Christmas is here.......

Well, so much for staying current with my blog...LOL! Its only been about 3 weeks, not too bad I guess.
I can't believe Christmas is almost here. Its this WEEK. Holy Cow, where did December go to? Its definitely been a busy December for us. Lots of shopping, Christmas parties, Matthew West concert :) birthdays, aunt visiting, basketball game, and the list could go on.

An update on our house, we are putting new carpet and laminate flooring in next week :) We are hoping this will help sell it! We have only had one showing this entire month and that was yesterday, the lady liked it but isn't preapproved so it may have potential! My patience has got a little better, but I'm still ready to be out of here, one of these days I know it will happen!

This week is going to be an extremely busy week for us. We have to fit in so many Christmas gatherings that it is going to be hectic but it will be fun! Christmas eve morning, we will spend with my sister and kids making cookies for Santa. Christmas eve afternoon and some of evening we will spend time with Mikel's parents and then go back to my dad's to celebrate with them that evening a little as well. We plan on spending the night at Twin lakes with my sister's family, and of course my dad and Ladonna are right next door. For the last several years, my sister and I and our families have stayed together on Christmas eve allowing the kids to wake up together in their matching jammies to open all the gifts! Its fun! Christmas afternoon we will then go to my aunt and uncles for lunch, THEN that evening we will head to Missouri to spend the weekend at Mikel's grandparents and the rest of the family in Missouri! All in all, its going to be fun! Oh yeah, we have one more celebration we have not yet worked out a time for yet. I have to say its the toughest, because its with my brother and his son and my sister, which is when we used to celebrate Christmas with my mom. My brother and I have different dads if your wondering why its a different gathering. This will be my 3rd Christmas without my mom and its not any easier than the last 2 years. It still hurts when I'm doing my Christmas gift checklist to make sure I have bought for everyone and my mom's name isn't on here. Instead, all I can do is take Christmas flowers to her grave. Its the little things that bring you to tears and makes me wonder why its that way. When my oldest daughter says Mom, I miss Granny and I have to hold back the tears in front of my daughter. Pray for me and my siblings during Christmas for I know its tough for them too.

Today, I bought the first little shirt and blanket for my baby boy! Its BLUE! I'm still in shock that I'm actually having a boy! Although, I am very excited to be having a BOY, pink is just much more cuter. I guess because that's all I'm used too. LOL The girls were excited to look for their little brother something when we were shopping this morning! Anna really had no clue but she was picking up blue stuff. She would say "for brother" It was cute! I can't believe I am already over half way done with this pregnancy. I am trying to enjoy it and take it all in because this is it. I just recently starting feeling him vividly, which I love the feeling. No one else has felt him just yet, but it won't be too long.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Waiting on God's perfect timing....

These last few days I have found myself to be really struggling with waiting on God's perfect timing. Thus causing me to be stressed and depressed because our house isn't selling when I want it too. I feel like God is trying to teach me patience and to wait on his timing and not my own. It is proving to be SO difficult for me right now. I want to be moved where I can be close to my friends, close to church, feel like I'm in a more secure area, be able to start on my baby boy's room, Ashlee to be able to go to school that she loves very much, and I could go on and on. I'm very eager to get moved and I want it NOW, so pray for me that God will help me through this time.

Other than that, not much else is going on. I am letting this house situation steal my joy. I wish I could just put it aside and go on and wait for God's timing. We did put up our Christmas tree on Monday after my doctor's appt which I weighed and I had lost one more pound! A total of -3 pounds since pre-pregnancy weight :) The girls had a great time putting the ornaments on the tree and putting up some of the decorations. Speaking of decorations, I pulled out our stockings and the white beads on them had yellowed. :( so no stockings this year which is OK because i have to by all new ones next year because we will have our little baby boy and I have to have them all matching.

