My Moments and Memories

blessings in the midst of tears

2011-09-26T10:02:00.000-05:00

I have such a heavy heart today. A very dear lady passed away this weekend, complications from her battle with cancer. She was my age. Why is it when someone dies we say, "she was too young" or "it so sad because she has kids" or "she was such a good chirstian woman". Would it make a difference if she didn't have all those things? Would it make it ok then? Would it hurt less? The fact is she was all those things and so much more. She had a huge heart for people, for kids, for her family and most importantly for Jesus. I have no doubt where she is now and she is rejoicing. Well done good and faithful servant. Regardless of how much comfort this brings to the family the fact remains that two beautiful children will grow up with only the legacy of how beautiful their mother was. I know it is not for us to understand God's ways and I have no doubt this was His will but my heart is still very heavy. I still mourn the loss of a dear woman and friend. It does make my one.thousand.gifts list that much more meaningful today. Through tears as I type my many blessings...

~ wonderful sprinkles of rain through the sunshine
~ neighbors sharing their love of horses with our kids
~ bickering that turns to laughter
~ afternoon football
~ busy schedules
~ dinner as a family
~ crafting time
~ cuddles with the cat
~ sweet early morning cuddles with the littlest one
~ hearing "mommy I need to go to the baf-room"
~ family time
~ technology

2011-09-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

As I have said many times before....I LOVE Wednesdays. Ty is off work on Wednesdays and we get to spend time just hanging out together (plus Meara). We usually try to keep the day pretty low key but today we had several errands to run. Despite having to make several stops we had a nice day. The weather was beautiful, I got craft paint so I could finish a couple projects and we found this really cool kitchen island at my favorite "Antique" store....its been there since the spring so was marked WAY down (and I even haggled a little). So excited. :) The picture below is my "new-to-me" island and its a perfect depiction of my crazy life....we brought it in the house and in just a couple hours this is what it looks like.....sweatshirt, school books and a science project!

Gotta say that I love my life.....are there things I would change?? Sometimes! But mostly I am trying to be happy exactly where I am, right now...at this moment.

conquering fears...eagerly!

Making old things "new" again...one.thousand.gifts

2011-09-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

What an outstanding Labor Day weekend. We spent quality time with great friends, new and old, we had some great time together as a family too. We were given tickets to the last home game for the Naturals Baseball, got to watch fireworks and eat ballpark peanuts (yum), ate yummy homemade mexican food, played softball (parents against the kids), ate smores around a fire and didn't melt from the heat, had a bbq at home with friends and went fishing, then had a lazy Monday with nothing really that we had to do. The weather was absolutely beautiful. A little too cool for swimming in the pool but breezy cool weather after all those high temperatures this summer was a welcomed treat. The extra day this weekend was so nice since our crazy busy school schedule, fall ball, guitar lessons.......has all started. I feel like a headless chicken more often than not in the last few weeks but I love it. Being busy is far better than trying to entertain 4 bored kids. :) My "thankful" list is kinda long since I haven't posted it up here in a while.

--great friends --beautiful weather --dirty tree climbin' clothes --big fish --delicious bbqs --bbq sauce from back home --bday breakfasts --special lunches --fantastic Craigs List finds --husband that supports me in EVERYTHING I do --new outfits (& shoes) from grandmas --allergies from the ball fields --texts from dad --beautiful words from the bible, spoken directly to me --strong women full of courage --quiet cool mornings --sweet puppy sleeping at (or on) my feet --lazy mornings with nothing to do --managable To-Do lists --health --music that speaks to me --making time to be creative --feeling safe --being appreciated --quiet house after kids are back in school

paint covered hands = happy heart

2011-08-18T21:26:00.000-05:00

Today I got to pull out all my *stuff* and just create. I had an idea in my head and I love being able to make that idea into something beautiful (and that actually looks somewhat like what I had in my head). A month or so ago I bought a barn window that said "bloom where you are planted" and ever since I got it I've wanted to creat my own. So today I did!

The window I bought

My version

--housework that can wait
--fingers and hands splattered with paint
--good friends that pick up craft supplies for me (thanks Jo)
--a friend that doesn't mind my messy house
--chores finished
--no complaints to hearing "leftovers tonight"
--understanding husband that always encourages
--beautiful words
--funny stories
--bedtime prayers

Thankful

2011-08-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

Today was Ty's day off. I look forward to Wednesdays every week. Its so nice to have time just us (and Meara). We didn't do anything exciting but being together was nice.

More gifts....

--haircuts
--quiet time
--wonderment of a 2 (and a 1/2) year old
--evening devotions
--playing outside as a family
--basketballs, softballs and toy jeeps
--laughter
--popcorn

So Blessed

2011-08-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

Crazy busy the last few days with school starting and birthday parties, Gravette Days' festivities......

To anyone that is keep track and keeping me accountable...I'm still stopping throughout the day and thanking God for that moment, I just haven't gotten those moments transferred to the blog! :) I finished the book One.Thousand.Gifts and have started reading something new but same similar subject. Its good, scary, overwhelming, daunting & so many other things all at the same time.....to really learn, dig deeper & truly try to understand God on a different level than I have ever even considered before. Its an interesting journey to say the least. Trying to become the person God created me to be....

My list of gifts over the last couple of days:

--Small towns
--good friends
--parades
--fresh squeezed lemonade and homemade bbq
--Street Dances

--watching the kids experience pure joy, just being silly and run around in circles
--Birthday Party giggles
--disagreements that lead to long talks
--night before school butterflies
--FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
--pot roast cooking in the crockpot
--family meals & devotions
--letting go...and just running without worrying if someone will see me

--Creativity
taking something simple or plain & making it into something unique and beautiful
--Quiet mornings
--coffee on the back patio while listening to the birds sing

One.Thousand.Gifts

2011-08-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

Missed posting for a couple days.....

--rain
--"funder" and lightening (or dropped taters and flashlights)
--sweet little friends
--roller skating
--independance
--cooler overcast days
--comfort food
--grasshoppers and catapillars
--crackle paint
--school supplies

--new haircuts
--chore lists
--playing catch in the yard
--hardworking partner
--clean kitchen

No NOs

2011-08-08T15:45:00.001-05:00

Today......I will not be so quick to say NO. I promise to myelf (and my children) for today I will listen and think about their request and will not just say a quick NO because its easier or less messy or .......whatever other excuse I have at the time.

So....today we have gone swimming, had spaghetti O's for lunch and built living room forts with everything they could get their hands on!

I am thankful today...
--quiet time to read the bible
--swimming in the morning shade
--a puppy that likes to swim with the kids
--living room forts
--saying YES
--beautiful rain

Beautiful Gifts

2011-08-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

As a mom I feel very blessed by the beautiful gifts of my children. I was given 4 children with very unique personalities and they constantly amaze me. I could fill a list of 1000 gifts just in them alone. One aspect of these personalities is the ability to just be silly for the simple purpose of laughing even if it is just laughing at themselves. This is one thing I could never do even as a kid...I didn't like "feeling silly" or like someone was laughing AT me. Obviously this is not something that Austyn has ever considered......she is quite comfortable being SILLY! And I adore her for it!!

--silly hats!

--ability to make others laugh

--confidence

--cool-er evenings

--sounds of summer

--cicadas

Dare I say "vintage" barbies were discovered in our 'need to move to storage' pile. I laughed out loud listening to the 3 big kids play with my old barbie. I answered many "mom what is THIS" questions and I'm kinda embarrassed to say the answer was "its a tube top" more than a few times. I'm a child of the 70s...what'd ya do???

--busy days

--football practice

--using my degree

--marketing

--Popsicles in the pool

Thankful

2011-08-03T22:42:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for a lot!
--bruised ribs
--boy time
--quality time with my beautiful little ladies
--tree covered country roads
--pampering my girls
--pedicures in the kitchen

--yellow, teal and lime green toe nails
--dinner with good friends
--uneventful swimming time
--local people being kind to people they don't know to honor the memory of a beautiful little boy

Book One.Thousand. Gifts

2011-08-02T22:26:00.000-05:00

"I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower and that we have to bow down, always down, to get His best gifts." F.B. Meyer quoted in the book One Thousand Gifts

John 3:30
He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less

Still struggling with actually putting what I'm reading and learning into action....but I'm working on it.

Thankful today for.....
Ice Packs
classic Disney movies
church challenges
diving in deeper....and learning something
good news on facebook
play dates

One.Thousand.Gifts

2011-07-29T22:35:00.000-05:00

--Grandma's cookies

--Small reminders of where my roots began

--holding hands
--Guitar lessons
--patient teachers willing to increase their love of music
--sunshine
--cartoons in the van
--gravel roads
--quick chats with a good friend
--evening dances in the pool
--family time
--empty laundry basket and full closet
--watering flowers with my son
--watching his facination with how everything works
--his love of hugs
--ice cream
--the littlest one making the big ones belly laugh
--hanging pictures

One.Thousand.Gifts

2011-07-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

God's subtle reminders to listen

One.Thousand.Gifts

2011-07-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

Live In Handyman

God's Sprinkler System (and Air conditioner)

Inspired

2011-07-12T15:20:00.000-05:00

So I was recently inspired by a very dear friend from HS.....and as my usual....it didn't last long! After a conversation with my best friend in the world, after a lot of prayer and many church services I think maybe its time to listen. I seriously need to re-evaluate my life, my existence and what makes me happy. In short....I need to be more content with where I am and just be happy because the alternative is, well it is not fun. Someone recently pointed out that God had me just where HE wanted me at this particular time in my life and although I may not (and probably will not ever) understand why He is doing what it is that He is doing and I need to shut up and listen! By and funny turn of events that I believe was totally a "god thing" for lack of a better way to describe it, we have moved (yes again) into a beautiful home. We are still renting and for those of you that are keeping count, in 14 years of marriage this will make our 12th move. I'd like to think that one of these days we will in fact actually purchase a home which would mean another move but for now I'm happy in this "old farm house". We live on land and though it isn't ours per say its beautiful to look at. It has the feel of being out in the middle of no where yet we are only a couple minutes from town and whatever we would need. There is a pool out here too which is so nice, a little intimidating at first but I think we have already gotten used to it.

Ok so back to my inspiration......a few months back my very dear friend started posting these exquisite photos and all the titles said one.thousand.gifts. So it intrigued me to say the least. I found out that it is a book she was reading about (in a small nutshell) being happy where you are. Sort of a "bloom where you are planted" type thing. (haha thanks pastor Spencer...that was what you told us in church this week).

So between reading about the book http://onethousandgifts.com/the-book , seeing the beautiful photos Chanda has been taking and getting a deeper glimpse into her heart, attending church and listening and trying to practice what I've been learning each week and several conversations with Ty, I've decided I need to read this book and not just the website about it AND I need to be more thankful with what I have and less impatient because I don't have what I want yet.

So to begin my one.thousand.gifts and what I am thankful for today....

A man that I can call my best friend...and mean it...that walks, not in front of or behind, but right beside me through the good and the bad, the wonderful and the scary. He never waivers in his love for me or his love for his God and the need to serve Him. And for all of that I am truly thankful.

Just pictures....3+ months worth!

2010-08-13T16:47:00.012-05:00

Ok well these pictures brings us through July anyway. Everything is in reverse order because I wasn't smart enough to upload them backwards and too lazy to flip them all around....so you'll have to go back in time....sorta.....anyway here ya go. If you are on Facebook some of these will be familar. And once again I will promise that I will try to get better at updates.

playing at Chuck E. Cheese

Anniversary canoe trip

front porch swing of our cabin in Eureka Springs

Meara got a new playhouse

reading the paper with daddy

1st Haircut, 19 months

Emma with sparklers at July 4th party

Austyn and a sparkler

Meara and Daddy watching the 'snakes'

Dagan sparkler

Meara's cupcake

Dagan's ??? cupcake

Austyn's cupcake??

Emma's cupcake??

Beautiful flowers

dagan climbing wall

Austyn gets a little higher on the climbing wall

Emma wins the prize!

My new (but very messy) scrapbook station

Two pretty girls

crafty projects

Easter picture

Miss Taylor on the big screen

Dagan took all he could take

3 cute cowboys

the cell phone lit up has now replaced the lighter

Watching the concert

Just waiting

Emma, do you know where we are??? We got tickets for Taylor Swift!!!

Meara in her "waggy"

Playing with Uncle Scott at Grandma's

The layout I made to display at Grandma's funeral

Austyn won 2nd place in an art contest at school

2010-08-13T16:20:00.002-05:00

Well I really don't have a good excuse for not posting since Christmas so I won't even try. All I can say is worlds of changes. So.....lets see......I finished out the year at the High School, packed up way too many books but had a great time there. Kinda bummed we don't get to use the new school that we heard being constructed on a daily basis but we are on to other things now. The last month of school or so Ty was "commuting" back and forth between Arkansas and Kansas so he could go ahead and start working at the Chiropractic office in Gravette. The first part of July we all moved to Gravette into a 4 bedroom duplex in the middle of a neighborhood FULL of kids. The neighbors and kids have been great. We love sitting out in the front yard in the evening, when its not too terribly hot. School starts next week for the kids and I'm really looking forward to some one-on-one time with my baby girl. We've taken a few short trips this summer, but mostly stayed pretty close to home. For our anniversary this year, the middle of July, Aunty Carol and Gram generously offered to keep all 4 kiddos so we could have some time together. Anyway, we took a weekend trip to Eureka Springs and went canoeing one day and basically just hung out together for a week and enjoyed the quiet. We spent a week in Texas visiting grandparents and a weekend in Kansas for Ty's school reunion. Funny it seems like we were gone ALL the time but when I write it down it doesn't seem like a lot. All in all its been a great, although very hot, summer. We are enjoying Arkansas a lot and already feel at home here. I guess that's it for now. I have a bunch of pictures and I'll try to get them off my phone and on to the computer so I can get them on here.....stay tuned, more to come.

pictures to go with last post...

2009-12-15T18:30:00.005-06:00

As promised here's the latest photos.....

This is Meara in her Christmas dress just being cute little Meara!

Kings and Angel from nativity play at church program last week.

photo shoot for Christmas card photo

nope...

no....

almost there......

decorating the tree, it was Emma's turn to put the angel on top!

