Life Lately

Oklahoma is exactly how you would expect it to be.  At least in my opinion, if anyone ever mentioned "OK" I would quickly envision a flat, open, desolate, place....well, that's pretty much it.  Of course, you have your big cities like the capital that looks like the typical downtown- tall buildings, ballpark, eateries, etc. But if you were to drive out right out of town you will find lots of open, unused space-ALL OVER the state.

Our drive over here actually felt just like that.  It's funny how each state has it's own feel & cultural atmosphere.  Wyoming was COMPLETELY barren...holy cow.  Rocky terrain and straight, long, long freeways with lots of truck spots--true cowboy land.  Colorado seemed like a quiet, spread out (more desert-like) place, with lots of wind.  Colorado was surprisingly OPEN and had so much growing room everywhere. It seemed to be a nice place. Kansas was also just how you'd think it would be.  A lot like OK, but even more flat and empty. It was fun to witness all the pumping jacks along the freeways, and all 10 billboards in the whole state that advertised a "Wizard of Oz" museum. We didn't go, even though that would've been fun. Then we reached Oklahoma, both Chase and I were surprised how different each state; the the very moment we passed a state border we could tell it was a new state.  I couldn't help but feel happy for our country and it's diversity yet still all feeling like every state and all the people belong.  

Yay USA.

This is what we've been up to the last several weeks:

We have first and far most learned to entertain ourselves in our little hotel-suite.

We have a medium fridge, small kitchenette that includes a stove top with 2 burners, microwave, and pantry space.

When we decided to stay here we ran to Walmart to grab a few vitals like a cheap pot, a pan, a plastic spatula, a couple plates & bowls, & a $0.88 can opener that quit working the second week here.  DON'T WORRY, we've figured out how to manage.  It doesn't turn so we manually clamp down on the can all the way around the top in a quick repetitive manner. We've gotten pretty good at it.

The kids color multiple times a day.  I have at least a dozen sheets of paper lying around daily. We either grab out the cheap spiral notebooks or go downstairs to 'our office' to print off coloring pages. Because Sailor has developed an interest we have taken lots of time learning how to draw. She will tell me what she wants to learn and I will get online to find a "how to draw...." tutorial for kids.  It's been a lot of fun and I love to watch Sailor continue to get better.  Seryn hasn't taken much part into that but draws right along with us.  She usually likes to follow along with the tutorial but then gets bored and wants to finish her own way. 

Below are some of my favorite work from Sailor:

Can you guess these characters??---It's the "Wizard of Oz"  This wasn't tutorial-learned but I loved it.  The two lines on top of Dorothy's head is the yellow-brick road.

Rudolph. I thought she did a fantastic job here.

Hello Kitty.

A striped cat, a bunny, & frog.

Panda

Robot.

A cute Japanese-like cartoon girl & a bat.

Unicorn & other artistic creations.

Owl.

Here's one portrait of myself illustrated by Seryn, which I loved.  If you look close enough, she drew our little baby in my tummy.

And a bandaid.  This was one of her brilliant ideas since we didn't have any real ones at the time.  She noticed I had a hurt and thought to make one up for me.  How darling.

Sailor likes to use paper and tape for everything. 

Puzzles are great for entertaining the kids as well.  A girl from Chases' work doesn't have kids but lives with her in-laws at the moment.  And when she told her mother-in-law that Chase has some kids, she sent over so many puzzles and toys for us to borrow since they figured we had very few with us!  These are people we hadn't met yet...some people are just plain thoughtful!.  The puzzle below is one we brought from home but on the journey misplaced a piece.  Sailor's idea of fixing things with paper and tape made this puzzle complete!  She told me we need to just make a new one and asked if I could trace it on paper and then add the Statue of Liberty to it...since she remembered that's where it went.

We've been fortunate to make some good friends & visit old ones too!  

We spent an evening with the Sparks  who live 30 mins away from us.  We had an awesome time catching up and eating Rob's famous ribs.  Thanks guys!!

We also met and spent some time with our new friends- the Moores.   Chase works with Julie sometimes, who is a part-time optometrist, who has two girls just a year older than mine.  The girls all got along well.  We went to a museum, a tea party cafe for lunch, & played some more at a local park.  We fell in love with them instantly! And what an awesome person Julie is, she hadn't even met us yet but gave us all of her girls' hand-me-downs!  You kidding me??  She is so thoughtful and just figure we could probably use them. Again, how plain thoughtful some people are.
It made my girls' day! :)

As for me, I'm growing, and so is that little baby inside there.

This picture was taken about 24 weeks. I guess I'm almost 28 now...and I feel it.  I'm ready for it to be JUNE!  I feel like the swelling has begun!

We had a great surprise visit from my grandparents!  They are from WA but just happen to be driving through OK to get to TX so we had them over to our ward on Sunday and spent a few hours with them until they were back on the road.  It was the greatest surprise and so nice to have familiar faces in such a faraway land. :)

They drove a full 24 hours STRAIGHT from ID to get here.  My grandpa drove all through the night and even attended all 3 hours of church with us; without falling asleep! :)  We spent our time with them but then left for a dinner date with some friends so they could rest a bit before they were back on the road. My grandma was already snoozing by the time we took this picture.

We like the parks, going to the local library, an of course swimming when the pool is open.

Here's a view from a park.  Chase actually works right at that building on the left side of the picture.  And our hotel is down the freeway a bit.  I didn't know it until we got here but Toby Keith is from this humble little town.

So, we've had a lot of 'firsts' happen since we got here...A LOT of things. Once we got here another issue occured in our car, and because it kept having issues after we had taken it in to get fixed the first time (in Jan) we decided to just trade it in.  We ended up getting a car instead of a explorer like our previous.  While we were trading that in, the dealership gave us free tickets to an auto show not far from us so we decided to check it out one weekend.  The girls were thrilled to meet these two characters who made a presence:

The girls have done really well since this change occurred. 

They could careless where we were, as long as they could run around and be kids.

Plus, sleeping on a hideaway bed every night doesn't get old to them.

  

One weekend we made a trip down south to Dallas, TX to visit some family.  My grandparents (who stopped to visit us) were heading that way and stayed there for a week, so before they left we drove down to spend some family time.

We spent a couple days at my aunt & uncles house where two of my cousins and their families came to meet up.  

I can't express enough how great this time was.

We hung out, did lots of catching up, ate out, & hung out some more.  My aunt and uncle are just a few years older than me, so they had 3 young girls that are around my girls' ages.......you can imagine how fun the "Frozen (movie) Sleep-over" was for them!

To summarize, we are still alive and doing fantastic, & feeling grateful.

I am trying to keep up with our non-consistent, ever-moving, so many decisions to make in the next couple months kind of lives.

We will keep in touch. :)