Praise the Lord for his faithfulness in my life.
Praise the Lord for a roof over our heads and food in the pantry.
Praise the Lord for a husband who works overtime to help meet our needs.
Praise the Lord for friends who stick by you for years and years..
Praise the Lord for love.
Praise the Lord for lots of children!:)
Praise The Lord for daughters who are old enough to help with dishes!:)


I just LOVe little boys, freshly bathed and jammied, being best buds...they are so precious.


Samantha, Natalie and Talia have been together since birth. they are so cute and love to play dress up, and hold the kittens (nevermind that sam is allergic, and had to take meds when we left:)


Cassie and Eli and Brant have been playing together since they were all 2...crazy. Being out numbered by boys, Cassie has to play boy games...not that she minds.:)


It's so fun that Aeva has her own friend, her own size to play with when we have playgroup.:) She and Sienna are just so cute to watch!


This little Cutie-patootie is turning 3 in 11 days (WHAT???) I took her on a fun photo shoot tonight, since the weather is absolutely PERFECT!:) She's cute. I didn't ask her to pose, she did this all on her own.:) Love it.






Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below.
Praise him above ye heavenly hosts.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Our fathers day fun included lunch at my parents, playing on the slip-n-slide my mom bought the kids and 7 brides for 7 brothers.( the dad's napped through that one) Oh, and of course, the end of the US open....of course.:) We had a great day!




Aeva was not such a fan of the slide...this was taken after Tyson pushed her down it...








The Father of my children...i love him so much.




My Dad and I on Fathers Day

My kids are LOVING summer. Swimming is what we do most everyday, even in the rain.








We went strawberry picking with a few of our favorite peeps...and it was a blast. The berries were quite small due to the late frost, but they will still make good jam.:) Bekah and Marissa, two girls from the youth group we have claimed as our own and who babysit frequently, left for OB a few days after this....we won't see them ALL summer. You better believe we are going to miss them like CRAZY.:(




And this is what all those beautiful strawberries made. Even though I accidentally put half the amount of suger in half of it, which means it didn't set up quite right..but it still tastes good. Can you guess which half?



Daddy working on the weekend = picnik in the back yard and swimming to their little hearts content.



I took the kids to Dairy Queen( thank you summer library program) and while we were there, a county near us was put on tornado warning, meaning they had spoted one.
The kids were all pretty excited(scared)and were looking out the window to see it...no matter that it was 45 miles away.. Mitchell asked me if the tornado went to sleep. Max said, " God is more powerful than the Tornado and he could stop it." Samantha said, " I don't want my friends to die!!!" Oh kids. I told Max, absolutely God is bigger than any old tornado and he could stop it if he chose. He did. The warning expired, the winds went from 80 to about 10 by the time it hit us. Ended up being only a bit of rain.....yep. MY God is THAT big.

We had our end of the year cookout with our small group this past sunday.
WE had a blast and the weather was just cool enought to WANT to sit beside the fire.
I also JUST got my new camera ( a christmas/ birthday gift) I couldn't decide which one I wanted, but this is what I finally settled on. Now to learn how to use it.
I already tried it out on our newest small group member..Cash. Isn't he darling?
I am SO excited to learn how to take really great pictures!!!!!:)
I already have 3 picture jobs this summer...maybe a business in the future??? hmmmmmm.

The boys and their favorite little girl, Allie.

I just realized we are DRIVING to california in less than 3 months.
ARE WE CRAZY?????

Actually, i am really looking forward to it, and think its going to be really fun and will build our family relationships.
I'm going to start praying NOW for extra patience.:)

Oh my Mitchell. He had a nasty run in with the pole on a friends trampoline. It was just a lump on his head, but now is a full blown black eye. battle scars.

I have started this post...4 times today.
All the things in my life. worries, concerns, annoyances.
Seem so trivial.
Several families in our church are suffering.
Cancer sucks.

I cannot even transition into the fun things I wanted to share with you all.
My kids first experiance with " The never ending story" &
and my moms yummy cinnamon popcorn.

What I can share is this, My family, my church family, is being what the REAL church body should be, and its incredible.
It's incredible to watch as so many people show up to pray that we are able to surround the WHOLE house while holding hands.
Prayers of healing all rising up the the Lord at the same time..amazing.
God is good. I do not understand what he is doing, but He is good.

