Christmas Concert

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas time is attend the choir concerts that my girls are always in. This year Meredith's high school combined with West Texas A&M's symphony and choir. It was amazing. The symphony was amazing, the choirs were amazing and it was a beautiful way to feel the spirit this time of year. I'm so proud of Meredith and her ability to sing with such a great choir.

Claire hits double digits! Happy Birthday to my baby!

Exactly ten years ago today our baby was born. I used to say she was an angel sent straight from heaven. She was the best baby! Ever since she was five she has been saying, "I don't want to have a birthday and get older!" Then we would both pretend cry together. Sometimes as a Mom, it is hard to accept the fact that your kids have to grow up. That has been especially hard with Claire. Maybe its because she is so sweet, maybe its because she is my last one, or maybe it is just because I enjoy our times together so much. Whatever the reason, time still comes and snatches childhood away from them. I guess I should be happy, and i am, but sad at the same time. Claire brings joy, youthfulness, and innocence to our family and for this I am truly grateful. She will forever be my baby and forever I will love her! Happy Birthday, Claire Bear!

Very Inspiring "One Nation Under God"

Shelby found this painting and posted about it. I thought it was so inspiring that I wanted to share it with my family and friends. Be sure to run your cursor over the painting after you get to it to see the info on that person. It is amazing!

New Floors! Yay...

We have been going to install wood floors since we moved in and this just happened to be the weekend. I went and got estimates on having it installed and when we found out how 'easy' it was we decided to do it ourselves. Well, Shelby is a trooper and although it wasn't real difficult it was a little tricky cutting around the banister. It is going to look wonderful when we are done! This is what we got done before Shelby had to go to the Stake Youth Activity! Hopefully we will get to finish more before he goes out of town this week and next! YIKES

A Great Weekend!

We had such a fun weekend. Our friends from OK came down to a wrestling tournament in Amarillo, so we got to spend the day with them. Tim and Michael both won their brackets and then we had a good time eating with them. Craig and Kirk weren't bad company either. Then the boys came home with us and took Claire trick-or-treating. Oh if only all boys could be as sweet as Tim. Meredith got stuck handing out candy and then we traded and she took all the boys to the corn maze. Needless to say it was a fun filled weekend. Claire got a lot of compliments on her costume. She has been waiting and waiting to be a bag of jelly beans!

School Project

You know those school projects that you just go UGGHH over. Well every year Claires school makes them decorate a pumpkin. This year they had to pick a character from a book. Well Claire wanted to do KW from Where The Wild Things Are, but we didn't have any fur in the house. So she decided to do Mrs Sunny Patch. She thought that the kindergarten kids would really love seeing her. She loved her when she was little because she was so kind to all her friends and made them all happy. It was a team effort. Shelby painted the pumpkin yellow and Claire painted all the pipe cleaners (we only had green ones) and then I cut out the nose and eyes from styrofoam. Claire painted and painted and then had to write an essay on Mrs Sunny Patch. Here is her final result. Yay, its done!

Birthday Girl #2

Sunday our first baby turned 21. Now this was great for her and all but a little depressing for me. That means I am getting old! But if it means that we get to share our lives with a beautiful spirit we named Megan, then it is worth the aging process. Megan has always been a mellow and loving child. She was the best baby ever and a great big sister. We are so blessed to have her in our family and even though she doesn't live at home with us anymore we all stay very close to her. We are so proud of her accomplishments and the example she has been to her siblings. Being the oldest isn't easy! We love you Megan and thank Heavenly Father every day that he sent you to our family.

Favorite Things!

Oh what a wonderful idea for a christmas gift. I am dying to have one. I think I will get one in red with a rooster! Arent they the cutest thing and great for taking to those school or church occasions. You might actually get your pan back!

Walker gets his knee fixed!

