JUST US (the Updikes)

Glenpool Days

2010-09-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

In June we attended the Glenpool Days events. Glenpool is the suburb that we moved to in Tulsa. It is a very small surburb and very rural. Here are the kids on one of the three rides that they chose to go on.

It really would not be a fair without good food and we were not disappointed. Sawyer chowing down on a funnel cake and Julia enjoying a new favorite of hers, navajo taco.

Ryan being himself, covering his face since I want to take a picture. I have seen many pictures of Dennis like this as a young boy, I wonder where Ryan gets it from???? Ryan really does not like fair food all that much, but settled on this pretzel, which was stale and gross.

There are way to many things that Dennis and I both love at fairs,but this time we chose a navajo taco, funnel cake and yummy rootbeer to share. Kids take the best pictures, don't ya think?

We also attened the parade and I will just tell you that the looks on the kids faces pretty much sums up the quality of the parade. LAME-O!!!

Tulsa Zoo

2010-09-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

We took a trip to the zoo one day with all five of us. It was a hot day, but we wanted to check out of new zoo. We spent some time in the indoor living museum and then watched the alligator feeding. We also visited a Cosby Jello taveling exhibit. All the kids had their giggles recorded for the Jello commercials. The only hard thing is that it is very hard for kids to giggle on demand. Lets just say I've heard them giggle a lot better. It was a good trip, but I am sure we will enjoy the zoo more when it is not so hot!!

Good bye

2010-09-08T10:44:00.000-05:00

The house was empty, clean and ready for the new owners. Our moving truck was on the way to Ok. Our neighbor was out saying good bye and snapped this last picture of us in front of our home in Tomball, TX. It was a sad day, but a good ending to a great time in TX.

More lovely beach time!!!

2010-09-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

Julia and Sawyer spent a lot of time building a water slide.

Julia was the construction manager, so she had Sawyer going back and forth getting water from the ocean while she did the design and buliding.

Here is Sawyer testing out the water slide they made. It did not work as well as they thought that it was going to work, but they had a lot of fun

Dennis and Ryan spent a lot of time playing in the waves. The wave do not get very big, so the boogey boards do not work all that great, but they are good floating devices out in the deeper area.

When Ryan is not in the ocean with Dad, he is looking for creatures and treasures.

We found sting rays again this time. We had a net and so everyone wanted to be our friends and play with our net. We did not care, and Ryan enjoyed having older kids to play with.

Just a few awesome pictures of the kids. I love beach pictures!!!!

date night

2010-09-08T10:17:00.000-05:00

This particular week, it was Julia and My date night. We decided to get a pedicure. This was Julia's first time and she was way excited. She picked out some crazy colors and had it all mapped out what she wanted the lady to do. Her concoction= purple toe nail polish with orange flowers, with red centers. The lady looked at her like she was crazy and told her it would look better if she swapped the orange flowers for white ones. She was ok with that when she saw the "sparkly" red centers she was going to get. She did think that it took a little to long. Next time, I will just get her nails painted, since that is really all she wanted.

Our pretty toes!!!!!

Last visit to Children's Museum

2010-08-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

We took one last trip to the children's museum before we made the grand voyage to Ok. Ryan brought along a friend with him. Sawyer spent a ton of time at this exhibit. It was a magnetic board with pipes and balls. He wanted to use all the pieces and with my help we finally got it done.

Julia had a lot of fun at the dance and groove place. She was a little embarrassed and would stop dancing whenever some one would walk by. She is a good little dancer though, she is precise and has rythym. I think she look absolutely adorable in this little hat, with her cute attitude.

Ryan spent most of his time in the pretend grocery store being the "boss". His favorite thing to "pretend". He and Julia and his friend had many minutes of fun together. I think they might all grow up to work in a supermarket.

Last day of 1st/3rd grade

2010-08-24T20:26:00.001-05:00

The very last day of school for Ryan in third grade and Julia in first grade. It was very hot and humid, which is why the pictures look all cloudy, too much humidity. Both kids did great this year in school. We really liked their elementary school, their teachers and the kids that they became friends with.

Sawyer and I filled ALOT of water balloons and put them in a wagon and took them to the bus stop. All the kids at the bus stop had a water balloon fight when they got off the bus. An end of the year balloon blast. It was tons of fun and I think that we will make a tradition.

What a fun group of kids!!!

Spring Recital

2010-08-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

For his spring recital, Ryan played two pieces. Funny thing-he took about 30 seconds to carefully place each page of one of his pieces and then never looked at them one time during his five minutes of playing. Too cute. He did a great job, I am so proud of how well he did this first year in piano. He loves it and I hope he sticks with it.

Ryan and his piano teacher.

Galaxy Girl

2010-08-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

Julia was invited to a birthday, costume party in the summer. There were no costumes that were jumping out at her, so we decided to make something up. Our creation, Galaxy Girl, or glitter girl, she really could not decide. She was super cute and we had fun being creative together.

Lulu's class picnic

2010-08-24T19:39:00.000-05:00

Just like Ryan, Julia's class had a picnic the second to last day of school. The did a lot of water activities. This sponge one was really cute and Julia loved it.

This is Julia most best friend from 1st grade. The best part, she lived around the corner from us, so they got to play a lot together. We sure miss her and her family!!!

Not a very good pictue, but the only one that I have. This is Julia and her first grade teacher, Mrs. Castille. She was a great teacher for Julia, super nice and pushed her just enough.

Back to Normal Life

2010-08-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

School has started...
After a fun summer,
* moving from Houston to Tulsa, Ok
* trying new thing to do in tulsa
* a month long trip to the west to visit family and friends
* resting and recovering from said trip
* trying a few more fun things in Tulsa and new shots for school,only required in tulsa YUCK!!!
................................we are back in school and ready to bring our lives back to normal. I should have more time to clean, rest and blog!! All of which I am very grateful for. I have a lot of catching up to do and I will try hard to get it all done before I get sick of blogging!! Enjoy that last five posts and check back often to review our fun summer!!

Ryan's field day/class picnic

2010-08-22T21:12:00.000-05:00

The third graders had their field day the second to last day of school. It was miserable hot outside. I vounteered to help and Sawyer came with me. Sawyer and I helped with the cup stacking station. This is a picture of Ryan with his partners. It was good that Ryan was in a group of three, cuz Sawyer got to have a turn with Ryan.

After the hot, humid field day, they had their class picnic, in the shade. This is Ryan and his third grade teacher, Ms. Laurence.

horse races

2010-08-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

One Saturday, while Ryan was at a birthday party, the rest of us went to the horse races. It was fun to pick a color and cheer that horse on. Sawyer really liked it. It was dollar day, so all the goodies were a dollar, which was nice. This is the only picture that I got. A fun outing with the fam!!

No more long, beautiful hair

2010-08-22T20:53:00.000-05:00

For about 4 months, Julia kept asking to get her hair cut. I was very against it. It took 7 years to get her hair that long, and it was so pretty! After using every excuse I could think of, we finally let her do it. She was so excited and I was in tears. But,........

it turned out pretty cute. It makes her look so much older, but it is a lot easier to do!

Dinosaurs

2010-08-22T20:45:00.000-05:00

We were so excited for the much anticipated dinosaur event at the Houston zoo. There was months of advertising for it. Ryan was so excited and then we found out that it was not going to open until we moved from Houston, he was so dissapointed. Then, almost miraculously, there was a member only free preview, that would take place before we moved. So...we went. It was very hot outside, but Ryan was so excited, so we went.

I will say this event was the most disappointing thing I think we have done in a long time. All that was there, were giant statues of dinosaurs. And there were only about 5 of them. I am so glad we did not pay the $5 a person to see it! Makes for a cute picture though!!

Taylor Swift concert

2010-08-22T20:38:00.000-05:00

As part of Dennis's Christmas present,(one event a month), we went to the Taylor Swift concert in May. It was amazing. An added bonus, Kellie Pickler was one of the warm up preformers, she was great as well. I love going to concerts, the show that the artist puts on is as good as the music. I did notcie that Dennis was 1 of about 100 guys in the whole place. We were also the oldest people there that did not have little girls with us!! The night that we were there, they were recording the concert for her CD, so that was cool. It was a great concert!!

Ry's field trip

2010-06-22T17:26:00.000-05:00

The third graders took a field trip down to the children's museum. They learned alot about balancing money, having jobs and playing adult this year. So they took a field trip to kidtropolis, which is a mini town that lets the kids pretend to be adults, well the fun parts of being an adult.

They started with a picnic in the park and all the boys played games while the girls sat on blankets and chit-chatted. This whole year I have noticed that the girls and boys really seperated themselves. Whenever I would go to lunch with Ryan, his whole class voluntarily seperated themselved into boys and girls. The boys all sat at one one end of the table, then there was a huge empty area and the girls were clear down on the other end.

After the picnic and games we went to the museum. Ryan really likes the newsroom. He likes to preform in front of people. The one thing he likes most at the children's museum is to gather money on his "debit card"

He runs from one job to the next collecting as many paychecks as possible.

