It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas....

We have been busy with Christmas programs, baking, decorating, and digging out of the snow! Thats right we had about a foot of snow this past weekend. The kids absolutely loved playing in the snow and we even took them sledding. We had bought them sleds for Christmas and gave them early so they could play.

The kids can hardly wait for Christmas to get here. We are planning on having a lot of family time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I really want to just enjoy spending time together.
Unfortunately Dalton no longer believes in Santa Clause. He came home from school today and told me. I was really surprised he hadn't figured it out yet but he said a kid at school told him and he thought about it and agreed. I asked him what made him think Santa wasn't really real and he said that it was because reindeer really couldn't fly. When I asked him how he knew that he said "Because they don't have wings" LOL! Thankfully he has agreed not to tell Lyric or Samara yet!

Lyric continues to keep us laughing. Here are just a few of our recent conversations with her.

We put up a nativity set with the kids and each night we would put up one piece and read a story about that character. Lyric was so excited and everynight she would say who it was i.e. Mary, Joseph, the Shephard, etc.. then the night came where we pulled out the baby and she said.."It's baby Moses!" We gently informed her that it was baby Jesus!

Lyric came home from school and asked me if I knew the song, "Jesus born in Buffaloham"!

My mom sent the kids a package with Christmas ornaments and new toothbrushes. I was putting their new toothbrushes out and putting their old ones in a plastic sack to throw away when Lyric asked, "Mom, are we gonna send those to Kuper?" I informed her that we would not be sending Kuper their old toothbrushes! I wonder if she thinks he sent them his old toothbrushes?!

Much more to share including pictures but for now I have many present to wrap! Wishing all our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

Santa

Getting Samara to quit crying while sitting on Santa's lap......DIFFICULT!

Getting Lyric to stop talking to Santa for 5 seconds.......CHALLENGING!

Getting all 3 kids to all look at the camera while seeing Santa........IMPOSSIBLE!

Thankful...

I am thankful for a love like this......

I am thankful for a miracle like this......

I am thankful for blessings like this......

I am thankful for joy like this......

.

I am thankful for moments like this......

and this........

and this.........

but most of all I am thankful for a family like this ..........

This post is a bit late. But I am truly thankful for all that God has blessed me with. We really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year. It was filled with great food, shopping, and relaxing at home together.

City Life!

So you might be wondering just what our city life is like....

On weekdays Dustin and I wake up around 4:30 a.m. (That's right a.m.!) I wake the kids up at 5:35 and we are out the door by 6:15. Generally I ride with Dustin and the kids and they drop me off at the subway station by their school. Dustin and the kids go on to school and I take the subway to my office where I begin work at 7:30. The kids all go to school with Dustin and Samara stays in the class next to Dustin's classroom. There are 4 one year olds in her room and she loves going there! I get off work at 4:00 and I take the subway home, Dustin and the kids drive home after school and we are usually all home by 5:30. Then as most working parents know its a race to get supper cooked, homework finished, lunches packed, baths, books read, hugs, kisses, prayers, and all kids to bed by 8:00. One of my favorite times of the day is when the kids are all in bed asleep and Dustin and I have an hour or two (depending on how tired we are) of quiet time alone! One or two days a week I work from home instead of going to the office or working in the field. This really helps me keep things in order at home.

After school and work we head to the church on Friday evenings where we have services for kids, youth and adults. Dustin and I are currently helping out with the youth. It is neat to see some of the kids we had 6 and 7 years ago now in youth. Saturday mornings we have about an hour or two of "cleaning the apartment". Then we spend the day having family time unless we have something special going on at the church. Sundays we go to church which is close to an all day event here! Our church is located on the lower east side of Manhattan and we absolutely love our church family here. We usually leave church around 2:00, stop somewhere for food, and end the day relaxing at home and preparing for the next week.

That's just a quick run down of our new life. The kids are all doing so well. They are trying new things, eating new foods, and learning. Last week we purchased necessities, candy, and toys for needy children and Dalton and Lyric took the boxes to school. Dalton told me after school that day that he got up during Chapel and spoke in front of 2nd through 5th graders about how he felt about giving. Too say I was so proud is an understatement. Lyric has been memorizing memory verses at school and comes home so excited about what she has learned. I feel so blessed that they are going to a school where there is such diversity but also where they have teachers and staff that love them and where they can learn about God. I see Dalton and Lyric growing and changing so much. It is amazing to see this new life for them. A life where there is not constant uncertainty or worry of what will happen tomorrow.

This Saturday we are having family pictures made at Central Park. I'm really excited because it will be our first family picture with all 5 of us. Afterwards we will be going to the church and helping with Boxes of Love. A church in Greenwich, CT partners with our church and we pack about 40 to 50 boxes with a turkey, pies and canned goods to take to needy families in the area around our church. We break up in teams and deliver the boxes and pray with the families. It is a very rewarding experience and I am excited for Dalton and Lyric to be able to participate.

