Drake is 4!

I cannot believe that Drake just celebrated his 4th birthday. It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny little newborn.

Now, he is a very big boy!

He is a ball of energy. He is constantly moving. I am telling you...this boy is not still until he falls asleep! He brings a lot of happiness to our lives. He is funny. He asks more questions then any kid I have ever been around in my life! He is a 'doer'. He likes to do just about anything, and he will do it well. He loves tools, fishing, all sports (but he loves to tackle so I think football is probably number 1!), cars, motorcycles, trains...his interests are endless. I love that about him!
Drake's biggest interest over the past year and a half has been monster trucks. I didn't really know anything about monster trucks, but Drake has taught us all more than we will ever want to know about them. So, it just seemed appropriate for his birthday this year to go to Monster Jam since they were in town a couple weeks before his birthday. It was the BEST.

The Monster Jam cake! Drake thought this was the coolest!


We got pit passes, so we were able to go on the floor and see the trucks and meet the drivers. Drake got several autographs and pictures with his favorites.
"Sampson"
"Prowler"
"Spiderman"
The one and only, "Grave Digger" ~ his favorite!
He was amazed at how big the tires were.

In the pit before the show...
I thought it would be a little much for Aleah. She stayed with my friend from school while we went. Aleah is not a fan of loud noises and loud doesn't even begin to describe the noise there!



He was in complete awe!

It was so much fun to enjoy this special day with him. I love you, Drake! You are my favorite four year old in the whole entire world!

Snow, skiing, and more snow!

Since Terril was busy coaching after Christmas, the kids and I went with my bff's to Red River, NM to ski. Madelyn has DREAMED of skiing since the last time I went (4 YEARS ago) and had the audacity to leave her behind...how dare I? Anyway, Shana told her if she saved her money, she would take her. And that she did. Madelyn saved all of her money for a year and finally had enough to go. I was very proud of her until she decided to take her wallet up to the gym where 400+ people were involved in a basketball camp and LEAVE it laying around. We found the wallet, but as you can imagine. Anyway, I am still proud of her. We live and learn. Thanks to some help from her grandparents, she was able to re-save and was ready by Christmas.


It was a great trip. Madelyn learned to ski much faster then I did my first time. By the end of the day she was skiing down the bunny slopes. She loved it.


Aleah and Drake mostly hung out with me, napped, played in the snow, watched the snow mobiles while evryone else skiied. We all went tubing each evening. Drake LOVED the tubing.


It was a fun trip. Next time, however, I WILL be skiing too! :)

Snow much fun!

Since I have some major updating to do, I thought I would start with some of our snow activities. The weather in Oklahoma has been crazy this past winter. Much to my children's delight, we have had several opportunities to play in the snow. They love to sled, make snow angels, eat it...you name it. Here are some fun pictures from one of our winter blizzards! :)
Aleah LOVES to sled!

Madelyn kept complaining about her ears being cold. I can't imagine why? :)

Drake the Daredevil. He cannot do anything the easy way! He had a blast!

SO COLD!!!

The kids all had a great time, and got to go home to a warm house and some yummy hot chocolate!

I'm still here!!!

I vowed that I was going to be a better blogger then scrapbooker, and I am failing miserably! To say we have been busy does not even begin to scratch the surface. Since my last post we have had Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's, Drake's 4th birthday, Aleah's 1st birthday, Madelyn's 3rd grade school program, a new soccer season, Spring Break, and of course, lots of basketball games!!!! Phew! That wears me out just typing it! :) Anyway, I will try to do better to update and post now that Terril is home in the evenings to help. It's amazing how quickly dinner is made, lunches packed for the next day, homework completed, baths taken, and bedtime when my hubby is around. The life of a coaches wife is pretty crazy! I am sure you are all SO jealous! :) I'll have pictures and updates tomorrow...so stay tuned! :)

Photo Shoot

Well, I decided to take some photos the other day of my kids. Shana and Kayleen were ever so kind, as usual, and helped me with it. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a really good picture of ALL three of my kids together since Aleah arrived. Someone is always looking away from the camera or cranky and totally won't smile. Sweet Madelyn always has the fake smile going on because that is what she does for the ENTIRE photo shoot...just sits with a smile plastered to her face in hopes that the other two will eventually cooperate at the same time!! Anyway, I'll post some of them below. We took about 120 and the ones below were the best. Yikes!! Oh, well. :)






This was my favorite photo from today! Aleah loves her big sister so much. This picture captures it perfectly!!

