Misbehaving in Church

I bet you all thought this post was going to be about one of the children. Ah, but it is...well, kind of. My biggest child, a.k.a. my Beloved, was rather naughty in church this morning. He sent me into a fit of giggles from which it took me several minutes to recover. It certainly didn't help that I was a bit tired...made it worse in fact.

So what did he do that was so naughty? you ask. I have to give a little preface. If any of you have ever seen one episode of Max & Ruby you'll know the expression to which I am referring. You see Ruby is the older sister, the older BOSSY sister. There are several instances in which she either makes a suggestion to change Max's original idea or in which she simply says, "No, Max." When she says these things to him or does something he simply doesn't care for Max's otherwise perky ears flatten down the back of his head and he gets 'side eyes'. The face just screams, "I am so not amused by you right now."

My beloved must have been doing something this morning in service that required the 'side eyes' from me. After receiving said 'side eyes' in his little kiddy artist skills he drew me a picture of a bunny with flattened ears and side eyes on his bulletin. The art work and implied meaning just sent me over the edge! I cannot tell you how long it took me to gain full control over myself...but it was several minutes. I even had to take my arm away from behind him as his shoulders started shaking which sent me into another set of giggles!

It was terribly naughty and I only wished his mother lived closer so that she could have set him straight once we arrived home. He is a bit old to be taken over the knee...but I was tempted! :)

Belated Birthday Girl

Kiersten celebrated her 7th birthday last week and I am late in getting some pictures of her up. (The tardiness might become the norm for posting as we started school this week!) It is cute because she is missing both her top and bottom left tooth so even though she is no longer little she still has that sweet little girl look.

She didn't have her own birthday party this year but rather she shared the family (my Beloved's side of the family) party with her older cousin Jacob. Even though the party was joint the cakes were not. :) Jacob had his ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen and Kiersten her Littlest Pet Shop cake. It was the best of both worlds.

Her big gift from us was a new bike. She had formerly been the owner of a little Dora 12" bike. See, at that start of the summer she still needed training wheels but wanted a bigger bike. I gave her the big NO because she needed to learn to ride 2 wheels on the little one before I would let her loose on the big bike. Well, that became her motivation to learn and was I ever hounded after she mastered riding with no training wheels! Sweet mother of mystery! She asked me that first afternoon she did it if we could go to Walmart when my Beloved came home and get a bigger bike. I mentioned garage sales and she was like so when are we leaving? It was hilarious and a good lesson in patience. I don't think the patience part stuck...but we tried. :)

Other than that she still is in love with all things animal. Don't let that Barbie up top fool you. If Barbie wasn't coming with the puppies there would be no interest in Barbie. :) So Littlest Pet Shop things ruled the day as did a sweet little pink pig she wanted because we had recently read Charlotte's Web. She named the little guy Wilbur too. :)

I am smiling reading my post as all the the gifts I mentioned have no picture! :) Well, you get the point...she had a good birthday and was spoiled. Not rotten, mind you, but spoiled nonetheless. Happy 7th Birthday Dearest Kiersten Girl. Birthday Blessings to you! We love you dearly.

Take 2

Last month I had pictures of Katie taken along with pictures of the 3 of them. As I was with Katie I am a bit behind in getting yearly pictures done of the other 2. Since we have to drive 40 miles or so to get pictures done at JC Penny's my Beloved wanted to know why I didn't do them all at once. Well, there were financial reasons as well as just general crowd control reasons. I know you are thinking 3 little people...how hard can they be? Let's just say while I need to focus on picking which pictures I like my back is turned and we all know where that leads...trouble! But I digress. :)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once again. Enjoy!

I had to laugh about how picture days go because we had enjoyed the early afternoon with some sweet friends at an indoor play area. My two came away completely sweaty and needing baths. Isaiah managed to grab that little scratch along the right side of his face and Kiersten acquired a few new bruises along her shins. Only on picture days can they accumulate marks on their bodies faster than imaginable. I should know better by now, shouldn't I? :) Ah well, things turned out cute despite the battle scars they both were displaying. I am confident it had nothing to do with a little bribery of a sweet treat if they followed directions and obeyed! :)

My Boy

My boy. My boy loves cars. Always has and will for some time yet. And not just any cars... Hot wheels cars. So when we went to State Fair and wandered into the Machine Shed and found this...

he was in heaven! Oh, how excited he was. This set up had to be 10 tables long at least. Jam packed and lined with cars, trucks, semis, you name it it was on that table.

