A True Christmas Family.

we look forward to this day all year long!! we got to have 2 Christmas celebrations this year! one early one at my parent's house and then one here in tulsa. it was all so much fun. the kids loved playing with their cousins. if you know my family, our get togethers are set around food. no, really, they are! we talk about getting together for whatever occasion and the topic moves to food....always. so of course we had a lot of food. at my parents house, my sister made brisket, and we all made side dishes to go along. mm mm good. then we came back up here to tulsa for Christmas Eve and Christmas. needless to say, chuck and i were up so so so so late wrapping presents that we had had in hiding for months. it was fun though, always is. Christmas morning was a blast. the kids were loving every minute of it. they were so excited to see what Santa had brought them. especially kurtis, he changed his letter 3 times. the 3rd time being that night! he prayed that Santa would know what he wanted. so cute. it's always so nice to see the kids excited and giddy for Santa. it's a fun time for chuck and i both. well, i had my family come over for breakfast this morning. we of course ate too much. but it was just beginning. for the time was growing closer for the Thai feast that we were about to prepare! after breakfast, my 2 aunts, nunsri and saisunee, stayed and helped me make Chinese dumplings. they were alot of work and and it took until 1pm to finish. but they were delicious!!!! then we headed over to lauren's house for the feast. so so so so much food! we ate too much again and loved it all! one of the best things about living closer to home, is having my dad cook. it's so nice to have someone else cook what i want to eat, and they cook it the right way! thanks dad! it was all so much fun. we all enjoyed ourselves. the kids loved their presents and being with family. tonight, on the way home, the kids and i were talking about how Christmas will soon be over and people will take their lights down. blake mentioned that we will all have to wait for Christmas to come next year. and they boys truly do that very thing. they are waiting for Christmas starting the day after Christmas.

i can't believe all that has happened this year. it's all gone by so fast. this time last year chuck and i were praying that he get accepted to a law school and i was pregnant with jared. we've now moved and chuck is finished with his first semester of law school. we have 3 boys which seem to have grown a ton. it's all flying by so quickly. chuck and i have been truly blessed. we hope your Christmas was wonderful and that you have a happy new years as well.

this is the group picture we took over Thanksgiving. it was a surprise for my parents. these are all the cousins together. obviously you know my boys, the other two boys: austin the older one, the younger one is alex and their sister is abby, the older girl. then the baby girl is blythe. she is the newest.
they got to open 2 presents Christmas Eve...think he's happy about what's inside?? it's Megatron!! he is a transformer for those of you that don't know. really, it was a true miracle we found him.
blake loves his new jammies! thank you uncle timmy and auntie rebecca!
here is what Santa left for the kids. boy were they surprised. this was the first time they were up before us on a Christmas morning. chuck is usually the giddy one waking the kids up Christmas morning. but we heard gasping and little excited whispers coming back up the stairs this morning at 6:30am. it was alot of fun.

jared didn't care for the cold snow.
top left:my little sister lauren, then my youngest sister carly. bottom row: my aunt nunsri, my older sister faith and my little brother trent. the only one of us missing is mallory.

all the same except my aunt saisunee in the bottom middle.
here is my nephew austin and his huge gigantic muscles!! he's qite proud of them.

last week, kurtis asked me, "mom 3 days before Christmas, can i play in the snow as long as i want?" my reply was something along the lines..."if we have snow, sure!" well, sure enough, 3 days before Christmas, it snows!! this is kurtis and his cousin austin catching snow in their mouths. we didn't even pack coats cause it was 60 degrees the day before!!
blake lost his little Elmo. he's so happy it's been replaced!!
this is one of blake's prized presents this year. it's a "lap top" just like dad's.
kurtis finally got the spy watch he's been wanting so badly.
and here's jared, just as happy as can be.

