Ryan and Lisa Get Married

My cousin, Ryan, got married this past weekend! We knew it was going to be a great family fun weekend! He and his new wife, Lisa, have been planning this beautiful event and when we woke up to pouring rain and cold temps, we all were a little worried that they were going to be able to have the outdoor wedding they planned. But all cooperated and the rain stopped an hour or two before!! It was a chilly 59 degrees, but they got to go through with everything they had planned!

Ryan and I were best friends growing up! We had so much in common, (ie, a love for sports, video games, and basketball cards, yes- I was "that" kind of girl!) and we always enjoyed being around each other! To this day, I love the time I get to spend with Ryan, although those times are few and far between! So to be there and watch him get married was just as exciting for me as it was for him!

They got married at Lone Summit Ran in Lee's Summit, MO. It was a beautiful location and I couldn't imagine their wedding being held anywhere else! The reception barwas dazzling and filled with lots of pretty accessories!

The kids' favorite part was probably the miniature golf place outside the reception barn, the playground behind the barn, and big lawn Jenga blocks out front, but the show stopper was definitely the dancing! All four boys danced their little booties off! I took over 15 videos of Grant dancing because he was just cracking me up with all his moves- "The Worm," "The Church Dance," "The Boogie." They were just awesome to watch!!
It was a great day celebrating a great man and his new bride!!
So proud of you Ryan!! Love you!

His face when he saw Lisa walk down the aisle was priceless!! His first reaction was, "Woah!" And his second reaction was smiling for ear to ear, choking back tears! How could you not feel the love?!

 My other cousin, Chris, looking ever so dapper!

My cousin, Courtney, Ryan's sister, looked beautiful as a bridesmaid!

 My mom and dad!

 The one picture of us we get taken every 6 months or so!

 My dad!

 PawPaw and his four crazy boys!!

 I'm a lucky girl!!

 My mom!

The Smreker family, minus those in the wedding party. I sure do love my family!

Out for an Quick Adventure

My boys are in a rut.  A sibling rivalry rut, which means they're missing out on a lot of brotherly love. There's been lots of tattling, lots of whining, lots of "Bubba, quit it! I don't like that!," lots of complaining, lots of disciplining. It's all really a big big bummer. I remember my sister and I having our little squabbles, but we always seemed to enjoy endless hours of play regardless. I'm not even sure the culprit. Maybe they are spending too much time together (they literally spend every waking AND sleeping moment together, minus 1.5 hours during school time). Maybe its the times. Maybe its the age gap. Maybe its our lifestyle. I don't know, but either way, its kind of breaking my heart and I hope it gets resolved soon. 

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On a lighter note, I actually got them to head out on an "adventure" today. The weather this weekend is GORGEOUS!! And I didn't want them wasting anytime indoors. After a long bike trailer ride with Levi this morning and a quick lunch, I sent them outside to ride bikes. After that fun was over in 5 minutes (See? rut....) I told them to go get their adventure gear on. That usually involves alot of accessories. Then they happily took off in the gator for a trip around the field. Unfortunately the field was dry, very uneven and filled with monster weeds, so their gator kept getting stuck. They spun circles and investigated some critters, plants, and found a new "species" of rock. Kind of a cool deal! Again, about 5 minutes later they were done. It was a very quick adventure. (See? rut...) But I did manage to capture their cuteness while it lasted.

A Late Summer's Evening

We've been enjoying some pretty nice weather this weekend! Although I'm ready to say goodbye to Summer and Hello Fall!! 

But I decided to snap some photos of the boys by the sunflowers before they are no longer. Definitely not how I was envisioning them turning out- ie, dressed coordinating with their hair combed and nice shoes on- but my boys are cute no matter what, so what the heck! Outside grubby clothes and bike helmets can be appropriate too I suppose! Maybe I'll get lucky and grab them looking dapper after school one day this week! 

But for now, enjoy the casual cuteness of my sweet 5.5 year old and 3.5 year old (Happy 1/2 Birthday my babies!!!!)!! 

