Do you ever see something and think, "That was put there just for me."?


The above is a picture of a little area in front of our house. I try to plant flowers and a couple vegi plants to make it look nice. I am far from a gardener but I usually make it look decent. Last year I planted two Rose of Sharon bushes in memory of our lost babies in addition to pansies in the spring and mums in the late summer. So far this year I can't seem to find the time to do much with it. Hard to believe why that is with four young kids and all.

Well, God and Mother Nature decided to help me out this year. There are Johnny Jump-ups and pansies growing randomly mostly around the edges.... The mums from last fall seem to be growing, which I didn't think was possible.

The colors are vibrant and beautiful! No, they are not perfectly placed in the eyes of many but to me they are perfectly placed just where they should be....

And I truly believe these gorgeous flowers were put there just for me....

Mother's day...

Mother's Day was wonderful! A few of us had pretty terrible head colds so we weren't feeling great but I enjoyed the day just the same. I really spent some time just thinking about how lucky and blessed I am to have my family.
God blessed me with a wonderful Mom that I was able to chat with! He also blessed me with a fantastic Mother-in-law that I had dinner with!!
I spent much of the day in deep thought of just how amazing my life is. I am very thankful for my life and not a day goes by that I don't thank God for that, but Mother's day I really focused on that all day. I am one of the "lucky" ones that is living my dreams every day. All growing up I just knew that I wanted to be married to a great guy and raise children. My dreams have really come true and I couldn't be more thankful for that. I am a Mom! I have four unbelievable children! My family is my life. My world. My everything. And I wouldn't have it any other way!
Mother's day started out laying in bed with Ben spending my favorite part of the day with him. He is so happy first thing in the morning. He wakes up with a smile on his face. We chat, coo, smile, and giggle at each other for as long as I can. Since Chris was down stairs with the other kids I was able to spend a whole hour doing this and I truly can't think of a better Mother's day gift from Ben.

Connor made this pinch pot for me at school. It is beautiful and I will treasure it always. Another child in his class has a mom that does pottery so she brought the pots home to bake. Connor is so proud of it and I am so proud of him!

I will also mention that this is not the only gift he gave me. On Saturday he cleaned the bathroom (he never does such things!) and when he was done he said, "I cleaned it for you mom because tomorrow is Mother's day!" Amazing! Boy do I love him!



These are two "Fairies in training" that Maggie and Connor bought just for me! Chris brought them to Hallmark and these are what they picked. I think they are adorable! The one on the left is the Garlandvine Fairy and she is learning to believe in affection. The one on the right is the Gossamerwing Fairy and she is learning to believe in adventure. Aren't they precious? And isn't it precious that my wonderful husband was brave enough to bring two young children into a Hallmark store to get a gift for me?!
They also picked up a card for me that is wonderful. It is a recordable card so they all said, "Happy Mother's Day Mama" together and then each said,"I love you". So sweet!
This is a magnet that Katelyn made for me at school. She told me she drew the sun, flowers and roses because she knows I love those things. What a beautiful day! This magnet will be proudly displayed on my fridge to always remind me to stop and smell the roses no matter what kind of day it is.

Katelyn also made me these flowers at school. I must say that I have never seen a flower so beautiful as this. Look at that sweet face!

I love my kids. I love being a Mom. There really is no better job in the world and although I am pretty sure there is also no harder job in the world I wouldn't trade it for anything...

soft, squishy, new playdough....

There is only one thing better then playing with soft, squishy, new playdough..... Are you wondering what that is? I will tell you... It is making the soft, squishy, new playdough and then playing with it!

As a preschool teacher in my past life I see some serious value in this simple project. Math, science, language, and following directions are just a few of the lessons learned in this soft, squishy, new playdough adventure! Not to mention the self confidence acquired in the process...

Maggie and Connor had a great time making it and then played with it for a very long time!




What was that?? Oh, you want the recipe?? Sure....

2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup salt, 2 cups boiling water, 2Tbs veg. oil, 2 small packets of unsweetened koolaid

First mix the flour and salt in a separate bowl

Pour the boiling water, oil and koolaid into a separate container and bring the water back to boiling

Pour the boiling water mix into the flour mix

Stir till you can't stir anymore then use your hands to kneed the dough for a long time. Yep, it's hot so be careful! I usually give the kids a small amount of dough that has cooled off some to kneed while I kneed the big chunk.

