Spring Scrimmage

DJ texted me around 8:00 this morning asking me to bring the girls to the football scrimmage today. I didn't plan on going, although I knew we should go, and I could tell he wanted us there, so we ate breakfast, got dressed, lathered up on sunscreen and headed out the door.MC was very happy this morning. She enjoyed sitting in the stroller and playing with some of her toys. Right now, her favorite toys are baby dolls. I think because they're "little people" like she is, but she just lights up at dolls and loves to chew on their hands and feet!

DJ took G on to the field for the first time. She was so excited to go down there, and she hung out with him for about 10 minutes before she decided it was too boring for her!
I also kept MC entertained with snacks! This girl loves to eat!

G had tons of fun roaming the bleachers. She climbed all the way to the top and back to the bottom. As we were getting dressed, I decided it would be a fun day letting her pick out her clothes. I told her we were going to football and asked her what she wanted to wear. She replied with, "My cheerleading outfit, because it's my favorite football clothes that I have." So, that's what she wore!She didn't want me to take her picture again, but I managed to sneak one in! She was eating her Ring Pop (yes, they still make them!) I think she looks so tall in this picture!
After watching the scrimmage, we went in to DJ's office while he finished his film work, and then we all went to lunch!

Such a fun Saturday!

Armed Forces Bowl: Game Day

After a long, fun, stressed, crazy filled week, game day was finally here!

Like I said yesterday, we had to get up at 6 in the morning in order to get dressed, packed, and to the stadium for 11 am kick off.

Some how, we managed to make it, and we were able to enjoy pre game festivities.
G developed a love for CFA, or Chicken Fil A as she calls it, while we were gone this week. We ate their at the mall earlier in the week and she received a cow watch, that is now her favorite. And, CFA was handing out signs and free chicken biscuits before the game. I do have to let them know that we are the Hurricane, and there is no S.
G even took her picture with the CFA cow, and I was so surprised because she hates largely stuffed costumed people, granted, there's no person in this, but I'm still shocked she was more than willing to go stand by this cow and get her picture taken.

We made our way into the game and managed to get settled, which included spreading out as much as we could, getting out the toy bag and snacks, feeding MC, going potty, and getting lunch all before kick off.

I'm so thankful the girls Nana was there to help. I swear, God should have given mommies a few more arms to do it all!
See what I mean, I could barely hold both girls for this picture, but here we are before kick off!
The pre game festivities inside were pretty awesome as well. There were several parachuters that brought in flags of the armed forces as well as the American Flag.
The Captains were taking the field.
And, we spent the game cheering loud and proud for our TU boys!

We also spent the game taking potty breaks, changing diapers, convincing G to not climb on the people around her, to not eat the popcorn off the ground, going on walks, and passing the baby back and forth.

Finally during the last 3 minutes of the game, which is about 10 minutes of real life time, we cheered super loud and held our breath. TU was up but BYU had the ball. I'm not a sports commentator, but I'll try to explain it the best I can. BYU was about 30 yards from the end zone, and it was 3rd down, and we should have stopped them, but the quarterback kept the ball and ran (that's called a quarterback keep) and we couldn't get to him, because they had been throwing the ball a lot (at least from what I saw). And BYU made the first down, which gave them 4 more chances to make the touchdown and put them closer to the end zone. Needless to say, with only a minute left in the game, they scored. We did get the ball back for that last minute, but we were just too far away, and BYU ended up winning the game.

After the game we headed to eat and then began the 4 hour drive home. Such a great week, and I felt blessed to have time with the girls and to get to know some of the other coaches wives better!

Armed Forces Bowl: Days 2-4

After the girls and I explored downtown and took naps, we headed to Billy Bob's, which is supposedly, the world's largest honkey tonk. And, by the looks of it, I'd believe 'em. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but to be honest. It was overwhelming keeping up with two girls- carrying one of them plus a 50 lb. diaper bag, and my stress levels were pretty high considering MC didn't sleep well at night. So, we'll take whatever pictures we have and be happy!Anyway, here's DJ with the girls on the bus. I was a nervous wreck taking MC on the bus, but it would have been very difficult for us to drive our own vehicle everywhere. The bus did have seat belts (which I have never seen before) so G wore hers and I put MC in the bjorn carrier, so at least she was strapped to something during the ride. (Please no hater comments about how totally unsafe that was!)

