Moms and Waffle Sticks?

Collin thinks that the muffins at "Moms and Muffins" are not like mine. Ah, so sweet...those Martha White packages are so easy! So he decided to eat the waffle sticks served in the cafeteria that morning and have me tag along.
The Chick-fil-A cow was on site this morning and instead of Collin wanting his picture with the cow, he wanted me. Unshowered. Unfixedup. Me. Oh, the things we do for our kids. But he does prefer my "homemade" muffins to the store-bought danishes so I did owe him.

Here he is at Charge-Up singing You Are My Sunshine, The Presidents Song, and Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night (or whatever the name of that song is). Stay tuned...Katie's Moms and Muffins is coming up!

Hello old friend

The nebulizer is back to work. We've had this thing since Katie was 8 weeks old when she had pneumonia. Jackson used it when he was 3 months when he had croup and again around 9 months when we was having breathing difficulties due to food allergies (we believe). Now Jumpin J has been diagnosed with RSV. So we are under breathing treatments every 4 hours.

We all had a scary evening last night. Jackson was coughing, stopped breathing, turned bluish/purple, eyes rolled back in head, slumped over. I called 911. Matt banged on his back. After a couple of hits, he started breathing again. The firemen came. EMSA came. He checked out ok. I got out the air mattress to sleep on the floor in his room so I could hear every cough, sneeze, wheeze through the night. Took him to the pediatrician this morning and she could still hear a wheeze but he was looking better. In other news: he is officially 20 pounds 0 ounces!! Yea! We are ready to see him playing cars again.

Or even getting into sister's stuff.

What we've been up to

Shopping with Texas Santa's money...Collin took a little trip to the Lego store. He bought "Freeing Dobby." And has a new interest for Christmas 2011...Diagon Alley!
Here he is with Hogwarts, the Hogwarts Express, Quidditch and now...Freeing Dobby. Oh the joy of Legos!

I must admit that I love to go in and see what position my children are sleeping. My mom took a lot of sleeping pictures and I do too. I adore them. Jackson must sleep with part of his face covered...

and he likes to throw his socks and passy out.

Sunday morning pictures. Jackson is thrilled.

Catching snowflakes.

ditto

Here is Katie flying the simulator at the Omniplex. She crashed once and then kept doing circles...a future pilot?

The new area at our science museum...a tease on the eyes. It's very fun and bold in there.

Love.

Grammy - Katie is having a phone conversation with you. I think this is where she is telling you that you don't know much about science. And that she will teach you when you come to Oklahoma. (To my friends that read: my mom taught Chemistry, Physics and PreCalculus at my high school, so this should be an interesting conversation between the two of them.)

Katie playing at the treehouse.

Visiting with a scientist.

Choo-choo - exhausted after a big day at the Science museum.

Another Sunday morning photo...it's been a while since I blogged, no?

On Martin Luther King Day, we all bundled up and headed out to the zoo.

My kids have a facination for the STATUES at the zoo, the real-live animals are a bonus. Here they are posing with the bunny doing a "bunny-run". This is something Katie made up and I've forgotten when and why.

So snuggy-bundled at the zoo!

Jackson seeing the fishies.

Katie on the pygmy hippo statue. Do you notice Katie has some little bangs now? Yep, we've had some fun with scissors around our house. I'm not quite sure I can bring myself to blog about ALL the incidents but let's just say her scissor practice is going to put off for quite some time.

I think we are going to need to get a swingset for the backyard! He loves to swing!!

Celebrating a day of fun with a ride on the little carousel. Yes, we did spring the 50 cents and take a real ride. It was thrilling!

Our Jackson...sockless and enjoying the ride. He's got a lot of "I'mgonnadoitmyself" personality in him. But alas, he had to be held onto by mom.

So parents, friends, that is what we have been up to lately.

The BIG Day!

I started out my 2 day I-stopped-nursing-and-my-sister's-having-a-baby vacation by driving down to Dallas to see my best friend, Laura. We have known each other since I was a sophomore in high school and she was a freshman. We went to different high schools but were in the youth group together. She is fun, funny, a great conversationalist, a snazzy-hip dresser (I think I just made up a new hyphenated word), smart and thoughtful. I like her mostly because she says words like faunchin. We both have a deep love for Coke and agree that you MUST drink coke while eating pizza or hamburgers. We stayed in a great hotel, ate lots of great food and did lots of shopping! Yea!
Then I headed over to see the BIG nephew. My blessed sister gave birth via c-section to Greyson Lawrence at 10 POUNDS 13 OUNCES and 21 3/4 inches long! Bless her. Bless c-sections.

