the values he holds and the life he has created.  It is just breath taking and would require an entirely different post to explain, which I will do someday.  



The next day we had breakfast and decided to take a drive to the house Mom grew up in.  She and the big kids got out for a picture! 


Then we went back, changed clothes and headed back to UT and AJ's for another party.  There were about 80 people at this party.  The food was delicious and there was a couple that played music and sang songs.  Toasts were made and all the kids were so well behaved!  I was so proud of all of them for behaving so well at a grown-up party!










The next morning we had to let the kids swim once more and then we headed over to say one last goodbye.  UT made the kids a snack and we wish we could have stayed longer!    



When we got to the airport, we got the precheck, so we thought it'd be easier.  It really wasn't.  We still ended up having to take off our jackets and boots, and Alex had to take off his belt, so I'm not really sure it was any faster.  Then we found out our plane had been delayed.  It was fine, though.  The kids really are great travelers and didn't fuss at all.  




We had such a wonderful time on our mini vacation to Chicago! We only wish Brad could have gone with us and that we could have stayed longer!  



Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Cute Cousins

Aren't they just the cutest 6 you've ever seen!  Grammy knit hats for them all.  





Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Ballet

Abby loves her ballet class.  I'm really glad we enrolled her in the class.  I was almost second guessing myself thinking we should have put her in gymnastics, but I'm really glad we did ballet.  We can do gymnastics later if she wants.

She had a little program today.  The teachers dressed the girls up and put cute ribbons in their hair so they would look like dolls.  Abby and Lillian looked adorable.




Here is a little video of her dancing.  She really knew what she was doing and had fun!  





Sunday, December 8, 2013

Christmas Crafts

I haven't really done too many crafts lately with the kids so since it is Christmas time, I figured it was a good time to do a couple.  The first thing we did was make salt dough ornaments.  It's something I'd done with my students in the past and thought it would be fun to do with my kids.  I also wanted something to remember how sweet and little their hands were.

1 C flour
1/2 C salt
1/2 C water

Mix it together with your hands until the dough forms.  I had to add just a tad more flour to get it to the right consistency.  Then just roll it out and press your hand into the dough.  Once I put the hand on the parchment paper on the cookie sheet, I used a straw to poke a hole at the top so that we can add a string to hang it from later.  Then bake in the oven for a couple hours at 250.  I started checking them after 2 hours to see if they were hard enough.  I think they actually baked for about 2 hours and 15-20 minutes.  We waited until the next day to paint them.  We just painted Santa for all three hands.  They turned out pretty cute!



The next thing we made was a canvas painting. Alex and Abby's hands made the tree and their thumbs made the ornaments.  Then each kiddo made a snowman using their foot.  I really love how this project turned out.


We also made some Christmas cookies.  I used a new recipe and thought the cookies turned out great.  They have cream cheese and almond extract to make them extra tasty.  They frosting turned out well, too.  I've never made frosting like this before, and I liked how it turned out.  You can see the recipe here.  Instead of painting with food coloring, like the recipe suggests, we just decorated with what we had on hand.  The kids were proud of their cookies!





Saturday, December 7, 2013

Dishes

I have inherited my mom and grandma's love for dishes.  I have, but need more, Fiesta.  I registered for Fiesta for our wedding and chose a red and a purple color.  Over the years, different pieces have broken and for some reason, they stopped making the purple color.  I really would love to have several different colors.  I really like the mismatched look and it's just fun.  I really would like some of the peacock and ivory.  Maybe the lemongrass and sunflower, too.  OK, I just want it all!  :)



I have never bought any Christmas dishes because my grandma told me that someday her Nikko set will be passed down to me.  It's really a pretty set.


Brad and I were at Dillard's and their Christmas department is always so beautiful and fun to browse.  I don't let myself go there very often because I get ideas like this one in my head.  There was a set of dishes I had never seen before.  I fell in love!  Each piece has a different line from the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.  I'm not sure how many different pieces you'd have to get to be able to read the whole poem, but what a fun set of China to have! 


One last thing I'd love to have is some more Polish pottery.  I have a couple of serving dishes and a couple of coffee mugs, but I'd really love some dinner plates and cereal bowls.  They are just beautiful, and like Fiesta, you mix and match them.  





Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Potty Training

Potty training Abby has been a disaster!  She started showing interest quite a while ago and we went with it.  However, once I had to go on bed rest, it just got really hard.  She would have really good days and then days where she wouldn't potty at all.  Of course, pooping was a nightmare.  When we went for her 3 year check up I told her doctor that she wasn't being as successful as I knew she could be and what else could I try.  Dr. Sood had a serious talk with her about being a big girl and how big girls wear panties and poop and pee pee on the potty.  Abby was really listening to her.  Then Dr. Sood said that if she would always go on the potty and not in her pants, she would give her a surprise.  Abby got really excited then.  Dr. Sood said it hasn't failed in 20 years when she's told patients that she would give them a surprise.  She was right!  Abby started going every time in the potty and even being dry at night!  whew!  It's been so nice!  So we went back to the doctor to report Abby's success.  She gave Abby some candy, a coloring book and crayons, and some stickers.  I also brought her a Barbie for a present.  We are so proud of Abby!


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Abby's 3rd Birthday

Abby had quite a birthday celebration this year!  It seemed like we celebrated the whole month of November!  The first celebration we had was her friend party.  We had it at Tulsa World of Gymnastics.  Abby and her BFF Lillian are 3 days apart so Regan and I decided to have their party together.  It turned out really great!  The girls looked so cute in their outfits and they had so much fun with all of their friends.






Of course on her real birthday, we took her for fun donuts.  She picked an ice cream cone donut!





She got to go to school to celebrate with her friends.  She chose little cupcakes to share with her class.  Then after school Grammy took her to Build-a-Bear.  She picked out a cute pink princess bear and then chose Merida clothes from the movie Brave and rainbow sparkle shoes.  She named her bear Brave. 



That night she wanted to eat pizza in the living room and then we had one more cupcake with candles to cap off her birthday.  




We had one more birthday celebration for Abby with our families.  Everyone came over for lunch and I made her a butterfly cake. 



Finally, we tried to get a picture of all 6 great grand kids with Papa and Grandma.