Graduation

Good grief they are growing up fast. The first 3 years were L O N G!! This 4 year old age is fun , but the pace is picking up.

Tonight my kids graduated from preschool. They are SO cute in their caps and gowns. The lighting was terrible but I got a few cute shots. They totally cracked me up.

Before we left the house I had Ashley's hair fixed SO darling. She complained about it, but I thought I convinced her to keep the bow in. A few minutes later she comes upstairs with the bow and ponytail out of her hair saying, "Ms. Sheila said we can't wear piggytails because we are going to wear a hat." Errrrrr....but I understand why.

On the way there Mason went over all the rules. We are NOT allowed to wave we are just supposed to smile.

So on the way down the aisle both Ashley and Austin wave and Mason comes down with the biggest smile across his face.

Then they get up on stage. Ashley was very serious. She knew not to wave up there, but without saying anything outloud she REALLY PRONOUNCED...I LOVE YOU over and over again to us.

Then Austin was very cool and proud. He lifted up his hand and gave us the I love you sign. Doesn't he look like a scholar?

And then there was Mason. He was SUCH a ham. He had all the people around us laughing. He had the biggest smile and he kept looking at us and winking. Then his tassle would get in his face and he would shake it around and blow it off his face.

They all sang for us the songs they learned throughout the year and then they went across the stage to get their certificate and Bible (with their names on them). They were so excited and it was really fun to watch them be that excited.

The Kitten has FOUND a home

Yes it is true!

The 2 adult cat scrooges (me and Greg) have decided to adopt the kitten. We have decided to name her Kiki Xio Mao.

We will call her Kiki.

Xio Mao is Chinese for cat.

She is so stinkin' cute! She just loves me. She cuddles right up under my neck or lays on my breasts and falls asleep. I MUST remember to take my Allegra tomorrow...ACHOO! I don't know how this cat did it, but she has captured my heart. She just looks up at me and tells me she loves me with her eyes. She even layed calmly on my chest while I clipped her nails.

I was writing an email yesterday and Austin was sitting on my lap. I have a signature line on my emails that have a picture of the family. Austin said, "you can put her (Kiki) next to me." So I updated my signature line. hmmm...I can't get this picture any bigger. I guess if you really want to see it you'll have to click on the image to make it larger.

I saw Austin doing this and I ran for my camera. Isn't this precious? He is so smitten with this kitten!

Free Kitten to loving home

Does anyone want a kitten? Anyone?

Is it possible to become a cat lover if you've never liked cats before?

Does a kitten know if you are afraid of it?

On our way home from seeing

Mama Mia (excellent show by the way), Greg saw this kitten lying in the middle of the street. We had to rescue it. It's so cute, but I have no clue how to handle it. It sure is a fiesty little thing. That's what Greg wants to call it...."Fiesty". I don't know. The kids haven't seen it yet.

What are we supposed to do with a kitten?

Greg just went out to WalMart to see if he could get some kitten's milk and a litter box.

We are not sure if we are keeping it. Actually, we WANT to give it away to a good home.

Right now she is in our garage. !Ay Caramba! What will we do?

Nature Speaks Assignment #25

The joy of the Lord will give me strength. (Again, I need to say that this is something I participated in on my other blog.)

Have you ever noticed God talking to you through nature? I have.

Several years ago I was really down on myself and felt ugly. When I went for a walk on a beautiful Spring day I had a God breeze. What is a God breeze? It is my way of talking about those times when you feel God right beside you.

As I walked the track a few times I prayed to God about how I felt and he answered me through birds. You might think this is silly, but I knew God meant for me to hear this that day. The birds sang out as I passed them..."You're purty purty purty purty, You're purty purty purty purty" I felt like God was telling me I was pretty. It put a smile on my face and helped me face the day with a better attitude.

My assignment for this week is for me to take a walk outside and listen to what God tells me. It could be through a weed my child hands me smiling from ear to ear, or how some bit of nature reminds me of a poem. I've got a busy week, but I need to remember to listen.

Have you had a God breeze you would like to share?

Secret Sisters

I am signed up for the Homeschool Moms Secret Sister Session #2!

I did this last time and it was a lot of fun, although I posted my thank yous on my other blog. But since, I do not use that blog anymore you will see postings on this blog about it. If you are a homeschooling mom and would like to participate you can go here to sign up.

Dinosaur World

Ok I think that this might be the last post for today.

Yesterday we went to Dinosaur World in Kentucky. The boys had a good time. Ashley seemed to enjoy it at first, but she became quite naughty not too long into it and made it quite stressful for me and not so enjoyable. I wanted it to be a "homeschooling" event, but the kids wouldn't stay at each site even long enough to read the name of each dinosaur. They just ran from one to the next. They each got to bring home a toy. Austin was so excited to bring home a warning sign that says dinosaur crossing. Mason got a little container of dinosaurs and Ashley got 3 eggs with tiny dinosaurs in them. It was quite a stressful day, but I'm glad we went anyway.

