tyler comes for a visit.

last week travis went to edmond to hang out with sue and her family.  unfortunately, we had no one to babysit the boys on friday night, so we weren't able to head up there as early as we wanted.  then we decided that since i was hosting the baking party saturday night, it would just be best for me to stay in tulsa.  otherwise the trip would be so rushed.  we would spend all day on the road and very little time hanging out with everyone.

when travis came home from the trip he said, "tyler is coming to stay with us next weekend; he needs time away from his brothers."  he's getting so big and is surrounded by little boys all the time.  i was excited to have him, but didn't know what travis would end up doing with him.  he wanted a special project to do with him - didn't want it to be a weekend of just sitting around watching t.v.

he left bright and early saturday morning {after the christmas party} and headed to edmond to pick him up.  they had lunch along the way and made it back by afternoon.  they were barely here and then headed out the door to buy lumber and supplies at lowe's ... a definite project was underway.

i still wasn't feeling well, so i spent the afternoon catching up on the blog and updating albums on facebook.   

after all that working in the garage, they had worked up quite an appetite.  the boys headed to little caesar's pizza to pick up dinner.  they stopped to get me a salad, and then we all settled in for the night.

my salad was actually a bag of mixed greens, so i dressed it up a bit with tomato, leftover steak, and hard boiled eggs.  i mixed it with a little bit of blue cheese dressing.  it hit the spot and kept me from eating pizza. 

travis wanted red velvet cake balls, but i forgot to make them on baking day.  when he and tyler were running errands i suggested it might be something fun to do that night.  while we were eating, travis whipped up the cake mix and got the cake started.

after dinner, we pulled the cake out and got tyler started making cake balls.  he thought the dough felt funny in his hands, but he was so diligent about rolling out all of the ball {making sure to save just enough in the bowl for him to eat}.

we put the cake balls in the freezer to harden for about an hour or so and broke out the monopoly board while we waited.  travis also purchased the new spiderman for tyler to watch on directv because he hadn't seen it yet {and we both love it so much}.
  

we never got to finish the game or the movie ... the three of us were so pooped out.  we left the cake balls in the freezer, packed up the game {we think tyler won because he kept hitting "free parking"}, got ready for bed, travis got tyler all tucked in, and we were all asleep before we knew it.

the next morning, we woke up and started getting around.  i asked tyler if he was hungry and started making pancakes.  i thought it would be fun to do something special instead of just ordinary pancakes. 

this is the cute little snowman i came up with.  i didn't have marshmallows to use as snow, so i used the white chocolate chips i had on hand.

i asked travis to make some bacon so we could make him a little scarf.  travis whipped up bacon and eggs and even cut the bacon to make a perfect little scarf for the snowman. 

 

after breakfast we cleaned up and headed to the imax to see the hobbit in 3d.  we all had such a fun time {though tyler's bladder is worse than travis's!}

don't they look cute in their glasses? 

grandma sue started calling after the movie to see when her boy would be headed home.  we got him to our house and let him finish up the cake balls. 

we tried to let him finish the spiderman movie, but once it was 4:00, travis really had no choice and had to get him home.  sue would still have to drive tyler out to his house once they got to edmond.  

now they've headed home, and i need to make my way to reasor's to shop for our christmas dinner. i just don't want to crawl out from under my cozy blanket feeling the way i feel. 

happy halloween!

conor meets tyson.

conor and travis came to visit me one last time before time for me to leave edmond. tabitha and the boys brought their corgy tyson over to meet conor. the pictures are a little fuzzy as they were taken with a camera phone and texted to me while travis and i were at the grocery store. they became fast friends. i love how conor is smiling in both of the pictures.

snips and snails and puppy dog tails.

i just wanted to add a quick note letting you know that i have added pictures from the fourth and from rockets over rhema. the trick you see above is brought to you courtesy of travis. he may or may not have taught tyler this ... and tyler may or may not have spent the entire fourth of july weekend walking through the house displaying his new talent. for those of you who are still enduring ... i'm so sorry. =) travis can't stop laughing about it.

