Halloween Time & More Bierwirth Fun!

On Saturday, October 27th, my good friends Guy and Leah Bierwirth and I, along with their son, Ethan, went downtown to take pictures for their Christmas cards this year. They saw the pictures that I had taken for Kevon and Ashley back in September and they thought I could do a good job for their Christmas card photos. Boy, were they wrong! Just kidding,I didn't do that bad of a job. I worked on creating a list of the shots I thought would work best for them so I could get some memorable pictures they could treasure. Remember, I have no experience with posing people into ways that would look good so I thought this was going to be interesting. This was definitely a learning experience for me since I had never taken pictures of another kiddo besides my own. We dragged Ethan around the whole Myriad Gardens, poor guy, trying to find good places to set up at. After about 10 different spots, he wasn't too interested in looking at the camera anymore so we decided to wrap up for the day. I was able to get several shots that I think are keepers and looked great, as you'll see below. Lesson learned: Take along someone that is WAY more interesting than me to try to keep a kid entertained! Sorry Ethan, we'll do better next time. Thanks again to the Bierwirths for letting me practice on them! You guys are awesome! View the slideshow here.

And of course, this past week was Halloween. This year Makenna dressed up as a little ladybug, which was so adorable! She had little black spots on her cheeks and nose, and coupled with the two antennae on her head, this year's costume beat last year's token first-year-pumpkin outfit. After dinner that night, she wanted to ride around in her red wagon but it wasn't even sundown yet so nobody was giving out candy yet. So instead, we went to visit a nice little place called "Orr Family Farms". We were the first people in the gate because Kimi was so excited to take Makenna there. There was a petting zoo, a playground area, pony rides, and a hayride up to the pumpkin patch field to pick out our own pumpkins. Toward the end of the hayride, Makenna started to get sleepy so we jetted out of there on over to Nonnie and Poppie's house for a quick trick or treat visit! After a little bit there, Makenna was realllly starting to get tired so we made our last stop at Grandma Betty's house before we called it an evening. Makenna crashed on the way home and all we had to show for the evening was like 10 pieces of candy and a lot of memories! Not too bad, plus we didn't see any creepy costumes. (We left a candy bowl outside our front door before we left... yeah, it was empty and had been thrown to the other side of our porch by some poor kid who didn't get any candy. Guess the 1st kid took it all, who knows...?) Below are some pictures from the evening. Enjoy!











I'll end this week's update with a quick reminder to keep praying for Kimi's dad, Jerry, and his health. Please pray for the doctors as well for wisdom to do what is needed.

Thank you all again for your prayers. We'll keep you updated as things progress. I hope you all enjoy the cooler weather! I love the crisp feeling in the mornings as I'm on my way to work! Now if only I had time to stop at Starbucks on the way...

God Bless,
Jason

Jerry Update plus Mr and Mrs Owen

I promised an update on Jerry as soon as we heard the results of the biopsy. With respect to the sensitive nature of this situation, here is what I can tell you. The results weren't what we were expecting or prepared to hear. In short, Jerry needs your prayers. If you could add him to your church's prayer list, that would be great. He needs all of the good thoughts you can send his way. His health seems to be on a roller coaster ride. One minute he's doing just fine, the next he's having major symptoms from the aftermath of the surgery. I just hope we've already climbed the last hill and things settle down soon. Please pray that the doctors can figure out the right combination of medicine and treatments to help ease the symptoms. Please pray for the Avery family as exhaustion, frustration, and that general feeling of 'not knowing what to do next' sets in. I'm sorry to say that I'm limited in what I can disclose at this time but just know that we covet your prayers, if you couldn't tell already. I'll update with more detail when I can.

The rest of this post seems trivial in comparison but I think it’d be a good time to change up the subject a little. Let’s move on over to a wonderful event that happened a couple weeks ago. My precocious friend, Kevon Owen, recently married a beautiful, intelligent and witty girl, Ashley Butcher, on October 13th. Kevon even asked me to be in his wedding as one of his groomsmen! Imagine me in a tux. Quite a sight! I’ve known Kevon for a very long time and it’s been a pleasure to see how he’s grown in the Lord and kept his heart on the right track. He found a girl that could keep him in line! Finally! :)

Anyway, on that Thursday before the wedding, all of Kevons’ friends, both of us (just kidding), went laser tagging for his bachelor party. We had a great time! Kevon shaved his beard into this Fu Manchu moustache for the party. It was hilarious! Check out the pic to see what I mean. He thought it would help his out his ‘mad skillz’ but it didn’t. It’s been a while since I’ve been laser tagging so I had to test out a couple of strategies. I was terrible the 1st game finishing 12th because I ran around like a looney. But on the 2nd game, I camped out and sniped everyone that came near me. I finished up in 2nd place, only losing to Andy (the best man), who drives a minivan. A minivan! We should all be ashamed.

