Hello Oklahoma!

We made it threw our first summer in Oklahoma, it has had it's ups and downs. We started off by having to live in a tiny two bedroom apartment for 1 month. I'm really surprised we didn't kill eachother. It was humbling to live this way, it made me really appreciate the little things that I took for granted, having a washer and dryer, microwave, dishwasher and just space for the kids to run around. When we got into our rental home, life got easier.

Adjusting to small town living was harder then I thought. I still am adjusting, but I'm seeing a lot of good that can come from living in place like this. The community here seems very close knit, everyone knows everyone. When I go to the little grocery store, the grocery boy always takes my food out to my car even if I say I don't need help. 

The hospital had a party for us to welcome us into town. We swam, ate and got to meet a lot of great people. It was at this party that I felt like I needed to give this place a chance and have a better attitude. 

Oklahoma is very flat, but the plains and fields are green. It's really beautiful to see this part of the country. . Everyone says we are in a drought but it seems green to us coming from  living in the desert. We live 35 minutes away from our church and major shopping, so far the drive hasn't bothered us too much, and it's such a pretty drive it seems to go by fast. 

Here's some pictures of our little town and what we've been up to this summer...

I've been told there are 13 churches in this town. This one is one of my favorite's, it has bells that ring 3 times a day. 

So Okeene is very diverse. There are nice charming homes like this.....

And then there are old houses like this. We are lucky enough to live right across the street from this beauty! My kids call it the "Monster House".

Finding a home here to live in was VERY challenging, the rental market is practically non-existent. We didn't want to buy a home right off until we knew what area we wanted to live in. The whole town was looking for a rental for us, originally we were suppose to move into a home that had 1 bathroom and 3 bedrooms and it was on a busy street. Not too excited about that, but we didn't have any other options. That house fell threw, and this house became available. This house was being remodeled because there was a fire inside, so when we moved in it was still under construction. The location of this house is not my favorite, it's on a run down street but the people are nice and friendly. We'll probably live here a year until Rich builds us a home or we find a house that we fall in love with. 

Nice size kitchen, but no dishwasher! I'm used to it now, but it was a adjustment not having one. 

The family room has lots of space, our bedrooms are super tiny though.

Here we are my new friend Stacy's house. She's been super welcoming to our family. Look at all this grass!
 We enjoyed our time in Albuquerque, but boy did we miss having a lawn. 

In June they had a reading program all month at the library. At the end of the month there was a family day where they had a BBQ and a magician come for the kids. Weston got called up to help the magician. 

So this was new for me. This was taken at the 4th of July party in town. Turtle racing! Our friend Stacy found my kids all turtles so they could enter the race. Some kids paint the shells and try to train their turtles. They put the turtles under a bucket, and lift the bucket and the first turtle to cross the line wins. They did quite a few races in different age categories. Blake won first place in his age group! And Brooklyn did too! Then they were able to be in overall race for all the winners and Brooklyn took first place overall!! New girl in town wins! She was excited, and she got her picture in the paper. 

Brooklyn with her winning turtle. 

1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Sami loved her turtle.

They had a really impressive firework show, we were surprised how big the fireworks were. 

Samantha broke her leg the week we moved into our rental home. She fell off the boys bunk bed. The cast was waterproof so she was able to still swim this summer  with everyone which was nice. On top of my regular OB appointments, my kids appointments with their Endocronoligist and now appointments every two weeks for her leg! I was always in the car driving to the city to see a doctor. 

Brooklyn and I drove to the city for food shopping one day, and we had heard that the icecream at Braums was really good. So we went and got some, delicious!! 

This summer  Blake got a pump! . No more shots!!  It  was a headache trying to get insurance to approve  and finalize getting this pump, but it all worked out! He loves it. This kid was getting a lot of shots. He's 4, so when he says he's done with a meal and full I would give him his shot, and 10 minutes later he wanted more food so he would need another shot. He averaged around 10-12 shots a day, kinda a pain and a lot of work. He still has to poke his fingers aboujt 6-8 times a day and change the pumpsite every 3 days. We are so grateful for this little device, it makes our lives much easier. 

This is how Samantha got around the first few weeks until she figured out how to walk on it. 

This is a really fun waterpark in Fairview, it's about 20 minutes from us. 

I met up with some ladies at church at Leonardo's. In Albuquerque we have a place called Explora, that we went to a lot. This place is a lot like that, but on a smaller scale. Super fun, and a little bit easier to keep track of my kids because it's not so huge. 

This is the park right down the street from our house. 

We have a community pool right by the park, we came here almost everyday this summer. A local business man pays for kids to swim free.

This is the playground at Canton Lake. It's a great lake with campgrounds., it's close to us too. The beach is sandy and the water stays shallow for a while, so it's perfect for the kids to play in. 

The Oklahoma City temple was beautiful, all temples are. We are about an hour and fifteen minutes away, which isn't too far. Rich and I took turns going in while the other sat outside with the kids.