I don't know if I can totally commit to a fav picture for the annual Christmas card. Which is your favorite? We may need one more attempt before the cards are finalized and printed! Anyway, it was a fun day, even if I didn't get THE picture out of it! :)

Finally!!

Drake is FINALLY feeling better. I had NO idea that the recovery time was as long and difficult as it was. Now that the worse is over, we can see some definite improvements in his sleeping and breathing. Thank God for that. I was beginning to think I was never going to forgive myself for putting him through it. It was rough! I am so glad to see Drake back to his busy, busy self! You have no idea how much you love and appreciate your child's personality until it is gone. He is a handful, but he brings us so much joy and laughter. I'm SO glad he's 'back'!! :)

Please pray for Drake

My sweet, lovable, baby boy!

Drake is having his tonsils and adenoids removed tomorrow morning. He has had some issues with breathing (mostly at night), where he actually stops breathing for a few seconds at a time. He also gets these terrible, reoccurring sinus infections during the cold/flu season that take months to go away. They believe the sleep apnea and smoldering sinus infections are caused from enlarged tonsils and adenoids. He has received testing for allergies, asthma, reflux, and everything in between. So far, nothing has helped. We have had a very difficult time making the decision to go on with this procedure because they are not 100% sure that it is necessary. We know that it is a pretty routine surgery, but I worry about my baby boy receiving anesthesia, making it through the surgery okay, his recovery afterwards and mainly if we are putting him through this for nothing! Anyway, I am confident that all will go well, but am just asking for your prayers. Please pray that his surgery goes well and it takes care of his 'issues'. Thank you so much!!

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Kayleen had a party at her house with lots of cute decorations and yummy food. Afterwards, we took the kids trick-or-treating. Fun, fun!!

I really wanted to do a 'themed' Halloween this year, but my independent 8 year old did not really want to participate. So, everyone kind of did their own thing. Shana made Aleah's costume, and it was perfect for her! Madelyn knew who she wanted to be since August. I used Drake's Christmas present from last year for his. So, here they are...
Dorothy, complete with Toto in her basket!

Sam Bradford (well, that's what we called him although the number is not accurate. We have been told that he resembles him. What do you think?)

And last, but not least, Pebbles. Her mop of hair on the top of her head made this perfect!

These were the best pictures I got of all three together. Maybe one of these days we'll get a decent one where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera! (But I won't hold my breath!)


Hope your Halloween was happy! :)

BIG day!!

Even though I did not get any pictures (I know...terrible, but I am working on that! Maybe I'll remember for game 2!) today was a very BIG day for my husband. It was his first game as the Head Assistant Coach. They played AWESOME and won by 30+! The team looked really good. I hope this is a sign of what this season has in store! He has worked so incredibly hard, and I am proud of him. GO EAGLES!!!!

Precious!

I went to check on my older two 'babies' tonight and found this...

Absolutely precious! They are such good friends and I hope they remain this close forever.

Madelyn is such a good sister. At 8 years old, she is more help to me then another adult at times. As a matter of fact, today when we got home from school, she came straight in, put her things away, started a bath for Drake, gave Drake a bath, got him dressed for bed (this was all about 4:00 this afternoon, a little early, but what do you say?? :))put a movie on for him, and then watched it with him while I fed Aleah and got dinner started. ALL without being asked. I sometimes feel like I am harder on her then I should be (you tend to do that with the oldest, or at least I do), but days like today remind me of how absolutely wonderful she is, and how happy I am to have her as my daughter.