Sundae sign up and a new friend

It was time to sign up for AWANA's again and this time Bear gets to go too. He is so excited! If you are not involved in AWANA's get involved it is such a blessing for children.

Kati and 'chelle. It's so nice to have a girl to play with

The kids finally went up on stage to dance on the next to last song, well Bear danced, Kati just watched but she will get back to being comfortable again, it may just take a while.

Very exciting news, Bear has a new friend, Price. We went up to the youth room to be with Daddy and Bear got to play basketball.

Price then dumped out a trash can so Brendon could throw it on his own. I threw all my germaphob feelings out the window so Bear could have fun with his new buddy. On a side note don't the youth have a really cool looking youth room.

It's 5:54 in the morning

and he sees no need to go back to sleep. He has been up since 4:30. I guess I shouldn't complain he is just lying in there happy but I still can't go back to sleep listening to all that baby talking. Oh well at least I got caught up on blogging.

He took a bottle y'all!

but no that does not mean I'm ready to leave him yet so quit drooling :)

Tricky, Tricky Momma

.....or so I thought until the older and thus more experienced child came in and found the spinach hiding in between the turkey. They ate it in the end anyway but only because I said it was eat it or be hungry.

Such a happy little guy

love

Are you kidding me!

I saw on the news this morning that a school in Colorado is banning tag. Tag! It is a game we all played as kids and we turned out just fine. None of us are lying awake at night with memories of being chased by fellow classmates, and if you are you should seek help for underlying issues. We are going to have a nation full of pansies, no tag, everyone must get the same valentine card, no dodge ball, the list goes on of things deemed harmful to todays kids. As a child I was playing tag with my sister when she picked up a large rock and pelted me with it since she couldn't catch up to me, she gleefully yelled "you're it" and ran off. If that happened to me and I can still endorse playing tag the rest of America should relax. These kids are going to grow up not knowing how to deal with rejection or conflict of any kind. They are going to get to their real world jobs and have a heart attack when they are fired someday, oh wait I forgot, those kids will have bosses that also grew up with these ridiculous rules and there will probably be no firing aloud. Aaaaaahhhh! I am at a loss for words to express myself clearly on just how stupid I think this is, well I guess that just sums it up for me......it's just stupid, tag never scared anyone for life.

A visit from some froggy friends

We have small holes all over the backyard and we have now found out they are the homes to frogs.

Kati's Birthday Party

Kayla and Kyle headed back to Washington yesterday but we can't wait until they come home again.

My big girl

Do not adjust your screen that is an eight you see. No, time has not really gone by that fast my girl is just a nut. The day of the party it became obvious that her Barbie cake was just not going to happen so we had to make a trip to the store for more cake mix. After she picked out the flavor she wanted we headed over to the candles. I showed her the # 4 and told her she could have that one or one of the others meaning the spirals or polka-dots. Kati thought for just a moment and declared she wanted an eight. I explained that she wasn't turning eight only four but eight was what she wanted. The best lesson I ever learned in a child development class was what's your really reason for saying no to a child. Having an eight candle on her birthday cake may not be "right" but it was fun and so we did it. I will always remember that moment and it will leave a smile on my face. Happy Birthday Party pumpkin

I love my Bear

Let's see

I think somewhere in a sleepy fog this morning I heard Jeffrey say that the virus was gone, let's try it out.

Boo!

Because of the stupid virus in the computer there will probably be no blogging until Jeffrey can fix it. It will not let me upload any pictures and that is really the fun part of blogging anyway.

What's up with my boys

• Bear woke up with a dry pull-up. That makes two times now, not twice in row mind you but still two times. I think we may be on the rode to no pull-ups at all.
• Timothy was fed at 9:30 last night and didn't wake up to eat until 6:11 this morning. It's his first time to sleep through the night. Probably won't happen again but a mother of a new born can still dream right?

Over the last few years we have experienced the loss of people in our lives. Some family, some friends, one loss with pain so intense that it feels like it may never go away and you wonder how you will force yourself to get up the next morning. If we all were able to think as children maybe it would be easier.....maybe not, just that simply faith they have that the Bible speaks of. Our friends lost their mother this week, our dear sweet Mimi. No that's not her really name, I don't believe I have ever called her anything else, you see she was the grandmother to a friend of mine as a teen' and to me Mimi was the only name that truly fit her. Her son-in-law affectionately called her "the old battle axe", her daughter called her "Momma" as did some other church members. Just such a sweet woman with a raspy voice from age. Now here is the point I was trying to make: I was trying to decide how to tell the children of her passing without possibly causing worry in their lives so I told them that Mimi got to go to heaven on that day. After my announcement Bear clasped his hand together in such excitement for her and said "She gets to be with Jesus today!". If only we could think of those things instead of our own pain life would probably be easier but alas I don't believe it is possible. For now we will grieve through out our lives as more losses come, because they will, but someday we ourselves will get to rejoice in heaven were there will be no more tears which is hard to believe but the Bible says it so I must believe it.

