Merry Christmas

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and continue to be so blessed! Christmas Eve we went to church as a family. Megan and I sang, "Christmas is a Feeling". It was beautiful and Megan did a great job! After church we went to our great friends house for dinner and a visit from Santa. The kids had a great time and we all enjoyed sitting on Santa's lap telling him what we wanted for Christmas. Once we got home, the kids and John and I opened some gifts and enjoyed visiting until MUCH to late! :) Nolan wrote a letter to Santa and we left him Cookies and Dt. Dr. Pepper. Santa left Nolan a letter back and he said that the Dt. DP was the best thing he'd had all night! :) Christmas morning we opened presents and received all of the treasures from Santa. We were all blessed and spoiled. :) Thank you Santa and Daddy! We enjoyed a wonderful day at the Price's for lunch and games. Nolan and Sam played their little hearts out and I don't know about Sam, but Nolan was EXHAUSTED! We then headed to Wichita for John's tradition of eating at Kwan Court for their Grand Buffet. We finally made it home and we all watched the classic National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It was a great day spent with family and friends and although Santa is very fun, we are so blessed that it was Jesus' Birthday and all that he brings to us every day.

Merry Christmas to all!

WE HAVE WATER!!

Oh, you don't realize how much you miss something until it's gone. Saturday morning we woke up to NO WATER! They advised us that there was a leak and that hopefully we would have it back on Sunday. Sunday night they said, FOUND the leak, you should have water tonight or tomorrow. Monday morning....UM, we found another leak, so if you are east of 100th and Purity Springs you don't have water and we don't know when you'll get it. Last night about midnight I thought, let's just see that we still don't have water just so I know I can sleep tonight. :) And what do you know, THE WATER WAS ON!!! It was glorious!! I woke up John and told him, it was like two kids on Christmas morning, we had to go check all of the faucets to make sure it was REAL!!!

Praise the Lord, we have water again and life is somewhat back to normal...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to Daddy...
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Today was John's ACTUAL birthday. We celebrated with NO WATER! He had a relaxing day with a nap got a lot of work done. Happy 40th honey!

NO WATER...and a party

So most of you know, I'm a serious party planner.  This holiday season, I got my house all decorated and thought, no one ever comes out here, so let's have small Christmas party.  SO, I invite some friends, purchase the food, I've baked all week, hence, no blogging, too busy to sit down, and last night prepared until mid-night getting ready for our fabulous party that we are going to have tonight.  WELL, this morning arrived a little "glich" in my plan.  WE HAVE NO WATER!

I call the Rural Water people and they say, "well, we have a leak and we can't find it, WHAT?!?!  How can you have a leak and can't find it, we continue to work on it and will let you know our progress."  Okay, no problem, I don't really have anything that needs a ton of water, we had a couple of gallons of water to wash our hands etc so we'll just plan that the water will be back on before the party.

12:15, I talk to my GREAT friend and happen to mention that she might want to pray that we get water as currently we don't have any.  She mentions that she's been cleaning and if the water doesn't come back on we can move the party to their house.  SO NICE, but no worries, the water will be back on.  We found out at 3 PM that they STILL have not found the leak and no word on when we might have water.  GREAT FRIENDS to the rescue.  Not only did they invite us to move the party to their house, they let us take showers there too!!  We could have cancelled, although I had all that food, but our gracious friends opened their home to let us continue the fun.  Praise God for great friends!!

We had a great time this evening and even had a special visitor from Santa himself!  Nolan had a great time visiting with Santa.  And each of the kids had a turn sitting on Santa's lap and telling them what they wanted for Christmas.  I only got a few pictures because my camera battery died...seriously when do you hit the max and have a melt down. :)  Again, great friends came through and I think they got some on their camera for us.  Whew!

Still no water and quite honestly, no water in sight.  But we had a great evening with friends and hopefully we'll have water tomorrow!  

I even had a chance to tell Santa what I wanted, 

I jokingly said, "DIAMONDS" but I think 

I should have asked for WATER!

Great Weekend!

We just arrived home from a GREAT weekend!!  Our friends and us headed to KC this weekend for a little get away.  We started our weekend off with a visit to the precious twin girls.  (See pictures below)  We did some shopping, which John and I are pretty much DONE, YEAH!  We stayed down on the Plaza, ate a wonderful meal at "Capital Grille" and went to the movie, "Four Christmas's".  This morning we opened up "Cheesecake Factory" for brunch and finished our shopping!! It was a great weekend!!  We need to make it a tradition!!  Lots of great food, shopping and company: now back to real life, working out and dieting! :) 

This was our breakfast...and NO it's not on our diet...but it was GOOD!