I found Ryan often in the bank being the manager, that way he had access to all the money. He likes to get money.

This is Ryan with his friend Matthew. Matthew was a great friend for Ryan. The funny thing about this picture is that I had my camera and asked Ryan is he would like me to take any pictures of him with any of his friends. He said no, in a mom quit embarrassing tone. So I asked if he would like to use the camera to take any pictures himself. He gets all excited takes the camera, walks over to Matthew's mom and asked if she will take a picture of him and Matthew. Wow, what a blow to me, the un-cool mom!!! JK, I thought it was very silly!!!

Day Trip to Brennam, TX

2010-06-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

We took one Saturday and drove up to Brenam, TX. It was a very quinte little town. We started the day browsing through the old town town shops and eating at a cafe. The food was very southern, and good.

Then we went to the Blue Bell factory. It was Saturday, so no tours, but we did see a shot film of a tour and then ate some yummy ice cream. It was only $1 a scoop and they were huge scoops. We all tried a different kind and this is the day I tasted my most favorite ice cream. BLue Bell banana pudding. It was a flavor the Sawyer tried and I loved it!!!!

After the ice cream, we went out to a minature horse farm. There were a lot of new babies. The kids really liked it.....

especially Ryan. He loved touching and petting the little horses. It was hot and humid and I was totally grossed out. I mean look at how gross those horses look. Anyway, the kids loved it and did not seem to be bothered by the gross-ness of it!!

This little horse was taking a lick of Julia's foot while she was looking at me for the picture, and she is still not grossed out!!

Even the flies, note the one on Sawyer's forehead, did not keep the kids from spending way too much time touching the horses. The horses were cute, but the atmosphere was not grand!!!

It was a great day. I love taking little trips places to see new things. I love to travel!!!

playing hooky

2010-06-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

I think I like the kids skipping school more then they like it. I told them that we could skip one day of school in May and have a lot of fun. So we started off the day at the zoo. There was a brand new(10 days) baby elephant that we really wanted to see. SUPER CUTE!!!!!

After we were done at the zoo, seeing all of our favorite animals, we went over to Hermann park and rented a paddle boat. The kids loved this. We saw a lot of turtles and fish and one really cool big blue fish.

After the paddle boat ride, we ate lunch at Hermann park and the took the train over to The Museum of Natural Science.

It was fun, but more for big kids, Sawyer was not really enjoying it, that is until we came to the seashell exhibit. He thought it was so cool and never wanted to leave the area. WE also paid a lot extra to go to a magic show. I assumed, since we were paying more to go to it, that it was going to be amazing. it was not amazing at all. Seriously, even Julia and Sawyer could see his tricks. Lame-o Lame-o!!

We did, however, get to look for fossils and such at this area. The guy was a little grouchy about how "careless" Sawyer was being with the tools, but Ryan and Julia loved the attention that he was giving to their "skills".

After the museum, we went to the Miller Outdoor Theater to roll down the hills. I never get the fun in rolling in grass, but the kids sure enjoyed it. We had a great day, and it is days like this one, that I am reminded how LUCKY I am the Dennis goes to work each day, so I can stay home and be a mom and play with the kids!!!

We are officially OKLAHOMANS

2010-06-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well we did it AGAIN!! We have moved to Oklahoma. We have been here for about a week and it is very nice. We are renting a house right now until we find a place we want to call home. This is potentially the last move that we will make, therefore we are forever OKLAHOMANS!! We look forward to a more rural life, well I might miss the urban life, but I know the kids and Dennis and ready to plant some country roots!! I am trying to get caught up with my blog, so I plan on putting 2-3 posts a day until I am all caught up. Hope you enjoy!!!
(2 new post below this one!!)

Talent show

2010-06-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

For the talent in our ward Ryan and Julia both decided to show off a talent. Ryan played the piano. The piano was turned around and you could not see him, therefore no picture of him. He did a great job though!!
Julia's talent she chose was jump roping, she would only participate though if a friend joined her. So her friend Maddie jump roped with her. Sawyer was so bummed out that he was not doing anything that we decided that he could dance in the back corner while Julia jump roped. Have you ever seen Sawyer dance? He is quite the little dancer. Anyhow he stole the show. He has such good rythm and I have no idea where he gets his moves, but the little guy can dance. While Julia was jump roping, which she did an excellent job at, the crowd started to chat Sawyer's name. I was a little worried that Julia would be upset, but she was fine. Afterwards everyone was commenting on Sawyer's dancing, even one guy who did a Vanilla Ice reinactment, was wondering where Sawyer got his moves. It was tooooo funny. I have a vidoe of it, if I ever can learn how to put it on here, I will!! (Sorry the picture is sooo bad!!!)

Dancin in the Rain

2010-06-20T22:27:00.000-05:00

Texas rain is so warm, making it alot of fun to dance in the rain. Ryan and Sawyer had a ball playing in the backyard while it was raining. It was really coming down, making large puddles all over. They did not get to play very long because it started to thunder and lightning, so to be safe, they came inside.

I love this picture, it shows how much water was falling from the sky and also how happy Ryan was to be in it!!

Good-bye buddies

2010-06-16T15:37:00.001-05:00

The last time we had our little co-op preschool, we had some water fun. The boys ran through the sprinklers, played on the slip-n-slide and jumped on the tramp.
They had a lot of fun. This picture is one of my favorites.
It really shows off their personalities and the great freindship they all had. Sawyer really had some great friends in Houston.

Horse loving Julia

2010-06-15T15:28:00.001-05:00

Julia really enjoyed taking horse riding lesson this last half year. This was her last day and I
was upset because they practiced in the covered arena, so the pictures are awful. And to make things worst, the time I took pictures of her outside, I was using the messed-up camera card, so they are all gone!!

Each time she gets to lessons, she must brush her horse down, take care of the horse's mane and clean out the horse's shoes. She enjoys this and is often talking to the horse.

I love her determination in this picture. I rarely stay in with her when she is getting the horse ready to ride, and I must admit I was surprised by all that she can do. This whole time I thought the teachers were helping her get the horse ready, but she was doing it herself.

This is how she was the whole time she was at lessons. Happy, Happy, Happy!!!

mentos volcano

2010-06-14T15:22:00.002-05:00

Awhile ago I purchased this mento volcano kit on clearance. The kids of been begging forever to use it, but I needed to get a 2-liter soda first and I just kept forgetting. Well I finally purchased one and let the kids have fun. They did not know what to expect.... I told them to stand back and they just laughed at me. Ryan pulls the pin and then....

They went flying back, each was so surprised how high it went. Fun times!!!

This is after it went off and it was already cooling down. It really was SUPER awesome!!1

morning walks

2010-06-13T15:13:00.002-05:00

I like to go for walks in the morning after I take the older kids to the bus stop. Sawyer does not love it at much as I do, he says that he gets bored. Also the fact that he gets hot. So....

I started to bring bread so he could feed the ducks and the turtles. The first few times we went, the ducks were a little shy and the turtles just hid under water and never came up. but after a few times...

The ducks started to swim to us when they would see us coming and the turtles got a lot more brave. If you look closely you can see one turtle coming all the way out of the water to get a piece of bread. The funny thing is Sawyer was always so disappointed that we never see the turtles, and the time that this one came out of the water he turned and started running toward me, he was scared. Funny guy!!!

Stingrays

2010-06-12T15:26:00.002-05:00

After the Space Center, which turned out to be a short trip, due to lack of interest, we went to Galveston, 20 minutes away, to go to the beach. I will say that everyday that we have gone to the beach it has been cloudy weather. I t makes me so grouchy, it has been warm, just cloudy!! Anyhow, this trip to the beach we were swimming in the ocean and Dennis thought he saw a fish, which we discovered later was actually a stingray.

They were just little ones, but they were all over. Nobody knew why they were there, maybe spawning, no one knew because they had never seen them there before. Some people though it might even be the oil spill that is pushing them to differrnet places, who knows. Anyhow, we did see some people catching them and were able to get a close view. It was a lot of fun, although it did keep me on the beach, I did not want to get stung. Dennis and the kids still swam, but I stayed on safe ground, I am afraid of fish afterall.

Some fun pictures of the cute kiddos!!

Houston Space Center

2010-06-11T15:10:00.002-05:00

In a rush to see everything that we want to see in Houston before we move to Oklahoma, we have been busy visting numerous sites. This weekend in May we made a visit to the Space Center. It was fun, but probably more suited for older children. There were some great exhibits, but the kids were more into the playland. Also the whole space thing is not as cool as it was when I was little.

Ryans did get a kick out of laying on this bed of nails. Everyone, execpt Julia, tried it. I will say, it looked really scary, like it would hurt, but it did not hurt at all.

We all did get to touch a real moon rock, I found that to be super awesome.

It was a place I am glad we went, I would like to bring the kids back here when thay are older and maybe have more interest in space stuff.

