Oklahoma 2011

Yes, we are alive and doin well.  It's been a crazy month for us!  We have been doing a lot of travel and are happy to be back in Cleveland!  When we got back from Idaho for Christmas, we were only in Cleveland for a few days then off to Oklahoma.  I was suppose to be going by myself, but Josh was able to get one more day off clinic and my dad overnighted a pass for him to come out.  I flew out on the 30th and Josh a few days later.  I spent New Years Eve with just my mom and David!  It was really low key but super nice.  We just watched a movie then the ball drop and off to bed! 

The next day Christine's family came down from Nebraska!  That night we let off a few fireworks.  They were totally awesome.  We went to bed about an hour after the fireworks.  Shortly after we had fallen asleep, Christine comes running into the room Josh and I were sleeping in and says there's a fire.  A little out of it, we jump up and run outside.  Sure enough, the trash cans that we put the hot fireworks in had caught on fire and a little bit of grass.  We were really lucky that it didn't spread that much and we were able to get it out with a shovel and a couple buckets of water!  It was crazy and we were all in a little shock and had a hard time falling asleep after that :)

For the first few days there, we didn't do anything way exciting.  Just relaxed, did a little shopping and ate at my FAVORITE burger/ice cream place...BRAUM'S...Oh I LOVE that place. We actually went there a few times while we were there.  In fact, it's where we went after picking Logan up from the airport.  It was his first choice!

I pretty much stole Christine's camera while we were there so I could have some pics!  Ours, unfortnately, still not working...but I am getting a newer and better one SOON!

Here is Josh, Emmi and myself:

Robby and Christine...always doing their strange poses:

Emmi:

While we were there I met Darcy (Karri's baby) and Jenna (Dad & Nola's) for the first time.  They are both super cute. 

  This is Darcy!  She's adorable!

Shawnee holding Darcy:

James & Josh:

You will notice lots of pictures of Emmi...She was always ready to pose for a picture for me.  She's so cute and I can't believe how big she is now!

This was just adorable.  I wish I could have gotten a few better pictures of this, but here is Emmi (loving her picture being taken) kissing Darcy on the cheek.  It was too cute!

When we got there, Stirling had a VERY VERY loose tooth but was nervous about losing it.  We tried to get him to let us take it out, but he wouldn't let anyone near it.  The one morning that Josh and I were watching the kids for Christine and Robby, Stirling is eating his cereal and hits his tooth causing it to just dangle there.  After a few words of encouragement from Josh, Stirling finally lets Josh near it to finish taking it out.  Here is Stirling with his front tooth missing and a few tears :)

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of Nathan and his family :(  Nathan is super busy with working mandatory overtime and going to school full time.  Plus both Nathan and Nichole were really sick.  But here's Matthew, one of the CUTEST boys EVER!

Ok...Hang in there.  I'm almost done.  I thought about doing this in a few posts, but decided that I just needed to get it done or it may never happen...so one LONG post it is :)

On Monday, January 3 of 2011, Logan came home from serving a 2 year mission for our church in Ogden, Utah!  We were sooo excited to see him!  He is such a good brother and was an amazing missionary.  He's all grown up now and actually mature ;)  This was the first time all of the siblings were together in well over 2 years.  He came home to some older and some new nieces and nephews and a new half sister! I think he may have been a little overwhelmed at the airport.

Here he is, right off the airplane:

I love this picture, except for the ugly OU banner in the background.  I should have cropped it out...Here's Shawnee, Stirling, Logan, Christine and I! We were all so excited to see him especially Sitrling!

Logan and a very happy Mom!:

That night we had Christmas with my mom!  Then the next night, Christmas with my dad!  It was so nice to finally all be together again.  It's great having Logan home!  We missed him tremendously and glad to be able to call and text him all we want!

We all got PJs from my mom and Kylie had the cutest ones!  Here is a picture of her in them.  A little random to put it at the bottom, but too lazy to move it at this point.

We had such a fun time in Oklahoma, seeing all of my family and eating at all the places we love in Stillwater!  Oh and it was pretty nice weather too! A nice break from the snow and COLD!

