Weekend Adventure!!!

Jaycee Ann will be attending her first weekend sleepover. Crazy? Yes, she is only 3 1/2 yrs. old but she wants to go so badly. This evening I am going to meet my sister and Jaycee is going to spend the weekend with her aunt and cousins. We have had it in the plans for about 2 weeks now. Honestly, I could have told Jaycee last night and she would have been okay with it. She really didn't need the whole pep talk about going. Anytime she can play with her cousins she is all for it. I know she will have a fabulous time. I know my sis has lots of fun things planned for them.

It has been a little harder on me then I thought it would be though. She is going to be in another state for 2 nights. Its not like she is 10 minutes from me. I know that she is in good hands. I can't wait to get pictures of this weekend. I look forward to Sunday when Jaycee can tell us all of her stories about her trip to Texas. For the 3 of us left in Oklahoma hopefully we will survive without our precious little girl.

Tickets Purchased!!!

I am so excited that we have set dates for our trip to Washington this summer. We arrive Friday night, June 26th. We return home July 7th!!! Its so great to know that we are for sure visiting Washington this summer. We can't wait to see all of our wonderful family and friends!!!

Thankfully, we are counting down til the arrival of Nana and Papa's trip to Oklahoma. They arrive March 30th and return to Washington on April 7th. We can't wait to see them. Its been too long. We are grateful that we have the web cams up and running now so we do get to see each others faces from time to time. We definitely need some actual Nana and Papa time. The adults are really excited because we are going to NASCAR. Byron and his dad went in November and absolutely loved it. So they now want us women to experience it. I do think it will be a great adventure. I really don't understand it all, but I am sure it will be like nothing else I have ever done.

Well, I guess that is it for now. Just had to share the wonderful news!!!

On a Roll!!!

Several posts ago I mentioned that we were working on Jaycee sleeping in her bed all night. Well, I can gladly say that she has spent 10 out of the last 11 nights in her bed all night. WOOHOO!!! We are so proud of her. She is so proud of herself. She comes out every morning with a big grin on her face. She immediately asks for me to mark it off on the calendar.

Last night we ventured into Wal-Mart. We told her if she could stay for a whole week in her bed that she would be rewarded with the toy of her choice. (Which of course was within reason of our budget) Sunday we talked about going, but ended up not. Jaycee was pretty upset. She got excited when we said that she could get on the internet with me and look at toys. After a lot of looking, she decided that she wanted a pink Barbie guitar. It said it was available in stores.

Well, last night after arriving in the toy department we discovered they did not have the guitar. Jaycee did very well. She didn't melt down at all. We told her we could order it online when we got home or she could pick another toy. She wanted to pick another toy. We roamed up and down the aisles for quite sometime before she decided on a My Little Pony. Its a blue pony with rainbow colored hair. The pony's name is Rainbow Dash. Its actually a bigger one that came with lots of hair accessories. Its cute and it even got to sleep with Jaycee last night.

We aren't doing a lot of musical beds anymore. From time to time, I still end up in bed with Jackson, but at least I am the only one changing beds. I think we are all getting better rest around here and it definitely makes us all a little happier!!!

The Proposal!!!

Well, today is the 5th anniversary of Byron asking me to marry him. What a fabulous day that was! I had no idea that he had any plans of proposing. We had only been dating since August. If you can even call it dating. I was living in Huntsville, TX and Byron was living in Bellingham, WA. This was his second trip to visit me. I had only been to Washington once. We had obviously talked about getting married throughout. With us being in our mid-twenties we knew we were both at the place that we were ready to move on to the next phase of our life.

On February 13, 2004 I came back to my apartment. I was coaching at the time at Sam Houston State University. We had just finished with basketball practice. I was wearing sweats and had no make-up on and my hair was pulled up in a ponytail. Obviously, you could tell that I wasn't prepared at all for this. I unlocked my apartment door to many candles that lined the entry way into my living room of my apartment. There were also rose petals scattered everywhere. At first, I thought this was my Valentine's Day gift. The next day our team had a game and I just thought well Byron knew I would be pre-occupied with all of that so he decided to make our Valentine's Day a day early. Then as I looked up from the floor, I saw Byron standing in a baby blue tux. Then it hit me this wasn't just my Valentine's Day gift, he was going to propose. Throughout our countless talks on the phone, he would make the comment to me that he wanted to get married in a baby blue tux. Well, I wasn't having that at all. There was no way baby blue was going to be a color in my wedding. I never said and he never said he wouldn't propose in one though!!! That is just what he did. He got down on one knee and asked my hand in marriage. I said YES!!! Then immediately after I asked if he asked my dad first. Which he had done. So he shared how that all came about. We made several phone calls that night to share our wonderful news! It was one of the best days of my life. The proposal was far greater then I could have ever dreamed up!!! I am truly blessed to be the wife of Byron James Lohrer! God knew exactly what he was doing when He brought us together! I am so thankful for that! I love you, sweets!! Happy Valentine's Day!!!


