Forgot to mention that I crashed the computer earlier this week! Major withdrawls and a few days later, we got the computer back (thank you cousin Mark for being such a fabulous computer whiz!) So now we are busy trying to put things back together and find some program cd's to put some of our programs back on it! UGH! What a pain! Had to redo the entire system! I sure wish I knew what in the world I did to it! The virus scans all came back clean, so I have no idea but it was bad! Oh well...at least I got all my pictures back! I don't have hard copies of those and they go back to a few months before Karsten was born! Hundreds of pictures! Priceless pictures! Thanks again Mark!

Another week of school is almost over! Everyone is doing great!However, Makenzie did get a time out yesterday for talking while the teacher was talking! Imagine that?!?! She is really liking school - especially snacks and playtime! Sydney is also doing well, a little tired at the end of the afternoon, but we were expecting that (Makenzie is still tired at the end of the day too...) She is just walking so good and is letting Ms. Wilkerson help her learn to write by putting her hands over Sydney's. (in the past Sydney has not been crazy about anyone putting their hands over hers...she will watch and minic you, but don't put your hands over hers!) So that is quite the improvement!

Karsten is loving his time with Mommy & Daddy! But I do think he is glad to go get the girls too! We have been riding bikes all over the place while the girls are in school...it's actually been between 90-100* so it's like a major cool front these days! It also actually rained the other night! I think tomorrow we have a 40% chance of rain! Very exciting! Of course, tomorrow night is the home opener for the high school (vs. Tuttle) so we are planning on taking the kids to that! One of my Sunday school girls is in the band and one is on the pom squad so we will stay until the performance at half time and then see how everyone is doing! Mommy may have to take the kids home and let Daddy catch a ride with Poppy! Poppy and DB are doing the radio broadcast again this year...31 years and running! They are good!

Karsten's birthday is in a week! Shopping isn't done yet! The golf clubs we tried to order won't be here until after the party...his little legs are too short for the bike we were going to get him...so, we will be scrambling trying to figure out what to get him and hope to get it in time for the party! I can't believe my little boy is 2! He's grown up so fast! The girls too! Steve is having heart palpitations as I am having full blown babyitis! Our youth minister's wife had a baby girl this morning! She is a doll and I got to sit and rock her for an hour! Too sweet! Steve so thoughtfully reminded me that I am 36 and she is in her early 20's! And that if we were to have a baby he would be 39 when it got here! Have to admit that was a little sobering...I know, I'm crazy for even thinking about it, but I miss my little babies! I love where we are now, but I love holding little ones! God is good!

Golf Champions!

Ok, maybe not the overall champs, but Steve & Dr. Ryan, AKA "Doc" played in a golf tournament this weekend and they came in 2nd in their flight! And the best part is Shawn & I get half of the winnings for not complaining while the boys played all weekend! HA Last night we had Ryan, Shawn and "baby" Ty (he's almost 3, but Makenzie still calls him baby Ty!) over for steak and some swimming! Ty & Karsten were too funny and had a blast running around and playing in the pool! Sydney mostly rode her bike around the pool and Makenzie was busy being the shark and chasing the boys out of the pool!

Today was my first day as the Soph girls Sunday School teacher! I am so excited and have a great group of girls! I think this will be a wonderful year for all of us!

Forgot the best one!

I totally forgot the best one...apparently our indirect indoctrination of OSU is effective as evidenced by the other day at Poppy's office after school...Candi asked Makenzie what color they learned about at school today, was it red? (She is big OU fan!) Makenzie said no it was orange. Candi asked if she was sure it wasn't red and Makenzie said "Candy, don't you know, every day is orange!" HA

The things kids say...

The other day I was on the phone with my mom and Karsten ran out the garage door and was heading for the street...I was telling him to stop and get back in the house and he actually stopped and started slowly walking back - each step saying "noooooo". When he got almost to the door, he stopped moving and gave me an onery look so I said Karsten if you don't come in this house you will get in trouble for disobeying mommy. He got big eyes and softly said "ohhh noooo" and then walked right into the house and gave me a big hug & kiss! Mom was cracking up as she heard every word he uttered!

Then this morning, Makenzie had a wooden snake (a toy that we brought back from Mexico for Karsten) and was hiding it under things and then calling us over to remove the item and be scared by the snake! Big fun! Well, Steve turned the tables on her and was carrying it over to her when he slowed down and started making snaky noises and wiggling the snake very realistically...She stopped him in his tracks when she put her hands on her hips and said very seriously "Daddy, that is just not funny. If you keep doing that I will have to get you a spanking for scaring me. You are not being nice." And that was that!

