Gearing Up for Dance Recital and a Birthday Surprise

This is a busy and very fun week. We are going to have Alyssa's dance recital this Friday and she is very excited about being in that. She calls it "dancing on the big stage." She loves her costume this year because of the big poofy skirt. These pictures are taken the night we were getting ready to leave for her dance pictures.
I love this picture because it shows that she really has learned somethings from taking ballet. She did this pose all by herself. Where she lacks in technic, she makes up for with how much she loves music and dance.

Bella thought Alyssa's costume was fun too. She would walk around her flipping the skirt up and down. I love this pictures because I think that the way they are smiling at each other is just so sweet.

This is just a fun picture of Bella giving me a kiss. Yes, I kiss my girls on the mouth! Some people think that is weird, and I'm not too sure why? Bella is so funny right now because she has just learned to kiss and she will walk up to you and making kissing faces and noises until you kiss her. How can you resist a sweet little girl doing that?

The other fun thing going on this week is Robert's 29th birthday! I have been busy planning a very exciting surprise for him. I would love to tell you all about it- however, my husband does read my blog from time to time, and I can't risk him finding out.

What is so funny about this is- Rob HATES surprises, but I LOVE them! I love getting surprised and love planning and giving a surprise. So, guess who wins? ME! All week long, Rob is trying to guess what I am doing, and he hasn't figured it out yet. He HATES it! But, trust me, he will love it when he finds out what it is.

Stay tuned...

Early Summer in Tulsa...

Those of you who don't live in the Tulsa area may not know how cherished the early days of summer are to us who do live here. They are more precious than any gold, silver, or diamonds. Well, maybe not more than diamonds, but you get my point right?
We have had such mild weather this month. Normally what happens is it will rain constantly for a month and then we are straight into the high 90's and high humidity. YUCK! Can you tell I hate the hot summer weather here??
I am almost sad to see the month of May go because the weather has been so enjoyable. We have been able to run around outside doing things we normally would have a heat stroke trying to do in the humidity.
On the other hand, I am happy to see the month of May go because that means we will be leaving in three weeks to go to Wyoming for 2 months. Me and the girls will be staying with my parent's and visiting family while Rob is here catching up on his work, and overseeing the building of our new house. I know, what I great husband right? It will be a long time apart. The longest we've ever been away from each other in 7 years is 6 days. I know he will really miss his girls, but he is willing to sacrifice his time with us to see his girls enjoy our summer. He knows how much it means to me to get to spend some real time with my side of the family. We don't get to do that very often, and it is so important to me that my girls really know them and where their mommy grew up. I am excited for that part of it, but will miss Rob terribly.
Rob will fly back to us and we will all drive home together on August 21st. So June-August I will be posting blogs from my childhood home town of Cowley Wyoming. Stay tuned for some really exciting stuff! (hint of sarcasm) :)

The weather has been just right for the splash parks to open. Bella took some time to warm up to them. She isn't really wasn't too enthusiastic about the cold water spraying in her face. Alyssa on the other hand, no surprise here - LOVES IT!



We have spent quite a bit of time at the park since we know it won't be long until we can't go there without have heat stroke.
The other day, Alyssa walked over to this mom that was sitting by the swings watching her son play. She sat down by her and chatted with her for like 25 minutes. They were looking at butterflies and admiring each others painted toenails. I was pushing Bella on the swing(as shown below) and I kept asking Alyssa if she wanted to come play with us, or if she wanted me to push her in the swings? She just kept saying, "One minute mom, I'm talking with this lady." I thought that it was so funny how she was chatting with her like she'd known her for years. She is a lot like her daddy that way. Never met a stranger and would make a friend with about anyone.

I guess I just have to make sure she knows a little more about stranger danger and how not everyone is good to talk to.

Bella was getting so tired and I needed to take her home to nap, but every time I'd go to stop her swing to pick her up, she would cry and shake her head at me. She loved the swings so much, and I hey, I don't blame her!



Alyssa mastering the art of bubble blowing. These are deluxe magic wands- so they were dubble the bubble fun! :)



Me and Alyssa making it rain bubbles on top of Bella. We played with these for a long, long time. They just couldn't get enough of them. I love this age when they can be so easily entertained for a few dollars.

