"In the GROOVE" of things.....finally!!

I haven't updated this blog since school started....we had some adjustments to make!!!

At first, our mornings were TERRIBLE!!! Girls were crying, I was losing my temper & screaming like a woman possessed!! There were struggles over getting out of bed, breakfast, clothes, brushing teeth & shoes!! There for a while I was parking & walking Lydia down the hall to her class.

But NOW things are MUCH smoother!! We get up with just a little fussing (usually Caraline), eat breakfast, get dressed & ready by 8:25am!:)

Lydia & I used to scream & cry over clothes & shoes every morning because I was picking them out!! NOW, she picks 2 outfits the night before for "approval" from me. Usually she changes her mind in the morning, but it's not bad.

We had some issues with the "twinkle toe" shoes because a girl in her class had REAL ones & Lydia's were from Payless. This girl made some comment & then Lydia didn't like them anymore. At first she told me they were too tight, but I figured it out then we saw this girl with her shoes & I said, "Look, she has shoes like yours!!" (Thinking that was a "good thing") But Lydia said, "My shoes aren't like hers." as to say, that girl's shoes are better then mine.

Then she tells me that this girl won't play with her. I reminded her that she has LOTS of other friends in her class to play with. She has been better since she went to her friend Mary's birthday party. She has more confidence now & has not said another thing about this other girl.

Lydia joined "Daisy's" which is the young division of Girl Scouts. She really likes it & has a real since of belonging to a group.

Caraline is LOVING Pre-school!! She has some good friends: Presley, Lainey & Katie. She LOVES Ms. Marsha! She comes home singing all kinds of cute songs that she gets wrong in some way or another!:) She likes to come home & tell us all about her day!

Here are some pictures of September & a few October.

School's in Session!

After a VERY busy summer, Lydia & Caraline both started school! Lydia is a kindergartener at Chisholm & Caraline is at Peace Preschool.

Lydia was nervous the week before school started, but that first day, she was ready!! She got dressed & was excited. She didn't cry once!! (The next day was a little different!)

I signed up to be co-homeroom mom for her class & Caraline's class. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!??!!!?? I should have known I was going to sign my life away when they had me sign in blood!!:)

Everyday when I pick Lydia up, she says, "I had a great day, mom!!" That is music to me ears!!

Tomorrow is Caraline's turn...she is SO excited!!

BUSY summer!!

My goodness, it has been SO busy this summer!!

Wild Wednesdays are going great & winding down since school is just around the corner!

Here it is, the last week of July!!

July was full of holidays, hosting our first flock social at the park, family pictures, seeing Jenn & the kids and going to the Woodward rodeo, & thrilling Thursdays with the Rosacker boys.

This will be a summer to remember!

WOW!! It's been awhile....

It's been awhile since I've posted anything!! I guess I have some catching up to do!! Our summer is ALWAYS more busy than any other time!! We have something to do almost EVERYDAY!!

I've been in our new house for about 2 & 1/2 months & we have really enjoyed the space!!

I've done some photo shoots & working on new promos to help business of Life Captured by Katy.

We have been very busy this summer!! We have Wild Wednesdays every week. We go with the Rosacker boys, Churchwell girls & the Cox kids. We've been to the Jasmine Moran Children's museum, railway museum, Omniplex, a many parks...& that was just in June!!

Scott & I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year!! We spent the day in Bricktown, at the Oklahoma City national Memorial museum..it was very moving! Then we went to Stillwater and stayed at the Atheron. Scott surprised me with a new lens for my camera...a 18-200mm lens!! I love it!!

Next on the agenda: hosting the flock social for the first time, getting together with friends, going to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa, going to Mimi & Papa's to the parade & rodeo...& then it will be AUGUST!! (and then the girls will start school!!!)

April 19th-23rd 2010: The longest week of our lives!!!

