Welcome Wyatt Don

Wyatt Don was born Tuesday the 23rd at 12:41 PM. He weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20.5" long. He is a LONG skinny baby. He came into this world just screaming. The nurses in the nursery couldn't listen to his heart because he was such a screamer. Start to finish, this was a piece of cake delivery, as I guess most scheduled c-sections are. He is doing great. His sisters and brother were so excited to meet him.

If you can't tell, the girls were pretty excited. They will be even more excited once he gets home and they can hold him all they want.

I think Ella has found her new snuggle partner. . .

Walker is ready to wrestle.

The proud papa...i think we have a pic exactly like this with Dan and each one of the kids.

Mama and Wyatt..both of us so happy to be done and have a little more breathing room.

Here is a little video to show you what a screamer we have on our hands. Thankfully, this was just indicitive of the first few hours of his life, he has been pretty peaceful ever since.

The Grand Finale.....

So, I have jokingly named this baby in my tummy, "The Grand Finale." I don't know how people have more than three kids, and I am not quite sure how I am going to do it either. My body is really not enjoying this pregnancy and it seems my sanity is slowing seeping away from me. Wyatt is going to be born next Tuesday and to be truthful, I don't know what I am more excited about, not being pregnant anymore or having Dan home for a little while. It will be nice to be a real family for a while. The best of both worlds would be for me to be feeling fabulous the entire time he is home so that we could go and and do some fun stuff, instead it will be time spent relaxing, sleeping, watching movies, and probably changing diapers, doing laundry, and did I mention napping? Oh well, I will take what I can get.



Anywho....all of you out there with 4+ children...send your advice my way. I will be needing it!

Grumpy

So, today Ella asked me why I am so grumpy...I could go on for a countless number of reasons...which I will not bore you with, but this has me really thinking...am I always grumpy. Is Ella always going to remember her mom as being grumpy? Food for thought. Hopefully once I am back to my normal hormonal self I will be back in control of the grumps, but for now I have yet to determine what it is that makes me so grumpy in the evening...which is basically the ONLY time Ella sees me during the day.

Any suggestions for overcoming the evening blues? Homework, after school activities, Dinner, Baths, Bedtime...how do I make them less of a chore especially while doing them as a single parent most nights?

Snow Days

So, as we drove out of my mom's driveway after our Christmas visit, i wondered to myself if maybe I should have packed up the kids's snow clothes and brought them home. Nah, how snowy can Arkansas really get...well boy was I wrong. Since Jan 1st we have missed 6 days of school so far...and this is just the beginning of this storm. I am running out of ideas on how to keep the kids happy and alive without the TV being the main source of entertainment.

"Go play in the snow" you say....well, noone has boots. I guess I need to do the plastic sack over the shoe thing that my parents used to do to us....hey, not a bad idea. At least we have hats and gloves, which is more than what we had in TX. So, if any of you have ideas other than making cookies and drinking hot cocoa, I am all ears. I am actually tempted to brave the weather and head to the golden arches tomorrow, despite all the nastiness and germs, to burn some of the energy bursting at this house. Maybe I will make them each do 30 minutes on the eliptical....another idea I am sure they would eat up.

Anywho...any suggestions, send them my way. Got a few crafts planned, but gotta fill up 14 hours....

Funny Videos

Here are some funny videos we shot at Christmas time in Eden.

Sledding off Grandpa's Barn

Kirk Wrecks..

And Robby Wrecks....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Dear Friends and Family

This past year has been one for the record books. We started off in Pflugerville, TX. After several thousand prayers and a huge drop in the price we finally sold our house in TX, thus officially closing out the TEXAS Chapter of our lives… Off to Arkansas we went to start another great and fabulous DeLong adventure. We were dangerously close to buying again, but it never really felt like it was the right decision for our family, so at the last minute we pulled the plug and decided to rent. We literally were looking on Craig’s list for a place to live 2 days before we had to drive across country to our new life in Arkansas. Nothing like adding a little sense of urgency! However it all worked out, like it always does. We’ve been in Rogers Arkansas 4 months now and we love it!!! Here’s a brief synopsis of what each of us have been up to:

Dan still spends the bulk of his time on the road. Most weeks you will find him at a Hampton Inn either in OK, AR, or LA. He has put some serious miles on his suitcase and LOVES the weekends home and the time he can spend with his kiddos. .

