Jackson at Kanakuk

Jackson with his amazing counselors. Micah (OU guy), George (OSU guy) and Cole (OSU guy). Jason and I couldn't have asked for sweeter or more nurturing young men for our son to hang out with for a week. How grateful we are that they influenced Jackson for a week and he thought they were rock stars.

We had the most amazing opportunity to send Jackson to Kanakuk for a week. He had the time of his life. Jason does a laundry business with his Dad where they service all the camp's laundry over the summer. Jackson rode with Jason a few times and helped pick up and deliver the laundry at the various camps. We have been telling him that after first grade he can go to Kanakuk if he wants. He rode with Jason one day in August and asked Jason if he could go this year. Jason made a few calls and Kanakuk graciously agreed to take him for one week of an ongoing two week term at K-1. Jackson's counselors were amazing and they were really the ones that agreed to take him even with a full cabin of very young rowdy boys. Jason's parents also were amazing to help out and agreed to take him every morning at 8:30 and pick him up every evening at 9:30 because there were no bunks available in K-1, boys cabin #1. So Jackson was essentially a day camper which Kanakuk doesn't really offer but since my father in law was a director there for almost 20 years and my husband and he do the laundry for the Kamps they graciously let us send Jackson. Jackson knew that when Jason was little he was a day camper. We told him that he was extremely special to get to do this and most kids don't get this opportunity at age six. I wanted him to know what a blessing it was that he got to do this. He kept saying that he "was just as special as Daddy was when he was a little boy" because he got to be a Day Camper just like Daddy. He was obsessed with finding Jason's name still on the K-1 boys record for swimming times and finding Jason's name in cabin #1 up on the ceiling. He was so pumped to write his name on the cabin where Jason had his name. He had three of the most precious counselors. He had one Counselor from OU and two counselors from OSU. Yet, they were all big Sooner fans so Jackson loved that. He made a "best friend" in his cabin with the sweetest little boy named Jack from "The Woodlands." Jack took him under his wing and I guess they were seen all over camp together walking around with their arms around each other.
These were some fun memories of his first year at Kanakuk.
-He was so pumped to go canoeing but then got stuck out in the canoe with his best friend Jack for what Jackson said was one whole hour.
-He loved Kamp coffee cake and their fried chicken.
-He thought F.O.B. (flat on back time or rest time) was okay. But he wanted to take his own pillow because he had F.O.B. on the counselor's bunk and he thought his pillow was stinky.
-He told someone his "Big" owned the party barn because the party barn is actually named after Jim "The Jumping Jim Brawner Party Barn." He told Jason later that he thought Big owned it because he bought it.
-He got a new award which was awarded to about 20 boys in the whole camp called the "invisible hero" award. It was for kids who try to show kindness to those around them without wanting recognition for their kind act. He was so proud of himself but really had no idea what the award was really about. He got a special "invisible hero" necklace which he has been wearing ever since camp.
-He loved that the boys camp does not have to wear shirt during the day. But he made sure to tell me that he was pretty sure the girls have to wear shirts and that the boys have to wear shorts (even if the bell is ringing you have to hurry up and put you shorts on).
-When one of the directors wives came up and talked to Jackson about how special it was that he got to come to Kanakuk as a day camper he made sure to tell her that his Dad was "the laundry guy." The directors wife just laughed and told us later that he was clueless that his amazing Grandpa left such a legacy at Kamp and everyone loves and knows "Jim Brawner" but he thinks his "claim to fame" is that his Dad is "the laundry guy."
-He loved the water slide and the blob at Kamp.
-We love that he had no clue what tribe he was in probably because he came into the term halfway through. Even though his Dad was a Choctaw and we told him that is what he was I think he forgot. I think he just floated around to the different tribal events "where ever the spirit moved him" that particular day. So he may be the only boy in the history of Kanakuk that was in two tribes.
-He loved it when his Grandma SueSue picked him up and gave him Gatorade to drink.
-We loved the two reasons he opted not to spend the night in the party barn with his cabin. First, he is "Mr. Rules" and he knew that in order to spend the night at Kanakuk you have to be seven and he was only six (even though his counselors and grandparents told him it would be okay). Second, he didn't want to miss his special donut at SueSue's house that he got every night.
-He loved free swim and loved all the funny skits.
-He loved getting to ride the bus to do honor cabin and getting to go roller skating for the first time with his whole cabin.
Jason and I have laughed so hard at hearing all his camp stories. He had a blast but was really clueless as to so many things of camp. He is dying to go back next year and begging to go for 13 days. I always told him he was going to go for 7 days and we were going to try to send him to K-4. We have driven by it several times so he knows that it is called K-Kountry and decorated like a big barn. He just asked the other day if everyone that goes there is a farmer or if you go there do you have to become a farmer. We can't wait to see what next summer brings.

Smith is offically two months.

With each of the babies, I always take their "month" pictures with this bear. This is Big Smith's two month bear pictue.

