Moore, Oklahoma 2013

Ever since we told people we were moving to Oklahoma, everyone has always mentioned tornadoes.  When Sam and I decided to live in Moore we read all about the May 3rd tornado and never imagined anything like that happening again. We've had several storms in which there were tornado watches.  Last month I even took out a renter's insurance policy, you know in the rare chance there actually was a tornado and our stuff was destroyed.  I thought about tornadoes, but I never actually imagined one happening.  It still is so strange to me how suddenly this dangerous tornado happened.

The night before, Sam called me telling me we were on tornado watch, and I needed to pay attention to the news.  The storm was intense and I had the bathroom all prepped in case Brylee and I needed to wait it out in there.  A tornado hit in Shawnee, which made me realize how ill prepared I was for a tornado.  I decided that Sam and I should prepare a tornado to go kit the next day just in case.  It was a wonderful idea which didn't happen. Sam got home from work early in the morning.  When he woke up we decided to go grocery shopping (In hindsight this was a terrible plan. Don't go grocery shopping before a tornado hits because you might lose power and all your food will go bad).  After we left Walmart Sam asked what we wanted to do that day.  I told him another storm was coming so maybe we should just stay home.

The storm hit and we had lots of rain and hail.  Sam went outside and found a ping pong ball size piece of hail.  He tried to save it in our freezer, unfortunately we lost power and it melted. We were watching the news and when the tornado formed it seemed relatively small, then we lost power.  I frantically searched for the emergency radio my parents bought me one year, which I had never really cared about until I needed it.  I obviously thought I would never need it, because I still have no clue where it is. We went outside to look at the storm and we could see the tornado.  It wasn't your typical tornado, it just looked like a huge wall. I even had to ask someone, is that it?  At this point we decided it was time to go inside.

The sirens were going off along with and announcement  "CITIZENS OF MOORE, THERE IS A TORNADO WARNING, GO INSIDE." This was probably the most terrifying part for me. Brylee was ready for her nap so I swaddled her and she went right to sleep.  We got in the bathtub Sam held Brylee and we covered ourselves with couch cushions.  I've never heard anything like it. There was an intense humming sound.  We could here that it had hit. Sam and I both looked at each other, realizing this could be it.  We said I love you, and prayed. Then we heard a window shatter, and shortly after it seemed the storm had passed.  Sweet little Brylee slept through it all.

Sam got out to check if everything was okay.  I was not remotely prepared for what I saw.  I am still in awe of nature and how small and insignificant we are compared to her.  A tornado can happen so suddenly and be so destructive.

Our Complex after the storm.

We were so lucky. Our car was damaged and had a broken window. Our bedroom window also broke.  But it is absolutely nothing compared to what others are going through   Even in our own complex we have friends whose apartments are unlivable. They had water damage and their ceilings collapsed.

I thought the car was covered in leaves and dirt, but mainly it was covered in insulation.

There were many families in our ward whose lost everything.  Their strength amazes me.  Today we had sacrament meeting then spent the day cleaning up after the storm.  These families were there helping others even though their own homes were destroyed.  I'll admit that I saw our car, I was feeling bad for myself.  Then I walked down the street and realized I had nothing to complain about.  Hundreds of people lost everything.  We were very fortunate, I can't imagine what it would be like to come up after the storm and see your entire home destroyed, or to lose a loved one.  Through this experience I have gained a great love for Oklahoma. The people here are amazing, they have outstanding. faith. There are so many churches including mine who immediately got to work serving the community of Moore.

This mini mall is across the street from our complex.

At one point only people who lived in the neighborhoods were allowed to enter we had to show ID to a cop in order to get in our complex because of looters.  I kept  thinking why are people so horrible.  Families have been devastated by this storm, and they still want to steal from them.  It's easy to think about how awful this world is and how many terrible people there are.  But overall most people are good.  People from all over the country have come to Moore to help.  Our power and water were out for several days, and during that time there were several groups of people who offered us hot meals and water, and anything else we needed. So many people came willing to serve.  Everyday there are different groups of people cleaning up our apartment complex.

These pictures are from from the street we live on about a 1/4 mile north of us.

