Christ - the Real gift of Christmas

Hi again....just had to share something else.
Bryan found this section on our church's website full of activities, video clips, music, etc. to help us have a more Christ-centered Christmas. I have been looking for some ways for our family to slow down and enjoy this Christmas, remembering the real meaning of the holiday....our Savior. I was touched by some of the videos and activities and thought I would share. Just click the widget on the sidebar and enjoy!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Inspiration

Hi! In the last couple of weeks I have come across this quote twice, and I love it. So many great reminders in one paragraph! Just thought I would share it. Hopefully I will be back soon with pictures of our recent adventures!

"Life is not a race-but indeed a journey. Be honest. Work hard. Be choosy. Say "thank you," "I love you," and "great job" to someone each day. Go to church, take time for prayer. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. Let your handshake mean more than pen and paper. Love your life and what you've been given, it is not accidental-search for your purpose and do it as best you can. Dreaming does matter. It allows you to become that which you aspire to be. Laugh often. Appreciate the little things in life and enjoy them. Some of the best things really are free. Do not worry, less wrinkles are more becoming. Forgive, it frees the soul. Take time for yourself-plan for longevity. Recognize the special people you've been blessed to know. Live for today, enjoy the moment."

- Bonnie Mohr

Halloween Fun

Happy Halloween!

We hope you enjoyed the tricks and treats of the holiday.

We had a fun Halloween this year.

With Halloween falling on a Sunday, we opted to just do our trick-or-treating at the ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday night. The kids had a blast! I noticed while we were at the church that Joshua had just as much fun handing candy out as he did getting it, so on Sunday we had the kids dress up in their costumes again and let them hand the candy out to the trick-or-treaters that stopped by.

They loved it!

Joshua sat in the front room for about an hour watching for the next trick-or-treater.

He would get so excited every time someone came.

I loved realizing that his excitement for the holiday

had very little to do with collecting mounds of candy.

And here are the fabulous costume selections for 2010:

Grace started out wanting to be a ballerina,

then she switched to a fairy,

but she couldn't seem to leave out the princess in her completely.

So...we ended up following the "when in doubt just do them all" theory

and ended up with a ballerina fairy princess!

Mr. Joshua wanted to be Spiderman from the beginning.

I even offered to buy him the costume with the awesome muscles sewn into it,

but he just wanted the simple one.

He had been wanting the costume for quite some time, so it was fun to go to

Walmart and make his dreams come true for only $12. :)

Grace had to take a flying picture...she is a fairy after all!



Cute, Cute, Cute.

Hope y'all had a fun Halloween!

Recent Happenings

Haven't blogged in a while simply because of my laziness, but I am back! :)

Here are some pictures of our recent adventures:

Last spring after the Father-son camp out, Grace insisted that they needed to have a Father-Son-Daughter camp out. Notice 'Mother' was not included in the line up!

So....

enjoy these cute pictures of the

Guymon Family First Annual Father-Son-Daughter camp out!

while mom went shopping by herself.....

and spent money only on herself....

I'd say being left behind worked out okay. :)

The campsite...

not quite camping in the mountains,

but it certainly gets the job done!

The kids were thrilled!

Cute pictures of the kiddos that Bryan took.

Apparently the campsite was also a great photo spot.

I'm thinking I may have to take the kids down there for

a little Halloween Costume Photo Shoot

Next we have been enjoying some fabulous

SOCCER GAMES!

The season is almost over now, we only have three games left.

And since it was my first time coaching I am very happy to say that we have done quite well.

We start with pretty basic rules here and we only play 3 on 3 (no goalies).

In fact, the refs don't even keep score, but I try to in my head because that is always the first question the boys ask me when the game is over....Did we win?!

Well,

we lost the first two, tied the next three,

and won the last two!

And...

Joshua has scored two goals!

Which means he has now scored two more than either of his parents ever did. :)

He has improved so much since the last season, it is awesome!

Miss Grace keeps herself entertained by playing with her friend Mya and

pestering the players that are sitting out.

Look at her face....being a little flirt and she is only 3!

This is the picture Bryan got of Joshua the first time he took a shot on the goal.

Like I said, he has improved a ton since last time he played, so just the fact that he would take a shot at the goal was fabulous to me!

