thanksgiving in the homeland!

we have so much to be thankful for this year. it was easy to be happy this thanksgiving, as we shared it with our wonderful families in the great state of oklahoma!

we left wednesday for tulsa to be with my family. there are now sixteen of us with my two brothers and their families, my parents, and the three of us. we had a great time watching all the nieces and nephews adore link. he had so much fun cooing and smiling at all of them. what a fun group of cousins he has that will be surrounding him his whole life with so much love. we also got to see some of our dearest family friends, the taylors, and meet their newest addition, austin. austin was born just ten days before link. his dad, wes, and i have been friends since we were born. our moms gave baby showers for each of us and the families have been very close ever since. it was special to have us all together, too!

we left on friday afternoon after the visit with the taylors and headed to oklahoma city to meet up with jay's family at meme's house. we had a wonderful time celebrating our future nephew or niece with the pritchard family and judd and jacque! so exciting. meme's house is always full of so much love and GREAT food...always a wonderful place to be, always so at home at meme's.

saturday morning we got up and headed to norman for link's first OU game. i don't think it was a coincidence that OU dominated and completely shut out their in-state rivals, OSU, on his first trip to owen field. yes, OU beat okie state 27-0! it was awesome. link was such a trooper and we had a great time showing him around norman. such fun!!!!

we have so much to be thankful for in 2009 - two wonderful years of marriage, our sweet baby boy, our sweet pups (still celebrating the life of our sweet norman), our families, our health, and most of all, our Savior. thank you, God for your many blessings. we look forward to a joyous holiday season (even spent the day putting up the tree and decking the halls!)!!

austin and link, chillin.

sweet addison, austin's big sis, telling the boys what's up!

link, screaming along with the fans...OOOOOOO U!

the pritchard family at owen field - go sooners!

pritchard boys and meme

papa, carter, and link - bonding

caroline, mckenzie, link, and me taking a nap in tulsa

weekend update

this weekend was nice. we got a lot of good exercise, got to go see "the blind side" (EXCELLENT!), spent some time with good friends going out to eat and even a b-day party!

college football is not as fun this year as it normally is - i assume it's just the sooners stinking it up, but maybe it's just not as good overall? i dunno. anyway, link and i decided that the game was so awful on saturday, we would just take a nap in our sooner gear. ha! all i know is that if jay and i were going to choose a year to take off from going to most of the games, this year would be the best. yuck!

below is little man all decked out and in the bob stroller, heading out for a run and to brunch at cafe brazil. he is such a trooper, loves being out and about, just like his parents. he is two months old now, i seriously can't believe it. we are starting to get into some routines and he is eating and sleeping like a champ (he no longer has to eat at night, just occasionally wakes up, but isn't hungry. he definitely gets 5-7 hour stretches each night). at his two month checkup last week, we found out he has grown more in length than anything, he is already 24 inches long and just over 11 pounds. so far, he is tall and thin. maybe he is burning calories by osmosis when he goes jogging with me. :)

we are looking forward to a fun week spent with lots of family and friends...i will recap post-thanksgiving holiday with pics. i hope you all have a fantastic turkey day. we have so much to be thankful for!!!!!!!

coping

we skipped town and headed down to austin for a few days the morning after our sweet normie passed. just jay, link, mckenzie and me. my parents had rushed over that morning and took us to breakfast, all the while begging us to leave town, as they thought it would help us to get out of our house for a bit. as usual, mom and dad were correct, getting out of town and out of our home, where norman was SUCH a big presence, was probably best. we are doing better, taking it one day at a time. jay put it best, that norman will always be a romantic figure in our memory. i cannot think of a better example of the phrase "only the good die young." norman was pure good, pure fun, and as loyal and loving as they come.

to follow up on what actually happened, norman had acute lymphoblastic lukemia. this is most common in children and younger dogs - double dose of sad. in dogs, the average lifespan after symptoms start is two weeks. it not really treatable. this is one of those awful things you read about and think will never happen to someone you love...but it did.

we are trying to move on to a point where we celebrate norman and his impact on our lives and the lives of so many. you wouldn't believe me if i told you how many wonderful friends have reached out, with emails, texts, fb messages, phone calls...thank you all. without your kind words and prayers, i don't know that i could have made it through! norman touched a lot of people's lives and was just one of those extra-special dogs. i'm quite sure he is in heaven right now stirring up a game of fetch with all the other pups and swimming to his heart's content. my how that boy loved to swim!

in the hopes of ending this post on a lighter note, a couple of pics of our little linkster during his first trip to austin (sorry, iphone pics, i forgot my camera). we got to see some of our greatest friends - met mollie and her girls for tacos and jill, GP and their boys for hamburgers the next day. we got to stay a night downtown and then went out to barton creek for the rest of the trip. link did GREAT and took his first road trip in stride, slept the whole way (even during the stop for lunch at george's in waco! where we got his "give me a big O hug" t-shirt - hahaha). he is such a great baby. he even made his first trip to church this sunday when we got back in town - he loved it and was wide eyed the whole service. precious. he kept raising his arms during the music - he already loves him some Jesus! :)

friday he will be two months old. wow!

at barton creek

RIP, Norman

I woke up a few minutes ago to check on Link, not realizing he was actually still asleep and that I was really getting up to check on Norman. He had stopped eating recently and we were amidst day-long trips to the vet for tests to try and figure out what was wrong. Each day he seemed to get progressively worse. They had ruled it cancer and we were waiting for results on what type (either lymphoma or lukemia) to start chemotherapy and try to get our boy back to health. Obviously this was a rapid form of whatever it was (which I am sure we will find out tomorrow), because I found him laying in our closet (which he never does) and his breathing was heavily labored. I went in to get Jay and we both got back and started to pet him. He died moments later.

Please pray for Jay and me. This is like losing a family member for us - it was so fast, just this weekend he was still wagging his tail and able to go on walks, even chewed up the neighbor kid's football in our yard. :)

Norman was only three years old. He would have been four in April...and he lived more life in his three years than most dogs could possibly live in a lifetime.

Sweet, sweet, blessed Norman, you will be missed. We will see you in heaven, and I will bring plenty of tennis balls. Love you, buddy, rest in peace.

link found his pitching arm today...or nolan's to munch on, either way, haha. so excited to have our son (and the two of us) meet such a legend and great man this morning. i'm hoping nolan passed on some tips for link's future career as a pitcher, just like he was in his career (and his mom's, back in the day!).

and props to nolan for a great season leading the team - go rangers!!!!!

link is 6.5 weeks old and having a blast!!!!!!

some pics...

this one is extra funny. i can't decide if he thinks he is flashing a gang sign, one of the beastie boys, or the godfather. what do you think?????????? hilarious!!!

new chair from hunny and papa to match mom and dad's :)

snuggle time with norman on the couch

awwwww

hanging out watching football