Ice Storm!!!!

well, as a lot of you know, Oklahoma had a horrible ice storm this last week. we were without power for a day and part of a night. we went to my sister's house and hung out there all day....thank goodness. it was freezing in our house! the power came back on that evening and we came home and put the kids to bed in the warm house and it was fine. the pictures i've posted are of my parent's house. they got hit really badly. all of their trees are broken. they had some really close calls of being crushed by the limbs and things. the young men from church came yesterday and helped clean up the yard. a lot of people are still without power. we were very blessed. the kids held up quite well. kurtis was out of school everyday but friday last week. he was pleased about that. he only has 3 days this week. our Christmas shopping is almost done. we have a few things left to get still. we'll see if toys r us restocks in what i need. well, i hope all is well, and you are having a wonderful holiday season!

the kids in front of the tree!

cheesey blake
jared and his Sonic Tots

Christmas kickoff!!

well, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. we hope you all did as well. we went to my parent's house. it was lots of fun. the only family we were missing was my sister mallory and her husband casey. other than them we were all able to make it for thanksgiving. we had turkey and ham and all the fixin's. yes, i said fixin's. it was so yummy. but i'm tired of turkey for sure now. the next day, my dad takes the ham leftovers and makes a thai salad that is spicy and so good to eat. we stayed in norman for the OU vs. OSU football game, too. i took the kids up to campus and to the stadium to see all the partying and the fun. they were loving it. then we walked all the way up to the stadium and we all just wanted to go inside. but no tickets. it was a sell out game. not to mention, we couldn't afford $77.00 per ticket. then, i saw this man selling them. they were only $5. the 3rd quarter had just started. and i had cash. so i bought them and the kids and i went up. it was so great cause blake just kept asking if we could go in and see the Sooners play football. and i kept telling him that we didn't have tickets. so it was awesome. we were way up high, but we could see so great. beautiful view of norman as well. to top it off, OU, of course won!! so all in all, we had a great time. thanksgiving and the game was a blast.

now, the kids are ready for Christmas. chuck and i did the black friday thing. we shopped and got some great deals. chuck was too late for a few of the items. that was too bad. but we are keeping our eyes open for some more sales. the kids and their cousins helped decorate grammy's tree. they had tons of fun doing that activity. tonight, we put up their little tree in their bedroom. it's a small fiber optic tree and they love it to pieces. so, the Christmas season has officially begun!!!! yea!!

the boys and i scored $5 tickets to the ou vs. osu game on saturday. chuck was studying of course. but we had a great time, especially since OU won!!!!

here are blake and kurtis before they start to complain how cold they are!!!
jared in his crimson and cream!!
kurtis and mommy.

kurtis, jared and blake in their OU shirts!!!!
here is my sister lauren, her husband larry and their baby girl blythe.
jared and his bumba, my dad.
jared and me. i tried taking our pic myself.
here i am with blake, kurtis, and their cousins alex and abby. we were decorating grammy's Christmas tree!!

Happy Thanksgiving

poor jared. blake decorated him. i think blake thought "why give one, he'll love them all!!"
jared is ready for church today.
did i mention that none of my boys ever wear their shirts??
blake loves the camera!

sweet little guy.

well life at the parrish house hold was busy this last week. oh nothing terribly pressing, but just the same ol' stuff keeping us all going. chuck has finals coming up. he's preparing for all of those. he's been told they will most likely be the most stressful event in his life up to this point. hmmm...can't wait for that! needless to say, we haven't seen so much of him this week. so, the thanksgiving break is sounding awesome right now. especially since i need to make about 4 pumpkin rolls in the next 2 days. and those of you that know me, and my baking abilities, i need to get all that organized and ready to go. i hope chuck can take a time out from studying and help clean the kitchen, cause there WILL be a mess!! i am also making the ham this year. love that!! we are going to my family's house this year. we haven't been here for the holidays in 5 years. so that will be nice. but we will also be missing the parrish side of the family. we've enjoyed being there in the past and will miss them all greatly.



i can't help but be even more grateful for my family and friends this time of year. it's taken chuck a long time to finally get into law school. 3 years for those of you that don't know. and it may seem weird, but i am grateful for that laspe in school. chuck didn't have some awesome job and we didn't become rich by any means. and the town we lived in didn't offer much growth. but i look back on our time there with gratefulness. we were able to spend much time with chuck's family and get to know them and share holidays and other special times. we also made wonderful friends that we will keep forever. of course i didn't always see it this way. there were many times in those 3 years that we were very frustrated and tested. but looking back, it was all for the good. we learned alot and grew as a family. when some people learn that we havc 3 boys and chuck is a first year law student, they look like they feel sorry for us. but i'm pleased to say i don't feel that way. i'm happy to have begun the journey!!!! for us, it was a joureny to get the journey. so i'm thankful to be where we are now.



happy thanksgiving to you all.