Here is the hours-old babe.

And here are his "paw" prints. WOW!

And here they are! Woo-hoo! I love being an aunt! I also love having babies too but being an aunt has it's own special benefits.

The proud Poppa and Momma. Brother Chandler had already gone home by the time I started snapping pictures. Congrats sis! We are so excited to welcome Greyson to the family!

The way we started the new year

I slept in until 8:30!! I heard lots of talking on the baby monitor. Things like, "This is what we should do: read to Jackson until Mom comes in here." "No, I'm playing soccer in here." "Mom won't like it." "Mom's not in here." I decided I should head upstairs. And these three cuties are what I found (soccer ball was quickly hidden under the crib).
Dad raked the leaves. Collin helped put them into the trash can.

Yes, he is wearing his pajamas outside.

And this is how we ended the day.

Katie-isms

While nearing Post, TX over the Thanksgiving break, Matt and I decide to go over some rules before we get to Pops and Jarre's house.
Us: We won't run in the house.
Them: Silence
Us: We will eat what is made for us and we won't say yuck.
Them: Silence
Us: We will use our manners.
Them: Silence
Me: Do you have any questions?
Katie: Yes. What is 100-3?

While waiting in line to visit Santa Claus at the mall.
Me: When you go up to him say hello and tell him you would like "blank" for Christmas.
Katie: I don't want to say that.
Me: He is friendly. Don't worry.
Katie: I'm not saying it.
Me: Mommy will stand really close to you.
Katie: I'm not saying blank. I'm saying a purple bike with a blue helmet.
Me: Oh, right.

Katie picked out a Science Kit from the latest Scholastic book order. For one of the experiments she asked to go in the backyard and look for a bug.
Me: Sweetie, there are no bugs outside right now. It's too cold.
Katie: Hmmmm...can I get something from the garage?
Me: Sure.
She runs back in hands full of something and puts the stuff on the table underneath the magnifying glass. I see that she has 3 locust bodies (not locust shells...bodies). Oh dear. I've remembered that this summer she collected locust bodies in the pouch on her scooter. She examines them and moves on to do something else. I forget all about the locust bodies. Matt comes home from work and is getting dinner ready for the kids as I am heading out the door to go scrapbook. He gets all the plates on the table, notices magnifying glass and locusts and shouts, "What have y'all been doing today??"

Things I learned from "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity"

Here are some of my notes from the Bible study I took...

Definition of a woman of simplicity: one who lives a God-paced life.

In order to become a woman of simplicity I must believe that I am saved by God's grace and can do nothing to obtain this gracious gift.

I challenged myself to leave empty pages on my calendar and by the end of the 11 weeks I had done a better job of not being "too busy".

If my service for the Lord does not spring from grace, than I become overly busy and stressed.

I cannot know God if I am rushing here and there, with countless calls pulling me in various directions.

Being "the answer is always YES" kind of girl, I still struggle with responding to all needs of friends, family, teaching Bible class, sewing capes, being on the PTO, chairing a committee, etc, etc, etc. But now I've realized that the best thing I can do for my family, my friends, and my church is to abide in Him. I can do that one thing and do it well.

Most of us are not consistant spiritually because we are more concerned about being consistant externally.

I may think I have true Christian love until someone offends me or treats me unjustly. It is my response to that person that shows my true character.

The bottom line is: I need to BE STILL AND KNOW that He is God. I have a hard time being still anyway and giving up control of something, even a worry, seems to be an on-going battle.

I will end with a few wonderful quotes...

William Morris said in 1877, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." It's time for the McCooks to do some cleaning out.

A.W. Tozer said, "There are three marks of one who is crucified. One, he is facing in only one direction. Two, he can never turn back. And three, he no longer has any plans of his own."

Anne Morrow Lindburgh wrote "On a daily basis the good things - not the sordid and evil things - challenge my goal on becoming a woman of simplicity."

It was a fantastic 11 weeks. I loved getting to know the many new faces in the Bible study, many are from the community. I made progress. Maybe nothing changed outwardly but lots changed inwardly. And as the great Walt Disney said (he said many other profound things too, but this one from the movie "Meet the Robinsons" kept coming to mind), "Keep moving forward." That is what I will do.

Blessings my blog friends.