Our week in pictures

Well folks, we didn't get off to a very pretty start.

This little girl was picked up from daycare with a 102 degree fever and lots and lots of poop. Her pretty new dress wasn't looking so pretty.

Riding home in her loner clothes

I was one worried momma. For about two seconds. She was climbing the walls within thirty minutes of getting home. Just a little bit of snuggle time, some apple juice and Mickey Mouse was all the girl needed...

"I will NOT go to the doctor. I'm fine...see!!"

I was feeling relieved that my day off was the following day just in case she woke up feeling not so hot again. To my surprise she woke up feeling spunky and fun. Thank goodness because we had a VERY busy morning. We showered, dressed and started marking stops off our list.....clinic, office, walmart, nanny's, post office and most importantly the voting place. Tuesday was voting day. We were ready to vote for Papa Bill! We grabbed our ballot from the nice ladies at the table, made our way to the voting booth and prepared to make our marks. I always get so nervous when I'm filling out a ballot....afraid that I'm going to mark the wrong name I guess. Well it's a good thing I had Hallie there to help. She grabbed the pen from my hand while I was reading the paper and made a big ol' mark. And wouldn't ya know it...part of her vote landed right in the middle of Papa Bill's box. Smart girl.

Doing her civic duty

Hallie Grace got an extra special treat Tuesday afternoon. Nanny came over to play with her for a bit while I went to work for a bit. They spent their time together going for a walk around the neighborhood, playing at the park and stomping in puddles. Fun stuff! We spent Tuesday evening at the house having an election watch party for Papa and celebrating his big win!

I've been trying to stress the importance of teeth brushing these past couple weeks. We've begun some serious twice a day brushings....no more messing around. She gets plenty of high fives and hugs when she lets me get all of her teefers. It's been going very well. Well, mostly....

Her "not thrilled" face

On Wednesday we had a pretty cool surprise waiting for us on the doorstep. I've been seeing commercials for these neat little pillow racer toys on the Disney channel just about everytime we watch Mickey Mouse...which is oh, about every thirty minutes. I was anxiously awaiting Mr. Turtle's arrival all week. He was finally here.....

"Woah!!!"

"I feel like we've met somewhere before..."

Meet. Mr. Turtle.

The wait was well worth it. Seeing her face was so much fun. Despite her first attempt at "racing" on his back ending in a bad fall, she jumped right back on and kept smiling....

I didn't realize that turtles could buck....but that he did. She felll off several times. Sometimes straight back on her head. But she didn't seem to mind at all. In fact she was more worried about keeping him comfortable....

"Here's a little sip. It must be hard letting me sit on you."

We soon moved our fun outdoors....

She handed me her other racer friends to bring outside with us....

Surprise!!! Hal had some friends pop in to play on Wednesday evening! Cari and Tom's kiddos came along with her to return our baby swing. Hal was in her pjs and pretty sleepy but that did not stop the girl from playing her little heart out. I delighted in watching her show them her toys and run around the house squealing with excitement. Loved every minute of it. She did too.

Hitching a ride with Hannah

Having a pow wow with Sam and Hannah

Thursday began with a lot of snot and quite a bit of coughing. Poor baby girl. She's been downing allergy medicine on a regular basis all week to try and fight off this yuckiness. She was looking mighty cute in her new outfit from Nanny though!

Thursday evening I found her freeing her Goldfish. What do I mean by this? Well, she was dropping her snacks in the toilet one by one watching them "swim." Check out this guilty look on her little face....

"I still don't know what I did wrong..."

We finally, finally, finally snapped a picture of Hallie's dramatic bedtime shenanigans. I've mentioned before that she passes out in my arms on occasion while I'm carrying her to bed. This has got to be one of our favorite things that she does. I made Riley take a picture of her and her dramatic ways before I plopped her in bed last night....

Today was Grammy's birthday and I was in need of a change. I kindly requested that we go out to eat for a change. Within five minutes of sitting down at the restaurant I was kindly insisting that we get our food to go and leave. After a margarita of course. I think I could've used a couple more of those puppies. Let's just say that Hallie was not sharing in my enthusiasm about going out. We inhaled our food while she slopped cheese sauce on her shirt and face, rubbed salsa in her eye, tried to swallow an entire lemon slice, screamed when we wouldn't let her eat said lemon slice and made her presence known to the other diners. Twas great fun. ;)

I'll take a cranky with a side of whining.

