Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pre-K Awards

A couple of weeks ago (it feels like forever) Ava had her pre-k awards at school. I began this blog when it happened, but I really wanted to put the video of her songs on her (so you can see why I cried), but I have been having a terrible time downloading video lately. As many of you know, I have no computer knowledge and when I encounter a glitch, I have no idea what to do. To this day, I have been unable to download the video straight to my blog which has created a lot of extra work for me because I had to make a You Tube account and post all video there first and then transfer to my blog. UGH! I need a really excellent blogger friend to come to my house and tell me what I'm doing wrong...any takers?!? lol Also, I've seen people make video slide shows from Myslide and Shutterfly and have been unsuccessful with that as well. If anyone can be helpful, let me know!

Back to the pre-k awards! They don't really do a lot of awards in pre-k...it's more of a celebration of everyone getting through the year in one piece. They all got completion awards and they sang a bunch of really cute songs. I don't know what it was about those songs, but they really got to me. They were so precious. I put a couple of them on the bottom, but I didn't put all of them. If you want to watch them all, I now have a You Tube account...you can find me under crysmarlett. I figure that if I'm going to do all that work, someone should probably check it out.

I keep getting sidetracked, but the awards were really fun...short, simple, but so cute. Her teacher even read this really precious letter to all of us talking about how much she is going to miss all of our kids. I think I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely LOVE Ava's pre-k teacher. She is the best teacher ever and I really wish I could just pack her up and take her to kindergarten with Ava. I hope you enjoy all the pics...and you definitely better enjoy the video because it has been on giant headache. Ha! (but totally worth it!)















Happy Anniversary to Us...Again!

Well, wouldn't you know?? Brian and I got to have even MORE anniversary fun! The actual day of our anniversary, we thought Brian was going to be tied up with a wedding the entire day, but it turns out, the wedding was earlier than we thought (at 11!), so we had the entire evening free. We still didn't think that much about it, but when I picked up the kids from my mom's (she had watched them while we were at the wedding), she suggested that we go out for dinner that night. Well, who are we to turn down free babysitting so we can go out to dinner again?? Even though, we were somewhat hesitant because we were both pretty tired (with the staying up all night for Twilight tickets and all...), but we decided to make the most of it. It turned out to be a WONDERFUL evening...I think it made it even better that it was unexpected. We just went to Bricktown and ate at Zio's, but we parked far away (FREE parking) and we walked along the riverwalk to the restaurant. It was a beautiful day outside and I really enjoyed our walk. There was a wait at Zio's, so we sat outside by the river and listened to live music. It was very enjoyable. After dinner, we decided to work in a quick game of mini golf...(I'll let you guess by the pictures who won!) It was a wonderful evening...I wonder if we're going to celebrate our anniversary next weekend, too?!? You can never have too much celebrating!









Yeah, We're Crazy...

As many of you know, I really like the Twilight saga. Well, let's just say, I have friends that like it even more that I do...I know, it's crazy. :) One of said friends happens to be having a birthday when it comes out, and she got this insane notion that we should try to get balcony tickets at The Warren for ten of us for the midnight showing. This is insane because there are a LOT of people who want those tickets. However, it was for her birthday, and she is my friend (and let's face it...it would be really fun!), so I told her I would help with this little endeavor in any way possible. We knew we would not be able to get in the line in the morning and have any chance at the tickets, but the question was exactly what kind of commitment did we have to make? We had originally thought about 4 in the morning would be fine (tickets went on sale at 10). The more we thought about it, though, the more we wondered if that would be enough time?? There are, after all, people even crazier than us!
Brian had decided that he would check the line out for us on Thursday when he got out of class at 10 p.m. Would you believe there was already a line of at least 20 people?!? Crazy! Brian and one of the other husbands of our insane group of ladies waited in the cold, rainy line for us from 10 until 3:30...that's when Amy took their place, and I came shortly after. It was so very nice of those guys to help us out! I have the best husband ever...I don't know too many people that would volunteer to do that for a movie that they aren't even going to see!
It was one miserable night, too, let me tell ya! It was in the low 50's (felt like 40's) and raining ALL night. The good news is that we got the tickets...YAY! We will be seeing Eclipse at midnight in the balcony. The awesome thing about the balcony is that our seats are reserved, so we can get there five minutes before and have the best seats in the house! It's great because our friend, Jamie, that moved to Wyoming will also be in for a visit and she will be part of the fun. It's going to be a great night that I'm really looking forward to...even if we had to deal with a cold, rainy night to make it happen. :)

Camden and Ava's Dinosaur Adventures












Ava was so excited to get to see her friend from Las Vegas the other day. (Camden also happens to be the daughter of one of my best friends, so it works out nicely!) They were really busy while they were in this time, but we were able to sneak away for a couple hours to the Sam Noble Museum. It was a really good day to be there...we missed all the school field trips by MINUTES, and we had the entire museum almost completely to ourselves. It was so fun...the kids could run and play and it was easy to have time to talk to Christina in the process. Good day!