Jumping!!!

2010-06-10T14:49:00.001-05:00

Ryan's new favorite trick. To stand on the fence around the pool and jump in. He thinks he is pretty cool, and so does Dad. I get super nervous everytime I see him up there. Boys will be boys.

and then there is Julia, loving to jump, but loving even more the opportunity to get her picture taken!

Sawyer was also enjoying jumping in the pool, but I love this picture a ton! Sawyer loves his daddy. More often than not, Sawyer chooses Dennis to be his helper, pal, sleeping buddy, and wrestling partner. I love the relationship that they have. I love my boys!!

Picnic in the park

2010-06-09T14:34:00.001-05:00

One night the beginning of May, the 3rd, we decided to have a picnic at the park for dinner. I had went with Sawyer earlier to this park and I knew that the older two would love it. It was huge and had a long obstacle course. I was right, they loved it!!! The only downer, it was soooo hot. (Well at least I thought it was tooo hot, now that it is June and I know it gets this hot, I was crazy to think it was hot then!) We had a lot of fun. The kids love tire swings and Dennis did a lot of pushing, while I took some pictures.

This was part of the obstacle course and Julia was having a lot of fun.

Super cute picture of Sawyer. Probably the only picture that I have of him lately without some goofy pose. I guess when your hands are busy holding you up, you cannot use them to pose. Note to self, take more pictures of Sawyer on a swing!!! ha ha

Dennis and the kids!

The kids and I, oh and also Dennis's legs!!

And a picture to show how hot it was. Do you see all the wetness around their heads? it was Humid and HOT!!

Julia's field day

2010-06-08T14:34:00.000-05:00

The 1st grades teachers were smart and had their field day in April, when it is not torture to go outside. It was a beaustiful day and the weather was perfect. Julia and her class rotated through numerous stations, where they got to do different activities. I think the three-legged race was her favorite. It is an athletic event, which she likes and she gets to do it witha partner.
She is so social. Sawyer came with me, which is the reason we left early. A boy was not being nice to him and Sawyer decided to call him stupid, which is not acceptable at school. It was all down hill from there, so we left with him crying!! Julia had a great day though!!!!!

We love the beach

2010-05-22T21:51:00.002-05:00

Another fun day at the beach. Julia and Sawyer did a lot of wave jumping...

and a lot of ocean soccer!!

Ryan found an awesome seashell!!

While the little kids were playing soccer, Dad and Ryan were playing a lot of football.

Dennis had a lot of fun using the boogey board in the waves.

And I enjoyed taking pictures and relaxing while everyone was having fun for many hours!!!

We are going to miss going to the ocean sooooooooooooo much!!!

Bass Pro Shop!!

2010-05-21T21:45:00.001-05:00

We love going to Bass Pro Shops. This particular Saturday they had a lot of Easter stuff going on. I took advantage of the FREE pictures with the Easter Bunny. I am not sure how many more years I am going to get Ryan to willingly sit by the big bunny!

The kids (and Dennis) love to get different types of jerky whenever we go there. I think it is nasty and refuse to try ostrich and alligator and all the wild animals that they will eat. Instead I get some yummy fudge!!

It is quite amazing the amount of time we can spend in a store being entertained, without even shopping!!

1st grade egg drop

2010-05-20T20:35:00.002-05:00

The 1st graders had egg drop event. They were instucted to put a egg in a ziploc baggie and then put it in some sort of container that would keep it form breaking. Dennis help Julia with the engineering of the packet. Julia had a lot of great ideas and Dennis did mostly what she told him to do. They cut two big sponges in the middle, put the egg in there with some cotton balls and then taped them together. I helped her with the decorting, her favorite part.

Here is Dennis practicing the night before. The first attempt broke, but they made it better....and......

Her egg made it!!! She was so happy!!! There were only 5 in her class of 19, that did not break, so I would have to say that she had a pretty good egg protection..

School Musical

2010-05-19T20:21:00.001-05:00

Ryan's school choir preformed the musical, "It's a Kid's life". They had to try out for parts and spent many months preparing. Ryan got one of the main parts as Grandpa. He had a lot of speaking parts and one solo. I am so proud of my good singer boy. He has a great voice and loves to sing. I am so glad that even though he was called a sissy for being in choir that he sticks with it. He is gifted and I love that he loves it.

Ryan did not get glasses, he is just dressed up as "grandpa". The shirt is borrowed, because it is grandpa-ish, according to 3rd grade kids. The funny thing is that Ryan chose the shorts to go with it thinking that it matched good. When his choir teacher saw him she said she loved that his outfit didn't match, very much like a grandpa. Ryan was confused, but decided that his teacher must think like his mom, because I never think he matches, according to Ryan.

The choir preformed parts of the musical at the fine arts festival. I have no pictures, because those are part of the ones that were ruined on the virus infected sd card. SOOOO MAD!!

Also, Ryan had an art piece chosen to be displayed at the festival also. When he gets the piece back I will take a picture and hopefully add it to the blog.

Pinewood Derby

2010-05-18T20:12:00.002-05:00

Well Ryan's first experience with the pinewood derby last year was not the greateet. So this year he was not as excited, but was determined to do better. He designed his own car and really did the whole thing himself. It is a TX Longhorn skateboard.

Thankfully, he did do a lot better. He was able to win some of his races and he came in 6th overall. He was a lot happier this year then last year.

His car recieved the "most creative" award!

Census 2010

2010-05-17T11:48:00.001-05:00

Ryan learned about the Census at school and was really interested in it, when it came in the mail. So i decided to let him fill it out. He love doing it and was so mature while he was doing it. I hope he remembers this forever, not to mention that we are going to counted as Texans for the next 10 years!!!

Easter 2010

2010-05-16T11:22:00.002-05:00

The annual picture of the kids together in their Sunday clothes for Easter. Sawyer is going through a stage where he cannot just stand for a picture, he has to be doing something with his hands or posing wierd!! We spent Easter at home. It was General Conference weekend, so we did not even go to church, just stayed home and watched conference. We had an annual easter egg dyeing contest, Dennis won all honors, as he was awarded the prettiest and ugliest egg. Our neighbor Hela was the judge. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures, because my sd card got a virus and will not let me view the pictures from April, luckily, there were not that many, but there were some important ones!

We had our own little egg hunt in our backyard. I think that the easter bunny hid about 150 eggs.

The easter bunny just threw some out on the lawn that were really easy to find.

Sawyer came down stairs that morning, looked outside and said with a ton of sarcasm, "the easter bunny did not hide the eggs!"

I guess next year the bunny will have to do a better job.

Later that day we went over to the Svedin's house for dinner and another egg hunt. They were a lot more clever in the hiding of the eggs and the hunt took a lot longer. Also instead of candy in the eggs, they placed pennies, and then had a toy shop to buy little toys with their pennies. Super cute, we might adopt this little tradition!!

Ryan was not feeling great when we took these pictures. He had a little stomach virus, that Julia had the week before and Sawyer had the week after! It was a great Easter holiday and we are so grateful; for our Savior and His resurrection, so that we can live again with Him!!!

Swim season

2010-05-15T11:06:00.001-05:00

We entered the pool this 2010, on March 27th. It was definately warm enough outside, but the water was still a little cold. Dennis and I just put our feet in the water and Sawyer was not as crazy as the other two so he tested it out and then stayed on the side.

Ryan and Julia, however, loved it and stayed in the water for a long time. The mostly floated on the top, so even though they thought it was warm enough, their actions prooved it was still a little cold.

After swimming the kids put on a show, displaying their various dance moves. Too FUNNY!!!

March Madness

2010-05-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

For our March event, we went to the NCAA South Regional finals here is Houston. It was fun, we were really far away, but the excitement of being there was a lot of fun. WE left the kids with a sitter and I guess Sawyer had a belly ache, so after numerous calls from the sitter, we left the 2nd game at half time to head home. The joys of parenthood!! Although, we did decide that with the tickets we had, it is better to be at home watching it on TV. Next time we stay home, or we good really good seats!!

I'll I want for Easter is my two front teeth

2010-05-13T10:53:00.000-05:00

The first day of vacation, Julia lost her right top front tooth. It was a very dramatic event. We were at a Jack in the box, having dinner and Dennis decided that she needed it out. The decision was made because she would not eat her burger, since her tooth was hanging out and it was hurting her. So Dennis took her to the car and after a lot of pulling and crying, she came it bleeding a lot, but minus a tooth. She was very happy, a little nervous that the tooth fairy would not find her, but learned that night that the tooth fairy is very generous on vacation. The last day of our vacation, her top left front tooth was ready to be pulled. Julia was a lot more brave this time, and there was a lot less blood. It was kindof neat that she lost one on the first day of vacation and one on the last day of vacation.