Dagan and Ty braved the freezing cold to decorate the outside of the house.

We did family photos last weekend so hopefully we will have some of those up here soon to show everyone. Fingers crossed we got some good ones. We had so much fun doing them I can't imagine they aren't great.

We are now all done with Christmas programs, piano playing, singing and picture taking at least until all the Christmases and birthday we have coming up.....

Watch this space for more of our crazy lives!!!

Missed a whole month!

2009-12-07T08:36:00.004-06:00

Ok so apparently I missed the entire month of November. Let see what's been happening since I posted last when we were all sick! Hmmmm we were home for a full 9 days stuck in the house so I'll blame the non-posting on that!!!

Lets see.......since then, I started a job, Ty started a job, I went to CO for a girly weekend away, Ty went to Arkansas to help a friend work for a couple days, Ty went hunting, I went to mom's early to help out because my grandma is in the hospital, Ty drove down to TX by himself with the 4 kids in Thanksgiving traffic and OK construction.......phew! That's about it! That's the short version at least.

I started working at the High School library and its been fun so far. It is a different dynamic at the school as a staff member than as a parent, so its been interesting (in a good way). Ty started working as the Parts Manager at the local Chevy dealership. He's been getting them in order and organized (*gasp*) over there and I think he's been enjoying it too. So different than anything he's done before but I think he likes it. About a week after I started working I went for 4 days to Colorado for a scrapbooking weekend with friends and it was SO much fun. I had a great time, relaxed, laughed, got a lot of work done (amazingly enough) and spent some much needed quality time with one of my very bestest girl friends! You can take a look at what I got done here: http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries&u=388043&a=222815&page=1

Hopefully that works. I know there is a probably a really good way to do that and make it look better but I don't know how so you get the whole address.

After I got back from CO on Sunday, Ty left for Arkansas on Tuesday early in the morning to help Eric out at his office there. While he was there I got a call from my mom saying that grandma had a stroke and was in the hospital. We were all supposed to go down there for Thanksgiving but instead of driving down with Ty I flew down a few days early to help mom with the driving back and forth to the hospital and to spend some time with my grandma. She is not doing very good at all. She had a massive stroke and has deep brain injuries from it. There is little to no recognition at all and when I looked in her eyes she just looked so scared and confused. I hated seeing her like that. Doing things like that are most definitely not my strong suit, I'm not good at it, I break down and hospitals make me nervous but I did it and survived. Two almost three weeks later there has been no change at all. She is not in pain so that is good but inside she must be miserable, not being able to speak or talk with her family has got to be killing her inside. I know it is out of my control, someone much bigger has it taken care of and when its time, He will bring her home to be with Him and my grandpa. In the mean time however I pray we all have patience and that she is as comfortable as possible! I was always really close to my grandma and grandpa both so its really hard to watch them deteriorate like this. She taught me how to sew, how to crochet (although I never could get the hang of that), she started teaching my girls how to crochet too and honestly they are better than I am! She was in the middle of making Dagan's and Meara's quilts to match Emma and Austyn's. She was the one that taught me how to love my husband and what a good marriage was all about. She taught me how to pray and that it was perfectly ok to just have a conversation with God, as if he was sitting next to you chatting. She taught me how to respect my elders and speak with respect, to appreciate what I had and to respect my parents. Even when I was angry at them as a child she would never let me speak disrespectfully about them, or anyone else for that matter. She was strict and opinionated and I adore her as much today as I did then.

ok on that very sad note, I have to go before I start crying! I will try to get pictures up here soon of us decorating the house and the tree for Christmas.

Sick....blak....yuck...hack...cough.....yuck!!!

2009-10-23T13:50:00.003-05:00

Ok so the entire family is sick. Emma started all the fun over the weekend, her best friend was home from school sick on Friday so we blame them (hahaha only kidding Gina!) So it all started with coughs, dry, wretched sounding, horrible unproductive coughs, one by one each 'big' kid gets it, then the fevers start, nothing so high that its scary but high enough, then the mommy and daddy start getting it! There is little worse than an entire household full of sick whiny people. And then there is the poor sweet baby, she was so strong for almost the whole week, we were feeling like she was pretty lucky, on top of the fact she is likely the most healthy, has the best diet of anyone else and gets good sleep etc. But then yesterday the fever and poor but still a little cute sounding cough. Poor girl! Still though, even when we all know she didn't feel good she still smiles. Her little eyes are perfect windows to whats really going on inside, it is so clear that she doesn't feel well but she is still so smiley and sweet. I hate that she is sick but wow she is an amazing child to still be able to smile at you like that. I am really really proud of all the kids to be honest. I've never heard such terrible coughs, you'd swear they were trying to cough up their toenails from the inside out, but they have been so brave and helpful to each other, sharing the blankets and tissues, being a lot more tolerant of whats on tv and watching shows that one doesn't like just because another one does and hopes that will make them feel better. Emma has had the cough the worst of everyone but still very little complaints, she listens to what we tell her and does whatever she can, even laying down for a nap which she HATES, just to help in the healing process. Its been the worst for them at night when they lay down the cough gets worse. I could say, hands down, they have all had more medicine this last week than in their entire life times combined. Poor pitiful things. Thankfully we don't think it was swine flu but some kind of flu for sure. It was definitely a weird something for sure. All the symptoms started on Saturday, today is Friday so hopefully we are about finished with it all. The big kids coughs are slowly starting to ease up a little bit but it has been a painful process for sure. So far too the baby's symptoms seem to be not as bad or as rough sounding but we're watching it close. It was helpful that school was closed this week so they weren't missing anything but there are a million things I can think of that would be so much better way to spend a week out of school than staying locked up in a house with 5 and now 6 sick people. The silver lining....maybe we are getting it all out of the way now and we'll ALL be healthy for the rest of cold/flu season! Fingers crossed!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Boy

2009-10-03T11:31:00.003-05:00

Six years ago today we were holding this sweet little guy! He was such a chubby little thing, with big chipmunk cheeks and full of grins! His two big sisters were SO proud of him.

On Dagan's first birthday he had WAY too much fun with his cake, it was everywhere, even up his nose!!!

Dagan always has a smile for everyone. Always full of energy and very silly and the first to try to make us laugh. Dagan is the most lovable little guy and is full of hugs and cuddles!

You are such crazy boy, flying around like an airplane or zooming your cars around the kitchen floor under my feet. You are full of life, high spirited and LOVE your race cars.
You were so excited, you could hardly contain yourself waiting for Cars to come to the cinema in town. We counted down the minutes til it started. This picture is of you right before the movie started. Your enthusiasm was just barely contained!!!

Such a handsome little guy. You are growing up way too fast! What happened to my cuddly baby boy?

I think you really wanted a baby brother when we had Meara but I've never seen a child more proud of anyone than you were at that moment! You are such a great big brother! I love watching you play with her, showing her your cars and letting her play with even your most prized race car and trains.

My sweet baby boy is 6 today and I have no idea where the time has gone. It still seems like you should be just barely toddling around and crawling up into my lap to 'read' a story and cuddle. I miss that little bity guy sometimes but you are growing up into such a sweet, loving and smart young man! Even though your energy can be overwhelming at times, it is what makes you YOU and I adore you sweet Dagan! I hope your birthday is full of fun today and the coming year is full of adventure and blessings.

Sad post this time

2009-09-22T17:01:00.007-05:00

Ok so this post is a little different than my normal posts. The last several weeks have been pretty tough around here. Ty's dad, Mike, had been struggling more than normal and we all knew that he was really getting worse, quickly. Week before last was a bad week, thankfully on Thursday when Ty took the kids by to see him he did recognize them and talked to them a little but even they knew that Papa was not doing very good. Then, on Friday he didn't move at all. He was asleep, or something, all day, he didn't move at all and was completely non responsive. We lost him early Saturday morning. Even though we all knew this day was coming, it didn't help the grieving any. We waited a week to have the services so that Melissa and Avery (our niece and her mom) and other family and friends could make it here. I think each of us had good days and bad days. I do believe there is a good reason why when someone passes away, you have the services sooner rather than later, the waiting is tough. The memorial services were beautiful. By our best calculations there was somewhere around 130-150 people there. We picked out two great songs, The Best Days, by George Strait and Go Rest High by Vince Gill. A very good friend was kind enough to sing at the service too which was just beautiful. Mike was a huge lover of all things outdoors. He loved camping and fishing and boy scouts and he lovingly passed on that love to his boys. They decided the best place to put his ashes for the service was in an old Coleman lantern. A perfect touch I thought. One of Mike's wishes had always been to have some of his ashes poured into the family's flagpole at the cemetery. So, late Saturday afternoon, with the help of a friend, that is exactly what the boys did! Bob lifted them up to the top of the pole and using Mike's favorite coffee cup, Ty and Tad poured Mike's ashes down the pole. Poor Tad is deathly afraid of heights, so we were all impressed that he was even able to go up in the bucket, but he sucked it up and did it! (However there may be permanent impressions from Tad's fingers) Although it was a very sad occasion, lots of tears were shed and hugs given, I felt very lucky that I was even there and able to say that I had known Mike. He got a new heart 15 years ago this week, but if some other family in Iowa had not lost a member of their family or honored their son's wishes and allowed his heart to be donated, Mike's funeral would have been years ago. If that had happened, I would not have had a father-in-law at all, he would have been gone before I was part of the family. Mike was a tough old guy, he was opinionated, loud and sometimes harsh, but we loved him, a lot! He also had a BIG heart, he adored his family, doted over his grandchildren, had a special place in his heart for all his 'girls' and we put him in a special place in ours! You were loved Papa Mike and we will miss you terribly. I truly hope you have found the perfect fishing spot and are loving life now that you are healthy once more. Until we see you again, rest in peace!

Pictures from Austyn's Birthday

2009-09-22T16:45:00.006-05:00

Here are just a few pics to share:

First time to have blueberries! I think she liked them???

Austyn's Birthday pictures to go with previous post....

We took the girls (and Dagan) to dinner and movie for Austyn's birthday, instead of doing a big party.

Early scrapbook lover........

Dagan's first lost tooth!!! He pulled it himself and was very proud of himself!

Birthday Angel

2009-08-28T19:35:00.002-05:00

I can't believe Austyn turns 7 on Sunday. We brought cupcakes, lemonade and treat bags up to her class today and the entire walk from the car I kept looking down at the candles in the cupcakes and thinking that can't be right......Ty? She's 7, is that right? I must have asked him 3 times walking from the car. It just didn't look right. How could 7 years have passed since our sweet angel Austyn blessed our family. She has a friend over for a sleepover tonight, then we are taking her, and 3 friends, Emma and Dagan to dinner and movie tomorrow night. On Sunday we will have lunch and birthday cakes (and possibly a few presents) after church. By Sunday afternoon I'm sure she will feel very well celebrated! We are so very lucky to have been given such a precious gift as our sweet 7 year old Austyn!

Pictures of all our little parties to come.......

School, Friends and Finally some crafting!!!

2009-08-18T11:03:00.011-05:00

Ok so I have pretty much stunk at updating much this summer....honestly I don't even have a good excuse either! Here's what we've been doing. We took a week right before school started and went to visit friends in Arkansas and then dropped down to Texas to visit the grandparents for a few days. It was a short visit but we had a good time. Right when we got back one of Ty's childhood best friends came to KS for a visit (they live in Canada so it was a great treat to see them again). We tried to remember and I think it had been about 9 years since we'd seen eachother or met eachothers kids! It was a wonderful afternoon, thunder/hail storm and all!!!

Almost all our kids (Macy wouldn't join in the group)

The whole crew!

Andy, Chad and Ty

Here are a few pictures from the lake with Grandad...

I love this picture of Dagan & my Dad!!!

Helping build the 'sandcastle'

Meara didn't get to play in the sand or the water much but she sure had a good time!

Water fight....this was taken just moments after Emma threw a whole bucket of water on Granddad!

We stayed at grandmas too and played and hung out by the pool but apparently I was too lazy to ever get up and get the camera because I got home with no pictures from there or Arkansas!!! Hate that!

As a reward for reading so much this summer (over 50 books each!) Auntie Carol took the kids to the Salt Mines in Hutchison. It was such a cool tour and the kids really had fun (and even learned stuff...shhhhhh!) Heres a couple pictures from that day too.

It is still a working mine so we had to wear hardhats and have emergency breathing thingys.

And then it was time for school to start! I've never seen kids as excited as they were to get back to school! Long may it last! When I picked them up from school the girls chattered non-stop about what they did, their teachers, their friends, lunch, recess.......you get the idea! Dagan says mom I was a good boy ALL day I used my NEW listening ears almost the whole time. Almost? I said, yes he said the rest of the time I used my OLD listening ears! Really, and where did you get the NEW listening ears.....at the EARS store. ROFL!!!! He was so funny, grinning from ear to ear!
And no that isn't a TV over their heads in the background, it is a picture hanging on the wall with a reflection on it.

And finally a couple new pictures of our new crawling Meara! She is growing WAY too fast, I can't believe she is already crawling!!!

And as if that wasn't enough......I finally got some scrapbooking done. Good news I got several layouts done for Aunt Donna's book, bad news it isn't catching me up on my stuff any but it is always fun to work with baby photos and Mya is such a cutie! You can check out the layouts (I think) here: http://www.scrapbook.com/myplace/index.php?mod=galleries Hopefully that works.....Ok I think that's it for now, I might have more pages added to that gallery if I can get myself organized and back to the table to craft this afternoon...we'll see!

Much needed time together!

