Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful, relaxing and an enjoyable time to spend with family! Blake loved every minute of it and I'm afraid Emmalyn is certain that there will be a whole new round of presents under the tree tomorrow morning! Enjoy these moments because before you know it, we will be like my parents watching your grown children with their spouses and significant others open presents. Time flies... by the way for those who are interested Jessie and Travis got engaged on Christmas Eve! Now we have a wedding to plan for 2008! Congrats Jess!

Too much time has passed!

I always find it irritating to go to someone's blog who has not updated it in over a month or more (Sarah ;-), but here I am turning into one of those people. We have been so busy it has been crazy.

We finally got semi-settled into our house by the first weekend in December. However it has not been until just last night that I feel like we are finally getting somewhere. We unpacked the office and organized it (this means that I can scrapbook again), we got all our stuff out of boxes in our bathroom, therefore putting an end to endless searches for that certain lotion, and Todd finally agreed to slowly start hanging all our wall decor. Since we are hosting Christmas here, we have to keep moving ahead!

We then celebrated Todd's 31st birthday on the 12th. In the meantime we have continued all our activities; homeschool co-op, music classes, bible study, and mother's day out. Throw in some Christmas shopping and you have a fast paced schedule. As many of you mothers out there know, there is no such thing as a slow paced schedule when you have children!

We hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Homeless, Almost!

We are officially out of our house. Most of our house has been packed before Thanksgiving, but we finished cleaning everything and taking every little thing out of house. I believe that we have checked all the cabinets at least 5 times. All we have to do is stop by the house on the way to the closing and dig up my crepe myrtle. We close tomorrow at noon and then will really be homeless until hopefully 4 p.m. If we are able to close on our new home tomorrow, we will have accomplished an eight day closing, a feat that is completely unheard of. In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy time with my family and hope that we don't out stay our welcome! I will post pictures soon...

Swing Graduation

Blake has decided that he wants to only swing in the big kid swings now.
At least it is low to the ground. If he falls out of this one it won't
hurt as much. Another perk? Emmalyn can push him!

A pilgrimage to the East Coast & Back

We took our annual (sometimes not so annual) trip to the D.C. area and had a great week of relaxation. It rained the first two days we were there, but that did not deter the kids from adjusting well to the time change and doing a little shopping. The weekend couldn't have been better weather and was full of catching up with great friends. The kids did great on the flight out and even better on the flight home. They are such cute travelers and got plenty of smiles along the way! Even though we had a great time we were ready to get home into our regular routine.

Pumpkin Patch

We spent our afternoon today picking out our family's annual pumpkins. A big one for daddy, a slightly smaller one for mommy and so forth. Couldn't have been a more beautiful day for pumpkin picking!

The Joys of Being the Second Child

Blake and Emma's old scooter have become inseperable.
He scoots or drags it behind him all over the back porch and inside.
Usually his cup or any other toy is placed very lovingly in the front basket.

Often he looks at me as if to say,

"Give me a break! Could you get me something a little more boyish looking?!?!"

Ready for Some Cold Days!

Blake's first Carhartt jacket.
Thanks Papa!

A Night With the Cowboys

I know that some of you are terribly confused and concerned for my sanity. An OSU game? you might be saying. Isn't this the girl who played Boomer Sooner out her dorm window whenever anyone walked by? Yes, yes that is still me, but you see I married into a family that appears to bleed orange and for the sake of my marriage I will on occasion support OSU in one of their sporting endeavours.

I will say and I am sure that no one will be surprised

that this Sooner will never bleed orange!

Boomer, sooner, boomer, sooner, boomer, sooner...

GO OU!

Oklahoma State Fair (or in my Dad's words: an Uber Walmart experience)

On Saturday we ventured out to the fair. We had great fair food, rode some rides and then went to the Disney Princesses on Ice Show. Emmalyn brought along her friend Harper to see the show with her. They had a blast! To top it all off we had ice cream after the show at "Creamalot".

