2011 Christmas Ornaments

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year.....not for the food, but to see the creative masterpieces that my mom creates for each one of us in the annual Christmas ornaments. She really outdid herself this year! Each year, she makes at least 1 ornament for each member of our family, and sometimes, if she can't decide which idea she wants to use, she makes 2 ornaments! I can't even imagine how much time it takes her to make these; it takes me usually 2+ days/nights to think up an idea and make her ornament. I can't imagine doing that at least 8 different times! I love it that my mom does this for us. It makes our Christmas tree so special - our tree really is the story of our lives!

Reese went first since she was the youngest (at least for this year - we're waiting for you, Emerson!). Her first ornament was of her and Pamma (my mom) holding hands and singing/playing in the rain - complete with a little umbrella! What a special memory the two of them shared doing this.

Reese's 2nd ornament was of Reese riding the camel in her cheerleader outfit at this year's OSU Homecoming.

Jenna announced their upcoming gift this year while we were dying Easter eggs, so Mom captured the moment in her Christmas ornament this year. Inside the pink Easter egg basket filled with Easter eggs was an Easter egg that looked just like the one they made saying "We're Pregnant!".

Casey's ornament celebrated his achievement of graduating with his Master's. We're proud of you, Casey!

The Campbell family's ornaments:

Like Reese, Jackson also got 2 ornaments. The first one he unwrapped was of him on the camel dressed in his Iron Man costume. I still can't believe Jackson wore his Iron Man costume to OSU Homecoming!

His 2nd ornament was of Jackson's Halloween costume this year: Captain Spider America Man! Jackson is really into superheroes and couldn't decide which one he wanted to be. So for some of his Halloween parties, he decided to make the Ultimate Superhero and combined the Captain America and Spiderman costumes into one!

Mom - did you notice that he really does have the Cook toe? Cracks me up that he doesn't even realize that he's doing it!

Tom started teaching lessons at TU this year as an adjunct professor. In addition to the lessons, he also helps out with the TU marching band and next semester will teach a few more classes. So it was very fitting that Tom's ornament was a little Santa drumming on a TU drum.

This year I was in charge of the Williams Tulsa Area United Way Day of Celebration, which is a big celebration complete with lunch, a skit, giveaways and the check presentation marking the end of the annual United Way campaign for Williams. It was a great campaign (we gave the highest amount ever for Williams at over $2 million!) with a really fun theme of "The Need is Real" and ties to different reality TV shows. For the Day of Celebration, we used the Survivor theme, and as part of the skit, we showed our executives planking in different locations around Tulsa to raise awareness for the United Way. Mom captured it perfectly in my ornament this year!

The McGillen family ornaments:

My grandma was in town from Iowa this Thanksgiving, and my mom made her a special ornament - her with all of her 6 grandchildren!

My parents have spent a lot of time this year working on genealogy, and recently took an extended trip to do more genealogy work and see some of the places where our ancestors were. They've traced our family back to at least the 1500's and came back with lots of interesting stories. One of our ancestors was the Camp family in the Revolutionary War. They actually found the gravestone of Thomas Camp from the 1700's in a small family cemetery at the top of a hill under a tree - just like a postcard. I made Mom a family tree ornament with a replica of the tree (and their initials carved into the trunk).

My dad got 2 ornaments this year. The first ornament was to celebrate the end of all of the work he has done over the past several years updating the church buildings. We got to take a tour of the updated facilities while we were there, and it seriously looks like a brand new church but still kept all of the historical feelings. They did an outstanding job!

Dad also helped implement DamWatch for Oklahoma dams this year, so his ornament depicted a beaver looking out across the water in the dam holding binoculars. So creative!

Mom and Dad's ornaments:

Thank you so much, Mom, for making these ornaments for us. They are very treasured! Decorating the tree always takes on a special trip down memory lane. You are amazing, and we are so lucky.

I'm a soccer mom!!

Last Saturday was Jackson's first soccer game. I think I was even more excited than he was! I really like Jackson's coach - the focus is purely on making sure the kids have fun and they get equal playing time. The score is meaningless. Just as it should be!

Just before the start of the game, each kid drew a card to determine who was going to play first. What a great idea!

Getting ready to play. Jackson seemed so proud to be in his jersey and to have so many routing for him. He kept looking back at us with his proud smile just to make sure we were still watching.

