last "this week on the island" for 2010

the very last day of the year! wow. these past couple of months have been a blur and i'm wondering where the time went. i decided to take down all the christmas decorations today. the officer is working late due to the new year festivities downtown. so i thought i would do something productive. i was taking down the christmas tree, looking at all the ornaments while listening to taylor swift's speak now album. it was free on amazon a while back so i thought i would download it. there was a song that came on while i was taking down all the ornaments. it's called never grow up.

Your little hands wrapped around my finger
And it's so quiet in the world tonight
Your little eyelids flutter cause you're dreaming
So I tuck you in and turn on your favorite nightlight

To you, everything's funny
You got nothing to regret
I'd give all I have honey
If you could stay like that

(Chorus:)
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
Just stay this little
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
It could stay this simple
I won't let nobody hurt you
Wont let no one break your heart
No one will desert you
Just try to never grow up
Never grow up

You're in the car on the way to the movies
And you're mortified your mama's dropping you off
At 14, there's just so much you can't do
And you can't wait to move out
Someday and call your own shots

But don't make her drop you off around the block
Remember she's getting older too
And don't lose the way that you dance around in your PJs getting ready for school

(Chorus:)
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
Just stay this little
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up

It could stay this simple
No one's ever burned
Nothing's ever left you scarred
Even though you want to, just try to never grow up

Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room
Memorize what is sounded like what your dad gets home
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs
I just realized everything I had is someday gonna be gone

So here I am in my new apartment
In a big city, they just dropped me off
It's so much colder than I thought it would be
So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on

Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up
Oh I don't wanna grow up
Wish I'd never grown up
Could still be little
Oh I don't wanna grow up
It could still be simple

(Chorus:)
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
Just stay this little
Oh darling don't you ever grow up, don't you ever grow up
It could stay this simple
Won't let nobody hurt you
Won't let no one break your heart
And even through you want to, please try to never grow up
Don't you ever grow up
Just never grow up

lyrics found here. you can listen to the song, but scrolling down the playlist at the bottom of this blog. on the playlist, scroll down until you see the song never grow up. you should try to listen to it but don't be in a sentimental mood because you will cry like a baby. it's a very sweet song though.

yeah i teared up a little while listening to it and thinking of my girl.

moving on though.

we've had a great christmas. at our house, we do not do santa claus. we never have. our kids know who santa is, but we've always tried to focus more on the birth of Jesus during this season. i know every family does it different. we usually fill the kids stockings and get them a few gifts. we decided to open stockings and presents on christmas eve morning. after we opened presents, we got ready and went to my mom's house. it was a lot of fun. my mom produced a play for the entire family. she had costumes and a part for everyone, even those who just wanted to sit on the couch (they were the star or held a sign). the officer was able to play the distinguished part of the donkey. it was important. he had to take mary, my daughter, to bethleham!

he did a great job. the red thing on his head are his donkey ears (reindeer antlers). you make due with what you have. it's a fun memory for us to look back on.

on christmas morning we woke up and made a nice breakfast. after breakfast, we sat down and read the advent book written by kathy stockman and beautifully illustrated by her husband jack stockman. i had received the book as a christmas present and even though you are supposed to read one portion of it every day in december, we decided to read it all in one sitting. it's a really neat book. it tells the story of Jesus's birth, but each "day" you open a set of doors and read a portion of the story. even though my daughter couldn't read it this year, she participated by opening some of the doors. we each took turns reading and it was a joy to hear my son reading his portions. we decided we would do this every year. i love picking up new traditions. next year our daughter should be able to read it with us. you can purchase the book on their website.

after we read the christmas story, we headed to the officer's parents. we stayed the weekend with them. even though it was little cold outside, the officer and my son were able to shoot of my son's rocket. we only had three engines. the second launch landed in the pond. luckily the officer was able to fish it out.

the last launch landed a tree, but it came down easily too. i think the bigger boys had as much fun as the smaller boys did. isn't that the way it always is?

sunday morning we were able to go to church with the officer's parents. i don't think the kids have ever gone to church with them. they had a breakfast and a small worship service. i always love going to the christmas service with family somewhere.