Happy Birthday Chuck

well, we celebrated Chuck's birthday this week. don't even ask....he's old!! no not really. i made a birthday dinner Sunday, tonight. we had my sister and her family over. it was a good time. i asked chuck what he wanted me to make this year. usually, it's a mix of some Thai food, and Mexican food, just favorites. but this year, he said that he wanted turkey and cheese on white bread. i asked if he wanted sub sandwiches. nope. just the plain sandwich. i went on to tell him that most likely no one else is going to want that for dinner. so i made that after church today for lunch. tonight i made a roast chicken. he picked out a blackberry cobbler for dessert. I'm not a berry person. but he totally loves blackberries. so all in all, we ate well, and had a good time. happy birthday chuckers!!

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard

Trick or Treat!!!!

well, it's been a good couple of weeks. Halloween was awesome. i think it was around 60 degrees that night. the kids didn't have to layer tons of clothes under their costumes this year, unlike in washington. the first year in pullman on halloween it was 4 degrees. i think kurtis got like 5 pieces of candy. he was so cold. his little 16 month old fingers holding so tightly to his candy bucket were going to break off! but this year, it was nice. they both got a ton of candy. filled up their buckets almost to the brim. we somehow found a neighborhood that was prepared with candy, but didn't have many trick or treaters. so, one guy gave kurtis 4 big handfuls of good candy. needless to say he was thrilled. now, onto these pics with the kids on the couch. this is the morning before picture re-takes for kurtis. the first ones he hardly smiled and they were a bit blury. well, he was putting up a bit of resistance to the idea of getting pictures done again. so, worried that he would conviently forget to give his packet to his teacher, i paper clipped a note on his shirt. well, after school when kurtis climbed into the van, i noticed the paper clips still on his shirt. in fear that one wouldn't be enough, of course i used 2 of them...the big ones. well, they were both still there. after talking to him about it all, he told me the paper clips would just not come off. so, for re-takes, the smile will probably be adorable, but he has 2 huge shiney paper clips on his shirt. geez. i told him to make sure he gives the note to his teacher. i never mentioned anything about the clips!!!! i guess that's life, right??

chuck is doing well. he's staying super busy with school. saturday he had a study group that met from 9-4:15pm. well, when he came home we went to dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant, Ted's. that was fun. on the way home, he told me that he was going to do his take home test tomorrow (which would be sunday). chuck normally doesn't plan homework for sunday. so i asked why. well, come to find out, chuck thought it was friday again. he actually had his whole "saturday" planned out. sleeping in and so forth. he said he was wondering why there were so many football games that day, which he thought was friday but was really saturday. ha ha. well, his finals are coming up the first 2 weeks of december. i wish the kids and i could leave for them, but kurtis has school. his professors have told them that these finals will most likely be the most stressful event in their lives so far. so, super exciting for me. he's learning so much so fast. time is going by faster than i thought it would. true, we are only into the first semester. i'm sure this is the tip of the iceberg. but we feel very blessed. even though law school is not the easiest thing to do, we love our 3 beautiful and wonderful boys. we all stay busy and are stressed at times. and though the kids do cause some of the stress, they are most often the stress reliever for the both of us. their smiles, funny jokes, comments and quick whit keep us going. we are truly blessed. well, 2 smiles out of 3 was good, i thought!!
these guys are buddies. jared loves it when kurtis comes home from school. he smiles and laughs when he gets in the car. then when kurtis has to go to the back and buckle up, he yells and cries.
jared and blake. jared is getting so big. he's putting everything into his mouth now. it's going by so fast! and yes, that is my exercise ball in the play pen in the background. hey, at least i have it out.
blake's a ham for the camera!
here's kurtis and jared before school on tuesday. they get good play time in each morning.

this is our go at Transformer Pumpkin.
kurtis is a ninja and blake is spiderman!
kurtis, blake and jared. jared was too hot with his costume on. we had to take it off for pics or he wouldn't stop crying.
so proud of his candy.
someone's excited ya think??? they need to make those candy buckets smaller!!