Nebraska Family Time

We enjoyed spending extra time with our family in Nebraska. Lorelei and Makin adore their cousins and couldn't get enough of them.

I have limited pictures from our visit, as my camera broke one of the first few days we were there. Most of these are from my phone. :) I will add some more eventually when I am able to get some from Sarah and Jeanette...will probably add them here and let you know when I do. :)

Lorelei's Lego creation, enjoying the kiddie pool, and playing puppy with Auntie Di, who was there for harvest. They loved getting to see her!

The kittens were adored by both kids. Lorelei could spend all day with them. She got to see a brand new batch when their eyes weren't even opened and watch them grow each day.

Driving the gator to Aunt Sarah's house.

Hannah and Karter were in a play. They had pony rides before the play. Lorelei enjoyed it and Makin did not want to ride. :) They loved seeing their cousins as "stars" for the night. :)

K'nex Bonding Time

We love that we can golf at the Potter golf course with the kids. Fun family time.

Hannah was great with the kids. Here she had them all smiles during bath.

Pudding Painting!

Setting Off Daddy's Old Rockets

Hannah and Karter were showing sheep at the fair, so we made a couple of visits. We watched them show their sheep and they did a great job! Lorelei and Makin loved seeing the animals. They also enjoyed the carnival rides (Lorelei had her first kiddie roller coaster and Ferris wheel rides! Makin loved riding the jets over and over!) and went to a craft activity that the 4H had for them to enjoy.

Tunnel Time

The last few days of our Oklahoma visit the kids enjoyed playing in a tunnel Papa found in a field. They loved driving their trains around in it.

Bits and Pieces From L and M

Lorelei

I was telling Lorelei I did not like them watching the TV show Word Girl. She rationalized, "Its not bad mom. She saves the day."

My car conversation one afternoon...
Me: Lorelei, when you turn 5 you get to choose an activity you would like to do. We may have to sign you up this summer. Do you know what you want to do?
Lor: I want to be an explorer.
Me: Well, we were thinking something like gymnastics, dance, soccer, tball...
Makin: tball!!!
Me: when you turn 5...Lor so do you know what you would like?
Lor: I want to build things:
Same response from Makin and I following...
Lor: I want to plant trees.
Again same response.
Lor: I want to be a bird watcher.
...Ok so I'm thinking girls scouts?


Nana: You are getting so grown up!
Lor: DON'T tell my mom that. She gets soooo sad.

"Every bright color is my favorite."

Makin: Look my picture Li.

Lor: Woah! That makes a big impression!

Lor: You forgot my table fot."
Me: Spot (been working on those sp words!)
Repeated this a few times and then she just said...
"You forgot my table part."


Makin: Are those bowls or those plates?
Lor: Bowly kinda plates.

Me: Breath in...
Lor: And not out!

This girl is obsessed with chips and salsa. Eats every bit of the salsa too. She asks for this snack before 10 AM some days. :)


She is a problem solver...one example... :)
Lor: (Frustrated I have not played with her every minute of the day.) Maybe we could have a robot so you could play. It could do all your jobs for you. It could do the dishes and set the table.
Me: Would it cook the food?
Lor: Yeah. And it would have a cake button so when we push it, it would make us cake.

Makin

Makin is very into airplanes and loves to fly them around with noises. He also loves having a "troller" (controller) to fly a pretend plane. Any squarish object is game to be used as a controller.

He has a GREAT imagination. Just one example was he actually had me play a pretend baseball game with him and would talk about where the ball was, swing to hit the invisible ball, talk about where it went, etc.

He also turns frames into ipads and books into computers. :)

(Makin jumping on the bed.)
Me: What are beds for?
Makin: JUMPING!!!

Makin to Lor: "Your not the boss."

"When I grow up I'm going to be a cow and say moo."

During his prayers one night he was naming all the things he was thankful for, stuffed animals, stars etc, then followed with "The End."

