Sunday, September 30, 2007

Favorite moments in the Sooner State

Our three days had many interesting moments, then again any three days with our kids have interesting moments. Here are some highlights.
It seems weird to say that one of my favorite moments was a funeral, but that that is why we were there and the service was really just about perfect. Grandma Andrews would have been very pleased. It was at her little country Methodist church in Howe. Katie did an amazing eulogy and Arlene really did a great job of carrying out her mom's wishes and celebrating her life. The weather was 85 degrees and was just wonderful. After the service we went to see the farm that belonged to Grandma and Grandad Andrews.

Another favorite moment was this conversation:

Tiffany: Hudson put it down (a new transformer toy) we're saving that to to play with during the service.

Hudson: (in a very whiny voice) But when is the service?

Tiffany: After lunch we will go back to the hotel, get dressed up, and then it will be time for the service.

Hudson: (in a VERY excited voice) Should I get dressed up like a dragon!?!

And do I even need to explain why two SLEEPING boys on our 4th of 4 plane flights was one of my favorite moments?
Thanks so much to everyone who was praying for us on our trip. We didn't know what to expect taking three little kids on a very kid-unfriendly adventure, but the Lord really blessed us with a very smooth and good family time. The kids had a great time on the plane and in the airports. They actually want to go back to Oklahoma! We were praying Ephesians 4:1-3 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. God really answered our prayers and made it smooth and comfortable to be humble, gentle and patient. We hope our time brought glory to Him.
And one last bonus- our other bag arrived this morning. We watched The Office last night (see previous post) -so now let the laundry commence.
We have one more picture to share, but it is not going up on the blog yet because Andrew is going to use it in his church opening on October 7th. Wouldn't want to give it out as a spoiler for our Cornerstone readers. And clearly we have some because today (to our surprise) Ainsley's story about the tooth fairy (see post) was in Barry's sermon! You can listen to his sermon as soon as it is posted here. Thanks again for praying for us.

Almost all home

We made it home, the flight and everything went great. The only thing missing is one of our bags. Most people would think that is bad. Turns out it is good news because I had re-sorted everything from a kid bag and a parent bag into a dirty clothes bag and a clean clothes/everything else bag. The bag we are missing is the dirty clothes bag. That means I don't have to do laundry tonight. Okay- good chance I wouldn't have done the laundry tonight anyway, but I would have FELT like I SHOULD be doing the laundry tonight. This way I can happily watch The Office season premier that we missed while we were gone without feeling guilty. Hopefully the bag shows up sometime soon, but not until after The Office is over.

Speaking of the Office, did you know God can protect children by messing with TV's? We have been waiting since last spring for The Office premier. It is seriously on our calender-a TV show. It is an exciting life we lead. Anyway- so we end up in Oklahoma on the night of the premier. We are dying about this and plan over and over how we can watch it. We have adjoining rooms with Katie so we plan to put the kids to bed and then watch it in her room. This is a little tricky because Oklahoma is in the central time zone so everything is an hour earlier there so it is now on at 8 their time, add to this that they are two hours ahead of us so it is like it is on at 6:00 for our bodies. But we have been up since 4:00 am so I don't think it is unreasonable for the kids to be tired enough to lay in bed and be quiet so we can watch the funniest TV show ever created. Evidently they thought it was unreasonable. God protected them from grumpy parents by messing up the TV's and making it so THEY DON'T GET NBC! What said it was NBC was showing the old movie Spies Like Us. What. The. Heck. We were so mad. Did I mention we have been waiting MONTHS to see this show? Oh well. Now we get to watch it tonight (thank goodness for DVR) and we didn't have to do something unthinkable to our children because they were jumping on the bed being little psychos during the time we would have been watching TV.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

So this is Oklahoma

Ever since I joined the Pate family I have heard Oklahoma stories, so it is fun to finally be able to see it myself. For anyone who hasn't heard this story, both of Andrew's parents lived in this little town in Oklahoma when they were kids, then both moved away to different places, and eventually met again in Oregon and got married. Once his grandparents moved back here they would come and visit every summer. So although Great-Grandma Andrews has lived in Salem for the last 14 years her funeral is here, and so we are too. Here is what has happened today:

The airplane ride was great fun and the kids did great. The loved the smaller (50 person) jet that we took from Dallas TX to Ft. Smith AR because it was WAY more exciting than the big plane. Camden did great on his first airplane voyage.
So far I haven't witnessed any of the famous things that I have been promised like horrible snakes, weird bugs, very strange giant road kill. All I have seen is this:


Maybe our boys will come home with this cut as a souvenir from the South.

