how do?

how do you keep 4 children quiet and sitting perfectly still for more than 3 minutes?
find the perfect movie- i guess?!

how do you get a 19 month old to stop talking about mowers?
you do NOT do this! seriously, all this kid talks about is riding on various vehicles...

how do you entertain 4 boys on an 80' spring day?

play in the creek, of course.

how do you plant a garden?

well, you thank your awesome neighbor for bringing down his tractor and tilling the ground.

you try to keep your kids occupied while you string line, dig holes, make mounds, plant seeds.

and most importantly, when you go back days later to weed, you explain to your almost 5 yr old that you may not jump on the mounds with seeds so delicately planted and you must only pull weeds (not the poor tomato plants- which i found 7 pulled right up by the roots tossed aside by my little helper- are you kidding me)

no wonder i waited until now to start a garden!

let's hope something survived Braxton's garden tending. no promises, though:)

we might be the first...

we might be the first folks to host a baby shower truly in the creek...

no kidding. we had tables, chairs, yummy food, cute galoshes, and our Sunday best right smack in the creek!

pictured above... our "in the creek" table. but- to be totally honest the entire shower wasn't in the creek. there was a "land-based" table beside it for those without proper "wading the waters" attire.

nevertheless- we spent lots of time cooling off in the water.

Aunt Laurie and her beautiful girls, plus a few more family members and friends, made the trek from Dickson... Yeah! we love seeing these guys!

and the reason for this shower... this gal...my sis-in-law Dana and her sweet baby girl or boy?!

my 2 sis-in-laws. Dana the preggo one. and Tiff the it's in her creek one.

cousins in the creek. Hannah and Peyton Louth and my Briley.

the tiniest galoshes wearer- cousin Livi - who is so loved (and mother henned) by Briley.

please pardon the quality of my pics. we were so grateful for the gorgeous warm and sunny day but- boy oh boy -do we have shadows on our pics. who cares if a wonderful time was had- right?

oh and very importantly- my precious friend, Em, who got me my galoshes recently for my birthday. thanks girl! we both picked out the same top 3 Target boots online and said -what the heck -let's just both get them:)

blog day

today is a big day. 4/24/09. why you ask? because one year ago today i started this blogging adventure. a scrapbook of life. tidbits from the journey of our life. this was then.

here we are one year older, a bit wiser, still looking forward to meeting and bringing home our adopted daughter "Bristol" from Ethiopia, still selling t-shirts to raise money to bring her home,graduated from babyhood to toddlerhood, many spankings later, shouting it out b/c there's one new heart for Jesus (yea sweet Briley), having more fun than ever, starting a new crazy-exciting journey in our life (another post on that), several ear infections later,making more friends, finished campaigning, playing harder, digging deeper, loving more, and what a buddy of ours would say "just livin' the dream"!

i thank God daily for the blessings He has given.i strive daily, but fail often, to live totally for Him.

we can still say..."there's never a dull moment".






and on a side note...if you have never been here. you need to go. it is inspirational. it makes you think. it is deep. it talks about life and living it for, and with, Jesus. it encourages. it is short. it is always to the point. it is my husband, Joey's, blog. i thank God for him and his heart and his faith and his love daily.

let's go fly...

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let's go fly a kite
And send it soaring

Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite
Let's go fly a kite!

I can not tell you how many times we have done this lately. This night we flew our kites in our pjs and with no wind- hence the running and Braxton crashing. Kids, they don't care about weather, only about adventure!

celebrating

family Easter picture- it was the best we could come up with...

my sweet kiddos... (ages 7 yrs, 4.75 yrs, and 18 months)...

Briley and cousin Tyler...

Briley and cousin Livi (the only gals so far- unless Aunt Dana pulls thru for us???)...

some of our cousins with my crew... L to R... Barron, Braxton, Livi, Briley, Colby, Cy... (missing are Tyler and baby Tucker)...

Brax hunting eggs...

Barron shaking his eggs for candy...

John 3:16-21 (Contemporary English Version)

God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn its people. He sent him to save them! No one who has faith in God's Son will be condemned. But everyone who doesn't have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God's only Son.

The light has come into the world, and people who do evil things are judged guilty because they love the dark more than the light. People who do evil hate the light and won't come to the light, because it clearly shows what they have done. But everyone who lives by the truth will come to the light, because they want others to know that God is really the one doing what they do.

I Serve a Risen Savior

That's my King!

Is He yours?

Happy Easter.

how fitting someone wrote this over the skies of orlando this week!

here

well... we've been here...


at this magical castle...

and touring this awesome place

and climbing in this old swiss family robinson tree house

and trying to pull this sword from the stone...

and watching these incredible fireworks after the most amazing nitetime parade.

we've flown spaceships...

and more spaceships...

we've had dinner with Mickey Mouse...

and kissed his friends...

we've actually found a way to get in the parade by holding the rope and singing and dancing...

we've visited flick's bugs life treehouse...

we journeyed inside this giant ball...

we belly danced, jewels and all, in Morroco...

and we even managed to take a break and play in the pool and snack, of course.

what an amazing week we had at Disney World. we covered so much ground and rode everything we wanted. thank goodness disney came up with the fast pass idea - some lines were 2 hours long. but we managed to never wait more than 45 minutes the whole time. magic kingdom and its adventures were of course the favorites of the week though we enjoyed epcot and animal kingdom too!

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we even celebrated our anniversary down there. thanks mimi and padre for coming down mid-week to hang with us and keep the kids. we celebrated 9 years at a Cirque de Soliel show (which i recommend everyone to see. wow. very cool.).

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and of course for some excitement- braxton woke up our last day with not one- but 2 -ruptured eardrums from a double ear infection. thank goodness it was our day to come home. he's on the mend now with meds. here's to never a dull moment!

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memories, memories!

we told them...

this morning started out just like any other...
i hear briley clanging around in the kitchen fixing her own breakfast (yes- i do make her breakfast but she is "going to die starving" first thing every morning soooo she gets it going for us).
she is dressed.
i get barron up. (he, by the way, is the first riser every day but..he is trapped in his bed).
braxton comes down dressed.

then, things change up a bit.
we call them to our room.
i have a bag full of treasures.
they close their eyes.
out comes (much needed) crocs with mickey and minnie jibbits.
do they get the hint? sort of.
they close their eyes again and out comes coloring books and crayons with mickey all over them.
do they get the hint? getting there.
we say, "we are going to disney world", "flying on a plane"... and then...

they get it! they scream and hug and jump and dance. briley says "oh daddy" over and over agin as she rolls and flops and jumps and hugs. she was wild! barron is mostly fired up about his new crocs as he loves shoes- but he can atleast say "mick mouse". braxton watched his sister's reaction closely and then joined in on the carrying on.

we are beside ourselves with excitement!

the hunt

braxton's teacher, Mrs Cindy, planned up a wonderful egg hunt, hayride, petting zoo and picnic at a beautiful farm near our neck of the woods.here go some egg hunters with Mrs Cindy...

yeah! we found some eggs... most excitedly candy!

barron got in on some of the action!

whenever braxton is asked who his girlfriend is -his answer is this sweet girl!

during the hayride we took a break to see the goats (and even some cows and horses). i have a great pic of the whole class but was unsure about posting everyone's kids faces on blog world?! he has such an awesome class and teacher. i can't believe the year is almost over.

heres to the first of several hunts this year...

and a big horray for spring break!