"Sugar and Spice" Heading to Church

I have a couple of sick children here today. So this morning, only two little girls went to church with Joel. As they were standing by the car getting ready to go to church with Daddy, I knew I had to run for the camera and share with you what I saw.






I love this picture. They look like they were sharing a little secret together. (probably about their kooky mother who was outside in her pajamas, taking their picture.)



I love having little girls. I love watching them play. I love listening to them giggle. Right now, their lives are full of dollies, tiaras, princess dresses and tea sets. I know that my time is limited being a mom of little girls. Someday, I will find that those dollies and tea sets have been replaced with lipstick and highheels. When I have days where I feel like I just didn't get anything done in the house, my husband will ask, "Did you teach our children anything about God today? That's all I care about." Time is rushing by. Each day counts for Christ, each hour counts for Him! And when you find that you are too overwhelmed to go on, remember those little eyes watching and whisper a quiet prayer, "Lord, help me to teach these little princesses how to be Godly women."

Hearts, Flowers and Sugar-overload!

Happy Valentine's Day a day later. Actually, our Valentines "day" was more like a Valentines week! It all started when we purchased our Valentines. It was Annie's first set of cards to give away and she was simply ecstatic! (even though she has no friends)









And, apparently, Mitt Romney is getting a Valentine this year. :o)



Emma and Annie were sitting at the table just gabbing away like a couple of old ladies and addressing their Valentines. Then I turned and looked at Mikey. This is the difference between boys and girls. Quite obviously, he wasn't feeling the love.


He was working on a sword. :o)


He was a bit disappointed with his sword when he started waving it around like nutty. He looked at me with an awfully, sad look and said, "Awww man! my sword stinks!" I looked at it, and said, "No, it doesn't. It looks awesome!" He said, "Look at it, Mommy. It's all bendy. See?.............."



I had to agree. That sword certainly would not do in battle. :o)

I thought it would be fun for the kids to wake up to heart-shaped pancakes on Valentine morning. -cute at first, but after making enough to feed 5 children, I myself was no longer "feeling the love." Notice I took a picture of the cutest hearts that came from the bunch, but the heart shaped pancakes that Annie got looked more like...well....like a real human heart. :o)

In the afternoon, Trish and I decided to have a little Valentine party for the kids. It was great fun judging the "Who could make the best mailbox" contest. Of course, nobody walked away empty handed. They each received a "certificate of recognition" with a frosty coupon attached. (thanks to Aunty Tricia!) Joshy's mailbox made me laugh. Here is his:


And he received his "certificate of recognition" for "funniest and least amount of time spend." :o) Here are the rest of the entrants for the contest.

Next we have Kaitie's who won "most colorful and lovey-dovey."


Annie's - most sparkly

Emma's - most princessy

Matt - most original (and most time spent!)

Mary - fastest because her's was the only one on wheels :o)

Mikey - fiercest


I'm so sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of Allie's. She received an award for "most Springlike" because her's was covered in hearts, butterflies and flowers. It was very happy looking.



Of course, we couldn't get through Valentine's Day without decorating cookies. Annie and Emma ate more frosting than I even care to know about, but hey! Valentine's Day only comes around once a year.




At the end of the day, I was thinking about the love that I have in my heart for the husband that God has given me. Yesterday, as I was thanking the Lord for Joel, I began to think about the greatest love gift that I have ever received. -Jesus Christ. If God never sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross, I would have no chance of getting to heaven. We are all sinners. No one has ever lived a perfect life, and earned their way to heaven.
The Bible is clear in Romans 3:10 - "There is none righteous, no not one."
Romans 5:8 - "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." I love that verse! The phrase that just blows my mind is "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You will never do good enough to get to heaven, but even in your sinful state, Christ died for you. Even though you may have rejected him, and have been ignoring him, he still loves you.
Romans 10:9 - "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Pray and thank God for his gift of Jesus. By putting your faith in Jesus' death on the cross, God's word says that "you will be saved." There will be a spot reserved in Heaven, just for you.
Romans 10: 13 - "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." -Salvation is available to anyone who puts their trust in Jesus' death on the cross. The Bible says, "WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done.
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not persish, but have everlasting life." That! right there is the ultimate love gift! We are so undeserving, but because God loves us with an everlasting love, (a love that we can't even fully understand), He sent Jesus to die for our sins.
You are loved beyond belief!

