It's ICE here in Owasso

We had quite the ice storm lately. It started Saturday night a little, but really hit hard on Sunday night. We lost most of our trees (if not all). You can't even get to our front door because of the ice on the trees and grass. We lost power (with most everyone else) from 11pm Sunday night until almost 11am. We were very lucky to get our power back. Several families do not have power (153,000 people in the Tulsa Metro area - that does not include cities like Owasso). I made it to church on time and soon found out we were the only church with power and the Red Cross was going to take us over as a designated Shelter. We called anyone available to come help and started to get things set up. We began cooking meals and shopping for more food. Shortly after we got lunch ready we lost power and were closed down.

We lost our big STRONG oak tree on the side of our house by our dining room. The top came down and ended right at our window.

This is our backyard view now. We lost most all of our trees which used to line the fence and give us a nice Green view instead of a view of the cul de sac.

This is the one tree that was in the middle of our backyard. We couldn't sleep at all last night. We could hear the branches breaking and falling off all night long. Luckily we didn't lose our fence.

This is the entrance to our housing development right next to our house. Trees are bent and blocking most all streets and several streets are closed.

These pictures are only of our home and taken from our home, there is damage like this ALL OVER the area. We are just one small sample. We are blessed that our home is safe and we have power! We had two other families come stay with us because they had no power. It was a very interesting day. School was cancelled today and will be cancelled tomorrow as well. Hopefully we are through the worst and things will melt away soon. We still hear branches crash every now and then. We will be lucky to have any trees that survive. Go figure we purposely chose this neighborhood because of all the nice big fully developed trees. Oh well=)

Owasso Christmas Parade

There was a Christmas Parade in Owasso on Saturday. The weather wasn't too bad really. The kids wore coats over their uniforms so you could hardly tell they were Scouts.

They also let Amber ride on the float (which I thought was a kick). It was cool, but not too bad. Amber and Ryan both did a great job at waving at everyone. Ryan walked the second half and handed out candy. He had his Heely's on and was wheeling around like an expert=)

Cub Scout Update

Ryan is still enjoying Scouts!
Celebrating reaching their goals for popcorn sales, they got to silly string the leaders =)

Ryan won a fun compass, LED, magnifying, key chain gadget for his popcorn sales. He did great! And got to watch some Indian dancing at the last pack meeting . . . . . reminded me of Arizona

NARNIA II

Coming to theaters in May 2008 - view the trailer at the link below

http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=1355&dl=14478175

Swimming in December

Swimming in December =) The neighbor boy had a birthday party at the YMCA and Ryan and Amber were both invited. They had a great time!

Christmas Already?

We got an early start this year. Since the kids were off and Mike was off on the weekend we went ahead and put up all the decorations. Since we had such a short Christmas last year with moving I think it all balances out =)

The kids got to decorate the tree (and they loved it).

We put out all the snowman decorations which keep growing every year.

We have two fireplaces so we have lots and lots of stockings.

This is a picture of the kids tree all finished.
Mike's has the Christmas Spirit already!!

Two years ago I decorated a "bird" tree with ornaments that my Mom has sent me. We didn't put it up last year, but it is in the office and easy to see from the front of the house for this year. I love having two trees =)

We put a lot of decorations this year (more than we ever have before). The house is 100% ready . . . . . but I'm not (yikes).

Amber helped me get ready for the holiday's by helping me make some cookies!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving started early = ) We let Ryan and Amber have a "sleep over", at least that is what they call it when we let them sleep in the spare bedroom together. They love it = ) It's like we just allowed them to let a friend stay the night (hee hee).



Mike had to work until 7pm so the kids and I had all day to prepare a nice meal. We also played "Mexican Train" and ate chips and clam dip and veggies and dill dip and Frog Eye Salad (all Thanksgiving traditions. My first Thanksgiving and my first Turkey all by myself (oh ya, the kids helped). To try to make it special I pulled out the china, sterling silver, candles and had the table all set when Mike got home.



We took one nice picture, but had to take a funny one too (for my 3 kids - hee hee)