And then he actually made two!

And lastly,

we have a little sneaky peak at the kids Halloween costumes!

Can't reveal the whole costumes just yet, kinda like you can't open presents before Christmas. :)

They both knew what they wanted to be weeks ago, so they have been getting lots of dress up time out of their costumes!

Bet you can't guess who Joshua wanted to be! ;)

Joshua the Artist

Our Joshua has never been all that interested in drawing or coloring,

but that has changed since going to kindergarten, and I am loving the 'artistic' results!

Yesterday he sat down and was drawing a bunch of people.

I asked him who he was drawing and he said his family.

Naturally, or maybe self-centeredly, (yep, it's a word....now!)

I assumed he would draw himself, Bryan, Grace, and me.

Well, I was wrong!

He drew his grandparents and then Uncle Todd (my brother), Aunt Elaine (his wife), and our cousin-to-be, Blob.

(At least that is what we are calling the baby until he is born and we find out his real name!)

Then he wanted me to label Todd, Elaine, and the baby so we could email it to them and they could see his masterpiece!

Personally,

My favorite part is how tiny the baby is,

but Elaine's hair is definitely a close second!

Adjusting....

Yes, we are adjusting to Joshua being in school.

In some ways I really love it:

We've met some new people,

I love that JBG loves school so much

and I love to see him learning and growing,

It is a lot easier to run errands with just one 'helper,'

and it certainly gets us all up and moving a lot earlier in the day!

But

We still really miss him when he's gone (for 7 whole hours!).

I was thinking about that and I decided that it's a good thing

and I hope I never stop missing him when he is away.

Anyway,

Grace and I have been having a grand ol' time at home.

We read a LOT of books, go to story time at the library,

and play multiple board/card games a day.

In fact, I hit my limit of games today.....

I don't think I can handle playing anymore, at least for a couple of days!

Candyland, Memory, Go Fish, Monopoly Jr., Disney Scene It.....you name it, we play it.

(Until Mom goes crazy, of course, and we have to put a freeze on all games!)

Other random happenings:

The kids have taken a liking to playing in my scrapbook room. It's quite funny because they don't just play in there, they use my tools and things for cars, airplanes, fences, roads, etc. for their little people. At least someone had been getting some use out of my things lately. :)

We built an awesome couch fort the other day.

The kids loved it.

They sat in it while we watched Meet the Robinsons, their favorite movie of late.

Soccer season has started!

This fall I bit the bullet and decided to coach Joshua's team.

So far it is going okay, I think, but it's pretty hard to tell until that first game, so I will let you know how I am doing for sure after Saturday. :)

We are the red DRAGONS!

Go Dragons!!!!

And you may have noticed that picture looked especially nice....

that's because Grandpa Guymon was in town for a couple of days, of course!

YAY!

We love when grandparents come for a visit.

Bryan and his brothers, bro-in-law, and dad met in Dallas for a quick boys weekend of watching the Texas Rangers v. Yankees and then they drove up to Norman, OK for an OU game. Quite the weekend!

Anyway, Grandpa stopped off for a couple of days before heading back to Utah.

We were so glad to have him here!

Grace was in heaven to have someone else around to read to her and play games with her, and Joshua loved having Grandpa come eat lunch with him at school!

Of course while he was in town we had to have a family photo shoot.

I'll put up some others once we get them cropped and everything,

but here is one of my favorites:

We were trying to capture the whole West Texas vibe....I think we got it!

Nothing like a train and some High School Football T-shirts to say West Texas. :)

Speaking of which, tonight is the Homecoming FB game.

Don't worry, I will take lots of pictures, it's quite the experience to see!

Good luck Harvesters.......you're going to need it! :)

My life has changed forever.....

It is true.

Joshua started school yesterday, and now life, as I knew it, has changed.

I'm sorry if this is all mushy, but really, I have been so much more sentimental about this than I thought I would be.

I cry even now as I write about it!

Yeah, I'm a bawl baby, it's a fact, let's move on.... :)

Here is Joshua the morning of his first day of school!

He was so excited, 'and a little nervous', as he would tell everyone.

I was A LOT nervous.

Daddy got up early just to make him Cinnamon Twists....

which Joshua was to nervous/anxious to eat! :)

Thanks anyway, Dad!