2009-07-11T18:53:00.012-05:00

We have been married now 12 wonderful years. We've been through so much in our time together, grown up a lot, learned more lessons than I can count, seen some amazing things & places and have 4 fabulous children together, but it is so nice to be reminded that we are truly best friends too. We found a great deal on last minute plane fare/hotel/show tickets for Vegas. We bought the tickets on Sunday I think and we left on Tuesday early. So we were really rushed to get ready for the trip but we did it, got ourselves organized, the kids sorted with all their appointments and such and got away for a few days, just the two of us. We walked, I think, about 50 miles in 100+ temps, but we saw so much! Even though we saw a lot we didn't feel rushed at all, we stopped when we wanted to and it was really relaxing. We saw two shows, a Cirque de Soleil show and Jubilee. the acrobatics in the Cirque show were really good but we were both blown away by Jubilee, it was a 'show girl' type musical show, kinda what you always think of when you think of vegas shows complete with huge feather head dress things and all. It was fantastic! We stayed at New York New York which was really cool. It was huge! I think that was what surprised me the most, the shear size of the casinos/hotels. They were much bigger than we imagined. There was a piano bar at our hotel with 'dueling pianos' that was really cool to watch. Ty got a Guinness at the 'Nine Fine Irishman' Pub at our hotel, sadly it wasn't nearly as good as those at the true Irish Pubs, but he suffered through! We aren't huge gamblers but we did play the slot machines and video poker and blackjack. The slots were more frustrating to me than anything else but I did alright at the Blackjack...at one time I had doubled my money (which a whole 20 bucks!) But sadly I didn't stop playing then....I quickly lost it! On our last evening there Ty did pretty good at the slots and won back all that we had gambled the days before so we broke even! I was happy with that and we were smart enough to cash out then too! We were only gone a couple days but it was so nice, a great break we had such a great time just being us and being together. We missed the kids but loved our time away.
Twelve years ago (tomorrow)......I married my best friend, the one I laugh with, dream with, live for and love! Happy Anniversary sweety! I love you and can't wait for the next twelve years with you!

a nice couple took our picture while we were waiting for the fountains at the Ballagio

Ty out front of Margaritaville

Our gondola 'driver' at the Venetian

Ty was sad drinking a Guinness at the Irish Pub.

Self portrait at the Venetian.

Foot bridge over the Gondola river at the Venetian.

Ty at the botanical gardens at the Ballagio

Ty with Miss M&M

Kel with M&M and NASCAR car

For their surprises we brought the kids back t-shirts from M&M World....Meara the lil Peanut!

Lots of cool stuff...

2009-06-21T17:25:00.016-05:00

Its been crazy around here and I've been really really bad at blogging so far this summer. We've been so busy but that really isn't an excuse. To Make up for it though, I'm going to pack a HUGE amount of pictures in this one post!

Well first of all, today we had little Meara baptised. She will be 6 months old next week (and thankfully the dress fit). She was such a cutie, she sat in Ty's arms at the front of the church and the entire time the pastor was speaking to the congregation she was smiling big, kicking her feet and looking around, as if to say 'I know you all came here today to see me so here I am...'. She was so sweet!

We've had an insane amount of storms passing though in the last week and a half or so. We had an incredible thunder and lightening storm one late afternoon last week and after it passed over us the atmosphere was yellow. It was so unusual looking but beautiful just the same. This is a shot Ty got of the grain elevator here in town.

We have another couple weeks of baseball left and as the days past the kids are getting better and better. We have been loving going to all the games and practices. This week our niece was here visiting from Arizona so the kids were over the moon that she got to come watch a game. The first games they had after she was got here was cancelled due to the weather but she and Tad were at Thursdays games. Here are some pictures from last Thursday's games and also the games from week previous.

Cute little baseball butt!

The dirt on the face was there BEFORE the after-game snacks!

Last week we also hosted a water balloon fight! haha Two of the kids' friends came over along with Avery (yes that's right we had 6 kids at the house) and had a water balloon fight and then a dip in the pool, followed by snowcones....sounds like a good day! They all had a great time I think and slept well that night too!

(Grand)Dad came to visit for Meara's baptism and Father's Day. He got here Friday evening so on Saturday we went to Exploration Place with him. That is the coolest place we've been to in a long time! The kids got to look at a whale exhibit as well as about a million other things and just about everything there they could touch and feel or pick up and play with. It was so much fun for all of us!

The kids in a 'Tornado' tube.

This is a table with running water and you had to arrange the baracades so that the ball would travel from one end to the other.

You could pull a ring up over your head and enclose yourself inside a bubble...

And finally, a day of beauty! We took the big girls to get their hair permed at the cosmotology school in Dodge City on Friday. Aren't they cute!

Ok, that's it for now. There's a lot of pictures there so I think I'm caught up......I think. Wishing everyone a very Happy Father's Day and prayers to Magan and her family (my sister-in-law)who lost her brother on Friday. So sorry for your loss.

Hopefully I will be blogging again sooner this time.

Baseball babies

2009-06-01T21:03:00.004-05:00

Well we jumped in with both feet to this baseball stuff! We signed the kids up through the rec department before school ended this year. Emma was old enough to join the 'Designated Pitch' team and Austyn and Dagan are on a T-ball team together. Austyn and Dagan have had one game, Emma's second game was tonight and she got her first hit! She barely grazed the ball but it was enough to give it forward momentum and she made it to first base! She was so excited she could hardly stand it. Needless to say Ty and I were very proud!!! Austyn and Dagan both got hits at their first game and made it to base. They were a little confused as to what was going on as they had never played before and had only had two practices before that first game. When Dagan hit the first time he carried the bat with him to first base.....but hey he got to base. I really like the coaches, they are great with the kids and encourage them. A couple of the kiddos on the t-ball team are such wee things they can barely see from under their batting helmets! So cute! Here are a few pictures from their first games and Emma's second game tonight.

Emma playing catcher

Emma hitting the ball

Ready to run to 2nd

Meara and Daddy cheering her on.

Meara, Gram and Daren watching the games

Dagan running to 1st with the bat...

Austyn running after her first hit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've been back in the US now going on 5 months. Its hard to believe its already been that long. It feels like just a couple weeks ago that we were traipsing through the airport with all our stuff.....we'll most of our stuff anyway. We miss our friends over there (Thank goodness for internet, email and facebook!!!!!), especially when looking back at pictures but we love being close to family again (most of the time). It is so nice to be surrounded by people that love us and adore the kids and to have help and free babysitting, often at the drop of a hat. Then also to have somewhere we can go, just to relax and hang out for a weekend or longer that is just far enough way that we feel like we are getting away but still be close enough that we can go easily. That is a wonderful feeling all the way around. We've been living in this little, close-knit community and pretty much anytime we go somewhere, some one smiles and asks how we are doing, if we are settling in and that they know Ty or his parents, brother, aunt , grandma etc. Its a comfortable feeling, if that makes sense. We still aren't 100% as to what we are doing but more and more makes sense to stay in this town. God could still lead us down a new path but as we watch Him unfolding the cards it sure seems that way. It can sure be hard sometimes to let go and let Him lead, but we are trying. We are still living at our aunts house and its going pretty well, it has surprised me actually how well we all live together, the six of us, Auntie Carol, Ty's cousin Kert and Ty's grammie and of course the dog. That many people under one roof and getting along, thats a pretty good acomplishment! It will be very nice when we get our own place but sad in some ways too. Its great having the children surrounded by people that love to spend time with them. We'll see how this journey all plays out. Anyway, I heard this song today and I've been singing the chorus all evening.

I get going so fast that what matters gets blurred

And I can’t feel the grass, see the trees, hear the birds
The sky starts to rain and I cuss and complain like a fool
Yeah I forget how good I got it sometimes
How lucky I am just to be alive
Oh I pass through a prayer to the Man upstairs
Just to thank Him like I should
Let Him know I get it
God I got it good
Yes I do
Get it, got it, good

Ok, so I better run...I'll leave you for now, humming a little country tune.....

So much going on at the end of the school year...

2009-05-13T13:14:00.011-05:00

Oh my goodness we have so much going on here at the end of the school year. We decided, really last minute to go down to TX to surprise my mom for Mother's Day. Well we succeeded I think, she was completely shocked and almost speechless when she saw the kids running up her sidewalk. We had a wonderful visit with Grandma, Grandpa and Great-Grandma Austin on Saturday, just hung out in the pool all day Sunday with great weather. Well we had great weather until Monday morning when we were packing to leave. It poured rain on us from Dallas all the way to Oklahoma City, about 4 hours! I don't know what made the trip back to KS so long but I didn't think we'd ever get back. We had a school meeting at 5.30 that we were trying to make and we pulled into town at 5.25! Nothing like barely making it! Oh well, it was worth the rushed trip. We had a good time in the pool, a great visit with family and it felt great to get away if even just for a couple days. We are looking forward to our next trip to Tx, hopefully in June or July to visit Granddad and Grandma Carol this time. We miss all our of our Ireland friends but it sure is nice to be close to family again.

the whole family

superstar emma!

Lounging Meara

Cannonball!!!!!!!!!

Meara and Daddy

That going under the water business makes one very sleepy...

Tuesday at school the girls had a little music program called 'Getting Down with Mother Goose' it wasn't long but it was really cute.

This is a dinosaur diorama that Emma did (along with mommy and auntie carol) for school. Pretty cool dinos, don't ya think?

After the music program on Tuesday, we did the dinosaur project Tuesday night and then Wednesday, Greensburg, Haviland and Mullinville schools do 'Little Olympics' in Mullinville. It is all track-type events and the little ones can do three events. They had a great time, win or lose, hanging out with their friends, eating their sack lunches and watching all the events and races.

Our two Little Olympic star athletes!!!

Meara hanging out in the stroller waiting to watch the next race.

Dagan and his little friend Carson, having a snack and watching the races.

Emma and her friend Alex watching the race.

Austyn and Gracie planning their next strategy.

Austyn at the standing long jump.

Emma at the standing long jump

Emma running the 35m dash, she came in 6th

Austyn getting ready to start the 55m relay race, they came in 1st!

Austyn grinning from ear to ear after the announcement that her team won.

All in all it was a great day. The weather was sunny but enough clouds to keep it from being unbearable and just a little breeze to keep you cool. We had a great time cheering them on too!

Hmmm this is appropriate...

2009-04-22T13:42:00.001-05:00

So I get these emails from WayFM, a christian radio station, and it amazes me sometimes the versus and songs they use on the devotional sometimes just really hit home (lately it seems they are all appropriate in some way) but anyway....this was in my email inbox today...

Whatever You're Doing
by Sanctus Real
Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believeYou're up to something bigger than me

Becoming the person that God wants you to be is a process. It takes time and willingness. And when God begins working in you, it can feel like you’ve been put into a giant blender and everything is getting mixed up.It can feel like your life is in total chaos and you have no idea which way to go. But God knows what he’s doing. And he’s doing everything for your good. So when you feel all mixed up and don’t understand, trust that he’s up to something big. He’s making you into the person he wants you to be.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,so my ways are higher than your waysand my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Don't think I could have said it any better...but its a great description at how we are feeling right now...

Saturday stuff

2009-04-18T19:08:00.004-05:00

This morning Ty and I went to pottery class while Auntie Carol & Gram watched the kiddos. Its nice to spend some time just us, even if it is just a couple hours. A pottery expert I am not but it sure was fun to just hang out and laugh together. We got home to a house full of rambunctious kids but they did clean their rooms and helped a bit with the family room so that was nice. This afternoon we had a pretty serious band of storms come through the area that had the potential for tornadoes, thankfully all we got was a little lightening and thunder and some rain. The rain is good for the crops I guess but I'd be really happy to get back to the warm weather again! After living in the rainy climate for 3 years I should be happy with any sun we get!

I finally was able to replace my Cricut machine and it arrived on Thursday. I had a lot of fun playing around and seeing the new features of it. I'm looking forward to scrapbooking and making more stuff. I got a good deal and got a 3rd cartridge basically for free, it was back ordered so I haven't gotten it yet but hopefully it will be here soon. I think my favorite part of the new machine is that it cuts chipboard, that would have been nice to have when I was hosting the classes. I am considering teaching classes here at the arts center....I haven't decided and don't know that I want to do it again but we'll see....as we get more settled and know more what we are doing maybe I'll know more.

That's it for now....gotta get the kids in the shower so they are cleaned up for church tomorrow....

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T12:56:00.008-05:00

Easter Sunday...after church and a lot of rain...we still don't look too bad I think!

Meara's first Easter

Getting ready for the egg hunt.

Coloring eggs!

Before and after...

The Easter Bunny was here...

2009-03-23T10:08:00.008-05:00

I'm incognito...you don't know me!

Such a good big brother!

Well I really don't have a real update to put down here but I wanted to add these pictures I took of Meara. I can't wait to print these and start scrapping them. I love black and white photos, I don't know what it is, just something about them I always think they are so beautiful. Of course having cute subjects helps too! Aaron and Brianna stayed a couple days the end of last week on their way back to CO. Their little boy Chase is 3 weeks younger than Meara. I was looking through the photos they had taken of their little guy, all in black & white, I got motivated to take some of little (or no-so-little compared to Chase) Meara. They had an awesome picture of their feet...mom, dad and baby Chase. I thought it would be really cool to do of the 6 of us but haven't figured out the logistics of 12 feet yet. I'll keep playing around and see what I come up with, might have to be a photoshop project....we'll see.

Its hard to believe that Meara is 3 months old on Saturday. She is getting big, I've already had to go through her clothes and pack up the things that don't fit anymore. Sadness! She is starting to smile and giggle on purpose, rather than randomly. It is so fantastic to look over the side of her crib and watch her smiling at a toy but then grin from ear to ear and giggle when she sees you looking at her. Priceless!!!

It was Mother's Day in Ireland yesterday. Kinda a weird feeling. I guess I still in a way feel like we are on 'holiday' instead of living here again. Of course I think that feeling slowly disipates with each load of laundry I do...hahaha *sigh*

Ok...I love saying this....are you sitting down??? you should be....cuz I'm off to scrapbook! Yes you heard me right...I'm working on a 'Baby Girl' book for Ty's aunt Donna of her granddaughter Mya. I've got one page done....not sure how many I have to go but I'm off to work on it!!! Yippee!!!!! ~later

sneaky peak~~this is the first page of the book...

Happy St. Patricks Day

2009-03-17T12:54:00.004-05:00

Well its St Pattys day so we just had to share some cute photos of the kids.....we have Ty's birthday, Mya's birthday (Ty's cousins little girl) and St. Patty's day. Here ya go:

This is Mya and Meara....giving kisses! Mya had her first birthday party on Sunday. She was so cute and loved to 'cheese' for the camera! Mya was born on St. Patrick's Day so Lisa had everything decorated so cute with pink and green decorations and a fantastic cake. I think Ty had 3 pieces but we weren't really counting! ;o)

Happy 35th Birthday Daddy....