 Behind the clubhouse is a HUGE field of sunflowers. Hard to tell anymore since they've about all dried up, but we still have a few beautiful ones that look just like this...

Oklahoma Living

We love our house! We love the location of our house! It will be hard to move, whenever that time comes, because we love the whole set up we've got going on! Lots of land to roam and explore. A quiet street and culdesac to ride bikes and scooters up and down safely! We've got it going on!

Lately, we've had fields and fields on wild sunflowers all over the place. I LOVE them! Makes me feel like I'm in Kansas! Some of the bunches of sunflowers are well over 6 ft tall!!

See my little man, stuck in a field of super tall sunflowers!!

We've also got these little flowering weeds down by the pond that are the sweetest shade of purple. They're even sweeter when they're picked and given by these little hands...

And I can't document our time in Oklahoma without mentioning our resident turtle, Baxter. He's lived by our house for as long as we've been here. You can usually find him most mornings roaming around the perimeter of the house somewhere, and usually hanging out on our back patio when its about to rain. We love going outside before leaving for school to see who can find Baxter first!! It's like having a pet without having a pet!

And to add to the fun and excitement around here, our landlord is building a new house right next to Aiden and Shayen's old house. That means big dirt piles, construction rubble, and an empty foundation for running around playing zombies with Sidney and Logan...yep, that happened today!!

I may make fun of living in Oklahoma, more specifically in Enid, but honestly, I couldn't imagine a much better living situation. Well, yeah I guess if all these things happened in Kansas! But I'm happy with what we have!!

Wyatt @ 3.5

My-my my little Wy-Wy...how is it that you are half way to 4 already!?! Time flies!! You are just as cute and spunky as ever my little man!

You are loving your first year at preschool and you act like you've been there forever! You got the routine down easy peasy and have loved every second you've been at school! You love having Bubba there, which is why I think you're so comfortable. Plus, most of your friends from church are also in your preschool. You love playing with Brady and Avri, and Bubba too of course! I love listening to you sing all your songs from school, so stinkin adorable!! You're such a smart little booger!

You learned how to ride your big boy bike-no training wheels-last month and you've enjoyed tooling around the driveway and culdesac ever since. You are on one of your bikes every chance you can get! You've also got a pretty mighty swing on your t-ball set. We haven't ever had you in an organized sport of any kind, but I think when you get the chance, you'll excel!

You are still super attached to your lovey and thumb! You often tell your lovey, "I love you Teddy Lovey." Luckily your teeth don't show any signs of thumbsucking, so it least its not doing you any harm. Someday we will break you of it...maybe. I have to admit, I find it adorable ;-) But I could do without you chewing on your lovey and finding it all wet and slobbery...

You still love watching Max and Ruby in my bed and ask to do so quite often. You do love playing Imaginext and Switch N Go Dinos and Rescue Bots with Grant. You haven't quite jumped on the Lego bandwagon yet, but I'm sure time will fix that. You do love playing board games and ask to play them quite often. You love playing Busytown, Jokers Fun House, and Zingo.

You're learning how to write your name, which I just adore. Grant never has any interest in writing just for the sake of writing. But you ask how to write letters and want to know how to spell things all the time. I love your thirst for knowledge- kind of a teachers dream! I hope it continues as you get older!

You still seem small to me- 30 pounds and i think 36" tall, although you seem to be going through a growth spurt, so I imagine those numbers will change soon! You are wearing size 3 shorts, 2t/3t shorts, and size 8.5-9 shoe. You want to ONLY wearing boxer briefs and look SUPER adorable when you do!! 

You are still as silly as cute as can be! You say the funniest things!! I could literally write a book of the things you say each day. Yesterday you said, "I love you Mom because you always do the bestest nicest things for me." You often tell me to ask you why you're so cute- you're response: "Because my mom is so beautiful!" I was trained to say that as a child and I'm glad I've passed it on! 

I just love the cute, sweet, little Mommy's boy that you are- tears, smiles, whines, giggles, and all!! Just one more thing: NO MORE GROWING!!!!

