Sierra Flower Girly

Sierra is just one of those babies that is always smiling.  What a gift she is to us!  God has been so kind.

A Taste of What's To Come!!!

Last weekend we indulged ourselves in a backyard fire and Smore's. The air was cool, we had just cooked out, and the anticipation of summer couldn't be helped. We just had to. We had to break open our first round of Smores for the summer. Making a fire in the yard (in a chimnea) and roasting marshmallows on filthy sticks tops the list of my kids' favorite summer night activity. They will spend a long time collecting wood of all sizes just to make this favored event perfect. It's ironic, because normally, asking them to do anything laborsome is quite a task and often becomes a battle... but not for Smores! They are more than willing. Aaron usually builds the fire to get it going, but then Eric and Andrew are the "fire keepers". They covet this job. It's Sam's job to guard the chocolate, although when it's time to eat, there never seems to be enough. Hmm.... I think I might need to reconsider this one!
After all Smores have been eaten, that is when everyone has a stomach ache, it's bath time. For me, this means getting 5 kids bathed at 10pm or so... this can be quite a challenge. (I must clarify, I don't bathe my older ones, but somehow they always need help of some sort.  "Mom, I forgot my towel!"... "Mom, can you get me some soap."  Mom.... you get the idea!)

Anyway, we enjoyed the evening and eachother.  I love my family!
Hurry, Summer, we're waiting!!!

A Forehead of Many Colors

I thought perhaps that if I could teach Sam to color on paper than at least we could escape the "coloring on walls" stage that many of my toddlers seem to have gone through. We also rent our house so I would prefer that the kids did not color on the walls for the sake of wanting to take care of that which does not belong to us. Never did it occur to me that my 5 month old would become Sam's "paper". Sorry Sierra... I'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Even the dogs need a beer after a day in our household!