monthS long update

Not quite sure what the last post was about...but heres an update for the past few months:
~In June Dollie went back to school for the summer semester at OTC to try and get some classes in for her AA degree. Microbiology and U.S. History. Both were online. However she did microbiology online, we will never know, but she did and passed it thanks to Kay's expert help on making bread :) THANKS MOM!
In August she went back for the fall semester taking Math for Teachers I, American National Government, Physical Science and Environmental Science. Through the school, she was able to participate in a work study program and started working at Even Start; a literacy program designed to provide childcare to those parents who drop out of school to have their babies. The parents can come to Even Start and get their GED and Dollie provides the childcare for them. However, its not JUST a daycare. She has to spend countless hours and lots of resources to make lesson plans and activities for these little children. She loves it and feels like it is a worth-while program.

~Oscar has been working at Rivendell for about 20 months now....still working nights. He loves his job and what he does, but the schedule is terrible. However while Dollie was in school it worked out perfect. Now, however, its time to get a different schedule. The kids sure miss him bein home all night. They still don't sleep through the night.

~AdaBelle turned 3 in March and is just the sassiest gal...we have no idea where she gets THAT from :) HAAA! She is such an imaginatory (is that even a word?) kid.... Her cousins--YES all of them--are always at our house. Dollie sometimes has to set an extra place or 9 at the lunch table for all of them to eat. AdaBelle LOVES crafts and draws or colors constantly. Our fridge is covered with pictures she has done for us.

~Oscar viii (Boy) turned 2 in October and is the worlds' biggest BOY!!! jumping off things, playin cars, makin "boy noises", thinking bodily functions are hilarious... even laughs when the ketchup bottle "poots". He loves cars and puzzles and stickers and magnets and dinosaurs....

WE LOVE OUR LITTLE FAMILY!!!!!

Welcome home posters for Gabe

The kids wanted to paint the other day and so I thought Welcome Home posters would be fun for them to do for Uncle Gabe.

The Boy's poster ended up being more brown than anything, but he had fun.

AdaBelle loves artsy things and is still working on hers. "it isn't good enough, yet, Momma." So this is her work in progress.

The 1st Cut

Holding the hair

Hair in face

Little Oscar, Boy, as we call him, had some hippie hair going on for the past few months. So... I've been thinking about cutting it, but haven't had the heart to cut off all his curly locks. Well tonight we decided to just go ahead and do it. Here are the before, during and after pics of that... quite traumatic for me, 2 years worth of hair, a bit sad. But I think it looks good.

2009 Summertime Fun

So this year we decided to get a couple different kiddie pools for the kids. We aren't planning on vacation and thought it would be fun for the kids to have things to play with at home. Here are some pictures of the Summer Fun!!!!!!!!

Been a While

Sorry, it's been a while since Oscar or I have posted anything. Hopefully in the next few days we will be able to upload pictures of our family. :)





Some new things:

My mom had a total knee replacement on May 6th. She was watching our kids up til then. May 22nd, Friday, ended up being my last day of work at the ole Rivendell. We have decided that now is a perfect time for me to go back to school. And it just so happened that classes start on the 26th, tomorrow. And I got into all online classes and am able to stay home with the kids. This has been my plan since before I was married; to be a stay-at-home mom. To be able to hopefully be a good example to them on a daily basis and raise them in the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. Working at the place I was and keeping the hours I was were not coherent in that plan.
So, I'll be starting online classes tomorrow through the next 10 weeks. I have applied to all the nursing schools in central AR and will hopefully hear a response before the 10 weeks is up. If not, I will transfer and take online courses through a University. As long as I'm in school and we can keep to our budget, we will be fine.

Oscar is still working the 11p-7a shift at Rivendell. He is looking for something else that will allow him to be home on weekends, especially Sunday mornings, and at night with us. I'm looking forward to that part as well.

AdaBelle is growing so tall and loves to read, watch cartoons, bake with Deedah, and play with play dough. She is a "jabberwalkie" as Grandpa calls her or a "chatty Kathy". She's very finicky when she's eating. She peels her chicken nuggets and hotdogs. She initially always wants ketchup but then doesn't eat it. She's our little "crazy girl" :) She is really fast when running and according to Sis. Palmer a speech pathologist, very intelligent.

