He has RISEN!

Ooooo, what a cold cold Easter! What a great great day though! Our Savior lives!



We had a busy busy day, first we woke up early and found that the Easter Bunny had hidden all of the eggs that we colored last night! So the kids looked for all of those and found them quite quickly! Then they found thier easter buckets, the Easter Bunny didn't go overboard this year, in fact he/she kept it quite simple, and I'm so happy, I was feeling guilty, but after this day, I'm ok with it! Landon got basketball cards, Bailey got a few littlest pet shop animals and Elliot got a car keys set and Wiggles board book, the older kids got some candy too!

Here are some pics of our family and thier easter buckets!
And some pics of thier sweetest easter outfits! Doesn't Elliot look adorable? Matt doesn't like this style hat, I on the other hand love it, and I win! Bailey couldn't wear her new dress that Grandma got her b/c it was a sun dress and doesn't look that great with boots, and sandels weren't going to work today! But she had a new outfit to wear anyway!
We went to the early service at church, which is completely out of the norm for us, it is a more traditional service and we are used to the more contemporary service, the songs are just more us, but we had to go up north and wouldn't make it in time if we had gone to the usual service, it was different, but it wasn't bad singing the hymns, especially for Easter! After church we headed up north to visit with family and eat a great lunch (half way there we realized that we forgot the brownies, so we had to stop at Walmart and pick some up...so now I have two pans of brownies sitting on my counter, just what I need on top of all that great easter candy)! After visiting for a bit we headed home to find that Landon and Bailey had left thier easter candy out on the floor and Dexter had indulged himself, and then left us a few presents around the house, it must have made him sooo sick! Then for dinner we went to Matt's mom's house, so needless to say, plenty of eating today! Following is a pic of the kids at Matt's mom's, Elliot was in his jammies by this time!

So, I hope everyone else had a great easter and have a great week, I will be gone for a bit but will return later this week! Lot's of prep to do before I leave though, so busy busy busy day for me tomorow!

He has risen!

Happy Easter... a little early! Wishing everyone a great day with family and friends, may you rejoice in our saviors ressurection!


We did an easter egg hunt at church this afternoon, the kids had a great time, I will share pics tomorow! Then my parents took us out for dinner for Matt's birthday. They got back from Florida late last night, the kids were so happy to see each other! They are all sooooo tan... Here is a pic of Dimitri and Angela, braids and all...

Regarding a previous post about being on time... that was not directed at anyone in particular, just something that bothers me, and I can be late sometimes too, I know it happens, it's just one of the things that bother me. One other thing... that I KNOW I am to often guilty of is exageration! A random example is... "We waited at the stop light for 10 minutes". No, it isn't a big deal, but when everything is exagerated, it becomes very hard to believe anything. This is something that I am working very hard on NOT doing! Sadly though it is to natural and I catch myself doing it quite a bit! I guess I keep going back to Matthew 5:37, I want others to believe what I say. I know that it normally isn't anything important that is exagerated, but when it filters into our lives so much and often, it filters into the important things, that is when the problem begins in my opinion. So anyway... just what you wanted, another one of the things that irritate me, again, not directed at any one person, most specifically it's about myself!

So anyway, I'm sure I will be back with sweet easter pics tomorow... enjoy your day!

A layout...

I really like how this turned out...
Credits can be seen here.

OK, ta-da!

Can't believe we did this...truly. As crazy as this sounds, at the risk of sounding like a freak, I actually teared up when they started, when I saw the first strands on the floor! Matt is so not happy with me. I actually asked for shoulder length, this is ear lenght though! The important thing is that she really likes it. She came out of the bathroom spinning her head, hitting herself in the face with her hair and said "I can wack myself all the time now!". I guess if that's what makes her happy whatever! I want it to grow a little longer now, like 4 inches longer! But this is what we have for now...
And a layout I wanted to share too... I did this for Lifts with a Twist
Credits can be seen here.

Look what we did...

just a hint though, I'll be back later after I've calmed down to show you before and afters...
it's a cell phone pic so it's not that clear...sorry!

Busy Busy Busy...

