Goodbye Squeak 1993-2011

Sadly, we had to have our 18yr old kitty cat Squeak (or Panda as Jeff calls her) put to sleep on Feb 4, 2011. With such an old cat, I knew it was coming soon and had been preparing myself and was relieved it happened quickly. That afternoon, she was very weak and couldn't walk back to her hiding spot so we took her to the vet. They said 18 is very old and there was probably not a lot we could do. We decided it was time to let her go. Me, Jeff and the boys were there so we got to say goodbye together. My family got little orphaned Squeak at our vet's office when I was 14yrs old. She was about 6 months old when we got her and a sweet kitty. When my dad moved to Pennsylvannia about 6yrs ago he didn't want to take her with him so Jeff and I adopted her. Our cat Jay Jay was still young at the time and he attacked her a lot trying to play. He eventually calmed down and left her alone for the most part. In recent years, they both hide and sleep all day and come out as soon as the boys go to bed so most people are surprised to hear we have two cats. She was a good pet and will be missed. Squeak trying out Jensen's bassinett before he was born
When she turned 15, I thought it was a big deal because if she were Mexican she would have a quincineria (sp?) party and wear a fancy dress. We settled for putting a birthday hat on and singing to her :)
This is sad because it as taken a few minutes before we took her to the vet for the last time. I didn't realized something was wrong yet and thought it was sweet she was letting Jorden pet her instead of hiding. Poor girl. I was worried about Jensen but he seemed to handle it just fine

Snowmageddon 2011

Feb 1, 2011
The weathermen talked for a long time about the upcoming snow storm coming our way and we all wondered if it would be a blizzard like last year or not live up to the hype. It ended up being not as bad as last time but we did get quite a bit of the white stuff. The bad thing was the temperatures got down to 0 degrees so it took a long time for it to melt. Then it was nice for a few days then another storm hit. We were stuck inside for several days and schools were out a total of 5 days I think. I didn't mind too much, it was kind of nice to slow down for while and we had plenty to do at home. Jeff's landcruiser did well in the snow so despite my begging him to stay home, he drove to work everyday. I took a picture of this snow plow because a lot of people wondered if they actually exist since OKC doesn't have very many of them. They only plow certain roads and no residential areas so a lot of people had to wait it out.

I stayed up until midnight and the snow still hadn't arrived yet so I was surprised to see this out my back door at 7am. The outline of the window is funny

The dift was taller than Jorden

Snow drift out back

It was super cold, near 0 degrees so we didn't get to play in the snow much. I wanted to take Jorden out for the first time and get some pics of him in the snow. He didn't like being all bundled and his boots were hard to walk in.

I think the gloves felt weird because he kept his arm up for a while. He fell forward and did a face plant into the cold snow shortly after we came out. He was done so he went in for a nap.

Mommy and Jorden

Jensen with our neighbors Nathan and Matthew in front of the house

Mimi bought the boys boots and a sled for xmas and luckily she sent them home with us before the storm. The drive way was pretty good to sled down. I would have liked to go find a big hill but didn't want to drive in it.

Boys with their sled

Pulling Jensen....I think I had more fun than he did sledding down the driveway. I weigh a lot more though so I was able to go faster :)

The boys had fun playing in the snow at Mimi's house too and built a snowman

Snow Angels

Julia Kate's 1st Birthday

Baby niece Julia Kate turned 1 on Jan 19th and she had a party at the Moore Library with family and friends. She was all dolled up for the occasion with a tutu and fabulous hat. Jamie made yummy cupcakes for everyone and I giant one for the birthday girl to dig in to.

Can I be any more girly. Too cute!

She's not walking yet but she took her first step on her actual birthday

Ready for cake time

Digging in

Sisters! Julia says leave me alone, I'm busy

Family pic with the birthday girl

She made quite a dent in it

Julia Kate and her daddy (Jeff's brother Jerry)

A baby for each- Jorden with Grandma and Julia with Grandpa

January 2011 random

Jeff had been itching to take a road trip for months so since my dad was in town and could watch the boys, we took a little trip on New Years Eve. We had no plan, we just drove southeast since we had not seen that part of the state. We didn't take any interstates, only highways and it was neat to see the little towns and scenery. We kept saying we couldn't imagine living so far out in the country. We stopped for lunch at a burger place in McAlester's called What About Bob's just because it had great online reviews (I <3 my iPhone!). Turned out to be fantastic onion burgers. We tried to find a museum or something cool to do there with no luck so we drove on to Talahina where they have a scenic drive through the mountains that goes from there to Mina Arkansas so they named it the Talimina Drive. We stopped for ice cream at an old time soda fountain place then drove the 60 mile scenic route. It's supposed to be really pretty in fall with the colorful leaves but with no leaves you could see really far. We lucked out and found a hotel room with a jacuzzi suite in Van Buren, AR (I thought it was funny since I was born in Van Buren, IN). Once again the iPhone was handy! The jacuzzi was broke though so that was a bummer. We went to dinner and went to bed before midnight so it was a relaxing, low key New Year's Eve. We took our time driving home the next day and enjoyed not cleaning up poop or listening screaming kids. We missed our little monsters though and was glad to come home. They had a blast with Grandpa Mayhle and Mimi too.