We took Smith into his Doctor's appointment for our almost 8 week check up and shots. "Big Smith" is weighing in at 13 pounds, 8 ounces and is pretty close to being off the charts for his height and weight percentiles.
He has been sleeping through the night starting about five weeks and will sleep anywhere from 7-12 hours. He still wakes up at various times but has started going down between about 9-10 pm and usually sleeps about 9 hours. As we have forgotten once again, every day with a newborn is a new day.
He is just really starting to smile and talk. He absolutely hates riding in the car or in his car seat. As we drive down the road with Smith screaming like a madman, I continue to tell myself I can laugh or cry about this. Right now, I am choosing to laugh and keep asking myself why does he hate the car? The minute you get him out of his car seat he is fine. Thank goodness we live right in the middle of Springfield and just about every where we go takes about 10 minutes of drive time. It has definitely made running errands and shopping near impossible. I just figure it is God's way to continue to help me stay on a "tight budget" and not have to work a ton right now.
He is getting big so fast and Jason and I feel "jipped" once again that we had this baby and he has sailed right through the newborn stage (and truly was never a newborn in size) because he is such a big boy. He came into the world wearing 3 and 6month clothing and now is in 6 month to 12 month clothing.
Life is sure lovely with more sleep though!
We lovingly refer to this face as the "Yoda face." He just randomly does it at times and we think it is halarious. We finally caught it for the camera.

Sissy is Three!

Molllie Jane at her three year old Dora Party

Molli Jane's 2 year old Elmo Birthday Party.

Mollie Jane's one year old Princess Party


Me and my bubby at my one year old party. Where is my hair?

Mollie Jane as a newborn.

Me and Mommy on August 4 2006

I can't believe our sweet girl is three. I keep thinking it was just yesterday when she was Smith's age. I feel like two to three is such a milestone year. This year we dropped the bottle (yes I gave her ice water in a bottle when she went to bed last fall), got out of her crib into a big girl bunk bed, totally potty trained, and is talking up a storm (have no idea where she learned how to do that). I feel like they are still kind of toddlers at age three so I am really looking forward to this year with her. Jason and I were talking about some of our favorite things about her personality over this last year.
Here are a few:
-She is queen of putting stuff in bags or purses and just hauling it around the house. (No Jason, she did not get that from me even though I hauled the my "brother word processor to Mexico).
-She has this little yellow ride on toy with orange hair whom we have affectionately named "Ollie" and she is obsessed with driving him around, fixing him with a toy tool set, and cleaning "Ollie's biscuits" with Windex and paper towels.
-No one piles more junk in their bed than Mollie Jane. Every morning I clear her bed of excess stuffed animals, books and toys and every morning when I go get her out of her bed she hauls them all back in her bed.
-She loves to try on her clothes. Her favorite are of course her "Dora" items. I actually don't allow themed clothing. I can't stand it and think it is so tacky so I limit my kids to themed PJ's. Thanks to Natalie, Mollie Jane has a few themed clothing items and she puts them on head to toe. I recently caught her asleep in bed with a Dora t-shirt, underwear, socks and flip flops.
-She had the best smile and when she smiles she almost squints and looks a bit Asian.
-She loves to put lotion on a lots of it.
-She loves Jason to do her hair (which is so random and usually a disaster).
-No matter where she is if she farts she announces to the world that she "has dropped an air biscuit." It is getting crazy embarrassing and we are working on that.
-She loves school and has never really flinched a day in her life when I leave her anywhere. Whether it is school, any friends, overnights, any church nursery, etc. She is very easy going in that sense.
-She also loves to play with the boys. She is very "girly" and loves "girly" things but usually she gravitates to playing with the boys. I think she feels she can boss them around better that the girls. Her best friend this year was her sweet friend Caden Neal in her class. She talks about him all the time and we are so glad they will be in the same class next year.
-She loves her big brother and like most younger siblings wants to do whatever he does and says. They play great together(for the most part).
-She talks all the time and walks around the house with broken and pretend cell phones talking on them. (Seriously, where did she learn those habits?)

We celebrated Mollie Jane's real birthday just with our family and a homemade Dora cake. Mollie Jane got ballet tights and some ballet shoes. She is going to take ballet class this fall and is very excited. We then had the big three year old "Dora The Explorer" party. We had family and friends over to the club and swam and had cake and ice cream. We had crazy lightning storms and had to get in and out of the pool. It was kind of frustrating for our guests but Mollie Jane was just thrilled to have everyone there with her cake and presents. Mollie Jane was so pumped to be officially three by blowing out the candles on her cake.

The Bears Won!

Jackson played on such a great baseball team this year. His season went from the middle of May to the beginning of August. His team actually won the tournament at the Boys and Girls Club Park where we play. Ironically, he was also on the winning team last year (the Cardnials). Jackson was actually not asked back to play for his last year's team the Cardnials. I felt so sad when I never got a call from the coach all May and finally called him and he very nicely told me that Jackson probably couldn't keep up with the Cardnials team this year. I was "crushed" for Jackson but agreed that we didn't want him playing baseball on a competitive team, four nights a week at age six. I figured it was God's way of putting us on the perfect team for Jackson and allowing us to not stress ourselves out with a crazy baseball schedule and a new baby. I emailed several friends and Jackson was able to play with the cutest bunch of boys on the "Bears" team who played two nights a week. He fit right in and proved to be a great hitter. We definitely need to work on catching and running the bases. He was so excited when they won the tournament and then all the boys had a big swim and pizza party afterwards. We can't wait to play for the Bears next year.

