One of our favorite things to do in the Fall is visit Carmichael's Pumpkin Patch.  They have the best gathering of live farm animals in our area not to mention a hay maze, cool pumpkins, and lots of other cool stuff that costs money that we never let our kids do.  This year we ran into James' best friend from the last two years at Hoover.  His name is Will.  James has been asking to call him for over a month.  Finally I let him about two weeks ago and we had to leave a message.  Anyway, James was super excited to see him.  It is hard to know how to handle the moving on friendship thing.  I have tried to distance us from him but it feels so sad to James because he doesn't understand how us moving 30 minutes from him changes anything.  I told him to pray about it and see what God does...

 We got a few new school books for the girls to practice their basic preschool skills and they beg me to get them out everyday and beg me to keep working when I tell them time is up.  I hope they stay this studious.

 Small sample of our family pictures!

 It rained really hard all day one day last week.  We had been to the grocery store and two other errands and were soaked by the time we were done.  I had a major fiasco in the walmart parking lot that included a 12pack of cokes rolling all over the parking lot, walmart bags looking more like water balloons, and an unruly basket.  So, when we got home I let them loose in the water.  It was freezing but they played for an hour racing bottle caps in "rivers" and rescuing worms from drowning.

 We just returned from out 6th Annual Beaver's Bend Campout!  This year only our household and Jason's household were able to make it AND we didn't get the spot that we've had the 5 previous years! But we had a great time and made some fun memories.  Our family always gets there first on Wednesday night.  We always have bad weather the first night we are there it seems.  This time it was raining when we arrived and proceeded to rain all night.  So we set up as fast as possible in the rain and just hung out in the tent for the two hours until bed time.  We sang songs, told stories, played "I'm going camping and I'm taking a …."  It was so sweet to have that time with the kids.  Mallory's "ghost" story is hilarious and I have tried to video tape it but she won't have anything to do with it.  Sometime I'll get her then I'll post it.

This is a bear we always take pictures with but this time we realized he could hold Mallory.

 I forgot to post this story a while back but one day in the back yard Mallory wanted me to push her in the swing so as I was pushing she told me to stand in front of her and I asked why.  She said, "so I can kick you in the muffins".  What in the world.  She meant she wanted to kick me in the breasts but apparently someone taught her that they are muffins.  

 I've been telling Mallory that it is just going to be her and I next year because Kinley will go to school like James.  I ask her "what are we going to do?" She says "have tea parties!!".  Yesterday Josh and I were talking to her about it just being me and her all day next year and she said "Well, I AM the cutest in our family".  At least she doesn't lack confidence.

 As for parenting on the camping trip once we got to Beaver's Bend the kids were great!  We didn't have to discipline at all.  It is so nice that they are getting big enough to have a good time with.  However, on the way there they were quiet intolerable.  We had to pull to the side of the highway to give all three spankings at one point.  I was cracking up because we were in hick SE OK and Josh was having the kids put their hands on the car while he used his belt to spank them.  I yelled out the window "you are going to get taken to jail if you don't watch for cars!".  Oh parenting...

 Our family is officially too big to fit in one canoe.  So when we went on the float we got James his own kayak.  He handled it like a champ.  There is only one small spot of rapids and they are right when you get in but he only spun around once and didn't get stuck at all.  I think he really enjoyed it and we were really impressed.  Does he not look like a teenager in the pic below…what happened to my baby?  It started raining while we were in the middle of the float so we pulled into a little grove of trees for protection.  Simultaneously James had to poop real bad so Josh instructed him on how to dig a hole then hold on to a tree and swing it way back then poop in the hole.  He did great and he did it all while all 8 of us watched.  He is a true outdoorsman.

 Canoeing is my favorite thing at Beaver's Bend.  I started thinking about all the places we go where canoeing is possible and Josh mentioned something about people that own their own canoes and I suddenly came up with the Morris family Christmas list…GRANDPARENTS listen up…we and by we I mean all 5 of us :) want 1 canoe and 1 kayak.  We will take used and beat up!  Grandad, we could even bring them when we come to your house and use them on your ponds!! Ok enough of my shameless begging.  I think it would be really great to be able to float that river 10 times while we are there camping, it is beautiful!