summer summer summer time.

the past few days have been very eventful. thursday my office closed early for the holiday. after my chiropractic appointment, travis and i headed to muskogee. he plays in leagues every thursday night, though, this league should be ending soon. while we were at the pool hall, it started to storm, but we weren't too concerned as it appeared to just be heavy showers. before too long, though, it began to hail and strong winds came up. the dumpster was blown about 200 yards where it tipped over in front of the doors. most of the people in the poolhall were standing in front of the doors checking out the storm and those who could were checking the weather on their cell phones (myself included). the radar didn't show that the storm was going to be too bad ... little did they know that there would be a flood! the storm got pretty ugly as several transformers began to blow and light up the sky. we lost most of the power at the pool hall and people who came in out of the rain let us know that the streets were flooding -- one of the main streets was completely shut down because of the high levels of water. we waited out the storm for a bit and then headed back to tulsa. we missed most of the rain as we were driving home, but it hit tulsa right as we pulled into broken arrow. we made it home safe and sound and got ready for bed so we could prepare for our trip to edmond.
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friday we woke up early, did a little laundry, got ready for the day and packed our bags. the trip to edmond wasn't too bad. we were going to see travis's family again. aunt lou was still in town, and it was aunt sue's birthday. in addition to that, everyone was going to the grimes for the fourth of july. when we got to the house, the food was all almost ready -- we weren't expecting it to be done so soon -- and all of the family was there. i snapped some great pictures of the boys.

fireworks are illegal in edmond, so it was the first fourth that i haven't gotten to set off fireworks. there are several displays in town, but travis didn't want to go see them; it just reminded him that he wasn't allowed to shoot any off himself. instead we went to the theater and watched wanted. we've been waiting for this movie to open, so i was excited that we were finally getting to go.
after the movie we spent time driving around having a few serious talks on subjects such as love, faith, death, and the future. we talk about the future a lot, so the conversation revolved much more around some of the other subjects -- apparently edmond does that to us because last weekend we had another serious talk between the two of us. that is one thing that i believe we both appreciate -- our ability to talk to each other about anything that is on our minds. it's not always easy, but we always do. hope that it is always this way.
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saturday was uneventful. tabitha and the boys came and went and we really didn't have much time with them on saturday. travis and i came and went as well as we drove around looking for something to keep ourselves entertained. we spent time at the bookstore and also picked up some ice cream. when we got back to the house most people were outside working in the yard; we heard that things were getting tense outside, and i was thankful that we weren't a part of that. =) we planned to go home, but dinner was being prepared, and i didn't want to miss out on the yummy food. dee, sue, and lue's long-lost cousin flint was in town, and they were preparing a traditional "oklahoma meal" for him. while dinner was being fixed we went out on the back porch to watch a couple of videos. it was so nice outside, and i'm sad that we haven't spent more time outside this summer. we have decided that we would like to get our scuba diving certifications and may even look into that next weekend ... that would mean a lot more time outside. amanda and simone made it to the house late that night. we didn't get to spend a ton of time with them, but it was good to see both the girls. i felt like i hadn't seen amanda in ages. even though we're not officially, we call each other sister, and i miss her when too much time has passed.
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today we slept in, got ready, and then headed back to tulsa. coming home was bittersweet. it was nice to be back in our own home, but at the same time, it was a return to reality so-to-speak. back to laundry, back to work tomorrow, and back to the realization that we have to pack and still need to find a new place to live. we put some laundry in, cleaned up the house, fixed dinner and then decided to go watch another movie. we've not watched many movies lately, so it's been nice this weekend to escape for a bit and watch some of the ones we've been highly anticipating. this time we went to see hancock; amelia and justin came with us. j rode his bike up and for the first time in i don't know when, amelia was on time! =) she was happy to say that she was ready even before travis.
the movie was great -- though travis thinks he likes ironman better -- and afterward we all stopped for ice cream at coldstone. bub was supposed to head home right after, but now we've gotten ourselves engrossed in transformers.
i suppose i'll finish up laundry and get things in order to begin a new week. amelia, travis, and i will continue to figure out where each of us will next call home. fingers crossed! safe travels to all of our family as they head to their homes.