Also, since I don't know where to post this picture I thought I would put it at the end of this one. WHAT in the WORLD? She even dressed up her Teddy bear but I didn't get a picture of that.

Razor

So have you seen this recharger before? Do you know what it goes to? Some of you are saying, "oh yah that's a ..." But for some of you, you may be as clueless as I was.

Sunday afternoon Mom and I went to Radio Shack to buy a phone recharger for her car. We went in and she asked the guy to help her. She asked for a recharger that can have an adapter for when they switch phones. The guy brought out the adapter and Mom said she thought she had one of those in the car. So I went out to get it and bring it in. The guy told us that it wouldn't work on her phone. We knew the recharger belonged to my Dad, but Mom couldn't remember the last time he even drove her car. So I said, "I wonder what this charger is for?" And the guy said, "Oh that is for a razor." Mom and I started laughing. She said he must have taken it on their trip to Florida. Me being quite confused said, "You mean he hasn't shaved since then?" And the guy just smiled and said, "No not that kind of razor, the Razr phone". Mom said, that's what happens when you send a woman to do a man's job. We've been laughing quite a bit over this!

rough housing

So are you ready for more? (3rd post for today)

Alrighty! After church we were talking in the lobby and the kids were running around playing. Ashley started crying, she had bumped into Austin. Greg was talking to her and said that is what happens when you are rough housing. And then Austin pipes up and says, "We are not rough housing, we are rough churching."

Hey---She's eating.

Oh real quick, here is a picture that I took after church on Sunday. This just got under Gramma's skin. I thought it was cute. Hmmm...I should have gotten a picture of my Mom with her wrinkled up face. She already thinks I don't discipline enough, what will she think when I scrapbook this?

New Arrivals Day

Oh SO MANY things...Let's start with Sunday.

Greg and I did a reading at church from Psalm 88. This day at church is a very special day for me. This is the day our church recognizes and blesses all the children born in the year before. We call it New Arrivals Day. For many years this was a very hard day for me because we were not able to get pregnant on our own and seeing those children...well it just hurt! So now that I have been blessed with my heart's desire, this day helps me to really focus on our answered prayers.

Our congregational reading was about suffering and asking God if he even hears our prayers. Anyway, Greg and I read this during all three services at church. So for the first 15 minutes of the first service we put the kids in the nursery (since there are no classes during 1st). There was a TV in there where the workers could watch the service. When we read...our kids stopped playing and watched us intently. Greg got back to the nursery first and Austin asked him what 'bewildered' meant(which was one of the words I had said). Greg told him and when I got to the the room, Austin said to me, "If I lose you I will be in the dark, all alone, bewildered and lost and scared."

Talk about making my heart melt. These are the exact words I said, "There is no light in this place of deep dark, I am alone, bewildered and lost."

He just blows me away. Well I don't have anymore time to blog right now, I have to run out the door, but I have lots more to share. I will be blogging later today.

conversations

Oh my goodness do I love this boy!

This is Yesterday's conversation with Austin.

Austin: The Earth and Sun are together.

Me: What do you mean?

Austin: (repeats himself) The Earth and Sun are together.

Me: I don't understand what you are talking about. What do you mean?

Austin: (completely befuddled that I have no idea what he is talking about) You know Mom, the Earth is our planet and the Sun is a big star made out of burning gas that is hotter than everything. What do you NOT understand?

LOL!!!

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Gramma is coming to visit us this weekened and yesterday we told the kids we couldn't go out to eat until Tuesday (beginning of the month). This is what Austin said to me this morning:

"Would it be rude to ask Gramma for her to offer us some lunch at a resteraunt?"

Uh...yes, however it is so funny I had to write it on my blog!

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Ok- also for this weekend if you know my cell phone number don't call it. I've let a friend borrow it for the weekend.

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Also, I've signed up to be an Usborne Book Consultant. I'll tell you more in another post.

"What?"

I've been hearing that a lot lately, so much in fact that I started to get concerned over Ashley's hearing.

I would repeat myself 3 or 4 times to her before she heard me. I voiced my concern to Greg and he thought it was selective hearing. Now I do think that there is a lot of selective hearing going on, but I thought there was still something else.

Greg did a test that I thought was silly at the time, but he concluded that the boys can hear better than her.

So today I made an appointment for her to see the doctor. She was able to be seen today with our favorite doctor, which seems like a miracle. Anyway, she has an ear infection in her right ear and she had a popcorn shell in her left ear. It hurt her when they got it out. NO Wonder she couldn't hear me.