Our Kindergarten Man, all ready to go:

I love his smile in that picture.

It's his true, 'I'm really happy right now' smile.

That was a good sign. :)

And then Grace and I took him to school.

(I have to interject a little story about why Bryan wasn't there. So Bryan had been planning all along to go with us to take JBG to school that day. The night before school starts one of the Attorneys calls and asks Bryan if he can be at a docket call the next morning in a town that is over an hour away. Due to a short moment of Amnesia, you know, that happens sometimes, Bryan forgets what the next day is! I'm in the other room and I hear Bryan say "yeah, sure, I don't have anything tomorrow morning, I can do that." I'm thinking - WHAT?! But it is too late. He gets off the phone and realizes what tomorrow is, but it was too late to do anything about it..... we were very sad. Joshua, of course, was fine with it, he was just excited he is going to school. But Bryan and I were SO sad we couldn't all do this together! So he was there in spirit!)

Here is Joshua in front of his school.

He was so excited, but the closer we got to the classroom the more you could see the nervousness creep into his face!

We helped him hang up his bag and lunchbox, and then there was nothing to do but hug him and walk away....so we did.

But then we stood in the hall to watch for a minute and make sure he was okay. It took him a few minutes to work up the nerve to play with the other kids. He just kind of stood there and watched for a minute.

Finally he sat down and he looked up and caught us watching him!

Grace and I then went to the library for a "Tears and Cheers" meeting for kindergarten parents with the booster club and principal. On the way out we went and peeked at Joshua one more time, and this is what we found:

Sitting at his desk coloring away like an old pro.
(He caught us peeking at him again!)
We stopped at the office on our way out and I ran into the librarian, who happens to be in our ward. She's a sweet lady, and bless her heart, she told me she'd check on him for me.
I could have hugged her right then and there, but then I would have started crying, which would have ruined my goal of making it back to the car before I gave in to that, so I didn't hug her.
But I was sure grateful to see her there.
See, we've only lived here for a year, so we don't know all that many people in the community, mostly people from church. We have three kids from church start kindergarten at this school this year, and the other two are together in a different class. So Joshua didn't know a single person in that room, and it was SOOO hard for me to leave him there knowing that.
I think it will really end up being a good thing for him, a good way for him to make more friends and for me to meet more people in the community, but, gosh, it made leaving him hard.
So I was so gratful when Marie offered to check on him. It meant a lot.
And I really did make it back to the car before I cried.....
then I bawled all the way home.
Grace gave me a hug and told me I needed to try not to cry...
thanks, Grace, that made me smile through my tears, at least!
Thankfully the day went quickly and before we knew it we were on our way to pick him up.
{I will admit, though, that during the day I checked the answering machine several times, certain that he would need me and the school would have called...no such luck! :) }
He had a great time, he was telling me all about PE and Music and Recess and the pictures they colored and about how he didn't really eat all of his lunch he just threw it away :), and how he played with his classmates, but he couldn't remember their names.
And now each day is just another day of school for him.
Already this morning he didn't want to get out of bed so early!
And today he remembered a classmate's name....Betty.
So for him it's old hat now.
But for me it is still an adjustment.
I miss the sound of my kids playing together.
{Another confession: after he got home today and they were playing together I snuck a video of it so I could always have that sound - I told you I am extremely sappy and blubbery about this!}
Grace follows me around like a mostly silent shadow.
I don't think either of us are quite sure what to do without him.
But we will figure it out, I am certain, and we'll probably play A LOT of Candyland and Go Fish!
She's going to be my right hand woman, that girl.
I am looking forward to some one-on-one time with her, we have never really had that.
But y'all just better pray that I have another baby to keep me company by the time she goes to kindergarten.....or I'll really be a MESS then!

Miss Alyssa Jean

This is my sister Alyssa.

Isn't she cute?

She let me take pre-mission pictures of her when we were visiting last week.

It was fun, because she is cute {and she sits still, unlike some children I know}. :)

Alyssa entered the Missionary Training Center today...

The first day of her year and a half mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

So I guess she's not Alyssa anymore, she is officially Sister Henke!

She will be serving in St. Louis, Missouri.

We are going to miss her... A LOT.

But,

she is going to be a wonderful missionary.