Angela is currently 7 months pregnant and excited to be officially done. She continues to make friends wherever she goes and she stays busy keeping the family afloat.

Tarin is 8 years old. She got baptized in October on her Grandma Welling’s birthday. She has started piano lessons and is doing GREAT. She is very disciplined with her practicing and has a great love for it. She has also started attending activity days at church and loves feeling like a big kid. We were too late getting here to get her into soccer, but she is looking forward to starting in the spring. Tarin was also elected by her classmates to serve on the student council at her school. She is a natural leader and has lots of friends.

Ella is 5 and started kindergarten this year. She is LOVING it and is doing SO well. She reads like a champ and her teacher says she is catching on quickly to each new concept. She has lots of friends at school and is enjoying it. She has a long day for a little 5 year old. They catch the bus at 7 AM and then don’t get home until 4 PM, needless to say, she comes home pooped and ready for some down time. Another big accomplishment for Ella is that she learned to ride her bike without training wheels. She just decided to do it, and she did. She is a very determined little girl. Once she sets her mind to something, it usually happens. Most afternoons you can find Ella coloring at the table, as that is her new-found love.

Walker is so big and is doing so great. We always joke that he has more friends here than any of us. He has a playgroup that he goes to a couple days a week and he LOVES it. He learned how to ride a bike this year and that is where you can find him most every afternoon. Hopefully next year we can report that he has been potty trained and has no pacifier, but as for now, he is clinging onto the last strings of his babyhood.

We hope this letter finds all well with you and your families. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,
Dan, Angela, Tarin, Ella, Walker and new Baby Boy DeLong

Catch Up

Tarin Driving the Duck Boat

Walker seemed to know exactly what to do

Beautiful lake in Branson...

Duck calls ready!

All of us at the Branson 's Landing....waiting for the watershow...that never really happened.

The girls and I killed some time with the three barrell roller....they look ADORABLE.

Swimming with the Youngs

Walker's serious pout.....oh, I am so excited for a 3 year old...

Seriously folks, if you want an experience, go sit on Santa's lap in Arkansas. Real beards, and thick accents...."Did ya'll get yourself a build a bear coupon?"

Walker didn't quite know what to think...HILLARIOUS

Ella LOVES Hillbilly Santa

So, we haven't posted in a while, thought I would get you all up to speed. For Thanksgiving we spent a few days in Branson MO. It is only 86 miles from our house, but we went the round about way through Northeast Arkansas so Dan could work a few days before we left. The drive to Jonesboro is only about 200 miles, but took us approximately 5 hours because of all the twists and turns. I do believe that noone in Arkansas believes in building a straight road. Needless to say we made a few stops just to get a breather. It was LONG and very curvy. We had fun in Jonesboro, mostly swimming at the pool and hanging out at the mall. It brought back memories of when we lived in Mansfield and I would load up the girls in the car and head out on the road with Dan. He would drop us off at the nearest mall while he worked. I have become very successful at entertaining the kiddos at malls for varying amounts of time. I love going to little obscure towns and going to their malls. That is where I always seem to find the best deals. The mall in Jonesboro even had a Target in it....who can't kill a few hours there on a regular basis? Anywho, needless to say, it was fun. On Weds we drove over to Branson and that night Dan and the girls went with the Young's to Silver Dollar City. Walker was feeling a little under the weather, and it was pretty chilly so we opted to go brave Wal-Mart and get the fixin's for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Dan and the girls had a blast. Dan said it was like no Christmas lights display he had ever seen before. It put everything else to shame. The girls loved it too. They had lots of Christmas activities and shows along with the typical rides. I think we will definately make an effort to get there next fall. We also did a Duck Boat tour in Branson. The kids thought this was a TOTAL kick. You should have seen Walker's face when the truck drove right into the water and made a HUGE splash. Walker and Tarin each got a turn to drive the duck boat. Ella opted out. It was pretty cool. We took the kids to see the new Christmas Carol movie....BIG MISTAKE. It was really scary and we spent the next few hours really upset that we had gone. I kept waiting for it to get funny....after all, isn't Jim Carey in it? Anywho, it was a little traumatizing...especially in 3-D.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Young's in our condo. She made a bunch of stuff and I did the turkey and the gravy....it ended up being FABULOUS! We each just made the stuff we cared about having for left overs, and it was awesome. The following three days were filled with leftover turkey sandwiches and pie. Does it get any better than that? It was a nice, relaxing break. We played a lot of cards, went for walks/runs, shopped a little, ate lots of leftovers, and just enjoyed having some stress-free time together. A big shout out to ma and pa Welling for hooking us up with the condo. It was awesome. It was a cute little cabin-like condo. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a loft. The only think it lacked was a pool, but thanks to the Youngs we got to get a swim in at their condo before we left. It was GREAT!