Our San Antonio Sabbatical

We had a lovely sabbatical in San Antonio. My Mom flew up for a long weekend in July and then took Jackson and Mollie Jane back to San Antonio for a week. Jackson did a camp called "Mighty Muscles." For a week he did swim, golf, tennis and even did some rock climbing. He was very tan after being out in the 104 degree Texas heat but he had tons of fun. He said his best friend was Jorge. We asked him if Jorgee spoke English and he said "a little but he mainly spoke Spanish." So I am not sure if they talked a lot or how their relationship bloomed with the language factor but Jackson loved it and talked about his new best friend all week.
Mollie Jane got to spend some much needed one-on-one time with my Mom. They went out to lunch, swam, fed the ducks, rode on the golf cart and played, played, played. My Mom saved so many of our childhood toys and Mollie Jane loved playing with "My Little Ponies," fisher price people, crafts, books the play kitchen and her favorite "The Woodsies." My brother in law Joel was somewhat concerned over the fact that his niece and nephew were playing with "the Woodsies." He had never heard of them so Melissa and I educated him that they evolved from a book and are little sqeaky stuffed animal squirrels with stuffed log houses. The more my sister and I thought about it the more random we agreed "The Woodsies" were but they were one of our favorite toys growing and up and they were my kids favorite this trip. Smith and I joined the kids after about a week and we stayed for another relaxing warm week. I caught up on some much needed sleep, ran, swam, shopped and had lots of fun lunches and dinners out with my family. My dearest friend, and college roomate drove down for the day with her husband and their two kids. It was fun swimming and catching up and letting her get to meet Smith. Every time I am with her it makes me wish I lived in Texas and we could all hang out more often.
The best part of the week was when my sister Melissa came in with my sweet niece Harper. We were all there to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was great and the reality of life hit hard when I flew back into Tulsa with all three kids feeling very far away from my family once again. The are all three great travelers and it was nice to be back home with Daddy so I can't complain too much. However, I wish San Antonio was closer and we could go back much more often.

4th of July Fun

Every year our neighborhood has a 4th of July parade and it reminds me of something in a "Southern Living" Magazine. We decorate our wagon and bikes, get on our best 4th of July apparel, dress up the dogs, walk our one mile (usually sweaty) parade route with about 100 neighbors, then finish off the parade with lemonade, iceys, donuts, cookies, and Popsicles. My kids talk about it all year long.
This year was like many years previous in that Winston misbehaved the whole parade route and annoyed and barked at other dogs and then urinated on his 4th of July t-shirt. Woody of course made good choices. We also had our annual "pulled pork and baked bean" lunch with our inflatable bounce house in the back yard. This year was the best ever because we had lots of family in town. My sister Melissa and her husband Joel and my precious niece Harper came in from Washington DC. My Mom and Dad were also here and was actually my Dad's first time to meet Smith because when he flew up for the first weekend in June Smith had still not arrived. Jason's brother Travis and his wife Karie and my two nephews Jameson and Owen also came. Jackson and Mollie Jane were thrilled. Jameson and Jackson rode together in the parade together on their bikes and Mollie Jane and Owen rode together in the wagon. They all had a great time bouncing in the bounce house and playing Wii when we got back to the house. Jason's parents and some very special friends from Kansas City (my sister's Godparents) also made it up for lunch along with lots of neighbors and friends. We had a little rain but it still turned out to be a blast.

After our big lunch and party we headed out to our club and went swimming, jumped in more bounce houses, got our faces painted, chilled out with a very loud band, ate another fabulous meal and watched a great fireworks show. Mollie Jane was a little afraid of the fireworks but as long as she was on Daddy's lap she was okay. Jason's sister Jill and her husband David also came out to the club with us to enjoy the festivities. It was really a great day and night and I was sad when the day ended. How lucky to have all our family and friends around on such a fun day.

Smith's first big party

I feel blessed beyond words. My friends all know me so well and know I love get togethers, talking, sweets, and hanging out with friends. So several of them got together and gave Smith and I a fabulous Sip and See at this great little Art Gallery in downtown Springfield. My friends got their busy schedules cleared and went to much work to make sure everyone could meet our "Big Smith." I am so grateful to them and just looking at the pictures of all the yummy sweets makes me hungry and wish I could have another party this week. It was lovely and couldn't have been more fun. Smith got some fun gifts. It was great to get out of the house for a change and see friends and family. It has defintiely been a crazy year for our family with much going on and many "highs and lows." I was reminded again of all the love and prayers we have recieved this year and are continuing to recieve with the birth of our big man. I had such a fun night with my amazing friends.

Jason's Dad "Big" also came to the rescue and watched Jackson and Mollie Jane because Jason had to work last minute.