Meet Mallory and Allyson

"Christmas Memories"

Yesterday was a day of beautiful music and Christmas Memories.  First off we attended Nolan's Christmas Program at First Friends.  He did a great job!!  They sang two songs and shook the jingle bells.  He looked so handsome and was a very good boy!

Then it was off to Megan's middle school program, "Christmas Memories".  It was so great, the choir sounded wonderful and a couple of kids read their Christmas Memories.  I had the honor to sing a duet with Megan titled, "Christmas is a Feeling".  This was her first time having a "solo/duet" part and she did great!!!  I was so proud of her and so was her dad and rest of her family!!  She is such a wonderful young lady and a true blessing to all of us!

WELCOME Mallory and Allyson!!

Today we have been blessed!!  My brother and his wife had two healthy beautiful twin girls!! Mallory Nicole 5 lbs 7 ounces and Allyson Renee 5 lbs 6 ounces.  I'm stalking my email waiting for pictures! :)  I'll post as soon as I have them!!  

"31 years ago, it was a COLD morning"

I have heard that phrase from my parents for 31 years now.  That's correct, today is my 31st birthday...just to clarify it's not NEARLY as old as I thought it was when I was younger! :) 

Last night John and Nolan took me to dinner at Outback, greeted me with flowers and let me eat and drink whatever I wanted.  It was great!  

This morning I went for a 3 mile run with my great friend Kristine at 6 AM it was a COLD morning this year too! :)  When I got home John looked at me and said, "did you go running?"  I said, "Yeah, it was a little chilly but no snow" he had the most confused look on his face and he finally said, "I thought you were laying in bed asleep, Happy birthday!"  

I was a little chilly and sleep is always something I enjoy so I thought, maybe I can get a 30 min nap in before Nolan gets up.  MY WONDERFUL CHILD slept until 9 AM!!!  Happy birthday mommy!!  

I enjoyed a birthday of carmel popcorn on the couch with Nolan for breakfast, a viewing of "Mickey Saves Santa", some great calls, emails and texts from friends and family, an afternoon at the salon getting my hair done and finally safe at home with a sleeping 2 year old, chili in the crock pot and an array of yummy desserts from Dillon's Marketplace.  Glorious day!

Happy Birthday Mommy!  

All day yesterday when I would try to get him to say Happy Birthday mommy he would say, Happy Birthday Nolan.  FINALLY this morning he said Happy Birthday Mommy.  Too Cute!

Nolan enjoyed smelling the beautiful flowers that John brought for me.

He got a little close once and he said, "Oh, it got my boogie!"

Basketball Off to a great start!

Tonight was Luke's second basketball game of the season.  Basketball is Luke's sport, definately his favorite I do believe.  

The first was last Friday vs. Augusta.  It was a bit of a nail biter and I forgot to take pictures!  AUGH!  They won in overtime, whew...it was a good one.  Luke hit a 3-pointer right when they needed it, it was great!!  

Tonight they played Pratt at home.  The final score was 46-36, great game again and Luke did great!  We are so proud of you!!  2-0 we'll see how the rest of the year goes. :) 

Good defense 32!

"Box out"

Nolan enjoying some time with Mimi.

And playing with Grant is always a bonus too!

FBC Children's Christmas Program

I remember when I was a kid, being in the Christmas program at church, there was always something funny that happened.  One year, this little girl got up on stage and says, THERE'S MY DADDY!  We laughed about it and how cute it was. 

Well, last night was the FBC Children's Christmas program and what a wonderful program it was!!  Nolan was a part of the toddler song, they did great!!  Our very own Miss Kansas, Emily Deaver, sang "Let's Celebrate" and the little ones rang their bells and sang "gloria"...kind of! :)  Well, they all get up there and I was trying to stay out of sight as Nolan wasn't real sure he wanted to be away from me, but if I'm out of the picture things go much better, right.  SO, they all got in there and Nolan sitting so cute spots me and just like the little girl when I was little yells, THERE'S MOMMY...HI MOMMY!! It was SO cute!!!  He didn't run off the stage either so that was good!!  They did great and Emily sounded wonderful...THANK YOU EMILY!!!

"Let's Celebrate"

Emily Deaver, Miss Kansas

It's so hard to take pictures in the sanctuary, but this is the best I could do....

Nolan is in the middle.

Nolan all done and getting off the stage. 

Nolan and daddy in front of our Christmas Tree...

Nolan and "Ha", Heather. :) 

She is Nolan's FAVORITE!

Makin' Cookies with Mom

Yesterday Nolan and I had a blast making cookies for the basketball boys.  Chocolate Chip and Christmas Peanut Butter cookies...YUM!!!  Nolan enjoyed dumping the ingredients in the bowl, stirring and of course liking the batter!!  He first had a taste when it was only crisco and brown sugar and egg, he says, "that's real good mom".  I thought, wait until it's ALL in there.  He soon found out what REAL GOOD was when they were complete and he was able to like the beater.  YUMMY!!!  Good times making cookies with mom...

