This is simply a random post...

about anything and everything that has been going on at "White Oak Lane" this last week or two.

First, another Citizen of the Month for....

I didn't think it was possible to receive any more Citizen of the Month awards, but Jacob surprised us yet again. Now I get to attend an award's ceremony where they both will be receiving an award at the same time...YAY! Jacob's still trying to find out if he ran the mile the fastest in his school. His teacher doesn't think anyone is going to beat him, but he's anxiously awaiting the results.

Then, we got report cards. First, to Jake-Man's....



And then Ellie-Belly's:

I know it's a little hard to read, but that would be straight "A's" for the Jake and all "S's" for E. As I've said before, a Mommy couldn't be more proud or ask for anything better -- VERY PROUD!

Football is officially over. I'll miss it, as I'm sure Todd and Jacob will, but it will be nice to have a little extra time during the week. Here's just another picture of Jacob and his friend, "G", who also played for the Eagles this year.

Despite the numerous injuries that the Eagles suffered this year, many people still wonder how Jacob remained injury-free this season playing against boys this size, but he held his own. Next year he'll be even a little tougher, and a little tougher the year after that. The Eagles wrapped up their season with a 2-8 record, which isn't great, but it's a vast improvement from the last 2 years. They won more games this year then the last 2 seasons combined, so they're getting better. Hopefully next year they'll be even better and it will be their year to shine.

Now that football has ended, I thought we would have a LITTLE break, but not so....we are already back to this:

Jacob's last football game was on Sat. and he was back to baseball on Sun....no time wasted (and that was Jacob's choice). You would be proud though -- for not picking up a baseball for a few months, he played awesome.

Now to Ellie.... The plan is to sign her up for gymnastics in the next few weeks. We may wait until after the holiday's, but we'll see. In the meantime, she went to a friend's birthday party at Build-A-Bear, so here are a few shots from that event:

This is Ellie with the birthday girl, who was also her very best-friend at Sunflower:



Then, on our way out of the mall, to my surprise, she asked to do this:



For those who don't know, I could never convince my kids to sit on Santa's lap, so this is quite a leap.

I guess that's it for now.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I'm looking forward to a day full of great times and memories, filling our tummy's with lots of yummy food, kicking everyone's butt in a game of badmitton, volleyball, kickball, or whatever we decided to do, and spending the day with the ones I love. For those that can't be with us, we will be thinking about all of you, wishing we were together and raising a glass of "cheers" to all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving to All~

XOXO

We have another guessing game for ya.

Last week the lucky number was "6"....this week the lucky number is "2" -- can you guess why?


2.....


Is it because I have 2 lovely children?


Or is it because I have 2 eyes "to see you with my dear"?


Perhaps it's because Jacob has won 2 football games this year?


Or is it because we are in the 2nd week of November?



Hmmmm...keep thinking.....



Anymore guesses?



Let me give you a hint.....



We've already had one of these....



Now we have 2....



Now do you know?



Does this picture give you any hints?



That's right....we have our "2nd" CITIZEN OF THE MONTH!!!!! How about that Aunt Angie and Uncle Mike? I was at work today and got a pix text of this....





and about fell out of my chair from excitement. How could a Mommy be so lucky? I must of done something right. As soon as I post this, we are on our way to Target for a little surprise.

However, this is part of a conversation I had with Ellie:


Mommy: "I'm just so proud of you, Ellie. That is something to be very proud of."


Ellie: "Mommy, I've learned a lot from Bubbe."


Good job, Ellie -- just keep on that same path and continue to learn and grow from your brother. I'm so very proud of you!

XOXO,
Mommy

Mix-N-Match Day

Jacob's class earned 40 Bobcat Bucks for good behavior, so as a class, they got to pick something fun to do....they choose to have a Mix-N-Match Day at school on Friday. Here is the extent of Jacob's mix-n-match....





Knowing my son and the shy boy he can be, I guess I should be glad he participated at all. We tried to get him to wear some crazy shorts with one red sock and one blue sock, but this is the best we could do. Yet, the entire morning he was worried about it saying things like, "Mommy, are you SURE it's mix-n-match day?" "What if it's not? I'm going to get a referral." Jacob is the kindest kid you'll ever meet, but bless his little heart, he's the biggest worry-wart I know.

6

is the number for the day....special 6. That would be because our little Princess turned 6 today. To be exact, she turned 6 at 8:56 this morning. It's a very special day for Ellie, and today I am a very proud Mommy because of the little girl she has become.


Happy Birthday, Elle Belle!




P.S. Those are new monkey p.j.'s and slippers to the right...courtesy of MawMaw.

Just thought I would share...

three of my favorite pictures from this weekend of me and my favorite little man. I promise to get the birthday pictures posted soon.







I just love him to pieces!

What a weekend....and I'm beat!

