"Bean" (the Turtle)

This is "Bean" (Ryan named him). We have had him since May?? I think. He showed up in our back yard & made a perfect new little part of our family. We have a wonderful "Multi-Dollar" condo for him (wanted to say Multi Million, but that would be lying..lol), but he keeps burying himself in the substrate and refusing to eat, which was causing him to loose weight. So he and his good friend "Sam" got moved into -prison- to force them to act like turtles should in the summer. Their condo is currently under construction as we think the UVA & UVB bulbs are too far away from the babies causing them to think its winter?? So until the upgrades are complete they will just have to like prison. They seen to actually enjoy it though....the sunny window seems to be keeping them happy....




No animals were harmed in the making of this video. The babies are very used to Ryans little hands being in the cage with them.
Yes-Ryan washed his hands as soon as filming was complete - so no children were harmed either! :)

Daycare Felt Boards

Well, for the last couple years we have been using Funshine Express - a curriculum program for toddlers & preschoolers. With it we always have wall displays for weather, calendar, shapes, colors, ABC's, Numbers...etc... Well I have just always taped them to the wall since I had no other way to hang them up.
That has changed this year!!!! JD Made me some felt boards to use with velcro so - No More Tape!!! :) It's so exciting!! Plus now we can use felt board stories with our books even!! It's great!
I had to share this picture of my 3 "Handy Men" hanging them up.

Dylan's New Friend

This is Dylan & his new friend Brooklynn. She comes over to play every now & then. The two of them acted as if they had known each other always with in minutes of meeting. They are so cute!

Happy Family Day Sponge Bob Jr.

It has officially been a year now since Sponge Bob Jr. became a part of our family. He's still just as happy as the day we got him. Now he's even trained to eat when his light comes on.

It wasn't easy getting a picture of this little guy. I tried feeding him which helped but it made his water all cloudy.

So far so good....

Last week we went for our "In Depth" Level 2 ultrasound to make sure Aydan made it through my case of shingles okay.

All seems fine so far though they did want us to come back toward the end of Sept. just to make sure.

It was cool though! The pictures were a little more fuzzy but you could see right through him! All of his tummy matter, brain everything! It was awesome...he has two kidneys! (Okay so I know most everyone does, but hey had we not done this ultrasound we may not have been sure about his...)

Anyways at the end they gave us another little 4D shot of him. They don't have the ability to print it out in color but the black & white copy was great too!

We did find out that he's a little confused about his origin...He was giving us the "Hang Loose" sign. Whats up with that? Oklahoma is pretty far from Hawaii! Maybe he'll just be a traveller! Or maybe all the liquid & ocean sounds in there have him hopeful! :)

Dylans' First Day of School

Today was Dylans first day of school. He was so excited. JD & I both were wanting to walk him in, but that dream was quickly dashed when we got to the school and there was no place to park. The streets were so busy! Like rush hr. in a big city. So I just had to hop out and take him in myself. Holding his hand all the way to his class (for my sake not his...) he was so eager to just go. I had him pause long enough outside his class for me to snap a picture. The only one I got - being a scrapbooker this made me a little sad. But off he went! Ready to play & make new friends.

He picked out his own clothes that he wanted to wear. His new monster truck shirt & his "soft pants" since it was only 68 degrees when we got up & it wasn't supposed to get over 90 I decided this was okay. Well, It ended up getting warmer than that. So tomorrow he'll be wearing shorts!

This afternoon we went to pick him up - he & his teacher quickly informed us he had made a new friend. A little girl named Asha (Tasha - T) just as cute as she can be. I guess he had even asked his teacher if they could sit together in class!?!? Is he old enough for this?

We were hoping to hear all about his day, but he just said he didn't want to tell us. Slowly he is letting go of bits & pieces though!

Over all it sounds like he had a pretty great day. I mean he wants to go back tomorrow. That has to be good right?

Yearly Pictures

Yesterday we had pictures of Dylan & Ryan taken. They were supposed to be done right after their birthdays, but....life's been a little busy. Better late than never...

Seeing Aydan!!

Today we went to have a 4D ultrasound done. It was AWESOME! Seeing your baby before you can see him is great! I just wanted to share a few of the pics we got!

Getting ready for school.....

Well we've been trying to get stuff ready for Dylan to go to school. This past weekend we had a "no tax weekend" on clothes.

So we got him a few new clothes & a pair of new shoes. He's so excited, but I think he's also starting to get a little nervous. He'll do great. He makes friends very easily, and loves learning.

