I know, I know...

I've been doing a terrible job of keeping the blog updated. We've had A LOT going on! I started a new job with SandRidge Energy and we moved to OKC! It's been crazy around here wrapping up the holidays, moving, starting a new job and trying to keep up with Justie's schedule. He's still really loving flying for American Eagle. This month he's been based in New York! I wish I could post some of the pictures he's sent me from the plane above New York City (I promise he wasn't flying the plane when he took the pictures). Starting in February he's going to based in Dallas which will be great for us since he won't have to travel so far to get to work.
I'm loving my new job too! I'm a Regulatory Technician at SandRidge and I can't even begin to explain how much I've already learned. I work with a really great group of people and am really loving what I'm doing.
I mentioned that we moved to OKC. Justie and I decided to take pretty drastic measures to save money and buy a house. So.... we're living in a 1 bedroom apartment, we cut out cable and are sticking to our budget. It's really not been too bad but I do miss our house in Tulsa. I snapped this picture before we pulled away in the Uhaul so I could remember all of the great times we had there!
We loved Tulsa but we're falling in love with OKC too! Here's a picture of us at a Thunder game (the tickets were free from work! I told you...we're on a budget and SandRidge is great- they even gave me the Thunder t-shirt!)

I had some more Christmas pictures on my camera that I wanted to share. Here's Sidney in her Christmas outfit! She's staying with my parents while we're in the apartment. My Dad thinks she's having separation anxiety because she's been acting up...I miss her too!

We celebrated Christmas at my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Rodney's house this year. We had so much fun visiting, playing games and playing dirty santa. Tyler was saying on the way there that he always gets the sort end of the stick when we play dirty santa. His luck changed this year though...he ended up with a case of beer! Now that the "little boys" in our family are growing up and turning 21 I guess we'll have to get used to the new gifts!

This is my Aunt Cindy, Uncle Don and cousin Aaron. They made the trip up from Ft. Worth to see us in OKC. Uncle Don was the master mind behind the beer gift!

They say a baby changes everything and I think this next picture proves it's true...


Okay everyone... get together for the family picture. One.... Two... Oh let's make the baby smile :) I LOVED this picture.

But then again...can you blame them. Isn't he the cutest?!

Christmas 2011

Yes, I'm posting about Christmas 2011 on December 20th. That's because Justie will be flying on Christmas weekend so we decided to celebrate a week early. :)

We had a great weekend! I went to my parents' house after work on Friday then Justie flew into OKC on Saturday. He arrived just in time to go to Brooke's wedding. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures but she was beautiful! We danced the night away then went back to Oney. Sunday morning we woke up and Justie opened his Christmas presents from my parents. "Santa" brought him a little stocking with lots of stuff from Spartan. Justie went to Spartan (flight school) in Tulsa right after high school before he went to OSU. Here's a picture of one of his many Spartan gifts.It was fun to watch him open his gifts. I'm really glad we got to spend this time together since he will be away for Christmas.

Here he is with his haul! He got a little travel bag for his toiletries, new thermal underwear and some coffee. :)

Once he was finished opening gifts we got ready and drove to Orlando to celebrate Christmas with his side of the family. It worked out perfectly since Kayla, Joey and Will will be away for Christmas too. Here's a picture of Will opening one of his gifts.

My Mom has collected annual Christmas ornaments since before I was born. Tyler and I always have a great time finding our favorite ones on the tree. :) I've taken pictures of some of my favorites and shared them below. I wanted to start with one from my own little collection I've started. This is our Christmas ornament for the year. "Our First Christmas"

Mom's 2011 ornament

Mom and Dad's first Christmas Together

My first Christmas (1983)

Tyler's first Christmas (1990) sorry for the poor picture quality

This one is quickly becoming one of my favorites... I'm sure you know why :)

Merry Christmas!!!

"Good "ol Fashioned Christmas Wrapping Party" and Brooke's Bachelorette!

Yesterday was soooo much fun! I went to OKC to the 3rd annual "Good "ol Fashioned Christmas Wrapping Party" and then to my friend, Brooke's, bachelorette party!

What's a "Good "ol Fashioned Christmas Wrapping Party" you ask? Well it's a fun Christmas party my friends and I started a few years ago. We all get together a few weeks before Christmas to wrap all of our gifts. We each bring wrapping paper, ribbon and anything else we can thing of and share it all. That way we get to use lots of different types. :)

Here's a picture of my finished gifts for this year.

I wanted to share a picture of Brandy's Christmas tree with some of her gifts. She had a TON of gifts to wrap so this is just the beginning :)

This is Brandy's little dog, Murphy. Isn't he cute? He helped us wrap our gifts. He basically just inspected them to make sure we were doing a good job. :)

After the wrapping party I went downtown to meet up with Brooke and her friends for her bachelorette party!!! Brooke and I grew up together and lived together for a while in college. We had so much fun. Her bachelorette party was great! I know cameras are kind of frowned on at these sort of things so I don't have many pictures but there are a few I wanted to share.