Let me back up just a little. About a month before the wedding, Kevon and Ashley asked me to take my new fancy-smancy camera out and take some engagement photos of them. I tried not to sound too giddy at the opportunity so I played it smooth saying, “I’ll check my calendar and see what I have available. You know I’m just simply swamped with demand...” They saw right through me. It was my first photo shoot of someone other than Makenna or other family members so I put a little more thought into it than normal. We headed downtown to the Myriad Gardens to take in the foliage before it got too dark. I had to do some editing in photoshop for lighting in most of the pictures but otherwise, I think they turned out pretty well. I have a long ways to go still but it was a lot of fun. You can see the whole set here. Tell me what you think!

I know that was a lot of pics but I wanted to share in my excitement. :)

Back to the story. The wedding was beautiful and other than my nephew Aidan puking on the stage at the dress rehearsal the night before, there wasn’t anything that went wrong. We “decorated” Kevon’s car before they left on their honeymoon but we couldn’t get the foam spray to work so it all turned into one big jumbled mess. Oh well, they didn’t seem to mind though. Congratulations Kevon and Ashley! You two are perfect for each other! We can’t wait to see you guys when you get back from your honeymoon!

Okay, I will end this post by giving out a word of advice. When your wife asks you to move the bed away from the wall, DO NOT brace yourself against the window to push off. I can speak from experience here, the window WILL break... and you WILL look like an idiot for having your butt go through your bedroom window. I’m the proud owner of a new $171 window... and just in case you were wondering, my butt is okay too. :)

God bless,
Jason

How's Jerry Doing?

This post is mainly a recap of the events that have happened over the past few weeks. I still have things in September and October to write about but that can wait until the next post. Many of you know that my father-in-law, Jerry, has had a recent bout with his health. Here are some more details to help you understand what has happened and where we go from here. BEWARE, this is a little bit lengthy...

From about the third week in September, Jerry was here in Oklahoma staying with Grandma Betty to help her out while she recovered from gall bladder surgery (the health issue I referred to in my last post). All was going well except that on Tuesday, the 25^th, he started to have some chest pains earlier in the morning that persisted on and off throughout the day. Finally that night, around 9pm, he called me up and asked me to take him to the ER to get checked out. At the ER, they were able to get his heart stabilized and make sure his blood sugar levels were in order. Jerry started to feel better but since it had to do with his heart, he had to stay overnight at least. The problem was that the ER we went to did not have any beds so they had to transfer him down to another hospital that could continue his care.

I called Sherry (who was still down in Texas getting ready for her big test at school) with the news and of him having to move to another hospital. It was getting late but she decided to drive on up immediately instead of in the morning. Around 12:30 am, they loaded him up in the ambulance and proceeded at 90 mph (completely unnecessary for a stabilized man, in my opinion, but still a lot of fun) the whole way down to Norman, with me doing my best to keep up. Once we got to Norman, they took him in and were looking for him a bed. However, Jerry was a little disoriented so they decided to do a CAT scan to make sure everything was okay. Sherry got there right in time to hear the results. They saw something a little strange on the scan and but we thought since Jerry had an aneurysm earlier in the year (April), this was just a little scar tissue and it was nothing to worry about. We all but dismissed it. We are glad they didn't.

Pretty much by the next day, his heart was doing just fine (great news) but they were still concerned even more about the CAT scan results. They wanted to do an MRI on his head to see a more detailed picture of what they saw on the CAT scan. Later that night, when we were waiting for the Neurologist to come in with the results, another doctor came in instead. We hadn't met this doctor before. He started going over treatment options but we didn't even know what he was talking about. Sherry asked him who he was and he said, "Oh, I'm the cancer doctor and I'm hear to talk to Jerry about the results of his MRI." This caught everyone off guard. Apparently, from April, when he had his last MRI done, until now in late September, a quarter-size tumor had grown in Jerry's head. The doctor said he was 99.999% sure it was cancerous but would have to wait for a biopsy to know for sure. We were shocked at the news, to say the least.

The next day, Sherry contacted the Neurosurgeon in Texas that had done Jerry's back surgery a few years ago. His specialty was actually brain surgery on oncology patients and since he knew Jerry from the previous surgery, he was the right man for the job. Sherry drove Jerry down to Plano Medical Center that Saturday evening to meet up with the doctors to begin their plan of attack on the tumor. After the full body MRI, we were relieved that the tumor was not a part of a larger invasion of his whole body; it was only in his head. (Not much pun intended...) They believed they it was in such a place to where a biopsy was possible (read: operable), which was good news. The doctors decided that he could go home on Tuesday since his heart was in good shape and there was nothing else that could be done until the bioptic surgery, which had been scheduled for the following Monday (Oct 8^th).