Grant @ 5.5

Its hard for me to even type these words, let alone believe that you are halfway to six years old!! It just blows my mind. Makes me a little sad to think you're growing up so fast, but also so proud to see the big boy you're becoming!

You started your second year of preschool, or I guess pre-K. You're the oldest one at school, but not by much. Although you're not the tallest, much to your dismay! You're proud to be the oldest, and I often tell you that means you have to set the best example. Not so sure you like that responsibility, but you're enjoying your year! You love playing with Owen and Brady, and of course, your little brother! I think you secretly like having him at school with you! You're doing great with your handwriting- getting better each month! We still have progress to make though! Recently you've been into wanting to do basic addition facts as we're in the car. You want to know what 2+3 is, and so on and so on. You're doing great reading your BOB books as well!! I'm so proud of how hard you work, when you want to, that is!

You're still doing speech therapy twice a week, seeing your psychologist twice a month, and are currently not doing OT anymore. Our time allotment ran out last week, so we are trying to get a new referral for a new therapist. You've made HUGE strides, but still have a ways to go before you're kindergarten ready next year! Hoping the referral process gets worked out soon.

You still love playing with your Imaginext toys and Switch N Go Dinos. And you're ALWAYS building something with Legos! You still specialize in making airplanes and cars. You even keep your creations on a shelf in your bedroom (so they stay safe) which you refer to as your "Private Collection" You're so proud of all the things you create. I'm always astounded at the amazing ideas you come up with! You still love all your stuffed animals! You take such good care of Cuddles- I love watching you play "dad" with him!

You're growing like a weed- wearing a size 6 shirt, 5 shorts, and 12.5 shoe. I measured you right before school started and you were 43.5 inches tall and 44 pounds. I wouldn't be surprised if you've grown more since then!! You still don't eat foods like I wish you would, but you'll get there...someday.

You love being outside and riding your bike or razor scooter. You love having your basket on your bike to take Cuddles for a ride. You can't wait to be big enough to reach the mailbox so you can put the mail in your basket! (Hate to break it to you, but that probably won't happen while we live at this house!)

You're just growing so big, so smart, so strong, so wonderful! I'm proud of all you've accomplished and the little man you're becoming! I'm proud to be your mom. I can't wait to see the things God has in store for you, because you are one special boy- I can only imagine the places He will take you in life!!

Cherokee Strip Celebration Parade

I'll be the first to admit- we don't "do" things on weekends like we should. We mow the grass, run to Walmart, eat Golden Chick for lunch. I fold laundry and we catch up on TV. We go to church and maybe take a nap on Sundays. We don't typically go "do" things. So when I heard about the Cherokee Strip Celebration going on this weekend in downtown Enid, I figured the parade would be something fun to "do" as a family! We knew we had a days worth of car shopping to do today, but we figured starting the morning off with a parade sounding like a good idea!

It was a brisk and beautiful morning! In fact, Levi took the boys on a bike trailer ride and it was about 60 degrees, they had red, cold little noses! So I was happy to know I wouldn't be sweating my butt off outside at a parade! We got there a little ahead of schedule and actually sat pretty much at the end of the parade, so even though it started at 10:30, we didn't see the first part of the parade until way after that! Lots of old cars, beauty pageant winners, tractors, rescue vehicles, kids on bikes, Shriners on tiny cars, a few handfuls of candy. It was your typical parade and the boys LOVED it! 

We had to see a guy about a car, so we had to leave before the "grand finale" of the parade, which is the running of the steers, which apparently looks a little something like this...

We are in Oklahoma afterall!! I know it would've been a sight to see, but I think the boys enjoyed the sights they did see! It was their very first "real life parade" as Wyatt put it!

We need to go "do" stuff like this more often!

 Always a crazy kid!

Car Troubles

Remember when I posted this picture on Instagram on May 25th?? We were so happy to buy our brand new car, a 2013 Nissan Pathfinder. It had everything we wanted in a car- and trust me, our wishlist is LONG! We traveled a lot this summer in this vehicle and we couldn't be happier driving in this car everyday...

