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...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bet You Have Been Wondering Where I've Been!

Needless to say it has been quite a while since I posted anything, but what can I say? I have spent the majority of the last 3 months with my head in the toliet. Yes, that is right...

The Witten family will be expecting their third child in early October!

We are very excited and will be even more excited when I can actually get back to functioning as a wife, mother and just plain old human being. I am hoping that time will be soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Lots has happened in the past few months: We did go on our ski trip and enjoyed some of the best snow we have ever seen in Angel Fire. Upon return our home was immeadiately attacked by sickness and Blake and Todd ended up with RSV and Emmalyn with a double ear infection with a nauseated mom to take care of them to boot! Emmalyn turned 4 on March 12th and had a dress up party. Blake will be turning 2 on the 25th of April. Where in the world did the time go!

28 Days...

Wasn't that a movie? It is exactly 28 days until we leave for our annual ski trip and 30 days before we hit the slopes. It will be so nice to spend time with our friends without the children running all around us. Hopefully this year will not be so hard on the body, since we have been spending time at the gym (new year's resolution). I know that Todd is counting the days, but our excitement is no match for Jared who has had his ski clothes folded and ready for about a month now!

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!