Lolly Cam

These are a few pictures I found on Elisabeth's new camera. and let me just say a few; a small percentage; Minuit; She takes sooooo many pictures. I love seeing her pictures because it gives me a glimpse of how she views things. Here's Harley at the house ready to go swimming. Elisabeth had her climb up on the slide to pose. She did a good job. The boys train from the train table.
She had to get a picture of herself in there.
Her, Hogan and the babies. Those babies have had a rough life.
Last night we went to a Christian open mic night. The kids had a blast. Elisabeth had her hands in the air. She clapped and sang along. She knew all the songs because I am a christian music junkie and play mostly that in the car. The lady singing must have saw her singing so much and she had her sing some into the microphone. Elisabeth sang right along but was really embarrassed after. This is her and one of our friends. She took this picture herself too.

Prayers Please

I have been following this blog for a month or so now and the author of it is truly amazing. Her strong faith is like none I have ever seen. Angie was told at 20 weeks that the baby she was carrying would not live and that he pregnancy might terminate itself. Long story short she did give birth to a sweet baby girl that lived for three hours before going to be in heaven. There is a link on her blog where you can go back to the beginning and read her entire story. I read it all in one evening and cried my eyes out. Angie is married to Todd the lead singer of Salah. Anyway, their family has been given yet another devastating blow this week and are asking for prayers. Their story has touched my life in so many ways and I know it will touch yours. You can read the entire story here: http://www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

House Keeper Please!!!

Since Josh is out of town so much we decided that I needed to ramp up on finding a new house keeper. We have had three different ones since we moved into this house. One got another job, one quit showing up and one moved plus got another job. Anyway, It is always hard to find a new one because it is hard to trust someone in my house when I am not home. It is better if the kids and I are not here when she is here. Anyway, a lady at our church highly recommended one to me and I called her. She planned to meet me at the house last night so that she could see the house and give me a price. At 5:30 she still had not showed up so I called her. She said she forgot and they she would come this morning at 10:00. At 10:00 she called and said she could not make it because she really is too booked and can't clean another house. I really wish she would have told me that in the beginning because I quit calling people once I set up the appointment for yesterday a week ago. Anyway, I just want to say that I am so frustrated with finding a house keeper. Every time I have someone recommend one to me there ends up being a problem like the phone number is disconnected or they are all booked or they don't show. Ahhh!! I know that a house keeper in not a necessity but it sure makes things nice. So if anyone who lives in corpus knows of a good house keeper please pass on her info.

Memorial Day Fun at the Lake

The kids always have so much fun at the lake. In May and June they always can find lots of frogs. They play so hard that they end up falling asleep where ever they are.



And we always fly our American flag and our Aggie flag at the end of our pier.

The kids all on the paddle boat.
All the kids on the toap bunk of the bunk beds.
Harley, Hogan and Beck love to play in the sand. Dont you just love Becks hair.
Hogan found this huge fat frog. Harley is holding it up for the camera. Look at the look on Becks face in the back ground.
Elisabeth is tempted to put this one in Hogan's hair.

Gates is a cool cat.
The little kids love to play under paw paw's boat.
At the end of the day, paw paw loves to build a fire. The kids love to sit and watch the fire.

A Statement

I just want everyone to know that little Gates ate 5, F*I*V*E, tacos for dinner. Maybe he's going to grow. Beck has officially caught up to him.

There's Something About Hearing Your Children Quote the Bible

A Mother's Love

They Graduated

Elisabeth graduated from kindergarten on Monday. I can't believe she is already going to be in first grade. It seems like just yesterday she was so tiny. She was the littlest baby I had ever held. The day she was born, I stayed up all night staring at her in amazement. I couldn't believe that I was a mother. I was amazed at how perfect God had made her and he did it through my body. She is so big, now! I am sad to think that she will go to school all day next year. Picking her up at 12:30 seems like she was hardly gone compared to all day.

Elisabeth had the most awesome teacher this year. She is the one who taught Elisabeth all her memory work and sign language. I am amazed at how much they can learn at such a young age if you just take the time to teach them. I pray that her teacher next year will be just as good. (That might be impossible :) Oh wait this is God I'm talking to).

Hogan is now finished with pre-K. He is so ready for big boy school. He loves to learn and works really hard at his work. For now it looks like he will go to half day kinder also. I love that! I can't believe he will be away from me everyday. Something about that just doesn't seem right but they have to go to school. I pray that he will have an awesome teacher that loves him and loves to teach. I know God has awesome plans for these two. I can't wait to see them unfold.

I know they have so much time left at home but in some ways it seems like they are slipping away. Getting bigger and needing me less. Becoming more independent. Oh so sad, but good. In the mean time we have all summer together and I can't wait to have lots of fun with them. We plan on playing in the water a lot, going on a couple of really great trips and just enjoying each others company.

Through the Eyes of the Beholder

Elisabeth got a new camera for kinder graduation.

Not sure what I was thinking of that one. Actually I was in a hurry and did not plan well so I grabbed the first thing I could think of and spent way too much money. Then I justified it later because it is something she will have all through elementary school (if she doesn't loose it or brake it first) and she loves pictures blah....blahh......blahh...

