another quote

"And the fundamental mission of motherhood now is the same as it always was: to nurture, protect, and instruct children, to create a home environment that enables them to learn and grow, to help them develop a heart for God and his purposes, and to send them out into the world prepared to live both fully and meaningfully. It's up to us to embrace that mission as our own, trusting God to walk us through the details and to use our willing mothers hands as instruments of his blessing." Sally Clarkson

"Teach by example"

I challenge anyone reading this (i know that's few) to picture yourself at your own funeral (stay with me here) and just be a fly on the wall to be able to hear what people will say about you. No I'm not saying that we need to be concerned about what people think about us that's not what I mean......but what those who TRULY knew you would say about you when you're gone. Hmmmm????? As a Mom I know it's hard to enjoy just being a Mom and that is something that I struggle with......we feel the need to live everything "right now". We can't do it all and I don't want to seem like someone who was worn ragged when my days are through. I want to ENJOY being a Mom, ENJOY being a wife, I love hanging out with my husband and I look forward to having more time with him as our kids get older, I also look forward to possibly having a career someday. Right now though there are 4 beings that require my attention and with me that's 5.....tell me why that is not enough and we feel we have to do more, more, more......... We CHOOSE to have our families.....we CHOOSE to have our kids, yes every situation is different but why do we want these big wonderful families but don't want to spend the time molding them and shaping them and teaching them?

All the things that go on in this brain.......

Gracie's basketball

I can't seem to get the long video to load on here and it's bugging me so right now I will just put these two on so you can at least see her play. I have been so bad at taking pictures during her games (probably because I'm too busy screaming) and I know she wants her family to be able to see her play so this last game we got some good video I just can't get it on here.

She has really improved over the season and is pretty strong in the passing, dribbling, and guarding areas. We are working on looking up when she's dribbling and being more aggressive on the rebound. They have played some really good girls and I see potential for Grace's team they are just still a bit timid. It's really fun watching her though and I hope she wants to continue playing, the boys and girls club is who she plays for and it's a mad house but the coaches were great and it's been fun. :) Her last game is next week....it's gone fast.

(she's #10)

Grace's assembly

This is just a little bit of Grace's first assembly at school where they got to sing. :) They don't do music separate from the classroom because they don't have a music teacher so they don't do programs or anything. Since kindergarten this is the first time we have been able to go and see them sing. My memory card was full so I just got a little bit but still very cute, Grace has been practicing away at home and was excited to do this. Hopefully they will get to do more in the future I think it's so good for the kids to have music as part as their day. :) So here is for the family that doesn't live here and be a part of things like this.

Fun birthday addition

Jen was here visiting last week and so I got to have her here for my birthday which was very fun. :) This is the beautiful sky that I woke up to on my birthday and living here you really notice these things, it was a great start to my day. Then to make my morning even better Jen graciously made me home made cinnamon rolls....YUM!!! We got to hang out in our pjs all day and play wii......
I was dying watching these two play, they are so much alike and get VERY into it. Then she babysat while my hubby and I got to go see The Blindside which I have been dying to see and we never go to movies anymore. Great show btw if anyone has not yet seen it. They snuggled up and watched a movie with Aunt Jen and had a fun night too.
We got in lots of play time, Jackson and Gavin were not too sure of one another but managed to make it work. ;)

We took the kids to the jump around fun zone get some energy out, it cleared out enough that even Gavin got to jump.

Then we got a babysitter and got to go OUT for a night on the town.......okay so we had fun but really realized that we are old....and we're not even that old. ;) So we made the most of it, had a good dinner, a drink, did a little dancing, complained about the crowds, toasted our birthdays and headed home to play 1 am wii and eat junk food.

Brandon and Nicole, the other birthday girl.

Not sure if it's a good thing to match the wall paper or another reason to feel old. LOLLove this pretty lady. :)Trying so hard to get a decent picture......almost.....

There we go.

So "thank you" to Jen and Jackson for coming to visit we loved having you and like always it goes too fast and it seems too short. It means a lot that you made the trip to our little corner of the world. Love you tons!!!

Ringing in the new year with some good friends and GREAT weather!

We had the Stoddards over for New Years this year to play games and have some appetizers, we had a very fun time and learned a fun new game. Dread Pirate, get it if you need a new game because it's pretty darn fun. (could be also because I spanked everybody.....just sayin')

These two celebrated early because we thought there was NO way they would make it the whole night.....but they did!

The kids had a ball and were very good the whole night, Grace couldn't believe there was actually a holiday that we can stay up super late, eat lots of junk food, play games and be rowdy......she has a new favorite day now. :)

Not to mention she got a new record in bowling and actually had 4 strikes in a row, they are better than we are now.

Lots of fun picture taking.

Counting down with their cheese graters........Nicole didn't exactly realize what she was grabbing.

Heading outside to make lots of noise for our oh-so-quiet neighbors.

Grace and Brayden

We had one more adult bowling tournament to get to and we called it a night about 2 am....now that is pretty good considering my husband has about a 9:00 limit. It was a very fun night and hopefully the start to a great year!

The weather is not feeling much like winter lately, it has been beautiful that last few weekends. We have played outside at the park and taken lots of walks it's been great!

Don't mind that this is what you get when you give the man the camera. ;) Good reminders of our new years resolutions right?

We were getting ready the other day and Gavin looked like such a little man that I had to get a picture.

So sweet together.

Girls finding treasures.

This little boy would splash in puddles and throw rocks all day if we let him.

I could eat these chubby little hands. ;)