February 2010

February has been a lot like January. We have been busy with gymnastics meets and running kids here and there. Lydia had another meet in Oklahoma City. She placed in every event except floor and was 5th overall in her age group. We have continued date night at the Due house. Jeff and Lydia went to Paint Your Art Out here in Edmond and they painted on canvas. They had a blast and would recommend it to everyone! Their art work is now displayed in the entry way of our home. Lydia and I went to Wizard of Oz for our night since we had to cancel last month due to the crazy weather. Grace and I went and had a cupcake at the new Cupcakes To Go and then had a pedicure. This date night thing is WONDERFUL! Oh, Duke almost ate himself to death. Anyone who knows Duke should not be surprised! He got into his dry dog food and ate over a gallon of food and then drank a ton of water. Water and dry dog food do not mix. It swells and causes a very sick dog. Duke got to spend a day with the vet and was sooooo glad to get home. We now have the dog food up high and out of Dukes reach. Caroline is now walking, signing many words and starting to say just a few things. Grace is Grace! She is getting so big

and doing great in school. I think that is it for now!!!

Lydia, Grace, Caroline and Chili Dog

Lydia placing in her gymnastics meet.

Lydia getting Nadia Camaneci's autograph.

Grace and I going on our date night.

Duke and Caroline hanging out.

I just couldn't resist this picture of Caroline!

January 2010

I've decided to just try to update my blog once a month. We will see how this works! The new year has begun and we seem very blessed. We spent New Years Eve with the Ellis Family, of course. We had them over to our house and ate lots of food, played games and played wii fit. My oh my how midnight is getting harder and harder to stay awake for! Not much has happened in the month of January which is very nice. We have had extremely cold weather, a few beautiful days and just some nice family time. We have been doing little things around the house and just hanging out. Lydia had a gymnastics meet in Tulsa and did so well. She placed 1st overall in her level and age group. We are so proud of how hard she works. We have started date night at the Due house. Jeff and I get a date, and then we take turns with each of the girls. Grace and daddy went and had frozen yogurt on their night and the winter storm came when Lydia and I were supposed to have ours. We will try to double up in February to make it fair. Jeff and I went to our first dinner just the 2 of us in years. We were also struck with the stomach virus at our house. Caroline came down with it first, then Jeff, Grace and myself all at the same time. Can we say hell? We would have never survived without Lydia stepping up and helping out. My sweet friend Kathleen also jumped in and did way more than God ever expected of her. She is a very brave soul. Lydia followed 2 days later. I'm so glad that nightmare is over!

I just wanted to share this sweet picture of Grace feeding Caroline.

Goofy Papa celebrating his 68th birthday!

Goofy Papa, Lydia, Grace and Caroline

Jeff and Grace on date night.

Our house during the last big snow. Do you like the leaning mailbox? I wish the mailman would just run it over, maybe then Jeff would put up a new one!

Lydia and Grace sledding

Jeff, Lydia and Grace coming in from playing in the snow. Please notice Grace's face! Jeff had just stuck a snowball down her pants. My poor girls don't stand a chance. God really should have given Jeff a boy!

Jesus is the reason for the season

December went by so fast this month. We were busy trying to get windows in before the weather got too cold. I think Jeff officially has 19 completed. The important ones are in. We got our Christmas decorations up and it only took me 2 days and then I just gave up. I didn't get out half of it this year. It just wasn't worth the stress starting and stopping to take care of my 9 mo. old. It was officially "good enough". Jeff got some outside lights on the house but swears he is throwing them in the trash as soon as he takes them down. He is tired of messing with lights that "work" until you put them up. I will be curious what really happens. We all know Jeff is a little "tight" and none of us can picture him throwing anything away! We decided to cut way back on presents this year and just really focus on what Christmas is all about. We helped out some special people in our lives and focused a little more on God. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful that was. We started Christmas off with Jeff's family at our house. We had a wonderful time eating plenty of food and seeing family we only see a couple of times a year. Jeff's brother Jimmy even came this year. I don't think we had seen him in about 2 years. It was a nice treat. After Jeff's family we had Christmas with our good friend Princess. Man oh man does her family know how to celebrate Jesus. We got to meet some of her family and do a little praise and worship. I wish I had taken my camera but I totally forgot. We had a little devotion, listened to some amazing singing, prayed, cried and then a little more singing. It was precious! Grace was even singing and dancing and clapping off beat, but you knew she was loving every minute of it. On Christmas Eve we were supposed to head to Newkirk but the blizzard of 2009 hit. We ended up going across the street to the Ellis family and once again, I forgot my camera. We had wonderful food and a lot of laughs. It was sad not getting to Newkirk but we are so grateful for our precious friends who seem like family! Christmas day we headed to Newkirk and the day after Christmas we were able to have our "family Christmas". My sister wasn't able to make it because of the roads so once again, it just wasn't the same. After all of the weirdness from the weather and plans not going as we thought they should, things turned out perfect. God has given us so many blessings, Princess who has blessed our lives, The Ellis family who is "our family", just the pleasure of being snowed in together and having quality time and just the peace that comes with all of that. Jeff and I have been so blessed with so many things and it ALL comes from God. We are not responsible for anything that we have. God gives us everything we need and then way more. Wheeewww.... I got a little windy, I just needed to get my praises in, I guess.

Uncle Paul, Cousin Teresa, Christopher, Jennifer, Aunt Pati, Shauna, Jeff, Jimmy, Kerri, Lonnie, Jeretta, Caroline, Lydia and Grace

Uncle Jimmy and Caroline, neither one looking too sure about the other.