The 3 Dancing Girls

"Soooooommmmmmeday, my prince will come....Soooooommmmmeday, my prince will come......"

"And he better bring chocolate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



Much of childhood was spent dancing with my sisters and making up shows. Somewhere we have a picture of all four of us girls sitting on the porch. You can see a chalkboard in the background and it reads, "The 4 Dancing Girls." (in Tricia's handwriting, I'm sure. :o) It's one of my favorite pictures. And history repeats itself here today. The girls love to get into their dresses and twirl their way in and out of rooms. The funniest thing was when Mary was trying to teach Emma and Annie how to "curtsy." Poor little Annie doesn't have a "graceful" bone in her body. She was really just trying to get it like Mary.




And bless her heart, after about 400 curtsies, she got it! -of course, it was more of a bow, than a curtsy, but hey! she got it!

Happy Birthday x 2

Most of you know that we have 5 children, but only 3 birthdays to celebrate. That's because our two daughters share May 14th as their birthdays, and our oldest and youngest share February 11th. It was weird enough the first time, but for it to happen again...well I guess that means we are just plain weird. I always say that the Lord knew what a forgetful mamma I am, and so He just made it easy for us to remember our children's birthdays. When Matt woke up this morning, Mikey got out of his bed, and ran over to him. He looked him up and down, and exclaimed, "WOE MATT! You are soooooooo tall!!!!" Mikey associates getting older with getting taller. As a matter of fact, just the other day I corrected him on his wrong thinking. I said, "Honey, just because you are getting older doesn't mean that you are always getting taller." He looked at me funny. I said, "Well take Grampy and Daddy for example. They are the same height, but who is OLDER?" He thought, and he thought, and he thought some more. Then his little light bulb went off in his head, and he blurted out, "DADDY!" (Congratulations, Dad! According to your grandson, he thinks his dad is 60 and you're 33.)


Our two little birthday children woke up, and a party immediately began with presents that Grampy and Grammy sent. You can see that Annie just woke up, but is all ready to go get dressed!






































The hardest part about Matt and Annie sharing a birthday is finding a particular theme that would work for both of them. It's easy with the girls because we can go all pink and princessy, but with a boy and a girl who is 7 years apart...that's a little more challenging. This year, we decided on something unheard of, something unthinkable, something that I don't think anyone on this planet has ever thought of when it comes to birthdays. We went with the theme of "balloons!" :o) We hung our streamers, blew up lots of balloons. And the party began!



















Glad Annie enjoyed my cake so much!


Of course it's never a party unless our cousins are here. This gang is as close as cousins can get. They just love each other!



And as quick as our day began, our day was done. It was almost like Christmas here...shopping for two, wrapping all their presents, getting the food, add in all the energy that goes into planning a party, and how quickly it's all over. How quickly our children are growing, too. I just tucked a 3 year old, and a 10 year old into bed!!! I think I agree with Mikey. He does look taller! :o) Where does the time go? Matthew is growing into a young man so quickly. Sometimes I stare at him and don't even want to blink, because I'm afraid he'll turn into a man just that quick! And my baby, well I guess I don't have a baby anymore. She is a little girl now. I have a hard time imagining her being a grown up. She's our baby! Somtimes, Joel and I have conversations and laugh at what we think each one of our children will be someday. Ultimately, all we want is to see our children grow up, and love the Lord with all their heart, and soul and mind. God has surely blessed us by entrusting these children into our care. With each birthday that comes and goes, we are reminded that time is ticking, and we are to be "redeeming the time" and "laying up treasures in heaven."


Happy Birthday, my little treasures!