One more thing!!

Well, now that I have gotten rid of several extra activities (???) I am now the new Sophomore girls Sunday School teacher at church! Steve is going to be coming over to the Youth Dept with me to try it out as well! He is going to tag team with my cousin Randy in teaching the 8th grade boys. We are both very excited as we have been wanting to work with the Youth but it has been too crazy and/or not the right timing. However, yesterday everything fell into place and viola! Thankfully the bond stuff has slowed down considerably and once the school board decides on a plan & when to vote, it will pick back up, but not like it was! Putting together 3 major town events in 3 months with 3 small kids is a little insane!!! But what's life without a little caos?!?! HA HA HA

And I had to throw in the pic of Karsten as he is too cute!

Miracle for the day...

God is good! After many, many hours of trying and not quite succeeding, this afternoon, Sydney pedaled her bike! She rode her bike for over 2 hours! Grinning from ear to ear the entire time! It was one of the most awesome sights I have seen! What a great developmental step for this precious girl! We were so excited and I bawled like a baby! We told Makenzie how proud we were of her for helping teach her sister to ride by example! She was so excited for Sydney too, which was wonderful to see! Thank you for everyone who has been praying for Sydney - we can't thank you enough! You will never know what those prayers mean to us or to Sydney! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! I just can't get that old kids song out of my head...God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me!!!!!

3rd day of school

Today was the girls' 3rd day of school...things are going great and they are loving their teachers and class! We are loving it as well! Today after we dropped the girls off, Karsten, Steve & I headed to the golf course! It was a little too hot & muggy, but lots of fun! Steve is going to have to work with Karsten's putting stroke some, it looks a little too much like a baseball swing! We both hit some great shots and some not so great shots! Typical golf outing!

We enjoyed the lazy afternoon while Karsten napped and now that we have picked up the girls, are gearing up to go swim! Later we will be taking another bike ride (Makenzie has a lovely new purple bike and really doesn't need her training wheels, but you know how it goes!)

1st Day of School!!!!!

Today was the girls first day of school! Very exciting for all of us! Makenzie was up and dressed in about 5 mintues! Sydney even picked out a pair of sandles and put them on all by herself! Needless to say, I was not going to put her inserts & tennis shoes on after that! We managed to get there a little early to give Sydney plenty of time to walk - which she did beautifully! And I did great until Sydney's aide mentioned how last year Sydney couldn't even walk 5 steps without falling last year on the first day of school. Momma got a little choked up on that...but I held in there and the girls left me behind at the door and never looked back - well, after giving me a kiss, they went on in and had a blast!

When I picked up the girls, Ms. Wilkerson (the aide) said Sydney had a great day and did sooo good! She even ate the cafeteria food and enjoyed it! Never fell, did a great job listening, and thinks she will have a great school year. Mrs. Julian said both girls did great and that when she was reading a book to the class, she had explained how she wasn't going to raise her voice, that the kids were going to have to be quiet so everyone could hear her read. Well, a little into it, some of the kids were talking and Makenzie says "Excuse me...would you please be quiet so we can all hear Ms. Julian read? She will hurt her voice if she has to read louder so please be quiet!" Mrs. Julian was rather cracked up by our petite girl telling everyone what for! And in such a sweet little voice and so politely! She is a treat!

In the mean time, Karsten and I had quite a day! We rode bikes with my cousin Krystal and her little girl and had a great time doing that. Then Karsten & I went to the bank, Poppy's office and to go eat at Sonic...after making it back home, Karsten went down for a nap and I got to go hang out in the pool for a little while! It was so peaceful! Until I dropped my cell phone in the water and fried it! Then, I actually got to shower and had to wake Karsten up and to get the girls! Karsten totally loved having Mommy all to himself! I think he is going to love having the girls in school! At least for a week or two! Then he will probably be bored with me! After school we went to Radio Shack to file an insurance claim on my cell and to get a loaner, to Poppy's to tell him all about our first day of school and then we finally made it back home! After dinner, we took a ride on Makeznie's new bike (forgot the camera so no new pics of her on the bike yet! AGH!) and then bath and bed! YEAH!!!

Wednesday was a long day...