This has been the craziest week of Scott & my life!! SO many things happened in a matter of a week I'm not sure I can remember it all, so I must blog about it so YEARS from now, we can look back & laugh about it (because we couldn't laugh about a few days ago!!)

Here is a time line of events:

Monday, April 19th 2010:

Scott & my dad loaded EVERYTHING we owned in 2 U-Haul trucks. (Lance came & help with some big things)

The girls & I went to my parents' house in Perry to spend the night so the girls would stay in Perry when Scott & I closed on BOTH houses on Tuesday...that was "the plan".

That night, I was unaware, our lender guy called Scott about 7pm & told him there we were waiting on a document that we needed to close, but he thought it was going to come in by 4pm the next day.

Tuesday, April 20th :

I got up early & drove back to Edmond & left the girls in Perry. I got to the house & Scott had cleaned it. We said our "goodbyes" to the house, Scott was emotional...he had done a lot of work to that house! Then he told me about the phone call the night before. I was a little nervous, but thought it would show up by closing time.

At 1pm, we closed on our house & handed over the keys to a young man named Josh Milborne.

At about 2, we needed to reschedule our closing day & time. We rescheduled it for the next day @ 5pm. We asked the owner of the house (she had already moved out) if we could move our things into the garage. She agreed to that. We unloaded the two vans & returned them before 6pm (but JUST barely) & saved ourselves some money.

We went to Perry to stay the night.

Wednesday, April 21st:

We hung out at my parents' house for the morning. We came back to take Lydia to school. We also found out that the document was so not here so there would be NO closing on Wednesday either. We asked if we could "lease" the house from the owner so we could at least move our stuff INTO the house. We scrambled to get her a check for $400 to last until the end of the month until we closed. Then an hour after she agreed to it, she changed her mind & wanted to talk to the main realtor, who was on a cruise that week!!

We stayed at my parents' house for a third night!

Thursday, April 22nd:

At this point, we are getting worried!! Everytime Scott's cell phone rang, we held our breath because it usually wasn't good news!! Thursday was the HARDEST blow of the week!! We were told that the orginal lender couldn't do our loan & we were being transfer to Spirit bank to see if they could. Remember, we had trouble with the financing anyway because of the ZERO credit score. We were told IF Spirit Bank could do it, we wouldn't close until the following Friday!!

On top of that, the owner said we could lease the house from her until it closed, but in addition to the $400, she also wanted $10,000 NON-REFUNDABLE deposit that would go to the sell of the house. But IF the house didn't close, we would lose that money & that was a gamble we were NOT willing to take!!

We did decide to stay at Tori & Russ's unstead of driving ALL the way back to Perry again.

Friday, April 23rd:

Three days after we should have closed, we were STILL HOMELESS!! We were beginning to feel like we made a mistake by selling our house. We felt hopeless & Scott even was looking at rent houses & called on one that morning.

But BY THE GRACE OF GOD, Scott got a call about 10:30am from our realtor, Jennifer. The lender GOT the document & we were closing at 4pm THAT DAY!!! Scott called me & told me & I just CRIED!!! (I'm not a "crier", but that was how releaved I was!!!)

My mom came down to watch the girls & we closed & then we could breathe!!!

We were SO happy!!!

My mom, Jen & Day & Lance came to help us move our stuff from the garage into the house....we had our WHOLE house set up that weekend!! We were SO HAPPY to be IN!!

The girls were SO excited!! They have adjusted SO well!! I think they were just happy to finally be "at home"!!

We are LOVING the space & I know we will make many wonderful memories here in this house!:)

God has provided for us!! Thanks be to God!!

Goodbye old house!!!

We are moving!!

We bought our first home in Edmond in June 2001 for $75,000. It is 1132 square feet, 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage. We paid it off in March 2005. We have been in this house for almost 9 years, but it was time for more space...(and a different neighborhood school!)

729 E 29th has treated us well.....it kept us warm & dry & we brought our babies home to it, but now we start a new chapter....

