I know...it's been a while. I haven't been a good blogger lately..SORRY! We have had a few very busy weeks with life and stuff going on every weekend.... here are the last of my photos until I get my battery pack back.( thank Rachel!:) Cassie getting some hugs from baby Justin.

My mom had her 55th birthday on the 7th. We celebrated a little late cause she was in California for 10 days...YEP..i'm very jealous!:) Here's all the little peeps snatching a bite of her "cake".

Happy Birthday mom! We gave her a no fat, 50 calorie ,devils food cake snack!:) Aren't we great children, helping her with her diet?:)

Bekah took this one while she was babysitting a few weeks ago..love it! Little miss Aeva is getting so big!

Bekah with the boys...Max, not so willingly. And yes, he is STILL wearing diapers!

I am so frustrated with him, but I learned the hard way ( with Sammie) that forcing a kid

only works against you! So...we wait. Yay! He's going to be 4 in a few months. My girls were trained by 2 and 1/2. BOYS are so different from girls..and on top of that, he is REALLY stubborn. Lord help me!:)

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!!!!!!!

We FINALLY heard from our caseworker in Oregon....
AEVA will be "ours" in the next 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!
SO excited to be done with that part! YAHOO!!!

We went to the dentist yeaterday for the 4 older kids. Samantha had been complaining about a tooth hurting and she appeared to have at least 1 cavity so we made appointments for all 4 while we were at it. Tyson took the morning off to help me because there is just NO WAY I could do it alone. Here are the prognosis'....
Samantha-5. 2 cavities needing filled and a possible crown.

Cassandra-8. 4 cavities needing filled and pretty bad case of plaque on her gums. (no more brushing alone for her!!:)

Mitchell-3. 3 cavities, all too small to do anything to. Orders: brush well and he should be fine until they fall out.

Maxwell-3. NO cavities!!:) BUT, remember when he fell and chipped his teeth on some bricks? Well, he has an absess tooth on the top right and she said it needs to come out. Pulling it this early will mean his adult teeth may be delayed a year. SO for the next 5-6 years my poor son will be missing his front tooth. GREAT. I don't want to sound vain, but I am not excited about the fact that he will probably get teased about his tooth until 1st grade when EVERYONE is losing their teeth. I am also not excited about all his pictures between his 3rd and 8th year being with a toothless smile!

:( The one positive I can think about is, this may be the ONE thing that will stop him from sucking his fingers! It wont feel the same and I am hoping that makes him stop..... My poor buddy.

"HEY MITCH?" WHAT DO YOU SAY WE BLOW THIS JOINT?"

They did REALLY good for being their first time at the dentist. The women in there couldn't get enough of them!:) " Are they twins?", " They are so cute!" , "They talk so well for their age"....ect...!:)

After the dentist we headed over to a friends house to play. All the girls were playing dress-up and were so cute I had to snap a picture!:) Tyson had to work late since he went with me to the dentist so I was on my own for the rest of the day. Between dinner, worship team practice, church, and tagging all my stuff for http://www.kidsmarketinc.com/ I didnt get to bed until 1am.

I am BEAT!

We were actually able to go outside yesterday!!!!!!! THANK YOU GOD!:) This is the spot where our pool goes, but it makes for a good sandbox in the early spring.
THe little neighbor boy came over to join in the fun.

Samantha and her mad digging skills!

Mitchell enjoyed the surf board swing.

Love that smile....i am concered for this boy though. He has thrown up for the past 3 days....This has been a re-curring thing in his life. It's like he gets the normal flu and then keeps giving it to himself over and over. No one else has it...is it even the flu? I am getting a little worried. BUT:

he is going to the chiropractor next thurday. I am really curious to see what they think..hmmmm.

Sweet boy.

SHe is to cute for her own britches!

CHEESE!

Tyson-mini-me.

awww. adorable!

these boys are so adorable at times. LOVE THEM!

Bekah came over to visit the kids yesterday. They miss her so much when she doesnt come on Mondays. Aeva has started saying her name..GEKAH!:) Adorable! We love this girl.

adorable Mitchell playing outside..it's starting to warm up..30's! HA!

IS she not the cutest little thing?

Sam and her rock collection. cutie.

I learned how to make hair bows while I was in Charlotte. So easy, and my girls loved them.

Here they are showing off their bows! Thank Rach!

*Max is absent from these pictures because he was throwing up all day yesterday. yay. After I was JUST telling Rachel how we havent been sick hardly at all this winter.BOO!

Rachel~ they are having a FREE day at our chiropractor on Kaiya's birthday..guess who's going?

MAX!!!!:) (i'm still working on Tyson.....)