Lots of things happening Wednesday! We decided to have a back to school swim party with several of the girls friends and it started around 11am...I realized at 10:55 I needed ice, so mom ran over (Steve was in OKC) and as I left to go get ice, I realized Kitty Cat was lying in the road, upon closer inspection, it turns out Kitty Cat had been hit by a car and amazingly enough was still breathing...so, I ran back in the house to let mom know I was taking a detour, ran back outside and gathered KC up and drove him to Dr. Lyndon...it was not good, he was breathing strong, but that was it. He had no pupillary response, nor any kind of response to anything. He couldn't move his legs or blink. After a phone call to Steve, we decided it would be best to put him to sleep. The only good news was he was going to get neutered next week, so at least he gets to go to kitty heaven all in tact! I managed to go on and get ice and make it back to the party, which was a hit! The girls are all such good girls and we all had a blast! Two of the moms brought their new babies (both under 6 weeks old! How wonderful! I am trying not to have babyitis...) so all the moms got to ooohh and aaahhh over them!

After the party, we went in around 4:30 to get dried off and ready for church. I made it to my room when I heard a scream and ran back into the game room to find Karsten with blood pouring from near his left eye! After cleaning it up a little we were able to determine it probably didn't need stitches and fortunately the cut didn't affect his eye. Needless to say we didn't make it to church that night! Then at bedtime, I finally had to tell Makenzie about her kitty cat. I had been dreading it but she took the news like a champ and then asked if we could go to the vet's the next day and get another kitty! Got to love 5 year olds! Then she proceeded to tell me how much fun Kitty Cat, Nemo & Angel fish were having playing together in heaven! Who knew having fish (that died an early death) would help prepare her for losing her cat...

Back to School Bash & Meet the Teacher Night

The Back to School Bash was a success! (We are all sooooo glad it is over!) Kristen & crew served over 600 hot dogs to parents & kids and had over half of the families fill out a survey about the schools. The live music was fun and I think everyone enjoyed themselves!

Meet the Teacher was also Tuesday night and we got to meet the girls teacher - April Julian! We are so excited to have April for the girls' teacher! For any Marlowites reading this, she is the former Miss Nite and is married to Dan Julian, also of Marlow. They moved back to Marlow a year or two after we did. She has her room painted too cute and the girls didn't want to leave that night. We are so looking forward to seeing what the girls will learn this year and to see all the progress they will both make! The question is...how will Kristen handle full day kindegarten?!?

A lot has happened this week!

It has been crazy busy around the Terrell household for the last 4 days or so...we are al exhausted but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! We have school supply lists completed, school clothes bought, and we find out who the girls teacher is tomorrow. (We are keeping them together at least one more year!) Today Kristen helped put on the Teacher Appreciation Lunch at our church. She & Ann gathered donations for door prizes and Eugene (guy in charge) was thrilled with what we were able to accomplish. I think the teachers and staff all enjoyed the meal and getting gifts and just visiting as one big group! Tomorrow night Kristen is putting on the Back 2 School Bash (part of the school bond thing...) we will be having a concert by Marlow students &/or Marlow grads, as well as free hot dogs & cokes, they can also register to vote, pick up info on absentee ballots, buy Support Our School t-shirts, get a free SOS bracelet and enjoy the fellowship with other parents & kids. It is going to be a the gradeschool cafeteria and will start before Meet the Teacher night kicks off and will last 30 min longer. SO, hopefully we will be able to connect with lots of parents about the importance of a bond! I forgot, we will also have a short survey that registered voters can fill out. We've also put longer more detailed surveys around town at strategic locations. Enough bond talk...

Karsten is a hoot! That boy is into everything and fast!!! We had a special event after church last night and I think he entertained everyone while they were eating their brownies & ice cream! Sydney also charmed the group as she was able to run & play chase with the other kids - quite a few tears around the tables over that! Mak played with Allie - she has such an imagination! She & Daddy have been playing a lot the last few days with Swiper & Dora...she got so frustrated with Steve when he decided Swiper felt bad over stealing everything and decided to give it all back. That was NOT in her playbook!

School starts Thursday! I haven't decided if I am excited or if I am just going to bawl like a baby that first day of all day school...we shall see! Wednesday we are having some girls over for a back to school swim party! Mak is so excited! It ought to be a lot of fun! That's it for now...

What a day!

The day is over! What a day! The cake got there 5 minutes before the baby shower started! Little too close for comfort. Thankfully everyone seemed to love it! (I don't know if you can tell, but the cake looks like the napkins) And we got all kinds of stuff done for the school bond thing today. Banners were ordered, ads were taken out, another letter to the editor went to the paper, etc...

Our kids are the best! I came home from the baby shower and all 3 tackled me as soon as they saw me! We laughed and wrestled and had the best time! We took a bike ride tonight and enjoyed the breeze in our face (yes, it was still over 100* at 8pm!) Karsten went right to bed at least until Mak slammed her door on the way to the potty and hollered "Mommy, I'm going to the potty" so now he is standing at the door screaming his head off! Such is the life of a Mommy...