I'm excited to hear about all the things she learns and the people she teaches.

I'm excited to see who she becomes through the next year and a half.

Not that you will see this, but

WE LOVE YOU, ALYSSA!

Finally the Fourth :)

Didn't you love the three day weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July? The 4th is one of my favorite holidays, so I really enjoyed having three days to celebrate it!

We started our celebrations on Saturday the 3rd by going to a small town about an hour from here for a parade. I tell you, there is nothing quite like small town celebrations! :)

Another family from our ward was up there too, so we met up with them for the parade.

I kept looking for a parade route so we would know where to sit, and all I could find was "Parade, 10:00, Courthouse lawn." Well, it turns out that this parade went completely around one block, the Courthouse block ....and that was it! But, it lasted almost and hour! I was so surprised because here in town our parades usually last about 10 minutes...so you'd better not be late or you miss it {yes, I'm speaking from experience! :)}

Anyway, it was a fun parade and afterwards we even got to witness our first turtle races in the courthouse parking lot.

The kids LOVED waving to everyone in the parade, so I had to go
across the street and snap a pic!

A quick family picture on our favorite picture-taking bridge:

{it's always an adventure with the self timer!}

Then Sunday evening we went and parked on the side of the road to watch the fireworks show. Turns out that is the thing to do around here. Everyone lines up on the overpass of the highway loop - - you get a nice high view that way. :)

The kids had a BLAST at the fireworks. To quote them exactly,

Grace said, "This is the BEST DAY EVER!!"

Joshua kept saying "Wow, Awesome" over and over

and then all the sudden he says "Guys! I'm really enjoying this!"

Cute kids!

We had great seats,

and this was our view:

Then Monday morning our ward had a flag raising ceremony, bike parade, and brunch.

The scouts put up the flag

and then the primary kids {that were in town, we were few in numbers!} sang America the Beautiful:

Then we had the bike parade....

Grace and Daddy

Joshua

The kids loved decorating their bikes.

It was so fun to see them so excited about the Fourth!

I am grateful for the fun and excitement that these two kiddos find in such simple things.

I quite often find myself tyring to follow their example!

A little time with the Fam.

This upcoming weekend is bound to be a little quiet after all of the fun we had last weekend!

We were lucky enough to have my WHOLE family come visit from Utah! YAY! If only the trip could have been longer. My grandparents and my aunt, uncle, and cousins also joined us for a few days, so it was quite the party! We played games, went shopping, saw Toy Story 3 - great movie, btw- played Frisbee golf, went to the temple, and basically had a grand ol' time.

I was so glad they could all come, and it was nice to be able to actually fit that many people in our home - there is no way we could have in our old apartment! :)

Monday night we set up the tripod and took a few family pictures. Figured it was a good opportunity since we were all together. My brother and his wife live in Alaska, and my sister is getting ready to leave on a mission for the LDS church to Missouri, so these times may unfortunately be too few over the next couple of years....Okay....don't make me cry!

Happy thoughts....

Here are the cute pictures!

I thought they turned out pretty well considering we were using a tripod and a remote, and considering the fact that Grace doesn't usually smile or look at the camera for pictures. :)

Chances of getting her to do both at the same time are slim to none, really....but she is mine and I love her anyway!

AAWWwww.......How Cute!

Yeah, she's multilingual:)

This little girl totally thinks she is multilingual, and it cracks me up! HILARIOUS!

The other day we were driving home from the store and all the sudden she starts going off....

"Mom, do you know how to say lunch in Spanish?"

"How?"

"LUNCHEA!"

(accent on the eA! and said with lots of gusto and flourish)

"Really!"

"Do you know how to say dinner in Spanish?"

"How?"

"DINA!"

(Again, said with much gusto and the accent on the a!)

"Wow!"

"Do you know how to say ribbit in Spanish?"

"How?"

"RIBBA!"

And she went on to list a few more "spanish" words for me, none of which are correct, although she actually does know a few real Spanish words.

Those words, it turns out, she thinks are Russian words because they are different from the correct "Spanish" words that she has made up!

i.e. Leche is a word she knows, and she know it means milk, but she thinks it is the Russian word for milk. :)

I personally like her made up words. She says them with such flair!