I went to North Carolina to visit my friend Rachel for 4 days,(my valentines gift from Tyson..what a man!!:) We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather on the first day and go climb a mountain near by. We both had a child on our back so the added weight made for a great workout. Love this picture and this girl. She is just a sweet little thing. Rachel and Tony are doing such a great job raising her. She is polite,sweet and funny too!:) Here is a frequent conversation that happened in the car:

"Connie?"

"Yes, Kaiya?"

" I love you Connie."

" I love you too, Kaiya."

"And I like you Connie".

ADORABLE!!!

This picture is about 1/2 way up maybe. MAN, were we tired. This mountain is a 1.7 mile hike, pretty steep at times. The guys who took our picture here? 59 and hiked to the top in 43 minutes...GEEZE!

This pretty much sums up our feelings...SO TIRED!

But.....the veiw at the top??? SOOOO worth the aches and pains. It was absolutely beautiful. I would climb it again in a heart beat.

VICTORY!!! I think hiking could become addicting..the thrill of knowing..I DID IT..awesome.

It also helps that I came home 6 pounds lighter....love it! They made it very easy to eat healthy so I'm sure that is part of it, but I like to think climbing the mountain and then going to a Zumba class 2 hours later was to blame!:)

here's a picture of the mountain from the bottom. I couldnt get it very good with my camera so I took a picture of the sign so you could see exactly where we were.

The next 2 days were RAINY and when I say rainy, I mean pouring!! SO, Rachel found this coupon for 30$ off at a salon and we decided it would be a perfect rainy day treat for us. It was AWESOME! My hubby gave me a budget to use while I was there and this was worth every penny. Thank you babe! This salon was in an old remodeled victorian style home.beautiful.

We sat in these chairs that had back massagers, vibration and heat in them.....awww. It felt so good. They gave us beautiful goblets with water in them and a little box of chocolates.. I would DEFINITLY go again..Rachel, we will have to make that a tradition when I come visit you.:)

SEe all the lovely rain outside....didnt matter...i was dry,inside, and having my feet massaged. Does it get any better?

I got to go to their new church called Elevation Church. It is a church with about 5000 members. HUGE! The pastor is such a good speaker though. And the music? WOW. Loved it. I flew back home on Sunday afternoon. The time went by SO fast but it also gave me a good refreshing time and I was ready to be back with my family.

Sweet reunion. I love this man..........alot.

And my babies?? There is nothing better than to hear them say, I missed you mom and I love you mom. Nothing better. I had a great time Rachel....can't wait to do it again.

Chicago trip

So I got to go to chicago for .... THIS GIRLS 16TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Got to see a good friend from Oregon who goes to Moody..she was my first babysitting job when I was 12! I am getting old..she's in COLLEGE!:)

Had some HILARIOUS times with these girls.

Got to see all the amazing sites Chicago has in the winter...hmmm.. IT WAS FREEZING!

love these people!

Yes, I HAD to eat a piece of pizza at Giradono's. It was SOOOO good.( i did get up the next morning and run on the treadmill at the hotel!:)

Bye,bye Chicago! Until next time......

Craft time

The kids have been asking to do crafts alot lately so I decided to do one. Before I could get all the stuff around, Max was out! Poor guy missed out!(I made him one so he can play when he wakes up.:)

Sammie working hard on her rainbow kitty.

The finished product. Mitch is a rainbow fish, and Sammie is a rainbow cat.

Of course The cat HAD to chase the fish....its just the way it is.:)

~~~LOVE~~~

This was a little conversation I had with my son at the lunch table today:

Mitch: "I have a secret".

Me: "Oh"?" What's your secret"?

Mitch:(whispering quite loudly) "I LOVE YOU"!


Made my day!!!!!!:)

Col. 3:14 And over all these virtues, put on LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

EMPTY!

For the first time in my life, I am excited that my closet is.....EMPTY! I went through all my clothes(winter and summer) and had to take out at least 3/4 of the clothes,due to the fact that they are TOO BIG! :) YAHOOOOOOOOO! I love it! However, I am going to have to ask Tyson to lay aside some of our tax return $ for some clothes for summer. Again, I LOVE IT, and I am pretty sure he will(not the $ part, but my body:), but our budget? Not so much. I need to find some serious sales for summer things, which is un-heard-of this time of year. bummer. BUT, it's just one more reason why i HAVE to win this biggest loser competition....$650 will come in handy.

creativeness...

FUN TIME IDEA: Let your kids use their washable markers on the front of your fridge to make a fun decoration in your kitchen...plus, they love it. This was my creation..fun times.