D - Birthday Pictures

Several years ago my mom gave me two really cool, huge, matted photo frames that have cut-outs for wallet-sized photos of each of my kids from birth thru their 18th birthdays. I really love these and look forward to updating them each year.

This past year, however, I have been woefully neglectful of having my kids' pictures taken professionally. (Sorry, Kerri!) So I just decided to go back through all of the photos Mike has taken of them since their birthdays and just pick one for each of them to go in their frames.

What does it say about Katie (or about me) that these are my favorite two of her? She's just such a funny little personality. If you know her well enough, you'll know these are so her.





And what says Noah better than an OU shirt? How are we ever gonna wipe that school out of him???

D - Favorite Night of the year

I guess this lousy weather is good for something. I'm actually doing a little overdue blogging. And since the weather is now what is was then, I thought I'd go ahead with the Christmas post.

Mike and I both agree that our favorite night of the year each year is the night we do our family Christmas with the four of us. This year we stayed in Edmond for the holiday, so we did our special night on Christmas Eve.

Each year we do the same thing as we've already described here. We have a nice dinner complete with forcing our children to wear "fancy" clothes (a task LOVED by one and abhorred by the other - you guess which is which). This year, Mike had a GREAT time grilling during the great Blizzard of 2009.



We always move the kitchen table into the living room so we can eat in front of the tree.



Then we torture the kids by making them pose for pictures before they get to open presents. Mike always gets some good ones.





And some slightly less dignified ones...

The only thing Noah asked for this year was cable tv. He was really sick of being told that he wasn't going to be able to see OU play football because we didn't get that channel. So, after A LOT of begging from yours truly, Mike finally caved and allowed me to order it for him. Here he is trying to figure out what his present is. I wrapped up the refrigerator magnets with letters E, S, P and N and he had to unscramble them.

Got it!

Lots of other fun presents were exchanged. I was most excited by my fancy new google phone, Mike is loving his Sirius radio in his truck and Katie loved EVERYTHING she got and each was incredibly exciting and elicited lots of gushy comments.

We ended the night by scattering 3 different bags of reindeer food that Katie made at preK, Sonshine School and church.

It was another truly great Christmas, and I feel so blessed to be a part of this beautiful family.

D - 2 Kid Stories

#1 Story - Noah

I've had a cold all week long that I just can't shake and have been feeling worse and worse each day rather than improving. Fun. Even more fun since Mike has been out of town all week. AND we've cancelled school 2 days in a row and been cooped up inside because of the weather. Awesome.

But good things DO come out of the yuck. This morning Noah greeted me the minute I woke up with breakfast in bed that he "had been planning for 2 days!" It was a delicious feast of club crackers, peanut butter crackers, a string cheese, a cereal bar and a Dr. Pepper. His 2 day prep included going to the garage last night and "sneaking in" a Dr. Pepper to the fridge so it would be cold for me this morning. What a sweetheart! I couldn't quite finish it all, but I did my best. Gotta love some string cheese at 7:30 am.

#2 Story - Katie

A couple of weeks ago the kids got their report cards. I opened Katie's in the car on the way home from picking her up and read her the "teacher comments." The first sentence said something about Katie being a delightful child. Here's the conversation that followed my reading it to her:

K: Can you read that again?

Me: Why? Do you just want to hear some more about how delightful you are?

K: Who do you think wrote that? Mrs. Potter (her teacher) or Ms. Perry (teacher's assistant)?

Me: Oh, I think it was probably Mrs. Potter. Why? Do you think Ms. Perry thinks you are delightful too?

K: Well....... I think they probably both agree on that!

I don't know if they both agree, but I know I do!

M - A fancy date with my baby girl

Well, the 'baby' part of this title isn't really accurate any more but I haven't yet let go of the notion. To the left is my favorite picture of the last five years. I remember the moment on September 21st, 2004 like it was five minutes ago yet I fear that won't always be the case.

As Dana noted recently, Katie has been on a bit of a journey to stop sucking her wittle thumb. Having achieved her first milestone and as promised, we set out on a right fancy daddy date.

First, I have to make note of a few personal comments. Prior to having a little girl I was convinced that I'd treat her no differently than my son. It's not that I planned to treat one 'good' and the other 'bad.' It's just that when it came to issues of occasional discipline and fun activities together and such, it seemed logical (note the use of the word "logical") that life would pretty well flow seamlessly between the two.

Then we went and had this little blue-eyed, blond, milky smooth skinned little girl. And she learned to call me da-da even long after she could very easily say dad or daddy. And she learned to tell me how much she loved me at just the right moments. And I smile instantly when I look at her picture or think about her servant heart or the funny things she says.

It's also a fact that I have to work harder to be close to her. With Noah, it's pretty easy. He likes anything that involves horsepower, explosions, wild animals or a scoreboard. While Katie will work hard to like anything Noah likes (he is still the number one man in her life), her real interest remains in things of a fluffier, softer, and 'much more pinker' variety. As such, my interest must be in such things at times as well.

So it was on the night of December 22nd that we finally got to have our date to Inspirations Tea Room in Edmond. This was a dress up, wear a tie, buy a corsage kind of date, mind you. This was a date that needed to celebrate the enormity of Katie's success thus far.

Honestly I was pretty excited to give her a corsage (thanks to my lovely bride for arranging that one). Of course Katie had never heard of such a thing and was a little confused at first why one would want to wear a flower on your wrist! But soon she figured it out and liked it, I think. Her little wrist is so tiny it couldn't even fill up the elastic band attached to the flower.

From the menu we ordered for Katie the "Princess Tea Party for One." This included a couple of tiny sandwiches including a PB&J with sprinkles around the edge. Of course there were plenty of desserts. Katie was most excited about the tiny tea pot full of pink lemonade.








































Ultimately she finally came around on the idea of the corsage.













There was ONE chocolate-covered strawberry on the tray which resulted in...of course...us having to order more chocoberries. We each had another and saved the other four to share with mom and Noah at home.














The restaurant was really decked out for Christmas and of course we had to pose together for one more picture. Katie frequently asks me why I like pictures so much and I can't imagine why she would even ask. :-)














Amidst all the sweetness though I have to let you know that THIS is my little girl. She is my CRAZY little wild hair that wraps herself around my heart and my emotions as effortlessly as she bats her beautiful blue eyes.




















Katie is definitely not my affectionate child. That honor goes clearly to Noah. He can't go to bed at night without me lying down beside him and talking for a while. Just tonight Katie told Dana to pass along to me that she's sorry, but I better not come see her tonight because she'll probably be too sleepy! That little heartbreakin' thing! So I suppose it's all the more special when she does actually show me affection or give me a hug first. Often when I tell her I love her she frustratingly tells me "you already told me that!"

Sometimes she just says simply "I know!" Then I think, "No, you really don't. You just can't right now. Not until you stand where I'm standing."

As one of my favorite writers Tony Woodlief has written:

“I love you. Do you know that?”

“Yeah,” he says, “I know.”

"No you don’t, little one. Not until you hear the laughter of your own child like angels singing, and feel your heart flowing over. And when you do, remember these two things: that I have loved you this way, and that God loves you even more, with love that is unshakable, unchangeable, unfathomable. Remember this great passion with which you are loved, and carry it with you..."