Goodbye Good 'Ole Texas

2010-05-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

If it was any other person's blog, besides us, this might come as a surprise. But, since it us, the Updikes, I am sure no one is suprised that we are moving again!!! When we moved to Texas, we knew that it was just a pit stop to Tulsa, Ok, but we thought it was a 3-4 year, minimum, pitstop. Well things with Dennis's job changed and instead of 3-4 years, they want him in Tulsa now. So.... need-less to say we are "on the road again". It is bittersweet for me, I never in a million years would have thought I would love TX this much. It is a great place to live, and did I mention that I live in my dream home!! Well it actually belongs to someone else now, since we sold it the first day it was on the market!! We are moving to the Tulsa, Ok area the middle of June, which makes, I think, 5 summers in a row that we have moved. Since Dennis and I have been married for 10 years and with this move it will make the grand total moves to.........13
That is afwul.
Well this should be the last move for a very long time!!!

vacation 2010-last day

2010-04-22T22:19:00.015-05:00

WE began the long drive home Friday night and went six hours. We woke up the next morning and drove a few hours and stopped at Pensacola Beach. We had planned on going to Biloxi again, but it did not work out, so this is where we ended up. Again it was not a hot day, but Dennis and the kids were able to play in the water.

The waves were pretty big, almost a little scary for me. Dennis and Ryan spent a lot of time jumping waves.

The sand on this beach was so AWESOME!! It was white and soft. I had never seen anything like it, it was lkindof spongy!! SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

Sawyer had a lot of fun it in, digging, digging and digging. The others had fun burying Sawyer.

Ryan bulit a nice castle, that he housed little creatures in.

Julia and I did a lot of watching and enjoying the weather while we buried our feet in the great sand.

It was a great vacation! I was glad to be home in my own bed, but I must admit I love going places, vacationing, so of course, I am ready to go somewhere again!!

vacation 2010-day eight

2010-04-21T21:44:00.012-05:00

Hollywood Studios

Friday morning we went back to Hollywood Studios. We had a lot of fun. Sawyer loved the the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play land and kept asking to go back there. My favorite thing, we finally figured out how to make the fast pass and babyswap work to our advantage, therefore we did a lot less waiting in lines.

Ryan loved the Toy Story Mania, a giant size vidoe game ride. Julia loved the awesome rockin roller coaster and the Tower of Terror. Dennis loved the the car show.

Again, more characters and even some we got to see, but not meet, we just ran out of time!

Good bye Disney World. We

really hope that we get to return again someday!!

vacation 2010-day seven

2010-04-20T21:33:00.011-05:00

Day Seven=not the best day!

We started with breakfast and then the kids and Dennis went to get on the bus headed for Hollywood
Studios, while I went back to the motel room to get more insulin for my pump. When I got to my motel room, all my insulin and pump supplies had been stolen out of our little fridge. It was a nightmare, the motel did not want to really help. I could not get ahold of my doctor to get another prescription and my levels were already climbing. It was awful. Finally by 4 that afternoon, we got a prescription called into a Walgreens, pick it up and headed to Hollywood Studios that night. This was suppose to be our last day at Disneyworld, so we did not want to waste it.

We saw the Beauty and the Beast show and rode a few rides.

We decided to extend our passes an extra day and come back in the morning. The trip had been so good up to now and we did not want this incident to put too much of a damper on our trip.

vacation 2010-day six

2010-04-19T21:17:00.028-05:00

Animal Kingdom

Disney World has 4 parks, and Animal Kingdom was where we went on our second day there. This was our favorite place. The details here were amazing. e.i.. at the africa section the whole area is just like it would be there, even the power lines. So Awesome!!!

We saw even more characters this day. Sawyer stood in more character lines while the bigger kids waited in line for their favorite ride, Mt Everest.

There were lots of fun things to see and do. We went on a jungle safari, played in a dinosaur maze, rode a water rapid ride,(only I got went, I was the only one that did not want to get wet!), rode more rides and saw lots of very fun things.

This is from the Bug's Life 3-D show. Sawyer was so cute, he would try and reach out and grab things and was very scared when things appeared to come toward him. It was a fun show. At the end the announcer says that the roaches can leave first and you feel little bumps on your chair that felt like the roaches crawling under your bum. It was a little scary for Julia but a lot of fun!!

vacation 2010- day five

2010-04-18T12:17:00.002-05:00

Disney World-Magic Kingdom

Here are the kids in anticipation. Right before the park opens a train brings Mickey and friends to the front and they do a little show. Sawyer was in heaven. He was so excited to see Mickey Mouse.

I think Sawyer's favorite thing to do was see the characters. He also got a lot more time to stand in lines while the big kids were waiting in line for rides.

Sawyer stole a kiss from sleeping beauty, or she stole a kiss from him. It is hard to say since Sawyer liked it sooooooo much. He kindof likes girls a lot and a pretty princess tops it all.

The rides were a lot of fun. The kids thought they were not all that thrilling, but the stuff to look at while on the rides was awesome. Not a lot of pictures of rides, since I was riding them. I love that a lot of the rides were family friendly so we could all go together. Though, the rides were great, I loved walking around looking at stuff, the disney detail was amazing!!

A few fun things we saw!!!!

A family snap shot on Tom Sawyer island. We used the disney photo pass for most of our family photos, but every once in awhile someone would offer to take a picture!

It was a long fun day!!!!! On our way out VERY late that night, Julia was so cute waving goodbye the disney characters at the end of the parade!!

vacation 2010-day four

2010-04-17T10:56:00.037-05:00

Beach on Tybee Island in georgia.

We spent Monday morning at the beach. Again it was not the warmest day, but warm enough to play on the beach, no swimming though.

The ocean waves always amaze me. The first thing someone always does it run out to the waves and play tag with the waves. This activity can take many hours and on warm days leads to wave jumping.

They spent a lot of time making this castle. Dennis was trying to reach the waves, unbeknowest to us, the tide was going out, so it was a feat not accomplished!!

Julia spent many hours maticulously placing shells on the four corners or each tower. Remember* there are a lot of towers since Dennis was trying to catch the tide going out!*

Sawyer loves to stick his feet in the sand, wiggle back and forth in an attempt to bury his feet. It is soooo CUTE!!

A trip to the beach would not be worth it for Ryan, if some form of animal life was not found. He found this crab, played with it for awhile and then he and Sawyer spent a long time watching it bury itself into the sand.

Another treasure found by Ryan! Earlier in the day, Ryan had informed me that sanddollars were actually purple. I didn't really think about it, until later when he brought me one to show me. I had never seen that before and was thoroughly amazed!

The kids love the beach, we went for a walk to the lighthouse and when we came back to the beach, they laid on the sand and started making "snow angels", as Sawyer referred to them.

A picture of the Tybee lighthouse, we made a brief visit,without our shoes, and then realized you had to have shoes to enter the buildings, so we went back to the beach and when we were done being on the beach we came back, with our shoes this time.

Julia always asks before we go to the beach if there are going to be sharks! We always inform her that there will be no sharks. While she was building her castle she informed us all that she saw a shark. Thankkfully it was a dolphin, but still great that Julia saw it first. We saw two groups of dolphins twice during our beach time. Very cool!! it was hard to get pictures though!

And you truly know if you vacation well when you take a detour in the opposite direction, just so you can touch a certain state. We traveled over the bridge into South Carolina, so chalk it up as a state we have been to as a family!

vacation2010- day three

2010-04-16T15:54:00.001-05:00

Day three-Sunday

We slept in, then went to church at a branch Dennis served in. There were a lot of really nice people. Dennis was suprised how much people had aged. (it has been 15 years since his mission, so I am pretty sure most people age in 15 years!! ha ha) We then vistied with the Murphys some more and drove over Pine Mountain. SO BEAUTFUL!!!!!!!

WE stopped in Manchester to visit another family. Then drove on to Svannah, GA.

We got there real late and ate at this YUMMY seafood place. Seriously the best hush puppies that I have ever ate. The seafood was pretty much divine.

vacation 2010-day two

2010-04-15T15:33:00.001-05:00

Day two starts with breakfast in a motel. Sawyer thinks that vacation means going to a motel. which it usually does, but it is so cute how excited he gets to go to a motel. Even the not-so-grand breakfast is amazing to Sawyer, if it is in a motel. Our destination for this day, Georgia, to visit Dennis's mission.

Our first pit stop of the day, Biloxi, MS. We loved this place. So quaint, so pretty, the beach was awesome. We had not planned to stop here, so we just took a quite stroll on the beach and decided that we would make a beach day at the end of our vacation, and it would be here in Biloxi.

Dennis's favorite thing to do on vacation, buy souvenirs!!

We made too many pit stops for potting and food. But before too long we were in GA. Dennis made reservations at a little cabin in Pine Mountain, Ga. This was an area on his mission.

We did some driving around, Dennis pointing out places that he remembered on his mission. This is one of the place that he lived on his mission.