It was time for the girls to get summer hair cuts. Alyssa got a short a line cut around her face, with a little layering in the back. It is very cute when it is dried and styled. She looks so grown up. The funniest part of her getting her hair cut was when the lady sat her down in the chair, she said, "So, how is your work today?" The lady looked at me and asked how old she was. Alyssa then continied to carry on a full on conversation about hair with her and she and I just had to laugh at her. She is pretty dang cute when she wants to be. :)

Bella got her first hair trim. We finally got rid of the Billy Cyrus mullet. As you can see, she wan't too excited at first about it. Then mommy sat in the chair and then I put her on my lap. After I was sitting with her and she was given a lollipop, all was well. She looks like such a big girl now!

This is Alyssa and Josh M. taking an afternoon nap together on his bed while mommy worked from Cheryl's office. I thought it was so cute that she didn't want to nap that day until Josh could nap with her. She just loves those Mason boys.

My friend, and co-worker, Cheryl Mason. This is her home office area. The second laptop and printer is mine that I'm working from while I don't really have my own home office. It is fun to be able to come and work with her. We have a great time together and we work well together. I love that both my girls are just napping in the next room while I am getting my work done. I have been blessed because of that situation and I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Austism Center of Tulsa's 5K Race and Fundraiser

Last Saturday morning I woke up extremely early to run a 5K race. I know, I can hardly believe I did that myself! Most of you know that I am NOT a morning kind of person. It took a really great cause to drag me out of my warm, king size bed on a Saturday morning before my kids were awake. The Autistic Center of Tulsa has this event every year for the past three years now, and they did an awesome job.
I was nervous to run, because I have never ran a real race in my life. I was a person who hated track growing up. I didn't want to run just to run. I thought that seemed very boring. But now, running has become a kind of stress reliever and the time in the evening when it is just me and the pavement. I can zone out completely and do something for myself that makes me feel good.
Being that it was my first race, I didn't have many goals for myself. I wanted to run the whole race, and I didn't want to be at the end of the pack. I did both of those things, so I was happy about that.
It was funny how little I knew about races. First off, when I got there I was supposed to check in and get my "chip." I was like, "sweet, they give us chips to eat before we run?" Sadly, they were just these little plastic things that tied up your shoe laces, and they had your racing number on them. It times you when you cross the finish line.
Then, I am running towards the turn around point of the course and these people were holding out small paper cups of water for the runners. I took one and took a big drink and then wondered what I would do with it? Then ahead of me, I see all the runners tossing their cups off the side of the path. I just followed their lead and tossed my cup in the grass. I have to admit, it went against everything in me. This picture is proof that I actually did it. I placed 100th and ran it in 30min. Not very well, so I'd like to do it again to see if I can do better.

This is me, my friend Rachel, and Karis, who we were running for. We had just finished the race about 10 min before this picture was taken. Sorry that we looked so good. :) Karis, She is 9 yrs old and such a sweet and happy little girl. She seemed excited that we were there to run for her. I have to admit that it overwhelmed me a little to see all these kids with Autism and their supportive families and friends there. It touched me, it really did.

My sister, Tamara, has a son named Ethan. He is autistic as well. Ethan was definately on my mind through this event. Ethan has such a sweet soul. He loves to gives hugs. He loves to laugh. He is funny-very, very funny. He is really good at the computer. He loves rootbeer floats. He loves to swing. He can recite to you any Disney movie ever made. Most importantly, he is a son of God and he is so loved.

I'm not sure why some are born with conditions like autism, but I know that one day, through the atonement of Jesus Christ, Ethan will be made whole. As a family member who loves Ethan, I take great comfort in that. I know my sister does too.

Even though I wasn't the fastest runner there, the day meant a lot to me and I was so glad that I was able to be involed with it.

Trip to the Tulsa Zoo...

While Rob was out of town all week on a business trip, the girls and I kept busy so we weren't sitting at his parent's house all the time missing him. We got together with some friends and met at the Tulsa Zoo, on the one day last week that it wasn't raining. We had a great time and my girls love the zoo! As we were getting in the car to leave, Alyssa turned and said, "Mom, can we come back to the zoo tomorrow when daddy is back?"



Alyssa riding a racing horse on the zoo carisol. What else would she pick right?



Us riding the zoo train. It was fun to get a ride all around the whole zoo grounds. Bella and Alyssa did not want to ever get off from it.

Bella riding the zebra on the carisole. She wan't too sure about the ride at first, but then she warmed up to it and loved it. She just smiled and giggled the whole time.

Strolling along in the zoo.

Alyssa loves to watch the elephants. She wanted to know if they could get our of those fences?