No, not me, but the waterpark. Why didn't anyone tell me what a dumb idea going to a waterpark during spring break would be. Last time we went there it was just a random day, I think our schools were the only one out that day, so it wasn't busy at all! We could walk right up to a slide and go right down, absolutely NO waiting... there were plenty of towels and chairs to sit in, the kids could go down slides and play by themselves and I didn't worry all that much, because I could pretty much always see them...fast forward to today... Parking was minimal (first hint... go home), we waited in line to pay for 15 minutes at least, then I had to wait again for 15 minutes to get a locker (trying not to get crabby, I don't like crowds all that much). There were no tubes to be had anywhere, and the three slides that we knew about all required a slide to go down. Finally we found a four person tube, went down that slide w/o to much of a wait (the first time), then tried to get two double tubes so Matt and I could each take a child down one of the other slides, had to wait for quite a while and finally get a little more aggresive (don't worry, no fighting or anything like that, we just weren't going to stand around and wait for someone to drop one at our feet), we finally both got a tube, went down a slide adn then were going to go in the lazy/crazy river, well the lifeguard at the bottom of the one matt went down made him pass his tube on to someone waiting, didn't want to give it up, but great idea, that way everyone gets a turn. Anyway, long story shorter... slide lines were rediculous (considereing our lack of wait last time), lazy river was obnoxious, hot tub was to packed to even enter, no chairs to be found anywhere, table for lunch was hard to come by (we did find one though), they ran out of towels at one point (right when we were going to leave and needed them), the one slide that they had that you didn't need a tube for was SCARY, but I didn't know that til I was done going down it, it was completely dark (like can't see hand in front of face dark), I did not like it at all, which was fine as that was a LONG line too! Anyway, the kids had a great time, and I guess that is all that matters, I just need to get over it! (Sorry for blabbering on, i'm tired from such a long day)




So I have some pics to share, more later in layouts I'm sure!

OK, I just realized that when editing the pics I forgot to erase part of one, but I'm not feeling like fixing it right now, so just enjoy it the way it is and maybe later I will fix it, but really, do you really care... does anyone even read this... hmmmmmm?????

So, if anyone is reading this, wishing you all a great Easter, how wonderful is it to celebrate such a wonderful gift from our creator, can't imagine where we would be without the gift of eternal life and forgiveness! Praise the Lord!

I'll be back tomorow night...

So, three posts in one day... a little overkill I know, I just wanted to post a quick layout cuz tomorow morning we are taking the big kids to a waterpark for the day (indoor of course, as there is snow on the ground again, YUCK), so I won't be posting til at least night time!

Credits can be seen here.

And a few pics of my little guy, who is quite insistant that he doesn't want baby food, especially if we are eating "big people" food... so crackers it is, wonder how much of it actually goes in his mouth, he seems to wear a LOT of it!

Somthing I heard...

I was listening to Focus on the Family radio program while in the car this morning and heard the coolest analogy... I had to get it down somewhere so I wouldn't forget it!

If I have a $20 bill, how much is it worth? $20 right? Well if I stuck it in the gutter and poured alchol over it and let it stay there for a week/month/year, how much would it be worth? $20 right? What if I poured drugs over it, cocaine, meth, anything? How much would it be worth then? Still $20 right? Why? Because $20 is the value bestowed on it... just as God bestows our value on us, no matter what choices we make our value doesn't change.

Isn't that cool? I would like to think that I don't think this way, but I know that sometimes I will see a drug addict (mostly on tv) and think that they aren't as valuable as me, not that I'm something great or anything, but still not as valuable. Know what I mean? I thought that was a great reminder of how I SHOULD think!

So... yesterday was quite busy, but I truly think it's easier to have more kids here than just my own sometimes. There were 7 kids here for a few hours (3 were my own, but still), my house just isn't that big and in the morning it was raining... but they all found somthing to do, then in the afternoon it got nicer, the sun came out and it warmed up, so outside we all went! They took turns jumping on the trampoline (boys then girls) and we played hide and seek, all while Elliot slept. I can definately relax a little more when they all leave, but all in all it wasn't bad!

