Elmo Live

Last year Aunt Barbara bought tickets to take Sawyer to see Elmo Live in KC. He liked it so much that she decided to do it again this year. Now let me clarify, when I say she bought tickets I really mean she bought front row tickets with backstage Meet and Greet time!! He was so excited! He talked about it all the way to KC and didn't stop until we got to the auditorium.

Picture this...

We are sitting in the front row in a room full of about 30 people who have tickets to meet and greet with 2 Sesame Street characters. We don't know who they are going to be but we are told they are on there way in. Sawyer says to me, "Elmo's coming?" And I say, "I am not sure buddy, but I hope so!" He was so excited and anxious. Next thing you know in walks Elmo and Cookie Monster (Sawyer's 2 favorite characters)! Everyone in the room gasps and screams with excitement.

Now here is the part where you expect Sawyer to be full of joy and excitement to meet his 2 favorite characters, right? Well, that is not quite what happened. Sawyer immediately starts screaming in fear and buries his head into my chest. He screams "I go bye bye, I go bye bye!!" I took him into the hall and tried to calm him down with no success. He just was not going to participate in what we thought would be the coolest thing he had ever done. HUGE BUMMER. So we took a picture with them and here it is...

Not quite what we were hoping for!! A nice Sprint Center worker saw how upset he was and let us ride up the employee elevator with her. She gave him snacks and coloring pages to try to cheer him up. It was so nice! It must have worked because he was fine once we got to our seats and once the show started he got to "meet and greet" with almost every character at one point or another during the show. They each came up and shook his hand, high fived him, and even took his Ernie doll up on stage for part of the show (they gave it back). He even went out on the floor stage and danced with Honkers.

It was so fun and he LOVED every second of it (well after the first part was over). I really think he was more scared of the reaction of the people in the room than he was of the characters, but it didn't matter at that point. Overall, it ended up being a success and we are so thankful to Aunt Barbara for her generosity and love!!

Rocky Doggy Wilks

Rocky Doggy Wilks

January 1, 2003-December 30, 2010

We will all miss you!

Ooops...I think I forgot I had a blog!

I know I know, it has been forever since my last blog! Maybe my new year's resolution should have been to keep up with this thing more. Ok, here is a quick recap of what has happened since my last entry. Hmmm, let me think...

1. Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was very good to us. He brought Sawyer his Buzz Lightyear that he wanted and much much more. In fact when Sawyer went to the tree on Christmas morning the first thing he said was, "I no see Buzz." Well, he was there, wrapped and in the back of the pile. He was not as excited as I thought he would be when he finally found him, he just said, " there's Buzz." I think he realized that Santa brought some other really cool things as well and Buzz was just the icing on the cake! Surprisingly the gift that got the biggest reaction was his new guitar, which he plays nightly. Stop by for a concert sometime! :)

2. Sad Goodbye! We had to say goodbye to our "firstborn", Rocky Doggy Wilks, 2 days before his 8th birthday. He came down with herniated disc disease and despite the best efforts of us and his vet we just couldn't get him comfortable and pain free. Instead of seeing him suffer we decided to let him go. It was SO HARD. So much harder than I ever imagined. We will miss him dearly and think of him every day. His sister, Barbie, had a hard time adjusting but is now getting used to being an inside dog and getting all the attention. Needless to say, she is spoiled!

3. New Year's! We spent the New Year's holiday with Chris's family since we spent Christmas with my family. We had a blast with both sides and cherish the time we get to spend with all of them.

4. Elmo Show! Our dear sweet Aunt Barbara bought tickets to take Sawyer to see another Elmo Live show in January. Now this is a blog post all on it's own so I will continue this story later.

5. Snow, Snow, and more Snow! We have enjoyed a lot of beautiful snow this winter. In fact, I am sitting here right now looking at big fat snowflakes, the biggest I have ever seen, out my back window. It is so pretty, but so slick so we are staying put for the day. Pictures to come!

