SOLD!!!

Well, I guess it's official!! It's been a long time coming, but we finally did it. We had our house on the market by owner for about 3 months, then took if off for about 6 months and then listed with a realtor. We put it back up at exactly the wrong time of year, but after 9 months we are proud to say we finally found a great buyer for our neighbors and away we go! Randy and Avery will miss this house the most. I will miss our neighbors but I never really felt like this was MY house. Austin, Addie and Ashton don't care about any of it. Addie just wants stairs. :) We have decided to build our next, and hopefully our final, house. We are super excited to get to see all the steps and pick out our own colors and materials. In the mean time, we will be staying with Randy's parents. I hope they are ready for some excitement around the house! We close April 1st and are hoping to be in our new house around July or August. We are still in Bartlesville, just getting our much needed 4th bedroom!

Enjoying some down-time in Dallas!

Soccer season is now in full gear. This year we have three soccer players! So before the madness began, we took off for a fun weekend in Dallas. Sadly, this was my kids first time to Texas! I know, embarrassing! I couldn't believe it either! Randy and I have been down there a million times... in fact, I use to live there! We coaxed two of our best friends, Tyler and Amanda Vaclaw (here with baby Jake) into going with us! We were so glad that they could join us! Our kids are all very close so we had a blast. The main reason for this trip was to watch BYU play TCU. But we had stipulations on our hotel. First, it had to be located somewhere between where BYU was playing and the outlet mall in Allen, TX. Second, and hardest to find was....It had to have an indoor pool!! The weather was really nice when we were there, but it was still February and an indoor pool was a must! All smiles... Avery, Ashton and MaryKate. I couldn't believe that most pools were outside, but I guess it is Texas! We were so excited when we finally found one! Two of our water babies- Evie and Addie. And this hotel suited us perfectly. Logan and Austin seem pretty happy about it! Our rooms were steps away from the exit, the pool, fitness room, and computer area. It was also steps away from our other must....Free breakfast!! This was a great bonus when there are 8 kids to think about! I think I mentioned before that Addie isn't much of a morning person! Here is Addie, Ashton and Evie entertaining themselves with Amanda's phone while waiting for breakfast. Everything's better in Texas! Or is it bigger? Either way, I thought the waffles were awesome!The kids were really great sports about our other main reason for being in Texas... the Outlet Mall at Allen! We shopped, then shopped, and then did a little more shopping!But as long as we were going back to swim some more... they were fine! Ashton is ready to jump back in!And along with shopping, we ate, then ate, and then did a little more eating! I think I gained 10 lbs. this weekend!And then back to the pool! Evie has the sweetest smile ever!Did I mention we did a lot of eating?!?

And then back to the real reason we were in Dallas.... gooooooo COUGARS!!! We love our Noah Hartsock and anytime we can make an excuse to watch him play we will! This game was sold out but Noah was able to get us 4 tickets. We thought it would be a great father/son event, so Randy and Tyler took Logan and Austin to watch the game.

The Cougars did great!! They won by 23 points (I think). Austin had a blast and thought he was big stuff to get a picture with Noah. I know everyone is Jimmer fans, and so am I! But Noah will always be our favorite!!