Since my sister moved to Perkins about a month ago, I stopped baby sitting my niece and nephew meaning no extra money for me. Therefore, I HAVE to stay at home more to save on gas. I thought I would enjoy staying at home all the time with my girls, but I should have known better. I have always been the one "on the go" all the time. Heck, I used to take all 4 kids to target just to go somewhere. I think I was crazy. Any how, I miss watching my Jake and seeing both of them everyday. Although, I hated getting up early every morning to drive to Edmond, I truly miss doing it now. I would have liked to do it part time, that would have been perfect. But oh well, Jacob is making the adjustment to a daycare and I am trying to make the adjustment to staying home all the time.

OK, enough about all my problems because I guarantee I could go on and on with them and no one wants to read about this........lol! PRAY FOR ME AND OUR HOUSE PLEASE!!!
I will leave you with a few pictures of my girls!

Its a..

BOY! Yea! I am still shocked doesn't seem real that I am really going to have a little baby boy! The party was fun and I am glad I waited just a few hours. I was so nervous and when it was time, I didn't want to cut it and face the reality. Thankfully, it was a boy and that is what we both truely wanted. this baby will definitey be our last, so we are very thankful God choose to give us a baby boy!

Here are a few pictures thats to my friend that took them for me!

A quick little update!!

Today, I had my big 18 week ultrasound where they check everything. The ultrasound tech said everything looked great and the baby was being very cooperative! Which is a first for me, the girls were not very cooperative when I had my 18 week ultrasound. Ashlee would not move around or uncross her little legs. I remember them having me get up and jump up and down and all sorts. We had to leave the ultrasound not knowing what she was...I was very sad, esp. it being my first child. We ended up going to other place and we found out there, thankfully!

Well, today we didn't find out the sex of the baby right then. We had the tech put it in the envelope and we took it straight to Rae so she could make our gender cake that I am patiently waiting to cut into in the next few hours!

My sister is having us a little gender party at a restaurant and then for dessert, we will either have pink or blue cake!

Mikel and I are pretty much convinced its another little girl. We shall find out soon........
I will post later with the results! Wish us luck!

Operation Christmas Child

Our sunday school class decided this year to participate in Operation Christmas Child! Its a great program and I was excited when I found out we were particapating as s.s class! I had previously heard about it, so was grateful we choose to do it!

If you don't know what it is, its an organization through Samaritan's Purse. You fill an empty shoe box with items for a child in need and they will deliver them to children in poverty in different countries. Very cool! If you get a chance take a look at website....http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/index/

This week I took the girls to fill the shoe box we filled! I explained to both of them what we were doing. Ashlee understood to an extent and Anna had no clue. She thought we were buying all the stuff for her...lol. It was very sweet watching Ashlee pick out what she wanted to send to the little girl. She didn't quite understand why we had to send it to her and we couldn't just take it to her...oh how I wish one day we would be able to go to a foreign country to work with children less fortunate.

Our Sunday school class had a packing party fellowship tonight. It was lots of fun! The kids got to decorate the shoe boxes before they are delivered to the drop off site. When you choose to do a shoe box, they ask for a small donation for shipping and other expenses. If you are able to do the donation online, they will send you an email and you can track where your shoe box goes! I thought that was pretty neat! So, one day we will know where are shoe box was delivered!

I enjoyed this experience and hopefully taught Ashlee a little bit about giving! I am so excited for this Christmas! I was inspired by a song named "Give this Christmas Away" by Matthew West (of course!) LOL! But it really does have a good message and it will encourage your heart to give something this Christmas instead of focusing on receiving. It has encouraged me to ask myself what I can give to others than just to my family and friends......maybe just prayers or something else, I don't know. What will you give away this Christmas?

Busy, But fun day!

Whoa, today has been a busy but fun day!