There is so much to do this time of year, baking, christmas shopping, decorating, etc...... and I still haven't finished hanging stuff in our apartment. Oh well! It will eventually get done. I'm looking forward to having some time off of work next week...to spend time with my family, eat some delicious food, and to decorate for Christmas. It will be a fun time and a sad time. We will definitely be missing all of our friends and family back in Oklahoma. Wish we could be with you all!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Last Tuesday we celebrated Dustin's 32nd birthday! We had dinner at Dustin's favorite restaurant, Edo's. We also had cake and Samara had her 1st taste of Chocolate Icing! She is doing so well and has been off of her reflux meds for over 2 weeks. No problems...just a very happy baby! The week was full of preparations for our church's Fall Festival. Which was on Saturday evening. The kids could not hardly wait until it was time to dress up. They had so much fun! Dalton was a super cute Mario!

Lyric was an adorable Strawberry Shortcake!

Samara was a beautiful Butterfly! I really wanted to get a picture of all three of the kids together but Samara wasn't having it. She is on the move and doesn't have time for pictures. Oh well...maybe next year!

Here are the kids and some friends from church...I couldn't believe they kept their costumes on all night and they totally had a blast at the Festival.

Here is Samara and me during the Fall Festival. Dustin and I helped organize volunteers for all of the games. It was a lot of fun and exhausting! There were so many kids and families from the neighborhood that came. It is really an awesome outreach. The last time we were in New York we held the Fall Festival inside the church but it grew so much that now they rent the outside area of a nearby school and all the moon bounce activities. They also provide cotton candy, popcorn, and a sack with goodies for every kid. I don't know what the total count was but I know there were a ton of people there even with the rain that came in around 8:00 that night.

I had to add this pic. Isn't this girl adorable. She was all dressed up for church on Sunday! Dalton and her were mad that they didn't have Sunday School this Sunday. It was cancelled due to the Fall Festival and clean up. They earned extra Sunday School dollars this weekend by helping out so much. They are really excited about that!

Hopefully this week will be back to normal. We are slowly getting into our new normal routine. Can't believe it is already November and Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

Where Does the Time Go?

My goal was to update once a week....but I am already behind! Time is definitely precious and I've learned that my time with the kids is more important than being on the computer so I blog when I feel like it after the kids are in bed. The week before last we had visitors! I know we just moved and we barely had unpacked but it was sooo much fun! Dustin's cousin, Tanner, and his wife, Amanda, and their precious little girl, Ava.We had beautiful weather and then they came and brought all the cold and rainy weather they have been having in Oklahoma. We really enjoyed our time with them. Amanday and I went to see Mamma Mia while the guys stayed home with the kids. We had a blast! Especially because we had awesome seats in the 2nd row right behind the conductor! The next evening Tanner and Dustin went to a Yankees playoff game while Amanda and I stayed home with the kids. We watched the movie Mamma Mia and decided that the play was much better. On Saturday we took the kids to a Children's Museum in Manhattan. Here are the kids all bundled up waiting on the train (Subway). Dalton loved building things with blocks at the museum.
Samara is one crazy driver!

Lyric surprisingly did not cooperate this day for pictures. Here's a pic of Samara on the train. She's a true City Girl!

Tanner and Amanda left that Sunday and with them went the bad weather! Last week we enjoyed our first full week in New York without any visitors! It was nice to get into a regular schedule. The kids are doing wonderful at their new school. Our days start extremely early but the kids hardly complain. They are experiencing new things. Dalton loves watching all the cars and Lyric is curious about all the different languages that people speak. She asked me the other day if she goes to a "Spanish School"! I told her no but that she goes to a diverse school that has children from many different countries so they may speak different languages. There are not many blond haired blue eyed kids here and she is definitely noticing the difference! I think she really likes it because all the older girls at the school think that Lyric and Samara are SO CUTE! I do too! Dalton has to fix his hair by himself everyday. It is quite interesting because he takes forever to "fix" his hair and when he is finished I sometimes have to hide my smile. Let's just say he has been having some "fun" hairstyles.

I recently took Samara off of her acid reflux medication and this past weekend we gave Samara Spaghetti with red sauce for the 1st time. She did wonderful! She slept all night and I did not notice any problems!! She really enjoyed the spaghetti!

She loves macaroni & cheese too!

So we were busy this weekend looking for a 2nd vehicle. We didn't find one yet. I attended a bridal shower for a friend that is getting married in December. It was at a tea house in Manhattan. It was lots of fun getting away for a while and enjoying the tea party! Dustin took Dalton and Lyric to see Where the Wild Things Are. I think they had a great time. Samara stayed with a sitter. The rest of the weekend was spent going to church and preparing for the church's Fall Festival this coming weekend. I will share more about that later. We are all doing really well. I can't tell you how proud of the kids I am. They are really amazing!

