Wednesday's Walk-Sierra

It's time for another Wednesday's Walk down Memory Lane. If you want to read what other Wednesday Walkers remembered today, head over to Jenilee's blog and join the fun.

I didn't have an idea in mind this week (again) for my Wednesday's Walk. So I decided to go with the "pick a random disc" technique I used last week. I pulled out a little box of floppys that I hadn't looked at in a while. The title of the first disc said "Sierra Born." I thought that would be a good one (and it goes well with my Wordless Wednesday post for this week).

Sierra was born on February 2, 2004-Groundhog's Day. I never knew that February 2 was Groundhog's Day until then. Anyway, Sierra was the first of my children who didn't wake us up in the middle of the night to announce their coming arrival. I had seen my doctor on Thursday (may have been Friday, I can't remember now) and had scheduled an induction for Monday morning, fully expecting her to come before that time.

I spent the day on Saturday finishing up my lesson plans and preparation for my substitute at school. Don't remember what I did on Sunday, but probably packed and did last minute things.

Monday morning, we arrived at the hospital bright and early. They got everything going, but it took a long time. We were prepared, though. The nurses thought it was kind of funny to see us playing cards while we waited.

Dakota and Cheyenne came to visit us a little later with my parents. They were pretty excited, I think. It's funny to think that Dakota was in kindergarten when Sierra was born. I can't imagine having a newborn now that Sierra's in kindergarten.
Daniel and I kept playing cards and people kept coming in to visit. Finally the nurses came in and said that the baby was showing that she was ready. Everyone left the room except Daniel. The nurse asked me if I was ready to push and I said "no". I think it finally hit me that there was an actually B-A-B-Y coming. She said "Okay, well let's just do this another day then." Ha!

It didn't take long and Sierra arrived! She was perfect with a head full of black hair! Daniel helped to clean her up and all that stuff that dad's get to do.
Here is my first picture of all three girls together.
This is one of my favorite pictures from that day. I am so lucky to still have my grandparents-who we call Pops and Memaw. I have a picture similar to this of the two of them in the hospital room holding their new great-grandchild for all four of my children. We live 160ish miles from them and they have made the drive every time. Sierra is such a blessing to our family. She is (almost) always happy and smiling. She has the best laugh ever. I can't wait to watch her grow up and see who she's going to become!

Here is the princess these days

Has it really been 6 years???

Wordless Wednesday-Why we call her "smiley"

Find other wordless Wednesday posts here.

Because kids live here

Some things seen in my house because kids live here:

Muddy handprints on the bathroom counter (and walls) from a day of digging in the dirt outside.

An autumn tree and a Thanksgiving turkey on my wall in March because they just won't let me take them down.

A weird cross between a pen holder and a coffee mug on my mantle.

A third grader in a sombrero and a kindergarten Santa Claus girl.

A random pink and green magnifying glass and a princess button.

A pink teddy from a babies' NICU bed and another odd pen holder thingy.


In a few years, my house will be quiet. I will not be picking up little shoes and pjs from the floor every day. The laundry will all get done in one day. I will mop the floor and it will stay clean for more than a few minutes. But for now, I will enjoy all the little things I have in my house that remind me just how lucky I am that kids live here.

What do you have in your house because kids live there?

Five Question Friday

It's Five Question Friday! I'm so excited!

You can join in the fun on Mama M.'s blog. And while you're there, check out her fun vlog (video blog) post and hear her sing Landon's favorite song! It's lots of fun.

Okay, here are this week's questions and answers.

1. Did you pass your driver's test on the first try?

I did! I scored a 100% on my written test! Not sure my score on the driving part. All I cared was that I had PASSED! Not sure I could do it now, though. I cannot parallel park to save my life. Luckily, there are not many places where I need to do that around here. I just park somewhere else and walk so I don't have to try.

2. What is your most embarrassing moment?

There are tons of these, but the most recent thing I can think of is when we were at the zoo last week. We were trying to get back to the front of the zoo so we would have time to play in the new children's area one last time before closing time. My kids, of course, were in no hurry to get there. Sierra hopped up on the curb right behind me. I said "would you please just get down and walk on the GROUND?!" But when I turned to look at her, it wasn't Sierra! The little girl's eyes got really big. She jumped down and ran to her mom. I said "sorry, I wasn't talking to you." Her mom gave me a nice look and I felt really bad.

