Just Swinging With My New Pink Crocs!

Wordless Wednesday For Our Boy!

Our Daddy

Your not going to believe this, but I have my husband back! Tax season is over and now he is home on Saturday's and all of our evenings! That means that I need to be preparing dinner now. I took a break since he wasn't home for dinner and I made a lot of kids food favorites.

The kids are so happy to have their daddy home and I'm so glad that I don't have to say, "Daddy is at work!" They especially love having him home on Saturday's. Though I must say that Ryan really tried hard to be home as much as possible when the tax office was open.

I'm so proud of my husband. For the last 4 weeks he has been teaching 2nd-5th graders Sunday School. He is a real natural when it comes to teaching and he does have a lot of knowledge of the Bible. If I was to teach each the lesson I would be so nervous, but he is a natural speaker and does really well and connects well with the kids.

One sad thing about the tax season being over is that I don't get to work on Wednesday and get all my life's errands done and all the planning for teaching. Though on Saturday he gave me time to plan. On a side note, I accepted the third grade position for next year at C.C. I will be teaching on Monday's and the kids will be coming with me as they will be going to their classes. I love that I can take them with me. I also just signed up the kids for preschool next year. They will be going to preschool on Tuesday, Wednesday, and on Friday from 8:00-11:00. I'm excited to see how the school year will go. On Thursday, I will be a MOPS contact mom. I'm excited for these new adventures of life. We will be busy! I will also be watching my sister's daughter two days a week.

Here are some pictures of our daddy at home! He mowed the lawn, because I asked him! What a sweet guy! The kids loved mowing with him.

He even went down the slide after I dared him that he wouldn't fit!

He did!

Trouble

Don't they both look so Innocent and cute in these two pictures? Well, when I took these pictures of them they were both in a lot of trouble!!!!!!!

Look at this sweet face! Her brother and sister would never do anything to change it! Right? You guessed wrong. SCROLL to the next picture!

I was on the phone today talking to my friend Shari and the kids were quiet, so I kept on talking. When I got off the phone this is what I found! Avi and Anderson put makeup all over Ellie's face! She must of sat there the whole time, because I didn't hear her cry. The kids also told me that they put makeup on the dog! Oh, the joys of being a mother! I was upset that they used my makeup, but I did chuckle a few times! Remember my post from the other day, about when it is quiet there is trouble?

Happy Birthday to our amazing Nana! We love you so much!

Love your sweet peas,

Avi, Anderson, and Ellie

So, today I was cleaning up after breakfast and heard the kids playing upstairs. I wondered what they were doing and if I wanted to know what they were doing? So I heard them on the stairs and then I went up to check on them and they were all three on the stairs with all their blankets reading their books together. At the moment my mind just melted and I loved seeing them all interacting with each other and getting along.

When my kids are quiet or when I hear strange noises and I'm not with them, that is a red flag for me that trouble could be happening. Yesterday, it was 52 degrees and I let the two older ones play outside as I did laundry. I heard them giggling and then I saw them with the hose. They were hosing each other down with their jackets on and all of their clothes. I thought to myself, I guess it could be worse! They were having so much fun, so it was worth doing the extra laundry.

I don't know if your mind does this, but the other day I got out of the shower and I didn't hear a sound downstairs. My mind immediately thought of the worse. They all went outside and are playing in the front yard or they got their bikes out. I was so glad to see they were all watching Dora together! Thank Goodness!

The faces of Avi and Mommy

A few posts back my husband and Avi had some funny pictures together with some silly faces. Now it was my time to take some silly pictures with Avi. As you can see she is very good a posing!

Hearing God

Today at MOPS, an author spoke about her book that focused on hearing God. After the author spoke our small group was asked, "Have you heard from God?" Now I'm not talking about an audible voice, but more as the Holy Spirit speaking to you.

I thought about it and remembered many times that God has spoken to my heart. I remember one very specific time when I was pregnant with Anderson. Chevy and I went through infertility issues and then went to In vitro. We successful got pregnant on the first try. About 3 months into my pregnancy, I was teaching a lesson to my students and I felt a gush. I looked down at my pants and they were covered in blood. I stayed calm for my class and then I ran down the hall to the bathroom. I was in tears thinking that I miscarried. I called to make an appointment for an ultrasound. One of my co-workers drove me to the doctor's office and Ryan met me there along with my mom.

When I got to the doctor's office I remember just sitting there crying and crying. That morning I had thrown up from being pregnant and I kept thinking being sick is a good sign. Here is where I heard God. I was so scared to see the ultrasound screen. I didn't want to see that there was no baby! I had prayed for a baby for 3 years! As I went to lay down I remember hearing God say to my heart, "The baby is fine and you have nothing to worry about." Wow, I was just in awe at what just happened and I had a total sense of peace come over me. I didn't even need to look at the screen to know that my baby was just fine and he was.