Take care of the next owner, 729....bring them many wonderful memories as we have had...

If these walls could speak....

Lydia's first haircut

After the hair cut

Before the haircut

Lydia is five & has NEVER had her hair cut...she never needed it. She was born bald & it took forever to come in! But on Friday, she decided (I think Nana had something to do with it) that she wanted a "short cut"...she meant "hair cut".

So we went to SuperCuts & got her hair cut. She LOVED IT!! She looks so grown up! The next day she wanted it straight, so I straightened it for her...she was beaming!!

Lydia is a Christian!!!

WOW!!! We are so excited that Lydia has accepted Christ as her Lord & Savior at a young age!!

It all started on Monday...

Lydia & Caraline were jumping on Lydia's bed & for some reason, Lydia bit Caraline's hand. Caraline started crying so Scott ran in to check on her.

He asked Lydia what happened. She said that Caraline fell & hit the wall, but that wasn't true. The truth finally came out & Scott was upset Lydia lied. So he told her to stay in her room, he was going to come back to spank her for lying.

Scott shut her door & I heard her talking to herself, "Why did I do that?! Why did I lie!?! Why does God make me lie!!?? I'm mad at God!"

Scott walked in her room & she asked, "Why does God make me do bad things?" He said, "That is a question for your mother!" I was ready!! (Or God equipted me with the words!)

She asked me the same question. I asked her, "If we never sinned, would we need God?" She said "No" We talked about how God can't look at sin & Jesus died on the cross for her sins & he took her place when she should have been punished for those sins.

She looked at me & said, "I want to be a Christian." I said, "Do you know what to do?" She shook her head. I said, "All you have to do is pray a prayer that you believe in Jesus & that you believe that he died on the cross for your sins & rose again!"

Lydia & I prayed that prayer & she hugged me & started yelling, "I'm a Christian!! I'm a Christian!!" She was BEAMING!! She was dancing & so excited!

She was hugging me & Caraline, she called Nana & told her & called daddy to tell him!

She was on cloud nine! She told her teacher, she even told the lady at the dr office!! She was really proclaiming it to everyone & anyone!!

We celebrated by having a pizza picnic!

What a sweet experience!! She is so excited & we are so proud!! I pray that we can nurture that relationship with the Lord.

God is GOOD!!

"For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord & believe in your heart that God raise Him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9

"We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in the same way, no matter who we are or what we have done." Romans 3:22

Full Circle

3 years ago I wanted to get the girls Easter pictures done. I planned on going to Portrait Innovations. But Scott suggested that I dress them up in the Easter dresses, take them to the park & take the pictures myself. Brillant!! So I did & was VERY pleased with the pictures & that was before I had my SLR camera!!

I did it again this week. We went to Hafer Park (we usually go to Fink, but I think it has too much red mud) & it was the only park that I found that had GREEN grass & flowers considering we had a snow storm 3 days before! I discovered picnik.com & I could really edit these pictures! THey turned out really cute!

Here are some pictures from the last three years of Easter pictures:

"He is not here; he is risen like he said"

Matthew 28:6

We have a winner!!!

We have a winner!!

I went to Perry early Tuesday morning, thinking that if the girls were out of the house it would be cleaner longer for showings. On Tuesday we had 4 showings, 1pm. 2pm. & 2 people came at 6pm. Scott had to turn down a showing at 7 that day because at 5 o'clock that evening, the realtor called to tell us we had TWO offers!!

The first offer that came in was for $108,000 (asking price $108,900) asked for the washer & dryer, frig & $1000 of the closing costs. The 2nd offer was for $110,000 & $3400 of closing costs. It was a hard decision, but we decided to go with the first offer.

We put the sign in the yard on Sunday late morning, 7 showings in 2 days & two offers after one day on the market is so incredible & God's hand was on this whole situation!

We are really excited about the new house & starting to feel sentimental about this house...our FIRST house together...the house we brought our girls "home" to...but it's time for more space & we are looking forward to meeting our nieghbors & Lydia going to Chisholm Elementary.

