YMCA and Basketball

Today was a busy day with cousins.  

We headed to another YMCA out of town about 40 minutes 

away to enjoy their nice pool.  

We spent the morning 

swimming, playing in the gym and eating lunch there. 

I love this towel and Busy Bee looks so cute in it!

After spending the morning at the YMCA, we headed to 

the gym to watch Big J play basketball.  

It was sweet to watch these girls 

cheer their brothers on.

Mall Outing

While the men were out of town, Grammie was in town and

 we headed to the mall to get some energy out.

New Cousins!!

We are so blessed and thankful to welcome two new cousins to our family.  

Uncle and Aunt who live out east welcomed a new baby girl to their family on October 3rd!

Then on February 13th, they welcomed baby boy.

Not twins, but close enough! 

You may be wondering - how? 

Precious baby girl was adopted on October 3rd while my 

sister was pregnant with baby who was born on February 13th.

We are so excited for them and I can't wait to go meet my 

new niece and nephew in a just a few weeks!

Basketball

Big Brother has been enjoying attending a basketball class on Friday afternoons.  

While Big Brother was playing, Purple Girl and

Little J enjoyed watching.

Aunt Fell has been taking both Big J and Cousin J to basketball.

This Friday I took them, and she stayed home with Busy Bee and Girl Cousin J.

Busy Bee adores her cousin!

Daddy and Little J

Like Big Brother

This little girl loves to read BIG books like her brother. 

If big brother is sitting and reading a book,

 she will grab a BIG book too and sit next to him to "read."  

I asked if I could read next to her and she said "No, mommy.  

When you are grow up and turn into a boy then you can read like me and "Big Brother."  

Snow and Cousins

Overnighter

Several of our husband's were out of town at a church conference.  So, to help pass the time and to have some fun, we decided to have a sleep over.  This meant that in our home we would have five adults (four mom's and an aunt who came to visit), and 13, yes, I said 13, children under the age of six (Big J is the oldest of his cousins and friends).

The girls enjoyed doing hair.

After dinner the children enjoyed watching

a movie together.

Little J loves his cousin.  This cousin is so gentle and loving

with his Little J.

Purple Girl loves to cuddle with her little cousins....

And her little sister!

The night before she cuddled her sister while watching the movie (see above)

and the next morning she was ready to cuddle sister again.

The next morning we enjoyed pancakes.

If you are wondering, the children (for the most part) 

slept great and had a lot of fun!

Daddy's Boy

Little J is his daddy's boy!  If daddy has him and I (mom) go to reach for him, he will turn his head away from me and grip onto his daddy tightly.  He tends to smile some too, like he knows he is playing a game with me.  But he wants his daddy and always reaches for him.  It is so sweet to see how much he loves his daddy.

Cousin

We had a sweet little cousin visiting last week.  

Daddy's Helper

 We had sink issues the other evening, 

so daddy and his helper went to work to fix it.  

They had it working again in no time.  

The Brother of Two Older Sisters

Since Big J was the oldest, there are certain things that never happened to him, that have and will happen to Little J.  The other day Purple Girl was playing with Little J in her bedroom when she says "Mom, come look at *Little J*, doesn't he look adorable!"

She had put one of her girl hats on him.

As you can see, he wasn't so thrilled to have it on.

Tumbling

Last week was a watch day at tumbling for the children.  Although Busy Bee isn't in tumbling, she enjoyed dressing up and going to watch her two older siblings.

These two really enjoy tumbling class together.

"Mom" and Her Babies

This Little Girl loves her baby dolls.  For any one who knew me as a little girl, this picture will bring back memories.  I have so many pictures of myself with my baby dolls as a little girl. 

More Fun at the Y

We found a parachute on craigslist, so we took it to the YMCA to play with the cousins.  

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun!  

We had balls on the parachute and the children loved making 

them fly high into the air.

Then we put Little J in the middle - he thought it was so neat.

Question of the Day 2??

If you leave a two year old in her crib to look at books, what will you 

see when you come back in to check on her?  

If you guessed books dumped out in her crib and two year 

old sitting in the tote the books were in, you were correct!

Question of the Day?

Should you leave a two year old in her highchair with red food coloring 

while you run upstairs to grab her baby brother who woke up from nap?

Answer:  NO!!

You may be asking yourself, why did she have red food coloring?

The children had red food coloring mixed in vinegar that they would dump into baking soda in a foam egg carton.  They enjoy watching it bubble.  Great activity while mom is getting lunch ready.  However, the two year old needs to be supervised!

10 Years

I have been married 10 years to the most amazing man!  

The children and I planned a fun surprise to celebrate.

We decided to plan a wedding and the children, especially the girls,

were very excited.

The decorations began with a banner my husband made when he proposed to me.  Over 10 years ago he took me up an airplane and flew over a field near his parent's home where he had several of our family members and friends holding a large banner made of sheets in which he had sprayed painted the words "WILL YOU MARRY ME?"  The banner barely fit around our family room.

The children held up YES signs as daddy walked around the 

corner and saw what we had organized for him.

We had our preacher:

And our flower girls:

Mommy walked down the "isle" 

holding onto her precious little guy.

After the wedding ceremony, 

we had the dance.  The preacher then

turned into the wedding photographer and 

really enjoyed his job.

Then Daddy "sang" to mom 

the same song he sang to her 10 years ago.

The girls sat patiently and enjoyed watching mommy and 

daddy dance together.  Now it was there turn to dance

with their prince - their daddy!

After dinner, some sparkling grape juice, and 

of course some wedding cake - we enjoyed a little more dancing 

to the chicken dance, the hokey pokey and the locomotion.

It truly was a wonderful evening.

I feel so blessed, so loved, and

so thankful...words can't express my joy-

all praise and glory to our Lord!