Little O, Boy, Oscar Jr., or Ocho --take your pick-- is growing super fast and has passed AdaBelle in weight. He weighs 29 lbs and she weighs 26lbs. He has also is fast. He has little legs, but man can he make them go! He loves books and we have to read at least 2 before bed each night. I like it though, a little quiet, mommy/son time.

Anyway, like I said, hopefully I'll get some pictures posted before long.

A--Attached or single: Attached just over 5 years now.
B--Best Friend: Jereamy
C--Cake or Pie: Pie--- Pumpkin Pie
D--Day of choice: Saturday
E--Essential Item: Money
F--Favorite Color: Pink
G--Greatest Accomplishments: working at the same place for 7 years, I guess.
H--Hometown: Glen Rose, AR
I--Indulgences: Online shopping
J--January or July: July
K--Kids: AdaBelle Jean -almost 3 years, Oscar Viii-16 months year
L--Life is complicated without: family
M--Marriage Date: January 30, 2004 (superbowl weekend baby!)
N--Number of Siblings: 2- brothers
O--Oranges or Apples: Oranges
Q--Quotes:
R--Reasons to Smile: My family
S--Singer/Songwriter: Daughtry and Leona Lewis
T--Tag 5 Friends: I don't have 5 friends who havent done this.
U--Unknown Fact About Me: I'm afraid of being alone
V--Very Favorite Stores: Target
W--Worst Habit: crying
X--X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasounds
Y--Your Favorite Food: pretty much anything Oscar makes.
Z--Zodiac: Pices

Random Pictures

Kid collage Spring 2008

Both AdaBelle and Oscar like to eat bread or other crumbly things on the furniture. It seems this is their most favorite pass-time. (Its really annoying when they've been eating in our bed!)

Both of our kids are dare-devils and one of their most favorite things to do is have Pap swing them on his arm. He'll swing them back and forth, back and forth, and then up over his head. It's really fun to hear them squeal with excitement and have them wave at us from atop his arm.

This is AdaBelle's hair. It's actually more curly now then in this picture last month. She hates to have her hair washed or combed out. It's an ongoing battle. :) Suggestions about how to comb through the rats while keeping the soft curls are welcomed.

Blake and AdaBelle in TX during Thanksgiving.

The Boy.

True Description of Zodiac Signs

So my friend, Rebecca, just sent me this email with all the true descriptons of the zodiac signs. I usually don't read or even care about these things, but because it's Friday, and I'm bored, I thought I'd read it. When I did, I found it to be surprisingly accurate. There are some things in here that I wished weren't true, but what are ya gonna do right when the universe is the guide.


PISCES (The Partner for Life)
Caring and kind. Smart. Center of attention. High appeal. Has the last word. Good to find, hard to keep. Takes everything personal. Fun to be around. Extremely weird but In a good way. Good Sense of Humor!!! Thoughtful. Always gets what he or she wants. Always has the last word. Loves to argue. Loves to joke. Very popular. Silly, fun and sweet.

January

I am the chorister in primary. I printed off all these little picture frames from http://www.sugardoodle.net/ and want to put our kids' family pictures in them for this year's theme: My Eternal Family.

Well January went by fast, but not uneventful. Little O was sick pretty much the whole month with a double ear infection and a cold. Off and on all month.

AdaBelle is growing so fast and is getting more and more sassy everyday. She's our "Little Sassy Pants". She's potty trained except for at night and she's has been asking us for months "I wanna have a party. Can we have a party?" We had started asking her at the end of January what she wanted to do for her birthday so now she's all geared up for it. It's not til March, but since she's 2, she doesn't really get the concept of time.

Oscar is still working nights at Rivendell. the 11-7 shift is kind of hard on the family, but it's kind of good because he works Tues thru Sat so he's home Monday and Tuesday days to watch the kids. Therefore we only have to have a babysitter for 3 of the 5 days.

I am still at Rivendell as well. working Mon-Fri 0800-1630. It's a crazy place, but what do you excepect working at a psychiatric hospital, right? :)

that's about all for January. I'll hopefully get better at this posting stuff. **Actually it should be Oscar doing it since he's the one that started it, but since we don't have internet at home, yet, I guess I'll be updating it.**

*´¨) ¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨) * Dollie * (¸.·´ (¸.·´

Apple, NineWest & CO., and Weldon's

Santa brought Oscar an

Apple iPod this year. I didn't exactly get a picture of him with the iPod, but this is of him opening it.

