Holiday Weekend

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. On Friday, we took the kids over to Curtis' school to fly kites and can you guess what kind of kites they were...If you guessed Buzz Lightyear you're right. Lauren wasn't interested, so Curtis flew his, then he wanted to go play so I ended up flying it. We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again.

On Saturday, we took all three kids to the movies to see Toy Story 3. I was very nervous about how the kids were going to behave, but they were great. Lauren had a few moments when she would scream if one of us got up to leave, so we had to bring her with us. Curtis didn't move the whole movie, except to go to the bathroom, and he even shushed me for trying to talk to him during the movie! Claire would crack up at some of the characters when they came on screen, then she would clap at certain parts. It was too cute! After the movie was over, they were asking to see it again so that will be on our Christmas list this year.

On Sunday, our church had a picnic at one of the parks nearby, so we spent the majority of the day just hanging out. This park was amazing. The playground was the best I've ever seen. I wish I would've brought my camera with. Curtis even played some games with the rest of the kids. He is really good at walking/running with a cotton ball on a spoon. The best part was when the wiffleball game was about to start, kids vs. adults. Our pastor led everyone in singing The Star Spangled Banner. When we finished, the group at the picnic tables next to ours clapped and cheered for us and in the end, the kids beat the adults.

Yesterday, we didn't do much, just hung out at home and went through boxes so that we can reorganize our spare room. Kevin doesn't want to get a storage unit so all of our boxes are in the apartment with us, which doesn't leave us much room. We did get rid of three boxes of stuff and Kevin will be stacking boxes tomorrow so that we can try to use half of the room. We also finally moved Claire into the kids' room and out of our room...woo hoo! The first time since she was born that we have our bedroom to ourselves again.

Here is Curtis flying his kite.

The kids wearing their SeaBee shirts in honor of my brother.

This is from when we had all of the tornadoes hit the state. Isn't the sky an eerie color?

That's all I have for now. Have a great week.

Claire's Birthday Weekend

So, our Claire Bear celebrated her 1st birthday on Friday and we had a Care Bears party for her on Saturday. She didn't really understand what was going on but she sure did enjoy the cake and ice cream! Here are some pictures from her birthday weekend.

Here is Claire eating her birthday cupcake on Friday. She stuffed her cheeks, it was so cute!

Here is her invitation that I made. I think they came out real good.

Her Care Bears birthday cake that was strawberry flavored, yum!

Her is Claire wearing Lauren's old birthday dress and enjoying her balloon.

My friend Myra bought the hat for Claire's birthday. As you can see, she wasn't too impressed.

It was a fun, but busy weekend and I'm glad everything turned out so well. Now I can sit back and enjoy what this next year is going to unfold.

Happy Birthday Claire!!

It's hard to believe that our Miss Claire Bear will be a year old tomorrow. This past year has gone by so fast! In honor of her birthday, I will be writing about the day she was born, so be warned that there is gross girlie talk about to happen.



