Things I love....

I forced my family to take pictures today.

I think half of them threw a fit about it. ;)

It is really very nice to have my Maddie girl home.

Last night I fell asleep with happy thoughts of my little family all under one roof. :)

be still my heart......

I recently have found journals that I kept while Maddie and Nathan were little. I don't think I have ever been so glad to have something in my whole life.

It has helped me remember.....

....to see things in a different light

.....a happier light.

well, anyway....I am glad I kept them and I am glad I wrote them down.

It has also made me glad that I blog. I know I will look back years and years down the road and just.......

bE ThAnKful

For that is how I feel today.

A perfect way to spend a snow day....

Last week we were blessed with 2 snow days. How excited we were. Tuesday night the kids and I were huddled around the tv watching the news to see if our school was closed. Dada was the 1st to see it and you would have thought she won the lottery. She started jumping up and down screaming, running through the house. The she actually started crying b/c she couldn't contain herself. I laughed and laughed and laughed.


Hunny had to work on Thursday which worked out b/c I was able to babysit Joanna's kids while she worked. My mom also came over for a visit....aka cookie making time. =) Since Jessica had to work, Mom also brought Jessica's kids.




The kids enjoyed their favorite lunch of Mac N Cheese with olives on the side....yuck.....and Mom and I made a delicious salad.




My Mom made oatmeal craisin cookies. Dada preferred to just pick out the craisins since those are 1 of her favorite things.

But all the kids were begging for more.




Funny story about the picture of my Mom. I walked into the kitchen to find my Mom scrubbing her baking sheet with my potato masher. =) She had never seen the pampered chef potato masher and she thought it was a flimsy scraper. She wondered why it didn't work so well!!!!





The kids and I made sugar cookies. I LOVE SUGAR COOKIES.


LoVe.


ThEm.



Micah was Mr. Cookie Maker. I think that he enjoys baking just as much as I do.



Grandma was impressed with Dada's knowledge in the kitchen.




These 2 yahoo's could care less about baking....until the comment was made that if they didn't help they wouldn't be able to eat the cookies.




That changed their impression of baking REAL quick. :)




I will have to say that there wasn't a mess under the table until Ethan and Brother came to "help." =)




Soon it was time to ice and eat the cookies.




Thankfully little Mr slept for a little while so the older kids (and auntie) were able to enjoy baking with the older kids MUCH more.

I so enjoyed my day with my Mom. We shared recipes and just chit chatted. It was a PeRfEcT snow day.

Side note.....notice the cup and saucer on the shelf behind my Mom? That is the cup that Hunny broke. I was able to glue that handle on. =) It is now sitting in a place of honor....not to be touched. ;)

1 thing I love about Christmas break the most is the stress-free mornings. On days you have no where to go, you can take your time getting ready. Which is what we did the other morning.

Brother messed with his ipod, while holding Harry. :)



Dada and I did our hair and makeup. Daddy and I had gotten Dada a giant makeup kit for Christmas and we put it to good use.

I got some new hot rollers and we did our hair in the process.