My compliments to the chef!

ok, so that's it for now. Happy St. Patty's Day everyone....

Photo Shoot of the Wee Little One

2009-03-06T10:05:00.007-06:00

No real update right now, just wanted to share our mini photo shoot pics of our little Meara...she's already growing way too fast!!!! Ty took advantage of the great sunshine and warm weather and of course a fabulous subject......enjoy!

Gotta love this weather!

2009-02-25T14:01:00.008-06:00

Ok so I had to start out with these cute pictures of the kiddos. I still can hardly believe we have 4 kids but there they are in all their glory...and matching outfits! haha We took this after church so they were still semi clean and put together from that. And to make it even better we actually got a picture snapped with all three of the 'big' kids looking the same direction! Added bonus!

Ok so on to the real reason for the post...its sunny and warm outside!!!!!!!!!!!

We are definitely enjoying being here now. It has been so beautiful the last several days, even the wind is bearable! We all played/walked around outside yesterday afternoon and today Dagan, Aunt Carol, Meara and I walked to school when it was time for Dagan to go. It was wonderful out. Its supposed to be nice like this for a couple more days anyway....wishful thinking I'm sure to think that we are finished with winter so we better enjoy this while it lasts! Last week we took the kids to play at one of the parks after school too. Of course we had the camera with us...no surprise there...

I had to add this picture in here too. Ty's grandma loves to hold Meara, unfortunately though it seems like when she is out in the living room with us and wanting to hold her, she is a being fussy or its time to eat and she's angry about it! Grammie Great has held her several times but when she did Meara would cry. :( She is generally such a good baby and really only gets upset when she's hungry and its time to eat! Well we finally got it together and gave Grammie the baby when she was in a good mood and got a great picture of it too!

Ok so thats about it for now. I don't really know much more to update....I'll try to add more later....bye for now

Back home?

2009-02-12T14:34:00.011-06:00

Last Day of School for Emma, Austyn and Dagan in Ireland.

Dagan and his teacher and 'snowy' the class stuffed toy that goes home each week with the 'Pupil of the Week'. The class voted that Dagan get it since he was leaving. So we said we would take pictures of snowy at different places on his trip back home and send it on to them.

visiting friends at dinner before leaving.

Sisters hanging out in the hotel the night before we left.

Dagan and 'Snowy' getting ready for a nap??? If only...

Kel and Meara...I was sick can you tell???

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Jims house.

this is Autumn (the little girl that Great-Grandma Austin watches everyday) holding Meara at granddads house. I have some pictures of grand dad with the grandkids too but I think they are on his camera...will have to get them.

Now that you've seen all the pictures...I'll bore you with my rambling...

Well we spent a few days in Richardson TX with my mom. We weren't much fun I don't think though because me and Ty were sick! I got the flu or something in Ireland before leaving and the flights over didn't help matters at all so by the time I got to mom's house Monday night I was feverish, achy, etc and basically took a hot shower and went to bed. Nothing quite like flying all day with the flu! YUCK!!! Two weeks later now, I think I'm gonna live...We also got to spend a little time with my dad and my grandma too. We were feeling a bit better by the time we visited with them thankfully and managed not to make anyone there sick, unlike poor mom and Jim, we left them with our 'exotic flu bug'. Its always nice to be able to just hang out and spend time with everyone. Wednesday the 4th we headed out on the 7 hour drive to Ty's aunt's house in Greensburg KS where we will be staying for at least the next few months. We have basically the run of the basement, our own little space. It will be a bit strange for a little while til we get settled but so far its not bad. Its good being by family, most of the time.

The kids started school on Monday (the 9th) and so far are loving it! Dagan only goes four days per week which he thinks is great. He's telling us now that he can clean his room on Friday and on Saturday when the girls have to clean their room he can watch cartoons! LOL The girls have Valentine's Day party in their classes on Friday and they are so excited! They celebrated Valentines in school in Ireland, but not like they do here. Its fun watching them do the things that we did when we were in school. The biggest thing so far though that they are most excited about is Cafeteria food! haha I guess when its new and something you've never had before, its exciting. :o)

First day of school in Kansas.

All in all though, things have been going ok so far. Will be better once we know for sure what we are doing and where we are going permanently. For now though, we are helping out around here, looking for work for Ty and applying for licenses.....thats about it for now...more later!

Give me a Revelation...Show me What To Do...

2009-01-24T05:46:00.004-06:00

My life has led me down the road that's so uncertain

Now I am left alone and I am broken

Trying to find my way, Trying to find the faith that's gone.

This time I know that you are holding all the answers

I'm tired of losing hope and taking chances

On roads that never seem To be the ones that bring me home

Give me a revelation......Show me what to do

Cause I've been trying to find my way, I haven't got a clue

Tell me should I stay here Or do I need to move

Give me a revelation, I've got nothing without you

My life has led me down this path that's ever winding

Through every twist and turn, I'm always finding

That I am lost again. Tell me when this road will ever end.

I don't know where I can turn, Tell me, when will I learn

Won't you show me where I need to go

Let me follow your lead, I know that it's the only way that I can get back home

I am really loving this song right now...of course if you read it you will understand why. I guess it is really speaking to me because of all that is going on in our lives right now. The song is by Third Day, called Revelation. We have this CD and all of the songs are great but this one is my fav, at least right now.

Ok, so on to the reason I am posting. We are living in a mostly empty house (except for all the furniture and stuff that belongs in the house). So that is good and bad, good because it means we are almost ready to move, bad because...well we are almost ready to move....ugh! We've loved our time here and feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to live in Ireland and see all the things we've seen and meet all the friends that we have made along the way!

On the really lighter side, did I mention how much I love my kids!!! They seem to be a never ending source of love and laughter! I'll tell you what I mean....
Dagan: 'Dad?'
Ty: 'yes Dagan'
Dagan: 'when I grow up and become a super hero, will I be make-believe?'
Ty: 'snicker....well..snicker snicker, laugh...ummm'....(uncontrolled laughter impedes ability to answer....)

Emma: 'So Dad how'd you sleep?' (I seem to miss alot of these funny conversations)
Ty: 'umm it was ok, a little tired but not bad'
Emma: 'good, how did little Meara do?'
Ty: 'oh she was ok, was up a few times, that's why I'm tired.'
Emma: 'well, I guess thats what you get for having another baby...'

ok..last one, again by Miss Emma!

Emma: 'I'm really looking forward to moving home now'
Ty: 'Well that's good, I'm glad you aren't sad anymore'
Emma: 'Yeah, I'm excited to see my grandparents.' 'Grandpa Jim is an excellant fisherman, he caught that huge fish hanging on his wall, maybe he will take us fishing. And we all know that Grandma (Joyce) is excellant at shopping and she told us we would go shopping for 13 outfits!!!!!'
Ty: '13 huh? that's a lot of outfits are you sure you heard that right? Maybe she said for AN outfit, only 1?' Then there was too much laughter for her to continue with what everyone else was 'excellant' at...you hate to actually laugh AT your children but sometimes they are just too funny! :o)

ok, so that's about all I have for now, no pictures this time but I will post up some of the kids last day of school in Ireland soon, probably not til we get back stateside though. Stay tuned...more soon!

Packing and Pictures

2009-01-19T16:31:00.008-06:00

Well we are right in the middle of packing up, what seems like, our life into 12 boxes that are 23kgs or less. It is unreal to me that in 3 years we can accumulate so much......well just stuff! Its not good or bad its just stuff and its everywhere!!! It just amazes me. Oh well, we will get it in or we won't, either way a week from now we will be back in the good ol USofA. :o)

A lot of people ask, 'are you excited?' I don't know really what to say, part of me is excited to be home again and the other part is really sad to leave our life here. We are very lucky in the fact that everywhere we've lived we have made such wonderful friends. It would be easier to leave if we didn't like it here or didn't have such good friends. Moving always brings with it a sort of great adventure even though it is a bit sad too. I think once we have more things packed up and stacked by the door it will seem more real and the excitement will set it, for now though all I see are all the 1/2 empty boxes/totes/suitcases and the small piles of things that are waiting to be packed, given away, sold or dumped!

Ok enough of that...here are a few new photos of our newest little one....

Cutest little knitted dress and bag a patient (and mum of a good friend) made for little Meara. Isn't she so cute!!!!! It is so soft and fuzzy too....I think she knows how beautiful she looks!

Our three sweet girls...

Well I guess that's it for now....next post will likely be made stateside....

Rah Rah Rah...Emma turned 8 & had to cheer about it!

2009-01-11T16:12:00.008-06:00

For Emma's 8th birthday we had a Cheerleading Party at the local dance studio set to the tunes from High School Musical 3. We had 9 kiddos there shouting, cheering, dancing, and snacking! Everyone had a wonderful time. It was so much fun watching the concentration of all of them learning the routine, they took it very seriously! They all got to dress up in little cheerleading outfits complete with sparkly pom-poms!!! I think Emma said thank you for the great party about 2 dozen times in the last couple hours. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself....here are a few pictures from the party:

I'm so glad Emma had so much fun at her birthday party! Happy 8th Birthday sweet girl! I can't believe you are 8 already...the time has flown by, you are such a big girl now and such a joy to have as a daughter. We love you very much...Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me.....

2009-01-05T14:27:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I turned 34 and I couldn't be happier! I woke up with an 8 day old gorgeous daughter beside me and 3 more bright happy faces grinning from ear to ear and saying happy birthday mommy!!! I was given homemade cards and a fabulous new set of 'snoopy' pajamas along with several hugs and kisses from everyone. Life doesn't get better than that! Along with the comfy pjs I also got a voucher for a facial and pedicure from Ty and a little money too from Ty's mom....little mini shopping spree and some pampering is in store for me...... :o) As if all that wasn't enough I also got to go to dinner--TWICE! Me and Ty and the wee one went to eat Thai food on Saturday night which was fab! This is the little missus all dressed up cute for dinner.

and napping after we got home....

This outfit was SO cute...it even has a little bity tail on the back! Adorable!!!

Then after church on Sunday and a lazy afternoon of doing nothing, the whole crew went to eat pizza and pasta Sunday evening. All in all it was a wonderful day. I am truly a lucky lady to have such a loving family that takes such good care of me!

This is Meara dressed up from her first Sunday at church...

She is just about back up to her birth weight now and doing fantastic. Her brother and sisters are so proud and are such a great help to us. They love her and it is incredible to watch their eyes widen when she smirks or smiles or coos and even when she doesn't do anything more than just lay there and sleep. Me and Ty are slowly getting used to not sleeping thru the night.....sort of. Its amazing how fast you forget....it also amazes me at how I can actually function, semi-effectively, on such a little amount of sleep. I'm not sure that it would be safe for me to operate heavy machinery or anything but the toaster and cappuccino maker haven't proved too difficult...........yet! ;o)

Emma's birthday (OMG she's going to be 8, when did that happen?!?!?!?) is on Friday and her party is on Sunday so I will be back here with pictures from that...check back in a few days.

She's HERE!!!

2008-12-28T11:19:00.005-06:00

Well our beautiful little daughter has finally arrived! Ty's mom was due to visit on the 27th and this new little one was kind enough to wait til she got here and spent some time with Emma, Austyn & Dagan. Right as we were getting the kids ready to get to bed my water broke. I didn't want to tell the kids because I wanted them to be able to get some sleep. They had been so excited all day with Gram here and had gotten up early to go with Ty to the airport. Well, Emma must have sensed something because she 'couldn't sleep'. We found out later that she was up as soon as we left! About an hour after the waters broke we headed to the hospital, thankfully because she was in our arms less than 30 minutes later! We got there a few minutes past 9 and she was born at 9:35 on 27 December 2008. We named her Meara Joy Russell. Meara (meer-a) in this spelling has Irish origin and means Jolly or Jovial and Joy came from two of her grandma's, Joyce and Betty Jo. Also conveniently enough, she shares a birthday with Grandma Joyce! She is, like her name, truly a joy! She is our biggest baby weighing in at 8 lbs 9 ozs (Dagan was 8lbs even), she has a full head of black silky hair, just like Austyn did and she shares her daddy's nose, just like Emma, Austyn and Dagan do. I'm not exactly sure who she looks like yet.....I'll give her a few days first. Her big sisters and big brother are only the tiniest bit proud of her.....they've been so funny today, doting over every little noise and movement she makes! The dog and cat aren't quite sure what to make of this new addition to the family! Here are a few pictures we took....only a few though! I think at one point today Ty had 4 different cameras he was taking pictures with.....again only a little bit proud! :)

Due date here (and almost gone) but no baby.....

2008-12-23T16:12:00.004-06:00

Well I guess technically the baby is 'here' with me she just isn't HERE where we want her! I was so hoping for the baby to be here before Christmas but it sure doesn't look like its going to happen. Today is officially my due date and much to the kid's dismay the fact that it is the 23rd today really doesn't mean anything.....one of the girls asked me this weekend how much longer til I was due. I said well I'm due on Tuesday, she said then what? Well honey then if I don't have the baby on that day then I will be overdue....YOU CAN GO OVER???? Total shock, poor thing! They've been waiting for so long and just can't understand why I can't just push and have her out! they are asking me several times a day (each) has my water broken, I'm not sure that they even know what that means but for some reason that is the question they are stuck on. I guess they know that it means something is going on when it happens. There is no shortage of well wishes and advice too! :o) Today was the last day of school and between today and yesterday I must have had 15 parents or teachers say best of luck and can't wait to hear the news etc.....even Dagan had advice for me.....hold your breath when you push mommy, it helps me when I go to the bathroom.....literally had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard! Too cute!!!

Although mentally I'm really ready to be done now, I have truely enjoyed this pregnancy. It has been so fun watching how involved the kids have been, how excited they are and interested in everything. They pray for me every night and for the baby in my tummy, that she is safe and healthy and strong, etc. I get a hug and kiss when they leave for school and each of them give my tummy hugs and kisses and say 'have a good day baby'. They really are so sweet. I'm really looking forward to just how they are with the new little one. I know they will be loads of help, maybe too much at times, but so fun to watch.