Daddy and the Kiddos

Nothing like a perfect photo op! Doesn't happen too often at my house.

Our Little Ballerina

Ballerina Emmalyn

It is unfortunate that her crown broke at the beginning of the recital. However, she showed us that the show must go on! We enrolled her in a Princess Ballet Camp for one week. She went every morning for 3 hours to practice ballet and tap. She had so much fun. I think dance lessons may be in our future.

Her Fan Club
(Poobah, Great Papa, Great Grammy, Emmalyn, Daddy, Aunt Abby, Grandma, Gran & Papa)

Abby's Getting Married

Congratulations to Abby on her recent engagement.
I still can't believe that MY little sister is getting married. Starting to feel a little old. The above picture was taken at Starbucks as she began a scavenger hunt that she thought would result in a proposal. Little did she know that this was only the first step of an elaborate plan that would unfold through out the weekend so that she would be really surprised when Riley popped the question. A picture of Riley can be found in the February 2007 archives.

Emma of course will be the flower girl!

Missing You...

We Miss You Daddy & so does Mommy!

Summer Days

Enjoying the Sun and Trying Not to Get Too Wet!

Friends

Enjoying a day without rain with a wonderful friend!

Emmalyn & Harper

Rain, Rain Go Away!

We are now on our 16th day of straight rain. We have set all kinds of records, the ground literally will not hold any more rain and I am getting real good at navigating through rushing rivers (flooded roads) and still lakes (massive puddles at the bottom of hills). After watching the news I am still amazed at the people who think that their bmws can drive across rushing water that happens to be next to a dam! I guess that is the fabulous decision skills that our teenagers are learning in public schools these days! ;-) Anyway, Blake is dying to play outside and the kid really doesn't mind if there is water pouring down on him. We ventured out this morning while it was only lightly sprinkling. We will let you know if we start building an ark soon!

These are Blake's new pjs. The shorts are more like capris!

Emma was very smiley this morning.

Maybe it is because she slept in till 8:45. Now that I think about it, I was pretty smiley this morning as well!

Em and Blake

Hmmm...

If any of you know us at all you probably figured out that Todd posted the last entry (besides the fact that his name is at the bottom of the post).

Blake is actually running (slowly) and pivoting and running the other way as fast as he can go. He is usually running to the refrigerator when he hears the door open, I suppose in hopes that someone will give him a snack or he is running to hide with the cable remote!

Fun times at the Witten Household!

This is a test, this is only a test...

... if this were an actual post, then something would actually be here. Probably something witty with a few cute pictures and some undeniable quote from the most iconic figure of whatever decade. However, since this is not an actual post and just a mere hole in the fabric of space time where multiple dimensions collide, may I submit for your viewing pleasure a short video (After waiting weeks for Google to approve this video, Blake is really walking now, not just stumbling back and forth. More video to come...):


T

Go Packers!

I have always been a fan of the Green Bay Packers. No reason really. It was my senior year in highschool when I hosted a Super Bowl party that featured the Broncos and the Packers. I don't really remember who won, but I cheered for the Packers. Who would have guessed that one of my first and very good friends at PHC would be an avid Packers fan, that I would participate in a wedding rehearsal for said friend where all the bridesmaids and bride wore cheeseheads down the aisle and that my second born, a boy, would be given a Packers onesie. Needless to say we are Packers fans here at the Witten home whether we want to be or not!

Blake Turns One!

Blake Alexander Witten

Alright so he is now 13 months. With finishing up school and compiling grades it is true the second child kind of slipped into the back of my mind. ;-) Blake turned one on April 25th and had a blast eating as much cake as we would let him. He was not much into the present opening and we had to continue to bring him back to the presents as he quickly tried to slip away to find bigger and better things.

