and her peeps...

I have decided to change my blog up a little bit. I have had it for 3 years now and it is time for a serious makeover. I splurged and bought a domain name: www.LilHenandHerPeeps.com and decided to clean up my blog a bit. So to start I think we should start with introductions or as they say, "Let's start with the beginning".

We all know who Lil Hen is, but who are her peeps?

They consist of Sarah (mommy) Chris (daddy) and Draven (bubba).

Chris and I met in 1998 through mutual friends. I was married at the time with a 3 year old. In 1999 I filed for a divorce and few months later ran into Chris again. Chris had heard of a halloween party that he wanted to crash. There was a girl there that he had a crush on and so he decided to show up. Little did he know the party was at my house! He and I ended up talking all night and in to the morning. A few days later we talked on the phone and he asked me out on our first date. We dated for 7 years and finally got married in 2007. Shortly after our wedding we decided we wanted to have a child together. In January 2008 Lil' Hen was born. Draven was 12 years old at the time.

That brings us to Draven. Draven is my first child and only son. He and I have been through many ups and downs. We make a great team and even though the parenting books advise against it, we are great friends. Draven was 4 years old when Chris and I started dating. Chris played a very active roll in Draven's life in the very beginning. He helped me pick out a school for him. He started in Catholic School and ended up at Wilson Elementary. Draven fell in love with the school and their music and art program. In 5th grade he decided he wanted to apply to Classen School of Advanced Studies and major in art. It is very tough to get in and highly competitive. We were very pleased to find out that he was accepted and started the 6th grade there in 2007. Draven will be starting 9th grade this fall 2010. Draven has a kind heart and creative soul. He loves music, especially the Beatles and Michael Jackson. He plays guitar, learning the ukulele, and continues with his artwork. He is great with kids (especially his lil' sis) and is volunteering at an equestrian center for disabled children this summer. Draven loves his church and is an acolyte with Chris. He will be volunteering at church this summer as a teen counselor for VBS.

Chris works out of town in rural Oklahoma. He spends most of his time in Anadarko as a criminal defense attorney. Chris is an avid reader and a great cook! I don't cook so this is one of the many reasons I fell in love with him. He loves Oklahoma History, Julia Childs, Scotch and soda, and of course he loves his wonderful wife!

And on to boring old me! After years of working as a single mom, I now have my dream job as a stay at home mom. I go to school in the evenings and would like to eventually get my degree in either social work or non-profit management. I spend my spare time volunteering with the March of Dimes, playing soccer on the weekends, drinking good beer, and enjoying the life that I am so lucky to have.

lake house...

I wasn't going to post it on my blog until we closed, but I am pretty sure it is a done deal. We close on our first vacation home on the lake on July 2nd!

Chris and I have always been envious of families and their lake/beach/mountain getaways and their family traditions. We wanted something for our kids too. The problem was finding a place near the water in our price range. After months of looking we finally found it! Our hunt started at Eufaula and ended at Grand Lake. We found a house we loved, but we weren't crazy about the price. Chris made a ballsy offer and made an offer 40% less than asking price. They took it! We had to sweeten the pot by paying the realtor full commission on asking price and of course buying the house as is.

Yes, it needs a lot of work, but it is three houses down from the water and in a great area. We are across the water from the marina, state park, play ground, hiking trails, many beach areas, and a bar with $5 pitchers that allows kids and dogs.

So without further adieu... Here's the house!

The water is much closer than it appears. The house at the end of the road is actually waterfront. We are just three houses down. And once we have a deck in place we will have a lake view!

galveston 2010 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lillie Update...

When Lillie was a baby I used to update Lillie's progress once a month. Now that she is a big girl I don't do it anymore. I figure enough time has gone by that I should update on some of the things that Lillie is doing, saying, loving, and hating... SO here it goes!

Doing: She climbs everything! She climbs on top of her play kitchen, climbs on chairs to turn on lights and put in dvd's.

She cooks in the kitchen and has to make her own mac mac cheese. She gets her step stool and pushes it to the microwave and shuts the door and pushes the button. She also likes to clean up after herself and others. Sometimes she makes a mess just so she can clean it up.

She likes to hold her own hand when in parking lots and crossing the street. Of course, we have to fight her and make her hold our hand for safety. She is potty training! We found out that a mother's day out she was using the big kid potty. Who knew? So we brought it up at home and she decided she would potty train herself. One night she fell in the potty and now asks for help on occasion.

She is still getting bronchitis way too much. I would guess that she is on the nebulizer about every 6 weeks. On the bright side she has learned to neb her self!

Lillie has had the alphabet down for a month or so. It isn't perfect, but pretty darn good for a two year old. She is also working on counting to 10, but she starts with 5 instead of 1. She is having a hard time with colors. She still calls everything yellow, but she does know pink.

Saying: The more words Lillie learns (and I think she knows every word in the dictionary) the less we understand. This morning she was asking for something and I didn't understand her. Per Sooner Start's instructions I said "I can see that makes you very excited". Not knowing at all what she was saying. Then she followed it up with "I want to see Monkeys, Bears, and Lions". I finally figured it out, she wanted to go to the zoo. We are going later today.

We are supposed to correct her speech but some of it is too cute to correct. Example: Worsie=Horsey, Mac-Mac Cheese= Macaroni and Cheese, Tartoon=Cartoon. One of her favorite phrases is "I do it" and "I don't wanna it". She is very independent. She calls daycare, mother's day out or child watch "going to town". If it is at a church it is "church town" or if it is the YMCA child watch she calls it "yellow town". We haven't figured out why she calls it Yellow Town. She started that before we started working on colors.

Some words have changed and we miss the old baby talk. She used to call Draven, Bubba. Now she calls him Drave or Draben. I still think it is cute. She used to call Tucker, Tutter. Now he is just plain ol' Tucker.

We have a hard time with a lot of what she says so Chris and I are always asking her to show us what she wants. It is like living with a foreigner.

Loving: Lillie loves to be home and play. If she could do anything that would be her top choice. She comes home and plays with her dolls and pretends to be a mommy. She has recently got into movies too. As we speak she is watching the Princess and the Frog. If we go out she always ask to go to the park (which sounds a lot like "bark"). And if we go to the park she asks to go to the ice cream place (Fruti's Frozen Yogurt). Lillie loves to be outside, especially playing house in the backyard. Lillie loves the water!

We took her to the beach a few months ago and now she is constantly asking to go to the beach house and to see the ocean. We are taking her back in a week. This time she can swim! She loves the pool, lake, ocean, but not baths as much as she used to. She loves to watch cartoons, especially Dora. She loves going to "town". Since I stay at home with Lillie it is a treat to get to go to daycare. She never fights it and always has a great time.

Hating: I hate to say that Lillie "hates" anything, but there are some things she "doesn't like". She doesn't like vegetables, holding hands, when other people try to help her, getting her hair washed, and I am sure other things but we will try not to dwell on the negative.

I guess that is about it! I will probably think of other things and have to add updates later.