I insisted on ice cream at Braum's after dinner (I think this happens maybe once a year). Ice cream is supposed to help a broken heart, right? I'm not sure about my heart but by the sounds of the happy girl in the backseat happily hollering "bite! bite!", the ice cream made someone happy. Oh yeah, and balloons. Balloons made her happy too.

That's a smile if ya can't tell. ;)

I literally slithered around like a slug the rest of the evening. Old and tired I guess. ;) After a couple failed attempts at taking a walk with Hallie and Emmi I finally gave up due to many protests and we retired to the backyard for some bubble time....

"No complaints here, mom"

This week snuck right on by. Very little sleep was had on everyone's part. Riley is having a hard time adjusting to the new mattress.....Hallie was having a hard time breathing through her snotty nose.....and I have no plausible explanation for my sleeping woes. I've got a hot date with my pillow in about five minutes in hopes that sleep will find us all tonight.

Looks like she's got a headstart

We've got a very full weekend ahead and lots of travel / celebration / fun to be had. And of course I'll be sharing every last detail. You betcha.

Wishing all our friends and family a very happy Easter Sunday!

Birthday Balloons for Grammy

I realized on Monday what Friday was.

 Another reminder.

Darn those anniversaries and birthdays.

Today was kinda yucky. Despite my best efforts to put a smile on my face and go about the day as if it were just any other day it just didn't work like that. Birthdays are of utmost importance to me, after all. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. after having a dream about my mom. Very fitting that it was today because she hasn't been in my dreams in quite some time. In this particular dream she wasn't feeling well. I kept badgering her about what was wrong (what's new?!). In the dream she finally told me she was pregnant and that I was going to have a baby brother. I woke up pretty freaked out. What an odd dream to have. It kinda had me bummed. Not that my mom would've given birth to a child at the age of 54....but it was just one more reminder of how much more life she had to live. But on the other hand I was feeling lucky for having spent some time with her in my dreams...even if it was creepy.

The day sort of dragged on. And on and on and on. And on. I may as well have been a slug dressed in scrub pants. Worthless was me. My tank was running on 'E' from the moment my feet hit the pavement for my morning run. Even the time spent outdoors in the cool air didn't seem to wake me from my dazy haze. "Oh well", I thought. And I made it through the rest of the day with that attitude. Oh well.

I was looking forward to picking up Hal from daycare. We had an important mission. We needed to send Grammy some love. I absolutely loved our celebration last year on momma's first heavenly birthday so I didn't see any reason to depart from that tradition that began a year ago today. But we didn't have 54 balloons. And we certainly didn't have a group of family here like last year. But we made up for all that with excitement. The excitement of course came from a certain little girl who was absolutely giddy at the sight of colorful balloons. She sat atop the dining room table and helped grabbed at the "balls" as I filled them with helium. Riley was our balloon gatherer making sure that she didn't let them float to the ceiling. Once we had one of each pretty color blown up we were ready to send them up to heaven.

Watching her stare at the balloons in awe had to be one of the sweetest moments ever. It's not everyday that I can actually get her to give her attention to something. So the fact that she was right there in the moment with me was just perfect. I'm keeping helium tanks on hand from now on if balloons on strings maker her this happy....

I handed the balloons to her one by one. She got tangled in a few but they all ended up floating up, up and away.....

She stood and stared as the balloons got smaller and smaller.....

<3

Grammy would've been 54 today. In honor of her birthday I enjoyed a margarita and some ice cream. I bet she's having a laid-back celebration in heaven right now. She's probably curled up in her robe reading a good book. I know she doesn't need our balloons to have a special day. I'm sure there is plenty of COLOR up there but I sure hope the Hallie's balloons added a little extra "POP" to her day!

If there is anything I've learned since she left us on this earth, it's this: life doesn't stop moving. Just because today was a little extra tough to get through....just because I wanted to go sit with her at the cemetary for a bit tonight.....just because I didn't feel like helping other people with their problems today....just because I wanted to curl up in bed and sleep all day....and just because I wanted to throw a hissy fit and stomp around screaming "this isn't fair!"....it doesn't matter. Because no matter what, life keeps moving on. Good or bad. Happy or sad. And I guess I've decided that that's a good thing.

