Logan and The Grinch

Christmas 2021

Logan is the best older brother ever.  He really enjoyed the  photo shoot.  I think he got tickled when the younger kiddo's were frightened by the Grinch.   

Love how the kids are so unsure but yet Logan is entertained by everything going on around him. 

Where was all these cool ideals when my boys were young?  These photo shoots are so different 

these days. I really need to focus on getting a current photo shoot of our family.  I do have a gift certificate that I received for Christmas several years ago. I really need to get a date set and go forward. 

 

Toys for tots

So at work we were doing a toy drive.  I know that I wanted to contribute a few items.  I went into my Christmas totes and dug out several small items to give this year.  During the year I buy items on sale and place in my Christmas/Birthday totes.  With having  12 adults and 8 grandchildren buying gifts is a big issue.  I always like to keep gifts on hand.  

I do think the journal, lotion and sugar scrub will be big hits for teenagers. For the younger boys a set of 3 cars and the beyblade. Then the Clue and the Walking Dead game (not picture) for older kids. 

I wish I would have went thru the other tote I have as well. I am sure I could have found a few more items to give.  

With me trying to budget each payday I really would like to save money to use toward a child that is on a Angel Tree.  I have always wanted to sponsor a child.  Have not due to not having the budget in place.  Like so many others come Christmas I am doing good to buy my family gifts.  

 

Christmas Cubicle decorations 2021

I enjoy decorating my work cubicle.  I of course have to have my go to items in the picture. My sweet tea cup that my BFF got me for my birthday.  Cherrie thank you so much!! I love to jot down notes down thru the day.  My posh hand lotion in my favorite scent of Down Dirty.  Smells so good it has Watermint and Lavender scents.  

Any cards I receive from co-workers  I will be placing on my wall.  I still need to get some garland and a tree topper.  I can't remember to look for one while out and about when shopping.  

I need to get my Christmas cards addressed and sent to my family and friends. This year I hope to send out 20 cards.  Not too many but enough that I do not get overwhelmed.  Some years I do try to send out a boat letter of cards.  Depends on my time and postage stamp money.  

This year I do feel like we are in a good spot with gift buying.  Can I give a shout out to my wonderful husband.  He has been wrapping the gifts while I am at work.   Huge huge help to me.  We still have many gifts to get wrapped but we are in a good place so far.

I do not have all my gifts bought for Christmas but getting closer each weekend.  How are you guys doing on gift buying this year? 

 

Marlow Okla Christmas parade

Kyndall and her sack of candy.  So glad she got to get lots of candy and items from the floats. This year she was old enough to understand to wave at everyone and pick up the candy that is thrown from the participants. 

 

I really enjoyed this float from a church the most.  during the parade I was too busy watching Kyndall to 

Sweet but sassy baby girl right here.  Love her so much.  She brings light into my life each and every day.  She really enjoyed the parade.  I asked her if she was going to share her candy with me and her mom and she was quick to say no! Too funny, as we know that Kyndall seldom gets candy from her mom.

I am the fun grandma as I give her my favorite drink Coke from Sonic drive in and treats.  Both Trevor and Melissa do not give her much sugar at all. She mainly drinks water and some juice. Am so proud of her mom and how well she takes care of  Kyndall.

Clifford's 3rd birthday

Clifford is so into Batman!  He loves this huge Batman balloon that his Uncle Blake and Aunt Jessica got him!!  

It was a small get together but he sure enjoyed himself. 

Aaron and Clifford opening gifts. 

Cute Batman cake with helicopter. This cake was so good but had a lot of icing. Which I enjoyed very much!! The icing did leave my mouth dark blur. 

Was so nice to spend time with the family.  

Clifford grandma loves you so much!! Hope you had a great 3rd birthday!!  His actual birthday is November 25th.   

 

Christmas Tree 2021

Am loving our Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  My husband put up the tree by himself while I was at work.  I had asked him if he would get it up before everyone came over for Thanksgiving. 

I was thinking it would be a good background for pictures.  

      These tree decorations are new.  Somehow our box of tree decorations ended up at Alisha and Jonathan's house 2 hours away.  So I stopped at our local Dollar General to pick up a few decorations till ours came back home.  I was actually okay with how these decorations turned out on the tree. Sometimes change can be good. I do not think I will be redoing the tree at all this year. 

