Dressing up

Jeff just reminded me that I haven't posted anything in two weeks. Life seems to be flying by lately. I truly wish that it would slow down. The kids are growing up so fast but I absolutely love the ages they are at right now. I get terrified when I think of them being teenagers. They are my babies!
We are so excited about what God has been doing at our church. There were over 1500 people in church on Sunday! This is all in the first year of the church. Amazing! This Sunday, Pastor preached about dating and boy did he let it rip. I am going to have to get this series on cd. I hope that my kids will have that kind of vision for their lives. I just have never heard it preached like that. When I say that it was practical, I don't mean watered down. Far from it! I pray that my kids will have such a vision for their lives and the purpose that God has for them that absolutely nothing will come between that.
Tuesday was Circus Day at preschool for Susanna and Luke. We looked all over for an idea for a costume but had no luck. So I ended up just painting their faces. Susanna was loving it. She loves to wear my makeup whether it's a clown face or not. Now, Luke would not allow me to paint his face. He absolutely refused to wear makeup. (Which I am thankful for, but I didn't think it would be a big deal) Well, when we got in the car line to drop him off and he saw all of his friends dressed up, he started to cry. Then, he told me that he did want a clown face. So I dug through my purse for any makeup that I had and we did the best we could when the car is moving, not to mention Luke cannot stay still. It looked terrible. But, he was so proud of it. He told the teacher that he had his face painted and she just laughed. I think that she thought he said that he painted his face and well I just let her think that.
We had a good day today. The weather was beautiful and we got to play outside most of the day. Our friend Ally and her 3 kids came over and played. It worked out good to have 2 swingsets. The people who used to live in this house left theirs and we added ours. Almost everyone had a swing.
Tonight, while we were watching American Idol, Susanna always comments on all of the girls dresses. I don't know where we went wrong but she absolutely loves fashion. It is so funny. But, her favorite girl is the one who always does terrible, but Susie loved her green dress. The funniest thing though is that when a girl wears a dress that is low cut, she covers her eyes and goes on and on about how disgusting that it is. Now, I hope that that sticks.

Valentines Day

We had a wonderful Valentines Day. Everyone is better, well, except for now my Mom and Jack are sick. Susanna and Luke are taking their valentines to school tomorrow since they missed the party. They are so excited. Today I realized how unprepared I am for raising boys. We had a little rain yesterday and our backyard has one little spot that gets extremely muddy. Susanna and Luke were playing outside for quite a while until Susanna comes running in screaming. I went out to see what could have caused her to be so upset and all I see is Luke covered head to toe in mud with Susie's 2 stuffed animals in the puddle literally covered in the mud. Well, Susanna later informed me that one of the animals was Max's animals. Oops! Sorry, Holly! Susanna and Luke are about as opposite as they come. Susanna would never get anything dirty on purpose while Luke would purposely get everything dirty if he could. Anyways, after we got Luke cleaned up, my friend Amy came over to babysit so that Jeff and I could go out. Jeff had told Luke that he could not eat any more of his valentine candy until tomorrow and reminded him of this as we were leaving. When we got back, Amy had said that Luke tried to convince her that Daddy was just kidding. He can be so funny that it sometimes makes it hard to discipline him, but we are cracking down. I hope that you enjoy our latest pictures.
By the way, Susanna wanted me to let everyone know that she cannot wait for our trip to the beach with her cousins. We have officially begun the countdown and the questions. How much longer? and How long can we stay? How many days are in a week? Will Papa be there? Will Grandma be there? Aunt Dawn? Uncle RIck?Uncle Eric? Aunt Teresa?etc..... She's so excited!!

Sour Cream Pt. 1

Sour Cream Pt.2

True Love

After Floor

Before Floor with Sam

Elijah with Katie and Bubba

Yo!

