Wall Gallery

The kids are getting to the age where they make fun projects at school and bring them home.  Which results in a parent dilemma of keeping everything or tossing it out.   I'm the worst (sorry kids!) with keeping it because they honestly won't care when at 18 I hand them a big file of their scribbles from preschool.  I'm so sentimental, I know.  Anyway, they do make cute stuff though that I want to display for a time.  Something they can be proud of. So I found an idea on Pinterest when I was looking to re-do the kids rooms and thought what a cool idea!  A wall gallery to hang their artwork!  We had a bare wall that needed something, so it was a perfect spot.

Looking towards H's room.

The full effect from her doorway.

Close up of how we did a cheaper version of a clip.

So on the Pinterest website, they bought these silver clips with a hole in the back that you could screw straight into the wall.  Well, those are super expensive (IMHO) and the wood trim was already more pricier than I thought.  So Justin suggested the cheaper clips that come in a bigger pack (less than $1.50 for 12) and he got washers to keep them in place to screw it to the wall.  Works like a charm!  At first I didn't like the look of it - but once he sharpied over them to make them darker and got it up in place, I loved it!!

And now we have a wonderful place to put their little creations!

Big boy time!

The other night, Justin got a wild idea to change Jace's crib from being a crib to a toddler bed.  I was less than thrilled with the idea, but I thought we could at least try it out.  So we busted out the camera (since I've been slacking these days) and tried to document a big step in the little boys life!  Both wanted to help...or maybe they just wanted to jump on the mattress.  Either way, we had a family night transitioning the bed!

This beauty has the biggest eyes and the smallest mouth.  This is my proof.

Why yes, H is worse than most retail stores with wanting to wear her holiday shirts before Thanksgiving even arrives.

Transition - complete.  Now, let's discuss bed time.  I wish I could say it went flawlessly, but that would be lying.  He hopped out of bed before we even shut the door, flew himself into said closed door, somehow opened the door, which resulted in us putting him back in bed.  Commence screaming for over an hour, then finally falling asleep on the floor with his feet blocking any opening of the door.  He woke up several times during the night for whatever reason and then woke up early the next morning, which resulted in waking up the sister.  I was not a happy camper.

We changed it back to a crib that night.

Thomas & a Dog {Halloween 2013}

Halloween has come and gone.  This year might have been less than exciting compared to last year when we went to 60 different places to collect candy, but we still enjoyed the holiday enough.  We never made it to a pumpkin patch (why?  Because Wal-mart had $2.98 pumpkins, that's why!) but we never got around to carving them.  Oh well, the kids won't be scarred by one year of parental slacking.

But we did make it to our church's Trunk or Treat!  Both H & J got to walk around the circle of cars and get candy. 

Getting ready to Trunk or Treat!

J didn't quite get it - he wanted to eat the candy as soon as it was dropped in his pumpkin.  He was trying to be sneaky when I caught this photo.  And H had a blast, although she since is a social butterfly, mostly wanted to wave hi to her friends when she saw them.

Our church did a carnival inside too and luckily, we got lots of little toys that make big noise.

 Halloween was on a school day so the kids got to dress up again!  H was SO excited while J was less than thrilled. He simply didn't want that dog head up!  He was fine once you took it off.

And our last stop was to Northpark Mall where the stores were handing out candy for all the kids who wanted to trick or treat inside.

We met a bunch of our friends there and had a crazy time trying to wrangle them all!  Luckily two of our hubbies came so it was easier with more adults around.

We did end up going to my sister's house for actual trick or treating.  H went around the neighborhood with cousins while J and I hung back at the house.  Too bad we only got a handful of trick or treaters...but their parents were probably feeling a little "done" like me with all the other events we could go to.  Fun year though! Maybe next time we'll get to carve the pumpkins.

Everything looks better in the morning...right?

Wrong.  When I woke up this morning, my daughter's hair still looked like a mullet.  Let's back up.  I wish I could start this post out by saying what a wonderful 7th anniversary my husband and I had.  With a night out to celebrate, loving on our children and reminiscing about our last 7 years.  Well, the reminiscing part happened but nothing else.

I had a webinar to attend so I holed up in my room around 7:45 to get ready for that.  Jace was already in bed and Haylie was on her way.  Jace napped much earlier in the day and Haylie didn't at all so I was thinking it would be an easy bedtime.