Hootie

Ok, normally I don't blog so quickly after my previous post, but I was just plain old giddy about this one. As we were having lunch today, Matthew gasped and said, "AN OWL!" We all gathered around the window for another sneak peak at God's creation, and sure enough there was a white owl sitting in the snow covered pine tree. We were so excited! Matt ran for the binoculars and so begins the passing of binocs, "shushes" and whispers. I couldn't get the best shot of the owl because my camera can only zoom so far. Matt headed out with his binoculars to get a closer look. Our feathered friend was spooked and took off, leaving a large limb on the tree waving up and down. He sure was a fatty.



Here's the crazy part...that nutty bird came back about 20 minutes later! And he perched on the same branch! We were so excited, and started passing the binocs all over again! Then, I decided to get REAL fancy-shmancy with my camera. I held up the binoculars in front of the camera for a closer picture. My hands were shaking like mad and I don't think I breathed the whole time, but I got a closer picture for you.

Friends and Family, I'd like to introduce you to "Hootie."




Awwww, I think we made a friend!

Dreamy McDreamerson

Emma got a new shirt. She wanted to know what it said, so I read it to her.





"What's dreamy?" she asked. I said, "Well, it means really, really, really, REALLY, REALLY SUPER-DUPER cute!!" She sat thinking for a moment and said, "Oh." I went on, "So, when you wear this shirt you are saying that YOUR daddy is the cutest man in the whole wide world." She looked up at me wide-eyed and said, "So, what happens if Allie wears my shirt?"



I think Emma has a mouse on a wheel in that little mind of hers. She just goes on and on and on and on......and on and on! Her mind doesn't stop, and she is capable of switching from one topic to the next in a second. My dear husband tells me that she inherited that wonderful trait from me. I said, "What do you mean she inherited that...Mmmm, I smell pizza....Did you make a dentist appointment yet?....I hope it doesn't snow tonight."

Sledding and Sleeping

This past weekend, we decided to go sledding. There aren't very big hills around here but with the ice covering we have on everything, you could get up to speeds of 145 mph off of an anthill.


I love this action shot. They went zooming past me, and I almost missed them. They were having the time of their life!


Annie found that it was more fun to eat the snow, rather than sled on it. Dad, thanks to you this picture makes me dry-heave. When we were little, all of us girls were sitting outside eating snow. I can remember Dad telling us how dirty snow was. We didn't believe him. So, he set out to prove his point. He had us pack a drinking glass full of snow and bring it inside. He put it on the counter so it would melt. The next morning, we all ran in the kitchen hoping to see a sparkling, clear, Brita-filtered glass of water. Instead, we saw a mirky, dirty, cruddy glass of water sitting on the counter. Dad was standing there with an "I told you so" smirk and asked, "Who wants a drink?" Of course he sent 4 little girls in 4 different directions screaming, "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!"
-Thanks Dad! I never forgot that that grody lesson, and I sat up all night wondering what diseases my children contracted from Saturday's eat-a-thon.



Annie was the first to have her fill of all the fun, and went inside for a cup of hot chocolate. Honestly, I think she only goes outside just because of what is waiting on the table when she comes inside...Honestly, so do I.
Annie managed to get her snow clothes off and even her shirt, but that was it. We all know how exhausting it is to huff and puff and tug your boots off. With that in mind, here she is sound asleep, feet toasty warm.


It's rough eating snow!

Vote Mikey

Mikey and I were discussing what he would like to be someday. He said that he wanted to be "that guy that lives in the White House." I said, "You mean the President?" He said, "Yeah...him....that's who I want to be." I said, "Well that's a very important job." Later that evening, we were all sitting around the dinner table. I looked at Joel and said, "Guess what, Daddy! Mikey has decided what he would like to be someday." Joel's eyebrows lifted, "Really? and what's that?" Mikey took a bite of spaghetti and very confidently (with sauce in the corners of his mouth), he said, "the president." Joel said, "Great! I'll vote for ya, buddy." Matt chimed in, "Mike! you have to be like really, really, REALLY good at speech to be that guy." Mikey shot him a look and said in disgust, "I know how to speech!"