Ryan's Birthday =)

We celebrated Ryan's birthday over several days this year (as usual actually). Ryan (and Mike) wanted a fish tank for his birthday. So we ended up getting this a few days (weeks) before his birthday. He loves it and takes good care of it.

This is Ambers (MOM'S) frog tank, it is very cute and the frogs are soooo funny, they love to spread all their legs out and float at the top of the water. Very fun to watch =)
We let Ryan open family gifts in the morning before school on his birthday.
Ryan got a special pack of $2 bills, they tear off like checks (very cool) from his O'ma and O'pa =)

Amber got a special pack of $1 too, O'ma and O'pa didn't want her to feel left out. She has ripped a couple off to buy some gum. The cashier thought the $1 pack was pretty cool.

Mike got him a duffel bag for camping with the Boy Scouts. Yes, that is Ryan inside the duffel bag He also got a new sleeping bag and cot (they need a cot for the summer week long camping trip). This was all with the help of O'ma and O'pa, thanks so much!
Mike and I met up at Ryan's school and Mike brought him a HUGE milkshake and some fries to go with his lunch (pretty big fries too).We took Ryan out for dinner on his birthday. He wanted sashimi, but we talked him into steak instead. We can't always go out to the Japanese cook it at your table places. They made him stand on the table while they said "YEEEEE-HAAWWWWWWWWW" We went to Logans =)
Since his birthday was on a Thursday he had to wait to have a sleepover party until Saturday (Mom & Amber had a dinner on Friday). He invited a group of boys and it was a crazy time.
He got a lot of Star Wars lego toys (his friends know him well) and we decorated with balloons which the kids tied to their favorite stuffed animal or toy.

Ryan picked out the cake, dark chocolate with dark chocolate icing. Ryan and Dad made it together, and Ryan added red icing for lava.The boys didn't stay up too late, luckily since we had church in the morning, but they crashed watching a Star Wars movie.

The sleepover was on a Saturday night, so they all came to church with us on Sunday . . . and guess who's the teacher of the 5th grade KidGroup (Sunday School) class . . yup, me. They did really good! The virtue is patience this month so I had them make Chia Heads. Using nylons, potting soil, grass seed and plastic cups. It only took one week and Ryan's had some grass coming out is nose (the Chia head's nose that is). In KidChurch they had them build pyramids so I managed to get a picture with a few of our guys in it.Ryan put all his birthday money together and bought this mega lego set. Yes, he got a lot of birthday money, and he used his $2, but don't worry, I kept the $2 (couldn't give them away, too cool).

Ryan built the ship within a very short time, now he's getting creative with his new toys . . . yes, that is my ceiling. He used sticky tak and his imagination (of course).

Amber's Baptism

Amber didn't seem nervous at all, she was giving me some fancy model poses while we waited in the back =)

Amber and I were waiting in the back behind a stack of towels.
There was one other little girl (she was Amber's age) who was baptised just before Amber and she slipped a little getting in so Amber was being very careful.

Pastor Andrew read Amber's testimony. I helped Amber by typing it out, but it's in Amber's words.
"I've been going to church since I was a baby. My first church was in Indianapolis where I was born, my second church was in Hanover PA, and Freedom is my church home now. When I was in Kindergarten I asked Jesus into my heart one night when I was in my bedroom alone. This year I felt that God asked me to get baptized so I talked to my mom about it and we prayed together. I talked to Mrs. Beth and Pastor Andrew about getting baptized and they both asked me questions and prayed with me I know that Christ gave his life for me on the cross. He died for my sins and then came back to life again three days later. I believe this and know that my baptism shows that I believe and I want Jesus to be a big part of my life. I know that God is with me all the time. So, here I am getting baptized, because God asked me to."

I was in the back with Amber so I got some behind the "scene" (so to speak) shots. I was using my new "chocolate" touch phone to take these's pic's with.