I go to the OB at the hospital again on Monday (unless I have had her-they keep telling me I could go at any time...gee thanks!). So far everything has been just fine, scans have all been good so at least I know she's healthy and hope she's not getting too much bigger....I guess we'll see soon.

I guess that's it for now.....Merry Christmas to all!!! Will update again when I have more news...

Getting into the Christmas Spirit...

2008-12-09T16:38:00.012-06:00

We actually put up and decorated the tree over a week and half ago now, we always put it up Thanksgiving weekend, I'm just now getting the pics off my camera and on here...don't really have a good excuse so I won't even try!

I wasn't exactly feeling Christmasy at the time but the kids were so excited about decorating that we couldn't put it off any longer! We listened to holiday music and they danced around and debated over which ornament would look better here or there...they had so much fun, it was great watching them.

Dagan's turn to put the Angel on top!

Sassy's new favourite spot!

We added a few more decorations to the house last night too. The kids wanted to make snowflakes (I actually had to look up online how to do it because I coudln't remember! Very sad!!!)

I've been doing a little bit (a very little bit) of crafting lately as well. When Ty was home back in the Spring, he picked up some paper for me to use for my classes. This Christmas themed paper was part of that bundle and I loved the paper so I just had to fit in a class before this baby joined us. So last week I had a Christmas class, it wasn't full so I have some paper left but I at least got to use some of it. These are the two LOs that I did.

Then some of the ladies from the craft forum that I hang out on had a Christmas party online last weekend. There were games and classes/tutorials etc. This card was my take on one of the classes that was posted by Jackie on her blog. The inside of the card I left blank so that I could add a Christmas picture, when we get around to taking one! Thanks for the instructions Jackie!!!

~tfl

My little birdies arrived!

2008-12-05T10:15:00.005-06:00

No I don't mean I've had a baby! No one get excited....although I'd really love if that is why I was posting! Don't get me wrong, I love being pregnant....most of the time. The pregnancy overall has gone by very fast, honestly its hard to believe that it is almost over. BUT at the same time I am tired of my ribs, pelvis, back etc hurting ALL the time, walking like a duck, not having room in my tummy to eat much at a time, and the vein in the back of my knee is really sore (and nasty looking to be honest). Ok ok, enough whining! It doesn't sound like I'm enjoying myself at all but I am.......truely!

Ok back to the reason for the post.....you may remember a few weeks or so back I won some lovely little birdies that Heather, a friend of mine makes and gave away on her blog. She really makes lovely things! (go take a look on her blog or on her etsy shop) I was expecting 4 but actually got 6 of them so I was very excited! They were sent to mom first then on to me in a package full of girlie baby stuff (grandma went a bit crazy shopping) and these little ornaments. I hung them on our Christmas tree so they could 'rest' from their long journey!

aren't they cute!

I have loads of crafting stuff to do...have Thank You cards to make from the baby shower and I'd still like to do the paperplay challenge for this week too....hmmmm maybe I can combine the two....trouble is I've no inspiration and it hurts to sit for too long so it might have to wait a few more days.....we'll see!

I'll update again in a day or so with the Christmas decorating the kids did......

Baby Shower

2008-11-29T14:42:00.007-06:00

A friend of ours from church threw me a baby shower this afternoon. I asked the girls to go with me and I could not believe how excited they were to be included in a 'big girl' event. They were so cute! We played a couple games and I'm very sad to say I didn't win any of them, Emma did though! Can you list baby/pregnancy related items for each letter in the alphabet....yeah well me either apprently! ha ha ha After a wonderful plate full of very yummy treats (girls are not allowed any sugary treats for at least a week after all that....) Austyn helped me unwrap the presents while Emma played the photographer! Here are the pictures from the day! Thanks to all the ladies that were there. I had a wonderful time (and the girls did too).

The whole group

I think this would be a GREAT Christmas outfit.... ;o)

The three bibs say 'you are my sunshine' 'Grandpa loves me' and 'Grandma's cutie...'

These are the cutest little hand-knitted cardigans! Thanks to Ruth's mom I got 4 of these beautiful gifts!!!

'My First Christmas' stuff.....fingers crossed this will be!

Austyn helping

just chatting...

Look at alll the gifts and yummy treats!

I'm alittle over 36 weeks now so 3 1/2 weeks til my due date.....really hoping she's early though, would love to be home and settled (at least partially) for Christmas!!! Fingers crossed......now...off to make Thank You cards for everyone!!! hmmmmm ok well its after 10pm maybe Thank you's will wait til tomorrow.......

Busy Crafting

2008-11-20T12:06:00.004-06:00

Well this week I've been very busy.....the house is a mess and I'm behind on my washing, drying and ironing....so obviously I've been crafting!!!

Here is my contribution to this weeks Paperplay Challenge.....a card or layout using ONLY pink & white.....so I really challenged myself and made it a Christmas card...

Also, worked on this yesterday. A very good friend is having a birthday party for her daughter that is turning one this weekend. This is our gift for her. Its a 10x10 canvas that I painted black around the edges and then decorated. I hope she likes it....

tfl

Its a ................................................

2008-11-17T16:25:00.005-06:00

MISSING TOOTH!!!

Yep, Austyn lost her first tooth! She has been anxiously awaiting this day for a REALLY long time!

Ok, Ok, so that's not the only exciting news.....we also had a doctor appointment today and we were finally able to see the sex of the baby! Its funny neither me or Ty really cared either way just healthy! The kids were convinced it was a boy but not really sure why they thought that. Well according to the scan today its a

ok so I've made you wait long enough.....its a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are all very excited to have more pink and purple in the house....although Ty and Dagan might end up spending a lot more time in the garage at some point to get away from all the hormones!!! :o)

I also had a class tonight and here are the Layouts I did for them....TFL!!!

And last but certainly not least...I again participated in PaperPlay Challenges blog's challenge this week....we were to use 2 patterned papers, ribbon and a stamped image....here is my contribution! Thanks girls for the challenge!

I Won, I Won, I Won!!!

2008-11-15T15:23:00.003-06:00

I can't believe I actually won a prize....and such a cute one at that! A friend of mine back in Estes Park, CO had a little contest on her blog (here) for these adorable little birds that she makes. She makes gorgeous aprons and bags and different home decor type things...check them out on her Etsy shop, Bebe & Alice. I'm so excited!

Not sure if this is the exact ones that I will get but aren't they just adorable!!! Can't wait to add these new little treasures to our Christmas tree this year....

Thanks again Heather!

Challenge.....

2008-11-06T10:55:00.003-06:00

Some friends of mine recently started a Challenge blog, PaperPlay Challenges....and this was their first challenge...

This week you are to use the colour combinations of BROWN & BLUE, two beautiful colours together, you are also to use a SCALLOP somewhere on your project too. ...here is my attempt! TFL

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T05:02:00.007-05:00

Well as much as I love Autumn, the fresh crisp air, the beautiful leaves changing colour in front of your eyes, I really don't like Halloween at all...I honestly don't think I ever did. I remember even as a child not wanting to dress up and look 'silly'. Just one of the many weird sides of me I suppose. I try very hard not to project my dislike of the holiday on the kids though. They genuinely love dressing up (and do on almost a daily basis). We have more princess dresses, super heroes, chef, pirate, king/queen and doctor/nurse costumes than most toy stores! They love it! To be honest, they are adorable when they are dressing up too, I love listening to the role playing they do, its great....

For Halloween this year, instead of traipsing all over town looking for the perfect costume...and to save money...'we' decided that they were going to use something that we already had. They could pick whatever they wanted and if it needed to be fixed a little I would do it (from being used all the time, most of them have little tears here and there). Well here is what they came up with..aren't they just the cutest things!

Dagan and his little girlfriend Hannah!

Harvey, neighbors dog...doesn't look too happy to be a ninja turtle!

Ty very very generously offered to take the kids out in the frigid temperatures this year and I got to stay home! With less than 8 weeks before our newest member arrives, I've been really tired a lot lately. It doesn't take much to wipe me out completely. So, I curled up...well ok I didn't curl up, I stretched out :) on the couch and watched a girlie movie and ate pizza, all by myself! It was a much needed break! The quiet house was wonderful....Thanks Ty!

Last weekend we also got together with some friends and all the 'kids' carved pumpkins...well they drew the faces and the dads carved them...not sure who had more fun!

Emma drawing on her face...

Dagan and Austyn fishing out the seeds so they could roast them...

The finished products...

Happy Halloween everybody, hope it was a good one!

just a few things...

2008-10-26T09:55:00.009-05:00

Well I've been sitting here (on my exercise ball because my back hurts) adding pictures to Facebook and figured I better add them here as well....

My growing 'little' bump....

The two layouts I did for my class last week....

and way out of chronological order....a few from Austyn's Tea Party Birthday...

And a few more from Mom & Jim's Visit...

Beautiful Autumn colours from top of Blarney!

All the fam infront of Bunratty Castle

Ok, thats it for now.....I think I'm caught up on the pictures to add, at least for a little while...

Don't worry about anything; instead, PRAY about EVERYTHING!

2008-10-22T08:07:00.005-05:00

Philippians 4:4-9

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

How very true this scripture is.....its funny I am very strong in my faith in God or in my religion or in my relationship with Christ...however you want to say it! I pray regularly, I spend time in His word (admittedly not as much as I should), go to church..and actually listen...etc....so why is it that I still have such hard time when the 'bottom falls out' so to speak? Tough situations make you do two things, get closer or further from God, I think. My own opinion here. Ok sorry not trying to make this a religious debate.

Well we had the proverbial bottom fall out in our life a couple weeks ago...ok so it wasn't quite that bad but seemed like it at the time. We are lucky no matter what happens we have a wonderful family, fantastic children, a new little one growing stronger and stronger inside me and Ty and I have a very strong relationship with each other as well as strong faith. So really, we were just fine, but when your husband's boss tells him that his job was made redundant...nice way of saying the job is gone...and he is the provider for the family, it can be a bit scary! Especially if you add in the fact that you have 3 kids, a dog, a cat, and only 10 weeks left in a pregnancy...then add in along with all that our normal stuff like rent, power bill, phone bill, food, etc.....it can be very scary!!! Well Ty has made some good contacts since being here, almost 3 years now, and thankfully within a very short time (a couple days) we had 4 job offers! So that is truly amazing...especially in this economy. Well we decided against opening something in town here.....various reasons.....and accepted a position in a nice small community in Carrick -on-Shannon. Its about 1hour & 15mins or so away. I think it will be a great opportunity for us. We had to take a bit of a leap of faith with it, as it is currently only open 2 1/2days per week and obviously that wouldn't be enough to support us, so he will have to work at getting it built up into a full-time practice. The owners seem to be great. He went to Chiro school with Ty in Dallas and is from the Dallas area...so a good Texas boy can't be bad! ;) Seriously though, I think its a good deal. It does mean we will be moving, yes again, but we are going to try to hang on til the summer, stay out our lease at this house and then the kids could stay through the end of their school year, would also mean I would stay at my current doctor and hospital. I think being here through to the summer would make the transition for everyone a little easier. We'll see....time will tell.

Ty has been at the new place for a full week now and has a positive view about it so that makes us all happy. Bad timing....he helped to plan/coordinate the Chiro Assoc of Ireland's annual seminar or whatever they call it, so he has a lot going on this week and weekend. The schedule was different this week and then on top of that he will be gone for most of the weekend. The good news is that the kids are out of school next week for Mid-Term break so maybe that will help a bit, just to have some time to relax and not run all over creation. It should help me anyway!

Ok, that's enough rambling for now......more soon!

Revved up Birthday!

2008-10-22T06:48:00.011-05:00

For Dagan's birthday this year, we had a great idea (thanks to my very good friend Stacey whose son, almost, shares a birthday with Dagan) of having a Pinewood Derby Race. Well most people here had never heard of such a thing but when we explained it the dads..errr kids, were VERY excited! We asked Ty's mom to please get some 'kits' for us from the hobby store, finding them stateside is easy as every Boy Scout troop across the country does these races every year! Actually they do them so much that it is crazy the things you can get/upgrade your cars with, its amazing!

So Ty set out to making a track for the big race...he along with his three fabulous helpers made this:

And the kids started getting their cars ready, they sanded them, painted them and then we helped them decorate them...

Finally its race day...we (Ty) made the track so that it would fit in the kitchen/dining room since we can't count on the weather here...good thing too because although it wasn't raining it was windy and cold out! He set up the track and of course had to test it out...make sure it worked right!

Mom was visiting during this fabulous day and so she helped me (A LOT) in getting ready. We made the cake and the fairy cakes (small cupcakes) for the party. Instead of just inviting Dagan's friends, we invited the whole family, brothers/sisters/moms & dads too. So we made hamburgers and hotdogs and plenty of snacks for all the racers and spectators! We all had a really good time. I think there was around 30 people in the house, mainly the kitchen and sun room.

Chocolate cake....very yummy!

....just have to test this track for myself!

Race cars awaiting their big moment!

Even the girls got into it!

Honestly I think the dads were WAY more excited about making the cars at first...don't think the kids really knew what it was all about. BUT they must have figured it out quickly because when they all showed up on party day the kids AND the dads were VERY excited!!!

We all had a great day.....and we might just have a part time business started here....renting out that track!

Happy Birthday sweet boy! We love you lots and hope you had a fantastic wonderful day!!!

