SWAGGER WAGON

This is so funny to us.... You may have to BE US to get it, but it's hilarious. It has "Walker Family" allllllll over it! :)

'da swagger wagon!

SALE!

I'm not much of a shopper.

When I do, I either buy a few nice things that cost money, or go to a store where I can get a bunch of stuff inexpensively.

Except yesterday. I went to the OSU Authentic store at OSU. H-U-G-E sale. I just added up all the price tags .... grand total of original cost of merchandise (w/o tax): $674.00. Grand total of the TWENTY NINE shirts that we bought: $118, including tax. Totally awesome. Got some for each of us, everyone in my family (four Nike dri-fit shirts for my dad for Father's Day (about $36 ea) and a "welcome to Oklahoma" present for my bro and sil who are moving here soon), some for my cousin who will be a freshman in the fall and his family for game days!!!! Whoooooo. Sale goes through tomorrow if you need OSU gear! All t-shirts and dri-fit shirts are either $2 or $5. truly.

my graduate! :)

3-0!

I celebrated my birthday by seeing Emily and Caleb, shopping with my mom, spending time with the family, and eating some yummy Italian food!

The next evening we had a babysitter and then celebrated with friends!
My precious friend Kristy surprised me with a delicious, homemade strawberry cake. And it even matched my outfit! THANK YOU! We had about 8 couples - most are my playgroup friends - meet for dinner in the Tatami room at the local Japanese place.

At least they didn't make me actually blow out thirty candles - two was enough!

Here are the ladies. We're missing the Killian family, who was at the bowling alley claiming lanes for us. Nine of us ended up bowling and it was great.

Thanks so much, friends, for celebrating my birthday with me. I love spending time with you guys with our kids, but it sure is nice for a night out sometimes, too!

My friend, Taylor, asked if I was okay turning thirty... I said heck ya! I don't dread birthdays the way some do when they get to a higher number. It is a joy for me to be alive! to have three great boys! to have a great relationship with my family! to to healthy and happy! Although there are more facial lines, a few more brown spots, and a little more weight than a decade ago.... I think the 30's are going to be the best yet!!! Let's all try to celebrate life!

Welcome Caleb!

My longest friend (since I was 9 months old!), old neighbor, youth group buddy, and Maid of Honor had her second little boy on the 20th. On the 21st, I packed up the kiddos and we headed to go meet him (she delivered her first son in Louisiana so I missed it!)!!!
Welcome to CALEB!!!! He is simply precious. I think he looks a lot different from his big brother, Mason - imagine that - two brothers looking nothing alike! :)

Here are my boys!

Congrats, Emily and Hunter! We love you and your family!

Mid May

We've had a great few weeks. Other than a few bad weather situations, it's been nice, cool weather for the middle of May, which means we are outside playing t-ball, soccer, football, golf, trampoline, and swings all the time. ALL the time. and we love it!

Jason and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this week with dinner and a movie. We got home and our sitter said Kyle was just not wanting to go to sleep so I went to check on him. He was o-u-t at that point. In his clothes. with all his animals. and sweaty. Oh, how I miss being able to sleep so soundly! I was fortunate to be able to co-hostess a baby shower for our friends, the Endicotts. I've known Becky for like 13 years but we became close friends after college graduation, and now our husbands are great friends, too. We can't wait to welcome Sophie just in time for football season to start! :)

another long-lost friend - Ashley! It was so great to catch up with friends.

Just a fun pic of the boys in the shower the other night.

Grant successfully passed his karate test to become a yellow belt. Kiya!

I so wish I could post the video I took of Master William talking to Grant as he presented him the belt. He actually said in front of the whole class that Grant was one of the cutest kids he had ever seen! I hope other parents didn't get upset!

The elementary school had their annual carnival. Jason and I were both able to sign up to volunteer for a shift. We had a great time and it raised nearly $7,000 for the PTA and school. This was Jason's shift post, but right after his shift. The Velcro Wall - even Kyle got involved and was waaaaay up high!

Blue One!

I was just walking out side with the boys on a main street in town. All of a sudden, I hear Grant say "Blue one!" and then whacked me on the arm (really hard, I might add!) and then just crack up laughing. I said "what!?!?" and he points to the Volkswagon that just passed by and said "See - just like the commercials!"