This is the bride to be all dressed up with her sash and feather boa! Last week as a single girl!!

I had to share this picture for the girls who were at the party. We went to the piano bar downtown and this guy was having too much fun! I really wish you could see his shirt in this picture. It had a wolf on it...he was definitely "team Jacob"!

Little boys, Big boys, and Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late on some of the things in this post but better late than never!

I got to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Oney this year. Justie was off flying out of Miami so we had to celebrate together a little earlier in the week. We missed him on Thanksgiving day but it was great to see my family. My Mom, Dad, Mema, Tyler, Aunt Carol, Jenni and baby Will were all there.

Mom found a link on the Chinet website that has instructions on folding napkins into fun designs. I used one of the patterns to fold our napkins into turkeys!
I didn't take too many pictures while I was home but here's one of my Dad and Mema. Dad looks a little tired...probably because he had been playing with my cousin's baby, Will. (more on him a little later) We call Dad the "baby whisperer". He is wonderful with kids....they love him!

Here's Mom slaving away in the kitchen. :)

Here's little Will- not to be confused with "big Will". Little Will is my cousin Jenni's son. He was so cute in his little Thanksgiving shirt.
Thanksgiving take two took place in OKC. My family went to my Aunt Rhonda's house to do a little more celebrating. We had a pretty big crew: My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Don came up from Ft. Worth, TX and my cousin Rodney, his wife Erin and their baby Carson were there too. We stayed Friday night then Saturday all the men went to the OU game while the girls went shopping!

Here's a picture of little Carson with my Aunt Cindy. She was comparing his foot to a boot his daddy used to wear when he was a baby. :)

Here's "big Will". He turned 4 on November 29th! He had so much fun decorating his birthday cake. Here he is with his Daddy who, might I say, makes a pretty awsome "Matter" on cakes!

Will added his artisit touch and this was the final product pre-candles.

Since I haven't blogged in a while I'm just going to have to add these last to random pictures...

On his way back to Stillwater after Thanksgiving Tyler was in a wreck on I35. We are all so thankful that he was alright. His truck took a bit of a beating though.

On a much lighter note... we had girls night at my house the week before Thanksgiving. Sami, Kayla and I were pretty proud of our meal! I love hanging out with those girls. :)

Samaritan's Purse

Justie and I went to my favorite place today... Wal-Mart! (please read a lot of sarcasm into that) We went for a really great cause though so it really turned out to be fun. This year we decided to participate in Operation Christmas Child and send a box of goodies to a child in need. We bought items for a boy age 5-9 and are praying that they will be a blessing to whomever receives them.

Here's what we got...


and we had to fit it into this little shoe box!

If you are interested in participating please visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/ but be sure to do it soon! National collection week ends November 21st.

Fun Times in Oney!

Last weekend we got to go to Oney and spend some time with my family. :) I wanted to take Justie to some of my Mema's land and see if he might want to hunt there next year- I sure hope I don't end up regretting that! We lucked out because there was an auction happening at our neighbors house and boy does my Mom like an auction :)

I was really proud of Justie- there were TONS of "treasures" at the auction that were going for about a dollar and he did a pretty good job of controlling himself. Until that is, he got this little jewel...
Turns out it's a painting by Edward Thomas called Red Watermill. I've tried to look around online to see what it might be worth but there's a pretty wide range of prices. Who knows...we may have just lucked out!

My family has never really been into hunting but I guess Justie got my Mema pretty excited about it.

I wish I had more pictures to share but our weekend got cut a little short because Justie got called in to work. He's on his way home from Nashville as we speak- this flying stuff is so exciting! Maybe someday he'll see how fun blogging is and will start taking pictures on his trips.

Talimena Drive

Justie and I took a little road trip to Southeast Oklahoma and traveled down the Talimena Drive this past weekend. We had such a great time and took lots of pictures :)
I was in charge of the directions on the way there. I was well prepared...

Somehow Justie still got us here. Beautiful yes, but I don't think this road was the right one!

I've heard of some strange things happening in Southeast Oklahoma but mules playing basketball?... that's a new one.

Here are a few of the pictures I snapped. It was so pretty. The colors were amazing. We would turn a corner and it would just wow us again and again.

When we finished the drive we stopped in Talihena to grab some lunch. We ate some really yummy burgers at the Hateful Hussy Diner.As if the burgers weren't enough...we walked down the street to this cute little store to have an old fashioned Dr. Pepper and chocolate malt!

When we got home we got to watch those Cowboys on TV. After the burgers and ice cream they almost gave us both a heart attack but thank goodness they pulled through. GO COWBOYS!