Family Portraits

Tammy Hall did our family portraits again this year along with Jensen's 3rd birthday pics. The worst part for me about family pictures is picking out what we are going to wear. I am ok at dressing myself and Jensen is pretty easy because he looks cute in most things. Jeff is harder (he'd wear a t-shirt and jean shorts if I let him pick) then trying to coordinate us all to look good together makes my head spin!! Not sure if I did so well this year but hey, that's what black and white pictures are for he he. During the session, it was like pulling teeth in the beginning to get Jensen to cooperate and when we went outside we had to use some creative trickery. For instance we told him to look for frogs (there weren't any) and find the rock in the leaves. Tammy is good though, she stays relaxed and just follows what he wants to do. We got some pretty good shots so I was happy. Plus, none of them have Jeff sticking his tongue out yay! So here they are.....

Tagged

My friend Jessica tagged me so here goes

Here are my instructions:
I've been tagged to do the following:
1) Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer
2) Choose the 4th picture
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 other peopleThis picture is of my baby sister Carrie on Feb 17, 2005 at her Job Corps graduation. It was a proud day because she lived on campus for many months and completed her training. She was on the road to a better life! Go Carrie!

So, I'm going to Tag- Carrie F., Karen, Shannon and Diane

Costume Party

Every year my friends Becca and Ronnie have a Halloween Costume party and they really go all out with decorating their whole house floor to ceiling. I always enjoy seeing what people come as and I especially enjoy dressing up. Last year I went at the Lunch Lady and no one recognized me so I knew I had to do something clever again this year. Most of my friends enjoy myspace so I decided to go as a myspace page. I spent more time than you can imagine laying out the different boxes and I wanted it to be exact down to all the wording. I even cut out a place for my head and included actual pictures of my friends to put in that section. It seemed to be a big hit but it was not practical to wear the whole night.

Erin and Clay as Cruella De Vil and a Dalmation
Crystal and Nate as the Germans

Kellie and her friend Jamie as Kegs

Teppi as a pregnant nun and Katie as a rocker chick

Crystal with Jay as the Joker...he looked freaky

Stephanie as Rainbow Brite, that was cute

Halloween 2008

Halloween was even more fun this year since Jensen is older. I let him pick out his own costume and he chose to be Handy Manny a handy man cartoon on Disney. My friend Kim was still in town from AZ so we went down to Jamie's house that morning to be with her before she left. 3 days that week she kicked our butts with a great workout so I was sore! We made our usual stops this year but got an earlier start since we were already down there.



We went to see Great-Grandma Cassie, she just loves Jensen and the girls. Next we went to Jeff's parents house to eat dinner with his family minus Jamie since she as working :( The girls looked so cute in their crayon costumes. Jenna loves puple and Jillian loves pink so they got to be their favorite. We took the kids down their block and it was weird because it was time to trick or treat but it was really light out. Jensen didn't say trick or treat much but at one house he said BOO!

Jillian, Jensen, Jenna

Trick or Treat Mimie and Carrie!

Next we went to my mom's house. Jensen took turns going with Mimi and Carrie to the houses in their neighborhood. Some he wouldn't go up to because they had scary lights and music. Finally we went to my old neighborhood. An old family friend's grandma lives on the block and she really decorates her house for halloween. She also makes special treats like popcorn balls and caramel apples for the kids she knows. Even though I'm grown up, I like having the tradition of trick or treating her house. Jensen didn't get a ton of candy but he got quite a bit. Unfortately I had all the chocolate bars eaten in less than a week! Yup and I had to pay at Weight Watchers because I'm over my goal **sigh** (I became a lifetime member in May and you are free as long as you don't go over your goal weight). Of course Halloween wasn't the only reason

Jensen checking out his treat bucket

TG Farms

We went to another pumpkin patch last week as a family this time. Jeff had never been so that was fun. It was a beautiful day and we ran into some friends we hadn't seen in many, many years

Frustrations

Well, you would think by now that the master shower would be done since we finished the tile right? Of course not in this house! Its done but it still needs to be soaked and scrubbed to get all the grout film stuff off. Then we also need to find a shower door and since its a larger size than most we haven't found one yet. But I do have a toilet and I keep forgetting that we have two in the house now and still use the other one in the middle of the night! I'm so ready to have it done and move on to something else!


The other thorn in my side is this whole potty training thing. Jensen does so well most of the time but he did a major back slide the last few weeks. For a while, I was either cleaning out (or throwing away if it was bad) poopy underwear every day. I know its a learning process and takes time but I didn't expect it to drag on for months! He stayed clean and dry the last two days though so I know he's able to do it. So frustating!

One more celebration

Since we did 3 different things for my birthday this year, my motto has been 30yrs and 30 days of celebration! The final one was with my closest girlfriends last Friday night and it was a bust! We went to dinner in Bricktown at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill. I guess I'm getting bored in my old age because every year I choose Zio's as my birthday dinner but I felt like trying something new. I was excited too because my friend Kim from Arizona was in town so she got to come to dinner with us. There were six of us girls and I enjoyed my kids rib dinner and opened some great gifts. My friend Becca always gives wacky sock so that was funny.

Kimberly, Kristi, Erin, Crystal

Becca, Erin, Crystal, Steph, Kim, Kristi

After dinner, 3 of us went to Rok Bar for some dancing but right after we got there Crystal got really sick so we had to leave. I was really bummed because I was having a great time. Stephanie dropped me off at my car and when I went to drive forward something wasn't right so I got out to look and my left rear tire was completely FLAT!! UGH, I was mad and I've never had a flat before. I called Steph and she came back to help me. We got out my jack and I called Jeff to tell him that we were going to try to do it ourselves. Some people came out to their car that was parked next to mine and they had a flat too so we thought something was fishy. Well, the jack wouldn't cooperate so I called Jeff and told him that since Jensen was at my moms he should just come downtown to change my tire. Meanwhile Steph and I losened the lug nuts but they were on so tight that it took both of us jumping on the wrench to break them loose. Here's Steph trying with just her but it wasn't enough! It was freezing out there too

Jeff got there and the police drove up to shine some light for us. He tried at first to just air it up but found it had been slashed......jerks how rude! He had trouble with the jack too so we didn't feel as silly. So he changed the tire and I was on my way. The positive is that if Crystal had not been sick, I would have come out to my car very late and it would have been worse. Plus, if Jensen had not been at my mom's Jeff wouldn't have been able to come help. So the night was a bust but I was glad I got to have dinner with my friends and I enjoyed my other celebrations earlier in the month.