Driving to Missouri

We stopped at the McDonalds over the freeway. We had fun watching the cars zoom past and stretching our legs. Matt remembers this from all his trips to Missouri as a kid.

I worked hard to pack a tote of activities that were car-friendly and would help keep Q busy. Mimi got her a little dry erase board with dry erase crayons that was a big hit.

We also had some of her favorite fairy tale stories on the ipod. You can also see the big bag of library books next to her on the seat. New favorites are Henny Penny and Three Blind Mice.

And some fun with magnetic letters!

Christmas Festivities Begin

On our trip Matt and I talked a lot about how we want Christmas to look for our family this year. We really want the focus to be on family and Jesus and serving others and not on "getting stuff." We also both noticed how strung out we usually feel by the end of December after a month of busyness, so we also decided to pare our calendar down to only the bare necessities. These include a family time each night, some date nights, and a few other carefully chosen activities. Then we talked about Christmas activities that we both enjoy or that we thought Quinn would particularly enjoy this year and made a calendar of what we will do each night. We're (mostly me, since I am the one that struggles with this the most) are really trying to keep the philosophy that -there are a lot of GOOD things to do, but we want to constantly and prayerfully search for what's BEST for our family. So the part in me that wants to accomplish every fun Christmas activity ever schemed on the face of the earth feels peace with a do-able calendar of fun stuff for our family and letting the other things slide. I am excited!

Last night we kicked off our holiday time. We strung cranberries for our tree. At one point I teased Matt that he had the shortest string of anyone, including our three year old. That got him kicking into gear. :)

We are also adding a little bit of Bible study time with Quinn to our evening routine along with the holiday fun. Our theme for the month is "Immanuel--God With Us." We're memorizing a verse each week talking about how Jesus chose to be with us and take on the form of a man in order to be the ultimate sacrifice. So we started last night by reading the story of Gabriel telling Mary she'd have a baby. Our memory verse is Matt 1:23, from a children's version.

God's Holy Spirit has made Mary pregnant. She will give birth to a son and they will name him Immanuel--which means GOD WITH US.

Meeting MeMaw

After OKC we drove to central Missouri to spend the holiday with Matt's family. One of the main reasons was to let his grandma, MeMaw, and our kids become acquainted. Quinn was so sweet with MeMaw. She hugged and kissed her and gave her some pretty leaves she'd collected and even drew her a picture while we were there.
There was a beautiful bush outside of MeMaw's house, so Q posed with a couple of her favorite leaves she'd found in the yard. We were picking up leaves everywhere we went. They just don't have leaves as neat in Texas as Missouri does!

Beck's 3 months!

Here's the little man at 3 months! Had to work a little harder this time to keep a squirmy worm on the chair long enough for me to back up and snap the picture! We're a bit late on getting these taken, but still technically in the third month. Going more for "ish" these days! Three months-ish! :)

Here's his goal in life: Must.Put.In.Mouth.

And just for fun....a little comparison. Quinn at 3 months.

Amy's birthday party

Saturday night in OKC we had a little surprise birthday party for Amy. Q and I had baked her a cake--the secret ingredient was Dr.Pepper in the cake and the icing. It turned out super yummy! The girls "helped" Amy with her cards and gifts. :)

Baking the cake-

With the secret ingredients--Dr.P and Cocoa!

Touring Mt. Saint Mary's

We started out our Mega-Roadtrip by driving to OKC on Friday night. Saturday we met Heather and David for lunch at an awesome burger place. Then we decided to go see David's school where he teaches. We'd been wanting to go forever, after hearing that it was haunted, contained a morgue, had a hand-operated elevator, and an abandoned 4th floor....so this trip it finally worked out that we had time to stop by.

Mt. Saint Mary's is the oldest high school in Oklahoma. It was originally built by nuns as a convent before Oklahoma was a state....David told us the nuns came across the prairie in a wagon train. We saw lots of neat old pictures inside the school.

The grounds were gorgeous--all the trees were changing colors and there was a really pretty prayer garden.
David gave a great tour....I heard about half of it due to chasing kids around. :)




There had just been a story in the OKC news about 3 middle-schoolers getting trapped in an elevator shaft...so we had lots of fun making up crazy scenarios that might happen to us in this elevator. It was a rather old and shady-looking elevator, but David assured us it was safe. The boys couldn't resist actin' a fool.....Here's Beck on David's classroom carpet. Wild stuff, huh!
And some of his "pupils," Amy and Quinn.
Hey--Justin Bieber's in his class, too!
And via Matt's phone--Q dressed up in some of the Stuco stuff David had in his classroom. Props from a recent dance.
Then up to the 4th floor......Here's a view out the awesome windows.




One of the teachers has some wolf stuff in his classroom, so of course David had to take Quinn by to show her. This is her "hawoooooing." (howling)



Of course Q found sticks and leaves to play w
It was a fun afternoon....the ghosts didn't show themselves, so we may have to revisit again someday soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for all the turkeys at our house.....
Both the "old" ones, the furry ones, and of course our newest one!

Quinnisms

Today Q got to get an egg out of Uncle Chuck's chicken coop. She was carrying it to the house and I reminded her to be gentle with it. "It's DELICATE, Momma, like our baby!" She replied.

A couple days ago:
"I'm gonna tell you a versery
rhyme.  The rock is spirit. By Psalm Galdone. "

A lot of our memory verses come from the psalms. And Paul Galdone is one of our favorite fairy tale illustrators. Guess she mixed it all together in her mind. :)

Baking Amy's cake

With the secret ingredient. Dr p of course!