He eats painstakingly slow. As in, snails could eat laps around him. :)

Piano = "pinano"
Remote = "mamote"

He is our bug smashing hero. Anytime Lorelei squeals about a bug he makes sure to run to her rescue and promptly smash it "into little tiny pieces" no less.






Just had to include this picture with the latest story. We were playing Candyland and Lorelei managed to pick this Gummy card on her first draw. We have two piles when we play, don't need to go into why, but anyway, Makin smoothly picked up her Gummy card and set it on top of his pile and said, "Put this on my pile." With a big smile.

Our July Fourth

Doesn't every parent drag their kids out to the pasture dodging cow patties every step first thing in the morning on July 4th for pictures? What? No? Yes, noted, next year I will make sure and have our photo shoot a few days before...but at least we got some good ones for our effort! :)

Our Morning

(eh hem, after said photo shoot of course)

Tattoos, Games (yes next year they will be more color coordinated too) and a flag craft. I was really happy with how well the flags came out. They did an awesome job. Also, gotta love their facial expressions when they had fun playing the games.

Our Afternoon/Evening

Made a star out of Lorelei's hair, baked flag cookies, ate flag cookies, attempted pinterest straw/food die drops into fire works project...maybe next time?, yummy grilled supper, all followed with epic fail of fire works show. I decided against taking the kids into town by myself to see the fire works in person. This is the first time we have ever missed them since at least Lorelei was born! However, I did remember how much crying was involved on the drive back last year and didn't want to deal with the melt downs on my own. So we opted for TV fire works...but they didn't start until about an hour and a half after I thought they did...so we watched lots of concerts and took goofy pictures and got ready for bed while waiting. Then they didn't even make it through the entire fire works show before the melt downs started. :(  

Next year we will make up for it I'm sure. :)

Start Of Summer Fun

Our children get to spend their summer with two sets of grandparents who adore them, as well as a few aunts, uncles and cousins thrown in. :) On two farms...many wonderful memories to be made for our four and two year old. I hope looking back on this summer for them, they think of all the amazing times they were able to have on both an Oklahoma and a Nebraska farm. Lots and lots of love for all.

The kids were thrilled to check out a huge rainbow! Saw from one end to the other. :) Lorelei enjoying a little run in the sprinkler, and both kids love playing with the sand on the driveway along with a couple of construction trucks.

Fun with Nana and Uncle A.J. :)

Amanda and Sydney came for a visit! Sydney loved checking the cattle with "Farmer Art" and we gave her a  chance to have some yummy ice cream too! :) So fun getting to catch up with them and see Sydney at this age. The kids get along great!

Tea Party Time! I cannot explain how much Makin loved pouring the tea and drinking it...and he will not like me saying that a few years from now! :)

Nebraska! Much-needed fun times with Grandma and Grandpa. Cooking, reading books, riding the four wheeler and a tractor ride!

Oh the words to describe how much they love this gator... they drove it All. Day. Long. :) They take turns  very well, and get a real kick out of chasing me with it on occasion. :) If the battery runs out of juice one of them will push it with "Makin or Lorelei Power" :)

Lorelei loved the wheat field and the kitties. She cannot get enough of these kitties. We celebrated Brad's birthday with a cookie cake, and Makin helped Grandma mow the lawn.

And we met the two new members to the family! Uncle Shaun (so far he gets 5 stars!) and Brooklyn!

Back to Oklahoma. Brownies in the morning, Mommy and Lorelei date to walk around the lake, Uncle A.J. playing Clifford, making something else in the kitchen, first time helping make home-made ice cream, and trying out a pinterest recipe for sidewalk paint.

The Mud Puddle. I love this thing. 2 1/2 hours of endless contentment. Two different days. So wonderful. And what kids shouldn't get a chance to play in the mud like this!? Love it.

Wheat Pictures! The kids did take a combine ride with Papa but Lorelei was not a fan whatsoever (height issues I believe) but glad they got a chance to see it.

