Love

I realize that it is the very last day of February and I am just now posting about Valentine's Day...sorry. Autumn I love these 4 girls...SO much. I think that is pretty obvious. Valentine's Day is kind of a funny day when you are single. People treat Valentine's day so differently...either they are so in love, or so angry that they aren't. So, as a single person, you have a choice...either you can choose to feel sorry for yourself and look at everything you don't have, OR you can choose to look at the life the Lord chose for YOU to live, and enjoy every single moment of it. Guess what I chose...yep...to enjoy ALL of the people that I love very much in my life...especially these four girls! I am thankful for this crazy life God has chosen for me! Never in a MILLION years when I was younger did I EVER think that I would end up raising four sisters with MY sister....never did I dream that. My dreams included a dreamy man, wedding, and children...but wow....God's plan is AMAZING. HIS ways are so much better than OURS!!! Thank you Lord for your plan. Thank you for your unending and unconditional love. Thank you for your grace. And thank you for leading me always.
So....what did we do for Valentine's Day??? Well...we have a few traditions. One tradition is our party in a box. My grandma, otherwise known as G-ma, has made a tradition to always send her great-grandchildren a party in a box. The girls love to receive it. It always has plates and napkins and candy. This time, it had some other fun trinkets and surprises. We love traditions. The girls' first years of life were full of instability and insecurities, that traditions are so much fun in our house...they mean so much. Knowing that G-ma ALWAYS sends a party in a box...knowing that you get a heart braid on Valentine's day, knowing that every V-day move the table to the living room and get out the nice china and have a nice dinner...those are traditions that build stability. Those are things that mean much more than just fun traditions....I LOVE them!

So...the little balloons they are holding in the picture, well those are just TONS of fun. They came in packages that looked like candy, but you do NOT open the package. No, you just pound the package, and it starts to inflate, then all of the sudden, it POPS out of the package and makes a really loud sound....and in our house, that means that 5 of us scream really loud. Can you guess who doesn't scream really loud? We really had so much fun.
I did S's heart braid for church the day before, but I did not get a picture of it...sorry S.

Lately

It has been a little nutty lately at the Tinsley household...You are probably thinking...what day ISN'T nutty at the Tinsley household? You are right. My friends Kenny and Kim recently told us that our family should have its own reality show. While I think there would be some very funny moments on that show, there would also be way too many moments of me snapping at my children, getting frustrated and acting dumb...so we will just stick with the blog! I really could come up with a million reasons why I haven't posted, but I don't know why, I just haven't thought of anything to say! Anyway...all excuses aside, I haven't posted in a really long time and now February is almost over....just a few more hours... So, for your enjoyment, I hope to post several posts here. And thanks to my aunt Connie, for motivating me to write something tonight!



We got up on a Saturday morning and leisurely got ready to go to the big city to do some shopping and get the girls' flower dresses sized (thanks Aunt Deborah!!) Let's just say it was one of "those" mornings. It wasn't a bad morning, but a morning where we really shouldn't have let the youngest two girls out of our sight. First thing, Autumn came through and saw S and A together, and A immediately ran off. S stood and looked at Autumn with a sly grin and said something like, "She's just going back there.....she's not feeding the dogs."
Right....like we are going to believe that one. If S looks at us with a mischievous grin and tells us that A isn't doing something, it probably means she is doing something. And what is so wrong with A feeding the dogs???
Well......
That is S's chore. Yes, little miss S knows exactly how to get her older sister to do her chore for her.....which brought us the opportunity to once again discuss what the word manipulation means!

A little later in the morning (while still getting ready for the day) Autumn once again walks in to S with a little red something on her face...


"S...did you lick the icing from the bottle?"
"No....why?"

"S...tell me the truth, did you eat the icing?"

"No...."

OBVIOUSLY she did not look in the mirror and obviously she thinks we are pretty clueless. Aaagghhh...it is SO frustrating when you KNOW that your child did wrong, when you KNOW that all they need to do is to admit it, ask for forgiveness, and move on. It is SO frustrating...and yet, when I say this out loud, I realize something....that is EXACTLY how our heavenly Father, God, must feel about us. How many times do we try and hide things from the Lord, knowing that he created us, knows everything about us, and knows everything....that He is waiting with open arms, wanting to help us learn from our mistakes, and the only thing keeping us from getting past our mistake, is our own selves....yes...thank you S for this lesson...And Lord, please let me be more like you. Give me patience, wisdom, and grace!

Snow Pictures (more)

I keep forgetting and uploading them backwards, so they are out of order, but I really don't feel like doing it again, so here they are. The ones at the bottom are from the first day, and the ones with the big snow flakes are from the second day. H and M didn't want to go outside with us on the second day, so they stayed in and watched us play. I think they later wished that they were out there with us! We had a great time!
The dog came and "attacked" us and wanted in the fun!

Catching snow on her tongue.

mmmm....

Of course there has to be a couple of cartwheels!

The Guymon hat was my dad's hat from when we lived there. It is now a treasured hat and a favorite when we go out in the cold. I LOVE A's mismatched outfit! Very funny...love this girl!

Hudson had to catch some snow on his tongue too!

The picture below was RIGHT before the picture above! And the one above it was right after that. Yes, from smiling to crying in about 5 seconds!