The morning of Thursday May 21, 2009 had started off with me not feeling very well. Not feeling well was the story of my whole pregnancy, but I had been up all night with really bad low back pain. Kevin could tell that I wasn't feeling well, so he decided to stay home, just in case. My back was hurting so bad that we decided to go to the hospital (I was already 3-4 cm dilated as of my appointment that Tuesday). I called my grandmother to let her know we were bringing the kids over. We got to the hospital around 8 a.m. and found out that my doctor was on vacation, so the on call doctor would be delivering our baby, bummer. As we were being escorted to our room, the nurse that would be taking care of me, walked out and exclaimed, "Kevin, is that you?" I looked at him like, who is that? He couldn't believe it, our nurse Katie, had worked with Kevin for 5 years at Disneyland, cool. So Katie got us settled and checked my cervix...4-5 cm...so she called the doctor. The doctor was in surgeries until 3:30, so I couldn't be induced until then, but we were also hoping that I wouldn't go into active labor until then. AAhhh, the waiting game. We did have her check to make sure that the baby was still head down, since Claire had decided to go breech at 37 weeks, but that is another story for another day. We also told her that we didn't know what we were having and wanted Kevin to call out the baby's sex when he/she was born. I cannot tell you how exciting it was to not know the sex of the baby, and the anticipation of is it a boy or girl (even though I swore we were having a boy and were calling it by the boy name). We had accidently found out with Curtis at 29 weeks and found out on purpose with Lauren. If we decide to have another one, we are definitely not finding out. Anyway, to combat the back pain, which we found out was because the baby was resting his/her head on my spine, Katie had me lay on my side, but partially on my belly for 15 min, then change sides. I did this for about 1 1/2 hours and it did help, so we decided to take a walk around the maternity ward to try and get things moving along. Around lunch time, Katie checked me again and I was only 5 cm with contractions every 7-8 min and my water bag was bulging, so Kevin went to get something to eat, while I had ice chips, lucky me. I did sneak a few bites of his burger since I was very hungry. After lunch, we just did more of the same, walking around, lying on my side, you get the idea. Since things weren't progressing very fast, the doctor decided that she was going to break my water at 3:30 after her last surgery, so at 2 p.m. I decided to get an epidural, since my back pain was getting really bad. The anesthesiologist came in at 2:30 to do the epidural, but low and behold blood started to go into the tube, so he had to pull it out and redo it...fun, fun, fun. The cool thing about this epidural was that I could still feel the contractions, but the back pain was gone...very nice. So 3:30 comes around and the doctor comes in to break my water...not so simple, the hook broke because my water bag was really thick, so she had to get another hook. Thankfully, this time it worked, so we wait some more. At 4 p.m. she checked me again and I was only 6 cm, so they decided to give me Pitocin. I told them that I didn't need it because once my water breaks, labor is very quick (Four hours with Curtis and two hours with Lauren). I argued with them on this, but they won out, so I got the Pitocin. Around 4:15 as I'm lying on my side, I feel a bunch of liquid coming out and it feels like something is sliding out, so I tell Kevin to run out and get Katie. He goes to the nurse station but she isn't there, so I press the nurse call button. A couple minutes later Katie comes in and I tell her what happened, so she goes to lift my leg to check me and quickly puts it down. She tells me that the baby's head is coming out and overhead pages the doctor... no answer... so she pages the doctor on her beeper and finds out that the doctor had gone to her office across the street...great, the baby's coming NOW and the doctor isn't here, so what does Katie tell me...don't push...that's a lot easier said than done. So I'm trying not to push, when all I really want to do is push, and finally the doctor arrives...yeah! Now I can push...first push, head is out...second push, I feel a lot of pressure and stretching, but baby's shoulders are stuck, so doctor is wiggling baby, very painful...third push, more tearing and I scream...fourth push, baby slides out...I look and the first thought that comes to mind, that doesn't look like a boy. So doctor looks to Kevin and says, "Okay dad, what is it?" and I hear him say, "It's......a girl!" No way, it can't be a girl, it supposed to be a boy. Kevin cuts the cord and they place her in my arms...and she is beautiful, all 8 lbs. 4 oz. of her. What a blessing!!

Claire moments after being born.

Claire today, no longer a baby, but now a toddler.

I love you Claire, Happy 1st Birthday!!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you moms out there, I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. Enjoy the poem.

Before I was a Mom, I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom, I had never been puked on.

Pooped on.

Chewed on.

Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child

so doctors could do tests or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby

just because I didn’t want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces

when I couldn’t stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom, I didn’t know the feeling

of having my heart outside my body.

I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn’t know that something so small

could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night

every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love,

the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

April 19, 1995

On April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck full of fertilizer explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 a.m. it exploded, ripping through the building killing 168 people, 19 of whom were children all under the age of six. More than 680 people were injured. This was the worst act of terrorism on American soil pre 9/11. **As I'm writing this my husband pointed out, what about Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was an act of war and not an act of terrorism.

I was 17 when this happened and I never would've dreamed that when I went off to boot camp four months later that my first duty station would be Oklahoma City. I arrived in OKC in January of 1996 and had no idea how this city and that horrible act would affect me. To tell the truth I didn't even put two and two together until about two weeks before the one year anniversary, when we were being briefed about all of the security measures that were going to be taken because the President was flying into the base for the ceremony. A lot of the military personnel had been on the base when the bomb exploded. The base is about 15 miles from downtown OKC and the blast was so great that they felt it on base. I will never forget the stories that the guys told me about helping with the rescue and recovery, through their tears. Now folks these aren't wimpy guys, these were big, strong, go to the gym everyday guys and to see them reduced to tears talking about what they experienced was very humbling. I wouldn't get the full effect until I was actually taken to the site a few days after the anniversary.

This is just one block from the Murrah building, and as you can see that after a year, the windows are blasted out and boarded up.

This is the Journal Record building that is across the street from the Murrah building.

This is the Water Resources building directly across the street from the Murrah building and you can see the damage. The survivor tree and YMCA is in the background. About 100 feet from those blockades is the spot that McVeigh parked the Ryder truck. The blast created a big crater in the street so they had to fill it in.


This is from the other side of the street. The survivor tree is in the foregound and the Water Resources building is in the background.


This is where the Murrah building once stood. This is hallowed ground. This fence was always full of momentos that people would leave. Just seeing the fence makes me cry. I spent New Year's Eve '96 at that fence praying over the victims and their families. That's a New Year's I will never forget.


This is on the wall of the Journal Records building in back of the Survivor Tree. The Survivor Tree was in the direct path of the explosion and survived.


This is a hard picture for me to look at especially since I have kids of my own now, but this picture is the most famous from that day. The little girl is Baylee Almon who turned one the day before the blast and she did not survive. This picture also won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. There is a book out there written by Jon Hansen, who was the Assistant Fire Chief in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened, and it's titled Oklahoma Rescue. It's an amazing book of his first hand account of what happened that day and the days after. It will leave you speechless.

