A Sigh of Relief!

Okay, Mops is over for the month. I can now take a deep breath and dive into Invitations!!!!
My talk went okay I think. I am glad it is over. There was a small crowd this month so that was nice and a little more relaxed. My talk was titled "Dreaming while Mothering". It pretty much just was about how as mothers of small children we need to make sure not to shelve our own dreams and aspirations completely. To try to focus, if not for a small time each week on our own dreams, hobbies, goals etc. Although our mothering time takes up the bulk of it, if we forget about our own personal growth, then when the kiddos are gone in 18 years we can end up lost saying what's next. I talked a bit about my hobbies, and goals for each of them. And how those goals will continue to evolve with each stage my family goes through; pre-school years, school years and then empty nest. I hope I was encouraging for some women that don't feel like they have time for their own thing. I also talked about the GUILT that comes along with Motherhood and how I suffer from that every time I want to take a day away from the kids to go scrapbook, or every time I have a night filled with meetings with Brides. But how believing the guilt is legitimate is not always believing the truth. (something my mom recently taught me).
Anyways, now that that is over...on with working on my dream to be a world famous invitation designer (ha!).
Time you ask?? How do I have time for that. Well, this is how. My children have left me. No longer do they want to live in this house. They have informed me that they are staying with Grandma for 4 weeks. Last night I returned from my meeting to an almost empty house. Mike was home and Piper was asleep, but Emery and Ty were staying at grandma's! Wow, a new thing. We thought we might get a call from Ty saying he wanted to come home. But nope! I saw them for a few brief moments at Mops and then they were off to grandma's again, claiming they were staying for 4 weeks. Grandma says maybe one more night and then she'll be done! I think the waking up at 6am is enough for anyone.

Evidence of being spoiled by grandma and finally passing out at 9:30 pm

Over Committed? Maybe...

It is one of those weeks were I feel like I might be a bit over committed. I haven't been sleeping well, which is usually a sign that I am stressed about something. Could be the wedding designs due this week; the final orders due this week; the speech, newsletter and auction I have to prepare for MOPS tomorrow; the meeting I have tonight for a Women's retreat at church (oh by the way honey, I have a meeting tonight)...and add in the day to day stuff. Could be? Not sure I would function well without being so busy. Some how I seem to throw in some loads of laundry and get the family fed. The dusting however, does not get done. It's been a nice break this morning since Mike took Ty to work with him and Emery has pre-school. As I type this ,Mike calls and says Ty's attention span has just ran out and he wants to come home. We'll see how Emery does later this afternoon at daddy's work.

Anyway, I best leave and get my list done. Did I mention I have a speech to prepare...Okay, maybe Im a bit nervous. More on that in another post.

Just wanted to share some pictures of the work I am doing right now. I love orange! And Pips now that she is wearing her hair back. She hates it when mommy pulls her hair back...but she's so cute!

Here are the Easter Pics Mom.

Survivor!

Mike would win this hands down!

Suggestion for the next "Survivor" Series
Six married men will be dropped on an island for six weeks; each manwill have one car and 3 kids.
Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.
There is no fast food. Each man must takecare of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework,complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of "pretend"bills with not enough money. In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives,and send cards out on time. He must also make cookies or cupcakes for school functions, find babysitters for one grown-up" event per month,and each December "make Christmas happen". Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment! He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care(weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they're about to leave for vacation). They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. and then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better, remembering to send in absentee information to school and get homework assignments. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house,planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times. The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep, kitchen cleaned up and all chores, including laundry, are done.
There is only one TV among them, and a remote with dead batteries. Each Father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.
The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, which they will applyto themselves either while driving or making three lunches. Each man must adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep their nails polished and eyebrows groomed. The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.
During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must explain what a tampon is when the 6-yr old boy finds it around.
Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at leastonce to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
He will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00. They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.
A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name and phone number. He also must know each child's weight at birth, length,time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.
Each father must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, "You're not the boss of me". The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last manwins only if.......he still has enough energy to be intimate with hisspouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 yrs...eventuall yearning the right to be called Mother!

Going On An Egg Hunt.

Here is a few of our Easter Egg hunt in the back yard. The kids kept asking when the Eggs would fall out of the sky. If you've seen Veggie Tales "The Easter Story" you'll know what they mean by falling out of the sky. Cassandra and Kenzi came over from next door while the kids were watching a movie and hid the eggs for me. The kids didn't have a clue. Next time they looked outside they saw that the eggs had fallen in our back yard!

Emery ran around crazy trying to get as many eggs in her basket. Ty on the other hand had to open each egg he found to see what was in it, before moving on to the next egg.

I'll have to post a picture of all of all the kids together in Easter Best. I took those on my film camera.

On The Move

Click on pictures to enlarge and read captions.

A Girl in a Red Hat

This one is for Angela...to make you laugh.
The hat I wore to a "Red Hat Party" for my friend Terri who turned 50.
I chose the "sassy cowgirl" hat as opposed to the "ladies who lunch" red hat.
Thanks for the pictures Cassandra.

Ava Kay

Congratulations to our dear friends Chris and Leslie on their newest arrival. And to big sister Maggie Jean. Ava's adorable, looks just like her daddy! But then again I remember Maggie looking alot like Chris too. Cant believe I missed seeing her by two days. Hope to see you all soon, and snuggle with this chubby little bundle of joy.

It's Official!!!

Time to put up the gate. She's Crawling!!!! Real Crawls!!!! It's adorable, and she's so proud of herself!!! 13.5 months and the girl is finally on the move!!!

My card reader is broken otherwise I would put a picture up. I'll try later! Just wanted to share.

Please remind me...

Please remind me the next time I try to teach Emery how to move her hips perfectly to the beat of a Lauryn Hill song that I am 31, not 21. I think I need hip replacement surgery.

Girls at the Mall

So when the boys were doing their Home Depot project, this is what the girls were doing; at the mall in search of the perfect Easter outfits. No luck at the mall...but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to share a Picture Booth Moment with the girls.

School Girl

It's here! And here is Miss Emery on page 21.

Lil' Builder

The first Saturday of every month Home Depot puts on a workshop for little builders. It's Mike and Ty's special time together. This month was a grandparents workshop. Ty had been looking forward to building the Bird House they were advertising. However no one informed the public that the workshop was moved to a town 35 miles away. So after Mike gently complained they gave Ty his first HD apron and a kit to make his very own Tool Box. He was excited. They promply took it over to Grandpa's garage and began the building process. Grandma pulled out an old hammer she found and gave it to Ty. Turns out it was Mike's first hammer. How special. Ty has been carrying it around in his new tool box.