A view from the Kitchen...

I was playing around with my new(ish) camera. Here are some shots I enjoyed playing around with.

Love Letter to Jesus...

Alena will be making her First Communion this Sunday.

Thanks to awesome Aunt Mary, we have a beautiful white dress, a gorgeous white veil, a super pretty necklace and perfect little bracelet. Oh, and can't forgot, aunt Mary also got the shoes.
(We love you Aunt Mary!!!)

So, besides the cake, the clean house, some tights, and, oh yeah, food, we are just about set! I still got tomorrow, right???
(someday, someday I will live ahead of the moment...at least I hope so.)

As I was looking through Alena's Friday folder in her backpack tonight, I found this folded up piece of paper. As I was opening it, Alena said, "Oh, I wrote that on our retreat."

Her class went on a retreat this past Tuesday, in preparation for this great event that is about to happen on Sunday.

So, I started to read this paper. At the top, the title is, "My Love Letter to Jesus".

Inside a bolded heart, Alena had written this:

Dear Jesus,
I really want to love like you. I know it's hard sometimes to obey you, but I'll do it for you. you are my treasure forever Jesus. I'll love you till the end even if it's hard or I sin. I will keep you in memory. I sin sometimes but I get it fixed. Jesus I love you.
Love, Alena

Yep, I cried.
:)

Spring break is over...

And has been for a week, but I am so far behind myself....

And since NOBODY ever replys to me, wink wink, I don't even know if I am just typing to myself here or not...((MOM, do you need me to set you up so you can type to me???)) ha ha!

OK, so here are the FINAL pictures of spring break. These were from the Zoo. The crew consisted of: Me, Jeff, Bryan, Allison, Alena, Julianne, Mason, Audrey, Hollye, Brant and Dylan!!! Whew! But all the kids were awesome, and we didn't lose ANYBODY at ANYTIME! Go us!!

Ok, pics. Thanks for letting me share.

You can click on them to make them larger...

Brant and Julianne sharing a ride in the stroller...

Dylan!

Brant, Julianne and "Tinker"....(That's really not his/her name, I just made that up. LOL at myself!)

THISCLOSE to the Chimp!

Julianne!

The "Cousin Crew"...

I am showing all 3 of these pics, so you can see how this went down~

Just a pretty pic...

Hollye!

Dylan!

Brant!

King of the Hill, Mason!

Some pictures...

While I have some time, I'll post some pictures of spring break fun. These are the pictures from Monkey Joe's. The Zoo pictures are still to come...they are on my other camera.

Audrey had the time of her life! She really, really enjoyed herself.

Not the greatest pictures, but this very tall slide, was climbed and slid down no less than 500 times per child that day. Great exercise!

Allison:

Alena:


Daddy keeping an eye on the kiddos!

Juli and Mason at the bottom of the big slide. This is the only picture Mason allowed me to take of him, ha ha!

Audrey "talking" to Dad while jumping on the trampoline.

Julianne giving us a "pose".

Alena having a great time.

Allison ready to go. She was hungry and tired.

Spring break Continued...

So for a recap: Spring break went as follows...

Friday: Alena had a doctors appointment, and later that evening Uncle Bryan and Cammie got back in town with cousins Hollye and Brant. Allison and Alena stayed the night with them that night. Fun (and loud and chaotic) times, I'm sure!!!

Saturday: I drove all the way across town and picked up Allison, Alena and Hollye. Drove back to this side of town and picked up some more kids and went even further to the GYMNASTICS place for Alena's birthday party. See previous pictures of that event. It was a great time. After that, drove all kids home, made it back to the "other"side of town. Went and got Easter shoes for the kids. (Never will learn to be AHEAD of the game, will I?) Then drove all the way back home...again.

Sunday: Was Easter. I was exhausted. See pictures below.

Monday: Aunt Mary came over and watched the kiddos. She survived.

Tuesday: Grandma came over to watch the kids, and also brought Hollye and Brant with her. She survived as well. Later that night, after I got home from work, Allison, Alena, Hollye and I went to the late night movie to see The Hannah Montana Movie. It was an awesome time. Hollye stayed the night.

Wednesday: The entire gang, minus Ty and Cammie, went to the zoo. The adults, Jeff, Bryan and myself, kept doing "head counts" to make sure we still had the EIGHT kids. It was fun. Pics to follow. We all went over to Grandmas afterwards and then to the park. Unfortunately, Hollye and Brant's grandma came to town that night to bring them home. We will miss them terribly until they come back again...hopefully this summer.

