Ten Four...Over and Out (by Karen)

The moving truck is full of all our belongings and my heart is full of gratitude for the amazing friends we've made during our 3 years here in Oklahoma. This is definitely the hardest goodbye we've had to say yet. My reaction when we received orders to come to OKC was so far off the mark. I had no way of knowing how perfect this place would have been for a Navy wife, a new mom and a girl adjusting to not working for the first time in her life. I found such an amazing support network, an extended family that would do anything (and I mean anything!) for us, and friends that I know will be with us for the rest of our lives no matter the distance between us. Reagan and Harrison found perfect playmates and friends that I hope will also be in their lives forever. I couldn't have asked for anything better. South Dakota has some big shoes to fill!

I'm headed out this afternoon with the dogs to drive halfway and will get to Gettysburg tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to get back to Corey and the kids. I'm missing them tons and the empty house only makes me want to be near them more.

Signing off from Oklahoma....more posts coming soon from the campaign trail!

Spring Pics

One more thing:

we got our pictures taken before leaving Oklahoma and thought we'd share some...

Half Moved...

Things are a bit hectic on our end so pardon the infrequent postings lately. Mom brought us up to South Dakota last weekend to drop us off with Daddy (and Grandma and Grandpa!) while she heads back to Oklahoma to deal with the movers. The packers come tomorrow and the truck takes all our stuff away on Friday. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly.

As for me & Harrison, we are thrilled to be home in South Dakota. We were so excited to see Daddy and everyone else and haven't stopped playing and visiting since we arrived. For those of you waiting at the edge of your seats, Aunt Christie got matched for her anesthisiology residency at Stanford! People always say I remind them of her so hopefully I'll be just as smart when I grow up! Luckily, she'll be in Sioux Falls for one more year so hopefully we'll see her lots before she heads out to California. Congratulations Christie!

We had a fantastic Easter with Grandma and Grandpa (however, just to remind us where we're living, we actually managed to have our first ever white Easter! -- luckily the snow melted just as fast as it fell so we ended up with a beautiful day). The Easter Bunny must not have been sure where to find us because we got baskets at our house and at Grandma and Grandpa's!!! The spoiling has already begun! The town had an egg hunt on Saturday and our cousins came to help us out (these cousins are great! Both of us love all 3 of them and they're fabulous babysitters!). The Easter Bunny also made an appearance at the egg hunt which made my day (Harrison once again could have done just fine without!).

Easter Sunday we got to play at Grandma and Grandpa's all day - we hunted eggs over and over again, drew pictures with the sidewalk chalk in my basket and Harrison of course played cars, trucks and buses. At the end of the day we were exhausted and enjoyed a nice rock in Grandpa's chair before heading home to bed. What a nice way to start off our new life in Gettysburg!

Gone Country

Well, it looks like we've been in Oklahoma long enough :). The kids broke out their cowboy hats a few days ago and had a blast dancing around the living room, and Reagan even made it outside in her hat, sunglasses, and lacking any pants! Yee Haw!

Speaking of getting outside, Harrison has finally realized that the dog door isn't just for the dogs! Good thing we're heading out soon -- things are getting a little out of control around here...

We take off on Tuesday to head up to South Dakota. We're making a few stops along the way, including a stopover at Aunt Christie's to be with her on "match day" when she finds out where she'll be doing her residency - keep your fingers crossed for her! (and thanks for all the prayers for Anthony...he's home and seems to be recovering fantastically!)

Lions & Tigers & Bears (and we scheduled our movers) OH MY!

We're still getting done all the things we want to do "one more time" before leaving Oklahoma (we never would have guessed when we moved here that the list would grow so long, but it really has been such a fantastic place to live!). You don't get a day much more perfect than today so we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed to the zoo. They have 2 new litters of lion cubs and they were (of course) Harrison's favorite. When he sees a big lion, he roars but when he saw these he just called them "kitty!" We watched them for a long time...they are adorable and then found some lion statues that were a little safer for Harrison to get up close and personal with! Then we headed to my favorite place and saw the ape house. I ended up having an up close and personal visit with one of the gorillas. We sat and stared at each other for a long time and then mom got a great shot where it looks like I'm making a monkey face - so fun!

