Journals
Monday,Feb 23 2009, 03:42:38 PMBusy Times
Well, it has almost been a year since we last posted. We have been very busy. Sarah and the kids took a road trip in June to see her grandmother in west Texas for a week. They had a lot of fun. Not only did they go to see DeeDee(the kids Great Granny) but there was a wedding as well. One of Sarah's cousins was getting married. While in West Texas Sarah, the kids, and DeeDee went to the sand hills. There is nothing like sliding down the sand hills. The kids really enjoyed the adventure. Then the last two weeks of September and the first two weeks in October Clint was gone to DC for a conference. Clint has been enjoying his residency and we can't believe that he is already 1/2 way through his 3rd. year.
The girls have been enjoying preschool and they are excited about kindergarten in the fall. Other news with the kids:
Elizabeth really enjoys drawing pictures and making either necklaces or braclets for her self and others. Elizabeth and Heidi both have been enjoying sounding out words they are trying to spell. We have several pictures of their drawings and spellings of their picture.
Heidi also enjoys drawing. She has lost her first tooth and she has another one that is becoming lose.
Timothy is out of diapers and doing great with going in the potty. I can't believe that he will be turning 3 in May. Where does the time go?
Friday,May 23 2008, 02:36:24 PMTuesday
Well, Tuesday was another fun day with mom. I made it to the gym to work out which was great. After I picked the kids up and left we went to find another park that I have heard about from neighbors. This park was at a lake. The thing that was bad about going to this park was the fact that it took me a little while to find it which then made it to where the kids could not play for very long. They had a blast running around on the equipment and going down the slides. I was able to get some really neat pictures of the kids playing. When we had pulled into the park we saw that there were some families of geese. We decided to take a walk around the pond that was there at the park. The kids and I walked around to where the geese were so that I could get some pictures of the geese with their gosling's. We had fun getting chased by the geese and goslings. I tried my hardest to get the kids to let me stand back and get their picture with the geese chasing them but they wanted to stay close to me. I was able to get a picture of Heidi standing pretty close to the geese and Timothy running away laughing. I finally managed to get the kids back into the van so that we could go home, eat, and then get ready for rest time.
Wednesday, Timothy got a birthday present from his Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristi. They sent him a water table which all the kids have had a blast with. The kids did not care that it really was not warm enough to be getting wet outside that afternoon. So Clint and I set it up for them to play outside. They had so much fun even though they were shivering at times. The table says that it holds up to 4 gallons of water and I think we filled it 4 times that afternoon. Needless to say, thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristi I don't think that we will have to worry about watering the lawn during the summer. We can just put the kids out with the water table and move the table around the yard so that it all gets watered. Timothy thinks that it is fun to scoop up the water and pour it on the ground. This might be because when Clint went to fill up the table he would spray the kids with the water and they would run and giggle. I put them out with the table yesterday, Thursday, and they had a blast again. Although I did go out and check on them and found that they started bringing water over to the sand box. I asked them who started putting water in the sand box and Heidi said she did. When asked why she did that she told me she wanted the sand to be like it is at the beach. Timothy was covered in sand since he was in the sand box with a wet suit. They then started to take some of the wet sand over to the water table. So they all got a good hose down before coming back inside.
Well, I must go because I do believe that we are about to have a tea party on the girls "big blanket".
Friday,May 23 2008, 02:03:40 PMSaturday with Mom
So last Saturday Clint was on call. The kids and I had a lot of fun. We went to a Nature Park here in OKC which turned out to not be so fun for Elizabeth. She got scared of taking a walk through the woods. We did make it to one of the bridges and we got to see geese, turtles, and fish. After the park we went across the highway to the mall and got lunch at Chik-fil-a with the kids free kids meal cards that they got at Easter from the egg hunt that they went on in Clint's parents neighborhood. I was glad that I did not have to spend money on their meals since they did not eat much of it. Once we finally got home from our adventure it was half way through nap so I decided to load the kids back into the van and take them to the zoo for another free meal. The hospital where Clint works was having their Employee event there and Clint had signed us up as a family before he knew that he was taking call that day. Part of our free pass was a free lunch or dinner. They were serving the food from 11 am to 5 pm. We got there right on time for dinner. The kids enjoyed their hot dogs and also enjoyed feeding the geese their hot dog buns. We then walked around the zoo till 8 pm. Fun was had by all, but we were also completely worn out from the day.