Anyway, she has an awesome new camera that I fully plan on swiping when I can. These are some of the first pictures she took.

Help I'm Drowning...

I have decided that our family has more laundry than any other family in the world. There can't possibly a family with more except for the Duggers (That show really fascinates me. I would really love to do that. Just keep having kids and see how many God will bless us with. Josh brings me back down to reality though). Anyway, lately I feel like all I do is laundry. Just when I get the last piles put away I go to the hampers and they are already pretty full.....
Both of these piles were coexisting in my living room this week. Josh is out of town so I get a little behind with everything when he is gone.

(Don't look at my house, I know it is a mess. OOH but you can look at my simple message on the wall in the first picture. It is my latest word that decorates my house. I have many of them around the house but none of them are like this one.)

Anyway, I thought it would be a bit therapeutic to get the laundry discussion of my chest. I feel much better, now. Have a great Friday everyone!!!!

The Evil One

Elisabeth asked me today if I thought God hated the evil one with all the bad things that he does?



Me: Well I am not sure. You know God hates the sin not the sinner. So I would think that God would hate all the things the evil one does bad but he does not hate the evil one. But I am not sure.



Elisabeth: I don't get that.

Me: Well let me look into it and I'll let you know.


So please I need some advice. Do you think God hates the evil one. I am not sure why Elisabeth refers to the devil as the evil one but she always has.

A Walk on the Wild Side....

This weekend we went on a retreat with our church. It was very fun and relaxing. It brought back so many memories from college. We haven't been on a retreat since then. Sad but true. Our old church just didn't have these kind of activities. Anyway, we had so much fun hanging out with friends, playing games, singing with the guitar, swimming, and worshiping our God.

Here are some very brief highlights.......

Josh almost stepped on this snake while going for a walk with all four of my children....


So they dropped a huge rock on his head and cut his head off.....
Then we posed it on this rock to take a cool picture.....CrAZy......
While I was taking my mother's day nap, Josh decided to do some much needed painting on the outside of our house. When I woke up, the kids were climbing this tree and Josh was painting.....AHHHH....
Then I got a cheesy kiss from this little face.....sO cUtE....

I Can't Help but Share....Psalm 100

I Never Get Tired of Hearing This...Psalm 23

A thought worth Sharing

Joe Hays had a really great post today and it really got me thinking. I thought it was something worth sharing. You can read it here:
http://ccfb.wordpress.com/

I found this....

I got in Josh's truck to go today and found this. Elisabeth takes Godder most places. She is definately part of our family. I guess she wanted her to be safe in the car this morning so before I got in the car she had already buckled her in. However, I didn't notice she was there until after I had dropped her off at school.

Little pictures have big eyes....

Our church has potties in the kids class rooms that are just their size. They really are the cutest things I'm sure most of you have seen one somewhere but for those of you who haven't they are little. The look exactly like the public potties we use but really small. Less than a foot off the ground.

As we were arriving at school the other day, Beck tells me he needs to potty. I took him as soon as we got in there so that his teachers wouldn't have to and to make sure he didn't touch anything gross. He gets the job done perfectly and then tells me that he needs to flush it. I didn't really like the idea of him flushing because there are tons of germs on the flusher to me and I'd rather him not get them on him but I thought well it is church and first thing in the morning surely they can't be too bad. Plus he has to learn things like that. Well he proceeds to lift his foot as high as he can and flushes it with his foot. I cracked up. He looked ridiculous and it occurred to me that he really thinks that is how you are supposed to flush potties in public because he has only ever seen me flush them and that is what I do. I never told him to do that or that it was how you are supposed to do that he just learned from watching.

Needless to say I am happy that he did it that way. And I hope he continues to flush with his foot. I did realize that I need to watch my actions a little more closely because he is picking up on a little more than I realize.

Birds of a Feather...

I have been doing some much needed re-decorating of sorts around the house. You would think I was NESTING, but no I am not pregnant. We are going to put the 'ol house on the market and need to make it sHiNE. So I have been rearranging and fluffing things up a bit. I have been liking all the birdies that are out and took this opportunity to purchase a few.....Take a look.....
Isn't this red one a dandy. She's plump and shiney. Do you see the bird on the vase behind her? Brandon bought me that vase somewhere in Europe. I'll have to ask him the story behind it because this 'ol brain just hasn't been working as well as she used to. Anyway, I have had the vase for years but appreciate her even more now that I have a thing for birds.

And this little peep has such character. The colors the textures AHHHH...

So enough of my crazy fowl ramblings. Have a great weekend!!! We will be painting. :)

tReAsURe hUntER

As most of you know I am an extreme shopper. I can shop for anything and everything. I love to find unique things that no body else will have.....that make people stop and look....that start conversations....tReAsURes... I feel like I am always on the hunt. That is why I love etsy shops. If you haven't tried it, it is a great little website for selling hand made things. And I got some cute little treasures in the mail today for Lolly's room. You can find other items from this artist here. I have found some super....one of kinds....originals.....no one else will have 'em........TREASURES lately. Some of my favorites are Elephannie.etsy.com and LellaBella.etsy.com. Hope you find something special.