Since I can't get to my pictures yet I have to go with this picture from a postcard that I bought of the OKC National Memorial. The designers did a magnificent job with this memorial. It is so beautiful in person. There are two gates, The Gates of Time, at each end of the street. One gate says 9:01 and the other says 9:03. The street is now a reflecting pool and the chairs are where the Murrah building once stood. Each chair represents a person that was killed, big chairs for the adults and small chairs for the children. Each row represents a floor of the building, so the chairs in that row represent the number of people killed on each floor. There is more to the memorial, but I need to show the pictures to explain it. You can go to www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org to see everything in the memorial. It is a beautiful website.

On Friday, President Obama declared April 19, 2010 the National Day of Service and Rememberance for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism. I will leave you with a portion of his speech. "There is no greater evil than willful violence against innocents. On this National Day of Service and Rememberance for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism, we pause to remember victims of terrorism at home and abroad. We honor the heroes who have supported them, and we redouble our efforts to build the kind of world that is worthy of their legacy."

The Price

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Easter morning the kids opened their Easter gifts from my Mom. We didn't have anywhere to go so we just went for a drive to find a park. When we found a park, we would stop and let the kids out to play. They had a blast! It would've been nice to spend Easter with family, but oh well we made the best of it.

Saturday night, Kevin and I watched The Passion. That is the most amazing movie ever made. It really brings home what Jesus did for us, for me, even though we don't deserve it. I love how it shows the relationship between Jesus and his mother Mary. Being the mother of a son it really effects me on a different level. I just can't imagine what she went through watching her son go through all of that. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. The whole movie just has me crying from start to finish, but the two parts that really speak to me, as a mom, are when Jesus is carrying the cross through Jerusalem and Mary asks John to get her closer to him. John takes her to a spot that is secluded and she waits for Jesus. Jesus comes into view and falls to the ground from the weight of the cross as Mary flashes back to when Jesus was a child and fell and scraped his knee, so she goes running to him, as any mother would, and embraces him. Jesus looks at her and says,"Look Mother, I make all things new." Wow! That is so powerful and just wrenches my heart. The other scene is when Jesus is hanging on the cross and Mary walks up to him and kisses the bloodied foot of Jesus. She then looks up at him and says,"Flesh of my flesh...heart of my heart...Son, I want to die with you." Ugh! that just send me into hysterics. (Those of you that know me well, know that I'm a very sensitive person and it doesn't take much to make me cry) That is the ultimate price of motherhood. I am just humbled at the price Jesus paid so that we (I) could have a relationship with God.**As I was writing this, Curtis starting crying out in his sleep, and of course I jump out of my chair and run to him.** It is unfathomable to think that the great creator of the universe would send his only son humbly to this earth to die a horrible death just because he loved us and wanted to have a relationship with us. Would any of you sacrifice your child in that way for love? Hmmm...something to think about.

On a lighter note, Claire is officially walking and she is good!! She went from taking a couple of steps to full out walking in a week. She didn't even want to have us hold her hand and she will squat down, pick something up, then stand back up and continue walking. What!?! I still can't believe that I have a walking 10 month old. Lauren was 13 months old and Curtis was just about 14 months when they started walking. I had a feeling that she would walk early because when she was a newborn, she would stand herself up when I would burp her. Superbaby!! Anyway, have a great rest of the week.

Skating Fun

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend (I know it's now the middle of the week, but I've been busy!) Saturday we just hung out and unpacked some more. Sunday our church had a pot luck for our Pastor's 50th birthday, so we hung out for awhile, then we went home so the girls could nap and then we were off to roller skate with Kevin's older brother and his family. The skating rink was 61 miles away in a very small town. When we got there I was a little aprehensive about the whole thing. You couldn't even tell it was a skating rink from the outside, but inside there were ramps on the floor and you could ride bikes, scooters, walkers, and skateboards as well as your skates. The kids had so much fun. Shortly after we arrived, Lauren was pushing one of those plastic play shopping carts and fell and bit through her tongue. Thankfully no stitches were needed and once the bleeding stopped, Lauren was on her way like nothing happened. She is such a trooper. So here are some pictures from our skating fun.

Curtis had so much fun on that thing. He was all over the place!

Lauren amazed us with her skating prowess. That girl has great balance!

Claire had too much excitement:)

Oh, I almost forgot...Curtis is officially registered for kindergarten. Kevin took the kids over to the school on Monday to turn in the paperwork, and Curtis got to meet the principal. Kevin said that Curtis saw some first graders lining up to go back to class and he wanted to join them, when Kevin told him that he can't start school yet, Curtis went over to the door and blocked it telling Kevin,"I don't want to go home, I want to go to school." That just eases my heart. I think he will be just fine. Have a great week!