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

We just bought our very own lot in the Southbridge Edition in Bixby Oklahoma! We picked out our model and what what upgrades we wanted to be included in the building of the house. We meet with the builder showroom this coming Friday to pick out our flooring, carpet, wall colors, exterior colors, doors, handles, light fixtures, cabinets, countertops, trimwork, and appliances. There is so much to choose from and it can be a little overwhelming, but we are so excited to get things rolling. They promise that our house will be completed 4 months from the date that we meet in the showroom and sign on all the decisions for the house. That will mean by September 15th, we will be moving into our very own-brand new home! I can't believe it! It seems too good to be true at this point.
We did another walk through of the house model that we are building. The following pictures are of that model. It has three large bedrooms and a bonus room that will be our home office/den. It has a three car garage, which of course was a huge selling point for Robert. He can have room for all his tools and man things and build things our there.
Keep in mind that these pictures are of the model home and ours will look a lot different because we won't be picking out the same things, and we have made a few changes here and there. But for my family in Wyoming- you can get a better idea of what it is that we are working for. We can't wait until you are able to come and stay with us!



Me in my very large walk-in closet! I am very proud of this room. Ever since Rob and I have been married, we have lived in places that have had very small closet space.


The walk-in shower in our master bathroom. Yeah baby!

The living area

The master bathroom vanity area. Our home will have a two sink vanity and it will be pushed all the way to the right wall, and a garden bath tub on the other wall.

As you walk into our master bedroom.

The Kid's bathroom in the hallway. All the bathroom vanities are taller- which us taller people really love!

What will be the girl's bedroom. It is really large with a really large closet.

My new kitchen! Actually, my new kitchen will have granite countertops and different stained cupboards and different tile. But you get the idea!

Mom- see that closet in the between the coutertops? That is my LARGE WALK-IN PANTRY! Can you say major food storage room?

View as you come down the hall from the guest room and the girls room. I love how open the living areas are. We can all be gathered together in one open space and not feel all scrunched in. This area has 10 foot ceilings. Which is a huge change from the older home we had been living in.
Our dining table is going to look a lot like the one in the picture. Rob is going to build us our very own family dining table. Ours will be a little longer and a little differently stained. We hope to have many family dinners, game playing, and talks around the table that he makes for us.

This is the bonus room off the front entry hallway. This will be my home office where I will be working part time. Also a little den/library area for reading. Rob is creating some built-in shelving and desk space, and a bench/shelf that is built along the wall under the window. I am really excited for this space.

Entry way and hallway. Our tile will be different.

Not a very good picture of the front of the house because you can't see the whole house, and ours will be completely different in colors and brick.


I don't know why, but I didn't get a picture of the third bedroom, but it is just the second bedroom.

Our Home Away From Home...

I can't believe that it has almost been a month since we moved out of our home and moved into my in-laws home. It has been a crazy time for us, but also very exciting. Thank goodness my in-laws have a huge house that we could fit all of our kids stuff into to help make them feel more like home. Like any kind of change in life, there has been some moments of frusteration and some time for adjustment, but overall, living here has been a positive situation.
Our girls, at first, were a way out of their routine and their comfort zone. This made me a very on edge, but now that we have been here awhile, we have all settled into our new routine more. We have started to feel a little more at home day by day, and we are so grateful for the opportunity that we have been able to save up money while building our new home.
Grandma and Papa Wallace have been very generous with their home and their things. I know that it has been a huge adjustment on them as well. They have been empty nesters for years now, and don't often have guests in their house. I know that my girls can create a very loud and busy atmosphere that they are not used to having. Yet, they have tried to help us feel welcome, and my girls are loving getting to know their grandparents better.



My girls in their home away from home (as we call our current residence) having a tea party. This is one of the guest bedrooms that we transformed into the girl's bedroom. It has worked out perfectly for them. I can tell they feel comfortable in it, which makes me happy.

So Much to Talk About (Part 2)

This past Monday evening while looking at a model home, Alyssa tripped in the back yard and fell on some broken bricks laying in the ground. She was bleeding everywhere and crying histerically. Speaking of histerical people- Oh ya, that would have been me! I'll admit to saying a couple of s#*! words while trying to stop the bleeding. I later had to apoligize to the realtor showing us the house for my bad language, and for my daughter bleeding all over the place. She was more than helpful and pointed us to an Urgent Care Center down the street and so we wrapped one of Bella's diapers around her leg and hauled her buns over there to get her treated.
Now that is where the real fun began! There were two nurses, the doctor, me, and Rob in the room. It took all of us to get her leg cleaned and stiched up. Rob and I held her down from the waist up and talked to her and kissed her trying to keep her still and calm. I don't think it helped much, but that was all we could do while the doctor and nurses treated her knee. Poor little girl just kept asking for them to put a bandaid on it instead. She cried and screamed and begged us to stop. IT WAS THE WORST THING EVER! I told Rob afterwards that I'd rather go through child birth 5 more times without drugs than to see my own child go through something like that again. I did however, happen to document the event since I had my camera for the house we saw.










































On a much happier note- Alyssa turned 4 years old a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, we were in the middle of boxing everything up to move and our house was not in any shape for a birthday party for kids. So we asked her where she would like to go for her birthday dinner and she said Red Robin. They sing and clap and give you a special birthday dessert, so she was very excited about that. We had Rob's family meet us there and she opened her gifts while we were there. I was sad that I didn't do more, but that was about all I could pull off during that time.