I think about you everyday so my thoughts of you today were nothing new.
Missing you just doesn't do these feelings justice.
WE LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH GRAMMY.
See you soon.

Turkeys and Mud Puddles

Have I mentioned just how much I love our neighborhood. It's quiet. And it has turkeys. Lots and lots of turkeys. These creatures have become friends with my little turkey. There are many a morning that they are waiting in the front yard when we open the blinds. Hallie gives them a big wave and a "hi".....she's been known to chase them down the street with Riley of an evening. And today she ran right out the front door and took off after them. They scurried off out of sight quicker than she could say "tookey." Bummer. But it didn't stop her turkey hunting efforts. We loaded up in the wagon and followed their tracks down the street. But something else caught her eye on the way to find the gobbling guys. It was the massive mud puddle that her and Nanny had played in earlier this afternoon. Here's a sweet video that she sent me of Hallie putting her favorite boots to good use....

She was pleased to see that her fun boot bathing station was still there.....

"Pleased" may not be the word to describe this face.

Why is it that watching your child simply play in a water puddle is so fulfilling and wonderful? You would've thought I was the paparazzi hot on the tracks of Ryan Gosling leaving the gym with his shirt off or something.

Watching her play and splash in the water without a care in the world with the intention of "giving her frogs a drink" was the sweetest thing in the world to me....

Bring on the rain!!! If puddles make for such a happy girl then I'll take plenty of them! Maybe even one that is front of our house so we don't have to look like weirdos playing in the neighbor's puddle. She doesn't seem to mind traveling to find some water fun though...

I think this may be one of the only times I stood and watched her purposefully get dirty. Maybe I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to stuff like that. This was another baby step towards accepting dirt, water and my baby making a mess just for the fun of it....

See!!!

She was full of priceless faces as she ran back and forth from the water to the wagon over and over again....

In the middle of a little rest break she heard her turkey friends calling her again....

"it would be a lot easier if they just came to me..."

She took off to pursue them on foot.....

Giving her best attempt at the turkey call her dad taught her

Alas, she reached her friends. They were waiting in the park for her.....

"Hi guys! I'm finally here!"

The "tookeys" haven't seen the last of Hallie girl.

Election "Watch Party"

Ahhh. The sweet smell of V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!

Tension has been swirling around town lately due to the impending City Commissioner elections. In such a small town it seems that every corner you turn there are rumors and stories about so and so and such and such. It comes as no surprise at all that we were backing our favorite candidate....PAPA BILL!!!! Hallie was so excited in fact that she wanted to decorate for our watch party. She's a whiz on Microsoft Word, let me tell ya. She whipped up some signs to show our support but there was only one little problem. The tape dispenser was giving her fits......

"A lil help here..."

The problem was quickly resolved and we had the door decorated just in time for our watch party guests to arrive....

"Pweeeeeeaaaaaase vote for him. Pwetty pwease."

Riley showed up with dinner and Nanny with the dessert. Look who came along with her......

"I'm here for the party!"

Katie showed up just in time to eat. Then it was time to start the "watching" part of the watch party. So we watched the radio. We watched the computer. Riley thinks we should've just called it a "listening party."

The baby girls were oblivious to all of the anticipation in the room. They just played and played and played. I'm happy to report that Hallie even shared some of her toys with Carmen. Speaking of Carmen, I found this sweet girl sitting underneath the coffee table reading a book....

It wasn't long after 8:00 when we heard the great news. All three current commissioners were re-elected! The babies were heading toward Papa to celebrate.....

"We're comin' Papa!"

This picture says it all. He was one happy guy....

We sat quietly and listened as he did a couple of phone interviews from the porch. The babes were nice enough to refrain from screaming or crying while he chatted with the radio guys.

Just goes to show that nice guys do finish first! We are proud of you Papa Bill!

Good for the Soul

Do you ever have a moment when you just stop and reflect on life?  

It must've been the time I spent alone in the car this past weekend. Pure silence.