on monday, my nieces came over for the day and stayed the night. it was chilly outside, but they played a lot outside. my niece, a, and my daughter made some chocolate chip cookies. that evening they watched a movie. let me just say thank you now to my nieces who compromised a lot when it came time to pick a movie. they are 3 years older than my son so they don't have the same interests in movies.

this week has flown by and now it's new year's eve. i'm so glad i have this blog to be able to look back on this year and remember the things that have happened. God has been good to us this year even though we don't deserve it.

good-bye 2010!

it's the small (and big) things.....

it's the small and big things that get me excited. every year the officer puts lip smackers in my stocking. do you know what lip smackers are? it's like chapstick but it comes a huge variety of flavors. lip smackers are a constant item on my stocking stuffer list, especially since i've had kids. they seem to disappear quicker. at any given time you can probably ask me if i have lip smackers in my purse. along with the two other lip glosses i probably have in my purse i will have a lip smackers too.

on sunday when we were at my sister's doing a christmas thing, my daughter had received some lip smackers. i can't remember which flavor they were, but what i do remember is one was BIG! i think i've told you that i like extremely large and small things right? anything that is way bigger (or smaller) than it should be literally give me goose bumps. i have to admit it crossed my mind to ask my daughter if i could have her big lipsmacker. she would have said "yes" so i didn't ask her. it was her gift. see self control, right?

we opened our stockings this morning. guess what? there were lip smackers in my stocking. i expected that. however, there was an extra surprise. the lip smackers were coke flavors. fanta grape, strawberry, orange, sprite, dr. pepper, cherry coke, coke and vanilla coke (my favorite drink)! in addition to the coke lip smackers there were two big lip smackers, a strawberry and cotton candy flavor.

i just had to take a picture of them. aren't they fantastic? i gave my kids their choice of the fanta flavored lip smacker (no i didn't give them vanilla coke one! i'm not that nice.) these will last me until next year.

does the sight of the big lip smackers give you goose bumps or what?

this week on the island

hello bloggy friends. how are your holidays so far? we've barely started ours. there's a nice little lull in the hustle and bustle today and we are taking advantage of it.

i'm sitting at my computer blogging while listening to michael buble's christmas album, let it snow. perfect way to spend a bit of the afternoon!

so i make breakfast last week for my family. here's a picture of my biscuits!

now you know what i was talking about when i said i like the taste of burnt food.

sunday we had a christmas get together at my sister's house with my aunt and uncle. this is the daughter of my grandma who died this past october. it was strange without my grandma there. my grandma shopped all year around for christmas presents. my aunt decided to give us all the christmas presents my grandma had purchased for us for the years to come. i am more like her than i thought. when i was helping pick up her house a bit before the funeral, my sister and i found christmas gifts all over the house. some wrapped, some not. my grandma was on a limited income, and she spent some of that on her loved ones so their christmases would be special. it was a good time visiting with them.

sunday night my children sang with their children's choirs at church. this year since we had gotten together at my sister's house, a lot of my family went to the choir performance too. my kids were so excited to look out and see their grandma with the sunglasses, papa with the sunglasses, grandma k, papa bill, aunt g, uncle g, cousins a & a, and cousins k & a, and of course mom and dad. i had a hard time taking pictures. most of them turned out blurry. however, i did get one of my daughter and her kindergarten class.

the officer took off tuesday, wednesday and thursday of this week to spend the christmas week with us. yesterday we spent the day running around together. the officer left early to get some stocking stuffers. when he came back, he took us to lunch at golden palace. the officer and my daughter were very excited about this because during the lunch buffet they have the special corn nuggets they love so much. the corn nuggests did not disappoint!

we went to bass pro after we ate. the officer spent a birthday gift card and got something for his boat. can you believe that it's christmas and he's just now spending his bass pro gift card from september? crazy! :)

after bass pro, we decided to take the trolley ride downtown. it came up just as we were leaving the store. perfect timing. it was a pretty bumpy ride! we were so close to the cars parked on the side of the street. so if you park downtown at a meter and come to find your side mirror on the street beside your car, you might question the trolley drivers. in the end the trolley ride was free and the kids enjoyed it.

