One Nation Under God?!

All I Want for Christimas. . .

Okay, I know Christmas is a ways off, but I can't help but sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," when I see Dylan smile lately! That front tooth just kept wiggling but wouldn't come out, so Daddy finally just pulled it out the other night. The cutest part of all the whole thing, though, is the way he talks now. It was funny how one second he was talking the same as usual, and then as soon as that tooth came out, he had the cutest little lisp. We don't do the tooth fairy thing, but we do put a dollar in his "tooth box" while he's sleeping. He knows it's us, and so he asked us the night the tooth came out, "Do I get a dollar for loothing my tooth?" It was really cute. (I know, I know, the cost of inflation-it's up to $1/tooth at our house.)

And here's Faith, who didn't want to be left out of the new blog post.

By the way, we've continued to have new critter news but that will all now be posted on Vince's (and Dylan's) new blog page. The link is on my list of web links. Vince will have a new posting soon (I won't reveal the details) so check it out!

Critter Update 1

After many promises, here is our critter update. The heavy rains have caused turtles to wander, and we have found two new ornate box turtles. That brings our total turtle tally (say that three times fast) to 4; one for each kid. They have their own "pen" in the backyard so that they can catch their own bugs and eat plants, but we also feed them veggies. The food in the picture is their all-time favorite; canned box turtle food from the pet store. It comes in cans like cat food but costs quite a bit more! The two in this picture are named June (my personal favorite) and Lightning. June, who we've had for a while now, is technically Vince's and is the most outgoing. She's really getting used to us and comes out of her "house" when she hears us coming outside. Lightning, one of the new ones, is Dylan's turtle and I think he named her that because she's fast and looks like she's got lightning strikes on her back. One of the other new ones is a really small ornate box turtle; her name is Junior and it's only fitting that because of her size, she would be Gabie's. The other one that we've had for a while is Bob; he's Faith's three-toed box turtle. He's a major recluse and doesn't socialize much. Maybe it's because he's self conscious that he doesn't look like the other turtles (or maybe it's cuz he's the only male surrounded by three females!). The kids love taking them out and racing them around the back yard.
Vince now also has a tree frog of his own. This one is similar to Dylan's but much, much smaller, so Vince named him "Kiwi." We're learning new things about animals all the time. Dylan wants to be a herpetologist when he grows up (a person who studies amphibians). He's constantly learning about frogs and other critters and the kids are always hoping we'll find new things. We have found a lot of other things, like a very large toad when we were mowing today. We put him in a bin until we were done mowing. The kids were sad that we had to let him go, but they know it's not a good idea to take a bunch of animals out of their natural habitat. Vince also saw a snake today while mowing and after some internet research, discovered that it was a lined snake. They are black with a white stripe and are known to be in the Owasso area. I'm so thankful for these natural learning opportunities!

Loving the Flat Land!!

We are definitely loving being on flat land again, especially now that we have sidewalks too. All the toys with wheels (and other types, too) have come out and are getting use once more. Dylan preferred his skateboard,
Faith was learning to ride a two-wheel bike (with Dylan's bike),
Gabie was trying to keep up with Dylan on a skateboard,
And Vince was bouncing up and down the sidewalk on a pogo stick. Boy, the things we take for granted sometimes!

Father's Day 2008

Before Pete woke up, Dylan had his "Happy Father's Day" sign taped to the wall in the living room next to the fireplace. The critters lining the bottom of the picture are, from left to right, fish, skink, frog (on top of a lily pad), and a snake.

Aside from the standard dad-type gifts we all got for Pete, the kids made their homemade gifts and wrapped them in things like doll blankets and handkerchiefs. Dylan made a jumbo duct tape wallet; we're still trying to figure out exactly what Faith's homemade gift is.

The kids saw this card at the store and had to get it for Pete. It is one of the sound cards. In case you can't see the tiny words in the picture, it says on the front: "Across the centuries and the galaxies, one question has plagued mankind-"Why?" And dads have the answer. . ." When you open the card, it says in Darth Vader's masked voice, "I am your father." In parentheses, the inside of the card then says "(That's why!)"

Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures of our Father's Day brunch which I was blessed to have my dad here for. It was really a nice thing for me that he was down here for Father's Day so for our omlettes, I bought him ham. He usually likes bacon too, but I apologized and told him I wouldn't be able to do that! He understood and we all had a really nice time with him and Derek for our Father's Day brunch 2008.

All Moved In!

Let me start off by saying that I very much dislike moving!!!!!! This picture is our Catoosa house all packed up. Doesn't this display the nasty disease of America: too much stuff!!! The move was definitely worth the work though. This new house has proven to be such a huge blessing already. Aside from getting more house for less money, it's so nice to be on FLAT land for bike rides and walks. The fenced-in backyard is so nice with Gabie monster! Here's the front of our house:

And here's the back. It's strange because it's one-story in the front but it's a two-story house. I've noticed a lot of houses like this down here. The kids absolutely love having their own rooms. Faith finally has her big white bed set up with a lilac canopy hanging over it. Her window is the top one in the middle (above the kitchen sink window), and the other back window is Dylan's room. Vince's room is in the front of the house. The bottom window underneath Dylan's is our bedroom and the brick section sticking out is our master closet/safe room. The town of Owasso is really nice too; and with gas prices being what they are, it's nice to live close to everything like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and the pet store. (I'll post another blog entry later to update you on all of our recent critter findings!)

After moving, the kids needed something to do to get back into fun and since it's been 90 degrees almost every day, we decided to enjoy water play in our new backyard. Gabie absolutely loved being in the pool, but after an hour and a half, he was wiped out!

Vince and Dylan filled up a ton of water balloons (this is about 1/3 of the way through) and saved them for when Pete got home from work. After the water balloons were gone, they pulled out squirt guns.

We thought we'd have a harder time with the weather, but it's been really beautiful. Mornings and evenings are absolutely perfect, because as soon as that Oklahoma sun goes down, it cools off nicely. We do our park outings, bike rides, etc., during those cooler hours and then stay inside in the afternoon to do our school work. I have been told, however, that there will be days in August when we will be crying to have a 90-degree day because it's 105! Oh well! It can't be worse than 6 months of cold snow!!!!!!!!!