We ate at a local place, super yummy and super friendly. I could understand why Dennis loved this area. After dinner we visited a family that Dennis knew from his mission, the Murphys. WE had a good visit. Whenever I meat people that knew Dennis before me they always have stories of him being a onry little boy. I was very happy to only hear what a great person Dennis was from these people. I am so glad that Dennis was a great missionary, I hope that my boys picked up on this, this was a great example for them.

vacation 2010-day one

2010-04-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

WE started our vacation this year with happy kids and clean vehicle. WE headed our Friday March 12th and drove to Baton Rouge LA. It was a fairly long drive. We stayed in a motel right on the river, it was pretty.

WOW-10 years

2010-04-13T12:55:00.001-05:00

March 11th, 2010, Dennis an dI reach 10 years! That seems so crazy to me. It has been grand, and though there have been good and not so good times, I would not trade even one minute of the last 10 years. We celebrate a month early with a trip to Cancun, and on our actual anniversary we went to dinner. We went to The Melting Pot. What a fun place to eat. It is a fondue place. It was so yummy!!

Cute Sawyer

2010-04-12T12:52:00.000-05:00

One day in March, I watched this cute little baby, Molly. Sawyer loved her! He loved holding her, he loved feeding her, and he loved looking at her. He asked me, "Mom, can we please have a baby in our family?" I so wish that we could! While we can't, we will try to enjoy all the babis that we can!

lu's music program

2010-04-11T12:41:00.001-05:00

The kids elementary school has the best music programs. In March it was Julia's turn. The first grader's program was entitled, "When I Grow Up" it was seriously so cute.

Julia's had a part. She was a secretary. She was to dress like a secretary. So we put her hair in a bun, put a sweater on her and attached some reading glasses to a set of beads. She did not think she looked like a secretary, but when I asked her what she thought one looked like, she said she did not even know what a secretary was, so I think she does not get an opionion on what a secretary looks like.

This program had the cutest songs ever. Julia had a lot of fun and true to her character after the program I was asked, by her, what me favorite song was, what my 2nd favorite song was ...etc... until I had named every song! Isn't she so cute!!!

Beach Season

2010-04-10T12:11:00.000-05:00

Well the first Saturday in March we headed to Galveston to start beach season. It is so nice to be so close to a beach. We went to a stake picnic in the morning and then headed to the beach later that day.

We had a lot of fun, it was not hot, but warm enough to have fun.

So notice the black eye on Julia's forehead. We went to a picnic that had face painting and my 7 year old GIRL, chose a black eye and lightning bolts on her cheeks. Why?? I have no idea, all her friends that she was with had cute flowers and butterflies! What a funny girl!

Each child likes the beach for different reasons. Ryan's reason-to find things. He will dig and walk anywhere, if there is a chance to find a shell or animal!

Sawyer's reason-eventhough he like the water, he loves the sand. He will dig and build for hours!!!!

Julia-well she just loves to be involved. If someone is playing in the water, she loves to jump the waves. If someone is on the beach, she will build with them, she just like companionship!!

Sawyer and Julia dug a big hole and buried themselves.

I LOVE THE BEACH!!! It is so peaceful, the kids love it so much, the water is so pretty!

I LOVE THE BEACH!!

Puppet show!

2010-04-09T15:56:00.000-05:00

I took Sawyer and his friend, Caleb, to the children's museum one day. The both had a lot of fun as always. The cutest part was that they put on a puppet show. They just walk behind the curtain, picked up a puppet and started telling a story. It was so good, that you would have thought thay had been practicing it for hours.

Kids are so creative and CUTE!!

It does snow in Houston-barely!

2010-04-08T15:50:00.000-05:00

If you look real closely and concentrate a lot, you will see the flurry of flakes coming down. This is the 2nd time that this happens this winter in Houston. Rumor is that is only snows once every 10 years in Houston, well.....this is twice in 1 year. I am not sure if you really call it snow, since it never made it to the ground, but nonetheless there were flakes in the air.

Brazos Bend-ALLIGATORS!!!

2010-04-07T15:37:00.001-05:00

One Saturday we took a little trip down to Brazos Bend State Park. It is home to many alligators. When we first got there we went to the nature center and saw some baby alligators, that all the kids were lucky enough to touch. While we were there we asked where the best place to see an alligator would be, we were told that we would only see the baby alligators that we just saw. We decided to take a walk around the lake anyhow.

Well we saw one right when we got on the trail around the lake! We were so excited, and that excitement lasted the whole walk, we saw around 50 alligators that day.

All of the alligators were on islands in the middle of the lake, so it was safe. You can see how close we were from this picture. We did have some friends that went recently and they were so close to the alligators that the dad of the group grabbed a tail of one of the alligators. I am glad that they were farther away when we went!

It was a gorgeous day for a nice family walk!

A nice family picture and proof that I was there, there are pictures to enjoy! Truth be told, Dennis does take pictures of me, but more often then not, I am not in love with those pictures and since I am the blog poster, I get to pick the pictures!!!

Maybe we will go back soon and get closer to the alligators!!

date night

2010-04-06T12:48:00.001-05:00

This year we decided as a family to take one child out each week on a date. Dennis and I rotate week by week and the kids rotate. This gives each kid an one on one date with one of their parents once every three weeks. It has been really good and the kids love to think about what they are going to do on their dates. This particulae time, Dennis and Ryan test drove a mustang for their date.

February fun time!

2010-04-05T12:33:00.001-05:00

My Christmas present from Dennis this year was

one fun event a month for the whole 2010 year. In January we went to the opera, not our favotire thing. Glad we did it, but we do not ever have to go back. In February we went to a Jazz game. We went as a family and another family came with us. The Jazz, my fave team, were playing the Rockets in Houston. It was a fun game.

The stadium the Rockets play in is pretty small, so even the "cheap" seats are not the bad.

Sawyer was super excited. He really likes watching sporting events. He probably watched more of the game then the other kids, whether it was interest, or the other friends of Ryan and Julia that were there, who knows.

I love watching the Jazz and I am glad me family can enjoy this with me!!

The best part, the Jazz won!!!!

Cancun

2010-04-04T11:53:00.001-05:00

Dennis and I took a quick trip to Cancun. Dennis's parents flew out to Houston to stay with our kids so we could spend some time together, kid-less. Thank you Lynn and Brenda. This was out 10 year anniversary trip!! Wow can you belive that we have been married for 10 years!! Our anniversary is not until March, but this is when it worked out for us and Dennis's parents. We flew out early Friday morning, well that was the plan, but with the snow in Dallas, our lay over, our flight was cancelled, so we did not get to Cancun until late that night. So we started our trip minus one day!

We spent the first day walking on the beach. It was unseasonably cool, so not a lot of water time. It was perfect weather to walk around the beautiful carribbean. We browsed the shops and rested and enjoyed the sun.

We enjoyed the all-inclusiveness of the resort. Eating yummy food, but we have decided that we enjoy mexican food more in the US then we do in Mexico. I like to go on vacation when you get to dress up each night for dinner.

One day we enjoyed a day touring Talum, a Mayan ruin. It was amazing and we loved listening to the stories that our tour guide told and the similarities we find in the Book of Mormon.

It was BEAUTIFUL!! The water was so blue and the vegetation was so green. So pretty! There were iguanas everywhere!

Dennis really enjoyed this tour. I decided that if we throw history into all our trips Dennis will be SUPER happy. All I need is the sun and the beach!!

We enjoy the cultural and shops around Talum. Here we are posed with some fun warriors! This was the sunniest day the whole trip. It was so nice.

Our last day was a short day, since we had to catch out plane home. We took a Kayak out of the ocean. Dennis spent a little more time out there while I spent more time laying in the sun!!

All in all it was a great trip! We love spending time together without the kids, but I will admit that we are always commenting on how much the kids would enjoy what we are doing!!

horse time

2010-04-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Julia started horse riding lessons this year. She really likes it. It is great for her. She starts each lesson brushing down the horse that she will use. As she is doing this she learns about the horse. Is is really good for her, she loves learning and she really loves this particualr horse, Moose.

After taking care of the horse, she gets to ride. She is learning western style. Learning how to steer the horse and learning balance. Just recently she has gone outside and started running around the arena.

Here is a "Just being Julia" moment:

normally this lady is her teacher and gives her lots of compliments. One night she had a different teacher and she did not give as many compliments. When Dennis asked Julia if she had fun that night, her response was..

"well not as good as normal, she did not tell me good job very much!"

Julia likes to be complimented!!

New Posts!

2010-03-07T21:16:00.000-06:00

Well I am now caught up through January! YAY!!! We are headed on spring break vacation next week to Disneyworld. So lots more pictures to take. I will try to get February caught up before we leave.

Highlights to look forward to for February

*Julia starts horse-riding lessons
*Dennis and I go to Cancun
*Alligators
*Rockets vs. Jazz

Enjoy the 5 new posts!!

My birthday in San Antonio

2010-03-07T21:10:00.000-06:00

For my birthday, we spent the weekend in San Antonio. We stayed at a motel on the river, which was so nice, we could just walk right out to the riverwalk and we were close to everything. The first day we were there it rained a lot, but we were still able to do some fun things. This is the view from our motel room.