Hope your holidays were as wonderful as ours. Stay warm!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I love Christmas. No really, I LOOOOOOVVVVVEEEE Christmas! Everything about it brings happiness to my heart. What could be better than taking some time away from the hustle and bustle of life to celebrate the birth of Christ with family and friends? I love the food. I love the quality time. I love giving gifts. I love Santa. All of that is so much fun! But, the part of Christmas that brings the most joy is knowing that God gave us the most amazing gift by allowing His son to be born on this Earth in a manger, and because of that gift we get to celebrate every year and think about all the blessings that gift has brought us over the year. The Christmas story brings goosebumps every time I hear it. It is the most wonderful story ever told!

It has been so fun watching Sawyer get excited for Christmas this year. He likes to talk about baby Jesus and might understand a tad bit that He is the reason for the season, but at his age it is hard to grasp the whole story. However, there is one thing he has a full grasp on...SANTA! He definitely understands who the jolly guy is in the red suit. He also understands that the jolly guy is the one that is hopefully going to bring him the things he wrote on his wish list. What did he ask Santa for? Well, let me show you...

Yes, this is the official wish list that Sawyer gave Santa when he sat on his lap, and yes, he did tell me everything to put on the list. I must clarify though, there is only one thing on this list that he talks about DAILY, and that is Buzz Lightyear. If Santa doesn't bring that gift we might have a sad little boy on our hands. I sure do hope Santa comes through for us! :) We were so proud of Sawyer when he went to see Santa this year. There were no tears!! In fact, now that he has sat on his lap successfully, I think he would do it again and again. He hasn't stopped talking about Santa and his reindeer since that night!

We hope and pray that you and your family have been as blessed as we have been this past year! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Loving Jesus and Waiting for Santa,

The Wilks Family

Chris's "Super" Birthday

Sawyer has been excited for Chris's birthday to arrive for a long time now because he picked out his present for him over a month ago! I took him to Kohls and told him to look for something for daddy's birthday and after walking through the store for a long long time he finally said, "that one!" He was so excited when he picked out the perfect gift. I had no choice but to buy it! It was indeed a Superman Snuggie!! One morning a couple of weeks ago Chris had on his Superman pajama pants (which I assume is why Sawyer thought he would love the Snuggie) and Sawyer said to Chris, "daddy's birthday? Superman birthday?" Little did Chris know that he was telling him what his birthday present was!

Chris's birthday weekend started out on Friday when we took Sawyer to Springfield to see Despicable Me in the theater. We got home around 9:00, put Sawyer to bed, and popped in a movie for a relaxing evening. About an hour later the doorbell rang. Chris got up, looked out the window puzzled (not a lot of people ring our doorbell out in the middle of nowhere), and said, "someone is really here." He opened the door and Ryan and Angela were standing on the other side with big smiles. I think Chris was really surpised and he was so excited to spend his birthday weekend with great friends.

When Sawyer woke up Saturday morning and I told him it was daddy's birthday he immediately went to the closet and pulled out the present. We wrapped it with care and very special sesame street paper and dog stickers. He could hardly wait for daddy to get up and open his present! He was so proud as he watched him open the very special gift!

We had a great weekend with friends and family! We are so blessed!

A Wickedly Good Time

Some might be surpised to find out that I love broadway musicals and plays of any sort. You might say that my secret ambition is to star in such a production, even though I have no singing ability at all! (it is sad, but true) So knowing this you will understand why I was SO EXCITED when my mom got us tickets to go see Wicked the musical!! I mean what could be more fun, really!?!?!
If you take out the part of the trip where I got car sick and we had to eat lunch at a greasy hamburger joint with stick on air fresheners all over the walls for decoration...it was a perfect trip and so much fun! (even the hamburger joint was fun, mostly because of Kye's comments about how horrible it was! ha ha)
From the green water to the green lights on the building to my green face from the curvy ride there, everything was "Wicked"!! I LOVED IT!!!!!

Now to start planning my next dream adventure...New York City!!

It sure is fun to be a pirate!

What a great season! We are so proud! The Pirates finished the season in the second round of state playoffs with a loss to Lee's Summit. They played their hearts out but those big city teams are tough!! It was such a fun experience!