So for the better part of a week, Jerry was able to go home and hang out with family and friends and (lots of) dogs before he had to report back. Kimi and I took off of work from Thursday through the following Tuesday to be in Texas. In the span of those few days, we were able to celebrate our 4^th wedding anniversary with a quick trip to a wonderful bed and breakfast (which had been booked for 2 months) and also was able to witness (in HD on a 65" flat screen) OU defeat Texas in a title-hopes-dream-smashing-victory. Even with all of the news hanging over our heads, we were able to make the best of things and enjoy each others company.

On that Monday morning, Jerry went in for his surgery. Since they couldn't have been more invasive than they already were, they decided to remove the whole tumor at the same time as they were doing the biopsy. It was a long surgery but they believe they were able to get all of it. Jerry made it through just fine and was awake, alert, and talking afterwards. All in all, this was great news. The only side effects thus far have to do with headaches and some swelling, which has caused speech problems. The doctors say when the swelling goes down, everything should go back to normal for him.

He was released from the hospital this past weekend and has been at home resting. Tomorrow, (Thursday 18^th) we should find out the results of the biopsy to see what we are dealing with. We're praying for good news. Sherry has been sending out email updates every few days and has been bombarded with prayers and support from numerous family, friends, and churches. I will send out an email with updated information as we know what is happening. Our family would appreciate any prayers you would offer up on our behalf. Jerry is in good spirits so we know that is just another prayer that has been answered.

Thank you all. God bless.
Jason

Been a long time, huh?

I can't believe how fast time has flown by this year. Can you believe it's already the end of September?! Seriously, that means that all of the 'holidays' are starting again, which usually means enduring several joyous yet stressful months... but I look forward to the insanity, haha. The best thing though I've been feeling lately has been a rush of energy from the weather. The summer heat and humidity, you know the kind that just melts you when you go outside, has finally subsided and a recent cooling, which signals the fall, has started to slide in. Its hard to explain but I just feel better. I think I need to take another trip to the mountains soon to catch some fresh air. Now if I could just find the time...
Speaking of time, I'm going to use this post today to catch you up on like 2 MONTHS worth of events that I have neglected to share. I've been in blah mode for basically the whole summer. It was hard having only one income this summer while Kimi was off waiting on the school year to begin. We were limited in what we could do but we made it. There were some MAJOR issues at my work that frustrated me to no end. I take pride in what I do, which is helping people. But with several negative events which occurred in such a short time, I had begun to ask myself if this is where I need to be for the foreseeable future. It's not just about me, it's about my family and making sure any decision I make is the right one since it will affect them as well. I'm still asking myself these questions but I am going to put off some of my anxieties about them for a bit, and just relax. I need to learn again how to listen to God's voice, especially during stressful times. I would like to ask you all to pray that I would understand deep in my being Psalms 46:10. I have it memorized but that's head smarts, not heart and spiritual smarts. "Be Still and Know That I Am God." As the leader of my family, I need this written on my heart, having God's guidance on the big and small decisions I make in my life and for my family. So if you would, pray for me, okay?

Where to begin... okay, I'm just going to make a list and go from there. Sounds good to me. Here goes...

1. Little Miss Makenna is walking like crazy! She is still slightly wobbly but her little feet try to go a million miles an hour everywhere she goes. She has such an independent spirit about her. She wants to 'do it herself'... on everything! From eating to walking to brushing her own teeth. She gets upset if you try to help out too much. It's so cute. We went to the park the other day and she climbed up to the top of the slide over and over again, but she needed daddy's help to get back down. Check out this picture I took at the park. She wanted to walk everywhere. We tried to get her to swing with us but she was just terrified by how it made her tummy feel. Check out the other pics here.

2. My mom finally got MARRIED! I know, you're thinking, how could you not tell us about that?! Sorry guys, again it was that blah thing. Anyway, she and Scotty went on a cruise to Alaska and decided it was the perfect time for a wedding ceremony. They had such a hard time planning the wedding in such short notice that they weren't able to secure a minister or a spot to actually have the wedding without spending thousands of dollars to do so. A funny little thing about Alaska is that since there is such a very small population, they have this rule on the books that ANY person can do the ceremony and legally marry two people ONE time without having to get licenced by the state. They just need to fill out this little form and voila! SO since Scotty had his brother, his sister-in-law, and his twin sister there, it worked out perfectly. His brother did the ceremony and his two sisters were the witnesses! Too funny! They said their vows on a beautiful day with clear skies at the base of Mt. McKinley to the tune of their own version of "going to Alaska, and we're g-o-n-n-a get marr-ieddd" That cracks me up but I couldn't be happier for the two of them! Congratulations mom and Scotty!