He toured the table once with Dad and then I took him around. After we rounded one end to go up the other I had to make it clear to him this was the last time. He could have spent hours in that area and been so happy and content.

They also had another section in the Machine Shed of larger scale farm equipment, trucks and such. He also thought that was neat. What can I say? The boys loves cars. :) Just looking at all this different types of machines and cars is alright... but what say we take one of those babies for a spin?

And that is just what he did! :)

State Fair was more than just the Big Yellow Slide to Isaiah this year. It was cars. That puts State Fair on a higher level in his estimation...I can't even begin to tell you. He was in little boy heaven and it was fun to see and let him enjoy.


My boy.

(P.S. Did I mention my car loving boy can cry more than any 10 kids I know? No? No mention of that, huh? Well, we'll say that for another day! :) For now just enjoy that sweet smile and those chocolate brown eyes with the longest eyelashes ever.)

State Fair

Well, no summer in our family would be complete without a trip to State Fair. This has become somewhat of a family tradition (as my Beloved told the reporter when he interviewed him at the Fair). We go mainly to see the animals...so always around the 1st weekend the Fair opens.

In the Discovery Barn where all the new born animals are we saw...

There were also these newborn cows, twins if you can imagine! Their names...Favre & Vick (little shady on that second name.)

We don't do the Midway, never have. But since we don't do that we do let the kids pick one thing they can 'ride'. Kiersten's ride of choice...

the pony ride.

Isaiah boy prefers what we call the Big Yellow Slide. Although you can clearly see it is yellow and green. I don't know if that has always been so or if at one time it was solid yellow. Hmmm, I'll have to ask my Beloved that one.

Anyhow, this is not a slide for the faint of heart as you catch air on the way down. It is a little scary...the speed...losing contact with the slide for a few moments....but it is also a blast. Just ask my two men. :)

The kids did really well considering it was fairly warm. That freshly squeezed lemonade is what pulled us through! Well, that and Dippin' Dots ice cream. :)

That Katie girl didn't get to ride on any rides but she did see a fair amount of animals. So many in fact that she became overwhelmed to the point of sleep!

What a trooper!

I have more State Fair pictures, but they mostly have to do with the biggest man so I'll save those for a post tomorrow. Have a blessed day. :)

Baby cute

Hey, I am needing some help. I am wanting a new look...not necessary but just thought I would try a few out and see what you all think. I have 6 templates I liked and just wasn't sure which one I should go with or if I should just stick with what I had before (navy blue with dots background).

So I am imploring you to give your opinion. :)

I will change the template each day...so if you could comment on which you like when it appears I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!!!

Ironing

So as a rule ironing is not my favorite nor my most often completed chore. I won't tell you how many years it has been since I have seen the bottom of the ironing basket. Yes, I said years. Ironing is one step bellow dusting. I know, where did my mother go wrong?! :) (Honestly, it wouldn't have been bad if a few more of her housekeeping skills had rubbed off and stuck.)

Anyhow, I was folding laundry yesterday and I came upon several articles of clothing that needed to go to the ironing basket. I looked over at my husband and said, "Don't you know that once I iron something you are not to wear it? It is merely to hang in our closet as eye candy! You know, so the closet looks good and shows off my good wifery skills?"

Sheesh! Do I have to tell him everything? :)

Good sport that he is he gives me a few days notice (usually) when he needs something ironed for work. He knows where I am weak. We have an understanding.

So, the time draws near where I need to put on a good movie, set up the ironing board, turn that iron on and get busy! But it won't be tonight... :)

Wild Olive Tee's for Kids!

Hey friends, just letting you all know that Wild Olive will be starting their kids line this month. And before you ask, yes, they are doing another give-a-way and so I am shamelessly advertising for them again in the hopes of winning! :)

Last time I blogged about Wild Olive Tees it was another give-a-way and it was also the promotion of the charity Until Journey's End. This time the charity focus is on Love Without Boundaries. This organization is out to take care of children who are orphaned or impoverished in China. If this is something that touches a chord with you their site has all sorts of ways to get involved and tell you more of what they are all about. It is awesome that in kicking off their kids tees Wild Olive is supporting a charity that is out to help kids. :) It works.