Our hotel has a pool, but they closed it last weekend. We had to settle for the hot tub. It was 89 degrees here today, but the hot tub was still fun at night. Ainsley said that a hot tub is a good end to a peaceful day. I think a good end to a peaceful day would be Hudson going to sleep. He is still up even after two walks. He is the only one who took a nap this afternoon in the car so the rest of us are done and ready for bed. Hopefully he will be out soon.
Our other exciting thing is that our rental car is... an IMPALA. When we were in college Andrew's car was from his Grandparents and was an old '65 Impala. So it seems appropriate that this is what we are driving here, even if it is not teal and only half the size of his old one.
I'm going to try and sleep even if Hudson isn't!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

My favorite moment today

It is only 2:22, so I realize something else could happen. But so far my favorite moment today was when crazy laughter coming from both boys prompted me to peek in Hudson's room. What I saw was Hudson "playing ball" with Camden. Turns out as I watched that their idea of "playing ball" was Hudson dropping the ball ON Camden and Camden laughing and trying to crawl to the ball before Hudson got to it. So cute to see their relationship beginning to develop. Camden just can't grow up fast enough for Hudson.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Our Weekend


Grandma and Grandpa Seaquist came this weekend. We had a great time at Ainsley's soccer game, going downtown, having dinner with Elizabeth, and going to church. It took all of 3 hours and 16 minutes after they had left for a child to be reduced to wailing tears desperately needing them. Hudson was playing outside and came in crying for Grandma and Grandpa because "my tummy got hurt by running into the wheel on the van" (how the heck does that happen?") Whenever Ainsley is so tired that she is reduced to an emotional breakdown over something that she cannot even articulate she cries for Grandpa. Evidently Hudson has learned this important skill as well. Speaking of Hudson, we were driving by Powell Valley and he said, "That's my Church" (as he does every time we drive by PV), he then went on to say, "they have treats there." I agreed, he then said, "Yep, that is why they call it CHURCH!" Before you question the theology we teach at our house, remember Acts 2:46 talks about the early church and how they all broke bread together going house to house. (okay, but full disclosure, we haven't ever talked about that with Hudson, it is all about the food with him.)

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Just don't tell other kids!


On Thursday Ainsley's first baby tooth came out. However, you will notice that there is not actually a hole in her mouth. This is because I discovered back in August that her big teeth were coming in behind her still present baby teeth. This warranted a panicked trip to the dentist. Turns out that is really quite normal (but because just a week before I had been to urgent care with her to find out that the ear ache she had complained about for 2+ weeks was actually an infection I wasn't taking any chances this time. I have a hard time finding that happy medium between neurotically over-protective and neglectful). So the dentist gave her a month (which coincided with getting her teeth cleaned) to wiggle her tooth and try and get it loose enough so they could pull it with topical stuff rather than a shot. It worked and they pulled it without too much trauma. She has until October 11th when she gets sealants put on her teeth to get the next one wiggly enough that they can do the same thing. So as we are driving home from the dentist here is our conversation:
Me: Are you excited to put it under your pillow?
Ainsley: I'm not giving it to the tooth fairy.
Me: Why not?
Ainsley: Because the tooth fairy is just parents and you wouldn't give me much money anyway.
I don't know which I'm more surprised about, that at 6 she already knows the tooth fairy isn't real, or that at 6 she already knows how cheap I am.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Remembering Great-Grandma

On Tuesday the 18th Andrew's Grandma Andrews went to be with the Lord. She died 5 days after her 89th birthday. We are so excited that she is now enjoying life in Heaven able to walk, run, jump, and do all the things that arthritis has prevented her from doing for so much of her life. When I told Hudson that great-grandma had gone to Heaven, his response was "that's great."(he doesn't even begin to understand that he won't see her again for quite some time) Ainsley was much more upset and has shed some tears. They are both pretty excited about our trip next week to Oklahoma for her service. Hudson believes that we are going on the airplane to go to Heaven to visit her. From the stories I have heard I don't think Oklahoma is much like Heaven. This is a picture of Great-Grandma with Ainsley and Hudson on Thanksgiving in 2004. Ainsley was 3, Hudson was almost 1.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Because there are SO many skeletons in your closet???