Just as we have been blessed with amazing family, I am also amazed daily at the support we have from our friends. I have the BEST friends. Hands down. From the east coast, to Texas, Minnesota to Nebraska...and technically as far as Japan! :) I can't even describe how it makes me feel to have these kinds of friends in my life. Warm and fuzzy inside. No matter how many challenges we may have to go through in this life, it is such a relief to have their support. And now, I had a wonderful week and saw so many friends from so many places I can't even believe it. So here we go...Top left clockwise, Luke (temporarily living in Japan) who I have known since maybe age five? I was happy we happened to catch he and his wife in OK for a visit this summer. He has the same energy as my kids and he kept them very well entertained and they wore him out. :) One of these days I'm going to put them to bed before he comes so we actually get to chat other than in-between leg-lifts. :) We spent a fun night at Aunt Heather's place on the way to Dallas. Another fun but unusual visit was seeing the Bonfiglios in Texas! :) I loved having a chance for Melissa to see Lorelei as she was younger than Makin the last time she saw her. We had a fun, though toasty, time walking around a small nature preserve and playing at a playground before they few back to Virginia. We enjoyed a play date with Kaitlyn and Hailey where they played lots of dress up. As usual, these girls can play for hours happily together and it just amazes me. :) We spent the night with the Armstrongs so caught a pic of the kiddos having supper together. This also gave us a chance to check out their new house! These four always play so well and have endless amounts of fun.

The next morning was spent with the Hughes family. The girls even enjoyed a dip in the pool, although Makin opted for the sandbox instead. I can't even think about how much we are going to miss seeing our Texas friends each week.

And we got to see another new house! The Rogers family was generous enough to let us stay at their brand new home on the way back. I'm pretty sure they hadn't even been moved in a full week! :) Loved seeing Sydney in her new spacious place and so happy for them. :) 

The kids especially loved the swing set and puppy. :)

More fun at Nana and Papa's house. The kids have loved the bug catcher. The latest favorite find was a grasshopper. We also had to try out the pinterest idea of using cups to blow bubbles. Nana and Mom had more fun than the kids I think! :) Nana also brought some wonderful wooden toys from school that they have loved playing with.

Makin At 2 1/2

(Belated Half Year Post)











Favorites
Cereal: Cheerios or Crispix, but would always pick pancakes for breakfast if he could
Book: Noah And The Animals (Little People book with flaps), he literally said, "That's my favorite book!" and Curious George and The Bunny "That's my other favorite one!" I would also add Little Blue Truck to his list. :)
TV Show: Little Einsteins, Doc McStuffins
Food: Mac N Cheese
Snack: Raisens, Crackers with Cream Cheese
Place At Home: Room
Place Out: Park
Toy: Cars
Color: Green
Song: Jesus Loves Me

He is still very particular about many things. A couple of examples would be he will not eat a broken cracker. Even if its a little tiny flake missing off the top. Also, if there is even a milometer of crust left on his bread he will pick it off and set it to the side.

 He is potty trained. :) Yup. Proud Mamma!

Hip Hops = Flip Flops

Commonly heard sayings
"What in da (the) wowd (world)!?"
"I sink so." (I Think so)
"Shuh." (Sure)
"I win!" (Everything is a competition around here lately!)
"I have idea!"
"Do it myself." or "Me myself!"
"I wuv (love)..."

Early on in potty training I kept asking him all day if he needed to go potty and after noticing his annoyance I said, "Have I asked you enough times?" Makin followed with, "Too much."

When you are trying to figure out what he is saying and are not even close you get "No, no, no, no, no." (Getting quieter and faster as he says it...make sense? :) )

Me: Are you Mommy's boy?
Makin: No. Me Eli's (Lorelei's) boy.

Lorelei At 4 1/2

(Belated Half Year Post)

Favorites
Cereal: Haybales (AKA Frosted Mini Wheats) 
Book: Franklin Books and Barenstein Bears, honestly has a huge variety and we read a bit of everything
TV Show: Curious George, Clifford
Food: Spaghetti
Snack: Apples, Popcorn
Place At Home: Sandbox
Place Out: Park
Toy: Stuffed Animals
Color: Purple or Pink
Song: Edelweiss (She usually picks that one for me to sing to her.)


