The Calm Before The Storm

Or not all that calm. The wind is blowing, but that is just the norm here anyway. Emma and I just finished her math at Starbucks and while she rewards herself by playing a few rounds of finger bowling on my phone I am sitting here wondering if I have enough groceries in the house to make it through round 2 of Blizzard 2011. More importantly do I have enough food to make it so that I don't have to go to the store with all the other crazy people. I've decided I have enough!

2010 Witten Christmas Card

Frosted Glass Monogram Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Where have I been?!?!?

I can not believe that our last post was in December.  This year so far has completely flown by!  We will start school in two weeks.  Emma will enter 1st grade this Fall and Blake will try his best to pay attention to his preschool studies! ;-) Tyler turns two in October (how the heck did that happen so fast?!?!) and we are booked every weekend until the end of the year.  My New Year's Resolution will be to slow down!

Winter in Oklahoma

Can you believe it was over 70 degrees in SW Oklahoma yesterday and now this? Like Will Rogers said: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes!"

Our back deck

Drifts at the front door!

Guess the pumpkins are done...

Our front yard, about a foot deep!

Neighbors aren't going anywhere very quickly!

Hope everyone is safe this winter!

Being Silly!

Sometimes a Monday calls for some fun!

Blake took this one. He may turn out to be quite a photographer!

Blake without a funny face. Priceless and unusual!

This one didn't work out so well.

Emma took this one!

They do really love each other!

First Day of School

We officially started counting days of school today. However, since Emma couldn't stand to wait, she started her workbooks several weeks ago. We put into place our morning routine and were finished with Bible, Language, Math and our morning chores by 11 a.m. This afternoon we will finish getting ready for our first day of Co-op tomorrow. The kids are so excited to meet some new friends!

DC Trip - Second Stop

So, here we are, second night of the trip. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, everyone is asleep and I finally have time to feed the Facebook addiction. Thought I'd actually post something here on the blog. This blog thing is so outdated... ;)

We drove through a rainstorm of epic proportions today. Felt like driving underwater at a few points. Took around an hour to go about 35 miles. I sure hope the weather moves on past us or North over the next few days. I really don't want to do that again tomorrow evening...

Embarking on a Trip of Massive Proportions

Tomorrow we will leave for DC by suburban. We will take our time getting out there by visiting along the way and along the way home. Stops include Owasso, Springfield, Lousiville, Leesburg, Asheville, Memphis and Searcy. It will be long but full of fun and lots of catching up with friends. We will do our best to post pics so you can follow the longest Witten vacation yet!

Christmas 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

In Light of the Election Results

I turned to my bible last night before I went to bed after Obama's acceptance speech. I looked at Psalm 4, since it was the 4th. It is spectacular how scripture can apply to any part of one's life at any time. I know that many of us have spent great amounts of time before God begging him to take mercy on our country and allow a candidate to be elected that would not throw us further down the path of destruction. It seems this morning that he did not hear us, but that is just Satan tricking us. Consider, possibly, that God did not choose to save our country through the presidency, but through each of us. As Obama begins to influence laws, social structures and our economies, possibly God intends for us to rise up and encourage others to take a stand for our morals as well as us as individuals to become more vigilant for God's cause. Take heart, as a good friend of mine said last night, God will never forsake us and will always take care of the children of the righteous. Take Heart!

Psalm 4

Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods!

Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;

the Lord will hear when I call to him.

In your anger do not sin;

when you are on your beds,

search your hearts and be silent.

Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?"

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.

You have filled my heart with greater joy

than when their grain and new wine abound.

I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, O Lord,

make me dwell in safety.

I Voted!

We took our whole family to vote this morning. At first we thought we had made a mistake when someone said they had been standing in line for an hour, but finally having a last name at the end of the alphabet paid off. The M-Z line was much shorter and we ended up only waiting 15 minutes. The whole time Emmalyn explained to Blake how we were going to mark on our papers which men we wanted to run things. Both Blake and Emmalyn helped draw two of my lines (Emmalyn voted for the McCain and Inhofe while Blake got to vote for our State Representative and Senator. He even chose to vote independent with the guidance of his mother.) Tyler wasn't really able to vote, but I bet he shared his thoughts on the state questions with Todd.

It is truely a joy for me to include my children in my passion and instill in them a desire to always be heard. After all this is the only way we can preserve our freedoms, especially in the times ahead of us.

Two to Three

Everyone says that the hardest jump is from one child to two, but I would like to politely disagree. It is much more difficult to keep track of two children while lugging a heavy car seat through the parking lot. Therefore, we stay home more which for someone who likes to be on the move is at times torture! We are adjusting though... haven't found our groove yet, but I choose to believe I will find it soon. ;-) I actually made dinner last night and finished the laundry. A great accomplishment! The kids love Tyler and can hardly stand not giving him a pat and a kiss every ten minutes. It is such a blessing to have beautiful, healthy children. Now if I could just get some sleep!

More Pics of Tyler and His Visitors

Tyler Ryan

Tyler Ryan arrived 4 days early on his own (wonders never cease) on October 3rd. He was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. He is doing great as long as we can keep Emmalyn and Blake from loving him a little too much...

Time Flies By...

It doesn't seem like we have done much this summer, but it is already half way over! We have been to Branson for a great trip with Todd's parents, birthdays have been celebrated, swimming lessons successfully accomplished, the kid's rooms painted bright and fun colors & most importantly I have slowly gotten bigger and bigger. This summer has certainly not been one of our hotest, but I can hardly stand to be outside in the heat without starting to feel sick. I have just hit 28 weeks and have 3 months left - an eternity or what seems like an eternity. Emmalyn and Blake are very excited about the baby. They have nicknamed him Crabby. Interesting I know, but it gives them some ownership and thankfully Emmalyn has agreed that it is a good "nickname". We are still working on the actual name...

Camping - Natural Falls State Park

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I love being a Mom!

Blake is Two!

We had a Brunch Birthday Bash with fruit pizza, muffins, chocolate chip pancakes, fruit and juice with a little bit of cake at the end. Blake seemed to thoroughly enjoy his party this year and had a great time playing with his friend, Brooklyn.

A life in pictures...

For those of you who don't know, my Mom's brother Mark passed away a couple of weeks ago. This is the slideshow Kerri & I put together that was played at his memorial service which shows his life as he knew it, in pictures. I hope you enjoy it. It's kinda big, so give it a few minutes to load and it's about 10 minutes long.

Mark, you will be greatly missed...