During this little piece of silence I found myself smiling. Smiling to myself.

It was dark outside. The radio was off. Just me and the road.

Before I knew it I was nearing home.

This made me smile even more.

I pictured my sleeping baby all snuggled up in the corner of her crib breathing peacefully.

I rolled the windows down. Turned on the radio. Breathed in the cool night air.

And just sighed.

"What a wonderful life this is" I thought to myself.

This "what a wonderful life" kind of weekend went somthin' like this......

My honey returned from his work trip to OKC on Friday afternoon. A couple hours later the two of us were headed out the door for a night out. Maddie was a sweetheart and came over to babysit for the evening. Don't even start to ask me when the last time was that we went out on a date (and hospital work dinners and parties don't count!) We had been invited to join some new friends for dinner that night. One of Riley's new providers, Shawna, and her husband Jon were meeting us along with my new friend Lauren and her husband Chris. It was just the perfect night out. Lots of laughs over dinner and some drinks to follow at the Moose Lodge. Of course we left saying that we were in need of nights like that more often. But going out with friends also reminded us that everyone else with small children is in the same boat. Oh, the parenting boat. The next day I jumped overboard off of that boat for a day in Enid with my family. It was a daddy/daughter day back in Woodward and it appeared that she wasn't feelin' the pain of having mommy gone.....

Riley's text read: "it's lunch time momma!"

I had an amazing afternoon hosting Bailey's bridal shower with my Aunt Lisa. It was just nice being surrounded by so many people that I love and adore for the day. I must also mention that it was nice being able to spend time with them without having to chase around a certain little girl. But I did pay for not bringing her along with me. I thought grandma and the aunts were going to strangle me for leaving her back at home. There was much mention of that silly Hallie girl throughout the day. It was around 4:30 that I really started missing my girl and wanted a teleportation machine to bring her to me. Since I didn't have one of those machines on hand I opted for a ride on this machine......

After us bridesmaids tried on our dresses and cleaned up the room where the bridal shower had been we all met up at Aunt Lisa and Uncle David's house. It was hard to miss the huge, shiny new toy in their garage. Dave got a new Harley this week and she's a beauty. If you know me well then you well know that I'm not a fan of things that go fast or have any sort of danger involved. So we can mark bikes off the list then. But for some reason I have the urge to take a ride with him. He happily obliged and Lisa did the honors of tying the do-rag on my head....and off we went. I think my cares and worries literally flew out of my head and off my shoulders as I rode. A few of the other ladies took turns going for a ride too....

It happened to be my uncle Lonnie's birthday so the twelve of us went out for dinner at Rib Crib. It was great seeing grandma get back out and be able to walk around everywhere we went on Saturday. I stuffed my face plenty well. ;) We spent the rest of the evening sitting around outside at Lisa and David's helping Bailey pick music for the wedding ceremony. It was probably a sight to see from an onlooker's point of view....there were five of us who had our phones out searching itunes and taking turns playing sappy love song options and singing along. I really didn't want to leave but it was late and I was exhausted. I swung by dad's house to pick up some of my old rocking chairs for Hallie and then headed home. Riley and Hal were both asleep and I couldn't resist going in to peek at my sweetie sleeping...

....come morning time she was not as happy to see me as I'd expected. After five minutes of punishment for leaving her on Saturday she decided that she loved me again and that we could be friends. ;) Thank goodness because this precious church outfit made me want to squeeze her little guts out (I mean that in the most loving way possible!) Seriously, could this chevron dress and baby wedge shoes be any cuter?

Nope!

And don't get me started about the sassy girl wearing the dress.....

The shoes were a little too big though

After church my pals went out to survey the yard and see what needed to be done.....

Our backyard had turned into an official workzone. No, really. Riley wasn't messin' around when he said that the backyard would be off limits for 4-6 weeks so that the grass seed could grow without being trampled by the dogs. He was serious.....