Thursday,May 8 2008, 04:01:28 PMI am back finally!
I can't believe that is has been so long since I last posted. A lot has been going on in our house. The kids have been going to mother's day out. The girls really like going. Their class is more of a preschool class. Last night before going to bed the girls were telling me about a skunk that they got to pet. I had to ask them what they were talking about. They said that a lady came that had a skunk that they got to pet. Heidi told me that the lady had to take it to the vet to have its stink taken out. I then realized that a wild life rescue person must have come. They also told me that they got to see an owl but the owl had to stay in the cage. Heidi then said that the owl forgot to look both ways before crossing the street and it got its wing broken. Other animals that they got to see were a turtle, frog, rabbit, and a porcupine.
With mother's day coming up the girls class is going to be having a tea and muffin time with mom. The girls are really excited about me coming to the party on Friday. It should be really fun.
The girls have also been enjoying Awanas. Last night was their last lesson of the school year. Next week will be a review and the following week the awards ceremony. I don't really think that the girls will be getting any awards but they are going to be singing and of course we will go just to hear them sing.
Timothy is really growing up. I can't believe that he turns 2 on Sunday. Wow, that means we have lived in this house for almost 2 years and we are not looking for another home. We have never lived in the same house for more than 2 years. Anyway, back to Timothy. He loves his sisters, but also loves to pester them. He sure does have the roll of little brother down really well. Some of his favorite things right now are cars, Bob the builder, trains, dinosaurs, and his teddy bears. He really likes his teddy bear when he has to go to mother's day out. His language is really coming along. He can sometimes put together a four word sentence. He also really knows what belongs to what person and will let you know. He is a real snuggler which is really nice most of the time. Timothy has been moved to a toddler bed right now. This had made it real nice when he wakes up because he does not have to cry out for us he just comes and snuggles with is in bed. Although I have not been liking the fact that he comes in at 5 a.m. I do get up and put him back in bed and he will normally stay there for another 1-1 1/2 hours. Timothy is just an all around sweet heart.
Heidi really loves her brother and will even allow him to crawl into her bed with her in the morning. I think that the most major thing that has gone on with Heidi since the last time I was blogging is the fact that she gave herself a concussion from jumping in bed and falling out and hitting her head on the hardwood floor. Needless to say I don't think she will be doing that again. She did lose her sight for about 30-45 minutes. I did have to take her into the ER once she started to get sick and she was really tired. Every thing came back fine from the fall but the radiologist that looked at her CT said she had a sinus infection. Once Clint got to work the next day he looked at her CT and then put it on a flash drive so that he could bring it home to show us. This all took place the Monday before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving 2007 was spent with Clint's dad's side of the family.
Elizabeth now has another joint being affected by her JRA. She just went to her rheumatologist last Monday due to the fact that we suspected she was having a flare up and I told the doctor that she had been complaining that her bones hurt sometimes when she eats. She does have some inflamation in her jaw joint on the right side. So her medication has now been changed to a little higher dose. We had already started giving her her medication twice a day again for two weeks before going to the doctor. We will go back in about four weeks to see how she is doing. Keep her and us in your prayers. We feel bad that she has this autoimmune disease but we are thankful that so far with the medication she was been doing really well. She is a totally different girl when she is not in pain (aren't we all different when we are not in pain).
