Happy Birthday Mom!

I love celebrating my MOM! And I love the tradition of a strawberry cake for her birthday.

He always has to warm up to my dad every time he comes over!

Friends again!

Christmas Eve

Due to the winter weather, Christmas Eve was very laid back. No Christmas Eve services, no grandparents coming to eat appetizers and no husband (see previous post) made for a very different day. But we enjoyed hanging out and staying warm!

Jamie brought us some precious aprons from Africa made by women who were victims of human trafficing and exploitation. After their rescue they take a sewing workshop and literacy and life skills course. They then use their skills to make products where the profits are used for the program they are a part of. I love the bright colors and different patterns!

Davy's Gifts

How cute are my parents? When they came for dinner, they brought Davy a bag of treats with a card!

and some more...

Great State Fair of Oklahoma!

My parents always go to the fair together but this year they couldn't because my dad was going to be out of town. So my mom and I decided to go together instead!

We split an Indian Taco. It had at least 2 cups of cheese with very little meat, so that left much to be desired. But then we split a fried Snickers Bar...YUM! We walked off our calories as we people watched and went through various buildings. I was fascinated by the goats being milked by hand, and wished I could have seen more animals. We also went through the Agtropolis building, looked at booths with crazy products and saw all of the 4-H entries which I think is so interesting. We then went to the sea lion show (because I always hear about it from Drew and Kacy on KISS FM) which was mostly cheesy but kind of cute. And then we took the little tractor tram back to our gate. We crammed a lot into a short amount of time and so we were exhausted when we left, but I loved spending the time with my mom!

Birthday Gifts

My birthday is Sunday but I won't see my parents or my sister around then. Last Friday my mom had me come over to get a couple gifts.

How cute is she with the sign? It says, "Happy Birthday Julie Beth" if you couldn't read it. Her latest thing is calling me Julie Beth again...which is what she originally wanted to call me when I was born. She and my Mimi were faithful to call me that!

The pillow is not a birthday gift but she just happened to have one ready to give me. I love it! She did such a good job and makes me wish I could sew. Here is a pic for you, Jamie.

These gifts have been sitting on our table. And I realized what am I waiting for to open them? The people who they are from aren't going to see me open them. Against Ray's advice I went ahead and opened them. And what fun! My gift from my parents is going with my mom to the Beth Moore event in December and so just a sweet thing was some Martha Stewart stamps I have been asking for! I can't wait to use them. And then Jamie is always the most sensitive listener when determining what to give. She had some earrings that I have admired and sure enough that is what I got from her. I have them on and they look fabulous with my striped pajama pants and non-matching t-shirt...all in honor of her who loves when I don't match at home! I also laughed at the Ziploc plastic bowls in the gift bag too! (When I went to Phoenix last March to help bring her back she had some of these plastic bowls that I had a hard time parting with. She also had some hangers that I thought she should have stuffed in her car but they didn't make it either. I realize she was at a point of not caring but I felt like she should have kept them because they were both things that I needed in my own home. Neither of those things made it to Oklahoma but clearly I made an impression and she bought me some!)

Thanks Mom and Jamie! :)

Day 9

For Christmas we got tickets to see the Rockettes. My mom says that everyone needs to see the Rockettes at least once.

What a fun show! It was so clever and creative. We loved every minute of it.

Then we met my family and aunt and uncle for our annual trip downtown. Each time we always eat at Toby Kieth's.

We then ventured to Bass Pro Shop. We always have fun in this store.

We then decided to go to McDonald's to get some ice cream. It worked out that they had couches where we could sit. Tomorrow is my aunts birthday so we sang to her.

Then we went to the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge. During the month of December it is free on Sunday nights. Lots of people took advantage of this with us! But we still enjoyed seeing all the lights! I hadn't been since my aunt and uncle were married there my senior year in high school. We had fun remembering as we walked through despite the crowd!

I love hanging out with my family!

Day 7

Thank goodness my parents let me use their camera! Friday was such a fun and busy day!

I woke up early and met my parents to go to Target. We always go after Christmas to stock up on the half-off deals.

We celebrated Christmas with my family today. We squeezed in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions into one day. One tradition is to have green waffles on Christmas morning. Day-after-Christmas morning works just as well!

My mom's waffles are perfectly homemade and my favorite!

Jamie wouldn't let me get a picture of her. So we joked about her being like Mr. Wilson from Home Improvement.

We then played a new game Jamie brought called Bananagrams. It is like a fast-paced Scrabble. We played two games. Jamie won them both...I know shocking!

She took this picture to show that she won 2 games.

Then I had to go back to my house to let the Cox guy in. We FINALLY got cable!

I was tired of hearing about not being able to see certain football games. The last thing I heard was how we would only get to see 2 bowl games on regular TV, and how he would have to go watch them somewhere. So now we are paying to spend more time together. :) It was a surprise for Raymond, so it was so fun when we came home for him to see it! You all know that I'm super excited about it, and it has been a major distraction already.

I then headed back to my parent's house. Another tradition is to decorate sugar cookies. Jamie and I have always taken a different approach to this.

The finished product!

Another tradition is to eat appetizers for Christmas Eve dinner. Our yummy spread! Of course she had to pop in the picture! :)

I love our stockings and I love that my mom made one for Raymond that matches ours. The detail is so neat!

There were some fun surprises! The face after this shot was priceless!

It was a great Christmas with my family. We still have some fun days planned!

Parents on Mission

Pray for my parents.

They left yesterday for Nicaragua on a mission trip with their church in partnership with Feed the Children. Their team leader wrote, "We will work with local schools and at a home for abandoned and abused boys. Our hands on ministries will include remodeling a building for community activities, building protective fences for a school and the boys home, conducting sports and personal hygiene training, and providing educational events for the schools. We will join hands and hearts with Pastor Gomez and the believers in First Baptist Church of El Crucero for teaching and evangelism events."

Pray for their health and safety. They are no strangers to traveling overseas, but this is their first mission trip. I have found that when you are taken from home, comforts, etc. that you experience God in a different, refining and refreshing way. I hope that this is life changing for them! I'm thrilled that they get a chance to go...I wish I could GO too!

P.S. Good thing they will only be gone 10 days. I don't like that I can't just pick up the phone and call my mom! :)

I love my MOM!

I haven't loved the whole having my gall bladder out process. Raymond has been perfectly perfect, but I have had a need for my mom too. And she has been out of town forever. This week she went to Falls Creek to help as a cook and so I decided that I would go see down to see her. It felt so good to get off my couch and get out of the house. I've been in a lot of pain and this was a great distraction to hang out with my mom and the other cooks. I loved listening to them talk and watch them work so hard. I decided to stay for dinner and they let me help serve. While serving, it was so interesting to watch the kids. The middle school kids were here this week, and they are so funny! It brought back some great memories of the (HOT) times that I spent at Falls Creek. Plus I hadn't been down there since all of the changes. It is so different with the new tabernacle. They had it locked so I couldn't go in but I'm sure that totally changes the experience for those sitting inside. You don't have to worry about splinters or sweat anymore!

I had a fabulous day! Sometimes a girl just needs her mom and I came home feeling great but exhausted!

ALSO...

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

My parents are an incredible example of a couple with a solid marriage. They are very much in love and I admire their dedication and commitment towards each other. Here's to 30 more years!