Thanksgiving 2011

We had four Thanksgiving dinners this year. The first was an International Thanksgiving dinner on Friday 11/18. Ryan, Amber and I went to a home in Claremore and celebrated with several international students from TTCU and their teachers and families involved with internationals or ESL students. It was good and we had fun.

The second was a meal with the Scouts on Monday 11/21. We brought Ryan's friend and neighbor Chance. It was our shortest Thanksgiving meal, but there was a lot of good food and we had fun again =)

Our third was a meal at Freedom Church and we celebrated the Seed Project, where we found out that we had raised over $20,000 along with the $25,000 that Freedom Church would be giving to five different ministries, both local and international.

Our final Thanksgiving was our "real" thanksgiving. We went to our friends home, where we feel adopted as family, and shared a meal with four generations of their family (and we love them all). it was a lot of fun! We played games, the kids played outside, watched football, and had a lot of great food! After the meal we ended up with five kids joining us for a sleepover (two of our own). They had fun playing the rest of the night, then the next day they helped us decorate for Christmas. They really didn't help Mike with the outside lights (hee hee), but they more than helped with everything inside. It only took one day this year (that's a first) and it was all done! Both trees, all the decorations, and it was a lot of fun having the extra help.



Sorry, no after pictures showing the decorations, but it pretty much looks the same as all the other years. We haven't done anything different (hee hee).

Father and Daughter Dance 2010

Okay, so this picture is old, but I never put a copy on the blog and wanted to =)

Kid's School Pictures 2011-2012

Random Pic's

On Friday the kids and I went to Claremore for an International Thanksgiving with several ESL students from TTCU and their teachers etc. We had a great time and met a lot of interesting people. Ryan made a friend, a boy his age from Guatemala. There was a cute little two year old that spoke 4 languages. Anyway, the dinner is held in a home way out in the boonies in Claremore somewhere. We barely made it back to off of 169 when I saw the car was over heating and really did not have power. It died at the first light, but I managed to get it started and crawled into the parking lot at the corner drug store. It stopped and after several tries I managed to get it going and coasted down the hill to home. We had to have it towed. How amazing that it didn't die out on a two lane road in Claremore somewhere (phew). Ryan wasn't home when the tow truck came so the pictures were mainly for his benefit. I also took a short video =)
Yes, this is my girl and she is truly that shiny! I love her beautiful coat! She doesn't even realize how georgeous she is (hee hee)

Amber had a blast making this pile of leaves to jump in . . . . . she is still vacuuming the leaves out of her bedroom and I am still trying to get them out of the washer and dryer from her socks which were turned inside out so I didn't realize they were full of leaves =( ugh

Oilers Hockey

Mike get's tickets for Oilers hockey games a few times each year. He puts in for them and they draw winners who get the tickets. This weekend they had an Omni employee event and so everyone got to go. In between periods Amber and Ryan got to go help pick up the puck's after "chuck-a-puck" where people try to throw rubber pucks into a bucket in the middle. They had fun and I tried to get some pictures, but I was pretty far away. They are both in this picture . . . can you find them?






After the game they had ice skating. The players skated too. So we joined them . . . okay, so Mike and the kids joined them while I watched all of our stuff and took pictures.

Mike did great helping Amber =)

Ryan did pretty good, especially considering our kids have never really ice skated before.






They had a lot of fun and Ryan was the last one off the ice =)

Brave Amber

Amber and Ryan had to get their teeth cleaned today. Amber had a loose tooth so she asked the dentist to pull it (wow - very brave). Of course they used a little numbing since it wasn't quite ready so Amber's mount was numb when she went back to school. She couldn't feel it (obviously) and ended up chewing on her lip (ouch). She had a very big fat lip for a few days.

Amber's Birthday

Amber didn't have a sleepover birthday party this year. Instead we went out to eat at a Tokyo Garden where they cook it at your table.
Amber helped make and of course decorate her birthday cake. It was red velvet =) Yum!!!!





Amber acting surprised and excited about her new stereo (really Amber just being goofy)
She had a good birthday =) She also got a new bike, one that should last her a long, long time =) It's an 18 speed.