Biker Toy Ride

Well as usual your weekend is always busier then we plan it to be during the week. as most of you know we live very close to the Fairgrounds well.....that leads to a full calendar in the Hillman household. This Sundat was the ABATE Biker Toy Ride for Toys For Tots. We thought it would be fun to sit on the corner and watch all the bikes parade down 15th. We knew there were a LOT of bikes since the fairgrounds parking lot was FULL! Come to find out it took over an hour for all the bikes to parade out of the fairgrounds, later we found out that there were over 20,000 bikes! YES! I said 20,000, TWENTY THOUSAND! These bikes were all shapes and sizes, loud roaring Harleys, colorful miniatures, ones with 3 wheels, even a bike with a VW Bug shell and scooters too. Butch has decided that him and Harry will participate on his scooter next year. He wants to get a sidecar for Harry to ride with him on his scooter. I think Harry will have him in the sidecar.

Harry now thinks we have a parade every day. We get in the car and he asks "We got o Parade?" I guess that is better then him thinking the Bumble Bees from the fair are still behind the QuikTrip Center for him to ride.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

I couldn't decide which take I liked better so I put them both out for you to view. MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PSO Christmas Parade of Lights

Tonight we went to the PSO Christmas Parade fo Lights. We had a great family night out. The parade was in downtowm Tulsa. it was a beautiful night, very weather ut unusually warm. I am sure that is the reason there were casts of thousands at the parade. Harry and I sat right in the middle of the street as soon as the closed the road so we were right up front. He LOVED it! His favorite were the high school bands that marched and the firefighters. We sat next to a really nice boy who helped explain the process of a parade to Harry and said that he would help him out during the event. He was really nice. The parade was a little shorter then usual because of the wind, we had no balloons! I don't know if Harry could have handled the balloons. He was awfully excited with the bands, trucks, floats, lights, horses, EVERYTHING!

After the Parade, we went to Braum's, Harry and Butch both got a Hot Fudge Sundae and I got scoop on Mint Chocolate Chip. By the end of our trip to Braum's, I had none and Harry was enjoying a scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip....uuuummmm!

Christmas party at Baby School

Unfortunately I was away on business when Hary had his Baby School Christmas Party. It was great to know that Butch was going to be able to attend the party. I think Harry really enjoyed Daddy coming to his school. According to Butch, Harry was asleep still when he arrived at 3 pm (which is a little annoying). When Harry woke up he didn't want to participate with the group. Butch & Harry got a plate of cookies and sat on the stage reading books. Butch said within minutes he was surrounded by 2 year olds offering books for him to read. Welcome to the Toddler Room! He knows how I like pictures so here are the pictures he took for me.

Family photo

These are the family photos that we took at Dry Gulch..just wanted to share

Christmas Train @ Dry Gulch

Harry and 2 friends (Gavin & Payton) went to the Christmas Train at Dry Gulch on Sunday night. This a piece of land owned by Church on the Move about 1 1/2 hours SE of Tulsa. It is designed to be an old fashion cowboy town with a steam engine train, horse drawn wagons, and even Outlaws.

The first thing we did was ride the Christmas Train. It was a little gruesome depiction of the story of Christ. We were expecting a story of the birth so it was a little weird. After the train we were herded in to the movie theater to see a short film by the pastor at Church on the Move. This was weirder then the train because he went into a story about his mother taking her own life in front of him...weird?????

This didn't seem to phase Harry since he was focused on playing with his friends. We went to see Santa (I will post his picture as soon I as get it scanned). I was impressed on how well Harry did with Santa. He sat on his lap and told him he wanted to help Daddy for Christmas. I had to explain that he wanted tools so he could help Daddy around the house.

Harry's friends had to leave before Santa but we kept going...after Santa, we walked through the old cowboy town looking at all the scenery. Harry rode the ponies, as usual. We went into the little white chapel and had a family picture taken which I think I enjoyed the most. Harry looked trying to sneak up into others family's photos. After the family photo, we were walking back to ride the Merry-Go-Round and an outlaw showed us the horse drawn wagons. They also had the full covered carriages but of course Harry like to open wagons. We went for a ride through the woods there were large prints of the story Twas the Night Before Christmas!

Finally It was time for the Merry-Go-Round. Harry had a grand time. As we left the park he said good bye to all the town's people. I change him into his pajamas and off we went for the 1 1/2 drive home. We had a great time and will definitely do it again next year but may have to skip the train!

Decorating for Christmas!