We began our day by waking up late, which was so nice! :) We had plans to meet some friends at the zoo, so we geared up and headed out to the zoo! Which I didn't gear up to well, because my girls both wanted to wear dresses, so I let them but I walked out the door with no jackets and they had short shelves. Geez, what am I thinking, its November and no jacket? We had lots of fun as always and of course I enjoyed my taco salad! They have such good ones there!

By the time we were leaving Ash was begging for Caylea and Carolina to stay the night, so I gave into her begging but we had been planning on doing it soon anyway!

The girls had lots of fun playing together!

After they were laying down watching a movie, I began my wonderful school work! As you will see in the first picture!

I am going to try to stay updated with pictures and all on what is going on in our life. Maybe tomorrow I will do a catch up on our life in the last couple of months but until then, hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hello Friends!

So...Will I ever get in the hang of blogging? I don't know, but I want too!

Just thought I would let you guys know I am still here and I read your blogs all the time! Ok, I'm too tired to type tonight....lol that's my life...always too tired.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will update on what is going on in the life of the little hoggs, Mikel and I!

Until then, GOODNIGHT!

Big News...

Hi!
As most of you know, we are expecting our 3rd child in April of next year. It came by bit of a surprise, but we are excited about it! Its going to be hard, but I guess I will learn just like all the other mother's of 3 do. We are hoping for a boy, but I will be fine with another little girl. Poor daddy though, if he gets stuck with 3 girls. LOL. So that's the biggest news going on in our family right now!

Ashlee is going to Pre-K and I think she likes it. She fights me in the morning and tells me its boring, but I think that's only because she is not a morning person and doesn't want to be messed with when I'm trying to get her around. When I pick her up from school she is happy and says she had a good day, so who knows. On Fridays, they do "Friday cooking" and "show & tell" so she likes going to school on Fridays.
We just kicked off our fall ball season of softball last week. This league is a whole different story. Its actually softball with ALL girls! No parents go out on the field and they actually throw the ball to make outs. So, Ash isn't quite used to this yet, but she is learning and its a good thing she is on this team and this league because she is progressing and it seems as we are actually playing "ball". They even have parent score keepers. LOL

Anna, well not much is going on with her. She is talking more and more everyday. She thinks she has to do everything Ash does. She thinks she is just as big as Ash as well. Ash does it, so does Anna. I love my little girls!

Mikel and I are trying to prepare our house to sell. With us expecting another child, there really is no way we can stay in this 2 bedroom house anymore. 2 bedrooms and 3 children doesn't work very well. Its cluttered enough with just us 4, try adding another one. NO WAY. So, I am excited to move to Edmond finally! We live 90% of our life in Edmond, so this will help out so much. We just pray we can find something we can afford.

These last few weeks my heart has been heavy about missing my mom. I wanted so bad to be able to call her to tell her I'm pregnant, but I can't. Her birthday would have been tomorrow, I want to tell her Happy Birthday, but I cant. She was there with me during every moment when I gave birth to my 2 children, this birth she will not be there to help me through the labor and pain. I could go on and on... its not easy living life without a mom when your only 25 and trying to raise a family. anyways, pray for me.

Last weekend, Mikel and I got the opportunity to go to Dallas for the weekend without our kids. It was a nice time and I enjoyed spending time with my husband. Although, the Sooners lost, it was still a fun weekend.

Ok, that's enough rambling for now. I sure wish I had more time to blog. I feel like our life right now is so busy and by the end of the evening I am worn out and ready for bed.

Happy Weekend!
Whitnee

End of Summer has come...

Hi guys!
Its time for my once a month blog. LOL! I really want to try to blog more. I just need to put the time and effort into blogging! Well summer is pretty over, its been a good one! busy busy every weekend. I believe we had at least one event every weekend which kept us very busy. We spent some time at the lake, twin lakes, and many many birthday parties.