It was a fun morning spent with each other.



~~~~~Side note~~~~~

I am also happy to announce that both the hamsters cages have been successfully cleaned by the kids and DADDY!! ;)

And I can report that while Dada didn't get Princess out of her cage, Daddy did and didn't get bit in the process. There just might be hope for her yet!

This is a picture of the mirror that is in my bathroom next to our bedroom.

For some reason, this is the bathroom that everyone uses.

Can you see what is in the mirror?


This mirror NEVER stays clean. I can clean it and by the end of the day their is something on it. Waterspots, hand prints, kissy lips...you name it, it's on there.

When the kids were babies, they would sit at this mirror while I was getting ready for the day. They would talk to themselves, they would play with the door.....it would just keep them occupied.

I guess I did think that when my kids were bigger, the mirror would stay clean. This has not proved to be true.

It stays just as dirty.

And I have to say, it's not really my fault.

When I saw that hand print today, I think I kinda liked it. It meant that my kids "live" here. They can leave their prints on our lives. Think about what we would miss without those prints.

Even though I like a clean mirror, 1 day it will stay clean.

But for now, I will look at it with love, knowing that my kids were there.

An afternoon at the creek

My favorite berry is blackberries.

A couple years ago while walking along some local trails, we discovered a BUNCH of blackberry bushes.

So yesterday, Tancy and I decided that we would pack up the kids and head to the trails.






Since there weren't to many berries, we still thought it was a good time to take the kids on a hike, and let them enjoy nature.



What do boys do when they are bored with hiking? Play with horse poop of course!! At least they weren't slinging it at the girls who were busy picking flowers!!



What better thing to do when you come through a creek but to charge right through it! They were of course soooooo HOT that they just HAD to cool off in the creek.

Tancy and I both thought.....eh....why not.

I think we both later on 2nd guessed that decision. ;)

Especially Tancy who had to wade ACROSS the creek to get 1 of her daughters who REFUSED to come back after crossing it once! She couldn't see the bottom she said.



Brother was the 1st one in the creek and almost the last 1 out. I think everyone was waiting for him to make sure it was ok.

He even ventured up the creek b/c there was something sticking out of the water which the kids thought was a turtle.

It was a leaf.



The kids were fascinated by the little dam.




After some more hiking, we finally did find some more berries. I think though that we ate more then we picked.

We even found some chokeberries. Yah!! I hope you can hear the sarcasm. Maybe that will be the last time that Tancy will listen to an 11 year old. ;)



And yes, that is a corn stalk. SOME little boy decided to enter into a farmers field and help him harvest his corn. I won't mention the little boys name. We quickly put the corn harvesting to an end.

LiFe iN tHe LiQuId BaBySiTtEr

Yesterday, I was able to watch my friend Lorrie's children. Tancy had the great idea to bring them all to the pool. She's so brilliant!! So we packed up and headed to the pool!

That's alot of kids you say?? We are missing 2!!




The kids could NOT wait to jump in.

Well except one!! Can you see her??



See Brother already IN the pool.....I told you they couldn't wait to jump in. I think he went on the count of 1 not 3!!




We were at the pool ALL afternoon.



I don't think there was a single fight among the kids today.



Dada insisted we have our picture taken as well. This was our compromise....





Snack time!! What could be better then watermelon and strawberries?? Besides the leftover pizza of course!!





We played so hard that we tuckered some of the littler ones out!!

I'm just sayin.....

The kids room is pretty much done. I am still looking for some new comforters, but I will get them when I find exactly what I am looking for. :)


We found the perfect curtains. I really like them, and I think it adds so much to the room.

I really like how we rearranged it. Everything just fits and it looks super nice!

I am so glad that we took the time to do it.


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Last Saturday was another beautiful day. The kids ran outside right after breakfast and were out there most of the day.

The 1st thing they did was build a fort. They got the brilliant idea to use my garden fencing stakes for the sides and our painting plastic for the roof.
They also used rugs and cardboard for the floor.

Pretty imaginative if you ask me.


Later, they took the stakes and made a fence for the tree. Why you ask??? I have no idea, but they were having fun and working together. Which I thought was great.

You wanna know a difference between my hubby and myself??? Let me explain.

Not only were they making a fence for the tree, but they were climbing the tree. Which is fine in and of itself. I have NO problem with them climbing the tree. The problem I have is when the stakes are sticking out of the ground. I can just imagine them falling out of the tree and being skewered to death by these stakes.

Hunny on the other hand has no problem with this and tells me to relax, that they will be fine.





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The other night I had lots of bananas, so the kids wanted to help me make Banana Bread. Brother especially was excited as he doesn't usually WANT to help me.


I enjoyed my time with him.

(Please don't look at the messy counters.....I also made chicken noodle soup, and hadn't yet cleaned up. :>0 )


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Remember the lawn mower???????


Last week, Hunny called me and told me that the lawn mower just got stolen. 10:00 o'clock in the morning, it got stolen right out of the garage.

He had been working in the kids room and walked into the breezeway and heard something in the garage. He opened the door to the garage and saw a man getting into his car with our mower sticking out of the trunk.

( I hope it breaks on him.)

He shouted at him, and the guy took off down the alley.

To say that I was angry is quite the understatement.

This is the 2nd time in five months.

I think I was more angry about this then the 1st time.

This jerk knew that someone was home. He didn't care. Because seriously....what is the police going to do about it? NOTHING!!!!

He wasn't even a young guy. He should know better. He was a middle aged loser of a "man."

Hunny drove around looking for the guy, but he never saw anything.

They did absolutely nothing when the house got broken into. They just took our info and said...well, we probably won't ever find out who did this. (Which we knew.)

So Hunny didn't even call the police. ( Which I would have, but what's done is done.)

I think 1 of the things that is so upsetting is the fact that I feel sort of like a prisoner in my own home.

I have the RIGHT to have my windows open in my house and not have to worry about someone climbing in them and rifling through my house and stealing my things.

I have the RIGHT to have my garage door open and not have some idiot think they can go shopping in my garage.

This is MY RIGHT.

It is my RIGHT to have my children feel safe in their home and yard.

It is my RIGHT to feel safe in my home, and feel safe with my kids playing in the yard.

It makes me angry that these RIGHTS are being taken from me by some moronic imbecile.

Anyway.

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I think I have a new favorite Bible verse.

I John 3: 23 ~ And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us his commandment.

I overheard something a while ago, that just didn't sit well with me. It has come to my mind many times since hearing it.

I heard that the most important thing to God is that we (woman) wear skirts or a modest dress.

I was a little dumbfounded when I heard that.

I mean really????......... the most important thing to God is the clothes on my back.

Seriously.

While I believe that we ( men and women) should be modest. I don't think that the most important thing to God is the clothes on our back.

And this verse seals that for me.

He says....

1. Believe on his Son....Jesus Christ.

and

2. Love one another.

That's it.

Simple.

My job every day, every moment, is to do these 2 things.

The 1st thing I already have.

The 2nd 1 is so much harder.

So I think that instead of worrying about what other people are wearing we should be worrying about loving them. (Even moronic imbeciles who steal your mower.)

I think that we as a whole....should let God deal with the clothes on other peoples back.

God won't change their shirt until he changes their heart.

And maybe we will reach more hearts if we not worry about their shirts.

I'm just sayin.