Alyssa had been asking for a puppy for her birthday, so we got her a toy puppy with a carrier bag, hair brush, collar, and outfits to put her in. She was thrilled with it! I love this age, when they are so easlily pleased.















The next group of pictures are pictures I took around our house the last week we were there. We have worked so long to get our house sold and now that we are homeless, it feels sad to say goodbye to our little house. It was our first home together and we put a lot of work and memories into that house. We are excited to build our new house in Bixby and our new chapter in our lives.


We brought both our babies home from the hospital to our house. This is the only home they have ever known.










Isabella turns 18mos old this week. She is getting so grown up now.
























We had a big garage sale the same weekend of Alyssa's birthday. Yes, I know it was crazy, but crazy also made us $1300 dollars off a ton of stuff I didn't want to move with us. Not bad huh!?
So we sold our dining set, and we ate on the floor the last few days we were there. The kids thought it was a lot of fun. Me, not so much.


















We also sold our bedroom frame annd dresser set to a friend. So we slept on the mattress on the floor for a few days. We felt like college students not able to afford any furniture. It was funny.


This picture makes me miss our home a little bit. My girls snuggling up in front of the TV to watch a disney movie together on the "big pillows."

So Much To Talk About...

The Wallace home has been ANYTHING BUT BORING the past couple of months. Since my last entry, we have had so much going on. I will try to narrow it down to the important highlights for those of you interested.

For my birthday the end of March, I flew to Oregon to see my sisters and our mother for a week. IT WAS AMAZING, RELAXING, FUN, and most of all WE WERE TOGETHER! I brought back a bunch of cute things I bought at the outlet malls, and a ton of great memories I will remember forever. Here are some pictures during our fun trip!

Of course it would not be a trip with me and my family if we didn't have some great food, so I not only had one piece of birthday cake, I got 5 very large slices of cake! Olivia took us to this great bakery (I can't remember the name...oops) that every kind of homemade cake or cheesecake or pie that would ever think of. We all picked out favorite kind and we shared off each of them. The waitress brought me a candle and the whole bakery ended up singing happy birthday to me. It was pretty funny. I think Chris was going to crawl under the table in embarrassment. HAHAHA!

Olivia, her boyfriend Chris, and Me at the beach. Chris surprised us and took the afternoon off work so he could drive us to the coast. He knew we really wanted to see it before we left. Even though it was FREEZING and not what I'd picture a walk on the beach would be, we can now say that we have been there! We still made it fun. Thanks Chris for putting up with our girl chat the whole way to the coast and back!

Tamara showing off the cutest homemade mini cupcake that we stumbled upon in Portland. We walked for hours shopping up and down the streets in the Pearl District, so we treated ourselves to a sweet goody! YUMMY!

They surprised me with a train ride to Portland for a day of shopping. We sat in our own area and got to sit and eat brunch on the train while we visited and took in the big green trees along the way. It was way fun! Thanks guys!

WE'RE MOVIN' ON UP!!!

I think we have FINALLY done it! We sold our house! To a young cute couple, and the wife's name happens to be Shanna. How funny is that?

This past week we had the appraisal and inspections done and everything went great! I guess when the timing is right-that is when it all works out.

We have to be completely out of our house in three weeks. We are excited about the change, but there is just so much to be done this month. We have started going through things and boxing things up. We are also having an estate moving sale on our driveway this Saturday, April 11th. We have a lot of things we are not going to put in storage for the next 5 months while we build our house, or want to take to our new house. So there will be lots of stuff up for grabs! If anybody is interested in coming we will be out there selling from about 7am-3pm. This day also happens to be our daughter, Alyssa's, 4th birthday. So we are also having a family birthday party for her that evening. PHEW! It will be a busy day!

On another note, I realize that I have not yet posted about my AMAZING trip to Oregon. I am still waiting on some fun pictures from my sisters to share. My camera died after the first day we were there. I forgot my battery charger. UGH! So those trip stories and pictures will be coming soon!