Our weekend in El Dorado

It was Martin Luther King Day weekend, and the kids were out of school on Monday. Amanda Vaclaw said they were going to head down to El Dorado, Arkansas for the weekend and we thought... why not!!! So we jumped in the car and headed down to see Ricky and Anne. We had never been down there and now that they had moved back to Arkansas, we felt we had a second chance to visit them! Our first item of business- Rachel's basketball game!

It was so fun to be able to watch Rachel play and to cheer her on. It's something we don't get to do often enough.

Some more of her cheering section!

They didn't end up winning that game but Rachel played great! It was her first time to play full court, against 5th and 6th graders and on 10 feet goals. We were super proud of her!

That afternoon Ricky and Anne took us around to see their town. It's a pretty small town, and it's crazy how far they have to drive just to go to a mall. It made Bartlesville look like a city! :) After that, we grabbed the kids and headed over to Larry's Pizza. I tried my first baked potato pizza and it was amazing!! Ashton asked to sit by Tyler.

As I mentioned, Tyler and Amanda also headed down to El Dorado for the weekend to visit Lorne and Heather Vaclaw. The first time Ricky and Anne lived in El Dorado, they lived two houses away from Lorne and Heather. This time, they bought a house 6 doors down! So both nights we were there we did game night! The first night it was at the John house and the second night it was at the Vaclaw house. We had a blast!!! Here I am with Heather, Amanda and Anne.

I just love Anne! We had such an amazing weekend. It was so relaxing, we just got to talk and the kids all did their own thing. But Anne did score major points by taking the kids to the Dollar Tree!

It was also great for Ricky and Randy to catch up. One day, Rick took us over to his office while we were there. They have an awesome room at Murphy Oil where the employees can just go and grab a fountain drink, lunch, snacks, etc all for free. Incredible.

On Monday we had planned on leaving early... but the weather was so nice that we couldn't let our kids miss out on a great play day! They played outside all morning! Whether it was flag football,

catching some baseballs,

or shooting some hoops, they were having a blast!

We also put the swing set in the backyard to good use!

Tyler was amazing with the girls! I was so impressed with him and how he took care of all the kids, making sure they were having fun.

He has a MoPed that he would take all the kids for rides on. It was so awesome... I told Randy he could get himself one. Anne even took me for a ride on it!

Another trip around the neighborhood with Austin and Drew!

I hurried and grabbed a pic of Avery and Rachel as they went whizzing by!

Ricky had to go to work on Monday, but we met up with him at this Mexican Restaurant for lunch. It was super yummy... the guacamole was awesome. Look at these beautiful cousins! Not one argument or complaint the whole weekend! Ricky and Anne's kids are just so laid back that it must have rubbed off onto our kids as well! Actually, I have to admit that ours are usually pretty relaxed.

And then it was time to head back home. We blinked and our trip was over! Thank you Ricky and Anne for an amazing weekend. You guys made us feel right at home! It may have been our first trip to El Dorado but as long as you live there- it won't be our last! :)

Introducing... Bailey :)

Not long after Christmas, Randy was looking at a list they have up at work where people sell things, and there were some Yorshire Terrier puppies for sale. Randy is super allergic to animals but my sister, Amy, has one of these dogs and it's never affected Randy as badly as other dogs.

I told him is was completely up to him because I wanted him to be comfortable in his own home. So as soon as the kids got out of school we took off to Copan to go look at the puppies. (Ashton and our friend Kate love Bailey!)

We didn't tell the kids what we were doing.... and we even went into the house by ourselves in case we got cold feet. (Addie loves to hold Bailey... she never wants to put her down!)

But once we saw Bailey, we fell in love. We let the kids come in... and there was no leaving without her at that point! (Bailey knows when Austin comes around, it's time to play!)

We went straight to Atwoods to get all the things we thought we would need... this is our very first pet after all! (Avery loves her dog!)

It really is just like having a baby all over again. I'm glad we waited until after my kids were more grown up. Honestly, there are some nights when she and I are not friends... but by the morning all is forgiven. I mean, look at that face!

The most important part is that Randy loves her. He goes looking for her as soon as he gets home. We signed up for an obedience class and I'm super excited to get her trained and help her learn a few tricks.

Welcome to the family, Bailey!

Merry Christmas to all! :)

We had a really great Christmas this year. In fact, I think it was my favorite Christmas. I've always been all about keeping it more low-key, and I feel like we accomplished that this year. We also had a little help from our special elf. Here is Randy reading the Elf on the Shelf book to the kids, who we named Georgey. Georgey stayed with us up until Christmas Eve, watching the kids and making sure they were staying on Santa's good list!

He had a little fun himself while we weren't watching... and the kids loved catching him in some pretty funny places. Here he is playing with Austin's castle.And it was really crazy when we found him in a Superman cape and mask flying around on the ceiling fan!

An empty milk cup and cookie crumbs can only mean one thing... Santa came! But before that, we started a new Christmas Eve tradition. We got all dressed up (which Avery didn't understand since we were going to be in the dark! hahaha) and went to a matinee. This year we went to see I Bought A Zoo, which we all loved. After that we drove around looking at Christmas lights, then picked up some pizza from Mazzios to take back home. We ate, watched a christmas movie (Elf), read the scriptures about the birth of Jesus, and then went to bed.