Jorden got an OU chair for Christmas so he's decked out in Sooner stuff and has the remote while lounging of course

Brother's Teeth
Jorden's 1st time doing playdoh

Jorden's thing now is clomping around in everyone's shoes and also helping with the laundry

Miss Jenna Bug lost her first tooth!

I finally got a group shot of Jeff's dad's family

Aunt Janet, Grandma Cassie, Jerry Sr. and Uncle Jimmy

Jammie boys

Christmas 2010

I'm only a month late on this so that's not too bad right! Christmas and New Years flew by and we had lots of great celebrations. We were glad there wasn't a blizzard this year

We put up the tree Thanksgiving weekend and Jensen had fun helping with the ornaments. Christmas Eve we went to Jeff's parents to exchange gifts with his family. It was fun having the two babies Jorden and Julia old enough to open gifts. My dad drove down from Pennsylvannia and stayed at our house for two weeks during Christmas. It was nice having him here for all the celebration. Christmas morning, Jensen woke up at this normal time and opened his gifts. He asked Santa for a rollercoaster toy and a nintendo DS (he has no idea what a DS is but put it on his list just because his friend Joshua did!). Santa brought him the rollercoaster and a bunch of other fun stuff. Of course the gift he plays with the most is a baby toy Jorden got so go figure! Jorden woke up a little later and we helped him open his gifts. Santa brought him a toy guitar since he loves musical toys. Jeff opening his beef jerky

Jeff got me a cool new printer/scanner that I can email pictures to and it will print them. Now I can scan old pictures finally that are not digital. I also got the Wii game I wanted Just Dance 2 and the muffin pans I asked for plus lots of other great stuff. Oh and every year for the past probably 15yrs Jeff's parents get me the new Guiness Book of World Records so I have quite a collection. :) Maybe one day I'll be in it LOL!

Boys opening gifts

One great thing about having Grandpa Mayhle here is that he could take a family picture of all of us in front of the tree.
Jensen and Jorden enjoyed playing with Grandpa. We felt bad that he got a stomach virus the last week he was here so he didn't feel like doing much
Sister Carrie, Momma Debbie, Kristi, Daddy Jerry and the boys

For lunch, we went to my mom's house and she made a feast fit for kings with all the good stuff. My dad came over too so it was great having my whole family there together.

All the kids but Julia at the kid's table. She still sits in a high chair

After Mimi's house Jorden got to come home and take a nap before we went out to Jeff's aunt and uncle's in Yukon. We had more yummy food and gifts. My dad joined us as well as Uncle Terry's parents and sister

Luckily this was not a gift for Jensen, it was one of the older cousin's toy that he was checking out and thought was really cool. Oh the faces my children make!

Jorden eating cake and making squishy face

On Monday evening after Christmas we went to Jeff's mom's side of the family to celebrate with dinner and dirty santa at his cousin Kevin and Leesa's house. We had 12 great grandkids there and 9 of them are girls so my boys are definitely outnumbered but we all had a blast!

December 2010 Random

It snowed in the Mall!

At 2pm and 7pm everyday it snowed by the fountain at Sooner Mall in Norman. They had machines on the ceiling that blew out ice for about 5mins and we met some friends from MOMS Club to see it. The kids thought it was pretty neat. Funny thing was it was about 75 degrees that day.

Jensen enjoying the snow

Jorden trying to grab the snow


Snow video


JILLIAN AND JENNA TURN 6!

Our nieces had their birthday party at McDonald's on December 2 and had a great turnout of family and friends from school. We noticed that a lot of those friends are missing teeth all of a sudden so I have a feeling the tooth fairy will be visiting soon. :) Jillian is more of the artsy one and Jenna is more sporty. They are in kindergarten this year are starting Daisies really soon which is the youngest version of Girl Scouts

Jillian blowing out candles


Jenna blowing out candles

Jorden laughing with Great-Grandma Cassie

Julia Kate- 10 months

Picture of the nieces

Little stinker Jorden in my bowl drawer

The twins very rarely wear matching outfits but this day they did along with baby sister so I couldn't resist taking pictures

My mom and I took the boys to Midwest City to see a large Christmas light display at a park. We got to drive through and the boys sat up front with Mimi to get a better look. It was really fun and I absolutely LOVE this picture!

My two babies with binkies