Notsomuch.

Jace was in his bed at 7:30 and we thought he was down.  At 8pm, he was up screaming.  Didn't want to be consoled, or sleep, or anything.  Just screaming.

Then Justin goes in to check on Haylie and he finds her in front of her new Thomas chair with bits of hair in front of her.  He then notices the front of her hair is gone.  She starts crying and says she doesn't want to see Mommy.  With a little investigating and asking what happened, she told him she cut her hair and put it behind her other chair in the corner.

He found this.  Yikes.

So he walks in while I'm happily watching my webinar with no idea of what is happening outside my door.  Then Haylie comes in.

I pee my pants.

Ok not really but I'm laughing/crying/in shock because my daughter somehow, for some reason, cut her hair in a mullet.

I beg Justin to take her to my sister to try to get her fixed up a little bit. Thankfully, Emily was able to salvage a little bit and we can evaluate the real situation.

Meanwhile, 2 hours later, Jace is still screaming and being restless so I find myself in the car, driving thru Edmond at 11 at night.  Happy anniversary.

But this morning things are much happier and we can make the hairstyle work.  I'm still debating on cutting off her length into a cute bob but Justin isn't on board.  And I realized today we have school pictures as well as family pictures in the next week.  This will definitely be a year to remember.

My New Job

If you have been on Facebook lately, you will probably see me sharing something called Oklahoma City Mom's Blog.  My friend Maria and I have teamed up as Co-Founders for this new gig.  We are a part of a larger network (citymomsblog.com) who are helping us get started and founded in our city.  While this is a TON of fun, it's also a LOT of work!  I'm trying to keep us all in clean underwear, let alone keep up with this blog.  Every spare moment I have has been dedicated to working on our new adventure.

So, keep checking back with me!  I'm still here, trying to chronicle our daily (chaotic) lives.  If you want to know more about Oklahoma City Mom's Blog, I'd love to fill you in!

Until then, like us and share us on Facebook!

Running Through Rainbows

Last weekend, was pretty busy - with making my daughter's dream come true and all.  But since we like to jam pack our weekends full of fun, I also had signed up to do The Color Run earlier that morning.  Justin was already planning to be gone antelope hunting, so my parents came down to help watch the kids.

We formed our team awhile back and most of us belong to the same Qgroup at church.  It was a pretty cold morning for Oklahoma and we tried to keep ourselves moving with warm ups, jumping around and layering up.

Half the team...

The whole team.

I haven't done a whole lot of 5k's, but this one was by far the most fun.  I even caught some swag right before the run!  Once we finally got started, I saw my cheering section not too long after!

I wish I could say I ran the whole thing, but I walked most of the hills.  My friend Sara and I stayed together and we got thru all the clouds of dust (or did I eat some dirt?) together!

After we were done, we went to the party section to do the final color toss.  It was a lot of fun - just don't expect to breathe!

And here we are - all colorized.

We were happy to be done (get it?), but honestly, it was so much fun!  Definitely signing up again next year!

The Day Finally Arrived

Ever since I found out that Thomas the Train was coming to OKC, I should have kept my mouth shut. I accidentally told Haylie in April that he was coming to town...in October. My, that's a long time to wait for a little girl!  But the day finally came and no one around was happier than her.

Jace certainly wasn't happier - but he was alright with being there.

He found some blocks to play with.

And old trains to climb on.

It was a cute set up - you went around to 4 different stations to get your stamp and then you ended up at the gift shop to get your "prize." (AKA stickers)  So we hopped up on the train for movie time, went around to Imagination Station to play with Thomas train tracks and waited in line anxiously to see Sir Topham Hatt.  Haylie was beyond thrilled to meet him and didn't even think twice about why he was in a poofy outfit or why he didn't talk.  When we left him, you would have thought she just met the biggest movie star ever with the way she reacted.

So we waited in line to get our turn on Thomas.  We didn't actually ride on him, but he pulled our "coach."

Poor Umpy got stuck with Jace duty for awhile.  Just keepin' it real, folks. (Aren't they adorable in their hats?!?)

The train was a slow movin' one, but Haylie soaked up every minute.  Jace - who never napped that day - finally fell asleep the final 10 minutes.

It was a really fun time and we will probably go back! My daughter's dreams came true on that day - when she could finally say she met Thomas.