Pictures from Austin

At the game

Alumni Association gathering on Sixth Street (early on!)

At dinner on Friday

Close...But No Cigar!

WE CHEERED LOUD! And, boy, was it fun! :) Jason and I headed to Austin on Friday morning for the OSU versus Texas football game. We went with some friends from dental school, Bryan and Erin, and had a great time. We made it in really good time (thanks to smooth traffic and slight lead in the foot) and went to Hula Hut on Lake Austin for dinner. Palm trees in October are a nice sight! The food was great - and frozen margaritas! Off to the infamous Sixth Street to meet up with other Poke fans that ventured south at the Blind Pig Pub, and it really was impressive how many people showed up by the night's end (which for us was pretty early!). After heading to our AWESOME hotel, we took advantage of playing Nintendo Wii in the lobby. It was my first time and I had a lot of fun bowling. Baseball and Tennis weren't so hot... but it was fun.

Saturday was a lot of hanging out with fellow fans, and then walking to the game. What a huge stadium! Our team tried really hard. You can always say "if this or that would have, should have, could have..." yes, we could have pulled out a win, but we did play them tough - and down to the last play AT HOME! Way to go, Cowboys! I have to give it to the Texas fans that I have only heard negative about - really only one drunk student yelled negative things at us - everyone else was either quiet or had nice comments to say about our team. Good hosts, to us anyways (I know OU and A&M fans would probably disagree). Did you hear it was the largest crowd EVER in Texas history to watch any kind of football game? Yes, it was VERY loud, but the OSU fans did hold our own.

Should I mention that Mr. Lead Foot got a ticket on the way home going 80 (which was actually lucky! ha). It was Bryan, not Jason.

Now it's off to unpacking and doing laundry and paying bills - wow, reality check. Thanks to GG and Bubba for watching the kiddos so we could have our first "us" weekend in four and a half years (aka since kids).

We met Mr. Mason (otherwise "Little Mason" around our house as Grant's best friend is named Mason - he's "Big Mason") before leaving Edmond as they were in town - cutie pie!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween week! Wags the Dog and Cowboy are looking forward to Friday's events!

High Chair, Bye Chair!

First off, look how much they have changed?!?! Time is flying, friends - live it fully!

Back to my point...Does this officially mean that I am no longer a mom to a baby? Has it really been three and a half years that this "lovely" piece of furniture has graced my kitchen? It now has a new home in our attic (until perhaps the local consignment sale in the spring). Kyle had officially outgrown it as apparent by the tugging of his body every time we tried to get him out. It's a bittersweet event that I gave no thought to before taking it to the garage - had the new booster chair, put it together, and voila! We are now lucky to be able to have people over and 6 dine around our kitchen table together. But, it does mean the boys have grown... and they are a preschooler and a toddler!

Homecoming Celebrations

OSU Homecoming is a blast! We have had the best weekend catching up with college friends and simply celebrating everything orange and black. Our family met Jason's former roommate, Seth, and his wife, Darci, for lunch on Friday and realized it had been FOUR years since we've all been together. We can't wait to meet their new addition sometime this winter! Next up, was my college friend from the first day until the end - Erryn, as we lived together at least 2 of our 4 years in Stillwater. Her family came and hung out at our home until we all went to dinner and then to the Walkarounds on campus. It was a lot of fun to see the four kids playing together - especially the older two as Grant has already asked if Brinley can come back and play. They have grown so fast and I just had a great time playing with Mr. Chunkers, Calin, as he is a bald, "big" guy like Kyle was...lots of fun! Still, I think Erryn and I should still be living in 223 Drummond and going on coke dates! :) Fun times fly by... Saturday was game day. We started off by going on campus and taking the boys to the 'walk' before the game. We had never done that and it really was neat. Kyle had a lot of people ooohhing and gooing over him. What a charmer.

Homecoming week at OSU is unbelievable. It is close to my heart, maybe more than a lot of others, because of my time spent on the executive team and on steering; plus, anyone from the Greek system appreciates the effort of the home decorations, signs, football frenzy, etc. It's been truly fun to share some of these events with my boys - not that Kyle will remember, but Grant was really in to the house decs and the campus stuff this year.

Time Killer

It's a fun way to kill some time! click here for some Halloween bowling!

The Ultimate Gift

It's a rare time when I have the ability to sit down for 2 hours and do one of my favorite things - read! I was fortunate enough last weekend to have two little kids who both decided to take two hour naps at the same time, and I was able to crack open a book that has been collecting some dust in our bookshelves. It was a great, quick read, and I wanted to share a little bit about it and recommend it for you, too! If you live close, I'll even let you borrow it! :)

The book is called The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall. It's a story about family, love, money and the true gifts in the world. Without ruining it, a young 24 year old learns through a series of "tests" the value of life's blessings... granted to him by his great-uncle's will, while the rest of his family received millions of dollars. He doesn't. He has to work for it, and ends up learning and having so much more.

The gifts include the following: value of honest work, gift of money, true friends, learning, problems, family, laughter, dreams, giving, gratitude, a day, and of love.

It's an easy read and it does make you think about how you live your life. I'm normally a fan of romances (go Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts!) and love recommendations, too. Do you have any?

Also, let's see... a recap of us this week. Busy work week. Preschool Open House. Haley's joint birthday party. Tried a few new recipes for dinners - nothing too exciting. Jason attended a friend's funeral. Texas beat OU. OSU is currently holding a small 3 point lead over Missouri (note: Jason is glued to it and I'm at the computer. Big shocker. It always makes for a happier Sunday if the Cowboys win, in his eyes!). Playgroup and a few long walks for me. We're on Mucinex trying to get rid of the crud. Planted 3 trees in our backyard. Had some friends over and made homemade Halloween sugar cookies. Relaxed at Kristy's while - gasp - the kids played nicely.

I'll try to do some various stuff on this site and not only just update on the kids (but that sure is the best for a proud mom!). Love to you all - thanks for checking this out.

Pumpkin Patch Party

What a blast! We went on Saturday morning to the Grider pumpkin patch just south of town; it was super! My parents were in town for the OSU game and so they joined us (in future blogs, they are GG and Bubba). We went last year and the field last year was covered with bugs proving to not be fun. However, they replanted in a different field. I wish I had a video camera to record Jason - in his element! We only wanted about 7-8 pumpkins... we ended up with more than 20 because he kept wandering off and cutting them off of the vines. Grant and Kyle were both in to it and each picked out their very own special pumpkin. Our arms were scraped up but it was a great time.

We ended the day at the Oklahoma State football game where we beat Texas A&M quite handily. What a blast! We were even able to catch up with some college friends we hadn't seen in quite a while at tailgates and then during the game (was there even a 2nd half, Casey and Becky?!)

And on this special day one year ago, Wes and Anne were married! Happy Anniversary!

And We're Off!

Let's just start the first blog post by saying "WHAT AM I DOING!?" I never imagined that our family would have one of these, but truthfully, I have had a blast looking at my friends' sites and seeing their updates. I guess it is kind of taking over on mass emails (sorry, that won't happen with us - we love email too much!). I decided to finally give it a try last week after talking to one of my dearest friends who encouraged me. So, here we are...

It's safe to assume that I, Stacy, will be posting the majority of our entries, but Jason may add some words here and there (if OSU goes 9-3 over my 7-5 bet then I'm sure he'll let the world know!).

We hope to update this enough so you can know what is going on in our lives and see some of the funny things the boys do, but not count on it as our communication tool. Lots of love to each of you.

And, I also want to welcome Mr. Mason Hunter to our world! Congratulations, Emily and Hunter! We love you guys and can't wait to meet your little man. :)