NO DOGS ALLOWED

Riley jumped right into his day full of yardwork. It was getting pretty hot outside and was nearing 90 degrees. Yowza! I'd forgotten what that felt like. But it wasn't long until I was fully re-introduced to the heat.....ON A 7 MILE RUN!!!!! I hadn't planned on doing something so ridiculous until we were driving home from church and I noticed a few people running. It donned on me that my two to three miles I've been putting in each day will more than likely not serve me well come race day in a month. 13.1 miles. Holy Moses! I needed to do something and I needed to do it fast. I immediately made plans to go die....in the heat. If anyone found me alongside the road I put in a request to Riley that my headstone read "here lies an idiot."

But before I left on that fun journey Hal and I had a couple hours of playtime. I suddenly remembered that I had a front carseat full of gifts and surprises for Hal gal from family. When I walked in with the bags of goodies she spotted the colorful Easter bag and started running in place with her "get excited" look on her little face. I placed the bag on the ground and she went to town taking out each egg and gift one by one.....

"This is AWESOME!!!!!"

Aunt Lana had sent this lovely bag of Easter goodies home with me to give to Hal. Can you guess what she was most interested in?????

Yeah, you guessed it.

Aunt B had picked up this adorable bee Easter basket for her favorite niece so we filled him with some eggs....

Hal tried on the incredibly cute new summer outfits from Aunt Lisa. The girl's set for warm weather! Her little eyes were wide with happiness and she kept scanning the floor looking at all of her new goodies. But there was one more bag lying on the ground begging to be opened. Cousin Aaron had picked up some greatly desired Zoo Talkers zoo animals for Hallie last week. An entire bag full!

"Mr. Hippo, we've got a lot of playing to do."

While I excitedly unpacked her animals she was much more interested in the books that came along with them.....

Keep on reading baby girl!

But there was only so much patience I had.....I was thrilled to check out the new animals and their noises. We plopped each new animal on the talking stand and listened to them growl and gallop and rawr. Why was I so excited about a baby toy? Well, ya see....these puppies are hard to come by. Rumor has it that these little animals fly off the shelves the day they arrive at the store and they are out of stock online. So that's why this momma was so excited when Amy snagged some for Hallie. Oh yeah, Hallie was excited too....

By some small miracle we have only had one casualty at the zoo. Emmi got ahold of Mr. Giraffe and had a snack. He's in need of a special helmet or something....

Gang's all here!

While my zookeeper daughter slept the afternoon away I set off on the long journey. I'm thrilled to say that the only time I had to stop was to send a text and later to get a drink of water. I took a different approach on this run.....when I felt like I couldn't run any longer I just prayed. Literally....I prayed and thanked God for legs to run, a heart that's healthy and the pretty sunshine that was giving my white skin some color. And somehow my idiot self could've been spotted with a goofy smile on my face the whole time. As hard as running the darned seven miles all by my lonesome was....it was well worth it and ironically one of the most relaxing things I did all day. At this point I thought I'd gone insane....smiling while running??? This just doesn't make sense. I think I still had a happy hangover from my staycation away from work. That's the only plausible explanation. ;) I'm halfway to a half-marathon. How's the saying go? "If you can run seven miles then you can run thirteen".....right????? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'll just keep on keepin' on...and hope that there's some other idiot out there who wants to run with me next time.

When I walked through the door and immediately darted for some water I spotted an array of adorable clothes on the dining room table. Looks like Nanny had snuck in and left a surprise from her shopping trip the day before. Holy cuteness! Just check out those ladybug matching sets!!

Riley was in the backyard sweating like crazy, digging up old trees and bushes, trimming back hazardous limbs, evening the ground in the backyard and planting grass seed. Sheesh! Have I ever mentioned that I'm forever grateful for that man? Well, I am.

Hallie woke up in a great mood. Hallelujah. The weather was feeling just like a summer day so guess what we did?

That's right! Swimsuit, summer hat, sunscreen, no shoes and a cool fruit snack. Oh yeah and sunglasses!!!

Aunt Katie and cousin Carmen came over to hang out and take a walk around the neighborhood. The girls were fine with our plans and stayed happily content in their strollers during our walk. Girl time was just what we both needed! I finally lured my worn out yard worker into the house with the promise of some dinner. We spent the rest of the evening outdoors relaxing and watching Hallie play. Neither of us did a whole lot of moving....let's just say we were feeling a tad bit old and sore.

This Negative Nancy had a Positive Patty kind of weekend.

And it was good for the soul.