Another celebration

Now that you're done singing "Happy Birthday" to Joel, go ahead and sing "Happy Anniversary" to our friends Kenny and DeAnna. Today is their 10th anniversary. We've known them for about 10 years now. They had just gotten married a few months after us. Check out her blog and get singing: www.bellandmilly.blogspot.com
Happy Anniversary, guys! We love you :o)

Somebody just had a birthday

Ok, first of all, those are not my chubby hands covered in chocolate handing Joel a birthday present. My chubby hands covered in chocolate were occupied taking that picture. Yesterday, was Joel's 32nd birthday. Now, if you would all join me in singing "Happy Birthday" to my honey. Stand where you are and join in, come now, stand up, let's go...don't be shy. Doesn't matter where you are, home or work, school, library....just stand where you are and sing.
DO IT!!


"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Joooooooooo-el. Happy Birthday tooooooooo-hoo-hooooooooo yoooooooooooooou."

Who is that masked man?

A couple weeks ago, we went to Six Flags. Obviously, the boys were in all their glory meeting the super heros. So, we're standing in line waiting to meet Batman when I noticed dork man in the red. I did not see any children in that room begging their parents to have their pictures taken with him. As a matter of fact, they weren't even looking in that guy's direction. So I had compassion for the poor guy, and brought my boys over to meet him. I walked over there and said with great excitement to the boys, "LOOK GUYS!!!! It's.....um....ahhhhhh, um, Mr. Lightning-bolt Man!!!!!" Well, that super hero looked at me like I had just called him Wonder Woman and said, "UT! It's FLASH!" Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Flash! But I don't recall you cruising around in the Batmobile nor do I remember you saving Lois Lane from any burning buildings!

Oh and one more thought! does the guy in green have his mask on upside down? I think someone was a little pressed for time and forgot to look in the mirror before he hopped into his little green number!

Here comes the bride

Emma's favorite past time is playing in the dress up box. It's not unusual for Snow White to join us at the dinner table. The other day, I called her into my bedroom. I took my wedding dress out of the closet and held it up and asked, "Do you want to try this on?" That little girl gasped in the entire oxygen supply for planet earth and squeeled, "YES!" She had quite the time playing in it. When I showed Joel these pictures he said, "When (and if) the real day comes for her to get married, my mind will always remember this vision in my head."

What am I?

Joel was mowing the lawn and almost mowed over this little squirrel.



It obviously had just been born because the umbilical cord was still attached.

Ugly, huh?!...No wonder the mother tossed this thing out of the nest.






Unfortunaely, Barbie was not able to nurse him back to health. He only surivived a few hours. May "Franky" rest in peace.

I wanted to get an updated picture posted and this is the most updated one I have. I took this last week. We had to run outside before the sun went down. It took about 2 minutes after this picture was taken for it to go behind the mountain. When Joel and I were dating, we used to sit on this same bench, and watch the sun go down. I don't think we ever said, "When we have five kids someday, let's take their picture on this bench." Every time I look at a group picture of the kids and see howe they've grown, I ask myself, "Where has the time gone?" It seems like the older I get, the faster time goes. Watching a beautiful sunset is usually a time of reflection. It makes sense since another day has ended. I love it when I have a few moments to sit in quietness, look over that beautiul horizon at God's creation and just think about Him. I'm reminded of God's promise of Christ's return and how quickly that day is coming. What am I doing for him today with my hours that seem to pass so quickly?

Thank you, thank you! I've figured this out. I (hopefully) have a picture up. It's an older picture but at least I have one up. Now for the story behind this picture. This was taken when we went to Maine last summer. I wanted to have a picture of all the children to hang in our living. I figured the beach was the perfect spot to get my "Kodak" moment. I dressed them and we drove to a rocky area near the ocean. It was a beautiful day! It was quite a task getting to this rocky area considering 3 out of the 5 had to be carried through it. There were lots of distractions along the way between the shells, seagulls and crabs. Finally, we found the perfect spot. We tried grouping them several different ways but found that it just worked best to squish them all up there....nothing fancy. Just as we were about to take the picture, the wind started blowing like crazy. (so much for the time spent on their hair!) I was hoping for that sweet, perfect "postcard" picture. Unfortunately all did not go as planned as Miss Annie-fannie decided at the last minute that it was time for her to eat. (again!) The sun in her eyes didn't help the already upsetting situation at hand, either. Still, it ended up being a moment that we will never forget and we now have this picture to look back on and talk about for many years to come. As busy as things are right now, I'm so thankful for the business that comes from being a mom to these 5 precious children. The Bible says, "Redeeming the time for the days are evil," and I want to invest my time in these little ones that God has entrusted to us. People invest their money with hopes of getting a large return. It's our job to invest in our children and with God's help, we will get the kind of return that will last for an eternity. Some day Joel and I will look back at this picture and wish for these days to return. And I hope I can say with assurance, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."

It's Us!

I thought I'd start a blog....well, for no other reason but just because everyone else has one. (call it peer pressure) I enjoy catching up on news and looking at pictures of my friends and family and thought to myself, "Why not start one for us." And thus my grand title, "It's us." Now, if I could just figure out how to upload pictures.