...until it started shuddering. I noticed it randomly around the end of June thinking it was just a fluke. I felt it again a week later, and then I started noticing it more and more frequently. But we had a trip to Oakley, a trip to the lake, and another trip to Oakley planned, so there wasn't a moment to get it in for service. We finally had an open weekend on August 3rd. The technician couldn't find a problem, so after a day in the shop, they sent us on our way. It kept doing it the following week, so back to the shop we went on August 8th. And today, September 9th, it is still there. In the meantime, we've been driving this....

Sure, this Altima looks pretty nice in this picture. But ours is bottom of the line, used, and smells like smoke, and has nothing remotely in common with the car we purchased. It even did this to me one morning- my first day of work to be exact....

Needless to say, we are completely saddened and frustrated by this whole ordeal. The service people and the people at the dealership have been nothing but horrible and worthless, which doesn't give us much hope. Luckily, Oklahoma has a decent Lemon Law, which our car now falls under, so the light at the end of tunnel is close, at least we hope it is. We are hoping to get our money back and get into a new, more reliable vehicle. And while we love everything that Pathfinder had to offer, we will never own a Nissan EVER again!

So the car shopping begins...again!!! 

End of Summer...

What better place to say good-bye to summer than at Meadowlake Park! We had to have our customary End of Summer train ride and snowcones! It was a little warm, but not too bad for a summer evening! The boys love that train so much! It's pretty cute and a fun little family outing! My boys looked pretty spiffy sporting their cool shades during their ride!

 Meadowlake Park really has some beautiful areas, like this one that borders the golf course!

 After the train, when we were nice and hot, we headed over for snowcones! Grant got Polar Punch and Wyatt got Ninja Turtle! What end of summer evening would be complete without snowcones?!?

It was a great evening celebrating a wonderful summer with my wonderful family!! Now...bring on FALL!!!!!

August by iPhone

I was a bad bad mommy blogger in August. I hate when months like this happen...I hardly blogged at all. I only took pictures with my good camera twice. The rest were all from my phone and of very random events. So, now that it we're pushing mid-September, for memory's sake, here is our view of August by iPhone.

 We played at the base park, Grant picked me an anniversary "flower," Grant ate chicken at PF Changs, the boys bought a piece of lumber from Lowes, Wyatt was in Imaginext city, and there was a lot of thumbsucking and lovey snuggling!

 Wyatt played baseball in the front yard, Mommy sprayed the boys with the hose, Wyatt was silly in the tub (as usual!), we ate Smores and Wyatt wanted smore, we spent alot of time at the car dealership (more to come on that!), and the boys went to Mimi and PawsPaws for a weekend and went to Build a Bear!

 We painted with cars, bought school shoes, watched the sunset, Wyatt gave Daddy some snuggles, Wyatt colored at the kitchen table, and we rode bikes ALOT!

All the kids explored out in the field and Wyatt got stuck in the sunflowers, we met Gracie and Luke at Cherry Berry, Grant and Wyatt slept in bed together, Daddy and Grant at dinner, before school snuggles for some cute boys, me and Wyatt at dinner.
It was a great month- end of summer, kids started school, I started working at school. We were tired. We were busy. We were hot. But we had a great month! Even though my blog doesn't reflect doing anything special, our day to day lives are special enough and I'm so happy I can capture these memories...thanks iPhone!

I'm Remembering....

Today, I'm remembering a year ago today when my Grandma passed away. Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought about her. Or heard her voice in my head. Or saw something that reminded me of her. And that's the beauty of life. Even though she is gone, she is not forgotten. God has given us the memories to hold onto forever! And those memories will bring a smile to my face every time! She was an angel on earth and now she's our angel in Heaven. And I can't wait for the day I can see her in Heaven. I know she will greet me with warm and loud, "Helllooooo Bethie!"

This is one of the instances where I can still hear her voice as clear as day....I'll always remember!! She loved her great-grandbabies!!

Papa picked out the most perfect piece to represent the most perfect wife, mother, Grandma, and Gigi.
"To know her was to love her" is definitely an understatement.