My homesick heart loves this post....

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Bowling With the Boss Year 4

Katie and Collin played on an all kids lane against 3 other professor's kids and Katie won with a 108!
Dinner: pizza, cookies, Sprite - Collin and Katie say it's their favorite meal ever!

Collin got his first spare and didn't seem to care that Katie beat him for the 2nd year in a row.

Love.

Our other bowling ball - Jackson - was only interested in eating leftover pizza crust.

And I know you are wondering who won on the faculty/staff lane, right? Me. With a 158. Against husband and another male professor. I've already taken a Tylenol PM.

Jackson's 2nd Momma

Katie feeding Jackson applesauce.
Katie has even come up with his nickname: Chubba Chubba Choo Choo.

I am so thankful that Katie loves on Jackson so much. I am also thankful that he has slept through the night the past 3 nights! This is one happy and rested Momma.

Collin's First Day

Collin - all ready for the first day of second grade!
Dad and the kiddos walking up to school.

Wishing our "little one" a great first day.

Collin was quick to let go of my hand and head off to see his friends.

The line-up to Mrs. C's room. When I picked him up from school he said, "This was the best day ever!"

Jillian's Wedding

Jackson terrorizing Ms. Jillian's brother.

Me: Look at Mom and smile. Hmmm...let's try that again. Why don't you guys stand up?
Me: Alright. Yes, you are standing. Next picture let's not stand in between the hand rails and put your arms down.


Me: Good, good. Arms are down. Step over to the side away from the hand rails and smile. Well, let's scrap the picture of you two together. And let's not even try one of all 3 of you!

Collin, the ring bearer-bearer. The actual ring bearer, Scout the dog, was not allowed indoors when the wedding was moved inside due to rain.

Katie, the flower girl. She wanted an orange flower in her hair to match Ms. Jillian.

What a fun and beautiful wedding Jon and Jillian had. Thank you guys for letting us be a part of your special day!

Collin, Ms. Jillian and Katie. Oh how our family LOVES Mrs. Jillian!

Jackson Matt

Jackson is a great eater! He loves carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears - are you loving the curls here?
Jackson seems to be the messiest eater of all my kiddos or maybe I've just forgotten just how messy the other 2 were.

The curls are tamed here and he is looking pretty solemn.

Jackson cannot stand to not see the door of his bedroom while he is in his crib. So he has smashed down his bumper pad so he can keep an eye out for me. I think it's adorable.

Here is that sweet boy in an aerial shot. Oh, he is so much fun! And has such personality! Love, love, love that boy!

Braum's Factory Tour

Miss Kate ready to hear the talk on the Braum's Family Farm.
"This is THE cow that helps make the milk for the ice cream?" - quote from Katie.

Sister's favorite flavor!

There is no proof that Jackson attended this field trip but he was there. Collin did not attend because he was at camp and had no idea he was missing a fun day at the ice cream factory.

Katie eating her ice cream at the end of the tour. Fun day, fun times - I'm just a little late posting about this fun day.

Summer Project #1

Swirl - a fence destroyin', grass killin' sweetie

Mack - ditto

What used to be a lovely backyard with carpet-like grass - now a barely standing fence and a dirt patch.

Here is the gate Swirl broke the boards off of so she could sit in the front yard and wait for Mack and me to return from a walk.

This is the section of the yard that we call the dog potty area. See how green the grass is?

Whoo hoo - "tornado resistant" steel poles!!

I've never been so excited over a fence and I really mean never!

Thank you dear doggies for forcing me to move new fence above new blinds on the priority list. More pictures of the exciting new fence to come...

I am thankful for old friends. And by old I mean my age.

Elise, Collin, Katie and Grant - It's funny to me how the 4 of the kiddos paired off to play. I would have thought that Collin and Grant would have played together since they are 9 months apart but no.
It's strange to be walking in our neighborhood and see a horse farm but I LOVE it!

Walking in the "haunted forest" near our house. (Note the holding of hands between 9 year old Elise and 7 year old Collin.)

Lisa, Grant, Elise and Andy Gibson

Lisa was one of my first friends when we moved here. Super friendly! Always invited me to playgroups, out to eat, over to their house for dinner! Very generous! Very hospitable! They are also the most frugal people I know! Matt and I always considered ourselves pretty cheap and frugal people until we met them. They can't be beat! Thank you guys for coming to stay with us! It was lots of fun!

There's a new little McCookie in town

Not this town but he's in Texas with the rest of the McCook cousins. Here is the family: Kristen, baby Caleb and Colt.

Caleb Trent McCook

And here are our kiddos with Jarre, Matt's mom.

And here are our lovelies with Pops, Matt's dad. Apparently when we were in Texas we did not get everyone together for a picture. Love you Pops and Jarre! Love you Colt, Kristen and baby Caleb! We can't wait for your visit!

Matt's 37th Birthday

We took our favorite 37 year old to Ponca City! Doesn't everyone want to go there? I think it's a GREAT town! Here we are at the "starter" home of E.W. Marland. Just a smidge over 16,000 sf! I can see why he needed to move. Must have been busting at the seams in this place.
The indoor swimming pool was impressive! The wife of the home kept swim suits on hand in case her visitors wanted to swim.

This picture will be the cover of my Oklahoma Travel Book.

Here are the kiddos and the birthday boy in front of the Grand Home.

Great house, great museum, great fun!

After a lunch at Head Country delicious BBQ (we finally found it!), we headed to the Lew Wentz pool. Did you know it is one of the top 5 prettiest pools in the nation? Nation! Here are the 80 year old diving towers - thankfully they are now closed, otherwise our Kate would have taken a flying leap off the top.

It is a fabulous pool! I mean we do have a pool 2 blocks from our house and one at the college and we drove an hour and a half to swim here!

A lovely look out tower - I opted not to climb up with Jackson. Katie said, "It's JUST like the Eiffel Tower!" Sweet girl!

The Lew Wentz Campground will rent out these cute little castles for the weekend IF you have at least 30 people in your group. Anyone? I've got to stay inside one of those castles someday!

See how Jackson has progressed? He used to scream and cry when he was put in the water. Now he's just frowning!

That's Collin under the water umbrella thingy.

The view from the top of the look out tower.

This is Standing Bear. We also visited his Memorial Park as part of the Matt's Birthday Fun Day.

Then on the way home, after a lovely day of birthday fun, we see this on the back of a car. I just don't know what to say about it except at least their license plate was from Missouri.

Happy birthday my love! Your wife loves you, your kiddos love you. We are so glad we have you as the leader of our family!