I don't really have any other words......

I just read a quote on someone's blog that sums up my feelings EXACTLY.
" Dear Heavenly Father, please give me the strength to cope with my blessings."

I don't know if it's something in the water, allergies, or just plain time to sit down and explain , yet again, what behavior is expected, and what will not be tolerated. I.AM.TIRED.
BUT.

I love these little people with all my heart and would not change where I am at for the world, really. Even when they get up at 630 on a Saturday morning( and every other day of the week I am DRAGGING them out of bed at 730. school bus comes at 815)
Even when they are all talking at once and my head is pounding.
Even when I have to wash another load of sheets, because someone had an accident.
Even then, I wouldn't trade it.

On a different note, I got one last photo shoot in before my great little point and shoot that I have had for 5 years, finally gave out and quit working. And I am glad I got it in, because my nephew is just the cutest little guy. enjoy the pictures.:)

">

For whatever reason, when I upload pictures, they don't show as pictures. They show as all kinds of words and symbols...can't figure out how to change that.
My day has consisted of...you guessed it. CLEANING. Only, it's my own house this time. I was folding/ putting away towels, when I found the stack of baby towels that are so thin you can almost see through them. Some are 10 years old, others are 7..

It made me think, we are really nearly out of the baby stage. We have no use for baby towels anymore. I used to feel such sadness at that thought of being out of the baby stage. I thought for sure I would ALWAYS want another baby. But, in the last year, I have increasingly become happy to be done with nursing,diapers,potty training, not sleeping at night...and all other things that come with having infants.

Now, if by some crazy miracle, i became pregnant,i wouldn't, in the slightest, be upset or angry. It would be incredible, just as all the others had been. But, it's not something I am longing for as it used to be.

So, today, I cut up all those baby towels into rags for the kitchen. It was sorta..
theraputic for me. I thought about my little baby Cassie, all snuggled in the bear towel, so clean and beautiful. I thought about my sweet Samantha, being bathed in the blue baby tub, well after she was 1, because we only had a shower..wrapping her sweet little body in the soft white towel with pink edging. I remembered bathing my sweet baby boys, so tiny and fragile. I could wrap them both up together in one little towel. And I remembered the first time I bathed Aeva when she was 9 months and nearly to big for the baby towels!:) Her chubby little rosy cheeks, she loved the bath.

So, i said goodbye to a phase of life, a awesome,hard,lovely,tiring but extremely rewarding phase...

and hello to the next. I proceeded to clean the kitchen floor with said towels....:)

My Sammie~ the ninja. And her princess friend, Olivia.

Weve had such a great time with Justin (and Tom and Steph:). He is such a cutie.
Cassie just loves him so much, as do I.:) The picture of him and Thomas just makes me laugh. That would be daddy being true to form and pestering him.
My sons...oh my sons. There is just nothing like them in the world.
This week, i was playing baseball with Mitchell and he suddenly was just staring off
into space. I said to him, " Mitch, you gotta keep your eyes on the ball!"
To which he replied, " Oh. i was just dreaming about playing REAL baseball."
And Max. That kid is just naturally funny. His new thing is when we are driving and he wants to tell me something, he shouts " Hey Mom!" and I reply, "yes"?
Then he will say, " It's me, Max." Makes me crack up every time!:) I love that kid.

Not the best pictures, but the boys started soccer a few weeks ago. Can I just say that they LOVE it. And they're good at it. I have a feeling when these 2 get to highschool, we are in trouble.They are going to be the kids who can play any sport, and play it well.:) Max makes me laugh. He goes after the ball non-stop when he plays, even stealing it from his own teammates...we had to talk about letting other people have a turn to kick it too. To which he replied, " but mom, we have to get it in the GOAL!" Mitchell, on the other hand, and true to form, thinks things out. He runs down the field, next to the one with the ball(max:) and stands in front of the goal, waiting for an opportunity to kick it in. It's called cherry-picking, i believe.:)All-in-all, they have LOVED every minute of it. They are both very much looking forward to trying out T-ball this year too....oh, what are we getting ourselves into??

Spring Break is: A time for slumber parties. A time for Friends. A time for learning chinese jumprope. A time for Roses. A time for Love.