Ashlee begins K-4/Pre-k this coming Monday. She goes to meet her teacher on Friday and she is very excited about going to school! I can't believe I have a school age child already. We have been trying to get prepared for school to start by getting school supplies, school clothes, haircut, and etc.
Well, the haircut did not turn out exactly how I wanted it to turn out. We went in for just a trim, maybe 1 to 2 inches off and left with 4 to 5 inches off and it was a total mess. I had to call the manager and request a different stylist to fix Ash's hair. So, today we went in and the new stylist got her fixed up but another inch had to come off. It looks cute, but I wasn't prepared for Ash to have short hair :( OH well, I guess it will eventually grow back. By the way, I went to a very well known cute little child boutique to get it trying to avoid this very occurrence.

Along with school starting, we are also starting a new season of softball tball. I don't really know the difference, but I think her team will be mostly girls this season. Anyhow, we are very excited to start a new season. It just adds to our busy schedule!

As far as Anna goes, she is as ornery as ever. She is talking more and more each day. She loves her babies and plays babies constantly. Not much else going on with her.

Mikel and I just recently made a BIG commitment. We are now doing the youth at our church. We were previously teaching the High school Sunday school, but now we are doing it all. High school and JV both and for every services. We are excited about this opportunity God had gave us. We are looking forward to what God is going to do in our youth.

I am going to post a few pictures of my girls that I took last week!
Hope to blog again soon!

Ramblings on how Anna isn't a baby anymore...

Hello!

Taking a break from my busy, hectic life. Here lately it seems like we have been doing nothing but running constantly and getting home at around 10pm or later. By the time we get in bed its usually around 11:30-midnight before I finally lay my head down to rest. Just to wake back up at around 5:45 to be at my sis's house by 6:45. OK, so now do you see why I haven't blog all that much lately? But I am enjoying the life God has given me!

Well, tomorrow is going to be a bittersweet day. My little Anna Banana is turning 2. Yikes, she isn't a baby anymore. Well, technically she hasn't been a baby in a while but hitting 2 just seems like she is way to old already. She is growing up on me. Last Saturday, she spent the night with Grammy and paapa and didn't want to go home with me. That's when it really hit me that my baby is gone and she is turning into a little girl. She wanted to do just what her sister was doing and spend the night. I went to pick her up at 1PM that evening after working up at the church and she refused to go home with me, so I went to Walmart to burn some time while Mikel was finishing up his get together with his friends. I got a phone call at WalMart saying she had went right to sleep and she was fine and they would see me in the morning. Oh, i couldn't believe it. the only other time i had left her overnight was when we went on our cruise but she was willing to do that. she just woke up and we were gone one morning, poor baby! Ok, enough rambling how Anna isn't a baby anymore.

Last week was VBS, at our church and Ashlee really enjoyed it. She said her favorite part was music, which was no surprise because she loves to sing! Ok, now back to Anna not being a baby anymore, she will be in VBS next year. Holy Cow, how time flies. I helped Ms. Brandy in the 3rd and 4th grade class and really enjoyed it. We had a great week at VbS.

We have been able to do lots of fun things this summer. Hopefully, sometime I will be able to do a recap of this summer and all it entitles. Its almost over :(

Ashlee will be starting Pre-K this year, so that will be a new chapter in her life! She is so excited to get to go to "Kristen's School" Kristen went to Pre-K at the same school so that's why she thinks its Kristen's school.

Ok, I am going to try to get to bed a little earlier tonight than normal since we have a big day tomorrow!

Here are a few pictures.........

Ok, now for the last picture and was a major highlight of the previous month...
The Rockets Over Rhema Festival with Matthew West!!

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY ANNA!!

Our weekend!!

Hi!

We had a pretty exciting, fun weekend!

I will start with Friday! First of all on Friday morning, my sister and I had a garage sale at her house. It went pretty well. We were really busy and people were buying stuff as I brought it out of my car :) I did pretty good considering we only stayed open until a little before noon. Now, this is the best part! With my garage proceeds, I went and brought a iPhone!!! I love it!