Jackson's favorite part of the game/practice still seems to be the water bottle. I didn't think this would be a huge issue. After all - it's warm and you've got to stay hydrated, right??

As soon as it was time for Jackson to play, he said he had to go. Immediately. So off they went! I thought this might have been just a coincidence. However, now we're wondering if it's nerves or becoming habit. He has yet to play a game or practice without having to leave the field to take care of business - regardless of when he last went!

Jackson out in front. Doesn't he look like he's leaving everyone else in the dust?

We have a team of incredibly polite kids - none of them want to get in and take the ball from someone else! Some of the parents and I were laughing about it this past weekend. We tell our kids every day to share, take turns and not take toys (or balls) away from people as well as not hit knock anyone down or bump them. But as soon as we get them on the field, what do we say? "Get the ball....take it from them!" or "bumping, kicking, and getting knocked down is just part of the game". No wonder they are confused!

Jackson has started doing his "old man" run or a slow-motion run. You can tell he's doing it here as he's just cruising along. When he finally hears that he needs to run fast, you can see him kick it in overdrive!

Every so often, Jackson would turn to us and give us the double thumbs up.

3 and 4 yr old soccer is the best. Your ab muscles get a pretty good workout. I'm so thankful the coaches are out there - though it is like herding cats! Some of the kids are following the ball, yet others are multitasking at the same time - picking flowers for their mom or playing stellar defense, such as the kid in the first game who (while the game was in progress) knelt down in front of the goal and starting digging a hole. Genius!

At the end of the game, the coaches taught the kids how to be good sports. I love how some of them seem to be walking on a balance beam with both hands out straight.

After the game - snack time!!

Pamma, Papa, Johnnie and Reese made it to Jackson's game last weekend. Reese really wanted to go after the ball on the field! The team mom who brought snacks had some left over and also gave some to Reese. She sure has her hands full!

After the game, we decided to go to the park for a bit before lunch.

After the park, we headed to Sprouts for lunch and some more play time. Sprouts is this great play cafe that Katie found a few weeks ago. She and her son, Ben, met us there on my birthday for a morning playdate. It is a great place! It has nice tables and chairs for the moms to sit, talk and have some coffee (or lunch) while the kids play in the play area or go in the art room, which are both supervised by employees to watch over the kids. It is wonderful! Jackson (and Ben) had a great time. Jackson now calls it his "fun place".

So, we decided to check it out again with Reese. Reese got a little scared by all of the strangers, so she needed a little moral support. Pamma stepped in to read them a story.

After a while, Reese got more comfortable. Jackson showed her how to balance on this fun play toy. I think Johnnie was about to have a heart attack as Reese was balancing and walking. Johnnie let out a sigh of relief as Reese decided upon a new way to cross the wavy balance beam.

After Sprouts, we came back home for a little nap. We wondered if Jackson and Reese would be able to take a nap together in Jackson's bed.....but that didn't work out too well. They had a blast together, though. They started out acting like they could do it. But then Jackson said he needed to read Reese 2 stories. How could we refuse that? So sweet! The next thing we hear are a few bumps....and then quiet. I went back in the room and found Jackson reading some books out loud while Reese comes out of the closet with some more toys. We put them back in bed and tell them they need to go to sleep after 1 more story. After several more distractions, we finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't going to work.

While us girls were out doing some birthday shopping for spring decorations, the boys (and Reese) went upstairs to play.

Later that night we all went outside to play. Jackson loved showing off how he could ride his scooter and his bike!

They took off for a ride around our neighborhood.

But the day wasn't over yet! One more ride around the neighborhood, except this time they had Papa do the hard work.

A fun day isn't complete without bubbles!

Thanks again for coming up! We had so much fun - what a great day! We're looking forward to Grandma and Granddad McGillen coming up next weekend to watch Jackson's soccer game, too. I'm loving sports season! Hope Jackson continues to have fun playing - I know that I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Spring is coming!

The weather was great this weekend, so we took advantage of it by playing outside. I'm happy to report that Jackson loves riding his bike and is really good at it, so no late night bike training sessions here! After a good bike ride and a trip on the scooter, Jackson decided he wanted to pull all of his nap buddies around in his wagon. As he was pulling them on the sidewalks, he'd exclaim, "They're so happy! They're having fun!"

