Hello Spring!!

If there are one thing my kids love, it's their bikes. They have been riding and riding and riding!!
I love seeing the kids riding their bikes. This year I have given them more freedom, and they are loving it! I now let them ride up and down the alley and they can also ride around the neighbors house.

Don't ask me why my wonderful son insists on taking crazy pictures!! It is so hard to just get 1 good picture of him!!

With the warmer weather, we have been spending more time outside. I love to just sit outside in the sunshine and listen and watch the kids!
Dada is such a girly girl! I pulled our nail polish basket out and we sat on the porch and did our nails.

While we did that, the boys played catch. It is so good to hear them laughing and playing.

Proverbs 17:22a ~ A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

Our TV board

For a while now, I have noticed that my kids are watching WAY to much TV. I know that it is partly b/c it has been winter, but partly b/c they LOVE to watch TV. But in my eyes, it was just getting out of hand.

I have also noticed the whining. Oh the whining!! Dada is especially bad at this. But Brother can whine with the best of them. The morning and right after school was the worst time for the whining.

So we decided to do something about it. We made a TV board. They each have a side of the board, and they have to earn TV time. We have a list telling us what type of things earn TV time. When they earn the time, they get to put up a pin so they know how much time they have.

We started this on Monday. So far, I think that it is working out really well. We have had 3 almost whine free days!! All I have to do is just THREATEN to take away a pin, and they pipe right up. I never would have imagined that could happen.

I think the main thing about this is that we have something that we can do. It is simple and easy enough that we can do it anywhere we are at.

Today, it's not as nice outside, so they are wandering around the house wondering what they can do. Brother especially doesn't want to waste his time.

A NeW BiKe

At the end of last year, I accidentally ran over Dada's bike. It was her fault b/c she left it behind a car, and it was my fault, b/c I wasn't careful. I had almost ran it over about 2 days before I actually did it, so I should have been a little more cautious to check and see if there were bikes behind me. But needless to say, I didn't check and I ran it over. We didn't replace the bike, and have regretted not doing it many times. Dada LoVeS riding bikes. It's 1 of the forms of exercise that she loves, and doesn't even realize that she is exercising. So we really felt bad for her not having a bike. She tried riding her old little bike, but she was just to big for it. She really needed a bigger one. We debated getting her one for Christmas, but thought against it, b/c she wouldn't be able to ride it. Part b/c it was winter, and part b/c of her broken pelvis.

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Well last weekend, we were at Wal-Mart while the kids were with Grandma and Grandpa. Hunny went to the toy aisle and he decided that we really did need to get her a bike. We were both excited to pick her up and show her her bike. We had the bike set up in her room so she would walk in and see it sitting there

She was so happy to get outside and ride her bike!
She rode and rode that bike, for most of the night. And the best thing about it was, when she got done riding, SHE put the bike in the garage!!

A SpeCiaL day

Guess what my boys are doing on this beautiful day?!?!

Hunny pulled out his bb gun that he had growing up and is outside giving lessons to his son.







I am glad that the windows are open, b/c I get to listen to their conversation! It is so sweet!
They are shooting at old pop cans on the neighbors old bbq. They even made pyramids out of the cans to see how many they can shoot off the bench.
You should hear Brother laughing. He is so happy right now.

I love how Hunny takes time with his kids. He makes time to make each one of them feel special.

I encourage you to do something SpeCial with your children today!

Things I LoVe

When I was a child, my mom used to make fruit dip. She usually only made it on holidays, or special occasions. But I always loved it when she made it. Now that I am grown, I make it all the time.

The teachers celebrated my birthday a couple months ago, and instead of bringing me a cake or cupcakes, they brought me fresh fruit and fruit dip!! They know me so well! It was a perfect snack for my birthday.






It is so simple to make!

FruIt DiP
1 box cream cheese
1 jar marshmallow fluff

Mix together.

Told you it was simple!! If you wanted to change the color, you could use strawberry cream cheese.

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Today is my late Grandma's birthday. It was been probably 6 years since she died. But she was gone to me long since then. She had Alzheimer's, and she moved to California to live with my aunt about 14 years ago. I never saw her after she moved. I loved her very much. She was always nice to me. This was taken at my house growing up. She would come and visit us every Easter. I was probably 5 when this was taken.

A full weekend

Friday night was spent with Kevin and Heather. Heather and I are more excited to get together then the kids I think. Hunny and Kevin had us in stitches the whole night.I think that Hunny was driving Heather nuts b/c he kept "shooting" candy wrapper baskets. It was just that he kept missing. By the end of the night, there was a whole pile of candy wrappers by the garbage can!! :)













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This picture was taken 4 years ago. It is amazing to see how much they have grown and changed!!
Saturday was a busy day. We had a bday party for my friend Sherrie's little boy. My kids were so excited about going. They love going to their house.

I love getting together with Sherrie's family also. Sherrie's parents were in town for the party, so for once we had to actually "behave" :)
Well.......okay, we tried to behave. :)


Nikki had to leave to go to play practice, so Dada was a little bored after she left.It is so hard to believe that Nikki is old enough to be going to play practice!! When I saw her on Sat, I was amazed at how grown up Nikki looks. Dada certainly looks up to Nikki!!
I hope Ty had a great 8Th birthday!!









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Saturday night we spent bowling with our sunday school class. We were excited to be out with just adults. Hunny and I were even more excited b/c Hunny's parents took the kids for the night. I tell you, it is so nice to have parents that are willing to take them whenever. Our kids love going over to Grandma and Grandpa's. They know that there will be a trip to Wal-Mart to get something special!
Our group had a blast that night. My sides hurt the next day from laughing so hard.
I'm not quite sure what Kevin was doing, or how he ended up beating everyone with a 164, or something like that.
Thankfully, we even remained friends after Hunny hit Heather in the head.
It was good to see Ben and Julie. They will be getting married this summer. I think they are a little bit excited about it!!
It was nice that some of the college kids were able to make it down for the evening. These kids have been such a joy to our church.
Another group of bowlers. Pray for Melissa. She is in the hospital as we speak in labor. I guess bowling helped things right along!!
After a serious discussion, we decided to get something to eat, (I mean what is a Baptist gathering without food right?!?!!)

Heather decided she just wanted to eat light.

A field trip with Ethan

I have counted it a JoY to be able to work in Ethan's classroom. Ethan is such a joy to be around. He is obedient, kind and sweet. Don't get me wrong, he is still a boy, he can get in trouble with the best of them. But Ethan has a big heart!

I was just so happy to be there for Ethan. We sat together on the bus, and just enjoyed each other's company.

On Friday, the k-4 class had a A-Z celebration. (They have learned all their letters now and were celebrating it) We went to a local gym were we could play on trampolines and gymnastics mats.
They had a giant foam pit, so on one side, the kids could run off this long trampoline and jump into the foam pit. On the other side, you could swing off the uneven bars and fall into the foam pit. The kids had such a blast!!

Once we got back to school, the kids were all so tired. I think everyone of them fell asleep at nap time!!