OK, on to the rest of Friday! We loaded up when Mikel got home from work and headed off to the lake! Mikel's parents just recently bought 2 seadoos, so we were ready to hit the lake and give them a shot! The girls love going to the lake and camping whether its in our tent or in the luxury of Grammy and papaw's camper! Most of all they love the outdoors! We had a great time and good time together with Mikel's parents! Here are a few pictures of the lake!

We came home late Saturday evening, so that we could make it back to church on Sunday morning! Sunday was not only Father's Day, but was Ashlee's actual birthday! My baby girl is four now. She is growing up way to fast. I can't believe I have a four year old daughter that is mine! Wow, how time goes by so fast. Anyhow, we celebrate both Father's Day and Ash's birthday. We went to eat Mexican food (i had Mexican 6 out 7 days this week) with Big Mike and some friends and family. Then we visited a little bit at Amber's house and shortly after it was time to head back to church. I had stayed up very late Sat night making Ashlee a birthday cake for her actual birthday, so after church her cousins met her at the park and we played and had some cake!

Overall, we had a good family weekend! The next pictures are just I wanted to share and are from the last month!

Hi!


So lots of stuff has been going on...we ended the tball season and Ashlee's 4th birthday party are just to name a few of the events that keep my life so busy! but I love it!



Last Tuesday was Ashlee last tball game of the season. She really enjoyed playing ball and so did her mommy! we will definitely we playing again next season!


Ashlee will be 4 on this sunday. She is growing up way to fast. We had to party this last saturday so that we wouldn't have to father's day and ash's party in the same weekend. She wanted to have a princess party, so thats what we did! It was a grand affair! We had princess Belle come to her party. thanks for my friend lauren that dressed up for me! all the girls just loved it!

This is a picture taken my friend Kelly at the Myraid Gardens! This is one of my favorite pictures out of her 4 year old shoot we did!

This is a picture of kiddos meeting Princess Belle after she arrived!

All the princesses with Princess Belle! It was a fun and joyful occasion celebrating my daughter's 4th birthday!

that is all for now! Although, I might blog more since my blogger friend helped me with a little tip about adding photos! Thanks Chan!

Been too lazy to blog, I guess...

Hi! Its been forever since I have blogged. I created the blog, blogged a few times, and then got lazy. LOL Just wanted to let everyone know I still plan on blogging but just have been too busy/lazy to blog. Right now, I am sitting outside in the sun watching the kiddos swim in the little pool! NO pictures because my girls are naked because I forgot their swim suits today, but its ok because we are in the privacy of my sister's backyard. LOL! I promise more later!! Got to keep a close eye on the kids!
thats it for now!
Whitnee

Its been an interesting start of the week...

Hello!
Well, I have to say that my week has turned out a little different than the normal. First of all, since its been raining none stop the past several days, we have had to stay inside all week. So, the kids have been crazy and driving this mommy crazy as well.

During the Monday night, Anna woke up crying from her bed and came to sleep with us. Nothing out of the ordinary. A couple hours later, she woke up crying and sat straight up and gross stuff starting coming out of her mouth. In our bed, in the middle of the night. GROSS! We cleaned up as good as we could being half asleep and went back to sleep. Anna woke up Tuesday morning with a fever :( Long story short, she had one more episode of vomiting and ran a fever for the majority of Tuesday. She proved to be OK by the evening and woke up just fine today!

In my life, it seems to be one thing after the next and we are always contacting our doctor for advice. Guess what? Ashlee woke up this morning with a red crusty eye. So now we are battling an eye infection. Whats next?

We are considering the idea of selling our house and moving to Edmond! Therefore, I have been trying to get my house just perfect and going through tons of JUNK that needed to be thrown away! That's what my day consisted of, and of course taking care of the kiddos! This evening since we were unable to go to church, the girls and I were doing some outside work and Ash discovered a Roley Polly. She loved it. She named him Frederick. LOL I don't know where she came up with that but all night I heard her talking to "Frederick". It was too cute!