Our attention span doesn't last too long, so 5 minutes later (or 1-2 trips to and from the neighbor's house), we had to switch to the truck. Jackson is still a little scared of this and wants someone by his side at all times. He finally started going down the sidewalk and into the neighbor's driveway when he got scared and told Tom, "I'm going to crash into the door!" Here Tom is trying to explain that Jackson just needs to turn his steering wheel to get back to the sidewalk. Looks simple, right?

Ummmm.....No. Jackson decided that it would be much easier to push it and physically turn it using his brute strength.

Finally Tom convinced Jackson to get back in the car. Tom steered the truck while Jackson pressed the gas pedal. Somehow I don't think this is what the manufacturers intended for this toy! On the bright side, I don't think we'll have to worry about Jackson begging to drive our car anytime soon....or hopefully within the next 13 years.

Next he tried his smaller vehicle, but he's getting too big for it. Jackson doesn't seem to understand why it suddenly got so much smaller!

Once he got tired of that, we moved back to the wagon. Only this time Jackson wanted to ride with his nap buddies, too.

Since he hadn't ridden his small trike yet, he decided his nap buddies should get a front row seat to watch him ride it around the driveway. I love the focus and deliberate placement of each of his friends that he's showing here!

A little while later, he rearranged them so that they each got a different view. Once he got them the way he wanted them, he said "Mommy, take a picture of me!" .

He decided to try the truck one more time that night. He said Woody, Buzz and Jessie wanted to come, too. Aren't they so cute sitting there in the seat with him?

We had another big first this week - Jackson's first soccer practice! We went to Academy this weekend to get him some cleats and some shinguards. We also picked up a water bottle (Thanks for remembering, Tom!) so that he could actually have something to drink at practice. We kind of felt like it was the first day of school - what should he wear to the first practice? Is it going to be a full practice or more of a get-to-know the coach and team with a little bit of kicking the ball thrown in? Should he wear tennis shoes or cleats? Does he need to wear his shin guards? Where is the field? So many questions....no one to answer them. (OK, we were prepared for that last question. We drove to find it the night before. See, we really are treating it like the first day of school!)

We did what any prepared parent would do - we brought it all with us! (and yes, even though I don't have treats in the car and I don't carry puffs in my purse with a sippy, I do count myself in this crowd for at least one night!)

He was so excited to go to practice. He told all of his friends and his teachers that day that he was going to play soccer. He told me "Holden will be so happy." Apparently Holden really likes soccer, too! Jackson picked out his shirt special for this great day. But with all of the new things going on, Jackson was most excited about......his water bottle.

When practice started, Jackson jumped right into the crowd. It was so cute watching him with the other kids and the coach. Jackson is definitely a pleaser. You could always count on him being right in front of the coach when the team came together for a talk. Here is he stretching as far as he can to get ready to practice.

Next it was time for some drills. I was surprised how good Jackson was with his footwork (look at me talking like I actually know something about soccer - it sounded good, though, didn't it?).

Patiently waiting his turn to knock down the bowling pins (aka orange cones) with his ball.

1/4 of the practice was spent like this:

Next they practiced kicking the ball up and down the field. Jackson was really fast.

Here's a video of Jackson and his teammates practicing kicking the ball into the goal. It was really windy, so I apologize for the noisiness of the video!

About halfway through the practice, the coach had them scrimmage - 4 against 4. There were only a few issues:

1. No one knew each other, and had no clue who was on their team (do 3 and 4 year olds really understand the concept of "team" any way?).
2. Rules.....who needs rules?
3. The goal they were aiming for was the one directly in front of them....even if it was on the next field (or two) over.

Jackson was really fast and could easily catch up to the pack, but he didn't seem to want to get into the crowd to try to get the ball. He got bumped a couple of times, which he didn't like. He got pushed down 3 times, which he REALLY didn't like. The last time he got pushed down, he started bawling, and it took us about 5 minutes to get him to stop. Fortunately, we had the water bottle handy, and he went back to his coach to tell him that he had 2 drinks. Not 1, but 2! When we asked him after practice how he liked it, he just kept saying that people hit him and knocked him down. I'm not sure how well this is all going to go. We tried to keep telling him that he was ok, and that getting bumped or knocked down was going to happen - everyone is going for the ball, and sometimes people get in the way! So stay tuned...not too sure how this one will turn out!

I've posted all of these pictures in an online photo gallery. Hopefully if you click this link, you'll be able to download any pictures that you want on to your own computer.

https://picasaweb.google.com/TMCGILLEN?authkey=Gv1sRgCPuwi7K1np-t7AE