Loves...
to tell jokes. We have a few cute ones she has learned. :)

playing games in her coloring books. Especially circling which picture is different and mazes.

Latest quotes...

(Pointing to a taxi cab.) "Mom. That car looks like macaroni and cheese. I want to eat that car!"

Taste Bugs. (Taste buds.)

As we were talking about her being a better listener she said, "Sometimes they turn it off. The little people in there (pointing into her mouth) turn it off." (You can be sure Mommy gave them a good talking to into her mouth! :) )

Lor: Who should I make (frost) a cookie for?
Me: Who do you want to make one for?
Lor: Who likes lots of chocolate?

"I love my pinky toe."

(In tears after her brother hit her.) "I don't like him anymore! I think I'm going to call him carrot!"
Which followed with me looking at her and bursting out laughing and then she laughed at herself too. :)

Me: On Saturday you are going to be four and a half!
Lor: I get my markers back!!!!! (This doesn't surprise me as her reaction, I took away markers and said she could have them back when she was four and a half and may be responsible enough to put the lids back on...but the next statement did make me smile.) I will learn to say sasa (salsa) right. Sasa. Salsa! :)

Hitting The Reset Button

Well, you may have noticed I'm four months behind on the blog? ;) I plan to catch up as quickly as I can. Its very important to me to keep friends and family knowing what is going on with us and to document all our memories for the kids. :)

Our family is hitting the Reset Button. Our life in Texas did not turn out as we hoped, and we have decided to regroup and make some changes. We love our friends in Texas dearly. We have the most AMAZING support system of friends there. We love the school opportunities there. We still love the area, so may be back there in a year or two, but will have to see what the next year brings. I'm trying to stop planning too far ahead but as most of you know, I'm a planner! So we will fill you in on Plan B later...

I am dealing with it the best I can. I have to deal with it because I have two beautiful kids who's mommy has always been their entire world. I have to keep it together for the most important people in my life who are counting on me.

Get ready for the longest post EVER!

Well, here is what we have been up to since the beginning of March...

We made our own bath paints. They loved painting the tub and then Lorelei even let Makin paint all over her. :)

March 2nd we celebrated Lorelei turning four and a half. She woke up and wanted to color with markers first thing (she got them back when she turned 4 1/2, since she couldn't remember to put the lids on they got taken away till she was older) so that was what we did first. She can write two words. Her name and "mom." :)  The kids were also very into playing BINGO, so we did that a bit later.

Here we have Mr. Makin on March 8th, officially two and a half, when he wrote his best M ever! :)

A couple of weeks later we finally celebrated their half birthdays by taking them to a special cupcake shop. As you can see they both picked chocolate. :) They look so grown up!

Brad knew of a golf course in a smaller town that was family-friendly so we decided to head there to golf with the kids. They had a total blast. Brad golfed, I drove and the kids golfed as they wanted, for the most part on the green so they could hit it to the hole. If we could I wouldn't mind doing this every day. Thankful for fun family time. (The pic of Lor and the pond she is looking at turtles, if you can't tell!)

I would count the bottom left pic as our March family picture. I did not get family pictures the following months, so we won't have our usual "year in review" but will try to get back into the habit in July.

Bedtime Books

Easter Fun (No usual Easter celebration as they had just finished being sick and I was still not feeling 100%)

Bits of Hotel Fun

Friends Met Us At Arbor Hills

Makin and I took a trip to Virginia Beach for Makin to have surgery on his nose. This was not planned at all. He his nose was rejecting the implant they put in. He is such a trooper and wonderful travel buddy. :) The bottom right is our Starbucks date before Melissa picked us up to head to the beach.