I'm ready to start this new chapter/season of our lives! It's going to be another adventure! Thank you God for seeing us through this!

What a difference a week makes!!!

Ok, so last Tuesday, I had decided that we could stay in this house for a few more years & that would be ok.
Wednesday morning (March 10th) Scott called me in the morning, like usual, & asked me how I slept the night before. I said "Fine, I guess." He said, "I couldn't sleep!! I'm going to make an offer on the house this afternoon after work!" I said "WHAT!?!?!?!?" He had talked to the finance guy & he worked it out so he was comfortable with the payment plan.

Well, that day we got a letter from Chisholm Elementary saying that Lydia had been denied a transfer. I was a little upset & I called Scott & told him. He said that was ONE more sign that let him know that he was doing to right thing by making an offer.

The owner accepted our offer & we put our house on the market.

My mom came on Thursday & helped me do some de-cluttering. We went to Sesame Street Live that evening & the girls had a great time!!
Scott had taken Friday off anyway so he was able to do some small repairs. He took the girls to the Omniplex that afternoon & I was able to REALLY clean before the realtor came to take pictures.

We FINALLY got a sign in the yard Sunday after church & another house down the street was having an open house & then that evening a house 3 down from us got a sign in the yard too!

We had one "stalker" on Sunday, stopping & taking pictures & camping out in front of our house for about 10 minutes too long!!

On Monday, we had THREE showing that evening!!! We hung out at Tori's from 3:45-8:15!! we had a showing at 4:30, 6:00, 7:30...& TWO more scheduled for tomorrow, 1 & 6!! ALL of those showings were with different realtors!! We got A LOT of foot traffic!! I'm praying for an offer by the end of the week!

This is really exciting!!!

Praying that the right buyer comes along to love this house as much as we have!!

Tough Decisions

I never thought that the decision about where to send your child to kindergarten was going to be so tough!!

Right now, Lydia is going to a small private Pre-K. We LOVE it!! But they don't have a Kindergarten program.
There are two "parent choice" schools in Edmond where you apply for a lottery. They only have 2 teachers per grade level compared to the other school which have 4, 5 or 6 teachers per grade level. Needless to say, we didn't get a spot & were 81st & 84th on the waiting lists...so never mind!!

After looking at our nieghborhood school's test scores, Scott was not impressed. Not to mention Orvis Risener was an ALL day kindergarten program with 5 teachers, at 22-26 students each...TOO MANY KIDS & TOO LONG OF A DAY!!
So we put in for a transfer to Chisholm Elem. which is just down the street as well.

We started "jumping the gun" & looking at houses in the Chisholm area. We found one that was AMAZING!!! Almost 2100 square feet, LARGE bedrooms, LARGE master bathroom & walkin closet, beautiful backyard with an amazing patio & SO MUCH STORAGE (in the living room, hallway, bedrooms...)!!! I was in LOVE with this house!! It was priced at $170,000.
Here were the "hang-ups":
1. Not much privacy in the backyard....I guess Scott plans on mowing the yard in his underwear..
2. Since we have ZERO credit score, (because that's what happens when you don't have any debt!) we couldn't get a loan!!
3. After DOZENS of phone calls, we had SO many people helping us, it was so sweet...people calling "their people", the realtor calling bankers they knew, we were finally able to find someone who thought they could finance us!!

BUT after running the numbers, Scott decided that it was more house & price than we could chew. He didn't feel comfortable with the money left over that the end of the month....We could buy that house, but we couldn't eat!!!

I was REALLY disappointed!!! I really thought that the house was something that we could afford. If I'd KNOWN that the house was out of our price range, we would have never gone to look at it! I felt like it was within reach, but apparently not.


I guess we will go out & finance some furniture so we can have a credit score so in three or so years, we won't have so much trouble!!

Clean up your heart!