cinnamon rolls & family

i can't even begin to tell you how excited i am about this blog. when we woke up this morning, travis asked, "what are you thinking about?" "honestly, our blog." he laughed and said, "see?" i'm a little surprised, to tell you the truth, because the idea of blogging has never really appealed to me before. i think it's our friends, jen & court, who have made it so appealing.

thus far the weekend has been one of the more enjoyable weekends we've spent in a while. we left tulsa on friday after filling up the rodeo (that only cost a small fortune) and packing a bag, and headed for edmond. jason (my boss out of oklahoma city) wants travis to install a surround-sound and multi-room audio system, and we've been planning to come scope out the house and find out exactly what he needs. we planned this visit for the same weekend that lou was coming in from tennessee.

by the time we got here to sue and jim's friday night, we were both pretty tired and didn't feel like doing too much. we sat around the dining room table with the two of them and listened to jim tell stories. i think we were too tired to contribute much to the conversation, but it was good to be with them. we both love coming to see them and always say that we should do it more. ashley came over a little later and asked us to go to fish city where adrian works. when we got there, though, we realized he had left work early, so we decided to go see tabitha instead and grab some taco bell.

i didn't think i was hungry until i scarfed down the wrap that i ordered. it was great to see tabitha. i didn't think we would get to until saturday, and even though she was working, it was nice to see her ... and i think it was the first time i have ever seen her without the boys. we ate and chatted and then headed to wal-mart where travis could buy a wireless modem for the house -- if you think for a moment that he could spend the weekend without his laptop having internet access, well think again.

by the time we got back to the house, it was all i could do to keep awake. the past few days had been very emotionally trying for me, and i'd had a lot on my mind. i actually fell asleep on the couch while travis tinkered with the computer. he'd got the connection up and running and proceeded to spend hours on the internet. he's very excited about several online networking sites that he has recently gotten involved in, and he's learning more and more about affiliate marketing. it's the thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning and the thing he falls asleep thinking about right now.

saturday was a little more interesting. tabitha and the boys came over to the house. we couldn't believe how big hunter has gotten. it makes us both a little sad, because it seems we saw tyler and ryan more when they were younger, but we haven't gotten to spend much time with hunter. before any of us know it, he's going to be talking up a storm. i was so disappointed that we had forgotten the camera as i would have liked to take pictures of and with the boys.

we went to the reagans' to check out their audio/video needs and it was nice to chat with carma. their boys are growing so much as well! jake was really shy, and i couldn't believe how strong cale has gotten. i expected him to still be a newborn.

we headed back here to see lou and spend time with the family. everyone misses her so much & it's always great for everyone to get together when she's here.

this morning we woke up to one of travis's favorite smells in the world -- his aunt sue's cinnamon rolls. he says that unless i can learn to make cinnamon rolls like hers, well, mine will just never be good enough. =)

the rest of the day will just be spent relaxing, eating good food, and spending time surrounded by people we love. upon waking this morning, we were both disappointed by the thought of having to return home to "normal" life. we'll have to leave in time to make it to the fireworks show at rhema tonight. amelia got us vip tickets, so we'll spend the evening eating more good food, hopefully winning some phenomenal prizes (fingers crossed!) and watching a spectacular display of fireworks. i am a little confused as to why they're hosting the show tonight, however, as the fourth does fall on the weekend this year. we'll let you know if we win anything!

the below pictures were taken at rockets over rhema. we had a great time.