Columbus Day Apple Picking

My friend Deidre and I used to go apple picking every year on Columbus Day. It is hard to believe that 4 years ago to the day we signed a contract on a house in Mustang. After we got back home from apple picking that day we faxed the signed contract to our realtor. Now here we are back in NY four years later picking apples with 5 little helpers! The kids had so much fun picking and eating the apples. Even Samara and Marcus, Deidre's little boy, loved eating the apples. The weather was perfect fall weather and the leaves on the trees were absolutely beautiful. After apple picking we went to Chilis to eat dinner and then finished the day with some shopping! It was a great end to our weekend. It was even better when we returned home and found out that Daddy had finished all the house projects that needed done! I'm truly married to the greatest husband and father. Samara loved the Molten Lava Cake at Chilis. Got to love that girls' crazy hair!
Isn't this the most perfect picture. She loved sitting on all the apples that had fallen off the trees! The only problem was she tried to eat them even if they were yucky.

Dalton said he found the best tasting apple ever!

Samara and Marcus taking a break from apple picking to tast there hard work!

Lyric trying her apple.

All the kids with their apples!

Today was the kids first day at school. They all had a great day! I had a great first day of work as well. Didn't do much since my computer hadn't come in yet so I got to go home at noon! Can't beat that for a first day at work!

Quick Update!

OK....so I don't really know where to begin but this is a very quick catch up!

• We are all finally in NYC! Yes that includes Dalton and Lyric!
• We enrolled Dalton and Lyric at Evangel Christian School. They will be going to the same school Dustin teaches at. Dalton will be in 2nd grade and Lyric will be in Pre-K. They are both so excited and everyone at the school was so nice to them.
• Samara will also be going to the school with Dustin and she will be in a daycare class where there is 4 one year olds! They are all kids of teachers at the school. Her nursery is next to Dustin's classroom. The kids will all start school on Tuesday since Monday is a Holiday.
• We are working on getting completely settled in our apartment. It will take some time but most of the boxes are finally unpacked.
• My grandma helped me fly to NY with all 3 kids she has been here all week and leaves tomorrow. She has been such a great help.
• I start my job on Tuesday.
• Dustin loves his new job!
• Tomorrow we are taking the kids Apple Picking! I'm sure we will get some pumpkins as well. The leaves up here are completely gorgeous.
• It feels great to have my family all together once again and to be back in NYC!

I hope to keep all our family and friends back in Oklahoma updated more often.

Update

It has been a long time since I blogged last and a lot has happened in that time. Just a quick update. My transfer to NYC has not been finalized and instead of getting upset over this I decided that God wanted me in OK for a while longer. So for the past few weeks I have been living with my dad and his wife in Elk City and traveling to OKC and staying with friends 2 nights a week. About two weeks ago I received a call from DHS that I needed to pick up Dalton and Lyric. It is a long story but I will not elaborate on here. I was in OKC at the time so my dad picked them up as well as Kuper ,my sisters 1 1/2 year old. My mom currently has Kuper and Dalton, Lyric, Samara, and myself have been staying at my dads. Dustin and I have filed for an emergency hearing to request that Dalton and Lyric move with us to NYC. This is a major step but one that we feel God is leading us in. We have already spoke with our landlord and we have received approval for Dalton and Lyric to attend the private Christian school that Dustin will be teaching at. Living in NYC with 3 children will be no small task but I know that God will be with us all the way.
I am currently in NYC helping Dustin get moved into our new apartment. I will return to OK tomorrow. I have enjoyed getting to see him over the past few days and Samara was so happy when she saw him....well actually she cried but sometimes that's what us girls do when we are happy! Speaking of Samara...she is walking like nobodies business! Yesterday she wanted to walk down the street instead of us carrying her. So we each held a hand and she walked down the streets of NYC like she was big stuff! Samara also absolutely loves having Dalton and Lyric around again. When they are wrestling on the floor she just gets in there with them.
Dalton and Lyric are doing well. Dalton is in 2nd grade and Lyric is in Pre-K in Elk City right now. They enjoy going to feed the cows with PaPa! Dalton has even helped bale hay!
I would like to ask for prayer for the following:
Please pray for us, Dalton and Lyric, the judge, and my sister on September 14th. We want what is best for Dalton and Lyric.
Please pray for timing regarding my job. I need to stay in Oklahoma until everything is cleared up with Dalton and Lyric but I also need to get to NYC as soon everything is finished. I'm not looking forward to spending another month without my husband.

MIA - Missing In Action!

So what have we been doing? Packing, going to NYC, packing, going to MiMi and PaPa Tad's, packing, getting ready for a garage sale, ....have I mentioned packing?!