Oscar bought me a really really nice NineWest & CO. purse that I absolutely love!

Mom and Dad DeVaux gave us a lots of lbs of meat! (that is the best present EVER!)

Our Little Christmas A.M.

We got to sleep in this Christmas morning. However, when I did wake up to start breakfast we were met with a non-working refridgerator. Apparently, after a few minutes of trying to figure out what was wrong, a mouse had chewed through the copper cable on the plug. Crazy huh, so Oscar had to go to JJ's Truck Stop to find some electrical tape on CHRISTMAS!! He came home and after about an hour he fixed it and it started working again. (MY HERO!) :)

The kids then got up and we had breakfast that consisted of biscuits and hot chocolate. I was supposed to make chocolate gravy, bacon, biscuits and eggs, but since the fridge had been down, we decided not to.

We then passed out, one at a time, the kids presents. And like all little kids, The Boy liked the paper and the packing bubbles more than the gifts. I know what to get him next year!

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Our kids are really too young to enjoy Santa and his legend, but we put out cookies and milk for him anyway. We also left oats out on the lawn for his reindeer. (I didn't take a pictue of that, it was dark)

AdaBelle setting out the cookies and milk for Santa. She was so tired. We had Christmas Eve with my family a little earlier. It was a long day.

This is the playroom at my mom's house on christmas eve. AdaBelle loves playing with Lidia.

This is Audrey and The Boy. They loved hanging out all night.

The Boy got this vaccuum from Didi and Pap. He LOVES it. They got it because he is always using the real one. He's our little "Maid Man"

*´¨) ¸.·´¸.

·*´¨) ¸

.·*¨) * Dollie*

(¸.·´ (¸.·´

Rivendell Christmas

Both Oscar and I work at Rivendell so here are some pictures of the Christmas party I helped decorate for. I did all the centerpieces and the the Rivendell kids did the wall art. I think it turned out very well and since Rivendell doesn't give bonuses, it was a pretty nice party.


These 2 below are the finished mountain scene over the colored walls that the kids did.

























These are the centerpieces I made with a very low budget. I wasn't 100% happy with them, but what are ya gonna do?

Big Girl

AdaBelle has finally peepeed in the potty. We decided to potty train her a few months ago, but she apparently wasn't ready. Last month she decided she was a big girl and wanted to pee pee in the potty like Mommy. So she did and was almost completely trained to do the #1 and #2 when we took our mini vacation to Dallas and Austin for Thanksgiving. While there she got sick and had lots of accidents so we put her in pull ups. When we got back, well needless to say it's taken this long to get back on track. She took a picture of her first "real pee pee" as she refers to it and wanted to share it with ya'll.

Season's Greetings!

H O L I D A Y M A G I C

*Some of our gifts*

*our blurry tree topper*

We put our tree up the other day and decorated it for FHE.

FINALLY my pictures are coming through; here's a picture of our kids in front of the tree. :)

Thanksgiving in Dallas

We took a mini vacation for Thanksgiving this year. We decided to go to Texas. We left on Tuesday night at 6:00 and got to Marji and Jim's at 10:30. The next morning we packed up and took a quick trip to Austin to see Grandma B and Grand Dad. It was a good visit but the travel was atrocious! It took us 6 hours to get to Austin where it would normally only take 3. AdaBelle got sick on the way there and threw up all over her carseat. When we got to Austin we put her in the bath and she was very lathargic the rest of the night. I think Grandma B enjoyed the visit though. Unlce Tommy came by to see us as well and he's such a funny guy!!!! The trip back was uneventful but we didn't make it back to Marji and Jim's until 11:30 that night. Needless to say it was a loooooong trip.

We celebrated T-Giving day in Dallas at the Anderson's. We had: Marji, Jim, Thomas, Matthew, & Kaylee; Marcie, Jeff, Landon, & Blake Kump; Kay & Oscar DeVaux Vi; and AdaBelle, Oscar viii, Oscar vii, & Me.

It was fun. We had nutmeg potatoes, smoked turkey, ham, rolls, strawberry jello, stuffing, greenbean casserole, and lots of desserts. The kids ate outside and had fun screaming and running around in Marji and Jim's backyard. They had so much fun with eachother.

