Shine on, Sister

The picture above was taken the day my sweet daughter was diagnosed with a raging ear infection and pneumonia.  The girl is nothing if not resilient.  We had all had plans that night, but with our new information about Aubri we had to make some changes.  The boys went on with the plans and Aubri and I stayed home.  Sakes alive was that girl bummed out.  She kept asking to do things that sick little girls can't do....jump on the trampoline, go for a bike ride, go to the park, etc.  I had to come up with something to appease her and her non-dwindling energy and spirit.  So...I dipped into our fireworks stash a bit early and we played with sparklers.  What fun we had!  You would not have ever guessed at how sick this little lady was.  She was dancing and twirling with all the joy you can fathom.  It was beautiful to watch.  Pure joy in motion.  I am blessed by this little girl and her positive attitude.  She lights up my life for sure!

monsters

It's hot here in Missouri.  Like surface of the sun hot.  Like Africa hot.  It's too hot to play outside unless you are completely submerged in water.  The energy level of my 3 kiddos added to the walls of my home equals certain insanity.  This momma had to get creative.  Actually, this momma had to get on Pinterest (what on earth did I ever do before I discovered that gem?) 

We mixed up a few batches of homemade play dough and employed our imaginations.  And as a side note...you should never buy play dough again.  The store bought stuff gets really crumbly and messy....the homemade stuff is silky smooth and rarely gets broken up and crumbly.  

Grab some play dough, straws, pipe cleaners, goggly eyes, beads, and any other little bits and create some monsters.  It entertained my littles for over an hour and a half.  That makes me one happy momma!

Little fish

Before I became a mom I would envision a life of soccer games, baseball practice, and maybe eventually some football (have you seen how solid my little Nathan is....he is made to be a linebacker!) Not once did I see the pool in these visions.  However, my reality now involves lots and lots of water.  And I gotta tell ya....I am LOVING it!

The boys have joined the summer swim team here in Bolivar and I have become amazed at the improvement of their swimming skills in just these few short weeks.  We are by no means the next Michael Phelps, but they are having a blast!

And I must say that I have fallen in love with this sport.  The meets are relaxing...the moms are friendly...practices are early in the morning so they don't interfere with family time...and the confidence it is instilling in them is awesome.

I think you may see many more pictures of swimmers in our future because the boys plan to join the year round team in August.

Mothers day

For Mother's Day this year I got an amazing gift.  My family picked out 3 knockout rose bushes (or as Nathan calls them: ripoff roses...because he can't remember the name of them) and they redid my entire front flower bed.  I was so tired of weeding that darn thing.  Actually...let me rephrase that...I was so tired of looking at weeds all over the place in that thing.  You know I didn't have time to be down on my hands and knees pulling all those little buggers out.  

 So, Rayden dug out the bushes, rearranged them in the order of my liking...and then we laid down rock.  Lots and lots of rock.  Lord Almighty....we bought Walmart out of white rocks.  But it is beautiful....and I can now proudly emerge from my home each day knowing that the weeds are gone...never to be heard from again!

what a special surprise!

One bright and sunny morning we went outside and found a special friend...

 Actually....we found 53 special friends!

 Courtesy of John and Rhonda Credille...and the Sycamore Student Ministry.  What fun!

Keepin me in stitches

A conversation between me and Nathan that I never want to forget...

Me: Nathan, can you please just use some self control.  What am I gonna have to do to get you to calm down?
Nathan: Mom, I will be good for just $5.95...all major credit cards accepted

what a stinker!  He's so cute and clever that I almost paid him!

The SKY is the limit

We just finished an amazing week at VBS!  After hours and hours....and hours and hours of preparation it was finally time.  Streamers hung, spotlights aimed, and music blaring.  VBS brings out the kid in all of us.  We begged God to show up and move in power.  And boy did He!  We had about 95 kids throughout the week and had over 10 kids start a relationship with Jesus!

It was a great week, but I am glad to have it in the rear view window.  The days were long and there was lots of prep work each day.  My poor kids were champs....VBS wouldn't have happened without them!  And if I never see another drive though again it will be too soon!

8 is Great!

I can not believe that I have been a mother now for 8 years.  I still feel 16, so how can my eldest be half way to driving? It's a mystery.  Although I am baffled by it all, I am certainly blessed by it as well.  This little man is a gift for sure.  He is funny, sneaky, energetic, handsome as all get out, creative, smart, goofy, and loving.  He still loves to cuddle and give kisses.  For that I am so grateful!  He loves to build with legos, jump on the trampoline, make people laugh, play video games, play sports, run fast, jump high, and do all the sorts of things little boys love to do.  He is incredibly sensitive....he melts down in a moment if he thinks people are laughing at him or teasing him.  He has some trouble with the truth...but with God's great help we are working on that.  I pray that as he grows and matures that he will fall so deeply in love with the Lord that he will see all of life through His eyes.  I pray that he will so in tune with the Truth inside of him that it will come spilling out.  It is my greatest prayer that he would learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit and would obey Him at a moment's notice.  By God's grace I know he will grow up to do great things!  I love this kid so stinking much!

We celebrated this momentous occasion with a backyard drive in.  We watched "alvin and the chipmunks: Chipwrecked" and ate popcorn, puppy chow, and candy.  He had lots of friends over and got lots of great gifts.  It was tons of fun.  We love to celebrate!

The Branson Trout Hatchery

Being a homeschool family, you know we had to throw a little education into our vacation!  We took an afternoon jaunt over to the fish hatchery and learned a little about trout.  And when I say a little, that's exactly what I mean.  The only part of the place that actually offers real information (a video about the life cycle of fish, seeing the eggs and hatchlings, etc) was closed for renovation.  Oh well, what can you do?  

 We were able to walk around and see the different sizes of trout they had and pump quarters into the turn-style machine to fetch wretched smelling pellets to throw at the little buggars.

 I started to feel the puke rise up in my throat as the fish swarmed for the tiny brown pellets.  They were flipping up out of the water and flopping around on each other.  My minds eye couldn't help but envision the swarm engulfing me.  It was sorta a horror movie type feeling....but, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for the education of my kids.  Oh, yeah....we didn't really learn anything.  Well....they had fun anyway so we'll call it a win.  For them.  Not for me.

Hiking in Branson

What a joy to have a week long vacation in Branson with the Porter family.  We played, went to Silver Dollar City (the boys were tall enough to ride things without an adult!!!), swam in the indoor pool, and went fishing.  One afternoon while Matt and Stephanie put their littles down for a nap we took our "not so littles" on a hike to a waterfall.  It was so fun.  But I am a little disheartened as I look back at these pictures...who are these big kids and where have my babies gone?   They are so grown up....and we are loving all the fun we get to have with them!            

Easter

back in the saddle

I'm feeling all motivated tonight.  The family and I just spent the last hour of our night in a corner table at Wendy's telling stories about when the kids were little.  We were recounting little things they used to say incorrectly and little funny stories about silly things they would ask about.  This trip down memory lane led to a visual journey through the recesses of our family blog.  What an awesome night!  We laughed til we couldn't breathe and just plain enjoyed each other.  It was stupendous.  It was also eye-opening for me.  There were lots of amazing and hilarious stories from just a few short years back that I had forgotten.  Praise the Lord for this blog....it's an amazing online scrapbook of our kids growing up years.  And shame on me for being on such a hiatus.  Well no more my friends.  I am back in the saddle.  Life moves too quickly to not jot down these precious times to remember at a later date.