Visions of sugar plums were still dancing in their heads by morning. Randy was actually the first one up and couldn't wait any longer to wake the kids up!

And they weren't a bit upset about being woken up this morning! It's so fun to see how excited they get.

Especially about certain things. All Addie asked for this year was a snow globe! She was so excited when she got it! :)

Austin can't believe that he got his Tom Brady jersey!

And Avery wanted nothing to do with the camera when she first woke up. But she was all smiles once she saw all she got this year!

And the last surprise that couldn't be brought inside... they got a new trampoline.

We were so happy to have my brother and sister-in-law here this year for Christmas. We really miss having Jordan and Jen around all the time. And it went by too fast again! We also got to spend a few evenings with Bubba and his fiancee Jenny, who we feel is already a part of our family. They had our name for Christmas this year and were super sweet to us and our kids.

So the kids basically played most of the day. My mom came over to help make breakfast. Later, we went over to my grandmother's house for games and an early Christmas dinner...

and came home with enough time to play some more at home. I really enjoyed having my first relaxing Christmas... and I hope there's many, many more to come! Maybe I'll start enjoying this holiday again after all! :)

COP Christmas Party

Our Christmas celebration always starts with Randy's ConocoPhillips Christmas party! They do such an amazing job and it's great because they have so many fun things for the kids to do. Of course, a visit from Santa always puts a smile on the kids face!

This is our Grammy Allyson. Allyson is one of the main people in charge of the Christmas party and she is amazing. So talented!! We love our Grammy Allyson!

There were so many fun activities as always. Bo Bo the clown was there making balloons.

This creative Angry Birds bean bag toss

Fishing for snacks! :)

Face or hand painting

And then it ended with everyone going into the Auditorium for a special concert from no other than...

Jo Dee Messina!!! She did such a great job. I thought I only knew a couple of her hits, but once she started singing I realized she actually had a lot of songs that I knew! But the best part was how funny she was! She had us totally cracking up with her great sense of humor. She was also very pregnant, so I was impressed with her walking around in high heeled boots!

I loved her set... it looked so cozy! But the reason I added this picture was because during the performance, Addie kept telling me that her Uncle Robert was the bass guitar guy. I kept telling her it wasn't him but she would keep asking me how he got here so fast, and why she didn't know he played that big guitar. I honestly didn't see the resemblance until I saw this picture I took! If you know Randy's brother, Robert, I'm sure you can see the resemblance too! :)

Last minute trip to UT

Randy and I had plane tickets we had to use up by the end of the year, so we decided to head up to Utah to see our friends and to watch Noah play basketball one more time as a senior for BYU. We were staying in Herriman, but we took off one night to go up to Provo. Of course we HAD to go see my adorable niece, Kaylee!! We might have just seen her over Thanksgiving, but we already missed her! She is such a sweetheart and I tell Avery all the time to think about Kaylee and what she would do because she has been such an amazing example! We met up with Kaylee on BYU campus. Wow, did that bring back lots of memories. It made me really miss that place... my time there went by so fast!

While we were up in Provo for the night, we took Kaylee, Noah and Kendalyn out to dinner. It was fun to be able to sit down and catch up with the Hartsocks.

Like I said, we were able to stay with our friends Jared and Courtney Geisler. They live just a couple blocks away from our other friend Russ Madsen. We really appreciate them. Russ always lets us borrow one of his cars to get around and Jared and Court always let us stay with them. Not to mention we have some great laughs... it's always hard to leave when we go.

Noah was able to get us three tickets to the BYU game down at the Energy Solutions Center in Salt Lake City. Now that he's a senior, our seats are even better than before! Russ and Randy watching the teams warm up.

We also sat with Kendalyn. We had people calling and texting us all night saying they saw us on television.

Noah had yet another amazing game! We love watching him play... he's so consistent! He was the top scorer of this game against the Oregon Ducks.

They were playing so well they even had a chance to sit Noah and Brandon Davies on the bench. I love this picture of them!

I mentioned we had really great seats, right?!? So great that Jimmer Fredette was sitting right in front of us! I was really wanting to snag a picture of him, but I wasn't sure how to do it. And at halftime he left to go talk to the news reporters so I wasn't sure if he would come back. He did... but then an usher came over and asked him a question and pointed up to the stands and he shook his head no. That pretty much crushed my confidence in asking for a picture. But as soon as the game was over, Kendalyn leaned forward and asked if her friend could have a picture with him. He asked her who, she pointed at me, and he said yes!! I was so excited!! And then he spoke a little bit to Randy and Russ as they wished him good luck in playing for the Sacramento Kings. Definitely a highlight of our Utah trip.

This was my other highlight of our trip. We got to go "back stage" after the game to see Noah. And we found him surrounded by news reporters and cameras! It was so amazing to see Noah Hartsock, someone we've known since he was little and then having followed his basketball career from a young age, and becoming good friends with... and now to see how far he has gotten. It was such a great feeling, we are so super excited for him!

We are super proud of you, Noah!! Keep up the great work!!

We just love these two kiddos! :) Kendalyn was so sweet, she told Randy that she thinks of us as family. We feel the same way! Noah found himself an amazing girl, we feel like we've always known her!