Here are some pictures from that night!!! Two things I wished I would have done differently! I wished I would have had a digital camera. I would have had much better pictures to document this day. I wished I would have gotten a picture of Byron and I on that night. Since I looked so bad I didn't want to take one. Now, looking back I would totally love to have one of that night!!!

$1 TRILLION!!!

I am astonished by the numbers! I am not a math person, but I do know that a trillion is a lot. That is probably an understatement. Here are some breakdowns for people like me. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing that we could possibly be putting this kind of numbers and debt on not only our children, but more then likely our great-great-great-great-great grandchildren. We won't be around for that, but I would still hate to burden my family in that way!!!

One billion is equal to 1,000 million; One trillion is equal to 1,000 billion.
One trillion stacked dollars would reach nearly 60,000 miles, one-third of the way to moon.
You couldn't spend $1 trillion if you spent $1M a day since Jesus' birth.
Casey Research has analyzed the costs of the government bailouts of the housing crisis, the credit crisis and others and has concluded that the total is $8.5 trillion - more than the cost of all U.S. Wars, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the NASA Space Program combined.
A million seconds is about 11½ days. A billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years," Paulos said. "People tend to lump them together, perhaps because they rhyme, but if you think of it in terms of a jail sentence, do you want to go to jail for 11½ days or 32 years or maybe 32,000 years? So, they're vastly different, and people generally don't really have a real visceral grasp of the differences among them." (taken from a report I found on CNN.com)

I also heard that an economic advisory board that has no political agenda or anything says that if the government pushes through the so called stimulus package our country will be in recession for at least 10 years. If our government did absolutely nothing we would recover in about 2 years. If our government would cut taxes and change those types of things, instead of spending money we don't have, we could immediately come out of this recession!!!

A little food for thought!!!

Pictures!!!

Such a big boy, huh?!

Mia Paige Ruiz

Jackson in his camo he got for Christmas!!!

Our little princess!!!




Amy, our midwife, with the kids!




The kids hiding their eyes!!! They were playing a game of hide and seek with Byron!

Weekly Update!!!

Well, as it has been for the past few posts, you are basically getting weekly updates on the Lohrer family. I guess its better then nothing. We are doing well. I am so ready for some good weather. I am ready for Spring and for some life and color around Oklahoma. Hopefully, it won't be too long and that will happen.

We are all doing well!!! Our weekend was quite busy. Saturday we headed down to Ft.Worth, TX to watch Kiley and Keely play some hoops. We were so excited to watch them play. This is their first year to play basketball. They are very good. I know you all are thinking that I am a little biased on that comment, but really they have so much potential. Both of them play hard and for not ever playing the game before they have really learned it quickly. Kiley is just a pure athlete. The best part about her is that she will out work anyone on the court. So that makes having her on your team so much better. Really, her team was totally lost without her. Keely does a great job too. I love how she always has a smile on her face!!! She is very aggressive and believe me you don't want her to be guarding you. It was lots of fun and I am sure you all know I am voicing my opinion for them to become basketball players!!! Not only is it the best sport to play, but its indoors.

In between the girls' games, we drove over to Grand Prairie, TX. Jaycee got to see the exact room where she was born. She also got to meet the incredible midwives who brought her into this world!!! I can't believe its already been 3 1/2 years since we had her. Its amazing! We had a great visit with our midwives. They are such amazing and unique women. I am so thankful to have them apart of our lives forever.

Sunday, we went to church. Jaycee went with my parents afterwards to eat and then to play at their house for the afternoon. That evening we had the Garrett family over for the Superbowl. We had a great time. We ate nachos, black eyed pea dip, and had dirt cake for dessert. The kids had a great time playing together. I don't really recall much of the game, but it was still a great evening. I think the Doritos commercials were the best.

Monday night we went and met the newest addition to the Sutton family. My cousin Melody and her husband John welcomed a beautiful baby girl into their world. Mia Paige was born January 30. She weighed in at 6lbs. 6oz. and was 18 1/2 in. long. She was born 4 weeks early. So she is really a good size little girl to be born that early. Melody had been on bed rest for a few weeks due to high blood pressure. They didn't want to risk anything, so they did a c-section Friday morning. Mia is absolutely gorgeous. I was only able to hold Miss Mia for a minute, because Jackson realized I had a baby in my arms and it wasn't him! I asked if I should give her back and he said "YES"! Hopefully, I will be able to hold her again before she gets too big. They are all doing well and we are so excited to have another little girl in the family!

Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with pictures and also some stories about Jaycee and Jackson.(Only if I can remember them in the morning!)

One more thing, I am so excited that we have the web cam up and running! Tonight we enjoyed our first chat with Nana and Papa. It was awesome!!! I love having the web cam! It also makes me miss them even more! At least now we can see their faces when we want and they can now watch the kids be crazy! Jaycee was so darn cute tonight. She did ballet for them and she also did 5 sit-ups. She was so sweet in telling them that she missed them and loved them. Of course, in her saying that it broke my heart and Nana's heart I am sure. It was great to visit and laugh with them. We can't wait for them to come visit, so Nana and Papa get your tickets, please!!!