Saturday morning

We've tried all the tricks, keep them up late, tire them out, close all the blinds and curtains tight to eliminate any possible daylight, run some white noise, and finally keep our eyes closed so maybe they will go back to sleep...

Nothing works - when they are up they are up.

A full week

Well here we are nearly to the end of January.  January is one of those months that all the days just kinda blend together by the time it's all said and done.

So for memory's sake here's what a January week looks like for the Norwood 4 at this point in our lives.

Our weekdays consist of all of us getting up, ready, and out of the house between 7:30-7:40.  That means it's still pretty dark out this time of year.

The kids handle it pretty well though.

Our days are filled up with various activities.  Philip is in busy season so he works long hours.  On Mondays we all have a long day because I do the walk-in clinic and get off later.  Annie goes to school and afterward to our friend's house where Denver spends his weekdays.

As a side note just let me say what a special blessing our babysitter is.  We are so lucky to have a loving home that they enjoy going to, they have kiddos their age to play with, and  are loved on and cared for while we work.  It also has the additional perk of being close to my job so I go most days of the week and spend my lunch hour with Denver. 

Sometimes though, when I get there I just find this guy...

I'm not saying Denver is Batman, but I've never seen the two of them in the same room.

On Tuesdays Annie has ballet after I get off work. First position!

On Wednesdays we have Bible class in the evening and since it gets out at eight Denver goes in his pjs making quite the fashion statement.

Thursdays this semester Annie has taken up gymnastics and goes there right after school with her friend Taylor which is nice because by the time her class is done I pick her up and we have a free evening. (It is gymnastics, not wrestling as this picture would portray...)

Then Fridays are my half days so after school generally we go with our friends to the park or library or somewhere for a little while.  Denver has become quite a fan of the library.

Philip gets off early on Fridays and when he gets home we all feel as if the weekend has arrived.

This past weekend was unique because Friday night Denver got sick and after I checked his ears and found an ear infection we ended up getting up and ready on Saturday morning so we could be at the walk-in clinic when it opened to get him some antibiotic.  We then ran a few errands which is typical and that afternoon Annie and I went for manicures and pedicures while the boys stayed home and did guy stuff.

I have not had a manicure in nearly eight years.  When I told this to the manicurist she said "I know, it is not good."  She then proceeded to speak in a foreign language to the people around her and point to me. The pointing and speaking in a foreign language is nothing new to my (or probably anyone's) nail salon experience, more than once I have been asked how I keep my legs so white and then lots of discussion goes on amongst the manicurists.  This has brought me to the realization that living in an Asian country as a teenager would have made my blindingly white legs more bearable. Regardless, the manicure turned out nice though and since she shellac-ed it maybe I'll be good for another eight years. :)

That evening the hospital had an appreciation event for medical staff so Philip and I participated in a fun evening in Tuscany, while the kids stayed home played with friends.

Sunday was the norm for us pretty much any time of year as we went to church, enjoyed an afternoon together, went to life group that night and then cuddled up on the couch that evening to close out the weekend.

The days pass quickly and weeks go by in the blink of an eye and I will not lie, they are exhausting and frustrating at times. There is prompting the kids to wake-up, get clothes on, eat, loading them in and out of the car, having them pick up toys, making meals, changing diapers, reminding them to play nicely, leave the water in the bathtub, get to sleep, moving the kids back to their beds, and various other "Mom chores" but these are short flashes in the pan throughout the week when I look back.

There are so many more beautiful moments such as Annie animatedly telling us about what happened throughout her day, her sweetly reading to her brother or playing with him; Denver making funny expressions, or saying or doing something new that we all have to fawn over because it's just so cute.

We have quiet moments curled up in the bed reading before sleep, discussion over breakfast of important matters such as which Disney princess sings the best, hide and seek and running through the house chasing Dad, performances of what was learned in ballet and gymnastics, Denver crawling on the bed to wake his sister up in the morning and her smiling when she realizes it's him, singing and whistling are a constant soundtrack in our house by one or all family members, poignant prayers from a sincere little heart, and many other lovely little bits that I could go on and on about that make all the fatigue and frustration completely worth it.  