Make sure you let it cool completely before closing it up and always store in an airtight container.

Most important.... Have fun! Seriously, playdough is fun for all ages! Maybe someday I will even get my Mother-in-law Nancy to play!!!

Tree Climbing...

My kids love climbing trees! Thank goodness we have "woods" by our house that they find trees to climb in. When I watch I am a complete wreck calm and relaxed!

Katelyn has been climbing for years now. I have to watch her though because if I let her she would surely climb to the very tippy-top of the tree!


Yesterday was Connor's first time climbing the tree. He is a bit more cautious then the girls are, thank goodness! He did great though and I was very proud of his new self confidence...

Under the tree is a huge rock that the kids climb on to then get onto the tree. My rule has always been that the kids can't get on the rock unless they can get on it themselves. In other words no one is aloud to help them get onto the rock. With the older two they were a bit more then four when they could finally get on the rock. Well, not my Maggie! She started getting up on it when she was still two! I really have to watch her because I have no doubt that she would be swinging from the branches if I let her! By the way, I only allow her to climb up the first two branches...

Family...

Yesterday was a lot of fun with my family. As you may remember my mom is in the state for a bit so we decided to have a BBQ at my house. We ended up having ok weather so the kids were able to spend some time outside. That, by the way, is a very good thing considering there were 11 kids all together.
This picture to the above is my niece Sarah cuddling with Ben under the blanket she made for him.... Below is my nephew Kyle playing on our new play structure. (I really need to do a post about that soon.)





















This is my niece Theresa pigging out on a hot fudge sundae! I teased her that I would put this picture on myspace but since I don't have a myspace this will have to do....

Speaking of the hot fudge sundaes... My wonderful husband made them for everyone and everyone loved them!
As you can see my kids waited patiently for theirs. Oh, wait, is that Connor's hand in the ice cream container? Busted pal! Maybe they weren't waiting as patiently as I thought...

We are so blessed!

I just wanted to show everyone just how blessed we are! I get comments all the time about the fact that we have four young children. Most are really innocent comments not meaning any harm. Some however are really rude and it blows me away! A couple of weeks ago a women at the park had a look of disgust on her face when she realized I had four children. She actually said to me, "No, seriously, are you crazy?!?!" I was just floored that someone could be so disrespectful to me. Luckily I have had some practice so I automatically responded, "No, not crazy, but very blessed..." That usually stops the commenter right in their tracks as well as showing my children that I adore them. We are so very blessed and I just love it!

Out of Town...

The kids and I went "out of town" for two days and one night the other day. My Mom is visiting my Grandmother for a couple of weeks so I decided to take the drive up to visit for a night. It is too long a drive for my kids to do the trip in one day. My sister and her kids went up for the day too. Once we arrived we spent some time enjoying the sunshine on the deck while the kids got out some extra energy. Ben took a snooze while I snuggled him in the wrap. AAAHHH...

Oh, for all of you who may be worried, we definately brought Mr. Octopus along!

After a bit we decided to put the kids back in the car to take a ride over to my uncles camp ground about a half hour away. My Uncle Jim took us all on a wagon ride which was so relaxing and fun! We stopped and did a little nature walk. The kids spotted a polliwog in the water and Uncle Jim found "beaver sticks" for all the kids. It was just wonderful and hopefully we will be spending some time this summer at the campground.

The kids were super excited to spend the night camping in Great Grammie's living room. My mom and Grammy set up a tent for the kids to sleep in. It was a lot of fun for them and the best part is that they were so tired we didn't hear a peep out of them once the door was shut!

The ride home was quiet for a little while but then Ben woke up and the screaming began! He does not like the car one single bit! When I finally got a chance to pull over he was full of smiles. Luckily he only fussed on and off for the rest of the ride.... Once we arrived home the kids let loose in the yard to get out the pent up energy!

It was a fun trip and I am so glad we went. Having four generations together makes for wonderful memories!