Grace in "Blizzard 2009". She insisted on going outside! It lasted about 2 seconds.

Lydia opening presents and looking surprised.

Goofy Papa and Caroline playing with the nativity seen. We had to put baby Jesus up, he was a choking hazard.

Uncle Brandon and Caroline sharing some "sweet lovings".

My sweet 3 girls standing in front of our Christmas tree on Christmas morning!

November and December

I just want everyone to know that when I started this blog I had every intention of keeping up with it better. I know, I know....my intentions are always good but there is a time when I need to admit, I might be a flake! I can't blame it on the 3 children or my OCD house cleaning. I'm pretty sure I have always been this way. Soooooo, let's see......November.......hmmmm.....not really sure where that month went. I know we had Thanksgiving. It was a very different Thanksgiving this year and I LOVED IT!!!! Mother decided we were no longer going to do the massage thing. I won't go into details why but what mother says, we do! As some of you may already know. Mom doesn't much care for Thanksgiving. She doesn't like all of the stress of cooking when she knows she will have to do it again in December. I think about 9 years ago she decided we would do Thanksgiving the day after and the women would go for massages and the men could go play golf. Most of us loved the idea and so for many years that is what we did. Well, you can't please everyone so things have changed again. This year we went to Newkirk's Junior class turkey dinner fundraiser. Mom did no cooking and we all brought dessert. We had a lovely time at the school eating out of cafeteria trays. It was really pretty good. That was the weekend before Thanksgiving so on the actual Thanksgiving day my family got to stay home. We had the nicest time. God gave us the most beautiful weather that day and so we just enjoyed it. Jeff and I promised each other we would do no work. We had a day filled with games, wii tournaments, a trip to the park, Oscar Meyer turkey sandwiches for lunch and cooked out hot dogs and smores for dinner. We ended the day with a family movie and then off to bed. I hope every Thanksgiving will go just like that!!!

Caroline at the park on Thanksgiving day.

Caroline on our way home after the park.

Jeff, Lydia and Grace making our Thanksgiving dinner.

Look at our feast!!!

Grace is in heaven with her hot dog and potato chips!

Catching up from October

As you can all see, I fell behind on my blog. I love doing my blog but there just hasn't been much time. I will try to do my best with getting everyone caught up. We have been very busy in the month of October. School is back in swing full force along with all of our activities. We have gone through our first t-ball season. We didn't have many games thanks to the rain. What games we played were fun. Grace had a blast but, I'm not sure she still has a clue on how to play t-ball. I think she was in it for the social experience. We have also been very busy with Gymnastics. Lydia works out 5 hours a week at the gym and Grace 45 min. a week. Lydia also had her first meet of the season and placed 8th in the all around for her age group. Yes, there were more than 8 girls in her age group. We are very proud of her. We have also been working our tails off on this house. Well, I say we, but I mean Jeff. I have to occupy the kids while he gets the work done. He has put in 12 windows out of 32. He has also painted around them 3 different colors while his wife is trying to decide what looks best. I know, we all feel sorry for Jeff. It was his decision to marry me, I didn't promise to be any other way. Also, Halloween was a blast this year and I had my 2 great nephews come join us. I would like to provide you with some pictures with all of them together but that isn't going to happen. You put that many little people together and it's just CRAZY!!!!!!! Caroline is growing up. She now has 2 teeth and working on a few more. She is crawling and pulling up on everything. She currently has 3 bruises on her face from crashing. She also has discovered the word "no" and doesn't much care for it. So, there it is!!! That's what the Due's have been up to. Now, for some pics......

I forgot OSU homecoming. Here is Cousin Becca loving on Caroline.

Grace, our friend Olivia, and Lydia waiting for the OSU parade to start.

Grace tailgating with The Bush family.

Lydia getting ready to accept her award at her meet. We are not allowed to take pictures while they perform.

Lydia waiting patiently to have her name called.

Grace as a "newd" for Halloween.

Grace as a nerd, Lydia an aerobics instructor and Caroline is hacked off!
Just thought I would throw in a picture of Caroline.

Our little vacation to South Padre

We went on a little vacation to South Padre for 5 nights. We went with our good friends Clint and Kathleen Ellis. We decided to leave the children at home. Thank you to all who made our trip possible. I'm not very good about leaving my sweet girls but I knew they were in good hands. Jeff and Clint had a 2 day race in the gulf with a total of 44 catamarans. While the boys raced Kathleen and I relaxed on the beach and read magazines and a good book.

Jeff and I enjoying our dinner.

Here is Jeff relaxing on the beach the day before the big race.

Jeff and Clint getting the catamaran ready for her race.

Jeff and Clint in their gear. Yes, they are sexy to us!

Jeff, Kerri, Kathleen and Clint eating again.

Jeff would have made a great pirate. He looks a little creepy!

Kathleen and I getting some snuggle time.

Grace is playing T-ball

Grace is playing t-ball for the first time. She didn't want to play but we made her try it. She is the only girl on her team and she didn't even notice after the first practice. She has noticed since but could care less. She is loving it and is doing a great job.

This is Grace with her t-ball shirt. She was so excited to have the #7 and then she noticed they spelled her name wrong. Grace comes with many nicknames, Gracie, Gracer, Gracilicious, Dirty Girdy and now Dug. She is such a good sport.

Standing in the outfield waiting for a ball.

Please notice her eyes are on the ball.

She got on base and now is confused where to run to next. She is gettting some advice from her coach.