Bowling with Mema!

Mema is quite the expert bowler, and so before she left to go home to Florida, the kids and I had to try out our skills with her! Well, I'm not sure how many of them inherited her abilities. We all performed quite horribly, but it sure was entertaining watching Caleb play.

We miss having the grandparents closer by to us, but it was great to have them here for Christmas!

Road Trips

I would suggest reading this post from the last paragraph up because it really would be more interesting that way...

Wow, what an incredible year it has been for us! In January, we packed up our house in the middle of an Oklahoma snowstorm, unloaded it all into a storage unit in West Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and hit the road to sunny Florida! We almost always drive all night long to get there and this was no exception. Although, I probably shouldn't say "we" because it is mostly Tom driving. He drives from around 5 p.m. when we start out and I take over around 6 a.m. and drive for two or three hours while he sleeps. Then he drive the rest of the way. Once in Florida, we enjoyed the beach and sunny warm weather for the next two weeks at my husband's parent's house.

When we arrived back to frozen Oklahoma, Tom went to NLR and started his new position as Director of Guest Services, while the kids and I spent the next two weeks at my parent's house. On my late Grandfather's birthday, I loaded up the kids and drove the 4 hours to Granny Jones' house in Baldwin City, Kansas, to spend this emotional day with her. It was a precious time with a precious lady and my first long car trip as the lone adult with the kids. One my way home, I got a speeding ticket in a small speed trap town. It was my first ticket ever. Not that I haven't been pulled over. (I once got pulled over by the same cop on the same road a week apart, but that's a different story.) It always seemed like somehow I was able to "smile" my way out of getting a ticket, but not this time. (getting older I guess.) Well, I had carefully driven through the town, stopped at Sonic to get a large Dr. Pepper to keep me up for the rest of the drive home. As I exited the Sonic and began to leave the town, I saw a 65 speed limit sign and began to speed up. Next thing I know, there are flashing lights behing me and I am getting a ticket for speeding somewhere in the town, that I really can't imagine I did. I wanted to tell the officer, "But you don't understand I've been doing a good deed and now you are slapping me with a ticket!" Sheesh...

One highlight, or you might say low on the way home was in the bathroom at a gas station. An hour from Tulsa, one of the kids said they had to go potty. Well, I was just hoping to make it home without another stop, but it was inevitable. Once in the bathroom, Ezra blew up at Caleb because Caleb kept flushing the toilet while Ezra was sitting on it. Then he accidentally tripped on my foot. He began screaming and screaming at me saying, "why did you trip me mommy?" I tried and tried to tell him that I didn't, but he wouldn't quit and so after a bit I finally said very sarcastically, "Yes, Ezra, I did trip you on purpose because I just wanted you to fall down and get hurt!" Well, I guess since 4 year olds don't quite get sarcasm yet, this made the situation worse, and he continued to scream. So, finally, all 6 of us came walking out of the restroom in the small gas station, and there was the attendant with a look on her face revealing that she probably had heard the whole thing and was about to call the police on us. Well, I didn't need another run in with an officer, and so we got out of that town as quick as I could.

Well, this started out to be a summary of the year for us, and it looks like it will have to continue another day because I didn't get very far.

Caleb speaks an alternate language!

I just had to put these funny conversations on here that my friend Laura sent me after keeping Micah and Ezra today:


Micah: When I was born I just came out of my mommy's tummy! And when I came out I had a mohawk. I like Mohawks.

One of the other boys: I was in my mommy's tummy too! (like this is something unusual and something to brag about.)

Another boy: How did you come out of your mommy's tummy?

Micah: I just popped out! It was real easy!


Me(my friend Laura): Micah you are a little monkey (as he climbs up onto a swing that is high up)

Micah smiles

Andrew: (very seriously) He can not be a monkey. Monkeys swing from their tails and he does not have a tail.

The 15 Passenger Van

We've lived at New Life Ranch now for 7 weeks! We've been living in Trailhead lodge, or the medicine lodge, temporarily while our house is being built. Just across a little road from our living room windows is where the 3 fifteen passenger vans NLR owns are parked. I listened in one day to a conversation my kids were having at the table while looking out at those vans. The conversation went as follows:

Micah: "I can't wait to be a dad!"
Ezra: "Why?"
Micah: "Because then I can put my kids in one of those big vans and drive them around."
Ezra: "Yeah, dads with kids are lucky. They get to drive those big vans."
Micah: "That's why I want to be a dad, cause they can drive those. So I have to be a dad."
Abigail: "Or a movie star!"
Micah: "Yeah, I know movie stars get to drive those too."
Abigail: "So I guess you'll have to become a dad or a movie star."
Micah: "Yeah"

32 Degree weather

I sent my kids out in the cold today to play. We just had had enough of being stuck indoors. So, at 4:00 today, I said to them, "All right, everybody get on their socks and shoes, coats and gloves and go outside! You are going to play tag out there and enjoy it!" Previous to today, I don't think I would have ever made my kids play outside in 32 degree weather. (I personally try not to go anywhere ever with the kids when it is cold, unless I have to.) But last week, I ran into Lisa Johnston and she told me that where they are from if it gets to 10 degrees below freezing, then the kids cannot go outside for recess! What!? You mean we've been cooped up and had cabin fever now for almost a month, when I could have been sending them outside every day! This is an awesome revelation. We bundled up and played tag outside. Then the boys decided to walk on the frozen little creek in our back yard. Micah said he was having an "adventure." Eventually, Ezra fell through the ice (It just went up to his calf) and then of course Micah had to keep doing it until he fell through too! Wow, what an adventure! After about an hour, they all came in and I gave the boys a hot bath. We are definitely going to do this more often!

Tales of a Batman Fanatic

When my first child was almost two, I eagerly checked out the infamous, "Potty Training in Less than a Day" book from the library and started my first attempt at potty training. When that didn't work, we checked out the "Once upon a Potty" videos. While these provided much entertainment and sing-along opportunities for the kids, I saw no real connection between the video and them actually being potty trained. Most of my kids were potty trained around 2 and a half years old. However, Tom and I spent two grueling years trying to potty train one of our children. It was a trying time, as you might imagine. A few months later, our youngest child turned 2. The thought of spending another two years potty training him, seemed overhwelming and I hoped we would not have to repeat it. As it turns out, this little boy was actually potty trained in one day. Actually, I wouldn't say he was trained at all. My husband just decided on Thanksgiving Day at my in-laws house to put him in underwear and he has worn them ever since, with very few accidents! The secret: Batman underwear! This kid is completely and utterly in love with Batman underwear and now even insists on wearing every available clean pair he can find all at the same time. He may appear to be wearing a diaper, as his bottom is twice the usual size, but alas, it is his six pairs of batman underwear, and one pair of boxers he found in his brothers drawer all underneath his superhero pajama pants. If only I had discovered the Batman secret earlier for my other boys!

(On a side note, I do want to be sure not to falsely guarantee the Batman method to other parents of todders. From all my reading, it is apparent that there is actually a physical readiness that has to be present when potty training, which I am sure now that Caleb had that my other sons didn't at this age. Which translated means, really, he can hold his pee forever!)