I still cannot believe he's 4 already. It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home for the first time.

Meet "Bunny"

This is "Bunny". He has been coming and eating in our back yard all spring. Sometimes bring his mate with him. We think right now she is in a nest with their youngsters right now though. Ryan just loves the visitor. The first thing he looks for in the morning & one of the last before bed. (bunny visits only while it's cool out) We put out dried corn for him so that he'll continue to visit.

Story Time

We still go to story time every week. I guess we've been there a long time because they are starting to repeat themes. This time we learned again about Dinosaurs. The kids loved it though!


They read books, sang a dino song while dancing, watched a short film, and did a dino craft.


Ryan finished his headband, Dylan got only 1 of the 3 dinos colored. He wanted the whole page to be orange. (This took a looooonnnggg time!) But it's cute! :)

I need a hair cut....

Well, if you can see him, this is Ryan. He needed a hair cut. Hair - not my thing, but I've been cutting their hair since the beginning. The last time they got haircuts we decided to take them and get it done by someone who knows what they are doing. Well - turns out that's not always true! I was amazed how chopped up it was considering how still they sat. They aren't even that still for me and at least I get it straight!
So once again it needs to be done, but what to do?

Sunday evening I finally cut it again. Both of them look very nice now though. So in a month or two we will be right back where we started....

Brotherly Love

I came accross this picture today. It's one from sometime last year, but it was just too sweet not to share!

Pool Party

Last month we invited our friends Elle & Emma to come over for a pool party. We sat up 2 blow up pools & the "silly sprinkler". All 4 of the kids had a lot of fun. Elle & Emma brought over their little water guns which were a big hit with my boys.

Kale's 4th Birthday

Kale, his Mom, & sister were recently able to come back to OK from Hawaii to visit. While they were in the state to had Kale's 4th birthday party. Of course we had to go. Dylan has missed Kale so much. It was so great to get to go. This was in May and now at the end of July he still talks non-stop about seeing him.

All of the kids were having so much fun!

Kales family makes the best hamburgers! I had been having a ton of trouble with all day sickness during that time & couldn't eat a thing, but I ate 2 burgers & a ton of other stuff. Real home cooking!

Ryan's 2nd Birthday Party

We had a small party at home with Ryan's daycare friends once we got back from TX. We had a nemo party, but as you can see...they made a mistake on the cake. I ordered a half sheet cake, they made him a full sheet. This thing was half as big as our kitchen table. We just sent home extra with all the guests! :)

We also cooked out hot dogs so we didn't just sugar up the kids-I think they enjoyed the cheesy chips more though...
He also enjoyed his gifts alot!

Ryan's 2nd Birthday (at Mom's house)

We were in TX for Ryan's 2nd Birthday so we had a little family party for him there. Mom got him an Elmo cake & some Nemo plates & napkins.

He got a big toy Jeep to play with in the sand, and a swimming pool(we waited to use this after we came back home).

After he opened his presents all the kids played in the bird bath (I guess if you can't use a pool this is the next best thing!).

Mom brought out some towels to dry the kids with but JD & Travis took them because "it kept them cool".

Family Birthday for Dylan

Each year for the boys birthdays we try to do something fun just as a family. This year for Dylan's birthday we had planned to go to the Zoo but the weather just was good, soooo...we went to the Omniplex instead! Dylan had a blast! They have so many different exibits. Dylan is always interested to learn about anything, so a place that he can go from thing to thing is great!

After that we went to eat at the Mall food court because Dylan wanted Chik-fil-a, and we couldn't find a different one. We sat at a table shaped like a car, which of course made Dylan's day.

Once we go home he opened his gift from Ryan. It was a Disney Cars Mega Bloks set. Dylan loves Legos & Mega Bloks so he still loves this thing.

Our new Puppy

Ok, so he's not so new by now but he was in March!

This is Symon. We got him the day of Dylan's party. Getting a dog wasn't planned, it just kinda happened. We went to get Dylan's cake & there was a lady sitting outside with puppies....so here we are....

Anyways, these are pictures of when we first got him. He really loved Ryan's paci. We had to quickly let him know this wasn't okay...plus Ryan wasn't to happy to share....

Dylan's 4th Birthday

This Year was Dylan's Golden Birthday. So we had a pretty big party complete with bounce house!
Dylan wanted a Monster Truck cake, but a firetruck party......So we used firetruck decorations.