We certainly had a weekend full of lots of excitement and many lasting memories shared with our dear loved ones. To start our weekend off, we had a wonderful Halloween evening strolling the neighborhood streets collecting lots of yummy candy. By the end of the night, the kids were weighing their bags on the scale....some posting over 10 pounds. It was certainly a fun filled night with several exhausted trick-or-treaters ready to collapse as the night came to a close. Here are just a few select pictures I wanted to share from our Friday night adventure.

Here's our pirate:

Our Evil Jester:


MawMaw and the Pirate:


The Pirate and her Spider Witch Friend, Riley:


The Evil Jester with his Friday the 13th Jason buddy, Drew:


A picture of the Dad's:


A picture of the girls:


A few of the neighborhood buddies:


Just a few of our trick-or-treating crew, but I have to ask....what in the world is Lauren doing to the right? Is she throwing a spell on someone, or is she having her own little spiritual witch seance?


How do you like Tonya and Matt's costumes...pretty scary, huh?


And a big thanks to my Uncle Paul and Aunt Irma who stayed back at the ranch and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters who came to our door (you know I have to put you on my blog somewhere :)


And finally.....an exhausted Jester at the end of the night:

My little family had a great time and thanks to everyone who joined us and made that happen. There are many more pictures to share from our fun-filled weekend, but folks, I'm exhausted and feeling like Jacob in the picture above, so the rest of our weekend adventures will have to wait for another post. I think "Life on White Oak Lane" is winding down and this little crew will be heading to bed rather shortly to ensure a good nights sleep for the Monday that is just around the corner.

Hugs and Kisses to All!

We have our first of the year....

CITIZEN OF THE MONTH!




Can you guess who?......



Don't peek and look below....



Take a wild guess.....

Are you sure you know?......



It's our one and only......



You guessed it.....





Once again, my favorite little man is Citizen of the Month!! WAY TO GO, JACOB!! As always, Mommy and Daddy are very proud of you and everything that you continue to accomplish. It takes a lot to play sports, especially football which involves practice 4 nights a week, and keep up with the grades you continue to get. Keep it up, Buddy, and you'll be going to any college you choose....they'll be hunting you down.

We Love You!

Mommy & Daddy

And yes, I did make Jacob sit down and read this post since it is directed to him. He got to the bottom about college and all he said was, "YES!" Then he went back to running up and down the hallway catching his football....typical boy!

A good time was had...

at our Halloween party last night, so I thought I would just share a few pictures.

A few with the kids before we left:

















Most of you know Rob and Rodney...

There were many more pictures, but most of them were of people you guys don't know. We also finally made it the to the Halloween store today to buy Jacob a costume. After seeing the hot dog, he has now decided that isn't what he wants to be, so Mommy was right again. I have no idea where that idea came from and I knew he would change his mind. He kept telling me to just buy it, but I wasn't going to spend $30 on a costume that come Halloween night I knew he wouldn't wear. I think we stood in the aisle staring at the costumes for what seemed like hours waiting for him to make up his mind. I have come to the conclusion that he's more indecisive then me, if that's possible. After much thought, he finally made a decision, so stay tuned.....

In Special Memory of...

Reece Life is Box of Chocolate.

She was one special girl, and although life was cut a little short, she lived a life full of love and happiness thanks to her 2 very special caregivers.

RIP, Reece....you will be missed!

12/1/06 - 10/17/08

"Mommy, Mommy...my leaves are here!"

Those were the excited words out of a happy little girl after she opened the mailbox to discover the leaves her Aunt Julie and Uncle Ti-Ti promised her, and my....there were plenty of beautiful autumn leaves. For those who don't know, Ellie's teacher asked the kids to contact their relatives up north and ask them to send down some fall leaves for their upcoming studies of the autumn season. Well folks, we don't get much further north than Tennessee, so our Aunt Julie and Uncle Ti-Ti kindly said they would pack up some fall leaves and send them to our special little girl....and they arrived today. Here are a few pics:

It's like Christmas....and the anticipation of opening presents:

And a special little video made just for our Aunt and Uncle:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Ellie is very psyched that she gets to take these leaves to school on Monday, and it's all thanks to our Aunt Julie and Uncle Ti-Ti.

Hugs and Kisses,

Ellie

It was a girls day out!

About 2 weeks ago, my friend won some tickets to see Elmo Live at the Kravis Center and she graciously decided to invite Ellie and I to join her and her daughter, Elisa. The show was actually very cute and the girls (and Mom's too) really enjoyed it. The show was all about what the Sesame Street characters wanted to be when they grew up. I just thought I would share a few pics from our special girls day out. Daddy and Jacob got to stay home and work on a school project, in between all the football watching that I'm quite sure they did.

Here's Ellie all dressed up and ready to go...isn't she cute?

Here is Ellie with Elisa:

A shot of the entire Sesame Street clan...

And we had to take a picture of Cookie Monster because he wanted to be a fireman. This was a special pic just for Daddy.

And last but certainly not least, a picture of Mommy and her little girl at the show:

It was lots of fun and big thanks to our friends, Nicole and Elisa, for asking us to tag along. We enjoyed it!