Although I dread Makin ever having surgeries, the bright side is we get a chance to see dear friends. Melissa, Sara and I took our "babies" to the beach the morning before Makin's pre op appointment. Can't believe how much they have grown...I remember getting a pic of the three of us all pregnant together and now love seeing those kiddos running into the ocean together! Time flies! And they are all so stinkin' cute! :)

Makin and I staying busy taking a ride on the ferry the morning of his surgery.

A few more pics from our visit to Virginia. Top left is Makin with Lily and Emma at their house the evening before surgery. Can't even talk about how grown up these girls are! We loved getting to visit with the Checks. Middle pic is Makin the night after surgery. He did wonderfully. What I want to remember from this trip is how he left for his surgery. He was pretty cranky from waiting till after 2 pm without eating all day, so getting him prepared for surgery was a challenge. The nurses are so amazing. What did it take for them to get this boy happily to surgery? (And ignore his yellow surgery "pjs" he hated! :) ) Makin was driving to surgery in one of those plastic cars following the nurses who were blowing bubbles all around him and cheering to keep him entertained. They are so wonderful at CHKD. Makin ate as many snacks as he could get his hands on that night after surgery and watched some DVDs. He did SO well. Okay, top right pic was Makin at the beach the day after surgery shoveling sand. Bottom left Chase set up his cool car ramp and they loved testing out which cars went the fastest. Bottom right, Makin and Leah asleep on the way to the airport. Thankfully he slept a good amount on the airplanes on the way home. Thankful again for amazing, wonderful friends who are so supportive from Virginia Beach.

When we got back from VA we spent about a week at my parents for some recoup time. Lorelei stayed there during our trip and had fun joining Nana for preschool some of the week. Thankfully Nana sent me a pic nearly every day to keep me updated on my girl.

Nana and Park Time

Lovin' The John Deere Playground ;)

Cheesin' It Up

We had a cold rainy day and happily decided to take a trip to Liberal's air museum. The kids loved seeing hot the hot air balloons worked and trying out many, many different types of airplanes. Makin was thrilled to have so many buttons to push! They also had a dinosaur exhibit there temporarily. Although they were very excited about the idea, they ended up VERY scared of the loud roaring dinos! At the end there was a small "dino dig" where they uncovered dinosaur bones. Much less scarey. :)

AJ's ball, Papa's New Mailbox, and Fisher Price Wonderfulness

We headed through Edmond on the way back to Texas and visited Aunt Heather. We loved seeing the Oklahoma City Zoo with her! There was an amazing sea lion show (probably my favorite part) and they also got a chance to feed the giraffes. And we cant forget the brilliant invention of "doggie robot remotes" Heather will now be playing at her apartment the rest. of. her. life. :)

We were invited to the Stegers apartment for supper and Lorelei loved her special strawberry pie made just for her! We also enjoyed spending time at Lorelei's school family picnic. The children rotated through different game stations and had a blast! Her class was kind enough to include Makin in all their games as well. They were so fun to watch! The bottom left and middle right pics are her last day of school. Her teachers Ms. Amy and Ms. Kirsten were wonderful. I feel I cannot do justice in saying how glad we were Lorelei was able to go to school here and have a great first year of preschool experience. She absolutely loved it.

We also took a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  Lorelei was the perfect age for this trip. She loved every minute of it. She went down almost every slide she was allowed on (not the ones with the inter-tubes, but she did do one of the group slides with me along) including the big ones and climbed to the top all by herself! I was amazed how brave she was and how much she enjoyed it. Makin did not want to wear a vest at all but did enjoy playing in the kiddie pool area quite a bit.

Makin's Favorite - The Jet Skis

Loving Storytime

More Storytime Fun

Loving The Water

Heading out...had to get a partial shot of the huge area they had played in for a couple of days. So hard to get very many pics unless you have a water camera! :) Lorelei loved seeing almost all of the characters. Makin refused to go near them...the wooden bear that didn't move and was smaller than him was much better for a picture. :)

And with Lorelei out of school, we will move onto summer break...think I'll save that for another post!

And will work on a non-wintery background soon! Sorry need help from Brad on that one!