Big helper

Sneak a lick with only Criso, sugar and an egg..."That's REAL good!"

Yummy...

Now THAT is real good! :) 

Santa's Boots

Today was a good day.  We've struggled a bit this week getting back into our routine after a long weekend with daddy home, Luke and Megan here and a visit with my family over Thanksgiving.  We had to "de-vacationize" Nolan.  I have to admit the first couple of days this week was a struggle and I appreciate all of you that were praying for my sanity. :)  Luckily Amy helped out yesterday and we took the kids to McDonald's to eat lunch and play.  WHEW...

TODAY on the other hand, we're getting there.  Nolan had a great day and I feel we are getting back into the swing again.  THANK GOODNESS! :) 

Tonight after Nolan went to bed I was decorating the formal room hearth and I heard his door open.  He does this sometimes and just lays on the floor by his door.  I ignored him thinking he'll either lay there and go to sleep or he'll go back to bed, or he could get in trouble, which is always a possibility...so I waited to see what was going to happen.  

After a bit he says, "I see you".  I laughed and said, "Honey you need to go back to bed".  He said "look at Santa's boots".  I didn't really think about it at first, but he said it again, "Santa's boots...1, 2, 4, 5" (That's counting to 5, he has something against 3).  I finally realized he was talking about the stockings that were hanging on the hearth.  Stepping back and looking at them, by golly they do look like Santa's boots, I had never thought of that.  It's amazing how when we let our children observe what they see through those tiny, wonderful eyes.  

I wanted to blog this so that I'd put it in my record of memories.  Have a wonderful day and after they have climbed your refrigerator door and emptied out all of the condiments, or stuck gum up their nose, or screamed so much you thought you'd go insane, let your children observe, they an cshow us the most fascinating things in life. :) 

Santa is coming to town...

Nolan took a trip to the North Pole to visit Santa.  He was a bit shy at first but since then he LOVES Santa!  Can't stop talking about the guy.  Unfortunately he hasn't put together that Santa brings gifts and you have to be good for Santa to come....BUT maybe next year.  :)

We're SLOWLY getting the Christmas Decorations up.  I'll post pictures when they are done.  The tree is up and Nolan has enjoyed taking the balls off the tree.  Good Times.

A Fabulous Thanksgiving with the Rays

We had a great Thanksgiving in KC at my brother's house with the Ray's.  Thursday we had a great spread of yummy food...little shout out to Heather's stuffing...YUM!!!  Friday we celebrated Christmas with the family as we are about to be blessed with twin girls from Rick and Heather.  December 11th is the big day!!  We had a great time and really enjoyed the time we had with the family.  Here are a few pics from Thursday, my battery died on Friday so I have to get the "Christmas" pictures from Robin. :) 

We walked up to the play ground at Maddy's school, 

Nolan hitched a ride with Aunt Robin.

Building a TOWER with Papa.

Bedtime snack...POPCORN!

Cousins...too cute!

I'm Thankful For...

I've been meaning to write this all weekend and haven't gotten to it...so here it goes.

• My Almighty Father 
• Living in a country that I can worship freely
• My wonderful Husband
• My sweet little boy, Nolan
• My two awesome step kids, Luke and Megan
• My supportive family
• My Truly amazing Girlfriends
• All of the blessings the Good Lord has given me

A sad day...

My great friend, Christy Hackleman, lost her father last night after a long battle with cancer. Monty was such a wonderful man!  He touched the lives of many students, teachers, ball players and especially his girls, wife Jane and daughters, Christy and Audrey.  Monty loved sports and loved playing baseball with his grandkids.  The one thing I admired most about Monty was his ability to fill in WHERE EVER needed at his school.  Being the Principal Monty saw to it that if a sponsor was not available HE did it so that the kids would not miss out!  Cheerleading, KAYS, you name it, Monty stepped to the plate when needed, much of the time when he was battling with his cancer.  Monty will truly be missed by all of us.  Please continue to life up Jane, Christy and Audrey as well as their families during this time of sorrow and healing.

In Him,

Randa

SURPRISE...John's 40!!

...well almost, but we sure celebrated like he was! ;)  John's 40th birthday is December 21st, well, that is quite a hard time to plan a birthday party, so I showed him and planned it a month early.  He had ABSOLUTELY no idea, it was great!!  

We went to dinner with the Price's and when we got to the restuarant, SURPRISE!!!  There were 5 other couples there to join us for dinner.  He was totally surprised and it was great.  Great food, great trivia about John and dinner was over.  SO, we all said our good byes and away we went.  Back to the Price's to watch the OU game, OR SO HE THOUGHT!  