Mrs. Beth was taking pictures out front (with our camera) while Mike was taking a video (sorry, it's on one of the older cameras and can't be downloaded). I think we got plenty of pictures from just about every angle (hee hee)

As her head went down, her feet came up =)

After Amber's baptism she truly looked like a Princess . . . .
Actually. . . . more like prom queen, the Owasso prom queen (a fellow freedomite and fav. babysitter) put her crown and sash on Amber =) What a great picture and how appropriate =)

iShineLIVE

Amber and I joined two other mom's with their pre-teen daughters for iShineLIVE at the Mabee Center. We went out for pizza and dessert before heading to the concert. It was soooo cute as this was the first "concert" that many of the kids had ever been to, and you could tell. They hardly knew what to do. I jumped up and was screaming, singing and having a great time and Amber rolled her eyes at me and thought I was crazy. I explained to her, this is how you act at a concert. By the end they were all getting into it a bit more.



iShineLIVE is a high-energy, Biblically-based event geared just for tweens (7-14) The main focus is on finding your identity in Christ. There were several speakers and bands like Jamie Grace, Kylie Jean and Mission Six (the lead singer even walked on the back of the seats and ran though the audience - it was an all boy band), the RubyZ (three girl singers), and one of the featured speakers and singers was Paige Armstrong. She is a young girl who found out at 11 years old that she had cancer. She lost all her hair and was in a wheelchair but she one the battle. Now she sings and one of the key performers for iShineLIVE, which is growing strong and has a show on TV etc. It was a great night! A lot of fun!

Feed My Starving Children

This weekend Amber and I volunteered for Feed My Starving Children with a couple of other women and their daughters from Freedom Church. It was an awesome time, very well organized and well run. Amber and the other kids had fun and they truly felt like they were a part of helping. We went to Broken Arrow and helped pack meals at the a church there. They let us know how many meals we packed and really put it in terms that we could relate to. One example was that they said the meals that we packed during our shift would feed a child from 1yr until almost 6 years of age. We both got T-shirts and hope to be able to participate again sometime =)

Arrow Of Light

Ryan received his Arrow of Light from Scouts and he is now officially a Boy Scout. In fact this past weekend was the first camping trip as a Scout, without Dad (or Mom or Amber). It rained all weekend, but he still had fun anyway. I didn't have any pictures of the campout since I couldn't go, so I figuerd I would include these pictures of the Arrow of Light ceremony instead. The lighting wasn't great, but it was a nice ceremony and he has a super cool arrow hanging in his room which shows all the ranks/badges/awards he has completed/done.

Hockey Fans

Mike got some tickets to the hockey game so we have been able to go as a family a few times now =) It was fun, the kids liked it and now they both have their own horns to blow for when we go again sometime (next season).

We had to get a picture of Amber in front of this sign for her Aunt Pam and Cousin Lauren. They have both been very involved with breast cancer awareness and have run in marathons etc. We are proud of them and thought of them when we saw this =)

It's April - Happy Easter

On April Fools Day Ryan asked if we could get some blue dye to have colored hamburgers. They didn't have blue so he decided on green instead. I said I didn't care but he would have to get an okay from his Dad. So, Ryan called him at work and said that Mike said okay. I was kind of surprised, but Mike was a bit busy at work when Ryan called. So, we did indeed have green hamburgers. I think they tasted fine, but I kind of had a problem with them. I think it was because there weren't enough pickles, but it could have had to do with the fact that they were soooo very green.

Ryan was pretty proud of the green hamburgers. Yes, it was his idea, but I was the one that had to work like crazy to get the dye to mix throughout. Warning, liquid dye and hamburger meat does not mix well without a lot (and I mean a lot) of work.

On Easter we went to the 10:30 am service and when we came home we had a special lunch which was dyed green as well . . . nope, not Easter eggs, but waffles =) Yes, thanks to Ryan we had green waffles. With strawberries, strawberry syrup and cool whip (a whole lot of cool whip for some)

Ryan (looks a bit afraid of his)

Amber's waffles

And momma size waffles =)
The batter looks completely green, but the waffles didn't really look so green. Of course with all that whipped cream, strawberries and syrup no one had a problem eating them.

Amber's New Hair Cut

Amber wanted to get her hair cut. She kept asking me to make her an appointment and I kept putting her off because she said she wanted to get it cut short and I wanted to make sure that she really wanted to get it cut short, it wasn't just a passing thought. After several days I finally made the appointment. I was with her but was sitting where I couldn't really see her. She told the Melanie what she wanted and Melanie asked if I was okay with it. I told her that Amber was going to surprise me, but that she knew what she wanted and I trusted her so whatever she said was fine with me. Well, we were both very happy with her new hair cut. She has received several compliments from others as well =)