Apparently, There is Something (almost) as Crazy as Tornadoes...

May had a very quiet start in Oklahoma...we should have known THAT was too good to be true! Let's just say the last week has MORE than made up for it. In the past week, we have had not one, but TWO of the worst hail storms in quite some time (perhaps ever, I'm not sure). Thankfully, the second one missed us by a few miles, but the first one found us. This shouldn't be a surprise because severe weather always finds our neighborhood. People say that tornadoes (and the like) are random, but I beg to differ...they definitely have a magnetic attraction to our neighborhood...lucky us!
When I saw that the weather was getting bad, I told the kids to pack up a bag of their favorite things, I stuck Alice in her carrier, and we all headed over to my mom's...the weather stays away from her neighborhood. I'm really glad I decided to go over there, because when I got home and saw the size of the hail that struck our house, I knew that would have been traumatic for my kids (and who am I kidding...me too!) The damage could have been a lot worse...we didn't have any broken windows and our cars were spared, but it looks like we will be getting a new roof...AGAIN! Blah! I was feeling pretty sorry for myself about the roof situation because we just got a new one SEVEN MONTHS AGO, but then my poor friend Amber informed me they just had a new roof put on a week before the storm hit. So sad. So, needless to say, we will be dealing with roofers, and the like, very soon. Perhaps I should hold them off for a couple months until the storms go away for good. We can just keep the crazy tarp on our roof for awhile, right?!? lol We're supposed to be getting more storms in the next couple days, so fingers crossed that they stay away from us. Maybe it is a good thing the roofers haven't come yet...who knows??




Keep in mind that these pictures were taken at least an hour after the hail hit, so it had time to melt. Crazy! Definitely softball size at our house. After all the storm craziness, we decided to go to the library to relax for a bit. I took a couple of pics of Ava...she loves the computers. She's so funny! :)






Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Happy 11th Anniversary to Us!

This year, we celebrated our 11th anniversary. We LOVE to get away for these occasions, but this year was a little complicated--Brian was in a wedding on our actual anniversary and we are planning a family vacation to Galveston at the end of the month. With all these events on the horizon...we thought it would be best to just stay around town for this one. It worked out anyway because I've been wanting to stay at the Colcord Hotel. It is a boutique style hotel and I thought it looked like it had lots of character. I heard about this hotel the last time we went to Tulsa....and unlike the Hard Rock Hotel debacle, it did not disappoint. It was absolutely beautiful. Our room was on the top floor and we had a great view (which always makes me happy). We also tried out a new Mexican restaurant, 1492. The food was great, the hotel was great, and the quality time was spectacular. I love when we have time together without a million other things going on...with two kids and a very busy life, it doesn't happen too often.
I feel very fortunate to have been married to an awesome husband (and father) for the last 11 years and I'm looking forward to all the many more years to come! Love ya, babe.









The Saddest Lil' Face You've Ever Seen


This is Ava's feeble attempt at manipulation. She wants to swing, but no one will push her. Her solution: go sit in the swing with the saddest face possible and stare in the window at everyone in the house. Hopefully, the sad face will bring someone out to help. Sad to say, this works. We're suckers.




Beautiful Day!



I have to take Alice outside constantly to go potty, so it makes me more aware of the weather. A few days ago, it was absolutely beautiful. It was one of those perfect days when the sun is pleasantly warm, but just when it starts to be too warm, a cool breeze blows through and makes you feel just perfect. I love spring days like this one. I really wanted to grab a blanket and just lay in the middle of the yard with a really good book, but alas, I had lots to do. I still got to enjoy it for a few minutes at a time when I took Alice out for her bathroom stroll. I suppose it's one of the benefits of having a high maintenance puppy.






A Tasty Little Treat





I have been doing well with my weight loss, so the other day I decided to have a little frozen yogurt splurge. The kids were really excited because we used to go out quite a bit, but I've had the entire family on lock-down to keep me away from temptation. Everyone was happy, and hey, frozen yogurt isn't too bad, right?!? ;)