Lydia & I had an interesting conversation about sin the other morning. I want her to understand that everyone sins & needs a Savior. Sometimes at age five, sin is a difficult concept to comprehend. She thinks she doesn't sin because she acts good at school & doesn't get in trouble like some other kids. So as we talked, a light came on...a dim light, but a light.

She said she remembered when in Sunday school, they put mud on a heart & that was sin & then they cleaned it off & that was God "cleaning their heart" from sin. WOW!! That's a cool illustration! I need to remember that for Caraline!

A few days later, Scott & I were having a heated dicussion about something & the girls were in the room. Lydia does not like to hear us disagree & always tells us to "stop fighting". But that day she walked up to us & said "Clean up your heart!"

You can't argue with that!

"Create in me a clean heart, oh Lord, my God & renew a right spirit within me"

a verse from a song called "Create in me a Clean Heart"

I Love Jesus Valentine's day party & Katy's 34th birthday

We LOVE Valentine's day at our house.

Lydia wanted a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party arounf Christmas, but with the "Blizzard 2009" with 14 inches of snow, that wasn't possible. So we decided to have an "I love Jesus" Valentine's day party on Feb 13th. Lydia & Nana organized the whole thing. The Churchwell girls, Nana & Papaw & the Furgason family came to celebrate the love of Jesus. Nana read a story, we exchanged Valentines, had homemade pizza & snacks. the girls did Valentine crafts that Nana brought from Sunday School. Lydia had a great time & she was so happy to have this special party.

We made Valentine's day cards for our family with an owl on them at said "WHOOO loves you?" & inside we had a picture of the girls (or the grandchildren) that said "WE DO!" Getting the right picture was a little difficult, but we finally got ONE!!

My 34th birthday was the 15th. Scott had taken me out for a birthday surprise the Saturday before. We went to lunch & then to see "The Blindside". It was a great movie.

Monday night is the night I get together with Lisa & Christie. We have gotten together every week for 2 & a half years! They had a surprise planned as well.

I took me to the dollar movie to see "New Moon" (which I hadn't seen yet) then they gave me a gift card to Hobby Lobby! To top the evening off, we went to Orange Tree for yougart!!

What a wonderful Valentine's day & birthday!!

Three year old terror?!

That Caraline is such a character!! She is SO onry!!! She is SO different from Lydia!! Lydia wants to be safe & gets nervous easily. Caraline has NO FEAR!!

Recently, she ran out of the doors of the library & almost into the street! The same day she darted under the garage door a started running up the driveway!

The other day, Lydia came in the kitchen & said, "Mom, you better go see what Caraline is doing.." Oh no!! I walked in, Caraline was topless, standing on her nightstand & saying "Me the king, me the king!" Then she says "Watch me!" & jumps off the nightstand & immediately takes off her pants & stands there NAKED!! She gets back on the nightstand & starts singing "Jesus loves me!" (Yes, I got most of it on video!:))

I think this girl is VERY intelligent & creative, but is a mess! (and maybe a little bored.) She learns things the hard way!

Today I told the girls as we went to the library that they had to stay right by me, no running since last time we went to the library, Caraline ran all over the place! I also told them that if they didn't stay by me, we would get what we had at the time & promptly leave. In the first 3 minutes, Caraline ran around & I couldn't catch her unless I ran too!! I was very upset! I took her to the corner, spanker her & told her she couldn't walk by herself anymore, that I was going to have to hold her & we were leaving.

She started crying & wanted to help me check out the 5 books we got (we normally get about 20-25 books at a time..5 is NOTHING!) I repeatedly told her NO & sat her on the floor beside me!

I hated that it seemed like everyone was looking at me thinking that I'm a terrible mother, but I felt good that I stuck to my word about running & leaving. I felt bad for Lydia because she was great, but she understood.

There is a reason she is the second & last child!! And I LOVE HER!!

Caraline Grace

My Caraline is three!!