when the trolley brought us back to bass pro, we went through a parking lot where we saw some land run statues. they were really huge. the kids asked to go see them when we finished with the trolley ride.

the kids were so excited to just be outside. they were running around like monkeys.

the statues were very cool. they were huge! we had a short little history lesson and then ran around some more! :)


getting stepped on by the land runner!

the ammunition you put in your cannon is very important!

after we finished loading the cannons, we headed to north pole city. have you been there? it's a beautiful place to go during christmas. twinkly lights everywhere! my son especially loved this large nutcracker!

do not be alarmed....no nutcrackers were harmed while taking this picture!

i know you can hardly see the kids in this picture but this spot was so pretty! it had all the white lights (which i love) and these icicle lights that looked like the dripped.

today has been a relaxing day. tonight i will get all the food ready for our family get togethers. my mom decided to not have a big, huge meal. she decided on finger foods/appetizers. what a great idea. everyone is bringing 3-4 things. we will be stuffed! can't wait.

i think we are going to do our christmas with the kids tomorrow night. christmas morning we will get up make a big breakfast and read the christmas story.

i hope you have a very merry christmas. don't forget what it's all about! God's amazing, undeserving, merciful, graceful, love for me and you. sending His son to be our Savior.

Luke 2:9-14

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

why?

all i have to say is:

who would ever?

and

why?

randomness

i have a lot of random thoughts going through my head right now so this shall be my release.

i realized i like the taste of burnt food. i'm not talking about completely black and unrecognizable, but if the cheese on my stouffer's frozen lasagna is 50% dark brown, that's just about perfect. of course, i also realized i think i like things a little on the burnt side because i have to like it. i am usually the one that cooks in our house (the officer does his fair share) and i usually inadvertently get this just a little more done that what is called for. so i think my taste buds have just adjusted to the normal circumstances.

i like those warm fuzzy socks. those one that are ridiculously soft. even though they may make colorful fuzzballs in my toes, i still enjoy them. they keep my feet oh so warm.

yesterday, i wrote about my daughter giving up her pink puppy when she turned six and how that made me a little sad. last night when i went to check on her before i went to bed, she had it tucked under her arm. it made me smile.

the truth project bible study we are still doing is very good, but completely over my head. just thought i would throw that out there. anyone else know what i'm talking about?

i have sent out a ton of deals for this christmas season to my coupon ladies, but i haven't taken advantage of very many of them myself. don't know why. probably because i have done my christmas shopping all year long. :)

i may have gotten my daughter kimbobs for her tea party not only because she would like them, but because i love them too! why can't we both share in the goodness? they were yummy and they were not any left!

i am glad birthday parties are over for this year in our house. it was fun having/planning them, but it's always relaxing when they are done.

i love christmas time. i know some people don't enjoy this season, but i really like everything about it - the music, the decoration, the time spent with family, the christmas trees, the christmas lights, everything.

i'm thankful for old friends we don't get to see very often. we visited some on sunday night and it was so nice to be able to hang out and enjoy their family. we love you guys and are praying for you!

i'm thankful for the way God blesses me through my friends. my friend, mrs. s, blesses me with her kind words all the time, whether it's through comments she always leaves on my posts or sweet emails. we don't write these blogs just so we get comments, but i can almost guarantee that getting nice comments always brings a smile to a blogger's face.

i'm thankful for my friend, j, and the time i get to spend with her. whenever we get together, whether it's been 2 weeks or 3 months since we've seen each other, we pick up right where we left off. i'm thankful that we were able to stay close through the many phases we go through in our lives when we leave college.

i love it when my daughter says the wrong thing. like calling high heels shoes "high toes".

i love it that my son has tried to get ready to go to work with his daddy the past two days. he tries his best to dress in a uniform like daddy, boots, pants, long sleeve shirt, chest protector (bullet proof vest), gun belt complete with holster and gun, and helmet.

i love it that the officer took time this morning to go ride along with my son after he got all "ready to go to work". before the officer left for work he gave my son and daughter an escort down up and down the street, complete with lights. they loved it!