3. What TV show would you like to be on- Oprah, Biggest Loser, or What Not to Wear?

I would love to go on Biggest Loser! But, I could never go off and leave my kids for that long.
I would HATE to go on What Not to Wear. Those people are not very nice. Plus, I could not pay what they do for clothes, even with someone else's money.

4. Would you ever get plastic surgery and what kind?

I've never really thought about this too much. Maybe after Biggest Loser I would.

5. What are your favorite jeans to wear?
I have a pair of Liz & Me jeans that I bought at Catherine's (Fashion Bug/Lane Bryant) that I LOVE! I love the way they fit.

Friday Follow March 26

Hooray! It's Friday Follow time! Time to make some new friends! If you want to participate, go over to One To Try, Midday Escapades, or Hearts Make Families.

This week's sponsor is

This has been a pretty good week in our house. The girls went back to school on Monday (which isn't the good part, we actually miss them a lot while they're gone) and we have been able to get back into a routine. I do miss sleeping in until 7:30 though. Only 45 school days left this year!

I hope everyone else had a great week as well. Can't wait to hop around to some new blogs and see what they've been up to.

Wednesday's Walk

Oh, how I've missed Wednesday's Walk since Lynnette stopped hosting it. I was so excited to hear that Jenilee was bringing it back on her blog. It's so much fun to remember some things I've forgotten about.

I didn't really have anything in particular to share for today's Wednesday's Walk, so I decided to
just grab a random disc (our first digital camera used floppys) and see what opened up. The first one had some cute pictures, but no memories that really stood out. But, look what I found on the second one!

This is from Christmas 2005!

Landon was there too, but he looked like this, so he didn't get in the picture (he was probably sleeping)

Once I found those, I got excited thinking about how much the kids have grown, so I started hunting for other Christmas pictures.

This is Christmas 2006!
Here's Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2009

Looking at those pictures makes me realize how fast my kids really are growing up. Wow!
Time is flying by!

wordless wednesday-siblings and best friends...(also my 100th post!)

Join the Wordless Wednesday fun here.

Wish I hadn't done that...

Have you ever started a cleaning project and had it turn into much more than you anticipated? I did that today. My goal this week is to spend 15 minutes in each room each day picking up, organizing, etc. I started yesterday. I didn't get to every room, but I did get the dining room, den, kitchen, laundry room, my bedroom, the laundry room, the "middle room", and the living room. Pretty good progress.
So, I decided today that I would start on the other side of the house. That way if I got interrupted I would have at least done a little in each room between the two days. So, I did Landon's room, Dakota's room, the girls' room, the kids' bathroom (that no one actually uses), then back to the living room...and I got them all today! Woohoo! Now, they're not "done" by any means. I still have a loooooooon way to go-especially in the bedrooms-but they look A LOT better.
So, as I'm going along cleaning, it comes time to work on the laundry room. The laundry room's not that big and I worked on it yesterday. All the dirty laundry is picked up and separated into everyone's individual dirty laundry bags, the floor's been swept. So now what? Well, the dryer, that's what. It seems to be the catch-all place in the laundry room. So, I put all the tools, toys, coins, and other random things away. Then, I noticed the dust and lint that had built up on the dryer.
Well, you can guess what happened. When I cleaned the dryer, the washing machine looked dirty, so I wiped it down. Then I noticed around the edge of the lid needed wiping too. So, I opened the washing machine and saw how dirty it was INSIDE the washing machine. I started wiping it down, but couldn't get all the dirt, so I went and got a brush to scrub it. Every time I got one part of it cleaned, I saw more dirt somewhere else...
I did limit myself to the 15 minutes I had planned to be in there, but I know I will be going back to it tomorrow. Pretty soon, I'm going to have the cleanest washing machine in town!

Any projects you have started that you wish you hadn't?

Mama Guilt Monday

This is a new one for me. Looks like fun! I just found Cop Mama's blog last week and am loving it. Hop on over there to check out more Mama Guilt Monday posts!

This week, the prompt was

Tell us about a time you did something absent minded as a Mom!

I know there are lots of things I've done, but here's the one that came to my mind first.

