celebrating jen's birthday.

last night we got to celebrate my dear friend jen's birthday.  jen's a photographer, so sometimes i'm embarrassed to even share our photos out here, but i love that even if they're sometimes a little grainy and or a little dark, they capture us having fun with each other and the special people in our lives.

i had been asking jen for a couple of weeks if there was anything planned for her upcoming birthday, but it turned all every weekend was booked for her and court, so they were just planning on a family dinner to celebrate.  as it turns out, some of their weekend plans fell through so on monday i got a text from court asking if travis and i could go to dinner for jenny's birthday.  i was so excited we were going to do something to celebrate, but wasn't sure if travis was going to be able to go because it was the weekend he and matthew planned to go to wichita.  we worked out the details, and travis was able to go.

we met up with jen, court, and several of her friends at in the raw brookside. i love sushi, but as i've mentioned before, travis isn't a fan. luckily, ITR has a great steak, so he was a happy boy.  we got to visit more with ashley.  i've heard of ashley for a couple of years now and always see her in jen's pictures, but i had never gotten to meet her until jen and court's housewarming party a few weeks ago.  she's from the same hometown as travis, and it turns out her fiance is a harley certified mechanice {or something like that} so the guys had a great connection.  

after dinner the weather wasn't terribly hot {surprisingly enough it's been a mild summer for oklahoma} so we headed across the street to the rooftop wine bar.  my headaches are back in full force, so i'm not really drinking these days, but i had a great time sitting out on the roof catching up with jen & her friends and spending some time out of the house with travis.

after the wine bar, jenny & court and one other couple headed over to r bar just up the street, but since our car was parked three spots away, we headed home. travis still gets worn out pretty quickly so we can't stay out and do much ... and who am i kidding?  i'm like a ninety year old woman in a retirement village.  i need to stick to my schedule these days.  the sun sets, and i think it's time for bed.

happy birthday, sweet jen!  i hope you had a fun night celebrating you. cheers, pretty girl!

blake shelton tickets!

today i surprised travis with blake shelton tickets!  oh yeah.  on october 4th we're heading to the bok center to watch this guy.  i. can't. wait. 

 

we don't really go to concerts a lot, even though we both really love music, but when i first heard he was coming to tulsa, i decided i was going to surprise travis with tickets.  he's always great about buying me fun gifts and taking us on fun excursions. 

the tickets went on sale at 10:00 this morning, and i kept refreshing my screen every minute for ten minutes leading up to 10.  when the link changed from tickets: coming soon to tickets: on sale, i clicked on it and NOTHING. HAPPENED.  nothing!  

now blake is a popular guy, but i was hoping and praying the tickets wouldn't sell out before i could get my hands on two decent tickets.  

turns out i just needed to keep refreshing.  i was able to snag two tickets for us in a pretty decent section.  

and now we wait until october.

grilling with dinner's at 6.

we recently started ordering dinner's at 6 for our evening meals.  so far we've liked everything we've gotten {except for the honey mustard, bacon, mozzarella chicken}.  tonight i was on my own for dinner.  travis wasn't home. haley and sierra were, but they decided to hit up the pool. 

i called my dad on the way home because i wanted to grill the french onion burgers i had thawed, but ... here's a little secret ... i have never grilled on my own before.  i love grilled food, but we use a charcoal grill because of my mom's allergy to propane.  and i had never started a charcoal grill. 

so, my dad gave me instructions for how to use the stainless chimney charcoal starter and let me know how the charcoal should look in the chimney before dumping it out in the grill to cook.

everything went really well, and i ended up with these bad boys. 

they. were. amazing.  i couldn't stop talking about them!  and i'm not even a burger person.  i will eat them from time-to-time, but rarely but choice.  these are called french onion burgers because they have french onions mixed right in.  oh. so. yummy. 

mom brought fresh zucchini the last time she was at the house, so i steamed some up, sliced up tomatoes and tore some leaf lettuce.   i tried to wait for the girls, but they were preoccupied at the pool and the melty goodness was calling my name, so i fixed up a plate and sat down to enjoy a yummy, yummy dinner. 

i never thought i would need something like dinner's at 6 since i love cooking.  with everything we have going on right now, though, it has been a welcome relief to know all our meal planning and prep is taken care of for the most part after a long day of working. i'm excited for the next time we have these bad boys. 

shop your closet.

i wish i did a better job of capturing images of some of my outfits.  my friend megan and so many other bloggers always seem to do such a great job of it, but me, not so much.  

i realized lately that i have been snagging quite a few more shots, so i thought maybe i would start posting them here in an effort to inspire myself to do a better job of capturing them to share on pinterest, etc.  my friend jen has a board on pinterst called shop your closet.  i'd like to create a similar board with my clothes and outfits. 

i actually took this picture because this dress felt much shorter than skirts that i normally wear.  my skirts typically touch the top of my knee and this skirt felt very flowy, breezy and short.  i sent kate and picture of it from work because i was worried it was too much. 

i don't know how others can wear super short skirts.

little bunny foo-foo.

a few weeks ago justin texted me and asked me what the lyrics were for little bunny foo foo.  he couldn't remember what the good fairy turned bunny foo foo into.  i told him it was a goon, but he just didn't believe me.  that silly boy.  doesn't he know who he's dealing with? 

so today, i came across this picture.  it was just too cute to pass up, and i had to send it on to my brother.  doesn't it melt your heart and make you laugh all at the same time?

http://pinterest.com/pin/20547742023341565/

for those who are wondering, the lyrics are: 

little bunny foo foo hopping through the forest, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the heads

down came the good fairy, and she said, "little bunny foo foo i don't want to see you, scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the heads.  i'll give you three chances ... and then i'm changing you into a goon.

the song goes on for through little bunny foo foo's three chances and then **poof!** she changes him into a goon

my mom says i'm special.

sierra always likes to say i'm weird, so today, when i came across this picture, i had to laugh and send it to her. 