While the boys went to the game... you guessed it!! WE SWAM!!! Here is Avery enjoying the pool. We also took much needed naps!Such a great weekend with such amazing friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines Day started with some strawberry covered donuts! I have two kids that are morning people and two that are not... can you guess which is which? The other two were eating on the way out the door!I was so excited because the school spread the parties out so that some were on Friday and some Monday. But since we didn't have school Friday due to the snow, they were all on the same day. Luckily they all fell at different times. Austin's was first.
They got to make a Valentine card for anyone they wanted and Austin chose his dad. It was so cute! They also let Ashton make a card of her own which she just loved. She carried that card with her all day!The next party was with Addison's class. They did lots of fun things. They split the kids into groups and had different stations with activities to do. This one was seeing how many candy hearts you could stack. Addie chose to do a pattern.The next game was kisses and hugs. They had to cross their arms when someone yelled "hugs" and hold their arms out if someone yelled "kisses". They were trying to trick each other and whoever messed up was out. Addie was really concentrating.They also had a station with puzzles and another where you held your hand straight out and tried to drop hearts into a cup. Then they played a boys vs. girls relay opening up a Hershey hug with one hand and popping it into their mouth. I don't even know if I could do that!Addie was being so sweet to Ashton, it melted my heart! After all the games they had snacks and Addie shared all of hers with Ashton.After Addison's party we went over to Avery's party.
Avery's class also made Valentine's Day cards and had lots of sweets to eat!Randy sent flowers/balloons to school for the girls and Avery's arrived while Ashton and I were there. It was fun to get to see the look on her face. She was so surprised and excited as everyone asked who they were from and she proudly said her dad.
Since Valentine's Day fell on a Monday, Randy and I went out that weekend and spent Monday with the kids. We set the table all fancy with candles and the girls' flowers, had steak and potatoes and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Addie wanted a picture with her flowers too! She was also very excited to get flowers at school! Happy Valentines Day to all my sweethearts!!

Deja Vu!

So last week we had our big snowstorm Monday night and were out of school the whole week. The kids went back to school Monday and Tuesday... and then it was Deja Vu all over again! This is what met us when we opened our garage door.No one was too excited about another snowstorm so close to the first... especially Randy. It was almost up to his knee!I did try to buy another snow shovel but everyone was sold out. Poor guy! I told him I would switch out but he's a trooper... he did the whole thing all over again.Our official count this time was 15 inches, but it felt like so much more. Austin was the only one who wanted to get out and play the first day. Randy did take the kids another day sledding. They were once again out of school for the remainder of the week. Believe it or not, but they did pretty good! We never really got cabin fever. This is usually what parking lots look like, not driveways! The Thursday of this week, we had record breaking lows of -28 degrees! We were colder than Alaska, Germany, all over the place. I believe we were mentioned on the national news stations because it was so cold. But one week later...We had record-breaking highs! I believe we hit 74 degrees! That's right... if you don't like the weather in Oklahoma just wait a minute. It will change! This time Randy finished the sidewalks in shorts!Oh yes... that snow is coming right at me! My husband is such the jokester! Got to always watch out for him! :)This was more of mine and Avery's kind of weather! She finally ventured out of the house this week!

Snow Days!!

We've been hearing and seeing all the snow storms across the country, and I guess it was now our turn to experience it! We had one other snow fall before this that took us out of school for a couple of days, but nothing like this!This was our driveway after a few hours of our "blizzard". Randy decided to make it a two-round session because he was afraid of how bad it would get if he didn't start shoveling right away. Official snow fall for Bartlesville was 16 inches!But the real story was the snow drifts!! It was so crazy... you could see our grass in some areas and then other spots had 4 feet of snow! Here is a picture of Randy and Addie in our front walkway, which was pretty deep. But right next to them by the front window...It was even worse! Look how high that is!!Here is Austin again in our front walkway. I would guess that wall is about 3 ft. Poor Randy had to get all that snow out of the walkway so people can come look at the house! (Yes, our house it still up for sale!)This is our poor Japanese Maple just on the other side of the wall. That's all you could see of it!Randy worked so hard two days straight! It was time to take a rest! He's icing his back! :) Notice how high the snow is!But the kids were still smiling! This was a different kind of snow than what we were used to here in Oklahoma. Usually because of the humidity, the snow is wet and easy to pack, but this snow was dry, that's probably why it blew into such huge drifts. Speaking of drifts, it's time to go to our backyard... just outside one of our doors.No, the door will not be opening... because the snow is right up next to it! Here is a better view! I had to stop the kids a couple of times from opening this door... there is just something so tempting about all that snow falling into our house!

The snow started Monday night, so the kids have been out of school all week. And it was just announced that they will still be out of school tomorrow (Friday).

But my kids don't seem to mind! It's going to be hard getting back in the routine of school after this much fun!