These priceless times are what make my heart and our week full.

And now it is 2015...

It's a new year and this is a wrap up of how we brought it in...don't get all excited thinking you'll be seeing a lot of great pictures because as the new year came in it was cloudy, cold, and I was still coming out of sugar coma from all the yummy goodness I consumed during Christmas.  This is what I wanted to be doing for about 14 hours on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day:

However, there was fun to be had and lots of loud small children around so I did not (and for the record neither did Denver - this was a temporary moment of weakness for him).  All this goes to say, I forgot to take a bunch of pictures as we entered 2015 so most of these memories will be written and for that the author apologizes.

Due to some unfortunate events (i.e. being an adult with a job and responsibilities) Philip had to do an inventory in Chickasha early on New Year's Eve morning.  We found a way to work this to our advantage though and decided the kids and I would go with him and we'd go on out to Sayre to ring in the new year with the W's and Nana and Papa.  Thus, as soon as I got off work on Tuesday afternoon we packed our stuff and headed down to Yukon and spent a quick sleep with the grandparents.  This also served the purpose of shortening the morning drive and mainly prevented me from having to get up at 4:30 AM to get us packed and ready.

Anyway, bright and early on a cold December 31st we loaded the pajama-clad kids into the car and headed on to Chickasha, dropped Philip off, and Annie, Denver and I went looking for a place to mill about.  Walmart to the rescue - so after changing the kids into their clothes in the car in the parking lot - clearly we were closing this year out on a high note, we went in to stock up on New Year's Eve supplies.  This is where Annie found a conservative black sequined fedora that had an added bonus of blinking lights (which are still flashing as I type this two weeks later). I'm sure by now you can see the theme of New Year's Eve for the Norwood 4 could clearly be summed up as - CLASSY.

We killed a little more time by stopping by MacDonald's (keeping up the theme for the day...) and then headed back to the plant where Philip was doing his inventory.  Here we proceeded to spend an hour in the car coming up with all sorts of random games, singing annoying songs, letting Denver fake drive (and subsequently accidentally honking the horn more than once - nothing says professional like having your family in the car waiting in the parking lot but c'mon it's a holiday people and it was a huge plant so maybe we went unnoticed, or maybe not since there were about 4 cars in the parking lot, oh well). It was not bad though and Philip finished up as quick as he could and we headed west.

We started celebrating the arrival of 2015 early because that's what you do with young kids who see you have some sparklers, confetti, and various goofy headgear - making them wait to break that stuff out is just too much to ask.  They did make it to dark though.

But the outdoor celebrating was very short-lived because as mentioned before - COLD.  So there was toasting with some Frozen punch and blowing noise-makers (that mysteriously disappeared into the bottom of the trashcan)...

marshmallow roasting, time by the fire, and a relatively early bedtime.

New Year's Day was spent pretty much indoors with various made up treasure/scavenger hunts (does having to find a square of toilet paper count as a treasure?), random craft making, movie watching, and basically coming up with and doing any game or activity that could be contained indoors. 

Thank heavens Papa was gifted a new puppy for Christmas as this occupied some of the time...

Duty called though and Dad still had to do his chores because livestock take no initiative to feed themselves or bust their own ice so on his second round Denver decided to take his trusty spoon along and help out.

As you can tell he took more of a supervisory role.

The next day we headed home and then on Monday we returned to the routine of work, school, and extra-curricular activities.  That week can be summed up in one word for me - EXHAUSTION.  While my Type A personality loves routine, getting back in the swing of things was about more than I could handle.

The weekend finally came though and we went and celebrated Brynn's 3rd birthday in Woodward.

Where the kids took Brynn's new car out for a spin

And Denver reminded the dogs why they enjoyed being outside so much when he came to visit (for accuracy's sake I'm pretty sure this picture was taken the week before Christmas but the fact remains that every time he's around dogs he loves on them with every inch of his being which does not bode well for my carpet options in the future...)