I've learned several lessons from this storm, most of them have to do with preparedness (and the fact that I was not remotely prepared). Most importantly, I have learned how good and kind people are.  I will never again watch a disaster happen and do nothing to help those affected, no matter how far away they live.  One night a non profit charity group brought us dinner.  Their name was One Spark.  They held the belief that they would do something kind for you, and you would pass it on.They set a great example, and I hope to live up to it.  I have been so amazed by the members of my ward and the people of Oklahoma. They are so willing to drop everything, and help those in need!

Brylee Skeie

I can't believe our baby girl is already five months old!  It's going by way too fast.  This age is so much fun.  I thought I would just share some fun pictures of Brylee.

We have a park close to our house we like to go to.  There are a couple ponds you can fish in.  Sam took his fishing pole one day and gave Brylee her first lesson!  They didn't catch anything but they had fun.

We start 'em youung in this family!  Hopefully she likes fishing more than her mama, Sam needs a fishing buddy!

A few fun things about Brylee:

This month she found her thumb! She sticks her thumb in her mouth but leaves all her other fingers still up.  She can roll over( she's done it since 3 months but she rolls over much more frequently now).  She getting close to sitting on her own, but not quite there.  She loves her toys, and can get pretty demanding sometimes if you take her toys away.  She went swimming for the first time.  She loves to be outside.  Sometimes she will be fussy until Mom takes her outside, then she is one happy camper.  She is quite the chatterbox, and is such a happy girl.  Brylee loves smiling, and Daddy is the best at getting her to smile!

Another exciting milestone: Brylee tried solids for the first time.  We wanted to wait until she was six months, but we were just so excited we decided to start at 5 1/2 months.  Instead of rice cereal we started with sweet potatoes, and she loved them.  Here is a video of her first time eating solids. She wasn't too sure about it at first.

A day at the Park...

There's a little park not far from our house that we like to go to.  Brylee loves her swing at home, especially if its at high speed, so even though she's still pretty small we thought we would see how she liked the baby swings at the park.  She loved it, baby girl was laughing so hard.  Unfortunately we didn't have our camera on us.  So these aren't the pictures of Brylee's "first" swing, she actually laughed much harder the first time.  Easter Sunday was so nice, so we took Brylee to the swings again, and this time we remembered the camera! 

And here is a little video of Brylee on the swing.  She was so funny whenever Sam would stop pushing she started getting fussy.

Sorry if the video made you a little sick to watch...I got a little dizzy watching it.

We missed our family this Easter, but had a fun time with just the three of us.  Brylee looked so cute in her Easter dress.

Bry is so much fun, we love this stage, and love making her laugh.  Sam discovered a new little trick, he blows in her face and it always makes her smile.  So here are some pictures and a little video of that...

An Oklahoma Adventure...

I can't believe we have been living in Oklahoma for seven months.  We only have four months until we move to Philly.  We love it here, and while we look forward to all that Philadelphia has in store for us we will certainly miss Oklahoma. 

A couple weeks ago the weather was gorgeous here, like 80 degrees in March! Sam had a four day weekend so we decided to do some exploring.  We drove to Turner Falls park which was about an hour south of us. 

The park is located in the Arbuckle "mountains." I say "mountains" because they were more like hills compared to Montana mountains.  None the less it was fun to see hills, and I almost felt like I was back home. 

In the 30's some professor decided to build a castle in the park...pretty cool.

Brylee had so much fun she loved being carried around all day.  She was a little angel the entire day. 

When we took her out of her carrier her pants were hiked up so high she looked like a little old man, we couldn't help but laugh.

We had fun hiking around a few trails.  The park had two water holes, but we didn't bring anything to swim in.  And the water was extremely cold, but it looked like it would be a lot of fun in the summer. 

We were also able to go to a hockey game.  We were nervous about taking Brylee, especially because she has a very early bedtime.  We just set her on a chair next to us, and surprisingly she slept for the first hour of the game. It was incredibly loud in there so I have no idea how she slept through it...then she woke up. She loved it, she was so excited to be out an about.  She just kept looking around taking everything in.  She was even watching the game we couldn't even get her to look away so we could take a picture.  There were two guys sitting next to us who thought she was just the cutest thing.  Brylee loved them, they had her laughing so hard.  I was a little jealous because I've never gotten her to laugh that hard for so long

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I'm so glad when Daddy comes home...