Thursday: We didn't do a whole lot. Julianne had speech therapy in the morning. Then Jeff worked out in the yard, and then later went to work delivering pizzas. I really can't remember much of Thursday, lol. I do know, however, that I completely ZONED and forgot to take Julianne to her after school tutoring thingy. Oy.

Friday: Julianne had speech therapy in the morning. Then we all loaded up and went to Monkey Joe's. It's a bouncy inflatable sort of place. The kids...HAD A BLAST!!!! They ran and jumped and slid and played for two hours straight. It was great. Pics to follow. Then Jeff went to work again that night as well.

Saturday: Me and the girls woke up early to go to school to meet up with the other girl scouts for "Spring Showers". We had to put bags on a WHOLE big area of porches. Next week, they will pick them all back up, hopefully full of goodies for the needy. Jeff worked out in the yard again. Cousin Keith, from Michigan stopped by for a quick visit as he runs through town. Jeff worked again that night as well. .....gotta pay that tuition, ya know!! Go Jeff!!!

Sunday: I plan on doing laundry and cleaning house. Oh, and I should probably look through the bookbags that have been sitting by the front door for an entire week. :) I really hope nobody had a project to do over spring break....

Thank God for awesome weather, for a great family and for a wonderful Easter and spring break. God is good. Good good good.

Yay for SPRING BREAK!!!

Well, we've had a nice time on Spring Break! Jeff and I both worked Monday and Tuesday, and then we both took the rest of the week off. :) Here are some pictures of our fun times! There will be more to come, as some of the pictures are on my other camera.

Sunday was Easter...

Audrey...it was cold, but she wanted to pretend otherwise...


The goofing off girls...Alena, Hollye and Allison.

SupaStars!!!!

The Gang:

Mason, Brant, Julianne

Alena, Hollye, Allison

River and Hunter!!

Mason and Alena!

Baby Ty!

The "Poltergeist" tree...

Dadddy and Audrey!

Uncle Bryan, the Q-master General.

And a semi boring video...

And a video of Audrey entertaining Ty!

Birthday Party!

Today, a month late, we had Alena's Birthday Party!!! I owed her one, since we haven't thrown her a "Friend" party for three years. But, today we did! It was the perfect party for both of us! I didn't have to have it at my house, deal with loud screaming girls trashing the house...AND the girls had THE BEST TIME!!! It was at a local gymnastics place. The girls PLAYED and WORKED out hard! They had serious fun, and got GREAT exercise...all at the same time.

Enjoy the pics.

Happy 8th Birthday Alena!!!!

Can you See me Now?

A long tradition in our family continues.

The need for glasses.

Every single woman on my side of the family wears glasses. All of them. I needed them when I was little, and still today have terrible vision. And now, I have 3 out of 5 children in glasses. :)

Here is Alena in her new glasses. She got two pair for $69! Isn't that fantabulous? It is hard to tell in the pictures, but one pair is pink, and the other is blue. Very "fashion"!!

And here are the other girls in this house with glasses...

What I find wonderful is, that each kid has several other little kids in their classrooms wearing glasses. It is so "not wierd" to have glasses anymore. I think that is a great thing. :)

Just some pictures...

I don't have much on my mind tonight. So, I thought I'd dig into some pics I haven't shown in awhile. Enjoy...

One of my favorites....Julianne, 2 years old, got into my purse while I wasn't looking, and decided to put on her own diaper....ha ha!!

This is what it looks like when you return home after Dad stays home and "watches" the kids....and (ugh ugh ugh) feeds them noodles with red sauce....Seriously Dad!

This picture cracks me up. On a visit to Mackinaw Island, MI, we took a horse carriage tour. We got front seat, and this view just made me giggle...

One day I let Mason take my picture. He did pretty well getting me in the shot evenly.

Just Cute:

Share the Road...

Yeah right. "Share the Road". That is what the street signs say, meaning, share the road with bicycle people. Well guess what? I DON'T WANT TO SHARE THE ROAD! And, I don't think I should have to. UNLESS....UNLESS...the bicycle person can keep up with traffic.

Why should the rest of the world have to (not so patiently) wait for neoprene man to get out of their way, so they can get past them, and do the speed limit? Why should I have to share the road with somebody riding a bike for mere exercise, when there are 9000 bike trails he could use instead of my route to work!!!

"Share the Road". So, maybe next month they can put up signs that say "Get your shiny neoprene hiney off the road". Maybe.