3. Kimi and I both turned 27 years young in the past two months. My birthday was on August 7th and Kimi's was on September 7th. What did we do for our birthday's? Did we take a road trip out of state? Did we go camping? Did we have any adventures whatsoever? Nah. Unless you count eating out like 4 times in celebration. Not that we didn't want to do any of those things. It's just that the timing of our birthdays this year was terrible. Mine was on like a Tuesday and hers fell on a busy weekend (not to mention the start of the NFL season...). We did however receive some presents from friends and family that we turned into some cool stuff for us. For Kimi, I took her on a shopping spree to Ann Taylor Loft, Kohls, Old Navy, and JC Penny's for a weekend of glitz and glamour. She bought more outfits than I can count and let me tell you, she looks hot. You should have seen the smile that was on her face for days. She even didn't have to shop on the sales rack this time because of such good deals she got everywhere. That was nice for a change. For my present, I chose to upgrade my gaming system. I purchase an XBOX 360 and pre-ordered HALO 3, which comes out Tuesday the 25th. I'm at a loss for words on how to describe the breath-taking pictures that are involved in high definition gaming but rest assured, it is absolutely amazing. It is so much fun playing online with my brother too. I'm thankful for the fun but it is causing me to lose sleep now because I just can't seem to put it down. I guess I'm going backwards a little with my goal to get outside more...


4. I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to two OU games this year already! The first game was against Miami, aka "The U". Once upon a time, The U was a good team. A very proud team. Then things started to fall apart for them last year when they got into a major brawl with the instate rival, FIU, then ranked like 117th out of 117 in the nation. They fell to a .500 record or so and their pride was bruised. Beginning to get back an ounce of pride after having won their first game of the season, they traveled to Norman, Oklahoma for their first true test to see what they were made of in 2007. Apparently, it was paper mache... because we tore through their defense like they didn't have one! Oh it was so much fun! We have seats on the 20 yard line with a perfect view of the domination that OU was handing out. All of the closet Miami fans that showed up for the game were pumped up for a showdown. Unfortunately, they left with tear-streaked green and orange makeup, heads hung down low. My neighbor across the street puts up his Miami flags every Saturday in defiance of the OU dominated region. Wonder how he felt after the game? Haha! There is so much emotion involved in college football, you can't help but love it. It's not really even worth talking about the second game, Utah State, because it was like OU was playing against a junior varsity team. We left at half-time because the score was already up way high. The only highlight worth noting after we left was ONLY the 3rd longest play in OU history... Murray, one of our like 5 running backs, took a hand-off for a 92 yard run up the sidelines for a touchdown. See, I told you it was a junior varsity team...

Oh, this one is for Brenda. What is the difference between the Texas Longhorns and a mosquito? You can slap a mosquito and it stops sucking! Thought she would enjoy that one...



5. This one involves Kimi's grandma. She has been having some health problems lately that are somewhat serious. Kimi and I received a phone call at around 3am one day in August from Kimi's grandma, asking us to take her to the hospital. I drove like a madman to her house, running stop lights and fish-tailing corners to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Without going into to much detail without her permission, she is doing okay now but is still having some issues that are persistent. If you would, please say a prayer for her health and her spirits. It's hard going through what she has gone through but in her own words, she's a "tough old bird". Haha. We are doing over her house tonight to watch OU play Tulsa, so hopefully that will bring a big smile to her face.

6. Last item today is to ask for your prayers again. My friend, Andrew Coloney (the guy who I built his photography website for last year, http://www.patriotphoto.us), has just received orders to go to Iraq for I believe 11 months. He and his wife recently found out they were pregnant with his 2nd child, which will now be born while he is on the other side of the world. He's torn between serving his country and being there for the "life moments" that his family is about to go through. If you would, please pray that God takes care of him and his family during this trying time. Andrew, I want to say thank you so much for fighting for our freedom... for my freedom. Your dedication to and sacrifices made for our country is deeply appreciated by many many people. Be safe, my friend. If any of you want to send him a note of encouragement, shoot me an email or post it here and I'll make sure it gets to him.

I have several more things to post about but I will put them off for another day. Sorry again about how long I went between updates. I read someone else's blog recently that made the point, comments = love, so please send in your comments when you get a chance! I've always wondered how many people actually reads these thoughts that I put down on paper so I'd love to hear from you guys. Enjoy the game tonight!

Jason

ps. BOOMER!...