Finally!!! We are putting up our Christmas decorations. I love having the lights in the frontyard, the tree in the living area and the stockings hung from the mantle. Butch really loves doing the lights outside and I never know what they are going to look like but I am always positive you will be able to see our house from the moon. This year he has decided to not do his usual Christmas Tree in the front yard thinking that Harry or our old dog might trip over the light strings. He has put white lights in the front tree, he thinks it needs more so I will update you on the finished project. He is working on the brushes now. Yes at 1235 at night he is out putting Red & White lights throughout our brushes on both sides of the house.

He did take a break earlier to put up the Christmas Tree with Harry and me. Our tree looks beautiful if you ask me. Harry really enjoyed fluffing the tree limbs before handing Butch each one. Butch added the lights as Harry helped me untangle the strings. Butch picked Harry up to put the star on top, but had to redo it because it was a lopsided. I hung ornaments as Harry put the candy canes on the tree. While Harry and I decorated, Butch changed fuses in the strings of light that didn't work. He is dedicated to his lights!

Harry recieved a sheet of static cling Mickey Mouse Christmas decorations for his bedroom windows. He loved decorating his own room! The clings were not sticky at first so I licked one and it worked. Well you probably guessed it! Now everytime he goes into his room he removes one, licks it, and sticks it back on the window. He thinks licking is so COOL! It is the smallest things in life!

He has fallen in love with candy canes since he saw them on grandma's tree. He is waiting for Cousin Shea to come and help him get the candy canes that are higher on the tree then he can reach. He is expecting Cousin Shea to be about 6 feet tall, I think!

Shea, you are going to be a busy guy when you come to town. Harry is very excited to see you!

I will keep you updated on the lights!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone, Christmas is right around the corner! Harry celebrated Thanksgiving 3 times this year...that is a lot of TURKEY for a 2 year old.

His first Thanksgiving was celebrated at Baby School, probably shouldn't call it Baby School anymore. He talls me that it isn't Baby School, his dad had taught him to call it "Cool School!" I hope he always believes that. TUCDC always has a large family dinner every year. It is always the busiest day at school. You have to get there early or you don't get to park. Butch was unable to come, he had to work - go figure! My father came and joined us though and Harry loved it. He showed Grandpa all the books and art projects in the classroom. We took turns getting food because the line is always long. I was shocked at how delicious the turkey was, moist...it was so moist! After lunch Grandpa took Harry to his house to play for the afternoon. Could you imagine the fight we would of had of we tried to leave him at school for a nap? His teachers would have hated us!!

On Thanksgiving, Harry and I spent the day at Grandma & Grnadpa's. Harry and I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. He loved seeing the floats, bands, and especially the balloons. Harry napped while we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. It was delicouis as usual. Mom and I nibbled most of the morning so we didn't eat much when we actually sat down for the meal.

After Butch got home from work we went to Utica Square's Lights On Celebration! It wasn't as good as I remember it being as a child. I remember carolers, bell ringers, and store serving hot cider on the sidewalk. NOPE!! not anymore. There were some men signing carols on a stage and Santa was on the stage but we couldn't get close enough to him. Harry really enjoyed the nutcrackers throughout the square. He made some new friends...as usual where ever we go...they played tag and climed on the nutcracker. There were a lot of people out and the weather was nice. I saw my friend, Becky's, family. They were doing well trying to get through the holidays after her loss. She loved the holidays! There were some people I went to high school with and few I knew from work. So in the end, it wa snice night out with the family.

Later that weekend, we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving lunch with some extended family. We got to see grandparents, aunts, and cousins which we don't see often so it was really nice.

While we were enjoying these meals we were also POTTY TRAINING! Harry is doing well but we still have a little bit of a road to travel. Harry loves wearing his underwear and being a big boy but he doesn't like to miss any action to tinkle. I will keep you updated on this adventure.

Gingerbread House

Well,Harry saw a gingerbread house in Reasor's the other day. He loves building "Big House" out of legos with Grandma. So we decided to buy the gingebread House Kit. i have never done this, I thought it would be a great family night activity.

It was Sunday night and we needed some family time. Harry was very excited to build his "BIG House"! Butch read the directions as I reviewed all the pieces and knead the frosting packet, harry was testing the candy. Butch started putting the walls of the house together with harry's help of course! Using the frosting Harry began to stick the candies onto the walls of the house as Butch added the roof. My job was to make sure Harry only ate one piece of candy at a time...it was a tough job! He decorated the walls, roof, chimney, and then we did the gingerbread boy, snowman, and the christmas tree. We had so much fun!

Harry's favorite part of the entire evening was when he went potty it was GREEN! I am hoping that was due to the candy he ate and not anything else.

I think this will be a family tradition the gingerbread house...not the potty!

TU Tailgate

Well it has been a while since I wrote. We have been very busy especially Butch with the Holiday Season upon us. He has been working long hours and many days. He has been able though to still find time for Harry, I am happy to say.