My children have an extremely high pain tollerance, so it is very hard to tell if they are sick. I'm so glad I picked up on this and took her in.

But there we go with another popcorn incidence! Greg said no more popcorn for us for awhile.

The royal family

OH my am I tired.

Tonight we went to Dalton and Braxton's birthday party. The kids had a great time running around in the dark with flashlights and glow sticks. Ashley insisted on giving the boys one of her first "rattle" babydolls that she had. When Dalton opened it up he just looked uninterested in it and put it aside. Then Ashley said, "Look at what it does" and she picked it up and shook it. So Dalton humored her by shaking the doll and then put it back down. Ashley wasn't going to give up so she took it to Braxton to show him. When she noticed he did NOT have the doll when he was in the other room, she took it to him. Braxton was so sweet and carried it. Austin and I tried to tell her that boys don't like dolls, but she absolutely insisted and had an absolute breakdown when we said no. When she finally irritated me enough, I finally gave in and said, "ok". Then she had a meltdown because we didn't wrap it and it needed a bag. (big eyeroll)

Well here are the pictures I promised. I tried to full around with Photoshop. But I forgot how to change the walls into stone walls. I worked on it almost an hour and gave up. I will just ask Greg tomorrow to help me do it.

So which group picture is your favorite? I am going to create a layout using one or two of these pictures. I have a favorite, but I want to know yours. Also- Do you have a caption to fit the picture you choose?

Choice A:

Choice B:

Choice C:

My Gym

On Wednesday we went to a place called My Gym. This is just for kids. It was amazing! The kids LOVED it! Unfortunately it costs $10 per family per hour. So every now and then that would be fine. But it just wasn't long enough. Austin got really mad that we had to leave. He said he didn't like their rules.

Anyway, Austin ran around there like crazy. He is a natural gymnist. I need to get this boy into gymnastics. He was climbing, swinging, balancing, pulling himself up on the bar, etc. It was really fun to watch him.

Ashley loved this big ball. She got inside and I rolled it all around. Then she would roll Mason around in it.

Mason loved to get in the balls. He would jump in. He would also climb the rock wall all the way to the top and balance and roll in the big ball. They all definitely want to come back.

Ashley just loved burying herself in the ball pit. (especially when it was time to go)

Today I set up a photo shoot at church and got some cute pictures to share. I need to full around with them a little bit in Photoshop. I want to add a background. But, I just may share the pictures with you before I mess with them first. Tune in tomorrow or later on today for pictures of our royal family. :)

Have a happy weekend!

Ahhhhh....I love Friday nights! I'm sleeping in tomorrow...so don't call me very early in the morning.

This weeks happenings.

Yay! I am finally caught up on reading blogs. Now when someone posts, I might beable to respond right away instead of weeks later.

Anyway, did you know our dryer broke? It has been broken since we got back from Florida. Greg tried to fix it...but it just wasn't going to be fixed. So Monday I went out and bought one and thankfully on the same day our tax return came! It will be delivered on Thursday. Hip Hip Hooray! 3 times now, I've washed a few loads and Greg would go out to the laundrymat at night to dry them. I will be so happy to be back to normal again.

I just love this picture of Austin and Ashley.

Yesterday the kids played outside. They found 2 bungee cords and tied their bikes together. It was really cute.

Sunday, it was raining so I pulled out their NEW umbrellas that I forgot to give them for Easter. I never did get a great pictures of all of them, but here are a few pictures to share.

Later today we are going to My Gym. We have never been there, but I think it will be great.

Have a great day!

All about our wedding

I came across this on BChsMamaof3's website. I thought it would be neat to share my own story.

All about our wedding....

1. Where/How did you meet? I met Greg at David Lipscomb University in Bible class. It was Revelations class of all things. He was the smartest person in the WHOLE room so I asked him to tutor me. We would get bored of signing in to class the normal way, so we would each do some fun way of signing in. He may have written his... eneerG gerG and upside down, and then I would write mine in cursive backwards. Then we would mix it up and do something different the next time.


2. How long have you known each other? 15 years


3. How long after you met did you start dating? Ha! Um he asked me out immediately and I said, "no", but he was persistant! He asked me out for Valentine's Day and I told him I had plans, but my friend extremely encouraged me to go out with him instead of her. So I did. We had a nice time. He forgot his wallet and I paid for our date. LOL! After about 2 months of dating him I looked at him and said, "I don't know why I'm still with you, I know I'm never going to marry you." and HE AGREED! Then Summer came and something happened while he was in Florida and I was in Tennessee. I guess I realized that I did love him. And it's been grand ever since then.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? One year to the day. I told the stinker not to propose on a holiday, but I knew he was going to do it anyway. I told my parents earlier that morning that I thought I would be calling them late that night.