As we pulled into the drive way I got a "text" from Heather saying she didn't feel well and that we needed to come get Nolan.  OH NO...well we better go home said John, STILL HAVING NO CLUE what was going on.  We said our goodbyes and to the house we went.  I was frantically texting the others making sure they got to the house and parked at the neighbors and into the house before we pulled into the drive.  According to the video, a couple of the guys walked in the door, just MINUTES before we did....whew...we pulled it off.  Everything looked nice and quite, John walked in the door and SURPRISE...37 friends and family, including those from dinner were in the kitchen welcoming him to the party!! IT WAS SO FUN!!!  He was totally surprised and really enjoyed the evening.  I made a video of pictures from the last 40 years so we watched that and ended the night with a few night owls with a game of Guestures, John's favorite! :) 

It was lots of fun and THANK YOU to all that were able to attend...it was a blast!!

SURPRISE!!!  

Nolan had a blast with the candles...

he waited all night to blow them out!

I pulled it off....

Happy Birthday John!

The Condiment King!

Have you ever had your entire stock of condiments from your fridge being displayed on your kitchen floor?  Well, tonight I had that opportunity to witness.  Nolan is really in to seeing what's in the fridge, you know he can open the door now which is very exciting, and he's just eye level to a lot of that FUN stuff that mom has in the fridge.  Well, it started by him very cutely, if that's a word, matching the items.  He had two BBQ sauces together, two ketchups together and two Michelob Ultra's together.  Then it just went from there.  I have to admit I grabbed the camera and enjoyed the show.  He very diligently got each item out of the fridge one at a time and stacked them up, oh if one would fall down he'd pick it up and place it gentle back to it's place.  He had a great time.  You know the first and second shelf would have been enough for most kids...NOT NOLAN!  He then proceeded to CLIMB on the first shelf to get to the third shelf.  Once that was cleared he then climbed to the second shelf to get to the fourth shelf to get the milk and THAT is when the "mom police" stepped in.  He fiddled a little longer and then the second shelf finally bucked him off, no one was hurt and nothing was broken and really it made him decide it wasn't as much fun to climb as it was to taste the condiments that he could get open.  YUMMY....little mix of Mayo, mustard, A1 sauce, and syrup; oh it sounds like a jr high slumber party game gone bad!!  Once we had our fill of tasting and mom had her pictures taken we headed up for a bath.  Good times at the Willson House!

Such a nice display of condiments. :)

Drinking the syrup....yes Christy, he does it here too! :) 

Mayo, YUMMY!

monkey?

Dare devil!!

PS: the child has no pants on because he got pudding all over them!

Kids say the Darndest things!

Today we were in Target and Nolan heard a baby crying.  Here is our dialogue.

Nolan: "mommy, baby crying" 

Mommy: "yes, poor baby" 

Nolan: "dog gone it"

LOL...I about tripped over my shopping cart.  I guess I say that to him when he's hurt or upset and there is the FACT that he does listen to me! :)  

Thinking cap? Rally cap?? Maybe...

Tonight after dinner Nolan and John were playing catch.  At first Nolan was having a hard time "catching" the ball.  He mumbled something and I got out of it..."Mickey hat"...and off he went.  John and I were laughing that he needed his "mickey ears" to catch the ball.  Here comes Nolan, Mickey ears in hand, he hands them to John and says, "Throw" as if to say, you need the Mickey ears to throw better and if you threw the ball better I'd be able to catch it!  Sure enough, it worked! :)  

Bailey even got a little piece of the "mickey ears" action.  

Nolan also played with Play doh today... he is really into Play doh these days so we got a new set of "play doh tools" yesterday for being so good in Wal-Mart.  The "garlic press" is his favorite...and mine too!! It comes out so pretty! :) 

Good Times

What a beautiful day...little chill in the air and we're officially into fall.  We enjoyed a great morning at church and then had family pictures.  The kids did great and hopefully we got some good ones for Christmas cards! :)  

After nap time, John and I took Nolan outside to play in the yard.  He is completely into swinging the bat and hitting the flag pole.  Yes, it's bound to happen that one of these days it will come back and hit him, but it hasn't happened yet and we hope it never does.  Bailey came out too and played a little game of fetch.  We wore both of them out pretty good! :) Here are some pictures of our day...

Dad, I hope you like Nolan's new coat!  I thought it looked like something you'd like! John says he looks like he's ready to go bomb the German's.  :) 

Buddies...Nolan LOVES Bailey and Bailey really enjoys Nolan too!

Batter UP!

SWING BATTER!

Good Times...