This Saturday (11/22) I had a TU Football Tailgate Party which I entertain 150 American Heart Association volunteers, Sweethearts & Mavaricks, Top Walkers, and Survivors of all ages. The food was a healthy cator from Abuelos'. They also brought the balloon art man, the Army was there with thier Rock Wall, and of course Jupiter Jumps, It was a great event!

As you can see in the pictures Butch and Harry were able to join me at the event. They had a really good time. Harry was very into the TU Marching Band (Drums especially), playing in the Jupiter Jump and of course watching mommy climb the rock wall! YES! You read correctly I climbed the Rock Wall! I tried to have Harry nap in the park as you can see in one of the pictures...really I just wanted him to rest and warm up a little before the guests arrives.

After all our guest ventured off to the football game, we began to head that way and noticed it was a complete blow out, not as bad as the OU v. Texas Tech game, but still ablow out. Harry hadn't had a nap and we headed home.

That night we had a nice family evening at home in our new basement. Harry & Butch made a bed on the floor and we watched Wall E. Harry was out by 8 pm, remember NO NAP!

Halloween

Well I apologize for my delay in updating of the Halloween activities last weekend. Things have been hectic in the Hillman Household.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Harry really got the hang of the whole Trick or Treating concept. We started our evening with meeting up with our friend Payton and his mother at the Rhema Harvest Festival. This was our first year to attend and it was amazing! Rhema did a great job of working the parables from the Bible into games for the kids without shoving it down your throat so I was pleasantly happy. Harry and Payton rushed from booth to booth filling up the candy buckets quickly. Rhema also had horse there for the children to get the picture. Harry being a Cowboy this was a great photo op!

After Rhema, we went to Payton's house, had a sanck, and then headed out for some traditional trick or treating. At the first house Harry and Payton went up knock on the door, the owner opened the door and Harry started to head through the doorway. It was very funny. So we made it aboaut a block when Payton started wanting to be carried and Harry was scared to go up to houses. In the end we did two blocks and moved on to the next location, Gamma's house.

Gamma's house was very excited! Gamma filled our candy bucket, gave us sprite, and snacks. We playing for a few mintues and then off to Grandma's.

By the time we made it to Grandma's it was after 9 pm. Grandma only had one neighbor with her porch light on, Virginia. I know you probably guessed that one! So we went to visit Virginia, she had the good stuff, Mary Janes! She gave us a few handfuls and we said Good Night. Grandma's neighbor, the Lusk's, were very generous and had delivered a special treat for Harry earlier in the evening. Good thing Grandma didn't open the bag because thier were 4 SNICKERS and a bag of Candy Corn! Grandma loves SNICKERS! She is counting points so we didn't want to tempt her.

We had a full evening, it was 10 pm and Harry was tired! Halloween was a success in my eyes! Bucth has successful enjoyed most of Harry's candy already! He has graciously saved Harry the lollipops , they are Harry's favorite!

Next story will be Potty Training...

School Fall Festival

Well, we rushed home from work this afternoon so that we could get Harry into this costume for the school's fall festival. Harry is a cowboy theis year for halloween. He seems to be really enjoying the cowbot hat and guns! I know it probably isn't politically correct to give my 2 year guns but everybody keeps reminding me that we live in Oklahoma!

At the school fall festival, there were games to play in each class room. Afte ryou played you got to pick candy. All the teachers kept telling Harry to take more and didn't argue. I am a little worried about tomorrow night while trick or treating that harry will insist on more than 1 piece. He seemed to get a hang off that by the end of the night.

The school also has a custome contest, Harry got ROBBED! A different cowboy won and he didn't even have boots on! He was wearing sneakers! Butch and I have decided that the judge must not have seen Harry. Why? you ask. Well, I left Butch in charge of taking Harry to the panel. He told me as we were leaving school that while they were judging him and Harry were sitting on the steps reading a book. That is Harry's favorite spot we assume because he is always there when we pick him up. I got a little annoyed but am trying to control it.

I was not able to assist Butch and the udging panel because I, Nancy Hillman, was choosen to be a judge in the 3 year old room. I will never accept this duty again!! It was heartbreaking! I knew all the kids wanted to win and they were all so cute! All the custome were store bought so it was a matter of the cutest kid with the personality to match thier outfit. SUPERMAN WON!!! He was really cute. I stood in one spot for us to 2 judge for atleast 5 minutes. The funny thing was I think he was standing waiting for us to take his picture...he was saying CCCHHHHEEEEEEEEESSSSEEEEEEE the entire time.

Well, it is late I had an early day this morning. Tomorrow will be a new adventure of Harry that I am sure to remember for ever!