Caught By Surprise

So on Monday night (July 23rd), Kimi and I got into a dreamy mode and started looking at different new homes in the neighborhoods around our area. We're trying to compile a wishlist of amenities that we just "have to have", which basically turns into a drooling fest. Anyway, we stay up and talk late into the night (for us) about our plans to build or buy and were just having a great time getting lost in our thoughts. Looking at the clock and seeing it was 1 1/2 hours past our normal bedtime, we start to stir around, get ready for bed, leave the dogs in the front room and finally climb into bed about 11:30pm. But we were both so wired that we couldn't really sleep. I had left our door to the bedroom cracked so if Makenna needed us in the middle of the night, we could get up without disturbing each other. About the time midnight rolls around, there was this noise coming from the front room which sounded like a knob turning with a slight creak. Just then the doorbell sound went off, but it was in a prolonged buzz sound as if someone were pressing up against it for an extended period of time. At this, the dogs jumped off the couch and ran to the door. Kimi yelled, "Jason, I think someone is trying to come in through the front door!" Now, when you are aroused out of the beginning stages of sleep (and without your glasses), you fumble around for reality for a minute or so until it becomes clear that your hysterical wife means business and you should get a move on with your husbandly duty of checking out the "noise". I stumble to the door and try to look through the peephole to see who is out there but to no avail. Whoever had been there took off when the doorbell rang and the dogs barked. When I got a grip on reality, I ran to the place where I keep my shotgun and 22mm rifle and headed back to the front room in case they tried something else. We turned on the alarm (we used to never keep it on...) and checked all the doors and rooms to make sure everything was okay. Makenna was up at this point so we had to put her back to bed. We tried to go back to bed but our adrenaline made for terrible sleep the rest of the night. I had all these questions running through my mind. I kept thinking, "What if the front door had been accidentally left unlocked... we could have been the victim of a home invasion! What would I have done then???" As a husband and father, I am implicitly charged with the safety and protection of my family. You hear in the news about a man's family being raped and murdered in front of him and you just cringe from the horror but you never know how easily bad things can happen at a moment's notice. We specifically chose a cul-de-sac because people are less likely to be there without a purpose but it doesn't really matter much these days. We are going to keep a careful eye out from now on but it is a bit unnerving to have such a close call. What ever happened to our neighborhood watch group? It's a farce. Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you all to be a little more careful and to have a plan in place in case someone tried to break into your home. I know we do now! Maybe it's time I thought about getting a little bit better methods of protection like the kid in "Home Alone"...

Switching to lighter and better subjects, Kimi has spent the last two weeks applying and interviewing at a few places for the upcoming school year. She had two interviews that went well and was offered both jobs pretty much on the spot! How cool is that? Each one, including the one she currently has now, offered different things that made them stand out over the others but it was clear as mud as to which we should choose. So we compiled a list and labored over it all weekend. We took two trips out to each school to determine the drive time, traffic conditions, ease of access to the highway/shopping areas, local daycare situations, etc. That helped a lot but the little things just kept bugging Kimi. We sought advice from friends and family and some were adamant that we should go one way while the others were adamant about the other choice! After much deliberation, Kimi finally had a peace about which school to choose. She chose the smaller of the two schools because she could have more freedom over the direction of the program, whereas the other school is already established in their ways and Kimi would be just another employee subject to someone else's way of doing things. We will (FINALLY) have consistent pay and Kimi has the option of health care and retirement benefits. All very good things in case something happens to my job (long story). So thank you family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. Kimi is extremely excited about the upcoming school year and is ready to get it started!

Oh yeah, guess what we did last week? We went to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Ford Center in OKC! The pic was taken with my cell phone camera so it's pretty terrible. But notice ALL of the people with cameras and cell phone's taking pics? So funny! Kimi dragged me talked me into using my birthday present this year to take her to her favorite country boy band since she was pregnant last year and I wouldn't let her go. (Boo, hiss, bad husband!) It's only fair I guess because the last two out of three years I've gone to NFL football games on her birthday! :) I've gotta tell you, I was having a great time making fun of all the cowboys and cowgirls in the place, drunkly singing out at the top of their lungs with their heads back, eyes closed, swaying around to the sweet lullabies of the Rascal bunch. But when they played "Life is a Highway", I couldn't help myself from really getting into it. Too bad that was the last song! Haha! I like most of the Rascal Flatts songs but I guess I'm not as big of a fan as my wife is. She kept grinning and giggling each time they played a song she recognized. Apparently, she tells me she got hooked on them because of Leah Bierwirth giving her a copy of their CD from back at the apartment days when we lived like 100 feet away from them. Now Kimi says she "needs" all 5 of their CD's and wants me to pre-order their new one coming out in September. Let me personally tell you thanks Leah, I appreciate it. :) Kimi says her perfect concert would be one in which Kenny Chesney (gag me) comes out singing a duet with Rascal Flatts (pretty boys). Yeah, I can just hear it now, "She thinks my tractors sexy-eee and I M-E-L-T every time she looks at me that-a way..." Maybe Matthew McConaughey can join in and make it a real party. That would just be super. <-- Sarcasm fully intended. Did you know that my wife gave me permission to have a crush on any Hollywood actress or singer just so long as she can have one on Matthew McConaughey? She was serious! Did you just roll your eyes like I did? Or did you think, 'Hmmm, I should try that with my husband?'. Of course, I agreed. But I just can't narrow it down between all of the Hollywood starlets. My brother would choose Avril Lavigne but do you guys have any other suggestions? I can't wait to hear them...

I hope this post finds you all well and happy.