Mini Book Complete...I think

2008-09-23T06:36:00.009-05:00

Well the class was last night and I think it went well, especially considering the chaos that went on in the house in the hours preceding the class. I got up in the morning expecting to get the kids off to school and Ty off to work then I was going to finish cleaning up the kitchen (we had class at the church last night so we had dinner dishes and pots and such in the sink and on the countertops). I went to unload the dishwasher and the dishes hadn't finished washing. The little light on it was flashing and couldn't figure out why. To make a long story a bit shorter, the washer wasn't working either and I figured out it wasn't the appliances out to get me it was the water! Well we rang the owners and he came by, figured it was the front tank out of water, turned the water and compressor thingy (technical word, honest) off in the garage and said to leave it so that the tank could fill. He left. I'm pondering this and thinking it doesn't makes sense as we have an excess tank in the back and it was completely filled. Is that not the reason for this tank? Well Ty rang the owner again and they discussed it further, all of us scratching our heads because it just didn't seem right. To make matters even worse, in cleaning up the entry way, of the house, I went to pick up a rain jacket that had fallen off it's hook and when I did I discovered the dog had decided she didn't need grass to pee on, the coat would do fine. No idea why...but seeing how it was a 'waterproof'' jacket when I picked it up, not knowing it had been peed on, well lets just say it went everywhere. I put the coat and 2 backpacks, a cap and another little bag in the bathtub because I can't wash them, I don't have any water! So now, I have a very clean floof in the entry way, added bonus, but a bathroom that smells terribly of dog pee, washing to do and a kitchen full of dishes to wash as well. Needless to say, I was past the point of frustration at this point! Well later on, as Ty is driving Dagan home from school he asked him if, when he was playing outside yesterday, did you do anything around the back of the garage near the big black tank? "YEP" he says, "I turned a little red 'wheel' " Oh, says Ty. So when he got home, sure enough, the 'wheel' he had turned, had turned the water partially off to the house! Since it was partially off, the dishwasher and washing machine weren't getting enough water to run their cycles which is why they were turning off! Simple solution to fix, thankfully!!! It was a rather stressful morning trying to clean up the house and no water but we laughed about it in the end. Dagan was very sorry and had no idea that would happen and actually felt terrible about it. His little face was priceless when he was told that I had no water all morning! Poor guy! He was just being a boy, as they say...and I got the washing started and my dishes done before the class so that made me happy too!

Now back to the crafting subject.....The ladies seemed to like the book and didn't appear to struggle creating it...which is great because I think I struggled enough for everyone! My brain had a hard time with this project for some reason...not sure if it is just mushy preggo brain or that I was out of practice or what it was but no matter the reason, I still had a hard time! Ok enough of that, regardless of how I got there, I ended up happy with the result...so here is the whole book in all its glory (ok maybe not but here it is anyway)

I adore this picture of Austyn, don't remember now whose camera it was from but the look of amazment on her face is priceless!

I think I'm finished with it now...some pages still look like they are missing something but I don't know what so I'm stopping for now. I'm still wrecked from the class last night...my back is still sore! Kinda sad when crafting makes you hurt so much.....

Thanks for looking...

Finally crafting again!

2008-09-20T11:21:00.003-05:00

It's been ages since I sat down and actually 'crafted' anything. After we moved I offically got a Scrapbook Room and it was nearly 2 months later that I got it cleared out and it looked like something more than a storage unit. Well there are still a few boxes in it but I have shelves up and my desk put in place and most of my crafting stuff is somewhat out of boxes, it isn't organised yet but its getting there. I scheduled a class to teach on Monday so after Austyn's birthday party last weekend, I got busy on getting a mini-book created for the class. The book spells TRAVEL and the papers I used were ones that I found at a scrapbook shop in Kansas when we were home a year ago. They were being clearanced out so I couldn't get the amount of each page that I would normally get but I got what they had and made it work. Well I could tell that I was out of practice as my brain really had to think with this book....I guess that could be a little from the pregnancy too, my brain always seems to go to mush when I'm expecting.....either way it took a lot of brain cells to kick in to gear to get this silly book completed but I finally did and I'm happy with the result. I will print out pictures this weekend and add those along with some finishing touches around the photos, then it will be completed...class is monday so I better get busy! Here's just a peek at the front of the book...I'll add some more pics when I get the book completed (probably after the class though)......stay tuned! TFL

Birthday...Baby....& Back 2 School....

2008-09-02T05:24:00.016-05:00

We've had so much going on lately, it seems. Austyn turned 6 on Saturday and we had a special day with her, it started with a 7am breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls and a couple presents! Then after Ty got home from work we went to the Leisure Centre for some video games & bowling. After Austyn beat us all at bowling we had a lovely dinner at a new Italian place in town! It was a nice family day and wonderful way to wind down the summer. (we'll be doing a birthday party with her friends from school in a couple weeks...so watch this space for those pictures too)

School started on Monday and our house was a buzz of excitement! It is so nice for me to listen to the kids' nervous energy as they got ready for their first day! They were genuinely happy to be going back to see their friends and find out who their teachers were going to be this year. When we got to school, all three kids ended up in the same classrooms they were in last year and the girls actually had the same teachers too! That was a surprise for all of us. But, at the end of the day when we picked them up the two girls' classes had actually been rearranged and Austyn now has Emma's teacher from last year and Emma (and Dagan) have new teachers to the school this year. It was a wonderful change for the girls though as all their friends from the last 2 years were in the new classes so they are still together! Needless to say they were VERY excited about that. Dagan still goes home at 2 and when I picked him up, I think he was a little overwhelmed with the day, he didn't say much.....which is SO unlike him! haha He just said, yes it was a good day, yes I like my teacher, I had fun....all very short and direct responses. He fell asleep later in the car so I think it was tiring on him...

Also, last week, we took the kids to a doctor appointment where they got to hear the baby's heart beat! Their faces were fantastic...their little eyes were huge and they grinned from ear to ear when they heard it. The doctor was great, very good with kids, she explained everything she was doing and why she was doing it....what position the baby was in, how big 'it' was etc...they were delighted. Before church last week Ty took this picture of me and my little 'bump'...I was about 23 1/2 weeks or so in the picture.

I have my next appointment at the hospital with the OB on 6th October. The kids are going with us then also and we should be getting a scan so they will be able to actually see what the baby looks like in there and if the baby cooperates we'll find out if we're having a boy or girl. Cross fingers he/she is in a good position and not camera shy!

Ok....well that's all for now....back soon with more pictures and updates on the baby's progress.....

2008-08-12T12:18:00.001-05:00

Half Way There...

2008-08-07T10:52:00.004-05:00

Well today I am 20 weeks along, so approximately 1/2 way to a new addition to our growing family! I've been feeling the little kicks for awhile now. Ty has felt a few but the kids have been chomping at the bit to be able to feel the little guy or girl. There are some kicks that are hard enough to be felt from the outside but I never know when it's going to happen and generally it's in the evening when I'm settled and the house is quiet. Well anyway, today at lunch I was getting poked and punched pretty good and Austyn happened to be sitting next to me so I told her to come to me very quietly, she was so cute tiptoeing to me. She placed her hand on my belly and stood there for several minutes, not saying a word. She has been the one that has been the most anxious to feel it. Well her patience paid off just when I was about to say we'll try again later, the baby really punched hard and she felt a tiny little movement. Her face lit up, she was so excited! And, she was very proud of herself that she was the first one to feel it!!! It made me very happy that she was able to witness such an amazing thing. Hopefully the kicks/punches/pushes will be getting a little more consistant and the rest of the kiddos will be able to feel the baby too. We have a scan scheduled for the beginning of October and we are hoping to bring the kids with us just so they can actually 'see' whats making my belly so big..hahaha We haven't decided yet if we will find out boy or girl yet but either way it will help the kids feel like they are more involved.

Well that's all on the baby front and honestly not much else is going on. Wow that's kinda sad. Its summer in Ireland so I can see the sun just peeking out behind a massive rain cloud...we'll have to wait to see who wins! Its been a nice summer really so far. We've had several days in a row of sun and then a couple of rain then it will be sunny again so really can't complain too much. The kids have had fun playing outside when they can and all in all are getting along a lot better than I had thought they might. We took Emma's stablizers (training wheels) off a couple weeks ago and she's doing fantastic. She has fallen a couple times but didn't give up (like I did), she kept trying and now is doing great. Austyn has tried a couple times but needs to get a bit stronger, and more confident. I think she could do it but she still 'thinks' its too hard. She was at a friends house yesterday and she was riding without them so that will help I think, she was asking us last night could we take them off again and let her try a few more times...of course it was pouring rain at the time so we said she'd have to wait. Maybe when Ty gets home this evening they can try again, if the weather hold out.

Well that brings me to the end I think....not sure what else to say today.....life's alittle boring at the moment...just doing normal every day stuff every day so not much to report. One of these days I promise to get some more pictures up so you all can see how much the kids have grown...and maybe me too!

Remember When............

2008-07-25T10:35:00.003-05:00

Where have the years gone? Its funny sometimes I hear a song or find an old birthday or Valentine's card or something and it triggers not only the memory of the day but sometimes there's so much more attached to the memory, like where we were, what we did to celebrate, if I was pregnant or not (ok that one's a bit sad), who was with us or where we were living. Its fun to remeber things like that, sometimes....other times it can make me a little sad. Well the other day it was a song rather than a card that triggered my brain. We took the kids down to a cave last Saturday and on the drive we put the iPod on and listened to some music. We played random songs for a while, whatever the kids called out from the back but then we found our way to an old album of Alan Jackson's and a song called Remember When played. He wrote the song of course about his life, recalling all he had done, both the good and the bad and that it takes both to bring us to where we are now. Well it got me thinking about how far we have come in such a short time. Its hard to believe our first 'baby' is 7 1/2 and will be starting 2nd class (grade) when school starts back again, how did that happen? Ty and I celebrated 11 years married this month and again the same question comes back to me, how did that much time pass already? It still is so vivid when we met...ok maybe not the night we met but our first few dates anyway. It seems like such a short time ago that we got engaged and mom and I picked out my dress and we stuffed and addressed envelopes for the wedding, how could it have been 11 years ago? We've done a lot in these 11 years, we moved, what seemed like, very far away from our family to a city where we knew almost no one then 8 years later had made some of the best friends we could have ever made! Then we really moved far away from family and friends this time and again have made some very good friends in a relatively short amount of time. It's amazing how things work out. We went thru such a trial leaving CO but it brought us 1/2 way around the world, something we had only talked & dreamed about before! And now we've already been here over 2 years, our 3 kids are in school everyday and now have another one the way! I can only guess where we will have been lead 5 years from now, only time will tell!!!!

We're gonna have a Christmas Baby!!!

2008-07-08T15:17:00.003-05:00

Went last week for an ultrasound and found out we have a due date of 23 December which puts me almost 16 weeks along now. That was really good to hear, since we weren't sure of dates, even though it is just an estimate, it's still nice to have some type of an idea of when to expect the new little one. It was also good to 'see' him/her moving around in there and swatting at the doctor that was pushing in on my stomach/his or her little home. We got a great view of the perfect little spine and the doctor took measurements of the abdomen, head and length but that's about it because the baby would roll over off his/her stomach. I go back in October so maybe we can see more then. Not sure if we will find out the sex yet or not. I am doing ok, still feeling pretty yuky in the afternoon/evenings but I keep trying to convince myself it is getting better. I hope it is and that I don't have to have this through the entire pregnancy. All in all though really I don't have much to complain about, we are both healthy and that is a huge blessing!!! While laying down to try to rest today I think I might have felt a little flutter, can't be certain but it made me smile none the less!!! It's such a cool feeling!!

Let's see we've had so much going on, we moved houses (and with that lost our fast internet connection and now have dial up again) and my dad and step-mom came over for a visit. They stayed about 2 weeks and we all had a really nice visit! I think we spent of the time that they were here in the car...I'm pretty sure we drove all over Ireland...or so it seemed. They got to be here for the Girls' dance recital too which was HUGE to them!! They were so excited to have their grandma and grandad here for they're big nights. The recital was a great success which is especially amazing considering the chaos of the rehearsals. Thankfully everything went smoothly and most importantly that everyone had a great time! Of course we had the greatest, cutest and most wonderful dancers in the show! Obviously!!! ;o) We don't have any video (weren't allowed) but do have some pics...but will have to upload those at the office later.

Ok....so I think that's about it for now....more later

Can't believe it's been so long....

2008-05-26T14:11:00.002-05:00

Ok so my last post was the beginning of April and now it's almost the end of May! Guess I haven't been so good at keeping this thing updated!!! So much has happened since my last post.........let's see.....there was Easter, we had an Easter Egg hunt at our house after lunch. Shortly after Easter I had to fly home for a few days to attend my grandmother's funeral. Sad occasion but I was so pleased that I was able to go. I got to visit with my dad and step mom and got to see most of my dad's side of the family. It was only for 4 days I think but it was a nice break even though it was sad at the same time. When I got back, Ty left for a few days as well, then as soon as he got back the kids were out of school for a week! I guess that explains why I haven't posted here in a long time...we were pretty busy. And that brings me to even more excitement.....during all this scheduling nightmare, it's no wonder that I lost track of time and didn't realise that I had missed something important....one of those things that, as women, we both dread but are relieved of at the same time........have you guessed it yet.......well we have recently found out that we will be expecting a new addition to our little family! Until I get a scan though I'm not exactly sure how far along I am. By my best 'guessing' I am either just over 9 weeks or just over 13 weeks. I think the 'morning' sickness is starting to subside just a bit, so long as I don't really let myself get hungry I do pretty well. I am getting very tired midday...right when kids get home from school! We took them to dinner on Friday and told them. We weren't really sure what to expect from them. Emma was not quite 2 1/2 when I got pregnant with Dagan so she didn't really know what we were telling her, not really (especially if you think by her little memory all she probably could remember was me having a big belly since I had just had Austyn). Well they were excited, emotional and had LOADS of questions!!! They were very cute! It is going to be a lot of fun I think seeing how they are this time around. It's like starting again for us too...should be an adventure for us all!!! Well it is past bedtime for the kiddos so I better sign off for now....I'll try to post more with photos sooner this time!

Journals Journals everywhere...

2008-04-02T13:06:00.005-05:00

I decided to make a couple (haha) journals for the ladies in my bible study group....there are 8 of us. So, over the last week I've been cutting up A4 paper to the right size and chipboard for the covers, decorating them front and back and then binding 8 journals. It took the whole 7 days but I finally got them all done and to be honest I'm quite proud of my accomplishment. I think they are all great and it was a good way to go thru some of my stash that I've had for a while now.....and cleared it out so that I can get new stuff....hee hee.

So here take a look at what all I did...

Thanks for having a look.....I'll get some pics up here or Easter soon....all for now!