Blake is 18 pounds 6 ounces and is 29 1/4 inches long. He looks very skinny which is surprising if you watch him eat. The boy packs away the food as long as you put it in front of him. We have had to increase our food budget just to keep up with his food intake! His hair still has a reddish tint to it and his eyes have stayed that true bright blue. At his birthday, Blake showed no signs of interest in walking. His crawling is very efficient and extremely fast. However in the past week or two he has started to walk out in to the middle of the room on his own accord. I have counted about 5 or 6 steps so far.

His two favorite things to do is go outside, especially if Emmalyn is outside playing, and climb up on fireplace, climb up on the arm of the loveseat and launch himself upside down onto the loveseat. Before you shake your fingers, I do try to always be there for these acrobatic moments, however, as I said earlier he is very fast! ;-)

Trying to Escape

Blake had his friend, Fallon, over today and all they wanted to do was stand at the front door and look outside. Every once in awhile Blake would pound on the door and Fallon would cry as if they were saying, "Please get us out of here!"

Emmalyn Turns Three!

My precious little girl is not so little anymore. Well in age she is not so little, but in stature she is still petite. She is 36 inches tall and 27 pounds big (her words). Her imagination has taken a soaring leap and her entire world has become a wonderful make believe adventure. For those of you who are not around her on a regular basis this make believe world includes a castle, Prince Charming and Cinderella. In the past month Emmalyn has gone from introducing herself as Emmalyn Kate Witten to Emmalyn Kate Witten Cinderella to just Cinderella. Such good times! Here is a rundown of her birthday week.

Saturday March 10th
We had a princess party at Gran and Papa's house in Collinsville. This is the party where the princess cake made her debut.

Monday March 12th
We had dinner at the new Chick-fi-la with an indoor playground (YEAH!) with Zach, Emmalyn's future husband ;-), and then cupcakes at Grandma and Poobah's house with all her Aunts.

Saturday March 17th
We had another princess party at our home with some of Emmalyn's friends. We have a rule that you only get to invite the number of kids that you are old. They had fun listening to the Cinderella story, decorating crowns, eating cake and pudding and playing on Emmalyn's castle (an outdoor playground). And just so everyone knows, I did make the cake. Sorry but I had to toot my horn! ;-)




It is a good thing that Spring Break followed all the festivities so that Mama could actually take a break and breath. Now the planning begins for the Blakester's 1st birthday at the end of April.

I'm Not Even Sure What I Have Been Doing...

...but we all know that I have not been blogging. Have you ever looked back over a couple of weeks and there really was not a lot that was on the calendar or a lot that you remember doing, but you have been so busy that there has been no time to keep up with the cleaning, cooking, and laundry let alone just sitting around and relaxing? At least I have wonderful children who keep me entertained during the craziness of life.

So an update: Emmalyn is turning 3 in less than a week. THREE!!!!! Where in the world did three years go? I am now having very adult like conversations with the Em when a year ago we were still trying to guess at what she just said. Amazing! She is entirely enthralled with Cinderella and therefore we are having a princess party. Just the other day when asked what her name was she answered, "Emmalyn Kate Witten Cinderella". A little diva in the making!

Blake is 10 1/2 months and has been crawling about a month. He is so much faster than Emmalyn ever was and he also has more space to explore than Emmalyn had. Two things that cause my heart to stop when I can't find him within 2 minutes. He has figured out how to push open doors, crawl in a room and turn around and close the door. This is very effective in convincing mama that he possibly could not be in there since the door is closed. Very fun times here. I suspect it will not be long before he starts walking as he is already trying to stand up in the middle of the room without assistance. He continues to eat as if he is ravenous and has not been feed in days when in all actuality it has only been a few hours. He is 17 1/2 pounds and 28 1/2 inches long.

Todd is considering buying a bicycle so that he can ride with the guys from work. This is very ambitious of him as he has never been one to really like exercise. ;-)

I am still teaching at Providence Hall even though getting up in the morning is killing me (can you imagine - 6:30 a.m.), so much so that Todd got me a coffee maker for Valentine's Day in hopes of helping the early morning grogginess. We will see...