the officer bought a bike at the thrift shop a couple of weeks ago. he cleaned it up, put new tubes in it, and tightened the chain then he gave it to my son. he also bought me a bike last week. he's going to do the same with it so we call all ride together. i'm thinking i may need a little larger seat because the seat it came with is tiny and my hind quarters are not so much.

i so appreciate my mom really pitching in and helping me these for the last two birthday parties we've had at her house. she's always helped me out before, but she really went above and beyond these past two parties to make sure they were special for my kids. not only a great mom, but a great grandma. love you mom!

the week before my daughter's birthday the officer was trying to figure out something to get her. i finally told him to get a particular horse my daughter is always admiring at target. it's a big horse. it's part of the "our generation" line - a line similar and much less expensive than american girl. the horse at target is $35. i had always thought it was little much for one horse; however, we decided to go ahead and just purchase it. the officer found it at target and called me to ask whether he should get the black, brown, or white and brown horse. i told him to buy the white and brown horse.

when the officer came home, he put his present in his closet. after my daughter had gone to bed i was on the computer and i asked the officer to see the horse. he brought it out of the closet. as i was looking at the package i said, "oh that's cute. she's going to love it. oh, it has cowboy boots for it. one of her babies can wear those! i think there's a doll that goes along with this horse from our generation."

the officer said, "you mean this doll?" and pulled the lily anna doll from the closet too.

he had purchased the doll to go along with the horse. he was almost more excited than i pictured my daughter being when she opened it. it was the last doll he said. it goes with the horse he said. daughters and their daddies!

i love it that the officer loves to bake cookies. he has been making sugar cookies almost every other week (his days off). they are pretty yummy!

the past two and a half weeks, the kids have been really diligent about completing their chores. my house really isn't that much cleaner because they still get a ton of toys out every day, but it has made my load a little easier. plus their spouses will thank me for it later.

i am not sure why i continue to keep empty shoe boxes. i currently see four sitting in my room. why do i still have them? was i going to do a craft with them? was i going to save them to wrap presents in? since i can't remember i can't quite bring myself to throw them away because as soon as i do i will remember why i kept them. do you do things like this? it's driving me crazy.

i finally went through my receipt drawer. i have a rebate i am was saving the receipts for. the rebate start date was back in sept. and it ends dec. 31. i've went through the drawer because it's almost time to turn it in. that was a lot of receipts to go through. i know you completely don't care about that but every time i did my coupon and shoved receipts in that drawer it would drive me crazy that i hadn't done it yet. it was a goal to sort through receipts and mail the rebate. i finally did it.

i had a birthday present for my niece, a. her birthday was back in september. the beginning of september. i just found out where her birthday present is. it's at my mom's house in her coat closet. yeah - she'll get it at christmas time - 3 1/2 months late. it's the thought that counts right??? luckily she is a sweet girl and very understanding.

i currently have 8 package of philadelphia cream cheese in my refrigerator. it was free two weeks ago at homeland. anyone need any? i will be making flour tortilla with a salsa/cream cheese mix and a cheese ball to take for christmas. any other ideas on what to do with the cream cheese? i am going to give two to my sister. i don't even ask her i just put it in her house so she can't say no. that will get rid of four of the packages. it's a sickness - this "getting things for free at homeland" thing.

i think that's about it. nice to get it all out. :)

we have christmas programs coming up. we have family christmas get togethers coming up. we have an extra few days with the officer coming up - very excited about that. i hope you are taking time this holiday to enjoy it.

michael buble!!!!

last wednesday i got the opportunity to go see michael buble. i purchased the tickets several months ago. i had missed michael buble when he was in tulsa back in june and purposed that if he came again i would not miss him. i found out through a local radio station that he was be at the ford center on dec. 8, 2010. i called my awesome friend, j, and asked her if she wanted to go. yes. did not expect anything different. we both enjoy his music very much!

we met downtown and went to eat at zios. i forgot to take a picture of my food before i chowed down so here's my half eaten bowl of artichoke spinach pasta. yummy huh? it was good, but that's about all i could eat of it.

after we finished eating we walked back over to the ford center. we arrived about 20 minutes early so we found our seats and settled in.