9 more days til school starts...

Holy Cow! I can't believe my babies are going to be starting full day Kindergarten this year! 9 more days - Makenzie is so excited about going back to school, so I am glad for that! We finally have all the supplies bought and some new clothes too! We should find out this week who their teacher will be. We debated for the entire summer about whether or not to keep them in the same class or not and finally decided that full day is a huge transition for them and they've never really been apart except for a few playdates and/or therapy and Makenzie says she wants Sydney with her, so we will try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. I hope some of their friends make it into their class! The girls and I all got our haircut Sat. They look sooooo cute! Sydney just has a head full of curls and Mak actually let us cut several inches off, of course we had to tell her it is still sooooo long! She just loves her long hair! Karsten has finally been sleeping thru the night again. Family vacation & my trip to Mexico really screwed up his sleeping habits! I just can't tell you how into everything he is, it's incredible! He is now diving into the pool - yes, actually diving...he thinks he can do everything big Mak can! And what's scary is he's usually right! He pulled off his diaper last night and said "po-ooop" and we just blew it off because he says that when he pees too and we didn't see anything on his rear, well, he holds the diaper up and says "po-ooop" again. And we just agree and I go to get a new diaper. Sure enough, he had poop in his diaper! Fortunately the only thing he did with it off was to go sit on his potty! Go figure! Miss Sydney is wearing big girl panties today...we will see how that goes. I would love to have her trained by the time school starts - everyone who reads this please say a prayer that her brain is able to figure the potty training thing out and soon! It takes her a while to get things, but once she does, she'd got it for good, you know? Steve is off flying again today...speaking of prayer - he is flying a 28 yr old cancer patient, his wife & 2 kids & parents home from Houston - there is nothing else they can do so he is going home to die. How tragic. Pray for them to have peace and to turn to the God of all comfort in the days to follow.

To lighten things back up...I have been reading James Dobson's Bringing up Boys...great book! But I couldn't help but laugh when he was talking about 15-36 month olds starting the progression from relating to mommy to relating to daddy...things like: he will say no to everything, even things he likes (check) he will resist efforts to mange him (check), he will run when called (check) and he will scream bloody murder at bedtime (check, check!)...so I believe we have hit this stage! My little boy is in the process of becoming daddy's little man...sad but exciting too! I told Daddy about this and he was so excited he went and wrestled Karsten for the next hour or so! Boys! Gotta love 'em! We are so blessed to have such great kids!

Well, I'd better sign off, I have to get an ad and a survey to the paper for the Support our Schools Back to School Bash that I'm putting together and I need to finish the cake I am making for a baby shower tonight and I have to give an interview to the paper about the Bash not to mention Sydney has therapy in OKC today and just the general taking care of kids stuff...

Here it is, another therapy day...off to OKC we go! Today we are meeting Uncle Ga (Greg) for lunch so that will be a nice treat! He has a new job that he is starting in about a week. We are all so excited for him and hope he makes tons of money and takes us all for a great vacation to Hawaii or something along those lines! HA We have been enjoying the sun and swimming and bike riding in the evenings...it's down to 100-102* by 7:30pm so it's not too hot to ride, and as long as you're moving, there's a nice breeze! We are in the process of getting the kids all new bikes, they've all grown so much this year! I think Karsten thinks he could ride a motorcycle at this point! He is ALL BOY!!!! He keeps us on our toes for sure! We have just listed our dining room set for sale...if you know anyone who wants a "beautiful Queen Anne stlye dining group in cherry finsh. Table with 2 extensions, 6 chairs (1 arm chair), large lighted china hutch and sideboard with fold out extensions" please let me know!!! We are going to make an office/hobby room and foyer out of the front room so we are making a huge mess moving furniture and junk around and trying to get rid of stuff and we are switching out desks with Steve's office desk, so all of our computer stuff is everywhere! Yesterday while we were moving furniture, Karsten managed to locate a bottle of black acrylic paint and squeezed it all over the carpet in the game room and that middle room. He also managed to walk thru it and track it all over the house and into his bedroom as I was chasing him down the hall!! AAARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! So, we've also been steam cleaning the carpet every few hours and getting a ton of black water out but it's still pretty dark in those areas...all he could say was "mess" and smile adorably while saying it. Little varmit! Speaking off, I must sign off so I can explain to him once again that we don't pull the girls' hair!