Ainsley is the "star" this week at school. I gave her some pictures to choose from to take for the bulletin board she gets to decorate with things about her. She picked out three and I told her she could pick a few more if she wanted. Her response was, "no, I just don't want people to know a whole lot about my past."

Friday, September 14, 2007

My favorite things this week

Friday- Hudson and Seth (neighbor across the street) trying to determine who would be able to bite harder, spiderman or a dragon. You look at the picture and decide.
Sunday- Walking with the Glover boys to the park, Davis(6) and Ainsley were behind Jackson(3), Hudson and I. When the park comes into view, Ainsley and Davis take off running, leaving the little boys behind. They try to run and catch up, but can't. Jackson stops running, turns around and looks at me and says, "We're still their follow the leader, they are just running too fast right now." Lest you think they were giving up their position as leader just because they were no longer actually the leaders.
Monday-bedtime had come and Hudson had not yet used up his energy (not that he ever really does, but it was especially bad this night.) So I packed up the kids and we went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was beginning to get dark and there was that fallish chill in the air. This led to Ainsley determining that it was in fact "ALMOST HALLOWEEN!" So I think my kids might have a career in retail ahead of them since their idea of when Halloween season begins lines up exactly with when they have rolled out the Halloween decor in the stores. Next week will probably be almost Christmas.
Tuesday- Hudson waving goodbye to Daddy as he is leaving for work yelling at him, "come back here again someday." Yeah- let's hope so because your mommy was SO not made to be a single parent!
Wednesday- I went into Camden's room to get him up from nap and found him SITTING UP IN HIS BED! Time to move the crib mattress down. He has changed so much just this week, he is so close to crawling, is pulling himself up, rolling across the floor. So basically I'm now hitting the stage where every morning I'm going to be asking the Lord for extra strength because chaos is coming once again (like it ever left our house...)

Wednesday (second favorite thing)- a good friend (who will remain nameless because I don't know the status of who she has told) called to say "we have had babies at the same time (we each have 3 kids that are all the same age) and so I'm calling with a warning for you!" So big congratulations for her- and very careful for me, I'm good with just three for now!
Thursday- along with the cape pictured in yesterday's post, Aunt Lois also sent some old pictures that were really fun. When I was showing the kids one of me when I was about 3 on a tricycle Hudson started flipping out that he needed that bike. I tried so hard to explain that the picture was at least 30 years old (the frightens me to write) and I didn't know where the bike was. Not good enough for him. We will probably be looking for that bike forever. Another really fun thing she sent was a copy of an old postcard that my dad sent home to them and it is postmarked September 15, 1959, the PS on the postcard says "buy me a new alarm clock." What I want to know is WHEN HAS MY DAD EVER NEEDED AN ALARM CLOCK?????"

Today- Ainsley getting up early so she could draw pictures to take to her friends at school.











Thursday, September 13, 2007

What do you get...


...when you cross a pirate (sword), superhero (cape-fresh from Aunt Lois), swimmer (goggles-also from Aunt Lois) police man (belt from Corey), fireman (hat from Jerrod), and a Barlow fan (#1 finger)?


Wednesday, September 5, 2007

A First Grader!

The Girl had her first day of school yesterday. She was so excited. She came home and said, "I just want the rest of today to be over right now so I can go back to first grade right now." Hudson is still adjusting to her being gone, he asked, "but who will play with me?" Camden needs to grow up fast. After school we greeted her with cookies to eat and there were flowers delivered for her from Grandma and Grandpa Seaquist.





Tuesday, September 4, 2007

NEW BLOG

I was frustrated all year about how pictures posted on my blog- so I decided to finally make the break (not that it was all that big of a deal) and switch to blogger where I would be happier with pictures being posted. So, if you want to see posts on my previous blog, go to it here. It has posts from September 2006 to August 2007.
Hopefully I will like this better for sharing pictures.