Thank you, TV!

Little comments

it's little comments to people that can have a huge impact on their self image and confidence, whether those be good or bad comments. I have been lucky to have my life surrounded my positive people who are complimentary and not abusive to me; I know others aren't so lucky, and therefore struggle with stuff throughout their lives.

One such positive comment that stuck with me was from my hubby (we are celebrating eight years of wedded bliss today!). We are laying in bed talking one night and out of nowhere says something like "You know what? There are mothers and there are mommies. I am so glad that you chose to be a mommy for our boys."

:) A little comment... a big smile!

High Jump Video

I saw this yesterday morning on the Ellen show as I was exercising, and I just died laughing in the gym. The old lady next to me didn't think it so funny.... :) HA! Could you imagine?!?!


and right now on Ellen is Greyson Chance, an Edmond kid, singing a Lady GaGa song. I had no clue he was an Edmond boy until I just looked him up on youtube. WOW!

Shark Tooth

This is Grant's new favorite (for today, at least). It's a shark tooth necklace we picked up on Sunday. He even decided to take it for Show and Tell yesterday!
Isn't he so pretty!?!? :o)

Toesies and Flowers

This was an example of my immediate gut reaction to snap at Kyle about making a mess with markers... but I didn't yell when I found him. Instead, as I approached the red marker mess all over the garage floor, his feet and his legs, and said "Kyle, what have you done with the marker? Why did you color your feet with the red marker?"

His response: "because I wanted to have red feet like you, Mommy!"

So, that was a good lesson and reminder to take a breath and be patient when I find a mess to see if there was a good reason for it, or if they're just being crazy.

in this case, I had a huge smile and Kyle got a big hug!
In other news, we have our flowers planted - can't quite tell here but there is a lot of color and variety this year and I have added things that I've never used before.

This is my new flowerpot. It's the smaller version of two that we ordered on clearance from Crate and Barrel. The other one isn't due in until July so it'll have to wait for next season's flowers.

Mother's Day

With all of the pictures below, I am sorry that I did not get a picture of my clean dessert plate at Zio's! Boy, was the Oreo Mountain so very good and worth every calorie!

For Mother's day, we invited both of our moms (and dads!) to join us in Tulsa at the Aquarium as we'd never been there (and moms got in free that day!). The Halls were able to join us and we just had a delightful time! The boys were at a great age to see and appreciate the animals yet young enough so that everything was exciting. Even the adults were impressed and enjoyed it!

Here we are at the water version of a petting zoo. Starfish, egg shells, clownsomething, and somethingsomethingelse. Kyle was very brave, and Grant touched most of it (I even did, too!).
neat pic of the Jellyfish. Kyle was fascinated by jellyfish and the large, salt water fish. Grant really enjoyed the turtles and sharks.

and the Nemo fish!

Here are the boys with G and B (Grant's new names for them) or GG and Bubba (Kyle and us). This was in the Beaver and Otter room right before we were able to watch them being fed. And I was able to run in to one of my OSU Fiji friends that I may not have seen since our wedding in 2002!

Kyle, Grant and I participated in the Stingray and Shark petting time. The sharks are teeth less and just cartilage. Both kids got in there and did it. Here is a good shot with one of both animals.

Family pic in front of a life size picture of a whale behind us (all you can see are the gills (??) near the mouth. It's big).

The boys got to feed snapping turtles some carrot slices.

We didn't get many good shots of the sharks or the tunnel where you walk below them. The camera and lighting didn't want to agree with me.

it was a great day! I highly recommend it, and it's even better with coupons. We found a free coupon for the kids on their website that allowed them to get in free with a signature from their dentist after getting teeth cleaned... how convenient!

Hope all my mom friends had a great day, and I know there isn't anyone else I'd rather celebrate Mother's Day with than my little family and parents.

Sunny Day!

Isn't it just a glorious day outside today?!?! We are expecting 10+ people to come over in 30 minutes for our playgroup. It's an outside trampoline/fort/swing day!

Enjoy this beautiful day that's been given to us! Make the most of it and HAVE FUN! SMILE!