Jason

Welcome Ethne and More

First and foremost, I must announce, though very late, the birth of Ethne Louise Mathias, who is almost a month old already! She was born on June 27th (two days before Makenna's BDAY!) and was just as long and weighed 6lbs 8ozs, which was about 5 ounces more than Makenna did! So cool, here is a picture from the proud new parents, BJ and Wendy, that we stole off of their website! (Hehe!) Congratulations you guys, I am SO glad and thankful that this pregnancy went so smoothly and God spared you from the cancer this time! (CHECK OUT THIS BLOG ENTRY FROM LAST YEAR WHEN LILYANAH WAS BORN). We absolutely can't wait to meet this little lady. ;) (BJ & Wendy, send more pics!)

We recently took a trip to the Arbuckle Mountains down in Sulphur, Oklahoma. If you've never been down there, it's an experience you won't soon forget. Why? The streams in Sulphur smell like rotten eggs! I'm serious, totally like undigested sour rotten festering eggs. Ugh! But this spot has been a popular tourist attraction for years b/c of it's reported "healing powers" and health benefits the streams provide. The rocks below have an unnaturally high concentration of minerals which drew thousands of sick people in the early parts of the 20th century to take a swim in the waters in hopes it would make them feel better.Not sure why smelling like feces would be an enjoyable thing, but hey I can't say much b/c we went anyway. :) There are several places where the beginning of a spring is at. The water is insanely cold but it is pure and crystal clear. Near the nature center there are a couple of spots where you can sit and put your feet into the bubbling water and I've got to tell you, it really is a refreshing experience. On the day we went, the rain clouds were starting to sprinkle so we didn't get any pics of the springs but you should check them out sometime. I remember when I was a very small child, my family took a trip down there (cheap vacation, huh?) with my Grandparents and we toured the whole area. I've got a picture of it somewhere. Anyway, there was this area that I could never remember where it was at. It turns out that my dad remembered where it was so we stopped by. Bromide Hill is a rocky outcropping that is basically a hundred feet or so above the town of Sulphur and gives you a view of miles and miles away. It makes you feel like you are standing on top of the world! We took some pics there and headed down to "Little Niagara", which is a small water fall that is popular b/c of its jumping off points and the arctic temperature of the water! We didn't do any jumping in but we did wade around and watch the local wildlife, I mean, teenagers do tricks and dives before a crowd of people. Back in my younger days, I would have been right there with them but little Makenna didn't enjoy the cold water so much. No biggie, we had fun nonetheless. Here is a link to our set on Flickr of the pics we took that day. Enjoy!

The 4th of July was actually pretty boring around our household. The weekend of Makenna's birthday party, Kimi and little Makenna headed down to Texas to spend some time with GRAMMI AND GRANDPA while dad got to pretend he was a bachelor for a few days! It wasn't much of a bachelor party though b/c there were still a list of chores I was required to do but still, I took up the whole bed to myself and slept like a baby! I also got some good XBOX Live time in with my bro, but that's a different story. On the 4th, Kimi and Makenna flew back in but had a very rough flight so I treated the girls to lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was so funny watching Makenna starting to eat table food instead of her baby food. There are some things she LOVES and others that she's not too fond of. For example, we gave here some scrambled eggs and carrots to eat. Wouldn't you know, she meticulously picked through the eggs and grabbed every single carrot and threw it on the floor while shaking her head no! I couldn't hardly believe it! She is becoming so independent and making her likes and dislikes known. At home she throws pieces of her food onto the floor for the doggies to eat up. And when we tell her "no no", she just shakes her head back and forth, as if she understands what we are saying but it doesn't quite register we actually mean STOP! Haha! We are also trying to teach her how to drink out of a cup without a lid, yikes... she likes to tip the cup up like she does with her bottles but she ends up wearing her drink instead! I can tell we're going to have some fun times in the future with food and drinks. (Say a prayer for our sanity, would ya?)

Lastly, I wanted to share a video we took from this last month when we got to catch an Oklahoma Redhawks game with Makenna. She was dancing to AC/DC's Back in Black. You gotta love this! :)


Link To Video Here

Happy 1st Birthday!

On June 29th, our daughter turned a wonderful ONE YEAR OLD! We had a mini party on her actual birthday that night and the big one the next day! At the mini party, she got a few presents from her grandparents and us but the highlight of that party was when she got her baby dolls. Kimi and I knew that she’d go nuts if she got one for her birthday and we were totally right! When we went through the baby doll aisle at Toys-R-Us, she just went crazy grabbing for as many as she could all at once, bouncing up and down in my arms making uh-uh-uh-uh sounds while pointing rapidly at each and every baby doll she could see. Absolutely bonkers. Anyway, at the mini party, she got TWO of them and tried her best to rip them out of the package before I could get them undone! It was hilarious and adorable at the same time! But she just loved them.

