Kiddie Park

We took Noah to the Bartlesville Kiddie Park a couple weeks ago.

On the way, we passed this jet outside the mall and Noah HAD to see it, so we stopped and took pictures. The other day, he showed memaw one of his toy jets and said, "I saw this jet!" She said, "Where?" He said, "At Sears!"

So funny! You could see the Sears side of the mall from the plane so he assumed we were at Sears.
He didn't want to ride many rides, but had a blast on the few he did ride. Here he is making friends with the little girl on the horse and buggy. I'm sure he's asking her a million questions..."Are we at the Kiddie Park? Are you a girl? Are we in Bartlesville?..."
Noah's favorite, the train.
Ellianna was content watching from the sidelines. Maybe next year...

Tulsa Tuesday

The Golden Driller

This Tulsa Tuesday is gonna be short and sweet and random.

The Golden Driller was originally built in 1953 for the International Petroleum Exhibition. This was back when Tulsa was the "oil capital of the world", before the oil industry migrated to Houston. It is reportedly the largest free-standing statue in the world (76 feet tall).
This statue is in front of the Expo Building on the fairgrounds (where Tulsa has Home & Garden shows, boat shows, craft fairs, etc.) We went to the Tulsa JBF sale last week and it is also on the Tulsa fairgounds, thus the random picture. :)

Weekend at Nana and Pawpaw's

We had a great weekend at nana and pawpaw's house a couple weeks ago. Noah had a blast playing with daddy's old Hot Wheels and airplanes.

Brandon's grandpa made these trains and Noah LOVED getting to play with them. I had fun playing with my new camera.Nana retired from her fourth grade teaching position, but is going to teach elementary art part time. She is painting these murals on the walls at the school. They are SO cute!We made a stop at the tractor lot, but much to our dismay, they put a giant barbed wire gate around it! In small town Oklahoma! What's the world coming to?! :) So instead, we went next door and pretended we were professional photographers.This one cracks me up, like Brandon is telling Noah about the good ol' days. "Back in '82..."One of the unlocked tractors...This boy LOVES the Fifty Nifty United States.We got to spend some quality time with the kid's great-grandma. She'll be 94 next month!No trip to SW Oklahoma is complete without a stop at Meers. They have awesome hamburgers and even better peach cobbler and ice cream!Noah and his states again.After lunch, we went up to the top of Mt. Scott. Until I married Brandon, I had no idea there were mountains in Oklahoma (I use the term mountain lightly). At 2,464 feet it's less than half as high as the mile high city.Brandon's mom, grandma and our family...

11 Months

I guess since I got my BabyCenter "Your 11 Month Old Week 2" email on Saturday, I should do my 11 month Elli post. She is 11 months old! My heart hurts!

This is pretty much how she looks at me after I tell her no no.She can say dada, ba (ball), bay-bay (baby), uh (uh-oh), buh-buh (brother/bubba), does a precious backward wave and says ba-ba (bye-bye).

She is such a ham! She makes this silly face and gets a reaction so she does it over and over. She has started holding our fingers to walk all over the place.

She's so affectionate and touchy. Brother doesn't always make time for her, but when he does, she takes full advantage. :)She likes to "dance". When she's sitting, she rocks back and forth. If she's holding our fingers and standing, she bends her knees and squats up and down.

She's such a mess!
I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Tulsa Tuesday

Riverwalk Crossing

The Riverwalk Crossing is a riverfront shopping center (more like restaurant, dessert, concert, and video game center). We ate dinner at Los Cabos over the weekend and it was SOOO good.
It didn't take long for Noah to discover the splash pad. He said, "hey guys, I wanna show you somethin'!" and took off running.
Ellianna had to get in on the action too. She luuuuuvs water.
A pic from the biking/running trail that runs next to the Arkansas River. Fun Fact: Brandon and I had our wedding reception on the 60th floor of the tall building in the background!

Mudpies

Baby girl decided to try dirt for dessert one evening. Looks like she liked it.Noah never did stuff like that.
This girl is somethin' else!

Tulsa Tuesday

The Philbrook Museum of Art

We just got back from a weekend at Nana and Pawpaw's house yesterday evening and last week we didn't do much besides huddle next to the air conditioner. Therefore, I am reaching in to the archives for my Tulsa Tuesday pictures.

This is one of Tulsa's beautiful art museums, the Philbrook. 'Phil' as in former home of the younger brother of Frank Phillips (of Phillips Petroleum) and 'brook' as in I don't know. It is an elegant, classy museum with beautiful gardens, a wonderful place for weddings, bridal portraits, and they have a great lunch spot.
We took these pictures three years ago right before we moved to Katy. My childhood friend created the RainkieBlankie and needed some baby models. We were happy to oblige.
My sweet, chunky boy. He looks SO big. He was almost eight months in this picture and was way bigger than Ellianna is at 11 months!
Awwww, this was before he could say NO!

Bounce House

Noah went to a birthday party for his neighbor friend at Bounce U a couple weeks ago and had SOOO much fun. I need to remember that those places have open play and take him there so he can burn off some little boy energy!
This is Elli and K, the birthday girl's little sister. They are six months apart.
I loved watching the daddies. I think they have as much fun as the kids at these parties.
My big kid:

Tulsa Tuesday

We went to the Gatesway Balloon Festival with memaw and pappaw over the weekend. Technically it wasn't in the Tulsa City Limits, but it was the most Oklahoma-centric thing we did in the past week. :)

Noah was nervous (surprise) and didn't want to get out of the car, but then decided he didn't want to stay there by himself. I think he thought the balloons were going to be loud. Once he got up close he thought it was great. He even went for a pony ride, but unfortunately I missed the whole thing.
This Jack in the Box balloon was HUGE!
Oh yea! Brandon gave me my birthday present early...a fancy schmancy new camera! I didn't have time to read the 278 page manual before we went, but I still had fun playing with it and trying to figure it out. Look at this girl's gorgeous blue eyes.
And this thing's scary big eyes.
Baby girl is so expressive and animated, she cracks us up! She acted like the balloons were the most wonderful things she'd ever seen. She was raising her hands and looking up and "talking" like crazy.The balloon glow...
We were all exhausted and got to bed too late, but glad we went so we could check that off our "things we need to do in the Tulsa area" list.