We went to the old time photo place and got some fun Christmas card pics taken. I will post some of them at a later date. Walker LOVED it. He was totally hamming it up for the photographer. She was convinced that we needed to get the kid an agent and get him into some modeling. It was hillarious. Dress him up like a cowboy and give him a toy gun, and you get a pretty great show. Totally lived up to his Walker Texas Ranger name...

The only suggestion I would make before leaving Branson, is DO NOT go have a nice breakfast buffet and then leave town. Fully tummys and very windy curvey roads DO NOT MIX. Poor Ella was sitting in the back of the car and she got sick. It wasn't pleasant for ANY of us involved. Other than a pretty messy ending, it was a GREAT week!

Happy Halloween!!!

Just thought I would post some Halloween Pics...

Starring the Fabulous DeLong Kiddos:

Tarin as the Witch

Ella as the "Pumpkin Princess" what else would she be?

And Walker as Spiderman himself, although he thinks he is superman.

Tarin's Baptism

Last weekend we had Tarin's baptism. She seemed to think that she had to wait forever because she turned 8 about 6 weeks ago. But with Grandparents flying in from all over...this weekend worked out perfectly. It was little rainy and a little chilly, but with lots of warm soup and snuggling with Grandparents we made it work. Tarin got to have her baptism all by herself, she was the only one, it was nice and small. I will admit, when we first moved here, I was a little concerned that it would just be our parents at the baptism, but we have made some pretty incredible friends already and it was nice to have them there to support Tarin on her special day. Ron and Emily drove over from Tulsa....becuase they are moving there.......so we had friends from everywhere there. It was a great day. Nana gave the talk on baptism, my dad gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and we had a couple really special video presentations and a muscial number by Ella, Lyndee Young, Kaitlyn Young, and Tarin. It was a great day. Here are some pics before...the kids were running like crazies after, so we didn't get any post-dunk pictures. Oh well....here's what we have!

Grandparent Visit

The night everyone got into town, we had some CRAZY rain. We got like 5 inches over night, so the next day we went to check out some of the waterfalls we had played in with Ron and Emily on Labor Day. They were ROARING and didn't look very appealing to play in. It was amazing to see the difference a little, or a lot of rain, can make.

Both Dan's parents and my parents came for a visit. We were SO lucky to get all four of them here for Tarin's baptism. It was a fun-filled weekend. We went to a little city called Eureka Springs about an hour away. It was a fun shop-filled town. It was know for it's healing springs and used to be where people went to drink the healing waters and get better..the store owner we spoke with said she just thinks it was because people actually came and relaxed that they got better. There was a little store where there was a trained bunny that took your money, and then gave you your pen and receipt to sign. The kids were greatly amused by it. Of course we had to buy something to see the bunny in action.

Eureka Springs is also one of two places in the world where the Passion Play is put on. I went when I was in high school, and it is a pretty amazing production. Who would think that Oberomergau Germany and Eureka Springs, AR would have something in common. In Germany they only put on the passion play once in 10 years, but in AR, they do it every summer. We got some pictures of the "Big Jesus" or as they call him here the "Christ of the Ozarks." It is a BEAUTIFUL spot with an incredible view.