The first day we went to the house or mirrors. It was a maze of mirrors. It was a lot of fun. Sawyer was so funny. You could see the exit from a lot of views because of the mirrors. When Sawyer would see the exit he would run all excited to finish, right into a mirror. It was so funny, but the best part is he would just laugh and then move on. It was rainy, but because of that there were hardly any people there, so we could go through the mirrors again and again. Also at the same place there was a laser maze the kids could go through it was comical as well.

Because it was so rainy outside, it was not a lot of fun to walk around, so we spent a lot of time browsing the stores. Julia was having fun trying on a lot of hats and choosing places to take pictures. She picked this place for a picture. Kindof creepy, but very San Antonio-ish!

Dennis had never been to a hard rock cafe so we ate there the first day, right on the river walk. It was good food!!

Saturday was much nicer and we were able to spend more time outside walking along the riverwalk. I love taking walks when there are so many pretty things to see. The riverwalk is a must go place, so if you have not been there, you should go!!

This in the first eat-outside restuarant on the riverwalk. It is also on the front of a ton of postards for San Antonio. So I thought it would be fun to eat here. I will admit though, the food was only ok! Ryan had a lot of fun teasing the ducks with food. We had told Ryan that he should not feed the animals, but when the waitress come to bring us a new basket of chips, she threw the leftovers into the river for the ducks. So I guess feeding the wildlife is encouraged.

We vacationed in San Antonio two years ago and were not able to really visit the Alamo.

There were to many people there, that you had to wait in line to even get into the plave. We did do a quick run through the last day that we were there, but were not able to really read about and enjoy the place. So we went ahead a made it there this time and was really able to enjoy it. Well Dennis did a lot of enjoying, I do not really love history type things, but there were a lot of pretty things to look at. And it was so nice outside, I was able to enjoy the weather.

All in all, it was a grand trip. I am excited to go back soon. I love that we live so close that we can visit often!

USS TEXAS

2010-03-07T20:41:00.000-06:00

Another day trip during the break. Some friends invited us to go to the USS Texas monument. I will admit, I would not have chosen this activity myself, so I am glad we were invited because it was a nice place and the kids really enjoyed it. I am really not into history, but I am sure that Dennis would like this place, so we will go back with him sometime. We also went to the San Jancito monument this day, but I guess I was done taking pictures. There was a very nice museum there.

On the ship deck you could climb on and play with everything. I thought that was nice and the boys really liked pretending to shoot the big guns!!!

Under the deck, you could tour the insides of the ship. It was like a museum, lots of displays and information all over. The kids like the bunks the most!

The groups of friends that we went with!

A view from the fromt of the ship on deck!!

Bowling

2010-03-07T20:26:00.000-06:00

During the holiday break, we went bowling. There is a website called Groupon, I am pretty sure that it is for other places besides Houston, but anyhow, the website will send out daily deals to various places. This was one deal- 2hours of bowling, shoe rental and soda for 6 people, and I think it was only like $20. We were able to get in 2 games each, but if you are faster bowlers, you might be able to get in more games. There are great deals with groupon, we have taken advantage of about 5, check it out, you might find some great deals for your area. Anyhow, bowling was a lot of fun, Julia was able to get a strike so she was really happy!!We all had fun and this particualr bowling alley was very nice, but I will admit, I miss the less nice one in Wyoming, simply because no one could smoke!!!!!

THE GIRLS!!!

THE GUYS!!!

Painting

2010-03-07T20:18:00.000-06:00

There is a fun place here, where you pick out a shape and then paint it and they put a nice glossy finish on it and you get to bring it home. The kids were in heaven. Ryan picked a 3-D mountian goat, Julia picked a huge butterfly and Sawyer picked spiderman's head. Of course Sawyer would pick this, since at this time, if you asked him what his name was he would reply, "spiderman". To funny! I guess that I did not take any finished pictures, so I will have to remember to do that, since they are hanging up in there rooms.

Nature center

2010-03-07T20:13:00.000-06:00

The kids had two full weeks for Christmas break from school. The weather was beautiful and we were able to do a lot of fun things. One thing that we did was go to the Nature Center here in Houston. There was a little interactive kids center, which the kids had a lot of fun learning about houston animals. Then we took a long walk on the trails in the park.

The funnest thing was seeing this armadillo. It was just right there next to the trail. Ryan spotted it and was so happy, he had to tell all the other hikers around us about it. Armadillos are really cute, and we ended up seeing three that day. The only other animals that we saw were squirrels and fish. I guess there in normally more animals to see, but it was cold, so they were all hibernating.

This is such a cute picture of Julia and Sawyer. Julia is constantly taking care of Sawyer, showing him how to do things, teaching him things and just playing so nicely with him.

6 New posts

2010-03-04T00:16:00.000-06:00

Well after a long time, I finally put up a 6 posts. This gets us through most of 2009. I will add a funny story here. One key thing to remember when reading this story is that Ryan just turned 9 in December, remember 9.

The other day Dennis and I were having a casual conversation with Ryan about his increase of back talking recently. We were telling him it was not appropriate and wondering what he thought we should do about it. His reply, "well it is kindof of normal, since I am a pre-teen now!!" I just had to laugh out loud and then remind him that he is not a pre-teen until one week before he turns 13. Kids will think the funniest things!!!

Precious Sawyer

2010-03-04T00:09:00.000-06:00

With some of their Chirstmas money, Julia and Sawyer purchased this fur-real pet jaguar. Sawyer loves Diego and his jaguar, so he was really excited. I was so surprised when I saw how cute he was with the little stuff animal. He was so gentle and kept asking us what he was suppose to do for his baby. The animal kept crying and Sawyer was getting sad that he was not doing the right thing for it. It was way too precious!!

New Years Eve Celebration

2010-03-04T00:03:00.000-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Celebrating the New Year just seems to get crazier, as in stupider, the older I get. We torment ourselves to stay up, and our children, way later then we even want to, just to wear silly hats and say, "Happy New Year!"

Even Julia said, "That's it!" She thought it was dumb to stay up all the time and not even do something fun. I guess we need to figure out more fun things to do!!

I know I am a mean mom to dress him up in his sleep, just for a picture. He is soo cute though!! Sawyer, obviously, did not make it to midnight. Julia was wishing she had joined him. The funny part is when all was said and done, the kids asked if they could watch a movie!!

Julia's birthday celebration

2010-03-03T23:55:00.000-06:00

For her birthday, Julia wanted to go back to the children's museum. Since Grandma Updike gave us a season pass there, Thank you thank you, I thought that it was a great idea to go back.

This is such a cute picture of Julia. She wrote 2010 on her head in the mirror. She could not understand what I was laughing at when she showed it to me. Even when I tried to explain it to her it did not make sense. She would listen to me and then look in the mirror and not understand. It was not until I took the picture and had her look at the picture that she finally understood my laughing. Thankfully she was able to laugh about it as well.

One of the activiteis that day at the museum was to make new years eve hats. So here we are in all our glory!!

There is this really cool stop sign when you leave the museum. Upon entering the museum everyone gets a colored sticker and then when they leave they put it on this stop sign. So of course, since we did not know the first time and had already thrown our stickers in the trash, we added our stickers to the working piece of art.

Happy #7 Julia

2010-03-03T23:21:00.000-06:00

Here is my beautiful 7 year old. She wanted a cookie cake for her birthday, Julia does not like cake. In fact she really does not like sweets that often and will choose a healthy snack. Not something she learned form me. She is in first grade, and is a super good reader. She likes being social and loves PE at school. She is a great helper at home and is a usually very nice to her brothers. We sure love her!!!

Julia was lucky to open her present from Dennis early. Dennis's grandpa passed away and so was going to be out of town for her birthday so, so she got to open a present early.

Dennis has created this very annoying tradition to open presents in the morning, usually before he goes to work, it is always way earlier then I want to be out of bed. The boys like this tradiaiton, but us girls, well not so much. I was really excited that he was not going to be here this year, so we could sleep in.(no school either) To my surprise, Julia wanted me to wake her up early to open presents. I guess tradition is better then sleep!!! For her birthday she got a desk, decorations for her room and a bed for her doll!

Christmas!!!!

2010-03-03T23:08:00.000-06:00

Christmas, as always, was a lot of fun. Sawyer woke up at about 4am and tried to go back to sleep. After awhile we hear him crying and go up to his room. He was crying because he could not go back to sleep and was afraid that Santa would not come if he did not go to sleep. He was so sad that we went ahead and told him that Santa had already came and let them get up. All the way down the stairs Sawyer was so happy because he saw gator golf. He had originally asked Santa for a stage, and later he changed his mind to gator golf, but we never actually saw Santa again for him to ask, so he was really worried that Santa would not know. So he was super excited that Santa knew to bring him gator golf. I must say that Santa was super thrilled to be bringing him gator golf instead of a stage!