the opening act was a group called naturally 7. they were very, very good. they sang but also did something called vocal play. it meant they made sounds with using only their voices. one man played the drums. another played the bass guitar. all the instruments the group played included the harmonica, violin, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, and the most impressive electric guitar. you almost couldn't tell the difference. they were awesome.

after naturally 7 was finished, it was time for michael. he was great. he was funny. he was cheesy. i will say this is a "grown up show" because he does have language and some inappropriate jokes. it is not a show to bring your 13 year old daughter to. however, all his music was great.

he sang all his great ones, georgia, crazy love, me & mrs jones, save the last dance, cry me a river, haven't met you yet, hold on, and twist and shout. while he sang twist and shout there where huge white beach balls being bounced everywhere.

michael often threw out his sweat towels out into the crowd. i think he did it at least 4 times. i'm not so sure i would wrestle another lady for that. :)

several times throughout the show he would say, "i know you guys paid good money for these tickets. i know times are hard now for some people and that you had to save to come to this entertainment show. so i want you to know that i try to be very present in my performances and have a good time. i want you to have a good time. it's a party!" i think he did a great job at this.

during the last 1/2 of the show, he came down off stage and half way into the ford center! that was great. all the people at the back of the ford center got a little closer look at him. he sang 3 or 4 songs there and then headed back up to the stage.

during his "last song" white confetti rained down on the stage. it was all pink when it first came down because of the spotlights. however, michael said, "it's almost christmas time and i have to sing something christmas-y." when he started his song, the white stage lights came up and all the confetti that came down looked like snow. he sang it's beginning to look a lot like christmas. he ended with saying again, how much he appreciates his fan. the curtain fell down behind him. he put his mic back on the stand. he stood on stage all by himself with no band and no mic and sang us a song. he belted it at the top of his lungs and it was a great goodbye.

yeah, i'll be seeing him next time he is in town! when we first walked into the ford center there was a huge sign with michael buble (life size) on it. people were taking their picture with it. i wanted to do it, but didn't. they showed pictures of people taking pictures with him during the intercession. i decided i would take my picture with it when we left, but it was gone. i was saddened. :( that's okay next time around.

it was a great time. thanks to the officer for springing for me to go and thanks to my friend, j, who came in from out of town and drove back very late, to go with me!

i'll leave you with a couple of videos. one is of michael singing home, one of my favorite songs and the other is a short one of him singing twist and shout! video is shaky sorry. i didn't sing during that song because i didn't want you to have to hear it but it is me cheering at the end of video! (don't forget to pause the music playlist at the bottom of my blog before you play the video.)

she's 6

i'm going to call this a traveling post because i will have a lot of links in this post to other posts about my daughter. so pack your bags and go on a little trip down memory lane.

my daughter turned six this weekend. can't even tell you how much she makes me smile! i've said it time and time again, she is just a breath of fresh air. not a day goes by that she doesn't have me cracking up at something she does. on this blog i have a great list of her running vocabulary. i try to keep a list of the things she does that make my laugh out loud or smile! i would of course forget a lot of it so that's why i have this blog.

you can read about when God sent her to us here. through a time of mourning, she was given to us.

she loves her daddy too. you can read about one of the reasons she loves her daddy here. another reason is because the officer does things like this with her.

even though she's a girl, she can hold her own and doesn't need any help.

well i say she doesn't need any help. however, she has always had a little something that helped her. pink puppy. pink puppy was given to her by her aunt rachel when she was still in the hospital. it's only left her bed on occasion and not on purpose. now that she's six, she has put it up and has proclaimed she will not sleep with it anymore. it will only be fore decoration. she has not slept with it the last two nights. not going to lie. kind of makes me sad.

when she turned five, i did a pictorial time line blog post. you can see it here.

this year we spent the day with her. we started out going to walmart (because a toilet handle broke). the officer told my daughter, she could pick out something under $20. we looked down each toy aisle, but she had her gift picked out already. she picked.....

a skateboard. her cousin, a, has been teaching her how to skateboard and she wanted one of her own. the officer asked her that morning if she had three shirts one. no, no she doesn't. that's just her own style. layer a faux layered t-shirt. she always take the norm and put her twist on it.

