45 years to celebrate

I could say a lot about the fact that today, my parents have been married 45 years.  But I'll let this photo stand on its own.  Happy Anniversary Dad and Mom!

birthdays birthdays birthdays

I am getting a little nervous. Blizzard warnings where we are supposed to be traveling? Eeek. My husband is the best though and is trying to find a way to get us to my family. I owe him the world. And it will all work out. I just keep telling that to myself.  We'd rather be safe than not.  Oh, but it is so hard when you want to get somewhere and there are obstacles.  To make matters worse, I can't hold my mail online or over the phone.  What is the point of technological advances if they do not work? 

But, BUT, it is Noah's birthday today.  And he is happy.  So there is that.  And we are all healthy (knock on wood...I totally did, did you?) so there is that too.  And we will get to our destination somehow and sometime.  Breathe...

Here are my favorite fellows...

Here is Noah's cookie cake.  He wanted a green angry bird, so I put one on his cake.  It turned out pretty well (although his beak is much bigger in the game...He is a toucan.  Oh well)

Rhett wanted an ice cream sandwich cake.  It was fairly easy to make.  :)  It is too cold for me though.  Rhett loved it though!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and if you are traveling, be safe. 

my baby boy turns 9

I won't have pictures until tomorrow, because I'm writing this on my iPad. The boys just went to bed and I'm on my bed, ready for sleep. I've been baking a lot today and I am tired! Noah, sweet Noah. My favorite thing about Noah is that he is still so lovable. He still wants hugs and kisses and cuddling when he is sad. But he has grown up a lot too. He loves all things science and video games and books but he is very choosy on what he reads. He still wants to wear athletic pants and plain t-shirts that are soft. He has a thing for stuffed animals but no longer wants to bring them to school. He still will occasionally try to sneak one in my purse when we are going out to eat though. Noah is fiercely against being told what to do by anyone. My sister, Jana, once likened him to WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE's Max and it is true. Noah roars and gnashes his teeth when he doesn't like something. He once said that he would like a little brother or sister so he could have authority over them. We laughed and laughed at this. Seth and I are youngest children too so we know exactly what he means. I know that I have a twin but I couldn't tell Case what to do anymore than he could me. One more thing about Noah. He gets so excited about presents. I hear him upstairs because he is too wired to sleep. I am sure he will be waking up early tomorrow to open his gifts. So that means I better go to bed. Happy Birthday Noah!!

celebrating an eleventh birthday

Rhett turns 11 tomorrow. Without me getting all weepy, I will attempt to explain how lucky I am to be his mom.

Rhett is curious.  He wants to know everything about everything.  He also thinks he is right about most things and never thinks his mom knows what she is talking about, especially in subjects such as Math and Science.  Or English...excuse me, I meant Language Arts.  Or anything else.  He always questions me.  "Are you sure about that?"  He doesn't do it so much with his dad yet. 

Rhett likes to talk.  Especially when he is happy.  And that is what I remind his dad, when Seth is getting frustrated because Rhett has not stopped talking.  I just say, "That means he is happy," and Seth smiles and can't be frustrated anymore.  Funny enough, he wanted to look up what the meaning of his name was the other day.  It means, "speaker."  We were right on the nose with that one!

Here Rhett is, with his Dad and Pop, at the Philbrook Museum.  I am sure Rhett is wondering if the fish get cold or why they are the color they are, or maybe he is asking the meaning of life.  No telling with that child. Though I get exasperated, I secretly love it.  He will never just do something without questioning the why of it.  And that is a good thing.   

Rhett loves to help.  He also loves to please.  In this picture, still at the museum, he climbed onto the tree branch quickly, but then turned and helped his brother.  Without being asked, he just grabbed Noah's arm and pulled.  

Rhett is such a sweet big brother. Too sweet, sometimes. The other day, the boys were fighting and I went to them to see what the big fuss was. Fighting over legos and Noah got his way. Again. Rhett just didn't know what to do. I told him that he needs to be assertive. If Noah is being mean, I said, then Rhett had every right to kick him out of his room, even if the legos belonged to both. Later that night, after the boys were in bed, Seth and I heard a loud bang upstairs. Seth ran up to see what it was.  A few minutes later, Seth came down and asked me, "What did you tell Rhett?" I repeated that he needed to be assertive and asked why.  Seth answered, "Because Rhett said Noah would not stop talking, so Rhett just pushed Noah out of bed."  So he is trying, even if it is not in his nature to do so.