Love it! Grace is always thinking up something to make us laugh!

And here are a few cute pictures from a couple of weekends ago.

ENJOY!

A Pinkalicious Day!

"It was a rainy day, too wet to go outside.

'Let's make cupcakes,' Mommy said, 'what color do you want?'

'PINK!' I said, 'Pink, pink, PINK!'"

Anybody recognize this?!

Yes, it is the first few lines of one of our favorite books called

'PINKALICOUS'!

We love this book at our house.

Grace especially loves it, as she loves all things pink. She practically has the book memorized....as do I, by the way, I didn't have to look up any of those words, they came straight from the old memory! :)

Anyway, on to the real story....

Grace had been telling me for the last week or so that she wanted to make pink cupcakes like Pinkalicious, but when I offered to make them the other day she said no because it wasn't raining like it was in the book - DUH, Mom!

Well, lo and behold, it POURED pretty much all day here on Friday, so we had to take the opportunity to have our pink-cupcake-baking-extravaganza....except that Joshua insisted that his cupcakes not be pink, but vanilla, so technically we had a pink-and-vanilla-cupcake-making-extravaganza!

Okay, interjection - isn't this the cutest apron EVER!? My mom made it for Grace for her birthday, and she loves to wear it every time she helps out in the kitchen! It's quite perfect for a pink-cupcake-baking girly girl!

YYUMMMM!!! Next time it is raining you'll have to stop by...who knows

what we'll be cooking up!

'Mother...Schmother' by Joshua and Grace

Part 1:

I had this great idea to take a picture of the kids holding a sign saying 'happy mother's day!' for their grandmas. I tried to get them all pumped by telling them how much their grandmas would love the pic, it would mean so much, etc.

Even with all my enthusiasm, this was still the best face I could get from

Grace, a.k.a. Grumpy Gills.

So Grandmas,

We love you!

even if we look like doing something nice for you brings us great pain! :)

Part 2:

So I am leaving in about an hour and a half to go to the big city for a weekend scrapbooking retreat! I am so excited!!!! I've been telling the kids that I would be gone for a day and a half and that Daddy would be here with them the whole time I was gone. Apparently the kids are as excited for this weekend as I have been. Observe:

I was just in the laundry room folding some clothes when Joshua walked in and asked me if today was the day that I was going scrapbooking. I said yes, expecting him to say he was going to miss me and maybe even give me a little hug. BOY WAS I WRONG! He yells this huge YEAH!! and starts to chant "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" all while dancing around the kitchen! From the living room I can hear Grace pick up the chant "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"

So much for missing mom! My goodness....I should go away more often! :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
to all the mothers in our lives!!!

Hola! and some adventures in 5 year old soccer

I have to apologize for my poor neglected blog! Somehow blogging always seems to take me FOR-EV-ER....so I have been putting it off. :)

Anyway, I wanted to share these pictures from Joshua's first soccer game a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun (and, admittedly, a little bit of stress for the soccer mom) to watch him play!

He had never played before (besides in our front yard), and since we had been out of town he had missed the first two practices, so I was a little worried about what he would do.

The good news is that he is a very fast runner, he has a really strong kick, and he is super-dee-dooper excited about soccer! He loves to go to his games and practices, and he LOVES to wear his uniform. I think he wore it everyday that first week! He's cute.

Slightly less good news....

is that he thinks soccer is a game of sharing, bless his sweet heart!

He would run and catch up with the other team when they took the ball down the field, but he wouldn't kick it from them, he would just run beside them.

(Meanwhile mom is on the side lines screaming her lungs out - "KICK the ball, KICK the ball!! and realizing with every scream that she is behaving just like her parents did at her soccer games - yes, I have reached that moment when I find myself doing things just like my parents, things I said I would never do as a parent!)

After the first game we get in the car and I asked Joshua if he knew he was supposed to kick the ball away from the other team and take it.

He said "But mom, we are supposed to take turns!"

Well, at least I've taught him one thing, right?

So now we tell him we always want to take turns except when we are playing soccer - then you take that ball and runaway with it!

a little pre-game advice from

the CALM soccer parent. :)

And these are our cute kids on Easter - they were trying not to smile fore the picture...

obviously Grace is a little more practiced at grumpy faces than Joshua is!