After leaving Oklahoma, we went straight to Idaho for Taylor and Becca's wedding...but that will have to be in another post :) which will hopefully come sooner rather than later...but no promises...

Christmas 2010

Josh and I were able to have a great Christmas this year with his side of the family.  We drove out to Idaho to save on a little money since we are going back in a few weeks for Taylor's wedding.  On the way out there, we stopped at my sister, Christine's.  She lives pretty much half way between Cleveland and Ohio.  It was so nice to have somewhere to stop and stretch our legs.  Plus she made a very tasty dinner and a great breakfast at like 6:30 in the morning!  Thanks Christine!  It was fun to spend some time with my niece and nephew too.  I got to have them all to myself for a couple hours before we went to bed.  Then they even slept in our room on the hard floor!  They are such cute kids and I can't wait to see them in a few days! 

On the drive out to Idaho, I realized that our camera broke!  I was so sad.  There were sooo many beautiful scenes I wanted to take pictures of as we drove across the country.  Plus no pictures the whole trip :(  Bummer!  I am hoping to get it working before I head out to Oklahoma tomorrow, but I doubt that will happen.  All this fun and exciting stuff, but no pictures to prove it!

We had a great time in Idaho once we got there (after the long 26 hour drive).  We were very fortunate that we didn't hit any bad weather and Josh only got pulled over once for speeding, but no ticket!  We were very blessed.  We were able to meet Becca, Taylor's soon to be wife!  We loved getting to know her and are so happy for Taylor and Becca!  Right before we left to come out to Idaho, Josh's mom broke her leg!  We felt so bad for her; she was in a lot of pain the whole time.  When we got there, we helped finish up the basement.  We mainly painted.  It was actually pretty fun.  We did that most of Monday when we were there.  Tuesday must have just been a relaxing day for us, cause I don't remember what we did.  On Wednesday, all the girls went to lunch then a bead shop and made some necklaces.  It was fun and good to get out with just the girls.  As I kept breaking all the little things, I found out that jewelry making may not be for me.  My necklace did turn out very pretty though!  Next time, I may just have to have Paige do it for me though :)  She's awesome at it!  Thursday we had family pictures.  I can't wait to see them!  I love getting family pictures and I loved the places we took them in Idaho Falls. 

On Christmas Eve, Josh's family friends came over for games.  It was a lot of fun.  I forgot how much fun it is to play games with a big group of people.  That night, grandparents and a few aunts, uncles and cousins came over for dinner and acted out the Nativity Scene.  It was really nice to see everyone.  Christmas morning, we woke up at about 7:30 and opened presents.  We got some great things like a new office chair!  Chase made me an AWESOME OSU ribbon board; I totally LOVE it!  Josh got some dress pants and I got two cute purses and a few other things.  I got to talk to my brother, Logan, who is still serving a mission in Ogden.  He comes home one the 3rd of January.  I can't wait to see him!  It was a great Christmas!

We headed back on the 26th!  It was a LONG drive.  It seemed much longer than it did getting out there.  We decided we wanted to get home quicker, so we drove farther the first day and didn't end up staying at Christine's.  We did split a hotel with a friend of ours that we met up with (he was driving back from Idaho too). 


We had a great time getting to know our neices, Rylee and Reese.  We feel so bad that we don't get to see them often and that they hardly know us.  But it was fun playing with them and getting to know them.  They are such cute girls!
Thank you Wray family for the great Christmas!  We can't wait to be back for the wedding in a few weeks!  Love you guys!

Let It Snow?

Cleveland is having a HUGE snow storm right now.  It has been crazy!.  My normal 35-40 min commute has taken me over an hour.  It started snowing Sunday night and hasn't stopped.  Per the weather service, it was suppose to stop last night at 7pm, then this morning at 4am and then this evening at 8pm and now its suppose to stop at 10pm.  I don't think it's ever gonna stop.  Today we got hit the hardest in the area that I work.  By the time I left work, I easily had a foot of snow covering my whole car and it was still coming down pretty hard.  I wish I would have had my camera to take pictures.  It looked something like this, but with more snow:

My drive home wasn't too bad but I wouldn't like to do it again...