       

My little Dollar Tree Christmas tree.  It's definitely not finished but so far it's cute.  I do need  a star and tree skirt and more decorations.  I bought the mini bulbs from Target. I so need to go buy another package or two to make tree pop with color.  I also need a string of battery operated lights to sting on the tree.   I do like decorating my one side of my desk for holidays and such. I need to buy some garland and hang. Heck I bet that there is garland and decorations in our department's holiday tote. I may have to go dig and see what all we have.  

When do you guys usually put up your trees?  If it was up to Luther it would have been the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Do ya'll have any special holiday traditions that you observe each Christmas?   For me on Christmas morning I go to all 3 of my son's to see what the kids got for Christmas.  I normally go to Aaron's and they wait for me to unwrap their gifts.  Then on to Mellissa's and Trevor's to see Kyndall's gifts and the last stop is Blake and Jessica's.  Then around noon everyone shows up and we have Christmas lunch.   

 

Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

Operations Child Shoeboxes ready to roll to Lawton Ok Baptist Church.  These 8 boxes are completely packed with fun items. 

This was my first year to do the boxes.  This is thru the Samaritan's Purse. I have been buying all year for the boxes.  I also put back the $9.00 for shipping fee's for each box.  

This charity really tugged at my heart strings.  

I watched so many YouTube videos on what other's packed. I did lots of research on what to send and not to send.  For instance no liquids or toothpaste or army play figurines are big no no's. I made sure to add hygiene items, school items and a few toys to each box. I actually made 13 boxes this year.  

This is one of the boxes I sent for a girl 10-14 years old.  It also has a doll that went in the box for the wow factor.  I would have loved all these items at that age or even at my age!  Wish I had taken a picture of each box I had packed.  Shame on me!! I actually found 3 more boxes hidden that I was working on to send.  That will give me a head start on 2022.  

I already know that I am not going to pack 13 boxes.  I am going to do less but with more quality to them. Better wow items and such. I also want to make sure to add a clothing item to each box. I am thinking shirt, shorts, undies or even undies or shoes. 

I have another charity that I want to do for 2022.  I will makea new blog post about that later on.  It is something Luther and I are planning on donating to this upcoming year. 

 

Blake's 30th birthday

Love this cake. Super cute

Sheri & John & Brooks

Whiskey bouquet that I made.  I haven't made Blake one of these bouquets before. His friends thought it was pretty cool.

Blake had a good size crowd show up for his party.  Kochendorfer Brewing company has been around for several years.  Imust admit this was my first time out here.  It was super busy and seen several people I knew.  Since I was driving I did not buy a craft beer.  I'm a big ole chicken with having to drive 30 minutes to get home on the highway.  Everyone had a great time. 

 

Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes.

 

Really loved these Operation Christmas Shoeboxes.  They are a bit bigger than my plastic shoe boxes that I filled with my goodies for the children.  I used 8 of these boxes and 5 plastic shoeboxes.  Was really proud of the boxes I packed this year.  

Next year I will probably only pack a few boxes.  I plan on going with more quality items versus quantity boxes.  I plan on putting a bigger wow items in each box.  I wasn't happy with the wow items I picked out for my boxes this year.  So I do plan on watching for sales and such.  Next year I really would like to focus on the boys 10-14,  I feel as if they get overlooked when others are packing boxes. 

Here is one of the boxes I packed.  Not shown is the pink stuffed bear.  I do like the mini fabric kit I put together with the 2 fabric squares.  It does show that I love pink!! 

Next year I do plan on putting together a few toolkit boxes for the older boys.  I also will add the small fishing kits that I made this year.  Made several and ended up not sending all of them.  Maybe I can pick up a few more pieces of tackle to fill up the small kits.  

 

Bread & dessert table

Lots of great  food.  Duncan Regional Hospital catered Ls for the last several years.  They have done a bang up job with the food this year.  

When we have company lunches I do appreciate the effort they go our for us.  Sometimes I feel like they don't appreciate us.  Which seems pretty normal as far as work places go. Thanks so much  LS for all you do for the employess. 

Turkey's and Chicken's in our yard

Living in the country is so different than in town.  Even after all these years I am always so excited to see wildlife in our yard.  I have been watching these turkeys grow from babies has been fun.  Now on the other hand if I catch one of these turkey's on my jeep we will be having a turkey in the oven.  Not even joking.  

At this point I do not think I want to live back in town. I would miss seeing the cows, ducks, snakes, turkeys, geese, chickens and roosters.  Well okay I would not miss the snakes at all.  They scare me to death especially when I find them in our house.  I truly believe we do have a smaller snake in the house hiding but so far I haven't seen him. Nothing surprises me anymore.         