Rhett still gets scared, still gets sad enough to cry sometimes and can be silly and goofy and, well, a boy.  But he is growing up.  I can see glimpses of what kind of man he'll be and it makes me proud.  But it also makes me happy to see this:

He is as excited as Noah is to open a card from our elf each day.  He still wants to believe in magic even when his logical mind is screaming it cannot happen.  He still believes in the wonder of childhood and I, for one, am so happy that he does. 

Happy Birthday Rhett. 

elvis likes owls too. whoo wouldn't?

Yesterday, our little elf left stickers to decorate the boys' dad's presents:

 A Chick-Fil-A sticker.  That is the answer to your question, "What is on Rhett's head?"  I don't know.  That is the answer to your question, "Why?"

Today, we found this:

You see, Elvis used my craft supplies to make his cards.  And he must have found my owl stamp and just loved it so much that he couldn't think of anything for the boys to do today.  They were so excited to get to go play the Wii though and thought it was quite hilarious. 

I have to say that Elvis has made this December the most fun for the boys.  I'm glad he came around this year. 

ode to all things peppermint-y

One of my favorite things to do this month is make peppermint bark.  It's easy, it's yummy and it is a good little gift to give away.  (Except the one year I made it and didn't give it away and I ended up eating the whole batch by myself.  Ugh. Because of that, I didn't make it the next year.  I needed time to reclaim my love of peppermint bark.)

Usually, I make it to look like this:

One bag of creme de mint baking chips, one bag of good quality white chocolate baking chips, and crushed up peppermints (I used the softer kind this year so it's not so crunchy).  Melt the creme de mint chips in microwave, spread out and let harden.  Melt white chips, stir in a few peppermints, spread on top of chocolate, top with some more peppermints, let harden.  Break and enjoy.  I like keeping it in the fridge because it tastes super yummy cold.

This year, I also made it like this:

In this batch, (that is still too soft to break apart) I melted bittersweet chocolate chips, and topped it with a layer of Hersey's Peppermint Kisses.  Topped it with peppermints.  It's pink!  And it is sooo good.  This stuff is dangerous. I need to give it away. Don't want a repeat of a few years ago...
I dare you to try it and not love it. (I am bringing this stuff with me wherever I go, so if I'm coming where you, get ready).

Oh peppermint bark.  How I love you.

Elvis makes us bake cookies

Our elf is a bit bossy. So far, he has ordered us to put up our tree (I was thinking of skipping that one this year but Elvis insisted), watch the movie Elf, and today we had to bake cookies. Because we were working on a short time limit (Rhett has baseball practice this evening), I went to the store and bought Pillsbury Simply... chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie dough and some Hersey kisses.  Easy and I didn't mind giving up control for this one. :)

The boys rolled the dough in the sugar:

Then after baking for about 10 minutes, they placed the kiss in the middle:

Now for the fun part.  While I drizzled chocolate onto the already sweet enough cookies, they followed with sprinkles.  They didn't hold back:

I wonder what Elvis has in store for us this week? (I kind of wish he had told me so I could have written it down ahead of time but I guess surprises can be fun.)



in case you still check on me...

I updated the blog today!

 December is already here.  I kind of let November pass me by on the blog.  Sorry.  How about some pictures? The one above is of Boston United Methodish Church in downtown Tulsa.  It is a beautiful church.  When Seth's parents were here over Thanksgiving, she wanted to take some pictures of nice architecture, so we came here first.

The next place we went was the Philbrook Museum.  It has beautiful grounds.  The trees still have color on them which was nice too.  We really like this museum.  Everytime we come here, there is always something fun for the boys. 

This time, it was a cat.  She just hopped right into Rhett's museum box and made herself at home.  We all thought it was hilarious.  She was a friendly cat

Here are my boys now.  They are getting so big.  I can't believe we'll be celebrating their birthdays this month.

This month will be fun.  An elf came to visit today and left a bowl full of letters!

Rhett and Noah were so excited. 

A month of activities to do.  Noah wanted to open them all at once.  He hates waiting for things.  Sometimes that is the funnest part though.