Sam has his new schedule and is working every other Sunday.  This was the first Sunday I went to church without him, and it was definitely a little hard.  Brylee is taking a nap and I was just thinking about how much I miss Sam! I was wasting some time on pinterest and I saw this amazing quote:

I remember the moment I realized I was in love with Sam.  It was about a whole three weeks after we started dating, and I waited very patiently (not) for him to get up the courage to tell me.  I remember kneeling across from him at the alter thinking there was no way I could possibly love him more than I did at that moment.  ...Then I saw the look in his eyes when we saw our baby girl for the first time.  Sam is such an amazing daddy and I don't tell him that enough.

Brylee is such a daddy's girl.  The first three months of parenthood were amazing but completely exhausting.  Our poor baby girl had food intolerance to what I was eating and colic.  She could scream for hours on end.  I definitely lost my patience at times but I never once saw Sam get impatient or frustrated.  He would come home after a long day at work and hold his screaming baby all night to give me a break.  When he gets home from work he changes almost all of her diapers, picks out outfits, and plays with her.  He puts her down for naps, and reads to her.  The first three months included many many sleepless nights (She still wakes up several times a night, but at least now she goes back to sleep!)  When I was completely exhausted Sam would stay up with her to give me a break.

On Sam's days off he usually waked up with Brylee in the morning so I can sleep in.  The other morning I woke up to him reading Brylee the Chronicles of  Narnia.

Brylee loves watching us workout especially watching us shadowbox.  One day Sam was having her do her own shadowboxing and I caught part of it on film.

Brylee loves bouncing.  She loves to be tossed in the air, and when we bounce her on our laps.  One day she was laying on the bed and Sam made the mattress bounce, she just loved it.

We're Lucky because...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!(When I started this post it was St Patrick's day).  We're lucky today because we have a beautiful baby girl!  Brylee is such a joy.  Here she is smiling because she's happy she's Irish (Like 1/16! 

Here are a few much awaited videos of Brylee just being cute.  She is such a chatterbox (Except when we're on skype). We can get her to smile whenever we want, unless we are skyping.  Today in our sunday school class we had the youth study some scriptures.  WE wanted the room quiet so they could read, but Brylee was just chattering away.  At least she's a cute distraction, even if she's a bit rude at times...hehe she let out a really loud toot just before the prayer. 

And for the final video you can see Brylee rolling on her side...the little stinker refuses to roll all the way over again! 

And yes...that was a little brylee toot.

She is so much fun! We are so LUCKY to be her parents. She lights up our lives.

Sweet Baby Girl

Little Ray of Sunshine…

When I found out I was pregnant I decided I wanted to blog…mainly because I HATE writing in a journal and thought this would be a great way to keep track of my little one.  I was great at blogging while I was pregnant. Then…I had a baby.  Amidst the frequent diaper changes, clothing changes, spit up messes, and fussiness I just didn’t have time to blog.  Well little miss is almost four months old so I decided to try to blog once again.  Colic is over! Hallelujah!  Brylee has become more independent and is now content to simply play on her mat or chill in her swing, instead of demanding to be attached to mom 24/7.  What does this mean?  Just that I might actually update the family blog more than once every four months!  

She is so much fun.  While we loved the first three months of her life(even the complete exhaustion), this stage is so much fun.  Everyday we witness her little personality developing.  A little about our baby girl: She is such a smiley little girl.  Today we were blowing raspberries on her and she couldn’t stop laughing.  She loves her lullaby music from Grandma Nan, nap time might be nonexistent without it! She loves to sing along with mom and dad, and babbles all night long!  She loves attention!  I don’t think our Sunday school kids get anything out of our lessons because Brylee is such a cute distraction! Bry loves reading books, especially her kitty one.  She still loves her bath time; we’re excited for the weather to warm up so we can take her to the pool.  She doesn’t however like to skype!  Unfortunately I think our family believes that she never smiles.  I guess they’ll just have to come visit in person J.  She also doesn’t like eczema or when mommy eats foods that hurt her tummy (which is basically everything, poor girl)! 

We love being parents, and can’t believe how much it has changed us.  We are so thankful that we were blessed to be parents of this amazing little girl.  There is nothing in the world that can compare to watching Brylee smile and laugh.  When Sam gets home from work she’s usually sleeping, but he always has to go peek in on her.  A sleeping baby is the most precious sight.  

We are certainly enjoying Oklahoma and all it has to over.  The people here are great. Sam is enjoying work, and loves being a paramedic.