                                                                                                                                               

 

Halloween cuteness

Lane is such a sweetie. He seems like he is always happy. 

He looks so much like his daddy. He is so precious.  Loved how he has his onesie that matches his carved pumpkins. 

Hope you had a fun thrilled Halloween. 

 

Baby Mae Mae

Hanging our with grandma. We went with her moma to shop at Lawton Okla.

Mae Mae thinks she is big girl sitting in front seat while waiting on her mom to go into the store. Mellissa always dresses her so girlie.  Love to see what outfits she has on when I get her on Saturdays. 

Mae Mae is still loving her peppa pigs.  She does really good on road trips thankfully. Mellissa and Trevor sure are lucky with her. She has such a sassy fun attitude.  I know sometimes that makes her moma a tad bit crazy. 

 

Lane and Grandpa

Lane loves to see him grandpa and grandma.  He is always such a happy baby.  This grandbaby has put the pep in his granddaddy's step.  Thru the years we always said that if we could see our grandbaby's all would be well for us.  Here we are with nearly 8 precious grandchildren between us.

These are great pictures of Luther and Lane!  

 

Blake & Jessica 2021

Blake & Jessica

Logan & Brooks

My oldest son is so blessed with his family.  Jessica is such a beautiful lady inside and out. I am not sure how we got so lucky to have her in our family.  Blake and her love each other unconditionally.  

Then these precious grandson's!  Logan is all boy and loves to read and  play sports. He is super smart.  He stays super busy. He is growing up way to fast that is for sure.  I can remember him being 2 years old.  Time marches by so dang fast. 

I can't wait to watch Brooks grow his sweet personality.  He is such a sweetie.  I do need to spend way more time with Blake and his family.  But catching him on down time is pretty hard as they are always doing something.  

 

Fall porch decorations

I am enjoying the fall decorations. I let Kyndall Mae pick out the little pumpkins and the small mum.  Then her mom Mellissa bought me the big mum and big pumpkin.  I do need to find 2 pretty pots for the mums.  

Am looking forward to this weekend.  Kyndall and I are going to a local fall fest and then to my ex sister in law's wedding that evening.  I am so excited to go and see her and my two nieces. Am sure her wedding is going to be gorgous.  She is going with a western theme.  She loves her horses and living out in the country. 

Do you have any fall events coming up? I know I want to go to a local pumpkin patch and take the smalls. Clifford and Kyndall would enjoy it very much.  My favorite part is always the hay ride. 

We are also planning on a family trip to OKC ZOO. Would love to have all my kids and grandkids go and enjoy the day. We would take a picnic lunch and snacks.  I would take a lot of pictures!!

 

Mr & Mrs Blake Grigsby

Blake and Jessica took some gorgeous pictures.  I love that they are so in love.  They make such a great couple.  They do complete each other.

I am always ready to see the new pictures that they have made.  I know Blake well enough to know that he could care less about getting photo's made but he does it for his beautiful wife. 

 

Fall Decorations

I have been wanting to decorate this corner of our porch for awhile.  Kyndall and Mellissa bought me the big mum and the big pumpkin.  Really made this area pop with color.  Am loving these decorations.

Let Kyndall help place the decorations.  She is such a good helper.  I am trying harder to let her do things herself instead of taking over.  How cute are her unicorn house shoes?  

For Christmas I am going to use a white bench with a few decorations on it. Hopefully the neighbor's dogs do not try to run off with my items.  I also need to redo my big vine wreath it's starting to look a little worn from being outside for years.  I think I will make that my new craft project for 2022. 

 

Aaron and I

Aaron and I at a family funeral. 

My Uncle Tommy passed away and I was so grateful that Aaron came to the service.  He rode his motorcycle  and was invited by the motorcycle group to ride as a escort in front of the Hearst with them. He was so excited.  

They also invited him to join their group that "aides" with all military funerals. I told him he should consider joining them. He could hang out with a group of good guys. Plus it would give him something to do on his downtime.  He really needs a hobby outside of his family time. 

I hope everyone is having a great day! Be safe and be well!!!

Cheers,

Karen

 

Garage Sale Day with Kyndall

Kyndall wouldn't let me help her carry her garage sale finds into the house.  This is a box of tea set items.  I will let her help me wash them before we play with them.

We are styling on our way to the Garage sales.  I do not wear sunglasses very often. 

Kyndall is using her ironing board as her table for the tea set goodies.  It is a perfect height for her to stand and play. I am going to keep my eyes out on a little table and chairs for the grandchildren.