Caraline is very different than Lydia. She has no fear!! She will try anything! She has a mind of her own & she wants to do EVERYTHING herself!!

Caraline called Lydia "La la" but just recently, she calls her "lydia".

The girls got a new baby cousin in August. Caraline was not so sure about baby Sadie at first, but she warmed up to her very quickly.

Everywhere Caraline goes, she is RUNNING!!

She loves to play with Lydia...but the laughter can turn to tears in a matter of seconds. Caraline pinches, but Lydia bites!

She has quite the "attitude" sometimes & can scream as if she were in a horror movie!

Caraline has two imaginary friends, "Leah" & Googala". They are twins...they get in trouble alot like going outside without asking permission or not buckling in the car seats!:)

Caraline has a BAD habit of unbuckling her chest harness in the carseat. We have to pull over & buckle her back in!

This year we went to Red River, New Mexico on our first family vacation. Caraline handled the 10 hour drive pretty well. She had a GREAT time! Her boat won third place in the boat races! (She was asleep on my shoulder at the time!) As we were pulling into the driveway when we came home, Caraline started crying...she said "I want to go back to Red River!"

She likes to play like she's the mommy & I'm the "honey". Sometimes her "mommy" is a little hateful..oops!

She likes cars & animals figurines.

She is a turkey...and she knows it!!

She is SO fun & I can't wait to see what the next year brings!:)

Caraline's third birthday!!!

WHAT??!! I know!! My "baby" Caraline is THREE!! I will post pictures SOON!!

Today we did a mini "photo shoot" in her room with a white sheet....I got some funny pictures!! Some of them are "SO 'Caraline'"!!
Lydia had a little bit of a hard time today...we were gushing over Caraline & Lydia wasn't the center of attention...she was a little jealous.

She went to the dr today & she weighs 25 pounds & is 2 feet 11 inches tall. She is a little girl! She is in the 5th percentile!

We are having her party tomorrow..should be a lot of fun! We can't go outside, it is going to be 0 degrees!!

Happy third birthday, Caraline!! We love you, you little "turkey"!

More memories of 2009

I always get a new calendar for Christmas, but this year, I didn't....I waited until January 1st. I have discovered it I wait until the new year starts, SOME of the calendars are on clearance!!

So I bought a new calendar & I always use the old calendar to write in everyone's birthdays on the new one.

As I was reflecting on the old calendar, I noticed that I had written a few things that Caraline had done. I didn't write down a lot of things, but Scott wanted to keep the calendar....well, with the limited space in this house, I decided to record them here on the blog so I could recycle the old calendar.

Here are a few things that we wanted to remember:

January 15: Caraline pooped in the potty & had a bad cold. (She had just turned two)

January 31: Caraline got a "big girl" bed. She moved out of the crib to twin bed.

February 13: Caraline was saying "Cara-line" & "au-wa" for water

22nd: I cut Caraline's bangs

march 11: Caraline is now saying "Mommy" & "daddy" instead of "mama" & "dada"

march 25: Tori & Russ found out they were having a GIRL!!

April 6: Caraline said her first sentence. (5 words long)

April 20: caraline can count to ten

22nd: Lydia saw her very first movie in the Theater, "Earth"

May 6: When I went to wake Caraline up from her nap, she said " Get up? NO!"

July 11: Tori & Russ' baby shower

August 25: Sadie was born!! We almost missed it!!

September 27th: The girls got to run the bases at the Bricktown ballpark.

October 3th & 16th: I had my first photo shoot with the Schmidt family @ OU campus.

On the 16th, I had my first "hired" photo shoot with the Moinion girls @

bricktown. Both sessions were SO much fun!!

December 4: Caraline has really started pottying in the potty & wearing panties all day. (even out of the house, she's in panties) She has also started pottying by herself, without me asking or helping her.

Great memories!!! A new year, a clean slate....I know God has many more blessings ahead of us for 2010!