 Ezra (Jason and Emily's 1 yr old) passed out in our canoe.  We were just rowing along and Mallory said "the baby is falling asleep".  He was sitting up and swaying side to side with droopy eyes like he was just about to fall over. We laid him down on a life jacket and there he slept for over 30 minutes.  So sweet.  Now, the reason he was so tired is that he didn't sleep well the first two nights we were there. The third night (again I am revealing some great parenting techniques of ours - please know we love and care well for our children and don't turn us in to DHS) Josh and I told them about the wonders of melatonin crushed up in applesauce.  Jason affectionately labeled it sleepy sauce.  Anyway, Ezra slept great the whole night and woke up happy.  That morning we discussed it a lot and laughed about it then packed up and left.  As our family was eating at McDonald's on the way home we were telling the kids they had to get in the car after lunch and take a nap while we drove home.  James said "So did you put that stuff in our food?"  We died laughing.  The way he said it was so funny.  It was "I'm curious how that works and I kind of want you to give it to me"mixed with "how dare you drug your children" mixed with "what else do you put in my food?". We assured him that we only drug him when absolutely necessary (like when driving 24 hours non stop to Hilton Head - that is when we gave it to our kids - the only time I might add).  

 Gotta love car naps! How do they sleep like that?

 This pic isn't very good but I wanted to document that the girls love to eat mac and cheese out of coffee mugs.  I was out of town or gone for the day and Josh was feeding the kids mac n cheese and all the bowls were in the dishwasher so he served it in coffee mugs and Kinley thought is was the best thing ever.  So now we eat mac n cheese in mugs.

Over the summer we went to the Kiddie Park in Bartlesville (one of our favorite places).  We are sad because the kids are beginning to grow out of it.  However, we still had some pretty fun times.

 The girls cracking up on a very slow turtle ride.

Kinley and I were sitting at James' flag football game the other day and she was playing with a baby that was there.  I told her how fun it is to watch her love on babies because I loved babies when I was a kid.  She said "then you got three of your own! But it's so sad because we are growing up!"  I said "I know...whaaa...what am I going to do without my babies?"  She said "You can hold my babies! You can be their Gigi and you can see them whenever you want, as long as I'm not busy."  I reminded her that when I'm busy I let her grandparents keep her. She said "Oh yeah, when I'm busy they can come stay at your house."  I said "well maybe we will live down the street from each other?"She said "Ok if my husband is ok with it that would be fun?"  Such a precious conversation.  I can't believe how she is growing and it breaks my heart but leaves me excited at the same time.

 James and Kinley are becoming really good friends.  They enjoyed the train ride together and today James was talking about the hard time he's having at school with his friends.  He was crying and Kinley came up to me with tears in her eyes and said "I feel bad for James". I told her to go up to him give him a hug and say I love you.  She did.  He hugged back and said see I'd rather be with you guys all the time. So sweet!  I have hope!

 I've taken each kid on a date in the last month or so.  The girls both chose Braum's and James chose snow cones.  I love how they come alive and chatter constantly when they have me one on one.

 This is the wreath I made for halloween then I got a fall flower arrangement  to replace the bow with for Thanksgiving! It was so easy!!

 James wrote this paper when his teacher asked them to write about their weekend.  I was so thrilled that he so openly exposed my keeping him out of school to do something fun.  To make matters worse the teacher assigned me to hang all the childrens' stories in the hall! Oh well, I've always been a little bit of a rebel.

  

We took family pictures this weekend and right before we left we asked Mallory how she was going to smile for Miss Erin the photographer and she put on James' batman mask and stuck her tongue out.  We were scared considering last year she was a complete terror.  But, she did wonderfully.  We had and great time taking pictures and everyone did great!  I can't wait to post some!

 Josh and I celebrated 9 years June 4th!  We sent the kids to Duncan for the weekend and went on a double date with James and Samantha.  On the date James, Samantha, and I surprised Josh with tickets to the Justin Timberlake concert in Tulsa November 21st.  We are all four going.  Josh and James both have fall birthdays and they are both in love with Justin Timberlake so Samantha and I are doing them the favor of going so they won't look like goobers.  

The weekend of our anniversary we tried to shop for furniture to get some decorative vision for our new house.  It was fun but overwhelming.  I could definitely use some interior design advice.

Below is Mallory with Caroline Butters, her best friend.  We have gotten to spend a lot of time with the Butters this summer!

Kinley turned 5 June 26th along with Miss Betty who lives next door to our old house.  We had Miss Betty and her 90yr old mother over for dinner.  Kinley got to enjoy the family seeing Monsters U at the movie theater.  Then she had a swimming party with her friends.  Kinley is writing all her letters, reads small words that obey basic rules and counts to 50.  She is loving being at home this year but begs to do homeschool which means she wants me to do workbook pages with her and teach her to read. 

