Yeehaw!

After much ado, we felt it was a rite of passage for us to visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum now that we're Oklahomans, sort of. That's what we did with our Black Friday instead of waking up early to fight over stuff with crazed shoppers.

Drew makes a pretty cute cowboy, but unfortunately I did not buy this hat; he wouldn't wear it anyway. I just had to get a picture. :)

I wasn't as impressed with the museum as I thought I would be, but it's still "mighty awesome." They had incredible artwork on display, which we didn't really get to enjoy because Drew was grumpy. I'm sure that played a big part in our lessened experience. They also have very impressive displays about the wild west, what people wore and did, and a whole wing dedicated to western movies, including a small theater where you get to watch a 15-minute video about the genre.

Here's Drew and Brent next to the John Wayne display. Drew was very bored, but we thought it was pretty cool.

They also have an area dedicated to American rodeos: This one's for you, Cowboy Steve!

It really made me miss Dusty LaRue and all my other cow-friends. You know who you are. :)

My favorite part of the museum is an old West town. Here's a picture of the inside of the school house.

I didn't get any good pictures of the outsides of the buildings because the museum simulates nighttime in this wing, which includes cricket noises and everything. They had a train station with a real car behind it, a dentist's office, a newspaper, a church, the school house and several other buildings.

Drew was rather impatient with the diaramas and artwork, so we headed to the kids' area, where you can touch all the displays. This didn't interest him as much, either. He's still too little to appreciate it, I think. It will be fun in another year or so. There's a display where you can dress up in western attire, so we had to subject Drew for a picture. Again, cute cowboy.

There were also several saddles you can try out, and a little log cabin just Drew's size with cooking equipment around a "fire." Drew actually enjoyed those displays.

It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed the grounds of the museum, where we saw several wonderful statues as well as ponds, streams and fountains.

There was one part of the stream with fish in it, so Drew's doing the sign for fish in this picture.

Playgroup

We had a fun playgroup on Thursday and went to the Quail Springs; there's a big play area with lots of things to climb on. Of course, Drew mostly ran around and then out of the area. We sat and talked forever, and then we all had lunch together in the food court, and then walked around the mall a bit. It was so much fun -- we stayed there until halfway into Drew's nap, poor kid.

Here's Drew and Ady in the little boat. Arrrrrgh!

Thanks for hanging out with me, girls! I'm so glad I have your company. :)

Stuck!

I'm really enjoying my time with Drew right now, and I know it's a big blessing to get to stay home with him. We're doing all kinds of fun things together, like going to play time at the library, hanging out with our Okie friends at the zoo or mall, or just playing together.

Drew always finds a way to make me laugh, and I'm trying to make sure I don't fill my life with too much other stuff so I'm always ready to enjoy laughing and playing with him.

My mom bought Drew a walker when he was just getting interested in walking, hoping it would help our little guy get around faster. Instead, he considered it confinement instead of a set of helping wheels and he hated it! However, he loved the little toys on the tray part. We still have to leave it out because he loves the toys.

Go figure, he never let me put him in there -- he would scream and fuss until I took him out. Now I'll hear him go in his room and play with the musical, light-up toys, and then he'll start whining a bit. That's when I know he has climbed into the walker and can't get himself out. On Monday, he really got himself into a predicament:

He has chocolate all over his face even though it's about 9:30 in the morning. We had gone over to the office to try to send a fax to our Army recruiter, and our wonderful apartment manager, Jennifer, loves to see Drew come in. She gave him a cookie, which he thoroughly enjoyed, as you can see by the chocolate smeared across his cheeks. Don't ask me how he got this way. But when I saw it, I just couldn't get him out until I had snapped a few candid shots!

One of my favorite memories of Drew will always be the day I heard him whining in our room while we were living at Sunset Ridge in Cedar City. I went in to find him, and discovered him UNDER our bed, folded in half. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that one. I never know how this kid gets himself into these situations, but it sure makes life interesting!

Ever the big kid now, he listens to the ear phones with daddy, catching up on an embryology class, I think. :)

Drew's newest word is "me." He walks around the house saying it over and over and over. It sounds like a little song. This kid is full of personality!

Happy Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's the middle of November and Thanksgiving is actually next week! We're just staying home for the holiday, probably not even doing a big meal but enjoying some time with Brent during a well-earned break from school.

