Uh-Oh

We don't usually put presents under our tree till right before Christmas. Mostly it's because our kids have been too little to understand that they can't open them till Christmas Day and that's really hard to have them sitting there. So this year as we recieved packages from our family, I decided to let them be put under the tree, with the strict understanding that we don't open them yet. I thought we were doing pretty well until today..... Margie helped me wrap a few of Daddy's presents and I said she could put some of them under the tree. I had a few of hers that could go out also because I thought we were doing pretty well not opening them. Well, as I cleaned up the wrapping paper and Margie took the presents to put under the tree, she came back surprised I had cleaned up everything and asked "where's the tape, I was going to put it away". Of course my suspicion was immediately raised that something was wrong. I told her it was put away and followed her into the living room where I caught the last seconds of her stashing something behind the tree. This was what I found. Margie has this defense mechanism that when she gets in trouble, especially big trouble she has a total breadown. Clinging, crying, burying her head into me and depending on the severity of the trouble it can last a while. Well, I told her how disappointed I was in her and this present might be back under the tree on Christmas once it was fixed.... then I took a closer look at another present to her under the tree... and another... This is what I found.
If you can't tell, there's a rip there where it says "Merry" and it's been heavily re-taped.

This one I'm pretty sure didn't have huge long strips of tape up the back along the seam...


And the front definitely didn't have any rips or tape when we recieved it.
(Sorry Debbie, don't tell Anna she peeked,
I'm sure she'll still be excited when she gets to open it for real)

She won't fess up that she knows what any of them are, and since the breakdown, ignores me or leaves the room when I ask her about it. (I still don't know what they are either, they were taped back up!) We don't have any more presents under our tree currently. She only opened ones that were for her. Maybe I'll put everyone else's back except hers. I don't know. There's only 2 days left anyway. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Holiday Happenings

Margie was very excited to decorate the Christmas tree. She insisted on doing most of it herself and wanted the chair to help her reach. She wouldn't let us move the chair though so there are a lot of ornaments right in that spot!

Daddy could help with the tall stuff.When it's cold outside they entertain themselves any way they can. I happened upon this party in the kitchen. Doesn't Jakey look darling! Margie had a book exchange for her class holiday party. Her friend Katie and her got the same book. She loved it.Jakey also enjoyed the party. Good thing there were extras! Making Gingerbread houses. I'm amazed so much candy made it onto the actual house and not just in their tummies! We decided to get a pass to the Oklahoma Science Museum. There were a ton of old airplanes and Jakey was dying to get in them. This was as close as he got, which was still pretty cool! Here's my handsom boy with his crooked smile in his church suit.

Thanksgiving- finally

Margie had a Thanksgiving feast at her school, one class was the pilgrims and the other the Indians. It was a fun activity and her class looked so cute in their outfits. Her teacher is great with activities like this (she's the one dressed like a pilgrim in the middle). Here's our little indian girl in her fabulous outfit. For the real feast we went down to Dallas to Emma and Jake's house. It was a blast. Emma made a fabulous turkey (did I mention she's a vegetarian?)

And I made a pumpkin pie from scratch... no not even canned pumpkin, a real pumpkin baked and pureed to make this pie. It was really tasty. The kids needed lots of entertaining while the food was being prepared. I brought all our Thanksgiving books to read to the kids. To work off all the many plates of food, we spent the afternoon at the park. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

I know Thanksgiving was almost a month ago, but I thought I'd share these pics before the thousands of Christmas pics that are to come. Plus it was really fun!

Fall

Fall is great. We've had very pleasant weather here and lots of time to play outdoors. I also got a new camera so I had to take a bunch of photo's to try it out. Here's our little Jakey looking very sweet I wish he were always like that, unfortunately he's usually up on the countertop getting into cupboards and anything else he can get his hands onto. I wonder if he really thinks he is spiderman the way he climbs up and gets onto things. Here's the last photo of our Halloween pumpkins......before they became this. It was very theraputic and fun. We raked some leaves and of course jumped in them. We set up our tent in the living room and the kids had a blast filling it with every blanket we own as well as their stuffed animals.
We've been to the library a lot so we have had many books to read. Dan wanted me to include this photo of Jakey and his finger up his nose. He's such a boy!And last but certainly not least, I have one of Dan's work associates to thank for these photo's. Him and a bunch of guys from his office go riding during their lunch hour on a mountain bike trail. Go Dan Go!!

Trick or Treat

Ok I know it's almost 2 weeks since Halloween, but I had to show off my little cuties. Jakey as spiderman, notice the crooked mask, he can "do it himself!!"
Our little Cheerleader

The Ward party with Darth vader and lots and lots of candy!

Trck or treat at the mall with friends. Jaycie, Margie, Maci, and Bella. We had a great time and got way too much candy. Gotta love Halloween right?

When I was a kid we went Trick-or-treating once on Halloween, this year we went to the Zoo(haunt the zoo trick-or-treat), the Ward party, the mall and then around the neighborhood. Are we just spoiled or what?

Pumpkin time!

We went to a pumpkin barn to pick out our pumkins and take some cute photos of the kids with the pumpkin displays. They both cheesed it up for the first few photos and then Jakey decided he was "tired" and was less than enthusiastic about the photos from then on. Margie milked the opportunity to be in front of the camera and gave lots of cute poses. After picking our pumpkins we decided to paint them now and carve them later this week, two activities with the same pumpkins. The kids mostly did abstract art as did Dan on part of his pumpkin, I found one that was the perfect shape for a Frankenstein head.

Here's the finished products!

Pagah and Grama Annie's visit

Pagah and Grama Annie came to visit us last weekend. We had a wonderful time and are so glad they came. Here's some of the highlights:Oklahoma State Fair! We saw lots and lots of animals. The kids got to pet bunnies, goats, horses and see lots of cool bugs. It was fun.

We took a tram ride to see a little more of the fair without having to walk it and finally got dropped at the pig races. They were super cool. Grama of course read lots and lots of books and her and Jakey had a blast playing animals. Jakey the tiger really got into this. We ventured downtown to see the OKC memorial and Bricktown and eat at the Earls Rib Palace. This is in front of the Survivor tree at the memorial. Our last stop was the round barn in Arcadia.

It's not too exciting, but it is a cool landmark on the route 66.

We tried not to bore Pagah to death at the round barn so while we were there we took him to Pop's to pick out any soda he wanted.

Dan also enjoyed his soda from Pops.

We spend our last day relaxing and playing in the backyard.

Thanks for the great visit. We love you!