Our parents took all of us adult children and the grandchildren to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend.  James and Tristan below obviously had a great time.  It was a fun place but all the adults decided we never had to experience it again.  I think the wave pool might have been the big ones favorite thing and the kiddie slides were the little ones favorite.

All six (just missing Ezra who was nearby in a stroller) pining away for the water park.

Kinley is so funny. She came up with the squishy face game at chick fil a one day and have everyone around laughing at her.  She came up with a new joke she likes to tell.  Why didn't the burger cross the playground? Because it's buns fell off!  But she says burger without the middle r which comes out buger.  She thinks it is hysterical.

We had a great summer bowling, swimming, and hanging out with friends.  I think we had other kids over almost every day.  James started 2nd grade at Jenks West and is riding the bus!!  I was scared at first but he loves it and it is so helpful for me and the girls not to have to get out and sit in a bunch of lines.  Our two neighbors ride the bus with him so that helps all of us feel better about it.  His one prayer the night before school was that he would make a good friend.  The first thing he said when we got in the car was "God answered my prayer! I made a friend named Ryan and it was even his idea to be friends!"

Mallory tuned 3 July 9th.  It is so sad that my baby is a kid now:(.  She is so delightful though.  Funny, sweet, talkative, creative, usually kind, and she loves me and Josh.  I can tell she'll be the one that is hardest to get to leave the nest and she will definitely take care of me and Josh when we're old.  She is going to the church in our neighborhood one day a week for preschool (so is Kinley) and is begging to ride the bus to James' school.

He turned 8 August 4th and had a laser tag party at a park.  Our neighbor Damon builds the guns and rents them out for 24 hrs so you can take them wherever you want.  The boys thought they were so big and cool.  We had dads and boys at the party and they all hid behind trees and shot each other.

We were blessed with the opportunity to keep Jason and Emily's Kate and Ezra for 11 days in August while they went to Bogota Columbia. We had the best time with them.  The picture below is when we went to the Drive in movie to see Planes.  

Kate slept in James' room and loved every minute of it.  James liked it too but he said she was "chatty". She introduced them to her imaginary friends and they were impressed with that technique of friend making.

It was so fun to have a baby again but it was so fun to give him back too :)  He is a perfect angel and adapted so well to our life.  We got attached.  We taught him a new trick which was pointing and making a shy face to whoever he wanted to get attention from.  I love that our kids have cousins and get to spend time with them. We can't wait to do it again.

 We did a little project in the kitchen

Wow, where to start!?!?  Well we moved March 27, 2013 to Jenks.  It has been amazing to see how God has led us and provided for us in spite of our humanness.  Christmas weekend Josh said "It's time to move.  Let's start looking into it."  The biggest hurdle for us was a down payment and God provided it.  The second was selling our house and we found out that we could not sell it and come out in the black so we prayed about renting and God slowly changed our hearts about it - crazy because being a land lord is something Josh said he would NEVER do.  Doesn't God love to bring about situations where we do exactly what we said we never would?!  Once we announced it was for rent we had two families interested and had to choose between them.  They were even looking at it while we were painting and dealing with a pesky skunk stinking it up!  The third big obstacle we faced was where to move.  I didn't want to live anywhere except midtown and there was no way we could afford the features we were hoping for in midtown.  Josh wanted Broken Arrow because his office is out there.  We started looking everywhere from Claremore to Glenpool.  We went in 17 houses all in Broken Arrow or Tulsa then one Friday night we saw one online in Jenks that looked pretty good so we saw it with our realtor Saturday.  God spoke to us in the 15 minutes we were at the house.  We were standing in the kitchen and in a moment we knew He was calling us to that house, to Jenks.  We made an offer Sunday, had a contract Monday and closed 6 weeks later. Our tenants moved into our old house April 1st and it was all incredible how God paved the way.  I am not accustomed to God's way ever being easy or feeling particularly "blessed" so it was an amazing experience.  Then moving weekend also blew my socks off because all of both of our families came to help us move and celebrate Easter with us in our new house.  I have to admit I was freaked out about having so many people around while we moved but man was I crazy wrong. They blessed our socks off with their selflessness and love and hard work.  They had us completely unpacked by the time they left on Sunday.  Our mothers had our kitchen in perfect shelf papered and unpacked condition in no time at all.  I can't ever express my appreciation to all of our family for loving on us so extravagantly!

The previous homeowners did an amazing job keeping everything perfect and they were excellent landscapers.  We have 3 water features and every week is bringing a new color and variety of bloom!  We are praying we can keep up with the yard??