5. How long was your engagement? One year and 40 days.

6. How long have you been married? 13 years

7. What is your anniversary? March 26th

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? Um...400? We had an open wedding and reception so that anyone in the church who wanted to come could.

9. What kind of cake did you serve? Ummm? It was kind of like a fancy birthday cake. It was only ok. If I had one thing to change that would have been it. I picked it out, but it just wasn't what I expected.

10. Where was your wedding? Cuyahoga Falls, OH

11. What did you serve for your meal? buffet style- I don't even remember.

12. How many people were in your wedding party? 13?

13. Are you still friends with them all? not really. I'm still good friends with Natalie but we don't talk often since she's in Ohio and I'm here.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? no- but he looked worried most of the time. He told me afterwards that he was trying to just concentrate on being in the moment.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? The weather was beautiful and just as we were pulling out it started to snow big snowflakes. It was GORGEOUS.

16. Any funny moments? OH YES! (blushing)

17. Any big disasters? One of the centerpeices caught on fire and my MIL threw it on the floor and stomped it out. Well that and the hotel we stayed in the first night gave away our reservations. (AND we had TWO confirmation numbers) I looked like Bridezilla! I was so upset I had mascara running down my face and I just went to the car and let Greg deal with it. We got the penthouse-which was really nice, but I was too upset to enjoy it.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We went to Niagra Falls and then travelled to Toronto for one day. (Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!)

19. How long were you gone? Golly I don't remember.

20. If you were to do your wedding over.... I loved my wedding! It was big like I always dreamed, I had the perfect dress, and music and dancing...it was fabulous! I just would have called the morning of my wedding to let the hotel know we were still coming.

21. What is your song? Silly song to have as ours...but Greg sang it to me when we were dating... Do you remember when we met?

22. Describe your wedding dress: White with a long train. Very lacy and beautifully decorated with pearls. The veil was just as beautiful. It was trimmed with pearls that flowed all the way down as long as the train of my dress.

23. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? Silk flowers- but it was really pretty.

if you decide to tag yourself and copy this - please leave me a comment so I can come check yours out!

Who's the smartest?

So Austin is talking to Daddy.

Austin: I'm the smartest.

Daddy: You are smart, but Mason is pretty smart too.

(I wish you could see his thinking face)

Austin: Ashley is the whiniest, Mason is the silliest and I'm the smartest.

Daddy: Oh is that so?

Easter

Well Hello! Yes it's been a long time since I really blogged. I had a REALLY bad week last week. The highlights: Our dryer broke, I thought I had an abcessed tooth (turned out to be a popcorn kernel stuck), Austin drove the flour into the Family room with his remote control car, Ashley and Mason got the sugar bowl and dumped it in the Family room and Austin peed on a mirror to see what it looked like. And Saturday was SO bad that the Easter Bunny almost didn't come on Sunday. Anyway, the Easter Bunny is very forgiving and did come.

So on Sunday morning, Greg told the kids the true meaning of Easter. Then they went down to get their Easter treasures. On the way to church, I talked to them. I told them that just as God has forgiven all of us for our sins, I forgive all of you for being so naughty yesterday. They said, "We forgive you too Mom."

Anyway, the rest of the day was nice. We went to Logan's Roadhouse for lunch and then to a friend's house for Easter dinner.

The kids are demanding my attention, so I gotta go! Enjoy the pictures!

Ashley's PRETEND conversations

Gramma sent some money for the kids to buy an Easter present. Ashley bought this PRETEND phone. On the way home this is the conversation I heard in the back of the car:

Hello Gramma? Thank you for the money.

Well...I bought a pink telephone...it's kinda furry.

Ok gotta go.

Love you to.

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Hello Gramma? uh huh..

I miss you too.

Well...I don't know.

(to me) Mom, Gramma wants us to come to Ohio to visit her.

yeah, I told her.

Well...you can call me anytime.

I love you, Gramma.

Bye.

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Hello Gramma?

Well...Austin got freight cars and Mason got Bob the Builder Pla doh.

Uh huh

yep

I love you and miss you too.

bye.

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(Goes on a few more times)

Ring.

UH...Why does she keep calling me?

Scrapin Memories Stuff

I AM SO S L E E P Y!!!

But for you Michelle I'll write this blog...

Scrapin' Memories got in the new Rhonna Farrer line French Twist. They have the new Jenni Bowlin stuff. They've got Autumn Leaves new line of accrylic stamps and Jenni's too. Oh and the new line of Heidi Swapp stamps.

They are open on Sundays 1:00 to 5:00 but closed on Mondays. Other days they are open 10:00 to 6:00.

OK I'm typing with my eyes closed now...so I guess I better get to bed.