Neither of the train rides were running today, so we settled for a ride (actually I convinced mom to take us twice) on the carousel. Harrison actually decided to hop on too!

Our "to do" list is quickly getting into high speed. The packers are coming in less than two weeks to get all our stuff ready for the moving truck! Mom is actually taking us up to South Dakota next weekend to drop us off for a week with Grandma (and Daddy and Grandpa too, but they'll be working, so Grandma is the lucky (?) one!) while mom comes back to deal with the movers. The good news is that means we get to celebrate Easter with Daddy after all...sure hope the Easter Bunny knows where to find us!

We're also looking for a few prayers because today our thoughts are with my uncle Anthony (Gams' son) who suffered a stroke last night. We're still waiting on a lot of information and updates, but would love it if everyone could please offer up lots of positive thoughts and well wishes for a speedy and full recovery!

Beautiful Day

Well, the day started off rough....Harrison had a little "accident" in the tub and I woke up with a cold. AND, Mom decided to give my bangs a trim ALL BY HERSELF! (she doesn't know much about cutting hair but a wise friend of hers told her a great trick involving tape! Luckily it turned out much better than we all feared!)

We skipped toddler aerobics this morning and decided to take it easy....but after about 2 hours of taking it easy, everyone was back to their normal selves and we decided to get out. We went to the mall and saw the Easter Bunny. This excursion looked a lot like going to see Santa Claus....I was excited, energetic, and couldn't wait to talk to the bunny, sit on his lap and smile for photos. Harrison was the exact opposite. The picture looks about the same as Christmas if you swap out the bunny for Santa - me smiling, Harrison struggling to get away fast! Our scanner isn't hooked up right now but we'll find a way to share the picture soon! Then this afternoon, we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and went to Lake Hefner to take a walk and play on the playground. We had a great time until I somehow managed to step in front of Harrison's swing and get knocked in the head....ouch! Surprisingly, I'm fine! I was such a big sister and offered to catch Harrison when he came down the slide (I wonder why he still seemed a bit weary???). You may also notice my new sunglasses that I had to get at the mall today too. I think I look fabulous in them!

More Easter Eggs!

Looks like we're celebrating Easter this year the same way that Grandpa Brown celebrates his birthday - all month long! We had our second easter egg hunt already. Today was with the Moms Club. They meet at the same church where my school was, so mom was a bit worried if I'd be asking about school, but luckily the candy, cupcakes, juice and easter eggs served as enough distraction! Harrison was a little nervous at first and completely exploded into tears everytime mom left his side thinking he was getting dropped off there, but he got over it eventually....and it helped that he found his coveted school bus (the only toy that ever got him out of Mom & Dad's arms and into the teachers'!). You'll notice that while hunting easter eggs, he tried to sneak the bus into his basket too! Nice try!

Harrison loves....

....KITTIES!!! This doesn't sound very boyish, though, so we'll just say he loves tigers :). The particular one in the picture must be with him at all times. And just to help make him sound tougher, we'll add that he's usually carrying it around by his teeth. But it's pretty cute how he runs around finding all of my stuffed kitties and yells "kitty, kitty, meow meow!" (pronouned without the e so it sounds a bit more like "mao").

Fur, Fins and Feathers

Today the MOMS Club got to take a tour of Petco! Turns out Harrison is all boy - he liked the snake the best! I was a big fan of the bunnies....especially because I'm fascinated with the Easter Bunny right now. I also witnessed some "adult" behavior going on with two of the rats. The moms weren't sure what to say about that. I told mommy "that one is hurting the other one....tell him to get off!" Mom agreed they should leave each other alone and we went to find some nicer behaving animals! Yikes!

So hard to say goodbye...

Today was a sad day. Daddy packed up his car and headed off to South Dakota. Mommy forgot how hard it was to watch him pull out of the driveway!

Since we probably won't be together on Easter, we did a little "practice" egg hunting! Harrison didn't really get the hunting part, but once he realized there were matchbox cars inside of his eggs, he was definitely hooked! In fact, he started getting mad at the eggs that had treats inside and kept saying "car! car? car!" Hope the Easter Bunny knows to only bring car ones for him!