Black Friday was uneventful as well. Marji and I had thought about going to the mall near their house that opened at midnight but decided against it. We watched The Hulk and stayed up late. I spent most of Black Friday morning online looking for good deals and found quite a few. We left the Anderson's around 10:30 a.m. and traveled all the way to Texarkana where we stopped to shop at Ross' for clothes for the kids. *they grow really fast. both hit a growth spurt at the same time* We found some really good deals and made it back out to the car to hear the Razorbacks beat LSU!
We had to stop at Wal-Mart in Malvern on the way home and then we got home and bathed the kids and stayed up til Oscar had to go to work at 10:00 that night. All in all it was fun but I'm still recovering from sleep deprivation. AdaBelle apparently gets car sick and is still trying to get back on her schedule from the weeks' events.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the trip a success and for all the love and support ya'll give us!

~Dollie

November Summary

In November we celebrated my youngest brother's 18th birthday. We got him a Sonic and McDonald's giftcard along with some DVDs he wanted. We ate out at Colton's in town and AdaBelle had a blast stomping on all the peanut shells on the floor! She's such a cutie!

AdaBelle has found a new love for doing crafts. She loves to paint and draw and color. She also loves stickers and foam. She's gotten pretty good at pasting and arranging her stickers.

Little O has figured out how to climb and can now get in and out of the bathtub at will. It takes him a little while, but if he wants out, he can do it.

*i guess i'll have to use a different computer to upload my photos, none of them have been able to upload.*

~The DeVaux Clan

One Year Older and Wiser Too

Little O is now 1! Oh, how the time goes by. It feels like just yesterday I was put on bedrest and was unbelievably bored for the next 5 months. How difficult that was... and then again, compaired to having the little one here... Lets just say: Fun days at the DeVaux house.

I cannot believe it's been a full year! It seems like it took little Oscar Arthur Pascal DeVaux viii a wintery molasses to get here and now it's been a year. How he's grown and developed in that year though. He is running around, chasing AdaBelle and hollering. He squeals like a girl and tackles like a linebacker. :)
We had a really fun time. I had 6 paper boxes I brought home from work and all the kids made their own "car" out of them. We had paint and stickers and buttons and lots of fun.

*the invitations I sent out are in ppt format so I'm unable to post pics right now. I'll work on that and see if I can upload them later*

Reflections

I have been reflecting lately on the more simpler times in my life. Marriage and family seem to complicate things. I wouldn't change it for the world, but things that used to be easy, like grocery shopping and going to the library and going to sleep, have become more difficult.

I often think about high school days when YM/YW on wednesday nights were my biggest worry. (if I had only known *_*) The days, and nights, spent crying into my pillow or to my parents about how some click at church or school had been mean to me or that some boy didn't like me or I had to face yet another surgery. How often it seems we become wrapped up in our daily life and forget about the big picture. If I could go back in time, with the knowledge I have now, worrying would be the last thing I would do. School would be my main focus. Living life the the fullest and just having fun.

To all of those who have this opportunity, ENJOY it. Savor it. When you find "the one" spend time with them and not worry about marriage and family. Love eachother (without relations) and become best friends. This way when the years go by and the kids grow up and all your kindergarten friends are gone, you'll still have your friendship to nurture your love.

Not that this blog is my "woe's me" sound board, It just feels better to get it out of my heart and into space.

****Feel free to comment .... .... or not****

Until Next Time,
Peace in your mind, Love in your heart, and Laughter in your eyes

Sibling-full weekend & week TO BE!

Oscar is sooooo excited! Jenn and Trish and their kids are coming to town for the weekend and staying for like 10 days! He's super thrilled to be able to spend time with his sisters!
AdaBelle wakes up every morning and says "I want to see Twish and Gab and David and Mayee and Penny." It's really cute. She's ready to see all of her cousins. Yesterday she got mad because we told her she couldn't go to Thomas' house, he was moving and we'd have to wait and hang out with him a little later in the year. "I'm gonna wun to Thomas'. and I'm takin the boy with me!" She's such a little sassy pants! :)
Dont think I'm not excited to see the girls' too! It's just Oscar is feeling a bit homesick with 4 of his 5 siblings in different places. He's ready for us all to be back together!

I guess he thinks one day we'll all live in one big mansion in the country with a bunch of dogs and tons of kids and ice cream and a little brook beside the rolling, lush, green yard with a stand of oak trees in the distance and a tire swing... oh, the dreams we have!