I always wonder, why we go through difficult times? I have now come to the conclusion that it is to grow closer to the Lord and to depend on Him. That experience showed me that God is in complete control and I am not. It also showed me that he always hears my cries. Now if I had lost Anderson I still would say that through difficulties we grow closer to God and that He is still in control. When we went through all this infertility, I finally came to the realization that life is not easy, but God is here for us.

My question to you, "Have you heard God's voice?"

Eggs, Eggs, Eggs!

You have guessed it, this post is all about eggs! First I want to tell you a funny story. The Monday before Easter my project for my class was to decorate eggs. I boiled 3 dozen eggs for the kids to decorate and then they were to take them home in a plastic bag. Well, the day after class I went to make Avielle some scrambled eggs and cracked the egg and it was hard boiled. I thought that was strange and then I realized I took the wrong egg carton to school with the unboiled eggs. I'm so embarrassed that I sent home unboiled eggs with the kids. I hope the kids and parent's didn't try to crack them!!!!!

So the kids have been going on a lot of egg hunts and have gotten a lot of candy!!! I have so much candy in my house! The first egg hunt that we went on was with my MOPS girls at my friend's Kelli's house. She had all of us over for an egg hunt and it was such a beautiful day that we played outside and the kids bounced on the bouncy. Then she made yummy snacks for us all and we made crafts and colored Easter cookies. It amazes me that she put the gathering together in one day and was so prepared!

Our Friday Easter egg hunt was supposed to be with our friends, but we were unable to go, because we had a time crunch with church that night. Domier's, our kids were so bummed that they missed out!

Our next Easter egg hunt was with our neighbors. Unfortunately the day was really rainy! Mr. Mark, as we call him, stuffed 500 eggs with candy and spread them all over the lawn. Here are all the kids in their rain outfits. It was neat that the kid's cousin Kailyn was able to come join the fun!

Our weekend was so busy so we didn't even have time to decorate our own Easter eggs. So the day after Easter the kids decorated their eggs and had a lot of fun. Though Avi ended up spilling all the yellow dye and that wasn't so fun!

Now every morning Anderson wakes up he asks me if it is Easter and if we are going on an Easter egg hunt!

Wordless Wednesday!

Easter 2010

This weekend was a busy one! We were able to spend a lot of time with family this weekend. We went to the Good Friday service with my parent's, sister, and brother-in-law at their church. Then Saturday night I had a few of my cousins over for pot roast. It was good to connect with them all and have the kids play.

Ryan and I were able to serve and teach 2nd-5th graders on Easter Sunday. Our church, The Chapel had their grand opening that day. We have been preparing for months for the day to come. Our Core group has about 150, so we didn't know the amount of people that were going to attend. It turned out that there were 700 people who attended! That is amazing! There were people in the back who didn't even have a seat to sit in!

Here are the three little monkeys all dressed up and waiting to open their baskets.


I love this picture. When Ellie was super tiny, our friend Vince took a picture of the two older ones kissing Ellie in a basket on the stairs. Now look how big they are, especially Ellie. Ellie is now the age the two older ones were when she was born.

Ellie is looking for all the eggs. After she would find one she would open it and eat the candy out of it right away. She wouldn't let go of her basket all day! She loves sugar like her mommy!

After our morning Easter, we headed to my parent's house to spend time with the extended family. In the above picture the kids are opening their presents from Grammie and Papa. Anderson was so excited to get a sword!

Here is my beautiful sister, Jamie and her husband Chris.

This is my youngest beautiful sister, Meghan and her daughter Katie. Don't they look alike?

These are my two beautiful cousins, Misty and Mary. I just love this picture of them!

Then the kids had an Easter egg hunt with the cousins. Ellie was enjoying filling up her basket even more!

Here are Kaylin and Timmy finding their eggs.

Here is Aunt Kathy and Grace seeing if they found any money in the eggs.

This year Papa hid money in the eggs. My kids each found a dollar and there were four dollars in all!

These are all the cousins, except Katie Mae. She is 8 months old and really didn't want to be in the picture. Take a look at my son in the picture and his cousin next to him Caleb. Too funny!

It was such a nice Easter day, though quite windy! Papa took the kids for a golf cart ride.

Ellie wanted to drive!

Here is our dear Macy who is wonderful with the kids and so helpful to all the mommy's!

This is my mom and my Aunt Kathy. Don't they look like sisters?

This is GG and my cousin Justin with his new daughter. My cousin and his family are moving to Texas in a few months. It will be sad that they will be so far away.

These are the two birthday boys!

Ellie really enjoys the piano and her pacifier. I really need to break her of the pacifier! I'm just not ready, because she is such a good sleeper!

Me and my girls!

Avielle and Kaylin got to spend a lot of time together. My mom had Avi and Kaylin over to have a sleep over at her house. They actually slept in the same room and they talked until 10:00 at night, but they had a lot of fun. My cousin said that they sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to each other. Lets just say the next day they both took a 4 hour nap!