Snow Pictures (a few anyway)

We were totally snowed in last week from Monday to Monday. Well, we got out of the house on Saturday and went to town, but we didn't have church on Sunday and then went back to school on Monday. And guess what??? As I sit and write this, we are gearing up for another heavy snow...we will see what this one brings. We have had the best time staying in. It really has been fun. So...we did get out in the yard and played several times. I have TONS of pictures! TONS. So, I will post a few at a time and just see how far I get!

Indians and Mexicans

Well, I am going to post pictures from our blizzard soon, I promise. But in the meantime, here is a little story for you. Okay, so It snowed on Monday night, and the first time we got out of the house (well besides playing in our yard) was yesterday (Saturday), so we had a lot of days in the house. I was seeing on facebook that people were going crazy in their houses, but we did pretty good. We all don't mind if we have to stay a few days longer, but we decided to get out yesterday and go to town to the store because they were expecting more snow/ice today and Tuesday, and if that happened, then we didn't want to miss our chance of going to the store. We really didn't need anything, but when the option of going to the store is taken away, we just feel like we need to go. ANYWAY...that is really beside the point. We got out and went to eat and went to the store. We went to a town about 20 miles away, and as we drove into the town, here is the conversation in the car. Also remember that the roads were mostly clear, but still somewhat icy, so I wasn't in the most relaxed mood ever.

A: Are we in an Indian city?
Me: Indian city?
Autumn: What makes you think that?
A: Cause I saw a big Indian painted on the wall
Autumn: Well, this town is named after an Indian tribe, but so are a lot of towns in Oklahoma.
A: Are there Indians here?
Me: Are you kidding me? (Remember, I was a tiny tense from the drive, and also know that we have pretty much this same conversation with her ALL the time....I get frustrated too easily...but there was a little laughter with my frustration.)
Autumn: (calmly of course) Yes, A, remember, there are a lot of people who are Indian.
A: (getting very excited) Really?? Where? Here?
I let out a big sigh....really? We have discussed this SO many times and she still acts like she has never seen an Indian person!
Autumn: Yes, remember, lots of people are Indian, just like you are Mexican. See...there are some Indian people right there trying to get their van unstuck.
A: Wow! Really? I don't see any!
She, of course, was looking for someone dressed in traditional Native American clothing coming out of a tee pee.
Me: Oh my goodness, A...are you kidding? (I kept making dramatic noises and saying things like that....I need to be calmer like Autumn)
Autumn: Well, they just look like regular people A. Remember, just their hair and skin are darker like yours. Indian people look a lot like you girls.
A: Was I Indian when I was a baby?
Now my dramatic noises are really getting loud...with a lot of laughter....I really need to get myself under control!
Autumn: (She is laughing now too) No...you can't change like that. If you are born Indian, then you stay Indian. Just like you were born a Mexican, so you stay Mexican, and if you are born Chinese, then you stay Chinese.
A: (She got distracted a bit with Chinese, starting to imagine what she would look like as a Chinese person)
Autumn: A long time ago, Indian people dressed in different clothing, like you are thinking of and they lived in tee pees, but most Indian people don't live like that now...just a few. Just like Mexican people lived and dressed very differently a long time ago. Do you live the same way Mexican people lived 100 years ago?
A: yep
Me: REALLY? Oh my A...good grief. How do you live like Mexicans did 100 years ago?
A: Happy!

UGH....I give up....she wins!

Where did this come from???

We are in a snow blizzard, which I will post pictures from that later, but let me tell you this little story of what happened while we were stuck in the house (which we loved by the way). One afternoon of the many we had to spend inside, H brought this cup to me and said, "I found this in the bedroom." As soon as she said this and I said, "uh-oh"...I saw the two little girls do a u-turn in the hall and head the other direction. I knew one of them had something to do with this cup full of hair.

I took these pictures after I had pulled out the hair and put it back in, but originally, the hair on top was black, so I immediately panicked and looked at A and M's hair...theirs was all in place. We had to do minimal interrogation to figure out that A was to blame for the cup full of hair, but now we just had to figure out where this hair came from.

I started pulling the hair out of the cup, realizing that there were lots and lots of things without hair now. OH GREAT!!!

Yes....LOTS of things without hair. She stammered around for a minute, but went immediately when we told her to and brought us the victims. I was relieved to know that the victims were not a sentimental doll!

Victim #1--For some reason, the barbies were all naked, so I covered them with my black fabric.

Victim #2--Gabriella from High School Musical...she is now sporting a short do.

Mr. Monkey Man now just has a little fuzz.

A little off of the mane of my little pony.

The lovely long locks are gone...we now have the spikey do.

This poor girl had wild hair to begin with, but now its a little less wild hair.

And poor Ariel got a little chopped off too!

And this Barbie started off with a choppy do, but now it is a little shorter.

So we asked miss A why she did this. Her answer: Because I wanted a collection!

Okay, I know that many little girls have chopped off their dolls' hair. I realize this. I know this is not an uncommon occurrence. Just about every girl has a doll that they played beauty shop with. However, the abnormal thing here, is that she KEPT A COLLECTION!!! She wanted a collection of hair! That could sound a little creepy. She said (through a little tears) "I don't have a collection."

Okay, first of all, yes you do...you have a collection of frogs. (I don't think that had occurred to her as a collection). And, if you want a collection, let's collect rocks, or stickers, or erasers, not HAIR!!! Seriously. Collecting hair.

Of course, as she was bringing us all of the victims, Autumn and I had to hide our heads and laugh. This girl! She also said that she just wants to be like the real hair cutters!

The thing is, she actually did a pretty good job!