A few weeks ago, Daniel and I and the kids went to Wal-Mart to kill some time before heading out to Tulsa in the afternoon. He wanted to look at some hunting things and we needed to pick up a few groceries. Dakota and Landon got bored with looking at sporting goods, so they went with me to the toy section. Daniel and the other two girls were going to meet us there. I told Dakota she didn't have to stay with me, but not to leave the toy section because I didn't want to lose her. She went her way and we went ours.
After Landon and I had gone up and down several aisles, I had the bright idea to go over and get the things we needed from the grocery section so that when Daniel and the girls came over we could get out of there faster. So, Landon and I headed that direction.
Not only did I forget to tell Dakota where I was going, I totally forgot she was even with us! Since I've been home, Landon and I have spent a lot of time at Wal-Mart together, so I have gotten used to it being just the two of us.
I had been over picking up groceries for 5-10 minutes before I remembered her. She had been looking for me, but thankfully wasn't too panicked yet. I felt really bad. Hopefully it won't scar her too badly.

Okay, I feel better now. Think I'll do this again next week. Thanks Cop Mama for a great idea!

More Spring Break Fun!

Thursday was our craziest spring break day this year. It was our annual spring break trip to the zoo. We go to the zoo A LOT. If you don't believe me, check out this post and this post and this post. Oh, and don't forget this post.
We've been waiting since about this time last year for the OKC zoo to open it's new children's area. We've seen the signs around the zoo and in our Zoo Friends newsletters and we've even tried to sneak a peek behind the fences. Finally, last Friday they officially opened it.
I knew last weekend would be pretty crazy with all the kids being on Spring Break and the new children's area being just opened, so I avoided going during that time. My plan was to go in the middle of the week when fewer people would be out. Thursday was forecast to have beautiful weather, so that was our plan.
We decided that rather than take a picnic lunch and have to lug around an ice chest with us, we would hit the McDonald's drive thru and grab some lunch to take in with us. When we pulled out of the parking lot, there was a giant line of cars. I made a joke about "I sure hope all those people aren't going to the zoo too." Famous last words!
Oh, yes, they were ALL going to the zoo too! Thousands of them. So many, that the zoo parking lot was closed as well as the Science Museum next door to the zoo. The only parking was across the street at the race track. Here's a map of the area. The red flag with A is the zoo entrance. If you go north and west from there where the t in the word Luther (N. Martin Luther King Ave.) is, we had to park waaaaaaaay over there! Google Earth says it's only a half mile to the entrance, but when you're trying to keep up with 4 kids in a giant crowd, it feels A LOT longer than that. (and when you're trying to get back to the van after 5 hours in the zoo, it feels like 100 miles). I heard later over one of the employee's walkie talkie that there were 15,000 people in the zoo! Wow!


View Larger Map

It turned out to be a pretty nice day for the zoo. We were able to leave our jackets in the van (except for Dakota because she's always cold) but it wasn't too hot. There were so many people that we didn't get to see many animals, but we did get to check out the new children's area and make some mental notes about where we want to go first on our next visit.
The best animal encounter we had this trip was definitely the giraffes. They have a brand new baby giraffe at the zoo, born January 17. It was so cute!

There was a really big crowd around the giraffe exhibit watching the baby and it sure did want to come over and check everyone out. The dad and mom giraffe wouldn't let it get close though. They kept chasing it away when they thought it was too close to the people. The mother giraffe came REALLY close though.

(please ignore the green haired child. He was NOT with me)

On our way to the kangaroos, we passed some people planting trees. One guy was using a bobcat to dig the holes while the others put the trees in. Landon LOVED watching him. We stayed there for quite a while.
Finally, we made it to the children's area. It is really neat! It has several different sections to explore. The first area we went into is the "underground". It has all kinds of bugs and spiders to look at. You walk through cave-like tunnels to look at the animals that are in cages in the walls.

Pretty cool!

At the end of the underground there is a giant slide shaped like a tree. It was a pretty popular spot.

No visit to the zoo would be complete without a ride on the carousel. I hadn't ridden with them in a long time. It was fun!

Another cool spot in the new area was the waterfall and stream. The kids are allowed to take off their shoes and walk in the stream and get wet in the waterfall. I bet we'll be spending a lot of time in this area when it gets hot outside.


The flamingos are also in the new section of the zoo. They have been one of Cheyenne's favorites since she was a baby.
There is also a petting area called "The Barnyard". Lots of things to touch in this area-goats, pigs, sheep, bunnies, donkeys, etc. It's a pretty fun place too.

The kids are excited to go back when it's not so busy and we can see more animals. We didn't make it around to the lions and tigers and bears this time. And Landon was sad that we didn't play on the playground. I can't wait til the girls are out of school so we can do it again!