Yep...we have been busy, busy! Everything has happened so fast. If you haven't heard...we are moving back to NYC! Dustin accepted a position at a private christian school in Queens, NY. I always told him he reminded me of Doug Heffernen! Now he will be my King of Queens! Only we won't be living in Queens...we will be living in The Bronx! More about that later!

We had already scheduled a trip to NY in July and it worked out that Dustin was able to meet with his new principal and for us to take care of some things while we were there. We also took time to eat and enjoy our friends.

This is Samara and Marcus. They are six weeks apart. They both love to eat and this night was no exception!

Samara on our way to Pennsylvania. Eating again!

Samara and Marcus trying to figure out the hotel tv.

Our main reason for going to Pennsylvania was to see Dustin's sister, Amy, and her little girl, Rachel. Isn't she a doll? We hadn't seen Amy in over 5 years and were so glad to get to spend the day with them.

This is our new home! We will be living on the top floor. The first time we moved to NY it took us 3 months to find an apartment. We found this apartment in 3 days and I was way more picky this time around. I specifically asked God for 2 things - an apartment with a washer and dryer hook up (so I wouldn't have to spend time hauling our clothes to a laundry mat) and a parking spot (so we wouldn't have to look for parking on the street every day or walk a long way to our house at night). These may seem like things you would expect but in NYC they are a rare commodity. I need to take a minute and just say...God totally cares about those little things. Our apartment has a built in washer and dryer so we don't even have to bring ours. We also have our own parking spot beside the house! We are so blessed! Not only that but the landlord wanted to paint the entire apartment before we move in and he let me choose the colors! That is so amazing to me because one of the things I was sad about was Samara's room and it not looking the way it does now. There are many other awesome things God has done for us over the past four weeks but I will have to share that later.

This past weekend we picked Dalton and Lyric up and went to MiMi's (Dustin's mom) house for the weekend. We had a great time and even got to spend time with Dustin's grandparents as they came for the weekend as well. The kids swam, played with the animals, drove the chuckwagon, and did all sorts of fun things. We even got to stay in the travel trailer which the kids thought was fun! We were so glad to get away for the weekend and take a break from the move.

Samara loved her Papa Tad. She wanted to be with him the entire weekend.

Monday night I took Dalton and Lyric back to their mom's. They are really doing good and seem to be adjusting well. Of course things will never be what I wish for them but I feel like my sister is doing better than she has in the past and I know that Dalton and Lyric need to adjust to one household. I really wish I could just pack them up and take them with us but I know that is not to be. We will still go to court one last time in October but this was the last time we have them before we move. They are both getting so big and are full of life. It's hard to believe that Lyric will be in Kindergarten and Dalton will be in 2nd grade. They grow up too fast.

That's what I have been doing while MIA! I'm sure I will continue to be MIA for 2 more weeks. Dustin leaves August 14th. Please pray for him and Richard as they will be driving to NY with all of our stuff. Samara and I will continue to be in Oklahoma until my job transfer takes place. We will be staying with NaNa and PaPa! Oh what fun that will be!

1 Year Check-up and Pictures

Samara had her one year check-up this week. She weighted 21 lbs and is 29 1/4 inches long. ShShe seems to be growing over night. Samara is in the 50th percentile for weight and height. She had to get 2 shots and her blood checked to see if she is anemic. That seems to get harder as she gets older, especially when she looks at me with those pretty blue eyes that are so sad.

I took Samara to have her 1 year pictures made today. They turned out great of course I think she is just the cutest 1 year old ever!

So shy......

Not Really!!

First Birthday Party and First Steps....

Samara had a great birthday party. All her friends and family came to celebrate with her and I think she had a lot of fun!

Here is the big birthday cake! I think it turned out so cute! Birthday Girl!



She did not really care for opening presents. There were too many people and other fun things to do!

This box looks fun to play with!

Time for birthday cake! Not so sure at first. She just took little tastes with her finger.

Oh yay!!! Cake tastes yummy!

Forget being proper....I'm digging in!

Nothing better than a fistful of cake in the mouth....

except for being able to put your foot in it too!

All cleaned up now and riding my new horsey!

Samara was exhausted after her party...but she was one happy baby!

The day after the party we went to church and Mamaw and Peepaw stayed the night so they came with us. Then we had lunch at Pops in Arcadia. We ate outside and it was so hot! That afternoon after Mamaw and Peepaw left we were playing with Samara and she took her first 3 steps! I though my heart would explode! I was so happy that Dustin and I both were there to see her first steps. She then took 2 steps but wouldn't you know the stinker wouldn't walk anymore when we got the camera out. She would just lean over like she was doing a belly flop because she knew we would catch her. I'm sure it won't be long before she is walking everywhere! She is growing up too fast.