That's about it for today!

A rainy day with my inlaws!

We had so much stuff planned to do around the house today, but guess what? Nothing got done. The wonderful rain we have been receiving changed our plans for today. We were needing to get our garage cleaned out so badly, but it didn't happen. Oh well! Maybe next weekend.

Instead, I woke up with my husband asking me if we wanted to go to the Bagel Shop with his parents this morning. Before I knew it we were sitting there eating bagels and all our plans were out the door. Overall the bagels were so yummy.

I made it to the baby shower that was this afternoon that I didn't think I was going to be able to go to but the rain allowed me to go. It was a nice shower and can't wait to meet little Elizabeth Mendoza!

Returning to my in laws where my hubby had stayed while me and my girls enjoyed the shower, we sat and visited with my in laws for the afternoon. They blessed us with a nice steak dinner that was so good! After dinner we watched Fireproof! They had never seen it so we decided to watch it again. It is so good, I could probably watch it over and over again.

It was a good day. I didn't take any pictures today, so no pictures to share. I should have because we were stuck inside of Sam's while it was pouring and hailing for quite some time. I wasn't about to go out in it so we just explored Sam's for awhile until the storm passed!

Hope everyone has a blessed Sunday tomorrow. Looking forward to a good day in church with our awesome church family!

Mother/Daughter Banquet!

Tonight, Ashlee and I went to the Mother/Daughter banquet at our church! Yes, you read it right. I didn't take Anna because she would have been hard to keep quite and still, so I figure if I wanted to enjoy it that I would just take Ashlee this year. Little did I know that Abbie was going to stay in the nursery during the speaker. Oh well, Anna didn't realize what she missed.

Ashlee and I had a great time at the banquet. We started the evening out by getting all ready for the "ball" Ashlee asked me if we were going to a "ball" so I thought I would make it fun for her and tell her yes we are going to a ball! I gave both the girls a bath this afternoon and after Ash got out we decided we were going to fix her hair special for the occasion. I blowed dried it, which I never do and tried to curl it with a straightener (that's all I have). The curling part didn't work out so well, but Ashlee loved it and she was all ready to go to the ball.

We headed out the door and Anna began to cry and wanted to go with us. I think she noticed all the special attention her sister was getting from mommy. So, this made me feel a little guilty for leaving her behind, but she had a fun night planned with her daddy as they went on a date. Their plans kind of got ruined because of the rain. Daddy was planning on taking her to a OU baseball game but instead they ended up at a Chinese restaurant and did some shopping at Home depot and Best Buy. They had a great time and I later found out my husband called my grandma to see if she wanted to join them. LOL! So, my hubby went on a date with his almost 2 year old daughter and my 70+ year old grandma. Oh, I love my hubby! He is so thoughtful. He knew my grandma wouldn't be doing anything and maybe wanted to get out of the house. Or he needed help with Anna? They had fun as well!

I really enjoyed being able to take my own daughter to the banquet. I long for that special mom/daughter relationship that is just beginning in my life. I hope to be a best friend to both of my daughters. All the fun times are just beginning and I can't wait to see how my girls are going to mature. God really took the sorrow that I feel with the loss of my mom and replaced it the thankfulness that I have two DAUGHTERS of my own and to share this holiday with them. Not that I don't miss my mom. God is just helping me see a different side of Mother's Day. Kind of confusing, don't know if it makes any sense. LOL! All in all, I am thankful for all God has done for me these past couple of years.

I want to share this photo with you. I wanted to make this night as special as it could be so at 9:45pm I asked Ashlee if she wanted to go her favorite thing! What was I thinking?

We went to Braum's! We had a great night!

Hello Everyone! So I finally decided to join the blogging world! I haven't got it totally figured out yet so bare with me. I'm sure it wont take me long and I will get the hang of it! Hope to get some pictures and such up soon.