Great Holiday

2008-03-22T06:24:00.002-05:00

The kids were out this week, and next, for Easter holidays. Some friends booked a house at a holiday centre, Trabolgan, down near Cork for our two families to share. The kids entertained each other really well, it was great that they all got on so well together. The centre was fantastic, the houses were clean and all the activities and shows and such were really nice. We had a wonderful time. Even though I'm exhausted today, the break was very relaxing I think for everyone. The place was kinda like a YMCA camp that we had at home, the best way to describe it I guess. We got to see Barney, Bob the Builder and the kids got to learn ballet with Angelina Ballerina and then had a performance one night with her. Ty taught the kids (and me) how to skip rocks on the water and we tried to fly kites but just didn't work. We never made it to the minigolf or pitch n putt or playground but we did make it to the pool 3 times! We got some amazing pictures by the shore, flying kites, sunsets, and of course ballet dancing! I will try to get some up on here very soon. I think we have decided to make that our Easter Break tradition!.....for now though, I've got a mountain of laundry to do...

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you....

2008-03-13T12:15:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday dear Ty.....Happy Birthday to You!!!! Yesterday was, yes you guessed it..Ty's birthday. I don't think he'd mind me saying that he turned 34 and is looking better and better each day! Well actually that is a very literal statement. He is (semi)training for the annual triathlon they have here, TriAthlone. It's in July (I think). He's been doing fantastic working out, he has been going to the gym 5 days a week, with very few slips, for the last 2 months almost! He looks great and is feeling good too. We are all very proud of him and I hope he can stick with it. I don't personally see the need to jump in the River Shannon when its freezing to 'race' people you may or may not know just to jump out and ride a bike and then run! But hey whatever! ;o) Seriously, he is doing great and I'm really proud of him!

Ok, got sidetracked....back to his birthday....I dug out some of my stamping stuff and cards and paper etc for the kids to use to make Ty a birthday card from the each of them. Here is what they came up with...

and here's mine:

Ok...well that's all for now. Aaron (Ty's cousin) is coming this weekend for a short visit and I have some laundry to do so he doesn't have to sleep on a bare mattress....more later

3 Little Artists

2008-03-09T17:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics from our painting class from Ty today...

We made it...

2008-03-09T11:19:00.001-05:00

The entire month of February passed in a blur! We had something on every weekend and many weeknights of the entire month! I can't believe we packed in so many things....but I do have the circles under my eyes to prove it..LOL Well no not really but I was certainly glad to find out that we had very little planned for this weekend. Then what did we go and do....cleaned out the utility room! UGH!!!! It feels good to have it cleaned up and straightened again. And on top of that since we cleaned out some cupboards in there I got to clean out some space in the kitchen too and now have more storage...YIPPEE!!!! I know I'm embarrassed to even write that, very sad that something like that is exciting. I think I have recuperated from my craft weekend last week and now ready for another one! ha ha Well I probably shouldn't do that to Ty again so soon.....better give him a little time to recuperate himself....a few days more anyway! :)

Ok...off to help the kids paint...wahoo...should be fun...good photo opp anyway!

No No No No No

2008-02-26T16:18:00.002-06:00

OK now we all know that most women, especially those of us that are lucky enough to be mammies just don't do the 'sick' thing very well! I have far too much to do to make time for being ill especially this week....I've important crafty stuff to do to get ready for my weekend! Crafteire is this weekend coming up and I've nothing ready and what do I do....wake up today with the dreaded tummy bug that Dagan so nicely brought home last week! He was sick last Tuesday, or maybe it was Wednesday??? Now I don't remember but anyway I guess that means that this bug has about a weeks incubation period! Oh well, I'm very happy that I wasn't sick for this last weekend. We took the kids to High School Musical on Ice and had a great time, the kids were thrilled. It would have been horrible if I had felt like this on Sunday so for that I'm grateful. And now after laying around all day, drinking water as best I could and puking a few times I think I'm on the mend. If it is what Dagan had last week then by tomorrow I should be pretty much back to normal, God willing! Now I need to figure out what I want to work on this weekend, find papers and embellishments and ribbon and pictures and find any other bits and bobs, knowing that I will forget at least a few really important things...it's inevitable! Thankfully I'm only going about 30 minutes away so worst case I'm Ty would be sweet and bring me something if I really needed it. The kids are already making me feel guilty with their little 'I sure am going to miss you mammy'. I'll miss them too but I sure am looking forward to the weekend and I really hope that I get more done than I did last year. I'm only taking one class this year, of course it's a master class and is two parts but I think I will be able to work more this time. I'm so far behind that I really need to do a lot to get even partially caught up.

I doubt I will post again this week so I will post up what I do get done next week...until then....

Been very crafty lately

2008-02-19T05:25:00.002-06:00

It seems like forever since I've actually worked on something besides the layouts for my monthly classes, and even that was difficult to get done at times. Been having 'scrappers block' I suppose. I'm not sure how many times I've sit down at my craft desk and nothing happened! It's very frustrating when you really want to work and goodness knows I stay so far behind I'll probably never catch up, so then why is it I could nothing...well I have finally gotten something done. I was fortunate enough to get to go to a crop on Sunday so that helped too...all these layouts are all for the kids individual albums. Its a lot of work doing things separately for them but it is so worth it when their faces light up and smile ear to ear when they look at their books.

Ok, so that's the lot! I'm very proud of myself and the work I have finally gotten done. Maybe I'll keep this up and actually get a little more caught up, just a little bit. I have another big scrapbook weekend at the end of the month and I'm really hoping to get a lot done. Check back for more updates...but that's it for now. I've a sick kiddo home from school today and I better go check in on him.

Emma's Bday Pics finally

2008-02-06T13:27:00.000-06:00

I don't know why it's taken me so long to get these up on the blog, but here they are at long last...Emma's 7th Birthday party pics. I don't have too many as I didn't check with the parents of the other girls about putting pics up on the internet. Anyway, she had a great time playing and getting her face painted. Her present from all of us was tickets to go see High School Musical On Ice at the end of February. She is counting down the days!!! She was so excited and can't wait to go! I'm sure we'll have loads of pics from that day as well...I'll try to get them up on the site quicker!

Well I've gotten a flu or something similar and have felt terrible the last couple of days. I'm doing better now tonight but just still very tired...so that's about all I'm gonna do for tonight...more later when I'm feeling better!

I was Tagged!!!!

2008-02-03T05:00:00.000-06:00

Well it's obvious I haven't been checking my blog lately cuz I was tagged weeks ago and just realized it!!!

I've was tagged by my friend and self proclaimed craftaholic Mandy! Thanks girlie! “You Make My Day Award” the rules are…..Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times! So, to narrow it down to ten….There are so many blogs I enjoy but I'll narrow it down. Here we go......Karen, Neasa, Beckie, Deb & Eva!..........Enjoy ladies!!!!!

Very Lucky Woman!

2008-01-13T16:01:00.000-06:00

So what do you think....looks like your ordinary, fabulous scrappbooking crop, right? Well if you were thinking that, you would be very very wrong! No, not that it wasn't a fabulous day of crafting (or 'crap' booking as Dagan, age 4, calls it) it was a fabulous day BUT what was so amazing about it is that my dear hubby organised the entire thing...he was very devious, he ferreted out email addresses and phone numbers from my computer and organised everything from the venue and date to the scrapbook shop for our retail therapy and of course all the lovely ladies that came to the crop! I felt very proud, a couple of 'my' ladies-that come to my classes most every month-were there and we even had a couple that had never been to a crop before so that was very exciting for me! I'm still not sure of all the details, how exactly Ty did it all but he did an exceptional job of setting everything up and really surprised me! Ty had been planning this for months and I never knew a thing! Sometimes it really worries me that he can be so deceptive! Thankfully it's always for good purposes! ;o) Of course I'd say it's pretty easy for him, I am so naive and completely unobservant, it's not like I make it very challenging for him! LOL We had a great time, got lots of work done, can't show any of it though as it's a gift for someone special! and of course got some great new stash and it should go without saying that we chatted.....a lot! There was great munchies and Ty and kids even brought us all cheesecake! All in all it was a wonderful day and Ty reminded me once again of how very much I love him and how lucky I truly am! Thanks to everyone that helped make the day so great!!!!!!!

Night before school starts and all thru the house...

2008-01-06T15:24:00.000-06:00

the kids are in bed now and the real work begins...lunches to be made, uniforms organized...BUT we are all happy that school is starting up again..especially the kids!

We got Christmas presents just after the post started running again between Christmas and New Years so the kids were all excited again! They got great dressup costumes and I think have dressed up now every day since. They also got these adorable outfits from Grandma and Grandad and the hats are adorable. I just had to have a little photoshoot after church this morning. They were so cute I couldn't resist!

Well that is about all we have been up to...pretty boring I know but we've been having a very relaxed holiday....that will all change come 8am tomorrow morning though! Wish us all luck on a good week with school, swimming lessons, ballet lessons and gymnastics and Emma's birthday and party....phew!!! I'm tired now just thinking about it....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-01T14:55:00.000-06:00

So far we have had a great holiday. Its been cold and rainy outside so we've spent a lot of time in the house but we've had fun. Santa was good to our family this year too. He brought digital cameras for each of the kids and they have been snapping pictures of anything that would stand still long enough-and alot of things that weren't still! Since Christmas morning between the 3 kids I think we have more than 300 pictures. We got to spend Christmas dinner with some great friends. We all ate too much dinner and just got to hang out and be entertained by the kids playing all their musical instruments. It was great to be with such good friends since we couldn't be home with our families.

New Years eve was pretty low key too. The biggest excitment was with Emma. We went to KFC for lunch and all of sudden Emma says 'Mam what is this...it's a bone...no it's MY TOOTH!!!!!!!!!' Her front tooth has been wobbly for weeks but, like her others, she would not let me or Ty hardly touch it without flinching and she wouldn't pull it either. She wants it to fall out on it's own. Well it did! It's funny how losing your front tooth can change how you look. She has the cutest smile now. Not that it wasn't cute before but just a different cute! Now with the one tooth gone the other one is very wobbly too so I'd say in the next week or two the other one will be gone as well. So after that excitment, we went to a church get-together til about 10:00 then came home, tucked the kids in and watched TV til midnight rolled around. Then on New Years Day we did nothing! We sat around in our pjs all day, it was fabulous! The kids played games on the Wii which was hysterical to watch! They were so cute dancing around trying to bowl and play tennis and golf, etc. They were so funny, Ty and I were rolling on the floor laughing! Very funny.

Here are some pics of Christmas decorating, opening presents and Em's missing tooth!

Emma in her school Christmas Play

2007-12-22T04:05:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas

2007-12-21T05:40:00.001-06:00

Tis Been Awhile...

2007-12-19T14:52:00.000-06:00

Well seems like ages since I've taken the time to post...first and foremost Happy Birthday G'ma!!! My grandma Austin celebrates her birthday today so I had a nice chat with her this evening which was a great ending to a wonderful day.

Our day today started out chaotic and hectic like most mornings, all of 5 of us trying to find shoes and clothes and tights and ties and jumpers (sweaters). I really should have a better system but alas it's one more thing I have yet to get around to doing (story of my life really). Every morning its the same routine, I get up around the time the kids do, fix breakfast-which involves pouring cereal and milk in a bowl-and while they are eating (and I'm telling them to hurry and eat and stop talking) I make their lunches. Then we all trek upstairs and while they are brushing their teeth (or playing in the sink, which ever the case may be) I'm laying out their uniforms for school. Then I try to get myself dressed and ready to go for the day as well. Ty is on is own! LOL Well today there was an exception...I had to also fit in curling Emma's hair because today, at school, she was an Angel in the class Nativity Play! She was very excited and nervous because her daddy and I were going to be at school to watch the play. Since Mary Helen is back home in Virgina for Christmas Ty had to work a couple hours in Longford this morning, so we dropped the kids at school, drove to Longford, he treated a few people, then we drove back the 45 minutes to be at the school to watch the 20 minute play. She was absolutely adorable! What we could hear of her was adorable anyway...there was a little Angel in front of Emma swinging her angel wings back and forth in front of her. We could barely hear Emma's line (in Bethleham, your saviour was born today!). She was fantastic and of course the STAR of the performance! When they were all finished, we got to take her out of school an hour early so all 3 kids got out of school at the same time today (yay!!!!) and we popped home for just a bit to change clothes and then go and see santa at the new shopping centre in town. The kids were so cute! They each told santa what they wanted for Christmas-a digital camera for all three-and even Austyn sat on his knee for picture, without tears this year! That was monumental for her! We were very proud! We did a little Christmas shopping, then all went to dinner together! We had an exceptional family day together today. Everyone was very good, listened to us, didn't walk too far away from us, no whining that they were tired/hungry/feet hurt...etc... It's after days like this that I am reminded just how lucky I am to have been given such an awesome, wonderful family! I am truely blessed! I know that sounds terrible, I know that I am blessed and I feel it most of the time...it's just easy to forget when life gets so hectic and chaotic, which seems to be more and more these days. It's good to get little reminders from time to time!

You know its funny too, they never seems to stop amazing me either! Little Dagan, the other day said something that literally brought tears to my eyes! We were at the church Christmas dinner last week and with all the kids gathered around the pastor asked everyone (Dagan is one of the youngest) about Christmas, why is was important and why we celebrate, etc...and in the middle of everyone answering the questions Dagan pipes up loud so all could hear....It's Jesus' birthday and he died for our sins so that we wouldn't have to go to hell! He was so cute, his little voice was so pronounced and clear and he was so serious! Absolutely adorable...I had to smile! I just love it when they do little things like that without prompting, just speak from their little hearts and they mean it too! Very sweet!!!

Ok well that is about all I can think of to ramble on about just now....I'm sure I'll think of something else as soon as I post this! Stayed tuned here though...we will add a video of Emma's play as soon as we get it uploaded (Thanks Mom and Dad Russell for the early Christmas pressie)

Like Grandmother, Like Daughter, Like Grandaughter

2007-11-16T16:44:00.000-06:00

It's funny how things are passed down over the generations....along with the creativity/artistic ability that I so lovingly inherited from my dear mom...I also got her ability to worry...now thankfully for me (and for Ty's sanity) I don't take it to the degree that she does...I'm convinced that if mom had nothing to worry about, she would worry about not having anything to worry about...you know I adore you mom but you know I'm right ;o). Well much to mine and Ty's dismay this amazing ability did not skip a generation and our lovely, sweet, caring, kind, big-hearted, motherly, Emma has also be given this 'worry' gene!