It still doesn't really feel like November here; maybe late September. The leaves have changed color, but the weather is warm, usually somewhere in the 60s or 70s.



We're not up to any too noteworthy for the time being. I'm writing a Christmas program to accompany a choir performance in December, and I'm nearly done. It's in the editing stages, and I'm hoping to complete it this week.



Drew is learning at an accelerated rate. He's understanding more, and listening to me more, which I'm thoroughly enjoying and don't expect to last. :) And as always, he never stops running.


This happened a while ago, but I haven't posted the pictures yet, and I thought it was so funny: We had some soda leftover from one of our various dinners/parties with our Okie friends, and we finished off the 2-liter at dinner. Drew really wanted the little bit of liquid you can't seem to get out of the bottle. It just reminded me how much he's like Brent; for those of you who know him, he has a reputation for compelling the waiter/waitress to bring him a pitcher of whatever he's drinking, they have to give him refills so often. And Drew is just like his daddy...


Brent is studying hard and taking several tests every week. He's doing well in his classes, but it takes a lot of hard work. We've completed an application for the Army; we're hoping to get on their Health Scholarship program. They'll pay for everything he needs for school -- tuition, books, equipment, health insurance, everything! They even give us a monthly stipend to live on, and although it won't quite be enough to cover our expenses, it's that much less we have to borrow -- a LOT less. That means we'll come out of dental school with minimal debt. We then repay the years they pay for in time working on a base somewhere. It also affords Brent the chance to specialize and get paid for it! We feel really good about doing the Army; we just have to get Brent past the physical. And next summer, he'll likely go to officer training for 45 days. We hope it will kick in for us next semester. We'll keep you posted.


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Drew, the Kangaroo?

Drew has become our little kangaroo. On Saturday, he just started doing this weird, new little jump thing. We were holding our sides with laughter, and he was thoroughly enjoying it too.

On a side note, our little guy is finally starting to talk! He's been saying uh-oh, yeah and no for a while, but now he's really using them and learning more words -- nana (banana) and ok. I'm so excited to hear his little voice!

And fall has finally come to Oklahoma. We woke up Saturday and it was like fall had suddenly made a stop in this prairie state. And it's been around 80 degrees, so it doesn't feel like November at all. But all the colors are really pretty. We'll probably go into shock when we come home for Christmas, since it will feel like it's just after fall instead of the middle of the winter.

Super Drew!

I promised my mom I would post pictures of Drew's new pajamas. He wore them the night before Halloween, because you might as well dress up for bed if you can. :)

When I got the package from my mom, I pulled out all the clothes she sent, but Drew went straight for these pajamas. He loves anything red. He walked around the house with them for like 20 minutes.

It's a little hard to tell (he runs around too much to get a really decent picture), but these pajamas are not only Superman, they come complete with a little red cape that velcros onto the back.

Unfortunately the pants a little big. :) Nothing I can't hem up.

All Hallow's Eve

Instead of enjoying Halloween for just one night, it was like we had a week of Halloween. No complaints -- I worked hard to get our costumes made so I'm glad we were able to wear them more than once! On Monday night, we headed to Haunt the Zoo with some friends from our ward. Yoda only kept his hat on long enough for pictures and then he ripped off his ears!

I know this picture is blury (in my defense, I didn't take it) but until I get copies from my friend Turia, this is your glimpse at our Jedi family. :) As you can see, Drew is not happy about his ears.

On Wednesday, Brent had an event at the school and got to wear his costume, and Drew and I had a Young Men/Young Women Halloween party. Then on Friday, we got to do some trick or treating with Drew's friend, Ady. Here we're at Zack's house, and Drew is just pushing his way in because Zack's mom (who's visiting to help with their new baby) has candy inside. :)

We just went to a couple of houses; Drew was kinda cranky and wanted to walk in everybody's houses. Ady, on the other hand, knew what was going on and very sweetly said "Trick or treat!" everywhere we went. Drew wanted to eat his candy immediately. I had to dig a jawbreaker -- that was still in the wrapper -- out of his mouth. He didn't like that very much. Then we headed back to Jordan and Katrina's for our Halloween party. We all brought food and drinks and had a great time eating, playing Wii Sports and card games while the kids ran around.

We had so much fun! And we're so glad we have awesome friends to hang out with. Drew and Ady are so cute together! They're such good friends, although sharing toys is still hard...