I do have to say that I did purchase an Unfolding t-shirt when last I wrote about this company on my blog. The shirt is wonderful and I just appreciate that I am wearing God's Word on my very body for anyone and everyone to see and take in. It blesses me and is a silent testimony and witness. Go Jesus!!!

Flown the Coop

Last week I mentioned a guest who was temporarily visiting the house. Today that guest has literally flown the coop!

That's right our caterpillar hatched from his chrysalis this morning. I have to say he was a cheeky little bugger....doing everything in secret. He formed his chrysalis in private and then had the gall to hatch when no one was looking! We feed him, provide him a nice warm home...and this is how he repays us? Honestly.

What is funny is Kiersten had asked me just this morning how much longer I thought it might take before he hatched. My beloved had mentioned some butterflies can take up to 2 weeks so I told her it could be another couple of days. An hour or so later I get a call from a dear friend and as we are chatting I looked at the cage and something didn't look quite right. He had hatched!

I know, I know cut to the chase and tell you...did we have a moth or a butterfly?! We had a butterfly. :)

Well to be honest I thought we had a moth on our hands as he wasn't all that spectacular to look at. See what I mean?

He's all plain and brown lookin'. When I first saw him his wings had to have been still a little wet because he appeared much more black than brown. (And yes, I really took these pictures of our Hermie as we let him go in the backyard. He decided to show me the love I was complaining about a few paragraphs before of not receiving and pose for pictures. :) What a guy, huh?)

However, what I hadn't fully seen inside Hermie willing showed me outside...that is the inside of his wings.

Behold, Hermie the beautiful butterfly! He is what is called a Gray Comma Butterfly. I simply love the shape of his wings and the color only shows off how beautiful he really is.

I have to say I am always in awe of how the Lord created things just so. This butterfly has two different colors to his wings. The outside brown plain coloring is a means of protecting the butterfly from predators, such as birds. When Hermie lands on a piece of wood he easily blends in and is lost to the eye.

However when he opens his wings he shows what a magnificent Creator God is while displaying his beauty. Awesome.

Well, as house guests go Hermie was well behaved, if a little rude (You know, everything done in secret). He was quiet, not very demanding, kept to himself, not very messy (although he did eat himself out of house and home!) and just generally a model guest. That being said I let the kids know we can do this again anytime because I thought it was beyond fun.

I'll take another uninvited house guest anytime-that is the furry crawling kind!

Long Overdue

I have been quite slow in getting pictures taking of Katie. For the other two I had their pictures taken at 6 months and then 1 year and yearly after that. Well, Katie has no 'official' 6 month pictures. So when she turned 1 I thought I need to get it in gear. What was captured? Well, take a look and see. :)

I do confess to being smitten with this brown haired beauty of mine.

Such a pixie, she is!

That little tongue has been making its debut. Especially when playing at meal time!

I could just kiss that sweet face silly. Wait! I do. :)

And what would picture taking be, if not to get one of the entire clan?

Caption title on this one?

TRIPLE THREAT!

Did I ever tell you....

I have a thing for feet? :)

I have to admit it is ridiculous, this thing for feet I have. Let me just put it this way...my Beloved is fortunate to have 'nice' looking feet...or seriously, his bare foot would never touch me. I know, I know. Completely ridiculous and totally unreasonable. I get it. I just can't seem to get over it.

Anyhow, my favorite type of feet are little feet. They are just so adorable. Well, truth told I find most things small cute and adorable, but I digress.

These are little Miss Katie's feet while she was sleeping. I know I tried to get a picture of Kiersten's feet as a baby. She was sleeping out on the living room floor (a luxury I had when I only had one baby) and her sweet little feet were crossed at the ankles. Unfortunately those were my pre-digital camera days and I didn't get a clear picture. I don't think I ever took a picture of Isaiah's feet when he was little. I think I was in pure survival mode back then and just wasn't able to enjoy the little things. If that makes sense.

Alright, confession time is over now. Hope we can still be friends even with my foot thing! :)

(Oh, did I mention that my feet are 'nothing to write home about'? Yeah, ironic. I know.)