 

her response? "yeah. and you're not weird ..." 

happy fourth of july!

i somehow have very few pictures from this week, but we spent a lot of time driving back and forth between muskogee in the evenings while lou, caitlin, and kevin are in town. 

we spent the fourth at dee's house, with sue and her whole gang coming down for the holiday, too.  this was haley's first time to meet aunt lou and her grandkids.  i think she was a little nervous to meet them, but everything seemed to go really well. lou took haley and caitlin shopping for swimming suits.  while they were all shopping for suits we took kevin and headed to the castle of muskogee with amanda, zach, and tabitha to buy fireworks for later that night.  we had a little bit of a scare as we were standing in line and got a call that ryan was having an asthma attack.  luckily it was a false alarm and they were able to get it under control before we could get his inhaler to him. 

after all the shopping, everyone headed over to the a hotel pool where jim and sue were staying. 

there wasn't any sunscreen so i sat poolside most of the time covered up under my dress and a towel.  when it was closer to time to leave, {and i was sweltering under the towel} i decided to ditch the layers and hop in the pool for a bit. 

as we were getting out of the pool haley said justin would be coming to get her around 4:00 to head over to the land.  we had discussed her spending half the holiday with us and half the holiday with my mom, but a plan had never been shared with me.  i was a little frustrated because i was planning to drive out there, so it didn't make sense to me to have justin come by the house to get haley.  i had no way to get a hold of him, though, because his phone had gotten broken and he was waiting for a replacement to come in.

justin came and picked up haley and i hung out at the lears' until dinner was almost ready, then i headed over to tahlequah.  conor hopped in the car with me and away we went.  at the light in ft. gibson, we passed justin, lindsay, haley, and parker.  conor and i ended up beating them to the land.

while dad was grilling burgers, {super juicy} chicken,  and corn, conor and i followed this cute little guy around.  this mower {and wheel barrow in the background} were new toys for him.

 

this funny little face is staged.  if you ask parker to "make your face," this is what you get.  every. single. time.  he's so funny!

mom, dad, justin, lindsay, parker, haley, john bodean, his wife deb, and landon were all there.  we had fun eating dinner and cupcakes. i stayed for several hours, but as it started getting darker i decided to head back over to muskogee.  i'm glad i decided to leave when i did because conor and i had a beautiful show all the way home.  we had the ft. gibson show plus all the fireworks everyone else was shooting along the way.   we got back to muskogee in time to see a few of the larger fireworks we had purchased, but i stayed in the house with the boys.  oliver and conor really didn't like all the loud noises.

mike vs. harry styles.

On our drive to Edmond today, Travis and Haley had this little exchange:

Haley: Mike's pretty.

Travis: You think Mike is pretty? Mike?? It's Mike!  Mike from Jersey.

Haley: Handsome is a better word.  ... But he's got nothing on Harry Styles.


What do you think?

5 months.

dear haley, 

i almost didn't write this letter, because even though i've published it on the appropriate date of your five month anniversary, i'm actually writing this in late july.  i didn't want the letter to be less authentic by writing it at a later date {and i'm already working on your six month letter}.  you keep reminding me i owe you a letter, though, and i don't want to let you down, so i will give it a shot. 

here's a little about you this past month: 

• you spent time with aunt deniese while we were on vacation and you had the opportunity to babysit parker for justin and lindsay
• at the end of your week's stay with aunt deniese, you headed for a long weekend at megan's; you were so excited to get to see her
• once we got home from vacation, i had to turn around and leave for houston for a week.  it worked out, though because you spent most of the week with justin and lindsay so you could babysit
• we were worried that you spend the entire summer stuck indoors and home alone, but as it turns out, you've been in high demand.  you love babysitting parker and you've started babysitting levi and asher, too.  ashey is your new best bud. 
• you were with us when we got the news that my aunt frances died.  on father's day.  it wasn't a great day for any of us. 
• you gifted travis with a video game for father's day 
• aunt lou came in and you finally got to meet her, caitlyn and kyle.  just like the rest of the family, she embraced you as if you had always been around.  she even took you shopping and got you a new swim suit so you could hang out at the hotel pool with everyone

it's been a really full month for you.  i've been proud of you for taking on extra responsibilities babysitting kids you started out not really knowing well -- and now you just love them.  {i think the never-ending compliments from asher about how beautiful and pretty you are help}.  every day we hit our stride a little more.  you now ask when we're going "home" instead of saying "yours and travis's house."  the boys hate when you're gone, and they get so excited when you come in.

we've had a lot of changes over the past few months and keeping up with this blog has been a little difficult for me.  it's important for me to journal the adventures of our family, so even if i'm a little late, i always try to document the important moments and even some of the moments that don't seem so important at the time, but we end up cherishing for years.

know that we love you and are here for you always.  even when life gets busy. 

<3,
travis, rhiannon, conor, & oliver 

happy birthday from my mom & dad.

with everything going on at the father's day/birthday celebration, i didn't get to share my beautiful gift from my parents.  this cute little bag is brighter than anything i would usually carry, but i love the pop of color it adds to any outfit.  it's buttery soft, and i love it.  thanks, mom & dad.