Now we are half-way through the first month of the year 2015 and anticipate nothing but good times ahead.

Christmas 2014 - one of the best yet

At times I can exaggerate but TRULY this was one of the best Christmases I have experienced.  We spent a lot of time together as a family, visited loved ones, had some lazy days, played, laughed, ate lots of holiday treats, and in general just enjoyed ourselves and each other.

To start on Christmas Eve we headed down to Yukon to have Christmas with the Kouba Clan.

Annie and Denver enjoyed playing around with their cousins to pass the time before opening gifts.

(I remember a time when that cell phone she is holding in the photo below would not have been considered a toy...)

Before the paper began to fly:

As is common I didn't get many action shots.  It's hard to participate in the excitement if you are behind the camera. Fortunately there are thoughtful family members who get shots of everyone and are willing to share :)

Annie had been excited about Christmas since Thanksgiving so by the time we got to gifts it was just almost more than she could handle and when it came opening she wasted no time.

Denver really had no clue what was going on but noticed lots of happy people around him having a good time - so sign him up.

It was, as always, a fun evening of creating memories with family.

That evening after we got home and everyone was nestled all snug in their beds Santa came and left all sorts of good cheer.

Around 7 on Christmas morning Annie came in to our bedroom and reported, "Santa came! He came! And he fulled my stocking all up!  It's so full stuff is coming out! You've gotta come see! I woke up in the night but stayed in my room because I didn't want him to not leave our stuff but he came! He came!"
Denver was still asleep so Philip, Annie, and I got up and let her check out her loot.

She was a perfect age this year. Her excitement and enthusiasm for everything she received was just darling.

As you can see it was a Frozen kind of Christmas as the majority of items on her list were Frozen related.

After she'd opened her gifts, and had her breakfast of cinnamon rolls the curiosity of what Denver had received was more than she could bear so she went in to check and see if he was awake and suspiciously a few seconds after she entered the room he was.

Poor little guy was so tired from the late night before it was difficult to wrap his head around what exactly was going on.  (For future reference I have a cute video of him on my YouTube channel but by the time the kids take an interest in this blog and the memories YouTube may be obsolete...)

He figured it out though

This was a unique Christmas for us because we generally spend Christmas Day with the Goodman group but due to holiday travels we did Christmas with them a couple days later so we had the whole day to spend at home by ourselves.  That was a gift in itself and we had the BEST time.

The kids checked out all their toys

And we all spent the majority of our day in our pjs.  We snacked, watched Christmas movies, napped, drank Dr. Pepper, cheered the Thunder on.  We also played, tried on, read through, and put to good use our new stuff.

One fun present Philip was gifted was a balloon kit (by his thoughtful wife - HAHA!) to teach him how to make balloon animals, much to the kidlets delight, which brought a lot of fun and entertainment to the day. 

That evening we had steak which in our beef heavy household is not a novelty item but it was available and after all, it's what's for dinner. 

Late that night we took down the tree but put up some twinkly lights and left up some sparkly snowflakes because we wanted to continue to enjoy the warm glow that Christmas brings with it.

Simply stated it was a perfect day spent with the people who are my world.

Two days later we hosted Christmas at our house with the Goodman's and the fun commenced again.

Denver was use to the drill by now and got right to work when the gifts were handed out.

Nana was busy this year and made her three girls beautiful quilts and the littles minky blankets to wrap up in because the gift of coziness gives year round.  

And of course no Christmas would be complete without someone receiving an elegant princess dress.

Denver ended up starting his first herd and now has the basic equipment he needs to haul them around.

The kids enjoyed playing together 

while the testosterone heavy population enjoyed couch-time 

and the ladies planned an upcoming trip together.

Without a doubt this is a Christmas I will look back on with nothing but fondness.  I cannot think of a better way to be reminded of Christ's birth and a more enjoyable way to celebrate that remembrance than to spend time with family and friends.  It was a season of sweet time with dear ones and lovely experiences.