Walker injured his knee last year during wrestling. He re-injured it this summer, wrestling. Now, football season has been upon us and he has been playing his heart out. After each game, and sometimes during the week, his knee would swell and became real painful. We took him to a saturday clinic they have for all sports injuries. They did an MRI and we went back to the Dr on Tuesday. Needless to say, they had him in surgery the next day. They repaired cartilage that had been ripped away from the back of his knee cap. This meant they had to trim up the cartilage and then drill 4 holes through his knee cap to establish blood flow and promote the re-growth of that cartilage to his knee cap. Needless to say he has been in quite a little bit of pain and has to be in a huge brace, unable to bend his knee, for 4 weeks. All I have to say is he doesn't do well on pain meds. VERY MEAN. Thank goodness I love him and can overlook it. Please call him, email him or write on his facebook. It might make him feel better!
cell ( 918) 914-2936
email whorn_42@hotmail.com

5k run 'Race for the Cure'

I am happy to report that I ran the 5K in a better time than last year (28 min). It made me very happy. Not only is it a great cause, but it is so fun to do in Amarillo. There were over 5,000 entries for the 5K run and the fun-run (which the majority of the people did) Amarillo raised over $56,000 for Susan G Komen foundation. Wow! Then after the runners were finished and they were doing the fun-run, everyone who ran could have a free hot air balloon ride. Well more like a lift, but it was fun. All in all it was a great experience, this is the 3rd year I have run it and hope I can can continue every year. Now, off to find some more 5K's to enter!

Birthday Girl!

Today we celebrate 17 years with Meredith. Oh how time flies! She has brought so much happiness into our lives with her tenderness, fiestiness, and her genuine love for people. She is an animal and baby lover. She is passionate and dramatic. Our family wouldn't be complete without her and we thank Heavenly Father daily for her special spirit. Yes, it may shock you to see her birth picture but it is proof that ugliness can turn into beauty. Ok,ok thats kinda rude. I think of the day I gave birth and saw her for the first time. I couldn't believe that she was mine. She didn't look anything like Megan, except for the dark hair, and her cheeks were HUGE. I remember calling my mom and explaining that her cheeks were so big they made her head look bigger than her body. No matter, she turned out beautiful and everywhere I went people would look at her and say "she looks just like one of those precious moments dolls" So to my precious Meredith, Happy BIRTH-day. I was there and I know you belong to us. We love you forever!

Homecoming!

Ok, so we now live in the big state of Texas where everything is BIG, right? So for homecoming here they don't wear formals and have a dance. They give each other mums and gaters that are to be worn at the homecoming football game. Now these are not just your average mum they are ginormous and consist of many things hanging from them. Most of the time they don't even say on because they are so heavy. Needless to say it was interesting and Merediths was beautiful. We had a garter made for her date and it turned out pretty cute too.

Race for the cure!

If you're a runner or a walker, be sure to sign up for the Susan G Komen 5k run/walk in your area. All proceeds raised will go to fight breast cancer! Heres our website. Last year there was 4500 participants in Amarillo. Isn't that great? So go sign up and run your race! You always get a free t-shirt!
http://race.komenamarillo.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=1000

Peaches! Yum, yum

This last week we had to return to Bartlesville for another dentist visit. Meredith got all 4 wisdom teeth extracted. She did great and hardly had any swelling. She is doing great so far! I picked up some Porter peaches to bring home. I started with an entire box but by the time I got around to doing anything with them about 1/3 of them were eaten. They are straight from heaven. Hands down the most deliciously sweet peaches in the world. Today I finally got around to freezing them and making a peach pie for dinner. All that needs to be said is yummy!

Florida!

We had a wonderful family trip to Marco Island Florida. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever visited. We stayed in a condo right on the beach that had a nice pool. The kids went para sailing, Shelby and Walker did a night deep sea fishing trip and the girls and I went on a shell excursion. We saw lots of dolphins, and interesting sea creatures, and black pelicans. We even saw a very rare pink bird! (can't remember what it was called) All in all it was a lot of fun and great memories. We met up with some friends for dinner one night and had a lot of good food. We hope to go back! There's nothing more beautiful to me than just sitting on the beach.

A little FAMILY time vacation!