The next day, we had a much bigger party at my mom’s house where about 40 people showed up! I was shocked that so many people came but it made the whole day so much more fun with them there. We had food catered by Makenna’s Aunt Lindsay, who owns a catering business. It was wonderful! We had brisket, baked beans, mac and cheese, cupcakes, and more! She even made a very special princess cake all just for Makenna!
But I’ll get to that here in a minute. We had a bubble machine that boasted 4000 bubbles a minute, and after playing with it for a while, I believe it. It guzzled the bubble liquid up faster than my car goes through gasoline but it did fill the air with bubbles! There were several kids there close to Makenna’s age and they stripped down to their diapers and played in the kiddie pool out back for a while, splashing each other and spraying each other with the hose! Makenna had a blast but the water was very cold so she got out of there pretty quickly.

Makenna had a mound of presents to open. All of the kids helped open them one at a time, which was cute. Makenna couldn’t decide which ones she wanted to play with so she’d pick up a toy, drop it, pick up another one and do the same. I guess that’s a good problem for her to have, huh? Anyway, at the end of the party, my mom put down a “Happy Birthday” tarp on the floor and put the big princess cake in the middle of it. After some help blowing out the “1” candle, we let Makenna tear into it. At first she squatted down and gently put a hand in and stopped and looked up at her mommy, as if to say, “Is this alright?” With an assured look from her mommy, Makenna put both hands in and squished it all around! She then sat on the cake, got up onto both knees and proceeded to get her face all covered with two fistfuls of icing and cake! When we pulled her out of there, there was a hilarious “cake angel” where Makenna’s knees had been, wings and all! Too funny! She didn't appreciate us hosing her off outside with cold water but oh well! All in all, it was a great day and we just wanted to say that we appreciated everyone for coming and celebrating our daughter’s first birthday! Thank you all!

In other news, Makenna just had her 12 month wellness check up this past week. Not a whole lot of new info other than these stats: She’s now 29 ½ inches tall and weighs right at 19 ½ lbs. Tall and skinny, not much of a change there. However, she’s turning into a toddler by the minute! She took her first steps right after we got back home from vacation last month. She hadn’t really tried on her own before this so we stood her up to see if she’d even try to take a step. Just one, please… she gave us two instead! First from her mommy to me and then back again. The first step was solid but the second one was wobbly. Still, very cool stuff. The next day we tried it again and this time she took 4 steps, albeit like she just got off of the tilt-a-whirl. :) Now she’s practicing standing up straight and getting her balance down. It reallllly won’t be long until she’s running everywhere! I just had to baby proof the cabinets throughout the whole house because she’s discovered how to open them up and take everything out. What’s next I wonder…

I thought I'd wrap this posting up with a few pictures from her first year of life. She's changed so much in just one year that I'm scared to death at what's going to happen this next year, or the next, or the next... Kimi and I would like to tell each and every one of you who supported us mentally, physically, and spiritually this past year how much we truly appreciated your love as we journeyed through our family becoming even better than before. Here's to the next year and beyond!

Myrtle Beach

When you are on vacation, you basically become a tourist who does touristy things. The “locals” can usually pick you out of the crowd b/c you’re the goof with the lost look on your face but have your camera in hand. You’ll try to document through pictures as much of your trip as you can because you’ll want to relive the experiences again in the future. (Besides, how else are you going to bore your friends except through slideshows of your vacations that they weren’t on and weren’t invited to?) I might have gone overboard a bit with this touristy photos concept recently when we went on our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. You can check out the good pictures from our trip at our FLICKR site but just to let you know, I took over 700 pictures in 5 days with my new camera I bought! If it moved, I caught it with my camera. I’ll try to use a little more discretion next trip but I was having so much fun it didn’t matter. Besides, little Makenna and her wonderful mommy made beautiful subjects. :)

Time seems to have flown by since we took our vacation to Myrtle Beach last month. I still feel like I haven’t gotten back into the “groove” yet because we had SO MUCH FUN! We stayed in a home inside of Ocean Lakes Family Campground that one of Kimi’s relatives owned. It was just big enough for all of us, so it worked out perfectly. Kimi, Makenna, and I all flew down on Sunday May 20th and then Sherry and Grandma Betty flew down on that Wednesday. This was a trip of firsts for little Makenna. It was her first flight (which she slept the WHOLE time, even the ones on the way home!), it was her first time at the beach, it was her first trip out of state (besides Texas), it was her first vacation… she even cut a new tooth while we were there!

Early in our vacation, being only a half mile away, we hit the beach almost immediately! The place where we were staying at had a golf cart that we could use to travel around inside of the campground areas. We put that golf cart to some serious use, let me tell ya. With gasoline at over $3/gallon, we used the electric golf cart to get dinner, go swimming, go walking at the beach, and roam around the place. If we could have kicked the top speed above 10 mph, I might have even taken it to the shopping malls around town! The word “campground” doesn’t really do justice to how beautiful the place is. There are 2 to 3 story homes on stilts built up all over the place facing multiple little ponds that had lighted fountains in the center. At night, with the lighting of the houses reflecting across the ponds, and with the ocean waves pounding their melodic sounds over and over again, the place was just intoxicating. Kimi literally said that this was our new vacation spot every year! Haha! We even accidentally drove through a neighborhood just outside of the campgrounds and they too had ponds and parks nestled between some beautiful homes (for sale!!!). I don’t think we’ll be moving anytime soon but Kimi’s put this place on the list “just in case”. :)