 

Our church is launching a new campus in Jenks the first weekend of June and our dear friends the Henslee's will be moving to that campus - Derrick will be the worship pastor there.  We had purposed not to follow them to the new campus and to see where God moved us then decide where we would attend church.  Once we saw that we were moving to Jenks we heard God clearly that He wanted us involved with this new campus.  We are planning to lead a life group and are excited to see how he uses us and our home in our new community.  

The week before we moved we went camping with the Henslee's.  It was cold and rainy the whole time.  In fact the kids wanted to hike and there wasn't a break in the rain so we just hiked in the rain.  We made some great memories as usual.  In an effort to set up a "rain fly" Derrick tied a rope to his cast iron skillet and attempted to throw it over a tree limb.  He ended up breaking the handle off of his skillet.  I was hysterical to watch though!  

 Below James and Tristan are waiting for the starting whistle for the easter egg hunt.  They are getting so big and fast that we have to give all the little kids a head start.  James is doing so well in school.  His teachers say he has the best reading comprehension they've ever seen.  He has 150 or so points (his teacher awards and takes away points for good behavior) the next highest person has 60ish points.  We have found that success that is measurable is what turns his crank!  He is having his two favorite school friends over for his first slumber party next week on the last day of school.  In February he had his first overnight with one of the friends which is the first time he has ever spent the night with someone that wasn't our (Josh and I's) friend or family.  Big deal!  He and the other two boys are pretty torn up about the fact that he won't be going back to Hoover next year.  James is dealing with it pretty well though.  He and I are both anxious to get the first week or so out of the way.

 Since Christmas Mallory potty trained herself!  I told everyone that she was going to have to do it because I sure wasn't going to.  I showed her where the potty was and put her on it once or twice then left her alone.  One day she decided she wanted to wear Kinley's big girl panties.  I found myself wrestling her to the ground in tears trying to get a diaper on her and I thought "what am I doing?! Maybe she's ready??" So I let her wear panties, she never had an accident.  After two days in panties she refused to wear diapers at night also so I put her in panties and in 5 months she still has never had a night time accident (knock on wood)!  She has occasional daytime accidents but its because she chooses to put whatever she's doing over going to the potty.  It was a far cry from my potty training experience with James and I am so thankful!  We promised her a puppy when she was potty trained so we have spent the last month looking for the perfect puppy.  We think we have found the perfect breed but are having trouble finding it for a price we are willing to pay!  We (I) want a miniature golden doodle.  Which is a golden retriever toy poodle mix.  We'll see how that turns out??

 This is our beautiful cousin Kate in front of the waterfall in our new backyard.  We loved getting to see Kate and her sweet baby brother Ezra at Easter.

 James got to go to the TV station with his Tiger Cub den.  He thought it was pretty cool pretending to tell viewers about an impending tornado.

 Josh and James are big time sushi lovers.  One night at In the Raw Mallory decided to try the Hello Kitty Roll and she loved it.  I guess Kinley I will stick together with the peppered filet.

 We have a Robin's nest in one of our new Bradford Pear trees.  We saw the mom build the nest, we saw four beautiful blue eggs in the nest then we saw then the day they hatched and have documented their progress everyday.  Someday soon they will leave the nest and I think there will be tears.  A couple of weeks ago Josh found a turtle in the flower bed and we kept him for a week.  The kids named him Ted and they were so attached you would have thought I was cutting off their arms when we freed him.  Epecially Mallory, she was beside herself wanting Ted for about 30 minutes.  

Kinley is as smart and beautiful as ever.  She is reading small words and really enjoying teaching Mallory her letters.  She idolizes James and cannot wait for the summer when he doesn't have to go to school everyday. Her favorite thing to play right now is My Little Pony in her massive new closet.  Their closet is a second play room.  I love how they disappear in there together and play for hours. 

Our kids have discovered that the middle finger has a bad connotation.  One day Kinley was singing "Where is Thumbkin" and she was at the part about Tall Man and had her two middle fingers up dancing.  James informed her that sticking your middle finger up was like saying a really bad word but nobody knows what the bad word is. (funny!)  Of course Mallory was sitting right by them taking it all in.  Josh quickly intervened and tried to manage the situation but the damage was done.  Now Kinley and Mallory are obsessed with sticking their middle finger up and saying "I'm saying a bad word to you!" Today the girls and I were riding in the car and Mallory said "Mommy, look in the mirror at me." So I did and she was holding her middle finger up and said "bad word to you mommy".  Seriously, my heart broke and all the pressure of parenting caved in on me.  All I can do is keep training, praying, and rest in the truth that God loves them more than I do and has a plan for them.  I also have to laugh just to keep from crying and screaming.  Well, on that note....until next time!