You will be missed Mimi

"Huh" "What" "Come again"

I am just to excited for words, on Monday I am going to get my hearing checked. Everyone pray that what ever their solution is that our insurance will pay for it. You know you hearing is bad when one of your child's first words is "huh". Another way I know I have bad hearing; ya know how some elderly people cup their ear when they can't hear you, well Kati now cups her ear when she has to repeat herself to me. I guess she has seen me do it so many times that she thinks it will make her speaking loud and clear.

Reason # 457 that I hate laundry

Before I was a mother of small children I never stopped to check the laundry basket for books before dumping it in the washing machine but I guess I will need to do that now. You now know the most logical place to leave a book after reading it is not the book shelf but the dirty clothes basket next to the shelf. Okay I have to be honest here, neither one of the kids will 'fess up to it and I may actually be the guilty one. I found this book in Kati's bed while stripping the sheets (another chore I hate) so I tossed it over my shoulder probably landing it right in there. Here is were I can displace the blame, I did have Bear put up dirty clothes today and I'm sure he covered up my blunder.

I actual had to use a fish net to gather some of the debris, because I'm not busy enough already

Confessions of a busy mom of three

Can you tell I hate to do laundry

Brendon: Mommy where are we going?

Me: We're not going anywhere baby.

Brendon: Mommy why do Kati and Brendon have clothes on?


Confession: The bug guy is coming today

Just some funny things that have been said lately

• Bear, "Mommy I'm melting"
• While Jeff was in the bathroom coloring his hair Bear walks in and says "Daddy what's that smell?", Jeffrey explains and Kati replies "No, that's just me pooping".

Solitary Confinement

Phew, what a day! The kids have been fighting so much lately that I finally followed through with my threat and made them play in separate rooms for hours.
I was flipping chicken we screams erupted from the back of the house followed by foot steps pounding down the hallway. As Kati is trying to communicate to me, in a screeching voice, what just happened there are more pounding foot steps followed by Bear running into the kitchen and slapping Kati in the face. That was just one of the battles today.
After being confined Kati played away but Bear laid in the floor saying, around a mouth full of thumb I might add, "I not like this" but it sure didn't stop more fighting later.
As bad as today was it opened the door for discussion on sinning and Jesus always being able to see what we do.
I can only hope tomorrow is better but you still couldn't pay me enough to work outside the home.

Someone just couldn't make it all the way through lunch

Well Visit

.....and well he is. We went for Timothy's two month check up and he passed with flying colors. Our little guy is nearly 23 inches long putting him in the 50% and weighs 12 pounds 3 oz putting him in the 75%. The poor little guy had to get four shots and one vaccine in the mouth (that's a new one for us). Bear chose not to be in the picture, he was in the floor behind a chair throwing a fit.

My beautiful blessings from God

It is so hard to get everyone smiling and looking in the same direction at the same time.

The kids played "duck,duck, goose" after the church pot luck today

(starting with Kati and going to the right: Kati, Brendon, Caleb, Esther, and Josiah)

Thank you for starting the game Caleb, the kids had a wonderful time!

By the end they were all "it" and Esther was having a grand time just watching and clapping.

I don't know what it is about this picture but I just love it

this is how we spent a good part of our drive to celebrate Uncle Jason's birthday, oh yeah and did I mention there was lots of traffic

Yuck!

Hair cut

Kati finally agreed to let me get her hair cut but only if it was a little. I know you are probably thinking I am letting her be in charge but come on if you are a girl then you have to understand that you don't want someone else telling you how to cut your hair.

This is the first time the back of her hair has been cut

Making muffins

My favorite part of birthday preparations

We are celebrating Kati's birthday early this year so Kayla and Kyle can be here for it. So that means I can begin my favorite part of birthday preparations; the cake. Kati wants a Barbie birthday so I am attempting a Barbie cake. I can tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the cakes so it was really important to me that the dress of the cake looks smooth like a real dress so my new mission was to learn to make fondant. (On a funny side note Jeff thinks that too weird of a word so for him I have to call it "that icing stuff") If you know something about cakes you are probably thinking "why would she put fondant on a kids cake it tastes nasty?" well I found a yummy recipe using marshmallows. Today I was practicing with the cake when the kids came into the kitchen wanting to know what I was doing. Of course they then asked to taste the fondant.........and loved it! It was too cute, they would be playing in the back of the house and all of the sudden you could hear them running down the hall (I just love pier and beam homes) into the kitchen. I just love to hear Bear ask for more fondant and Kati was cute too she kept asking for "more fon-donna". I finally had to cut them off and tell them they couldn't eat anymore. Don't ya just love the hat, he almost always has one on.

Here is the practice cake.......no laughing.

My new hair......

that I am not happy with. Jeff colored my hair for me, which he has done for years but this time something weird happened; I had spots with no color. I went to Patty to fix it and she did a great job of covering all my spots but this new color just isn't for me. In a week or so I think I may try to go more brown. Who knows by then I might like it. Can you see how white it makes my already too white face look?

It is nearly impossible to get his winner smile on camera. It's just like in the womb he would quit kicking when someone tried to feel, now he stops smiling when the camera comes out.

Like Jeff's new hair color? I love it

God bless you