After we somewhat enjoyed our BBQ dinner- getting the food was a process in itself, and trying to find something besides pickles and pecan pie for our 3 year old to eat was next to impossible..... we explored the honky tonk.
There was an indoor bull fighting area.
And, we were able to get up close to the trophy, which was nice considering that TU didn't bring it home. Yes, we lost, but i'll get to that later.

The next day was the Wives Day out, but MC woke up around 5, and continued to cry until 6:30 that morning. So, I cancelled the babysitter we had hired and stayed in with the girls. That afternoon we braved the traffic and headed to a mall just to get out of the hotel. Thankfully, MC felt better and that evening two of the coaches daughters watched the girls so DJ and I could enjoy the Comedy night followed by dinner.

I have never been to a comedy show, but we went to an improv place and let me tell you, it was fabulous and so funny! I think that we need to find one in Tulsa so DJ and I can have a date night!

The next day was busy. We had to repack all of our suitcases and get everything loaded in to the truck so DJ could take it over to our new hotel. I could have driven with the police escort, but I was so nervous about the traffic, that I decided to ride the bus.
We arrived at the hotel, found our room, and I was going stir crazy, because we ended up sitting on the bus for over an hour before it finally left the hotel in Ft. Worth for the hotel in Dallas, so we walked around outside because it was another beautiful day.

Once DJ finished setting up the meeting rooms, we picked up his mother from the airport, came back to the hotel and opened Christmas gifts!
MC got this super adorable purse, that G has really enjoyed playing with!
We gave my mother-in-law a Tulsa sweatshirt to wear to the game.
And, Nana gave G an American Girl doll.

That evening I decided that the girls and I would skip the TU bowl bash for some shopping at the Galleria mall, plus, my mother in law would not have been able to go, so this gave us some more time to spend together.

Our first stop at the Galleria mall was to the American Girl store. I wanted to buy an outfit for G's doll, and my mother in law decided to go ahead and get MC a Bitty Baby.
I tried to somewhat document it, because I took a crazy amount of pictures the first time we took G to the American Girl store in Chicago, but I maybe only took 2-3 pictures! Like I said, keeping up with the girls and lugging around a 50 lb. diaper bag was enough in itself!

Afterwards, we walked through Saks and I tried on a $500.00 Jimmy Choo shoe, and yes, I fell in love. Had our per diem money covered the cost of that shoe I would have bought it, and then DJ probably would have shot me. I thought about snapping a picture of that baby on my tootsies, but I thought it might be in poor taste, so I digressed.
The Galleria had this amazing Christmas tree in the center of the ice skating rink. G has been talking about ice skating for the past several weeks, I'm assuming she saw it on t.v. so she was really fascinated by this, and we ate pizza downstairs so she could see the ice skaters. I think next year we'll have to break down and take her.
Afterwards, we tried to do a little bit of shopping, but I was pooped, so we let G work the runway in this store. She was having a blast!

We eventually went back to the hotel and to bed. The next day was game day and we had to be up by 6 am (no kidding)......

Armed Forces Bowl: Day 1&2

We spent this last week at the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, Texas. I was so excited about going, because I hadn't been to the Dallas area in some time. Our first day was spent unpacking the hotel that we would be living in for the next 4 days. We took the computer, so G could watch some of the DVDs that she received for Christmas. I also tried writing this same blog post while we were there, but the internet connection was awful.
We brought a few toys with us (because as a parent, you know you need something to keep your kid's sane while away from home!) And, our bed was big enough that MC was able to lay and play around.

DJ spent his entire afternoon setting up his makeshift office and the meetings room, as well as going to practice and editing film. The girls and I also hung out with a friend and her little boy, and then we went to the "hospitality suite" to have dinner.

The next day, the girls and I got up and ran to Target with some coaches wives, because we had obviously not brought enough things of our own!

I needed a nap that morning, because MC woke up super early, but once we felt rested, we headed out to explore downtown Ft. Worth.
We stayed across the street from their convention center, and they had a really neat water fountain park. We explored a few of them, and then caught "Molly the Trolly" so we could ride around and explore.
We got off the trolley and G and I shared a chocolate chip gelato! It was divine!
And, we saw where Santa had been just a few days before! There was a ginormous tree and other fun things for us to see.

Next, we explored some of the shops downtown.
Here's G in front of a lamp post with an Armed Forces bowl flag hanging from it.
Here she is on the trolley. She absolutely loved riding the trolley. She made up a song about the trolley to the tune of Rudolph, and she kept talking about it all week!

