Home is the where the Heart is!

Ever since I was a littel girl, I have always been a KU Jayhawk fan. Especially a KU Jayhawk BASKETBALL fan.  I have always liked the OU Sooners, but my heart was with the Jayhawks because that's where I lived...KANSAS! 
When I moved to Norman Oklahoma, my fondness of the SOONERS has grown more and more, the longer I live here.  How can I NOT like the Sooners?  We live and work just minutes from the campus.  Our neighbors are employed by the University of Oklahoma, and we have another neighbor that plays softball for OU. 
I have to admit, the University plays a big part in why I LOVE Norman soo much.  The culture, diversity and SPIRIT that is derived from the college makes it a GREAT place to live. 
Yesterday it was a BEAUTIFUL, whopping 80 degrees outside, so Keeley and I thought we would get out and get some exercise and walk around campus.  I brought my camera along so you too, can see why we love this place:)

Historical Campus Corner

Our beloved Starbucks that we go to every weekend!

I loved this picture because of the way it turned out with the OU flags lined up on the lamp posts.

You can't really see the street sign, but this is Delta Ave where all the Sorority and Fraternities' are located.

OU Water tower

This was a pretty fountain we found in front of one of the buildings on campus.

OU FOOTBALL STADIUM

Another view of the stadium

Llyod Noble Center-this is where all the OU Basketball games are played.

Happy Birthday to Michael and Dylan!

Not only was it Halloween this past weekend, but my brother-in-law and nephew celebrated birthdays!  My brother-in-law Michael turned the big 4-0 on October 31st and Dylan turned 9 on November 1st!  Happy Birthday Michael and Dylan!  I wish we could have made it to Kansas City to help you celebrate!

Candy Overload

Three Little Girls
+
Two nights of Trick-or-Treating in different cities (Norman on Friday night and Lawton on Saturday night) (See post below!)
 =
One HEAPING mound of candy.

Trick or Treat

The University of Oklahoma FOOTBALL is soo important that the City of Norman offically declared today Halloween:)  There is a home football game tomorrow night that starts at 6PM, so in the best interest and safety of the children, they told everyone to go trick-or-treating tonight!  I was all for it because if you have ever been in Norman on a home game day, it can be CRAZY busy!

The girls got all dressed up and went around one block in our neighborhood and came home because their buckets were already FULL of candy! 

This year Keeley was Dorothy, Mikayla was a Witch and Yasmine was a Punky Pirate!

Our girls!

Isn't that a cute fake smile:)

Evaluating "The Goods" 

Little does she know Daddy will be raiding her basket when she goes to bed:)

Is that Mikayla under there?

Hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Halloween!

Worm Dirt Cake

Tomorrow we are having dessert day at work, so Keeley and I spent part of the evening making Worm Dirt Cake!  I hope it doesn't taste like dirt!  :)

Mixing up the filling!  Don't worry, I did not leave her unattended with the mixer:) 

Smashing up the Oreo Cookies!

Our Worm Dirt Cake!

Girl's Weekend!

I got a head start to the weekend by taking Friday off! My mom drove down from Caldwell on Thursday and we started off the weekend festivities by picking up my sister from the airport. She flew in from Kansas City and we were waiting for her arrival with a big hand-made sign outlined with big beautiful hearts. She didn't seem that embarassed, so I don't know if we did our job:) HA!

Since this was like our mini-vacation (even though I was 20 minutes from home), we thought it would be fun to get a hotel room down in bricktown for Thursday night. We stayed at the Sheraton in Bricktown, and after we got checked in, we headed to "Toby Keith's I love this Bar and Grill" for a yummy dinner.

The food was great, but when we got back to the hotel we had a sweet tooth that had yet been fulfilled. We walked ourselves up to the hotel restaurant and said,"Three lava cakes with Tahitian vanilla ice cream to go please!"

We took our dessert and went back to the room so Mom and I could catch the season finale of "The Housewives of Atlanta". Yes, we LOVE that show.

On Friday, we woke up and hit Starbucks early so we could get to the "Affair of the Heart" craft show. For those of you that have never heard of this...it is the setting for a PERFECT girl's weekend. This is a 3-day craft show with 7 HUGE buildings full of crafts, gifts, clothing and food. Seriously...I can't even explain it. You have to go and experience it for yourself.   We had to stand in line for 20 minutes to get into the first building, but it was worth it!

We only got through 4 buildings on Friday before we were pooped out...PLUS we had to go pick up my Keeley-bear from daycare. Keeley was excited to see her "Aunt Cole" and Grandma Mickey!! After we went home and rested for about 4 -6 minutes, we were off again! :)

We let Grandpa join in on our girl's weekend fun and took him to dinner at Riverwind Casino for "all-you-can-eat" crab legs. YUMMMMY! By Friday evening, we were ready to hit the sack by 9PM! We were worn out.

On Saturday, we were ON THE GO again...ALL DAY LONG! Of course we started the day off at Starbucks and then we shopped from 9AM to 9PM at night! Poor Frankie was at home sick while I was out having all this fun. We took Keeley with us all day and I have to say...that little girl was SOOO good for being dragged from store to store. We were on a mission to find gourmet coffee for my sister and she also wanted to find a cute outfit or two. My sister Nicole, VERY RARELY buys herself clothes, but when she does shop...she doesn't just buy one shirt or one pair of pants. She has to buy an ENTIRE outfit or she won't buy anything at all. I had fun playing her "stylist" for the day and trying to find a cute outfit.

We apparently wore Keeley out and she fell asleep with this little plastic frog stuck to her mouth!  We couldn't resist taking a picture!

Today was our final day to such a FUN girl's weekend. I am sure you can guess how we started the day...YES, Starbucks. We then went to Target and Barnes&Noble and then had to get ready to take Sister back to the airport.

I can't wait to plan our next Girl's Weekend!! As Keeley would say..."We had sooo much PUN (fun)!"

Homecoming 2009

This post is a week late! I finally found the charger to my camera so I could download pictures! This past weekend, we went back to my hometown of Caldwell, KS and attended the annual Homecoming festivities! Some of you might laugh that I attended my Homecoming, but when you are from a small town, Homecoming is HUGE and everyone usually comes back for it. Plus, it was my sister's 20 year reunion! I had soo much fun seeing my best friends from High School on Friday night. I saw people I hadn't seen in a long time! On Saturday, we drove to Winfield, KS which happened to be my College Homecoming as well! I went out to eat with two of my BFF's from college, and as usual, we talked and laughed the whole entire time.
With so much going on, I forgot to take my camera out with me on Friday. Luckily, I remembered to take it to Winfield on Saturday. Here are a few pics from the weekend:

BFF's from College: Me, Petey Denly and Cicely!

We let Dave's college basketball players watch our kiddo's while we went out to eat. Yasmine and Mikayla thought that was pretty cool! We can't wait to go watch them play in Oklahoma City in November!

Cicely and the kids making crazy faces!