Here is Sawyer with all his loot! He was really tired and did not want to pose for a picture, to busy playing with all his new stuff?

Julia with all her loot. She asked Santa for a bird in a cage, a beach in her backyard and something that will keep boys out of her room. Even though she lacked the above mentioned items on Christmas morning she was really happy. She was suprised that Santa knew what she wanted, even though she did not tell him the stuff she got. Santa is so smart.

It sure looks like Santa loves Ryan alot!! He got some fun big toys this year. He is growing up tooo fast.

His lack of belief in the big red guy has not made it as fun. But he is cute trying to let us know is beliefs without letting Julia in on it. He does not do a very good job, though.

Everyone enjoying their gifts.

Dennis got each of the kids nerf guns for Christmas. I am not sure who enjoys them more. What do you think?

Christmas Eve

2010-03-03T22:44:00.000-06:00

One tradition that is always easy to keep and do is Pj's on Christmas Eve. Both Dennis and I had this same tradition as children and our children come to expect it as well. They always say, "we get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it is always jammies!" I use to buy matching Pj's for them all, but realized that they are more happy when it is a pair that they really like. So recently I have purchased ones that fit their own taste. Ryan has sports ones that are not to babyish. Julia has a pretty purple nightgown, with sparkles. Sawyer has buzz light year jammies, that even have cool cape features.

Christmas Eve was quiet and nice. We opened our jammies, read the Christmas story in the bible, watched a movie together and put out cookies for Santa. Sawyer was so excited for the morning and had a hard time sleeping.

I love this picture,(even though is is not a great quality picture)! Children make every holiday, actually every day, so much better.

Williams Christmas party

2010-01-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

Dennis's company had a grand party for the kids for Christmas. They went to the children's museum here is Houston. Let me tell you, it is so awesome, it is huge, and has tons of stuff for all ages, even Dennis and I.

Kidtropolis, an amazing mimic of a adult world. So amazing, Julia and Sawyer loved it here, especially the restaraunt.

Williams had a backdrop up and took a picture of the family.

Ryan participating in one of the many craft opportunities.

Being silly!!

Outside water play. Ryan loving building with these pipes.

"Mom, no more pictures!!"

Little chemists! or whatever scientist field this falls under!

How strong am I? Not sure who thought this was more fun. I wonder if there is a weight limit on this child's toy? Glad Dennis was having fun!

Did I mention that Dennis was having fun!!

Face painting, a fun family activity!

We will defiantely be coming back. There was not enough time to even do all that we wanted, let alone spend a lot of time doing it! These pictures are just a few of the many things that we were able to do. If you have kids or are a kid at heart, this is a must visit for you!!

Piano Recital

2010-01-06T19:27:00.000-06:00

Ryan had his first ever piano recital in December. I hear him play all the time while he is practicing at home, but I was not prepared for how great he did! He was so "professional" and played so well. I really think that he has a talent for the piano. He seems to really enjoy it and I do not really have to fight him to practice. I hope he sticks with it, I know that it will be something that I will enjoy listening to forever!!

Julia's holiday party

2010-01-06T19:23:00.000-06:00

After I was done helping with Ryan's class, I headed to the 1st grade wing to help with Julia's class. I was so gald that it was staggered like this so that I could go to both parties. Julia's party was a lot less extravegant, but still fun. The kids ate and played bingo. There is always way to much food for the kids. Julia is quite the clown in her class. I never know if it is because I am there, or if she is always like this. Julia has a great teacher and let Sawyer just join in with all the activities.

Sawter enjoying Mrs. Castilles reading chair

Julia and her "favorite" friend in her class

3rd grade and Ginderbread houses

2010-01-06T19:17:00.000-06:00

For Ryan's holiday party, the third graders made gingerbread houses.Well actually graham cracker and milk carton houses. What a huge activity for a bunch of young kids. I could not believe all the goodies that they had to decorate thier houses. It would have been chaos, but there were so many parents there to help. I think that it was one parent for every 2 kids! That is awesome. Ryan did an excellent job with his house and was very creative in his construction, maybe a little of his dad is wearing off on him.

The finished house!

Ryan's birthday outing

2010-01-06T19:09:00.000-06:00

Since this was not a party year, (we only do friend parties every other year), I told Ryan he could pick one friend and go somewhere. Well he could not choose between two new friends and then Dennis invited our nieghbor, so he took three friends to ITZ. I guess the lucky little bugger got a party anyhow! Dennis took the four boys to ITZ and ate and played games. Ryan had a lot of fun and Dennis realized how hard kids are even when they are having a lot of fun. I am glad that Ryan has found some great friends here in TX, and that there are such fun things to do in TX.

Another trip to the zoo!!

2010-01-06T19:04:00.000-06:00

We made another trip to the zoo, this time with Sawyer and his little friends from his pre-school group. It makes me sad to think that this is my last little kid that I get to take to the zoo with his little friends! It was a good day. Sawyer's favorite animal is the Okapi. Since it is winter here, the Okapi's barn was open so they were inside where we could not see them. Sawyer was so sad. but because he is a problem solver, when we saw a worker he asked where the Okapi were. I did not even know he knew who the workers were. Thats Sawyer for you. Anyhow, the worker was so impressed with this little boy, that he called the okapi barn and they urged them out and we went back and looked at them. What a crazy, but determined little boy!

Sawyer and his little friends

While we were at the zoo, we heard this very loud animal sound, we thought that it was a recording playing on the speakers becuase it lasted so long and was so loud. We could here it all through the whole zoo. Well, it was no recording, it was these monkeys making the sound. They are the loudest creature and it was amazing to watch. They filled their throats up into a bubble and then opened up and wailed. Very cool!!

Sawyer and his buddie!!

Scout Play

2010-01-06T18:55:00.000-06:00

For Pack meeting in December, the cubs put on a toy play for the senior citizen's center. Ryan was a robot. He really took it seriously and learned his lines and was a great performer. The thing that really surprised me, though, was his behavior after the play. He went up to the seniors and shook thier hands and interduced himself and wished them a Merry Christmas. I think he will make a great missionary! I love this kid!!

Happy # 9 Ryan

2010-01-06T18:50:00.000-06:00

Ryan is 9 years old. Can you believe it? It is hard for me to grasp! He is becoming quite a grown person. He is really into music stuff right now. One big sign that he is growing is his appetite. Ryan use to eat very little and only because we made him, he now is impossible to keep full. He eats all the time. For his birthday he picked out a loft bed with a desk underneath. The metal is camo, so he loves it.

He picked out pizza for his meal. Easy for me, just had to order it, my type of meal. He also had a ice cream cake. I bought some trick candles, I thought that it would be fun, but I must have bought some duds, because he blew them out the first time and they never lit again.

Star of the Week

2010-01-06T18:42:00.000-06:00

Julia was star of the week the last week before the long Christmas break. She was so excited! She put a lot of work into her star poster. It was really hard for me to let her do it all by herself, but I did. She thought it was the collest thing in the world. After I saw the pride she had in her finished project, I was very happy that I was able to let her do it be herself. During the week, she was interviewed by her peers, got to take show and tell, got a special pencil and had a guest come read the class her favorite book!

Julia with her star poster

The results of her class interview.

Christmas Cookies

2009-12-23T21:27:00.000-06:00

I have always wanted to make cookies for our neighbors and this year we finally did it. It was actually a lot more fun then I thought that it would be and a lot less wok then I thought that it was going to be. I think that the secret is, I made the dough and then I let the kids do what they wanted, no micro managing and no impatience. Ryan and Julia did the rolling of the dough and the cutting of the shapes, while Sawyer napped.

When the cookies were all cooled and Sawyer was rested, he joined in on the fun and helped put the frosting and sprinkles on. This was really hard, but I totally let them decorate how they wanted! They had a lot of fun and then we put them on plates and delivered them to all of our neighbors.

While we baked cookies and decorated them, Dennis was busy making elk jerky!

Although we did not share any of this, we aren't that nice! haha!!! It was so yummy!!!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T21:17:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, the annual Christmas card photo.

This is one of the pictures that will be included with our Christmas card, and you all will get to see it when I get them sent out, hopefully tomorrow! I love Christmas trees, I think that we should leave our up all year this year. What do you think?

Ward Christmas Party

2009-12-23T21:14:00.000-06:00

Our new ward in Texas seems to have a lot of people that have lived in Hawaii and one time in their life. I was not surprised when the theme for our ward Christmas party was a luau. One ward member taught a different dance to different groups within the ward. Julia learned one with the primary and Ryan learned one with the scouts. The night of the party all the kids looked so cute on stage. Sawyer is in nursery and because they are so young, they were not taught a dance, but of course when kids were invited on stage, Sawyer was front and center. (This is the kid that asked santa for a stage for Christmas). All my kids are performers, each in their own element, but still they all love an audience.

This is Ryan being "cool"

And this is Ryan being real!