Mom had her hip replaced today and I've been nervous all day! Here I am 1/2 a world away, I can do nothing, can't even really talk to her because of the time change (thank God for mobile phones and texting!) and I'm nervous, as if I could do anything if I wanted to, but I worry because that's just what we do! Mom had some 'nerve' problems all last week and this and it was causing her blood pressure to get too high, which then threatened the cancelation of her surgery which made her even more nervous which raised her bp...etc..etc..etc...vicious circle! Well, she got her self relaxed (and got bp meds) enough to at least keep the scheduled surgery for today. I didn't talk to my step-dad but Ty did and he said that there was some delay in the doctor's schedule or something but it caused mom's surgery to be delayed but that she was out now and in recovery and was doing fine (Thank you God!) I probably won't be able to talk to her until tomorrow but I'm so glad that she came thru ok and that she is doing good so far. It is a long recovery/theapy time but I'm sure she will do great. Well with all the worrying mom has been doing I have been talking to her a lot, just to help ease her nerves (and mine too probably) and just lend an ear! In doing this though, Emma knew something was up...kept asking questions if G'ma was ok and what was wrong, etc...I told her that g'ma had a hip that was hurting her, and had been for a long time, and that the doctors were going to fix it for her so that it wouldn't hurt anymore. This was enough of a explaination for her little mind but then the worrying started! Poor girl can't help herself...is g'ma going to have to stay in the hospital? --yes for a couple days....what will g'pa Jim do without g'ma? --well he will stay at their house when he's not at the hospital with g'ma but he'll be ok for a couple days...he can't stay at the hospital too? --well I'm not sure, there maybe not be room there for him....oh they probably need the room for other hurt people......they are adding 'cushioning in her hip so that it doesn't hurt right? --well it's kinda like that, they will make it so that it doesn't hurt her to walk anymore...will g'ma have to stay in bed all the time? --no she will be able to get up and move around.....won't that hurt her hip again? --well yes it will be sore but she will have to move around to get used to the new hip....She's getting a new one??? --well sort of, it's hard to explain...go talk to your dad......this all took place in about a 4 minute period, and we've gone thru these questions and oh so many more every day for the last week and half or so! I try very hard not to get cross with her, because I know I was just like her! LOL After I heard from Jim tonight I went up and woke her up a little just to tell her g'ma was ok and out of surgery, even in her very sleepy state, she sat up in bed with a grin from ear to ear and said aaahhhh thanks mom! I'm glad she is ok.......good night! (still with a smile on her face!) she's so cute! She's frustrating at times but she means well and like her mother and grandmother (one both sides too) we just can't help it!~

On the crafting side of things...I've done a few things this week, a baby project and card to match (see previous post), the Halloween layouts for my class on Monday, but I'll post those next week though and a little birthday card for our pastor's son who turned 7 today. This is the card I did for him...he loves penguins

I should have done a little more doodling around the penguins and balloons and such but just didn't have the time, I rushed around all day! In a perfect world I would have done the card before today.....but I don't live in a perfect world...I live in a world of 3 children who run me ragged! lol

Babies...Babies...Babies

2007-11-12T10:18:00.000-06:00

No not mine...but those of friends. A very good friend of mine just resently found out she was expecting her 2nd baby (YAY!!!!), another good friend here in Ireland is due a couple weeks with her 2nd baby..they think their second girl and finally a very close friend and confidant (sp?) back in CO just had their third baby, a girl! Mammy and baby Selah are both doing great, I'm very thrilled to say. Well walking around in our new Shopping centre this weekend I came across this little frame...

...and my mind went crazy with ideas of what I could 'do' to it! ha ha Well this is what I did (Karen if you are reading this...turn away now or you will ruin your surprise...I'll take it to the post tomorrow or Wednesday so you can expect it soon)

This little project kept me busy today and I'm really happy with how it turned out...hope Karen and Selah are too...

Here is the finished frame, pictures and all...

Doing Better

2007-11-08T08:43:00.001-06:00

Well I'm doing a little better...in several areas....One, it's not quite been a week and I'm posting again! Yay!!! Two, my grandma is out of the hospital and is doing better so that is great news!!! Three, my mom sounds better and is getting herself ready for surgery next Thursday. Her sounding better makes me feel much better. Four, kids were out of school all last week and so didn't get to have my weekly breakfast date with Ty on Wednesday :( BUT we did get to go yesterday so that made me very happy (and Ty too)!!! Five, I started making my Christmas cards this week, I've only made one...but hey I started! hmmmm what else....OH and Six, I got to go to a crop on Saturday afternoon (see previous post) and I had a great time, got to chat with some good friends, eat fabulous sweet home-made baked goodies AND got 4 pages done in a book so that was fantastic!!! All in all I think I am doing pretty well this week, can't complain about much of anything!

YAY its finally Saturday!!!

2007-11-03T05:12:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited it's Saturday....I'm going to a crop today and I've really been looking forward to it! I'm going with a couple friends here and meeting (IRL) some friends from the online craft forum that I chat (way too much) on. I'm bring loads of stuff to do but don't know how much I'll actually do, I hope a lot. I'm way behind. I've not been crafting too much with this £$%"@ cold I have and can't get rid of. Anyway, I'm still not feeling the greatest but I don't care I'm going anyway!

I did manage to get a card done yesterday...not gonna post the whole card yet as I haven't given it to the person it's going to and I don't want her to see it on here first. But I will show you the first parts of it...sorta a work in progress at this stage.

These little guys are called 'Tear Bears' and I think they are just adorable! What do you think???

Ok, well I have loads to do before leaving in an hour so I'm going for now...check back though and I will post up what I got done...assuming of course I get anything finished.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2007-10-31T18:26:00.000-05:00

Well it's Halloween night and it has been a very fun filled day for everyone! We took the kids to McDonalds (one of their favourites) for lunch, then after a couple errands we went to Leisure World to go bowling! They had a great time!!! I only had my phone's camera to take pictures with so we'll see what they turn out like. I'm thinking they won't be very good. The bowling was a good distraction to the main event of the day......trick or treating! We got home just in time to get ready to go on the hunt for sweets with neighbor kids. My little ballerina, loved getting her hair pulled back like a 'real ballerina' and Em couldn't wait for me to paint a pawprint on her cheek. She is a cheerleader from High School Musical, her FAVOURITE movie right now, (it's driving me and Ty CRAZY) she's constently singing the songs from the movie. While I was trying to get the girls ready, Dagan was running around the house saying 'oooo ooooo oooo' at everyone! We went up to Serena and Alan's house so that we could all walk around together, 6 adults and 8 children. We all had a great time watching the kids, they were all so giddy! I think we ended up going to half a dozen houses, maybe, but the kids were quite happy to be done and go home to eat dinner and of course have sweets too. It surprises me how many bon fires and fireworkds there are on Halloween, since that is not a big thing to do at home. We've been listening to pops and bangs all evening. Even with several sweets and loud bangs outside, the kids are all sleeping really well, I guess we really wore them out today. I got all the halloween pictures in a slide show from today...I have some others from carving our pumpkins too but don't know if I will get those added today because it's almost midnight but I'll add them later, so check back! So, bye for now...

I have a cold!

2007-10-25T10:38:00.000-05:00

Something about having a cold absolutely drives me crazy!!! I hate the fuzzy head feeling and I can't breath right and my nose hurts from blowing it so much and my eyes and throat are itchy...and...and...well you get the picture! Poor Ty...I kept him up so much last night with my snoring...I felt so bad this morning because I had kept him awake and all he said was, 'Ah it's no big deal, one night in 11 years is not too bad!' ahh bless him :) He's such a sweet guy, I love him to pieces! Even feeling yuky yesterday, I still managed to get a birthday card done for Ty's Grammy in Kansas. She will celebrate her 89th birthday on Saturday (so that means the card will be a little late, but nothing new there). I truly hope that I am able to live that long and still have most of my faculties about me, well at least as many as I have now...that's not saying a lot sometimes ;)

I had a great breakfast this morning with a dear friend, I don't think we chatted about many earth shaking events but it was really great getting together just to chat about nothing. I'm loving being able to do that too. Ty and I go just about every Wednesday after we drop the kids at school and last week I got a chance to go to breakfast/coffee with two other friends on Friday too. I could definitely get used to this new found freedom...

Let's see what other exciting news do I have.....hmm....not much...well exciting for me I guess...my wonderful mammy is sending me 3 pairs of much needed blue jeans! YAY!!! Not sure when I will get them but I'm very excited about it anyway, doesn't take much I guess LOL And...I have just over a week before I get to spend the afternoon scrapbooking away at the Midlands Craft Club very first Saturday crop!!! Yippee Yahoo!!!!!!!!!! I am VERY excited about this. I really hope this new craft club has a good turn out on the 3rd, it would be great to a good group of ladies that enjoy getting together to crop.

Lastly I will share one more picture of our cutie Maisy...we got her a rubber chicken to play with at the shop yesterday and it squeaks just a little bit. It is already worth all €5 it cost me, I have laughed until I had tears streaming down my face at her playing with this silly chicken! She is rolling it around, chewing on it, throwing it up in the air, whipping her head around with it and just carrying it around the house. She is absolutely hysterical! It's not a great picture as I took it with my phone and she wouldn't exactly hold still long enough to pose! I was trying to get one of her holding it in her mouth but she was moving about too much!

With that...I better go for now...more later when hopefully I'm feeling a bit better. TTFN

Hello again

2007-10-22T06:12:00.000-05:00

Well I'm not doing so good at posting regularly, seems to stay at only once a week....I guess that's better than not at all!

Once again this week was crazy! And....once again I'm not sure what I actually did...but I know it wasn't laundry and it wasn't cleaning the house! It looks like a bomb went off in it! Well maybe not that bad...a couple nights ago as we were getting kids ready for bed, I asked Dagan to put his clothes in the laundry bin and he said, I can't mammy it's too full! I had to laugh outloud at him.....hmmmm I guess I better do some washing :(

I did manage to get a little crafting done this week, but it was in the way of cards mostly. I did do one LO too and fixed another one that had been bugging me for ages! I did this LO in a class a couple years ago and just never finished it. I looked so plain, every time I looked at it in Em's book it stared back at me and I hated it. So I 'fixed' it. I wish I would have taken a before shot of it but I didn't think of it until after.

I had a couple birthday cards to do also, one for a little friend of Em's and one for a friend of ours (can you spot the little goof-up???)

Why is it going to school=being ill???

2007-10-16T10:22:00.000-05:00

I don't get it, why is it as soon as school starts all children get ill in one way or another. Our kids have always always been so healthy. We never had an ear infection or any kind of '-itis' or anything more than a simple cold since birth.....until school happened! Now already this year, in less than two months of school, we've already had head lice in Emma that we have treated 5 times and we are still not sure that we got it all, throat infections in Austyn and Dagan, a stomach ache for Emma and some type of stomach bug or intestinal parasite in Dagan and now Dagan has a pretty bad cough and of course the three of them have the perpetual runny nose that I think every student has for the duration of their school years! Does this ever end? It could be worse...they have not had to miss very much from school so hopefully that continues and even through all of this, they have all managed to stay in pretty good spirits most of the time!

I had a scrapbook class again last night, I am really enjoying having the classes since I've started back after my summer break. I have such a good group of ladies that so faithfully take my classes and put up with my scattered brain...I wonder if any of them would believe that I actually did have a brain that could think straight once-upon-a-time...probably not! I have a couple crops that I will be attending in the near future so I will have more things to post up here soon...speaking of which, I have a page that I am trying to get going so I'm gonna be done for now...more later!

Another week has past

2007-10-14T08:53:00.000-05:00

Well I've been working to get this site up and running and hopefully I will be a little more diligent at updating it with new posts and pictures.

Let's see...what's been happening this week...funny how at the end of the week I've no idea what I've done but I know I was gone all the time! The kids had school all week and for the first time in weeks we had NO birthday parties to put on or attend! That helped our Saturday out a lot! We did get the kids' Halloween costumes so we are set for that and didn't even wait til the last minute..yippeeeee (you'll have to wait til then to see them tho...No sneak peeks ;)

The girls also started ballet this week and they were very excited about it! Austyn has been so anxious about taking ballet but there just wasn't anyone teaching it. Then, I talked to Aishling, their dance teacher from last year. She asked me if either of the girls were going to continue this year. I was hesitant at first because they didn't' seem to enjoy the hip-hop class last year but then, much to Austyn's excitement, she told me she had a ballet teacher this year...bad news, she wasn't going to start until after Christmas. Well Austyn was over the moon about starting 'soon' in ballet! We went ahead and started her in another class until the ballet started, since Emma was taking gymnastics on Saturdays. She was enjoying her time in the class very much (all 3 that she took) and then Ashling told us that the class was actually going to start early...again Austyn was thrilled!!! Well ballet started on Saturday and Austyn was SO EXCITED about it. Emma hadn't decided if she wanted to take the class or not but wanted to try it out first. (Poor Dagan just gets hang out with mommy while we taxi the girls around). When I collected the girls...Emma had made up her mind...so now we have two little ballerina-to-be's in the house. I'll take a picture of them and post it, maybe before next weeks class.

After Ty was finished with work and all the kids were collected from their various classes we all worked out in the garden. We got the trampoline down for the winter...kids are always a little sad when we take it down but then they were REALLY excited when we first put it up in the spring. We had beautiful weather so we all enjoyed it. They helped us take down the trampoline while they were riding their bikes around!

Well that is about all the ramblings I can do for now...nothing too much exciting was going on this week...I'll update more later. I have a Scrapbook class on Monday evening so I should have a few more things to add to my crafty slide show....Have a blessed week ahead. Bye for now!

Dagan 4th Birthday

2007-10-12T05:44:00.001-05:00

Austyn Bday Pictures

2007-10-12T03:24:00.001-05:00

Hello...Welcome to my new blog site

2007-10-11T05:26:00.000-05:00

I decided that it was time to change blog sites...I wanted a site that was a little easier to post to and set up slide shows and such...so what do you think?

So much has been going on lately and I'm affraid it isn't going to be slowing down anytime soon so hopefully I will actually have time to keep this thing updated...we'll see!

Check back soon for new pics of Austyn and Dagan's birthdays!!!

See you soon...kel