We are headed to Marco Island, FL for an amazing vacation. We have been looking forward to this for a year! The kids are so excited to hit the beach. We are para-sailing, shell hunting, deep sea fishing, and just some R&R on the beach. We should have some great pictures when we get back. In the mean time....have a great week.

New Mirror!

I have to thank Leslie for the all her help in getting this mirror. I saw it on her blog and told her I HAD to have one. So Leslie was so nice and went and bought one for me. Then she stored it at her house for a few months until I could come and get it. Thought you might like to see its new home Leslie. Thanks again!

Fast trip to Southlake!

Well it seems like the summer is flying by and we are spending a lot of time in the car. We had a wonderful trip to Bartlesville and then to Arkansas for a family reunion over the 4th of July. This weekend we drove to Southlake, TX. My wonderful brother-in-law is now an endodontist (best I've ever been to) and I was in need of a root canal. We got to spend a few days with his wife and kids. Thank you, thank you for your generosity and kindness! Meredith and Claire went with me and had a great time playing with their cousins. We got to go to Barnes and Noble and listen to the new American Girl Doll book. I think they lasted about 15 min before they decided they were bored. Thanks so much to Neal and Leslie and their kids for all their hospitality.

Long drive home

We've been in Utah for the last 2 weeks. We took Megan out to school and Meredith to EFY. We also got to visit with family and friends. One of the special friends we got to visit was Stella. We've known Stella since about 1998. She lived out in the country by us in Tyler TX. Our kids got to be real close to her. She had a little farm with all kinds of animals and she would have the kids out (especially Walker) to play with the animals, and cook. They loved going to Stella's house. Now Claire didn't ever get to know Stella because she was born right before we moved to OK. But we went to visit her in SLC (where she lives now) and Claire got a dose of Stella. Needless to say...she didn't want to leave. She could have stayed with Stella for days and played with all her dolls. Stella was even kind enough to send two of her baby dolls home with Claire. She has mothered them ever since we got them. As you can tell from the picture it was a long ride home from Utah and Claire never let her doll go. She is taking good care of them. Thank you Stella for making memories with Claire so now she can say... I know Stella to! We love you!

Meredith goes to Prom!

Even though my little girl isn't a junior yet she was invited to prom. She attended with a senior boy and a big, lively, fun, and talented group of kids. As I was frantically helping her get ready I remembered helping Megan get ready a few years ago, and thinking about how fast time goes. It makes my heart sad to see my girls growing up so quickly and even sadder when they leave. But, as for now I am so glad that I have them in my life to add the joy and love that only a daughter can bring. Meredith is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside and for this I am so thankful.

Never ending infection!

Well, Spanky has had an awful infection in his foot for two weeks now. You would think after two different antibiotics, a surgical probe, pain killers, and steroids, it would be getting better. We also soak it in warm water and betadine morning and night. I think the vet has given up on us. The poor guy. At least he is walking on it now. He's gotten to where =he will just stand in his soak for about 15 min now. What a good boy. Now, infection....go away!

Every morning you can find me out weeding, snipping, watering, my flowers. And every morning you can find this elderly lady doing her morning walk. She is maybe 5ft tall and maybe weighs 80 lbs. She is soo tiny. She walks for miles and miles all over Canyon. Sometimes I feel like following her to make sure she doesn't collapse somewhere. She is very kind and always comment on how pretty my flowers look. I hope I have that energy when I'm her age.

Anyone need some Hen & Chick?

About 7 years ago a friend of mine gave me two 'pups' of Hen & Chick. Now, a pup is the offspring of a larger Hen & Chick in case you didn't know. Through the years I have planted 3 huge tubs with the offspring of just those two original ones. I have given many 'pups' away, and in fact just last night gave 4 more away to some friends that came over for Enrichment. I love sedum and find that it is one of the easiest things to grow. It requires little watering and no fertilizer and just loves hot sun. So needless to say it is the perfect plant. So, if anyone ever wants to start a sedum container...I have lots!!

Sunbathing at its best!

The weather has been wonderful here! As you can tell Spanky enjoys the morning sun right on the front porch. I was pulling weeds. Talk about lazy!!