A BIG THANK YOU!!!

Thank you to all, parents and sisters, for watching, entertaining, keeping track, etc. of our two precious children while we were away. Even though we missed our kiddos tremendously, some time spent with each other and other adults sans kids was a wonderful break from our very busy lives. We enjoyed two days of skiing at the Angel Fire Ski Resort. I only fell three times and Todd took a few more tumbles then can be remembered. The only difference between the two of us is that once I fell I chose not to go down those slopes anymore; Todd continued to be "adventuresome". Difference in personalities I suppose! Todd did, however, almost get ran over by a buck that decided to sprint across the slope just as Todd was passing through. You just don't see those kind of things very often. We are glad to be home! Thanks again to everyone.

Day Three on the Home Front

The new room at Mother's Day Out was great to Emma! She doesn't seem to know a stranger and seemed to be right at home from the moment we walked in! When we got home we had to take a picture of both in their matching shirts. Then we spent some time drawing imaginative pictures together before dinner. Emma didn't want to quit as her creative juices were flowing, but Blake was HUNGRY! Gran and Papa arrived and we are having lots of fun!!

Day Two on the Home Front

A good day with Grandma and Aunt Hannah! Everyone ate well, slept well, and played hard! Emma and Grandma made mini muffins, which Emma really liked! She set the table for dinner with PooBah (vegetable beef stew and muffins). Bath time was the best fun of the day! What will Day 3 bring?

Aren't They Cute?!?!

This is my sister Abby and her boyfriend, good friend, courter, etc., Riley, and my two beautiful children. Thought I would just post a picture with a different Williamson girl in it!

Starting Them Young

Last week we headed downtown to the Associated Wholesale Grocers Food Show to help Dad out. Emmalyn wore her little apron and pushed her shopping cart around with some fruit snacks that Dad's company carries. She would stop, pull out a packet of goodies and walk up to random people and hand it to them with a huge smile. This was her second debut as an employee of Profit's Unlimited. Blake just sat on the floor desperately trying to eat his way through a fruit roll up wrapper! Both a huge hit. As we left we were asked several times as we walked to the door "Will you be back for next Food Show?" Are you kidding me? This is a family business - every daughter is to report with any family members they can drag along! ;-)

And Again I Say: CLOSE THE BORDERS

This was sent to me in an email.

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to te ll her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this?

Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:

1. Teaching Math In 1950 A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100.. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Math In 1960 A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970 A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980 A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 1990 A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands.. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers.)

6. Teaching Math In 2006 Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80.

Hmmm...

And the 2nd Child Makes His Desires Known!

Emmalyn says, "Can we get a donut this morning?" I thought hmmm, why not? So we got dressed (Emmalyn was so excited that she dressed herself in about 2 seconds) and bundled up and headed to Krispy Kreme. After viewing the donut making process and receiving our complimentary sugary treats, we headed to the glass case to choose our donuts. As I was talking through each donut with Emmalyn (she chose the one with sparkles or as we might say sprinkles), I felt my hand jerk. I was shocked and helpless, as I did not have any hands free, to watch Blake shove a handful of glazed donut into his mouth and smile. Of course there was no stopping there. Once we got settled at a table Blake protested loud and long enough that I gave him some more small pieces to eat. He was happy as a clam and laughed and laughed while Emmalyn entertained him running around the table singing.

So it is true that you become more lax with the second child whether you intend to or not.

A Ridiculous End

There are so many things that could be said about tonight's game, but many of them will be kept to myself and my unfortunate husband. Let's just say that it is a miracle that our children slept through the entire game! Boise State played well, OU not so much. When we pulled it together in the end, we could not keep it together. Next year better be ten times better than this year and for that matter the last three years or so. Even so.... Boomer, Sooner, boomer, sooner... GO OU!