Clint has really been enjoying his residency. He is now able to moonlight so we can have a little more money coming in to help with finances. He and another resident in his "class" are the chief residents for this next year which starts July 1 I believe.
Well, we all had a big Christmas this year with my side of the family. All of my brothers came in and my dad's mother also came into Tulsa. It was really fun to have all eight (and one in the oven) cousins together. All of the kids also had fun up at Grandma and Grandad's store. I do believe that all of the kids are really becoming more interested in birds and nature now. It is really fun to see my girls really wanting to find out what kind of bird is on our feeder. All of the kids were allowed to pick out a plush audobon bird before the store really opened. Heidi picked out a brown thrasher and was able to see one in our yard the other day. The girls are also able to sometimes hear a blue jay, cardinal, or red-wing black bird and not even see the bird. They have started to learn different bird calls. This might also be due to the fact that they have bird pinchers that make the actual bird call. I have also been enjoying learning more about the different birds and helping out at the store when I can.
Another big thing that happen recently was that the kids got to go visit their aunt, uncle, and cousins in Lancaster, PA for two weeks without us with them. My mother flew up with them and then came back home and flew up again to bring them back home. It was such a fun time for the seven cousins to have some time together and make a bond. My brother and his wife also enjoyed this time with my kids to really get to know them.
Well, the kids and I are going to go to the gym this morning so that I can workout. I guess we better get going. I will try to get more pictures posted soon.
Tuesday,Sep 4 2007, 01:46:02 AMSummer 2007
Well this summer was a lot of fun and work. The girls got a swing set for their 4th birthday from Clint's parents. No you have not missed their birthday. This was an early present so they could enjoy playing on it before the weather is too cold. The play set took us one week and the weekends on either side to complete. All three kids have a blast playing on the swing set. This is a monster set. It has a tunnel that goes over the swings, a slide, a climbing wall, and house on top. Needlessly so say Timothy is not allowed in the backyard now without an adult. He does not like it when the girls go out without him. Another fun adventure that the kids and I had was sending about a month at my parents house helping them with their store that they have opened and with getting the house ready for all the cousins coming in. With all the opening preparations going on there was not much time to get the house ready for 8 adults, 8 children 7yrs. and younger, and 6 dogs. Then the kids and I stayed to help some more with the store and to visit then with my aunt Carolyn and their great Pom. The opening of the store was a success. Clint and I were able to work a little on the flooring in the house before coming over to his parents house for Labor Day. The kids really had fun on the slip-n-slide that his parents bought for them. The girls didn't really have the hang of running and sliding. They did enjoy being pushed on the "boats" that came with it. I even enjoyed getting in on the action at the end. Yes, I even did some sliding on the slip in slide. We will be going back to Tulsa this weekend for birthday celebrations of the girls and Julianna's birthdays with my parents. I will be staying on for the week since Clint has taken off a week and said that I could get away for a vacation from the kids.
The girls are going to be starting Awanas at the church on Wednesday nights and I will start playing in the orchestra. This fall Clint will be tutoring inner city kids threw a program at our church. Timothy is really growing up. He is running all over the place. His lips have really been busted up lately due to all of the falling he has been doing. I am thankful that he has not knocked out any teeth. He is really trying to talk to us. He looks at us and tells us things and points but he does not make any sense. He is starting to make up words for things. He says "ga-ga" for drink, "cak-cak" for cracker. He can sign and say something that sounds like please but more like "peas". Another one of his favorite words is Donegal. He loves to call for Donegal. He has even started potty training himself. There was one day that he kept his diaper dry the whole morning. He would just run to the potty and put the seat up and if I was not there with him he would come and find me get my attention and then run back to the potty. He has not been so successful lately. Oh well, he will get there one day. Well, the kids and I are sleeping over at Nana and Papa's tonight since they thought we were sleeping here last night. I guess I better go tuck them in and sleep back there with them so they actually go to sleep. Hope that everyone had a great summer and Labor Day weekend.