Choir Concert

2009-12-23T21:03:00.000-06:00

Ryan had his first choir concert of the year the beginning of December. This is a choir that he had to try out for and he goes to school early twice a week to practice. He is really enjoying it and if you have ever heard Ryan sing, you would agree that this a a wise path for him to follow. He has an amazing voice, I love listening to him sing, which he does do all the time! The choir did an amazing job. They are split up in to parts, I am so impressed that third and fourth graders could sing different parts altogether. It was a very enjoyable concert, I think Julia loved it the most since she spent the whole concert participating in her new favorite passtime, texting!

friends and our pretty fall tree

2009-12-23T20:29:00.000-06:00

This tree is on our backyard and at one time it was so beautiful. It had every color that a leaf can turn in it. There was green, yellow, orange, red, purple and brown. Everyday I said I need to get out there and take a picture of it. Of course, as always, I was a day late! The previous night it froze and all the beautiful leaves looked like their color had been mixed with black. So imagine this tree brighter and more pretty. And yes, I did say that it froze. It only snows every 10-15 years here in Houston, but of course the first winter we are here is snows. I did not get any pictures of it, because I kept thinking that it was going to start snowing and then I would take a picture, but I soon realized that the almost invisible flurries, was what texans refer to as "it is really coming down". There were other places in Houston that got more snow, snow that actually made it to the ground, but where we live, we only saw in barely floating toward the ground.

This is Ryan with his good friend Caden.

And this is Julia with Caden's sisters, Grace and Maddie.

All these kids have a lot of fun together.

Welcome Christmas Season

2009-12-23T20:20:00.000-06:00

Nothing welcomes the Christmas season better then putting your Christmas tree up. I love this activity. I love pulling out the ornaments and remembering all the ornaments that the kids have picked out in previous years. I love how much the kids love putting their own ornaments on the tree and the place on the tree that they put them. Ryan's are high this year, but only on the left side of the tree.

Julia's are in the middle of the tree-right in front and all together.

Sawyers are all hanging on the bottom of the tree almost touching the ground. I have had to move his ornaments up to put the presents under the tree!

And of course I had to get the picture of them in front of the finished tree. They were all in a very silly mood, so instead of the beautiful Christmas card picture , we get a silly one!

Wish bone

2009-12-17T09:42:00.000-06:00

I always remember loving to break the wish bone. The excitement of being a child, making a wish, believing 100% that it will come true. I sure do miss being a child. Ryan was super nice and said that Julia and Sawyer could be the ones to brake it. It was still a little moist to was not easy to break. Dennis got a little impatient and just grabbed it and broke it and handed the sides to the kids. Oh well maybe next year we will do it better!

Here comes Santa

2009-12-17T09:33:00.000-06:00

Well as tradition, we were able to visit with Santa during Thanksgiving weekend. Thiss year we caught him at old town Spring!

Sawyer asked Santa for a stage for Christmas. I am not sure how Santa is going to make that one happen!!

Sawyer loves to sing, act and preform in front of people, but seriously what 3 year old asks for a stage for Christmas!

Julia's asked Santa for a doll she had just seen at the doll hospital. She had, however, already given me a list of what she wanted for Christmas,

a doll, and bird in a cage, a beach in her backyard and something that will make boys stay out of her bedroom forever.

What creative kids I have!! Or impossible ones to shop for!

Ryan is actually in the in-between stage. Toys don't really excite him, but some are real cool. Although the big kids stuff does not excite him either, even though that is where he wants to be. It has been the hardest shopping for him this year. He asked Santa for sports stuff and music stuff.

Is is just me, or do my kids take the cutest pictures!!

Mountasia

2009-12-17T09:22:00.000-06:00

One of the places we went over Thanksgiving with our company, was Mountasia. It is an arcade with go-karts, batting cages, mini golf and bumper boats. Here is Ryan having a try at mini golf. He was very good.

Julia loved playing mini golf as well. She did get a hole in one this day.
In fact all the girls did!!

Sawyer was hillarious playing mini golf. He could not figure out how to hit the ball with the club and was getting frustrated. Sometime he hit it like he was playing pool and sometimes he would just run and drop it in the hole.

This is Dennis's sister Lacy and her fiance, Andrew.

I had been up since 5am and did not sleep very well the night before since Sawyer was sick. I sure look gorgeous, no shower and all! ha ha Julia is so much fun to pose with though, she loves the camera.

Dennis and his mom, having fun playing mini golf.

Dennis's mom and dad sitting on the "love bench" Don't they look so in love!!!

We also had a blast in the batting cages. We did all agree that it hurts to hit the ball!

We also went on the bumper boats. The only drawback was you could squirt water at people with a trigger on your boat. No one liked that as much as Ryan and he was a little too trigger happy. It made us all mad at him, but it was still fun and he figured out if he did not want to get yelled at he could only squirt dad and grandpa.

Sawyer loved playing deal or no deal with Andrew. Andrew was so good with him, he let Sawyer make all the decisions on which case to open. I believe Sawyer even won like 200 tickets.

Our, or at least, my favorite activity, the go-carts. All of us that went, went at the same time and it was a lot of fun. The most fun part, my car was a fast car!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-17T08:44:00.001-06:00

Last year I made a list of the things that I was thankful for. I wanted to do that this year, but as you can see, it is almost Christmas and I am just now getting to Thanksgiving! I will say that I love my little family and I am so thankful for them This year for Thanksgiving, Dennis's mom, dad, sister Lacy and Lacy's fiance, Andrew came out to celebrate with us. It was a great weekend. We did some shopping, went to a arcade place, ate too much food, went to a comedy show, ate too much food, went to old town spring(a cute vintage style shopping center), saw the new moon and ate too much food. All in all it was a great weekend and we sure miss them already!

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-12-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

Dennis has a really awesome schedule at work, he gets every other Friday off. If that Friday falls on a holiday he gets the last working day of that week off. Luckily he has the scedule that has almost all the holidays so he gets the day before holidays off. So the day before Thanksgiving we headed to the zoo. The kids and I had been there, but Dennis had not, so we were glad he coud come. The weather was perfect. We spent all morning and early afternoon there.

After the zoo we visited Hermann park, it is right by the zoo and very beaustiful. We decided to take a train ride around the park.

There was a little gift shop and Ryan had money that was burning a hole in his pocket, so he bought some cricket snacks.

And then he actually ate them!!! GROSS!!!

He even said that they did not taste that bad. I think being a boy is messing up his intelligence!

Sawyer then decided to try one. He thought it was way to gross to eat. At least one of the boys in this family has some sort of brain!! ha ha

9 new posts

2009-12-15T21:59:00.000-06:00

I just added nine new posts and I am almost into December with my blogging!! So enjoy, also if it has been over a week since you have viewed the blog, you might want to go back about 20 posts!! Merry Christmas

Space Derby

2009-12-15T21:56:00.000-06:00

For scouts, Ryan was able to make a space shuttle thingy, and enter into the space derby. He and Dennis designed and created a very "engineered" rocket. This is right up Dennis's alley, since he was a design engineer for CESSNA and AIRBUS. I was a little hesitant, becasue everything Ryan does all by himslef he usually finished right near the top, but everything we help him with, he gets dead last! Funny how that works. Thankfully this time it was different. Te "kodiak express" did fairly well, not first but closer to the top then the bottom, and defiantely not last. It was a fun evening!

Turkey craft

2009-12-15T21:49:00.000-06:00

This year in third grade, Ryan has a lot of projects that are completely only at home. Getting him ready for higher education, I guess. One of the more fun activites, was he had to dress a turkey. The assignment said that it was suppose to be a family activity, but it was a small turkey, so I just made copies of it and each of the kids deocrated thier own turkeys. I am always so amazed at how much they enjoy crafts and wonder why we do not do crafts more often. Even writing this I am making a mental note to organize more craft time!

Ryan's Julia's and Sawyer's

in case you could not tell

Dora

2009-12-15T21:43:00.000-06:00

I am sure that I have mentioned it before, but Sawyer loves people dressed up as characters. Right now Sawyer is also way into Dora and Diego. So when I noticed that Dora was going to be at chik-fil-a, and Dennis was out of town the same night, I took the kids. Of course, Sawyer loved it, so much in fact the I had to pry him away form Dora so that other kids could have a turn to take a picture with her, without Sawyer in the picture. He kept getting back in line, having his turn and then me having to pull him off of her, then getting back in line again. It was a long process, but he was happy!

Disney on Ice

2009-12-15T21:35:00.000-06:00

Dennis's work has an employee club that occasionally has great deals on events in Houston. One such opportunity was to go to Disney on Ice. Julia and Sawyer were really excited to go, Ryan not so much in words, but I could tell he thought it was going to be cool! It was so awesome. I could not believe how entertaining it was. I thought this would be an event for Julia, but Sawyer loved it. He was so amazed at all the characters. The only drawback of the whole thing, was the cost of the treats and souvenirs. WAY TO EXPENSIVE!!!