I just couldn't believe how hard it was still coming down.  The craziest thing is that when I got home, there were only a couple of inches on the ground where I live and some of it was from days before!  I wasn't ready for winter, but winter didn't really seem to care.  I just hope that things clear up for when we drive to Idaho! 

What's a Girl to Do?

What's a girl to do while her husband is away studying and her best friend is out of town for the month? Hmm....now that's a very interesting question.  I have done LOTS of shopping lately.  It's been fun...and expensive.  I love shopping during the Christmas season, getting good deals and just being out and about with the other holiday shoppers.  I have the tendency to buy a lot of extra stuff during this season; I have a hard time telling myself "no" when it's a REALLY good deal.  This has made me come home and realize that I shoudn't have bought something and then taking it back, which is a good thing.  But then when I take it back, I tend to look around the store some more and just buy other things :)  I have already taken stuff back to Target twice this last week!  Oh how I LOVE Target...Just rambling now...Anyways, this last week I have kept myself very busy.  I have finished all of our Christmas shopping!  I have finished a few projects too!  I made me niece, who LOVES horses, a really cute blaket (I should have taken a picture before I wrapped it)  I also made a few other gifts for Christmas presents too.  I have wrapped all of our gifts and put them under the tree.  But all my Christmas shopping and projects are done, now what am I suppose to do?  I still have 2 more weeks of tests!  Well....I can BLOG!  or maybe I"m just rambling.  I did take a few pictures around the house to post!  I love Christmas!  Here is a little bit of what Christmas looks like at the Wray home.  (No judging on the pictures...we are still having major computer problems and I didn't really want to deal with editing them)

When we got married, we decided that we wanted to hang our stocking from snow globes.  I LOVE our snow globes...can you guess who's is who's?

I made this for an Enrichment project.  I love it :)

Our PITIFUL Christmas tree, but it was free...

I love the traditional colors of Christmas!

I love Yankee Candles..and this one smells sooooo good.

Yay!  I finally changed my towel!  I love all of them!

Fall is offically gone for us here in Cleveland...Forecast calls for snow, snow and more snow...This is just the beginning

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A Little Behind???

My lovely sister-in-law made me these way cute towels for Christmas two years ago.  They are so cute and I love having one for each month; however, this is the one that is STILL hanging...

Where has October and November gone???  I can't believe that December is just a few days away.  We have been quite busy this month.  After lots and lots of shopping around and discussing, we got a new car!  The X-Terra is gone much to Josh's sorrow :(  He loved being able to "pull things."  But we are soo happy to be in our 2007 Saturn Aura!  I am completely in LOVE with our new car!  And we are able to have a much smaller car payment!  That took a lot of our time this month. 

We also have been having fun with our friends out here.  I made this with my friend Valerie.

It's the only Christmas decor that we have up right now but not for long!  Decorations usually go up on black Friday in my house, but due to shopping and having to work, they will go up tonight!  I'm so ready for Christmas!

We had a great Thanksgiving with our great friends out here in Ohio.  It was really a good Thanksgiving, but what Thanksgiving isn't?  We enjoyed yummy turkey, rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, pies, fun company, etc....It was really great; too bad there aren't any pictures to prove it :(  Oh well...I know December will be great too and can't wait to see both of our families including brothers who have gotten home from their missions, meeting a niece and half-sister for the first time and a brother in law getting married.  We have a BUSY next month but can't wait!

Squire's Castle

Are you loving fall yet?  'Cause we are!  One of the good things about living in Ohio is being able to see the beautiful fall trees!  They are absolutely gorgeous here.  We definitely had a beautiful earth created for us.  Last weekend, finals ended and externship applications were submitted!  It was time to get out and enjoy ourselves!  We have wanted to go to Squire's Castle since we have been here and we thought that it would be a great time to take the drive up there.  It was a lot of fun.  We went on a little hike and the colors on the trees were just amazing.  The only thing that was a little disappointing is that we didn't get to go inside the castle because there were 2 different weddings going on while we were there...Bummer!  Now we know not to go on a beautiful Saturday!  Here are a few pictures that I took while we were there.  On this little outing I realize how much I dislike my camera....Hopefully, very soon I can get my new camera....I'm always dreaming :) 

Yes, a picture of me!  I was there and have proof!