after walmart, we let her pick out where she would like to eat for lunch. she picked out good ol' chuck-e-cheese. mommy printed out coupons of course and away we went. when we arrived they were just finishing up testing all the games. do you know what happens when they test the games? they put a token in each game to make sure it works and that it's giving tickets properly. they leave the tickets there for the customers to come around and collect. score! we had a great time. contrary to popular belief it does take a while to spend 100 token (especially when each game only cost one token) and the officer should not ever gamble. there was a game that would give you 100 token if you stopped the light right on the 100 ticket spot. he did it twice. and then..... it did not happen again. not when he took some of my son's tokens. and not when he spent another $5 to repay my son back his tokens to have a little extra to try again. lesson learned.

oh my. it's going by so fast. i'm glad at least to see as i look at the pictures with her fingers held up that she still has a little of the cheeks she had when she was born. at least those aren't gone - yet.

6 year old tea party

this weekend was my daughter's birthday. we decided her theme would be a doll tea party. i looked online for the invitation. i found an cute invitation that was a teapot with a teabag attached. inside the teabag was all the information for the party. here's what mine looked like. it said, "you're invited to a doll tea party at (my daughter's name) tea room. (party information in the attached teabag)." the teabag slipped out of it's wrapper and said to bring their favorite stuffed animal or doll.

my daughter invited 3 girl friends. one couldn't come because she was sick and the other didn't show up. i didn't know of mothers were going to attend so all the food that we have looks like a whole lot for two little girls, one mother and two grandmothers. :) for activities for the party i purchased wooden picture frames the girls could color. i took a picture of them that i will send with the thank you notes that she can put in the frame. i also had foam place mats. i used scrapbook paper and glued on a plate, knife, fork, spoon and a spot for a cup so they would know the proper placement of a setting for the table. they used foam stickers to decorate their place mats. the decision to do these crafts were made from what i could find 50% off at hobby lobby! don't you just love their sales?

my mom and the officer's mom let me borrow some old hats. some of the kind had netting. they also let me borrow some old jewelry. my mom set up her toy closet as a dress up room.

we had a dessert buffet table filled with yummy desserts. these were simple desserts that i could handle. well, we did have mrs. c's cookies. they were awesome of course. thanks mrs. c!

on the dessert table we also had rice krispy treats (the individually packed kind that i just cut into fourths) and brownie bites (pillsbury sweet moments brownie bites) that i simply drizzled pink chocolate over. they look fancy but they were very easy.

my mom made strawberries dipped in white chocolate. i made small cupcakes and a regular size cupcake for the birthday girl.

my mom had a very pretty pink table cloth she let me use. the officer's mother let me borrow all her teacups for the party. i bought candle holders from the dollar store and gerber daisies when they were 50% off at hobby lobby.

we had just small finger food. we had a veggie tray, cheese and crackers, kimbobs (of course), mini quiches, sliced apples, and mandarin oranges.

we had two really great waiters, the officer and my son. my son was in charge of refilling everyone's pink lemonade and the officer was in charge of filling everyone's plate with food. they waited on us the entire time and did a great job, even though the officer shook the teacups as he was setting them down. :)

while we were at the table, everyone had a turn to tell us about their special friend they brought along. it was a lot of fun. and i realized we still need to work on a few table manners! :) the poor menfolk (the grandpas) just had to wait around in the kitchen. my daughter blew out her candle, but didn't even eat her cupcake because she had eaten so many other treats.

after my daughter's friend left, all of my family came over for a pizza lunch. it was a nice relaxing time. i wasn't running around doing special tea party things. we were able relax and visit with family. we all took turns putting on party hats. my mom has a horrible one of me making a silly face. it did have a little bit of facebook time, but i think it's gone now. whew!

of course i could have never pulled this off without my mom's help. she was up way past her bedtime helping me make all the food and decorating for the party. thanks for all your help mom! no more birthday parties this year! :) also the officer's mom let me use her teacups and that was special. it was nice to use things of her for my daughter's party. she also let us use the hats and her mother's jewelry. actually every one had a hand in it. my sister let me use her drink dispenser and the officer and my son were great waiters. i think we all pulled off a nice tea party for her. thank you all!