Here is a picture of the girls after doing thier makeover and fashion show...

Doesn't thier makeup look GREAT???!!!???

So, I have a layout to share too... a fun close up picture of Bailey and I... I love close ups, not exactly sure why, they don't always turn out that great, but I think they are still fun!

Credits can be found here.

On the agenda for today: I have to go to work for a while this morning, I'm hoping to find someone to watch the kids, specifically Elliot, it's so hard to work with him. Then home for the afternoon so Elliot can sleep, dinner is in the crockpot, roast, and then just a family night at home. I leave you with some goofy pictures of the kids... enjoy your Wednesday!

So yesterday was a kinda boring day, I had an appointment in the morning so the kids went to work for/with Matt, they made a little money doing random things around the office, which they actually liked. I took Elliot with me to my appt, never fun, but what else do you do when all of the family is gone or at work? Then we walked in the afternoon, it was windy, but once we were out of the wind and the sun came out it warmed up quick! I was hot by the time we got home! Elliot fought off sleep the rest of the afternoon so that was a ton of fun (read with lot's of sarcasm)! Then for dinner we had some friends over that we haven't seen in quite a while and we ordered my favorite pizza and salsa (gotta have the salsa, ON the pizza), soooo incredibly yummy! Today I am watching some friends of the kids, Landon has one friend over and Bailey will have three by the time the day is over! Busy busy busy! Oh well, sometimes having friends over makes the day go so much better!

I also have a layout to share! An old pic of myself...

Credits can be seen here

Enjoy your day!

I am SOOO a believer...

in this "Make me gorgeous" action! Look at this, I am AMAZED at the difference! I'll admit, when I first saw it I was interested, but could wait, not that big of a deal, would it REALLY make that much of a difference? Ummmm, YES! Why did I wait?

Check this out...

Look at this before and after... isn't that great. It's a little hard to see the dramatic results as it is on a child with absolutely perfect skin to begin with (and it's pretty small), I can't wait to play with it on my pictures (scary huh?)!

I did another one, I just wanted to see what it could REALLY do... this one hopefully will show up bigger:

I really want these actions, but that will take a lot of saving and persuading!

Off to walk now... trying to loose some weight before bathingsuit season!

A new layout...

Credits can be seen here

I've got a lot going on today, I will probably be back later with more...

I took the wrong child...

to the dr yesterday! After church this morning Bailey was complaining that her ear hurt. I kinda just brushed it off, but it didn't take long until she was crying about it. I know she can be a whiner sometimes, but I think you just know your child and know when something is really wrong, well I knew that something was really wrong, but didn't really want to take the trip to prime care. So I waited, tried distracting her with cartoons and games, but that didn't work, so off we went. I was pleasantly suprised at how quickly we were in and out of there, I think we were gone only about an hour total. We found out that she did indeed have an ear infection and the dr seemed to think that she had pink eye too, her eye was red at the time we were in there, but that may have been because she was crying. Oh well, the drops aren't going to hurt her and I would hate to have Elliot or Landon get it! We went to Meijers to get the Rx's, and wouldn't you know it, the pharmacy was closed. I wanted to get it at Meijers because a) they were close to where we were and b) antibiotics are free there. So, we are going to go first thing in the morning to get them. Right now she seems to be doing fine, I gave her Tylenol and she seemed to think that just the dr looking at it made it better because she hasn't complained since we got home!

I will be back tomorow with a layout to share! Sleep tight!

WooHoo!

I was asked to be a guest on a creative team for Amy Wolff from the LilyPad! I'm so excited to work with more of her stuff, I love what I already have! (See my "Dexter" layout below)

Just a quite sunday here, the weather is great so we will probably go for a walk and play a little t-ball with Bailey and Landon! Right now were trying to rest... we'll see how that goes!

Elliot was so good in church today, he actually slept through most of it whereas we normally have to take him out halfway through! What a joy to actually be able to sit and listen to the sermon for once without distractions! It was a good one on the five love languages, it was a good refresher for what I need to work on!

Anyway, have a great and relaxing Sunday, be back tomorow!