New Years Day 2015

New Years Day 2015 got off to a great start with a fun breakfast and games. We soon hit the road for our annual New Years Day hike. We chose Kaw Lake as our destination (Eagle View Trail). This trail turned out to be an excellent choice, and we had a great time despite the 25 F wet day. The lake was beautiful!

We followed our hike with a tour of Ponca City and lunch at El Patio (not to be repeated). Our road trip was complete with a Boxcar Kids book (The Mystery of the Wild Ponies). When we got home, we ate snacks and had a movie night. Great start to 2015!

2014 In Review

by Clint

2014 flew faster than any other year thus far. This sounds repetitive, but obviously it's true. That's probably why we chose "Mindfulness" as our motto for 2015. Through mindfulness, we are trying to embrace each day and try to enjoy each minute more fully. We grew stronger as a family in 2014 and enjoyed a lot of great times. We only had a few speed bumps and one major surprise, our 4th son.

The year started like most with our annual New Years Day hike. We chose Lake McMurtury in 2014. This is a great way to get the year started. The early spring went on with not much surprise. We enjoyed having Jack around in February. Spring Break took us to the Wichitas which was a great trip. The boys loved it. They talk about wanting to go back. The big event in April was Diana's birthday and the reminder that she is doing well. Diana had a great 2014 full of recovery. We also bought a minivan in April. May was happy and full of sun. For the first and last time, Grammy, Grandpa, and I were present at graduation as faculty members. 2014 saw Grammy's retirement and the end of a big chapter in OSU's history. Grammy served as a professor for 39 years at OSU, building a strong career and lasting legacy of students. We had a big party for her at our house in May, and Adam and Carolyn came in. The highlight of June was PetroPhase in Galveston. The kids loved it. We road tripped to Galveston and enjoyed several days at the San Luis Resort. The Sawyer/Dad breakfast and ocean swim was particularly memorable. We went by our old house on the way to visit the Kemners. We had a great time seeing the Kemners and enjoying all the things we enjoyed about Houston. This was a great trip complete with El Tiempo, Johnson Space Center, and the Ocean. Shortly after Galveston, we were off to Colorado for another great adventure. We lost Negra Modelo, but we got The Gambler in her place. The fall was insane with trips, deadlines, and soccer. We over-committed and learned of our new blessing coming in April 2015. Highlights in the fall include soccer, a lot of backgammon games, and hikes at Lake McMurtury. Fall quickly sped away into Thanksgiving and Christmas. Before the end of 2014, Beau taught himself to ride his bike without training wheels. 2014 blessed us all in tremendous ways, and we look forward to the many blessings in 2015.

2014 Top 10
10. Boxcar Children Books
9. Sawyer climbing the slide at the cabin
8. Passing final inspection on the cabin
7. Backgammon with the boys
6. Paul's happiness
5. Minivan
4. Wichita trip
3. Beach trip
2. Colorado trip
1. Our new baby

New Years Eve 2014

by Clint

New Year's Eve was very low key.  We played games in the morning. We went bowling with the Ramseys. In the spirit of our sandwich tradition, we grilled hamburgers. Grammy and Grandpa drove home from Roswell and came over as they drove into town. We played some more games with Grammy and Grandpa.  Then Melanie and I worked on the blog. It was a great ending to a great year.

December 2014

Here are some random pictures from December.  Clint finally got his truck!  He loves it.

We had family clean out the cars day.  The kids were a big help.

Sawyer had to get some blood work done.  He was pretty scared of the experience and tramatized.  Afterwards Clint took him to IHOP (Sawyer's favorite foods are hamburgers and pancakes).  He immediately sat down and drew a picture of getting blood on his kid's menu.  Art therapy?

Sawyer became a backgammon pro over the break.  Beau's not too bad himself.

 One morning I gave the boys a bottle of vinegar and a box of baking soda.  They had a blast and I was so impressed with all the experiments they came up with all on their own.

Grammy and Grandpa gave the boys geodes for Christmas.  We took them to the farm one day and broke them up.

On that particular day, Sawyer and Beau decided they were going to go on their own hike.  They packed their own lunch in a backpack and hiked by themselves for about an hour.  Here they are eating their lunch on dinosaur mountain.  I snapped this picture from across the pond.

The boys and I went bowling the day after Christmas.  Clint was going to go, but suddenly got so sick I had to turn around and take him home.  He had some random virus, but was better the next day.

Beau's Training Wheels

by Clint

On December 28, 2014, Beau taught himself how to ride his bike without training wheels. I removed Beau's training wheels then proceeded to put lights on their bikes while Beau was riding his scooter. Beau suddenly said, "Hey Dad, I can ride my bike!" I looked up, and sure enough, Beau was riding his bike without training wheels. He had picked up his bike and got started all by himself without my help. It was incredible, and it was so funny how he just thought it was no big deal. He could ride down the driveway, around the street, and he could even ride up the driveway with no help. I went in and got Sawyer and Mom so they could see him in action. It all happened just like we probably would have guessed. When Beau sets his mind to something, he can do it really well with minimal effort. He decided that he was going to ride his bike and he did it perfectly. He was perfectly natural. The next day, we took him to Boomer Lake so he could get more practice. Mom was a little worried that he might have trouble on the path with other runners and bikers. Fear not, Beau rode perfectly! He stopped for other people, handled the turns, and stopped when he needed to. We're so happy for Beau! We're so proud he could teach himself to ride a bike at 4 years and 1 month!  I will miss him on the back of the big bike, but we'll have plenty of bike rides together.

Sawyer reads!

Christmas break, 2014.  Sawyer reads his first book, cover to cover, completely by himself.  The chosen literary work:  Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss.

Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve was a nice slow day at home.  Sawyer, Beau and Clint went mountain biking, and I got food and things together.  We went to Grammy and Grandpa's for a Christmas Eve party.  Grammy outdid herself with the appetizers.  The boys got to open gifts and they were thrilled.  Paul had a fever and felt horrible.  The poor child was pathetic.  We came home and the boys were a breeze to get into bed (very eager for Santa to come).  Before bedtime though Sawyer was very careful to leave out cookies, milk, carrots, and reindeer food in the yard.

Sawyer was the first up Christmas morning.  Beau, Paul and I didn't sleep very well because the two little boys were dealing with ear infections.  Sawyer immediately saw his popper and then his puppy in his stocking.  The child has so much self control and came and got me to ask if he could get his puppy out of his stocking.  Paul was in bed with us and went with him and came back to bed with ''Ralph'' (he came up with the name himself), his own puppy.  We waited until Beau woke up then we had stockings.

After stockings we ate breakfast and cleaned up from the morning.  At this point Paul needed a nap.  The rest of us read the nativity story and opened the gifts under the tree and played.  The boys were in heaven with their gifts.

Grammy and Grandpa showed up later in the afternoon for a steak dinner and brought more gifts!  They nailed it.  The boys loved every present they brought and the evening was full of hysterical laughter and squeals of delight.  It really was a sweet magical day for us all.

 

Doug made me a custom laundry hamper for our laundry room.  It has been life changing!  Definitely my favorite Christmas gift this year (totally shows what stage of life I am in when I get excited over a laundry hamper).