The Professional Shoppers

Ladies' Man

Well, Jeff was sick last week, Eli was sick on Friday, Sam was sick today, and Susanna is sick now. Will it be possible for Luke and I to avoid it? I don't know if it is. It seems like every February we get this bug. We all just had the cold flu and well, this one isn't the cold flu, if you know what I mean. Luke and I went to go get Valentines for the preschool party tomorrow and now it doesn't look like he'll even be able to go. Jeff has his boss in town first thing in the morning and I don't know if Susie will be up to riding in the car to take him there. He will be so disappointed since he has 2 girlfriends in the class: Daisy and Tori. He will tell you that he has three girlfriends,2 at preschool and 1 at church(Greta). Luke picked out Diego valentines but kept begging me to get Princess ones for the girls. He said that they would not want a Diego valentine. He kept trying to explain this to me and I told him that since you are a boy, you give every one a boy valentine. This made no sense whatsoever to him. He would not give up. I finally told him that he could give his girlfriends Susie's leftover ones. Does anyone know where he gets this from?;)
*I will be posting some more pictures tomorrow.

Double Trouble

Today, Sam just finished up his therapy with "Mr. Ty". Elijah cannot stand to not be a part of the action. Elijah always wants Mr. Ty to hold him and play with him. It is so funny to see him and Sam battle for his attention and also for all the neat toys that he brings. I am afraid that Eli will be walking before Sam. Right now, they are both standing for a couple of seconds by themselves but Elijah is not afraid like Sam is. They are so funny together! I think that Elijah doing this is making Sam want to do it more. He is definitely letting Eli know that he is in charge. Every time that Eli stands up,Sam pushes him down and then trys to do it himself. They are always following each other all over the house. Their favorite thimg to do is to pull out all of the tupperware and pots and bang them as loud as possible. It is so cute. I think that this could be trouble in the future. But for now, it's pretty cute and keeps us laughing.
Yesterday, we went to Walmart to pick up a few things. I always put Eli in the front of the shopping cart,Sam and Luke sit in the back, and Susie walks. If you are wondering why Luke doesn't walk, then you do not know Luke. :) We are working on it though. Anyways, Elijah was fussing and I could not figure out what the matter was. He just kept arching his back. Finally, I figured out that he wanted to be in the back of the cart too. It was so funny after I put him back there. He just lit up. Now, I might have room to put Susie in the front.(I'm Kidding!!!)

Snow

Yesterday, when we woke up there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. It was awesome! The kids were so excited to be able tp play in it and I was excited to get some pictures of them with their "gear" on. But... our camera's battery was dead. Oh well. We might get some more on Sunday and the batteries are ready.(The snow has melted.) Last night, Holly shared a couple verses with us. It was Romans 12:1,2. She shared some other verses too about sacrifice being a form of worship and some different types of sacrifice that God requires of us. I knew this verse, but had never really though about this being a form of worship. Our pastor has given all the small group leaders a copy of the book, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson. He has asked us to read it throughtout the week. I have to say that this is a very powerful book and very thought provoking. It corresponds with what we talked about last night.Also this week, my friend, Niki, gave me a CD with a a beautiful song on it. I cannot remember the title of it, but the chorus has been playing over and over in my head about the more that we seek Him the more that we find Him, and the more that we find Him ,the more that we love Him. It's so exciting to see how the Lord teaches us. Some times I tend to think of all these things as coincidences, but the Lord deserves much more credit than that.

Observations

This week, I've made several observations:
1. A white floor is impossible with 4 kids unless you carry a rag in your pocket.
2. Cheap bubble bath(dollar store) is better than more expensive bubble bath.
3. Keeping the kids up from their nap so that they'll go to bed earlier does not usually work. They were over tired and cranky.
4. Why buy kleenexes whan you have toilet paper? My kids always prefer toilet paper.
5. Laundry will never end.
6. The house always seems to be the messiest on Sundays.
7. Coffee is a wonderful thing. Lots of it.
8. How did our Moms do it?
9. God has blessed us with 4 wonderful children with 4 wonderful different personalities.
10. And today, I cannot make grilled cheese sandwiches without a Foreman Grill. I burned the bread and the cheese didn't melt. Delicious!!!