My Pumpkin Patch

I have finished more pumpkins for my pumpkin patch.  I am loving all of them.  As you can see below, they are all different shapes and sizes.  I just love all of them.  I tried picking a favorite one but I like them all for different reasons.  I have been on a pumpkin break for that last week or two but I am hoping that I can get back into doing more before the season is over.  I still have tons of fabric and even a few different fabrics that I haven't even touched yet.  To answer questions from before, I started with a pattern that you can find here then I just adapted it to make all the different shapes and sizes that I wanted.  Or I did make one of them this way, which was even more simple, but you can only use one fabric per pumpkin that way.  They were so simple to make and I love them!

Going to Grandma's

This last weekend, my grandmother has some major surgery.  My mom drove up from Oklahoma to stay with her and I was able to go for the weekend.  Luckily, the surgery went well and good news was given.  She is now home recovering.  I am glad that I was able to go up there and spend time with them.  I was nice and didn't take any pictures of her in the hospital, but here is one of my favorite pictures of when I was a baby with my mom and grandmother:

 Love you, Grandma!

This is prime time for the beautiful fall colors.  I was able to take a few pictures as we drove by some incredible scenery.  Not the best, but they will have to do.  After all, I was in the car while I took these.

I was also able to stop by and see my Grandpa, Dad's Dad.  It was so good to see him.  I stopped by and he was raking leaves!  He's 84 and still raking leaves!  He amazes me all the time.  I love his house.  Everything about his house brings me feelings of happiness.  I once wrote a descriptive report on his house...I wish I could find that.  Oh well....I didn't take a picture of him, but I did take a picture of his house while I drove by :)  I know, I'm strange....

I had a good time and we were all very happy with the results of my grandmother's surgery.  It was a short little weekend trip, but I'm very glad I was able to go. 

The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that it's suppose to be only a 3.5 hour drive, but it ended up taking me FIVE hours both ways!  On the way there, I hit traffic and some construction and then got lost....I thought I would be golden on the way home leaving on a Sunday afternoon, but I wasn't that fortunate.  There was a really bad accident.  They shut down the highway and it took me 2 hours to go about 2 miles.  I won't give details, but it was the worst accident scene I have ever seen and I drove by about an hour and a half after it had happened.  The accident has kind of haunted me this last week.  I have prayed for those involved and their families several times.  It turns out that 5 people were killed and 4 were seriously injured.  My thoughts and prayers go out tho them and their families.

Just so I don't leave on a sad note...While I was in the traffic, I saw a couple of hot air balloons.  It was nice to have the short distraction as I sat and waited.  I even got my camera out and took a picture.

That's all for now...Love ya Grandma!  Get well quickly!!!

Fall is Here!

Fall is here.  This year it feels like fall came over night.  Last week we had temperatures in the upper 80s and lower 90s, which is unheard of here.  We were setting record high temperatures.  I used to always enjoy fall, but living in Ohio has changed that a little bit.  I still like fall and the colors around this part of the country are absolutely BREATHTAKING...but I don't feel like I ever really got a summer even with the hotter temperatures.  Maybe that's just part of getting older...No more summer breaks, no more days of lounging around or going to the pool daily or fun amusement parks everyday.  I guess the main reason I'm not looking forward to fall this year is because I know that cold and sunless skies are ahead and will be here before I know it.  I am going to try my best to fully enjoy fall this year.  Tonight I got out my Halloween decorations!  Decorating will ALWAYS get you in a good mood!  Also this year I have decided to make my own pumpkins.  I finished my first big one last night and I am absolutely in LOVE with it :)  I plan on making my own little pumpkin patch, but they are taking me a lot longer to sew than I thought.  For some reason, I couldn't get the pictures in the order that I want and I'm too tired to spend any more time on it, but here's the pictures of what I have so far:

This one will be the biggest pumpkin in the patch:

Here is my big pumpkin with my two little "trial pumpkins"

So, I put my phone on top so you can see just how big this one is.  I didn't mean for it to be this big, but I still love how it turned out!