The week we were there was Biker Week. Two full weeks worth. That was really the only downside to our trip. We were constantly on the look out for bikers because they were everywhere! You’d pull up to a stoplight and hear that familiar vroooom and look around only to see 50 burly men and women on motorcycles surrounding our minivan on all sides. (Yes, I did say minivan…long story). That was just the incentive we needed to travel around the state to get out of there. Among several of the places we visited, the most memorable were Ripley’s Aquarium, Hard Rock Café, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Tanger Outlet (Kimi’s favorite), and many tourist traps along the way. Our best part of the trip though was the 2 hour drive south to Charleston.

As you may know already, Charleston was one of the founding cities in the United States. This place is OOOLD. But in a good way. We stopped right outside of Charlestown and visited a plantation home. I wasn’t impressed but then again, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. The petting zoo they had on site was the best part for me if that tells you anything. Haha. We then made our way to downtown and hooked up with a horse drawn carriage ride through the oldest parts of the city for an up close and personal tour. Honestly, our tour guide did an incredible job. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the homes and streets, like in Battery Park where they hung 30 pirates for a week to scare off the other pirates. How cool is that tidbit? The homes, some as old as 200+ years, have been kept up really well and are very colorful. We all had a good time there. I probably wouldn’t want to go back to Charlestown because it’s very crowded and busy, but it was worth fighting through in order to come away with a little more respect and understanding of our country’s history.

We finished up our trip with some more beach time before heading back home. The last full day we were there was the best beach day we’d had. We visited a pier about a mile away from where we were staying. The signs that warned fisherman not to put out shark bait was a little disconcerting but the place was way cool. We stayed for a bit before heading back to our place for more beach time. The waves were HUGE! I body boarded for about 2 hours straight in 10 to 12 foot waves. Soooo much fun. Miss Makenna didn’t like the water b/c it was cold and too big for her but she loved playing in the surf. She learned that the sand and shells don’t taste too good but they make for some nice squishy finger fun. :) I would build a sand castle and she would knock it down and giggle. It’s sad to think it might be a while before we can go back to the beach again but maybe next time she’ll go swimming with daddy. We’ll see…

So that was our trip to Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Did I bore you to death? Just kidding. I’ve already begun working on my next post so you should expect it fairly soon. Lots more to update you all on. ;)

God bless you all!

Jason

PS. If you don’t want to receive these blog updates (why would you not???), just reply back and I’ll remove you from my mailing list.

Mailing List

I know it has been a VERY long time since I have written consistently on this blog and for that I am very sorry. I know most of you are shocked (just as Makenna is here in the pic!). I will preface this by saying that there have been some changes at work that do not allow me to edit this anymore while I’m here. And when I get home, I find it very hard to tear away from my family long enough to update the website. So without anymore excuses, I am going start a mailing list so I can email those interested whenever I update this website. I will still update as often as I can so everyone can keep up with what is happening but because it might be infrequent at times, with being subscribed to the mailing list, you don’t have to waste your time checking the blog only to be disappointed that I didn’t update it yet. Hopefully this solution will work out for most of you.

If you are interested in signing up for the mailing list, please send an email to . I will put you on my email list and send out a group email when I update the next post. Make sure you add my email address to your address book and make it as “Not Spam” just in case. The subject line will probably look like this [Jason, Kimi & Makenna’s Blog] and come from THE FOX so if you see that, don’t delete it. If at any time you want to be taken off of the mailing list for whatever reasons, just reply back and I’ll remove your email address. You can always check the website still anytime so no big deal.

NERD ALERT: There is also another way to keep updated on both the blog AND our pictures we upload to Flickr. Both blogger and flickr have an RSS feed that is updated every time I post a new blog or picture to each. The very cool thing about that is that if you have an RSS Feed Reader that you subscribe to, each time the website is updated, you are notified through that reader and our latest updates actually shows up in full content. The best feed reader I found (and use regularly) is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) but there are multiple ones out there that you can use. I use mine to catch the updates on about 60 different websites I used to check regularly (from NFL news to the daily comics!), and now that I only get the updated content, I don’t have to waste my time checking the site every day and find it not being updated. You can use it for your friends’ blogs including Myspace, Blogger, Xanga, Flickr, etc. Basically there are millions of websites that use RSS to syndicate their updates. Very cool stuff (if you are a nerd like me). Anyway, here are our RSS feed links:

WhatFoxKnows BLOG Feed:
http://whatfoxknows.blogspot.com/atom.xml

WhatFoxKnows Flickr Feed: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=73324969@N00&format=rss_200

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, I am going to work on my next post. Lots to update so stay tuned!

Jason