Weekend ReCap

I was so excited for Friday, because that meant that our weekend had arrived! Last week was long and very busy work wise, so it was nice to enjoy these last two days with DJ and the girls.

I'm loving our home football game schedule here. Typically, DJ doesn't get home on a Friday night until 11 pm, but here, he's home around 7:30, because TU holds their game day meetings on Saturday mornings. So, DJ and I actually get to spend a Friday night together! But, I did spend part of the evening making hair bows.

Saturday morning was spent cleaning and baking. I made homemade applesauce, and went ahead and froze some of it, because MC will be starting baby food in about 6 weeks! I also made homemade tortilla's, and I swear I'll never buy a package of store bought again! These were super easy, and they taste great.

DJ was home for about two hours on Saturday afternoon, between morning meetings, and time for him to be at the office. We watched the Michigan game, and sadly the Wolverine's lost their first game of the season.

After DJ left, the rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for the TU game.
G decided to wear her cheerleading outfit again, and I put MC in G's first football dress. It was a little bit, but I want her to wear it a little more than G did... it was just to cold for G to wear it to our BSU games while we were there.
G wanted to see daddy before the game, so we called him down from his 'office' and managed to get our first family picture of the season!

We're fortunate enough to be able to go inside the coaches offices to watch the football game, which allows me a chance to actually watch and not be afraid that G will fall off the bleachers or that she'll run too far. She has a great time playing with the other kids on staff.

We only stayed through the third quarter. I needed to get the girls in bed and get ready for our family pictures that we had today!

If you're in the Tulsa area, I highly recommend Madison Vining Photography. I first Madison on an online mom's group, and fell in love with her photography style. So when we found out we were moving to Tulsa, I was secretly excited to get to meet her and that she would be able to photograph our family! She has the cutest little two year old boy and an adorable two month old sweet baby girl!

Our pictures went great and I can't wait to see how they turned out. We met at the Tulsa Garden Center, and i'm thinking we'll do photos again there in the spring- at least for the girls, because the grounds were gorgeous!

We promised G ice cream if she cooperated through pictures, and for the most part she did very well- although, she wanted to be a camera hog during parts of it!

After ice cream, we came home and I somehow managed to get both girls down for a nap, and I napped with them. I will say that this was not the most fun process, but i'm thankful that we all finally fell asleep.
After our naps, I took G outside so she could paint. She's been asking to paint a canvas for her bedroom, so I picked a small one up at Hobby Lobby and gave her colors that matched her bedroom and let her paint away.
MC hung out in her exersaucer while we sat outside to paint and then play. The weather was gorgeous in the high 80s, and I just keep remind myself that it would never be this nice right now in Indiana- there's no where else i'd rather be than here!

Picnic and TU Fountains

TU had a scrimage game this morning, so I packed up the girls and we went. We had a fabulous time getting to know the coaches wives and kids!

And afterwards, we were able to have a picnic with DJ and let G play in the TU fountains. Lunch consisted of pb&j, grapes, and chips, but since it was TUs move-in weekend, there were ice-cream trucks driving through campus offering free ice cream, so we all had a treat!

MC spent the picnic chillin' on the towel.

It was so nice to spend some time with DJ this afternoon! He's been going in to work around 5:30 am and not getting home until 8:30. We miss him! G had a fabulous time running through the fountains, playing with her bucket in the water, and walking along the outside tiny wall, practicing her "balance beam" act.

I even took MC over to the puddles and let her stick her feet in the water; she loved it!

Meet the Players

A few weeks ago we were able to take the girls to the football office, so the players could be introduced to the staff's families. Of course, I had to take a few photos and make their football hair bows! Although, I did not have time to complete their football outfits for the season! But, MC was all smiles before we left the house!

And G finally cooperated for a picture! I went ahead and made G a pigtail set of bows rather than one large over the top bow, but i'm thinking I might make each of them another because I have enough ribbon left over!

That evening, we explored daddy's office for a while, chatted with the secretaries, and then went upstairs to meet the team pastor and have a little devosional. I'm thrilled that we're working for a staff that is so excited about Christ and realizes the need to include God in many aspects of their program! I know that DJ has commented a few times about them opening their staff meetings with devosionals, which I think is amazing!

Afterwards, we went to the school cafeteria to eat with each other and the players. I can tell you that TUs food is way better than what I endured for 5 years at ASU!

We were introduced to all of the players right after dinner, and that was it!

Thankfully the girls behaved and I hope we made a good first impression.