I love...

It is amazing how time flies by and how fast our kids grow up. So I have been thinking of different things about the girls that I love....details that I might normally overlook that I want to notice and remember about them. I get so wrapped up in excitement of things that I seldom calm down and notice the details around me. So here are my very random thoughts.

• I love it that M is learning to cook and we can trust her to do some things on the stove


• I love it when H's eyes light up at the mention of gifts...to give them that is


• I love it that A can walk in the room and miss the very obvious event going on, but notice the tiniest detail


• I love it that S says "Thank you God for Stippy and Bety and Tasey and Tawta" (Skip, Becky, Casey, Carter) EVERY time she prays


• I love it that M stands up for those who can't stand up for themselves time and time again


• I love to watch H with small children. She truly has a gift given from the Lord and it is so fun to watch.


• I love to watch A's eyes light up with excitement (which is usually when she sees a frog or other yucky creatures)


• I love it that S thinks ALL of my dumb jokes are funny


• I love to hear the girls sing in church....especially M and A, they belt it out with all of their hearts


• I love to watch H create something...either with paper, or a photo with a camera...she is so creative


• I love to watch A draw. Her artistic ability blows my mind


• I love to see S take care of others...she is such a nurturer


• I love to hear some or all of the girls just chatting with each other about nothing


• I love it when they give me a back scratch or a foot rub


• I love it that the first thing they do if they get up before us is to come and snuggle or give each of us a hug


• I love that they are kind to people they don't know.....unless that person is unkind to their sister, then WATCH OUT!!!!!!


• I love it that they love to come to church even when we had been there all day working on a project


• I love it when we have dance parties in the kitchen and they think I am a good dancer!


• I love it that they love it when I get a good coffee, or Autumn gets something she loves...it makes them just as happy or happier than it makes us!
• I love it that they know how to throw a party and enjoy a good party

Sorry......no pictures with this post.

cousins

I am very close to my cousins on my mom's side of the family and my dad's side of the family. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with an awesome family. I mean really, not many people can tell you that they truly admire all of their cousins and the choices they have made in life. These are people I really look up to and love to be around! There are 6 girl cousins on both sides of the family and one boy cousin on both sides of the family. I am having a reunion on mom's side of the family later this month, so I will post those after we go. We got together with all of the girl cousins on my dad's side. One cousin lives in Colorado now, so we don't get to all get together very often. My grandma tuned 80 this year, so we were all in town to celebrate. I will post pictures of the party later, but these are a TON of pictures of the day before the party. We got together at the science museum. It was the perfect place, letting the kids play and the adults talk! hope you enjoy the TONS AND TONS of pictures!

Sarah and her son A.
Christy, Sarah and Emily. Christy is their cousin on their dad's side. So that makes her our cousins' cousin.

So we tried to get a group of all of the great grands........love this picture! top row: bored, cheese, hmmm...looking for something to do middle row: tasty hand, wow!, bored to death

front row: what are we doing?, pose, a little mad

Notice the cheesing going on while B runs off and cousin T still isn't happy!

Now we get everyone.....great pic! Mostly everyone is looking

You think they have had enough?

Oh dear........but wait, Emily and cousin N are smiling.

Love this picture.....love these girls........now I think I'll photo shop cousin John in.

Who knew stacking cups could be so fun? They spent a LONG time playing with the cups.

T is proud of her creation.

I like this one....she is putting that top cup on.......too cute!

H is SO cute! He is such a good-natured boy.

working hard.......

I like this one......B is having a great time while the adults talk.

Catching up.

B and his aunt Au-um playing with cups.N and H get along SO well. She is such a pretty and sweet little girl.

Sarah and B........they had a good time together!

I like this picture.....it is so fitting that she has a picture with interesting little creatures.

Love this little guy! He is full of personality and is SO funny! He tells great stories.

M and Autumn were stacking these little chairs. M stacked them way high.....very simple and efficient.

They all like playing with Em.

I like this one cause it shows how much fun they have together!

Sorry these are a little grainy......bad light in the museum.

Quotes from yesterday

So here are a couple of quotes from yesterday that made us LAUGH......not just chuckle, but LAUGH. That noise you heard yesterday, well, that was probably me laughing!

I got to go see my dear and precious friend yesterday.......Erin. Erin and I worked at Glorieta and became friends in 1998, or in the nineteens, as H says. I love Erin. She is just one of those friends that you can pick up with any time and she just gets me. Anyway, she lives in California, but her mom is in OK, so she was visiting them and we got to meet up. We were going to bring the whole crew to meet her for lunch, but A still had a fever, so I brought H. Now, remember that one-on-one time is very valuable around here. So H felt SO special to go to lunch.......she got to get a salad, not just something off of the kids menu, she got Erin's full attention, and she got to go shopping with me. She loves to shop and especially likes to shop for a bargain. She at clothes, and looks first thing at the price tag, then gasps.......either with excitement because it isn't very "spensive," or with disbelief because it is SO "spensive". She is so funny.

We were driving home from "the funnest day she ever had" when she saw a billboard.

H: Oh Trinity, we can't go to that restaurant.

Me: Why?

H: We don't like catfish.

Me: Ok.........

H: We don't like catfish and it says that all you can eat is catfish! I guess we just won't eat at that place, but Autumn and A can eat there cause they like catfish, but we just won't go when they go.............and she was still saying things about catfish but I was CRACKING UP!!!!!!

All you can eat catfish.............won't look at it the same!

Later that evening, we went out and did our little firecrackers. We had a lot of fun. I really don't know why we think of sparklers for the kids, because really.....why are we letting our little children wave around sticks that shoot out fire? Anyway, it was a lot of fun, then we came in to get some ice cream!

I was so hot and just sticky.....actually I wasn't even that hot, but really sticky, and kind of hot. I just couldn't get cool and feel clean. So I say, "This is why I like winter."

Side note: I really do like winter. I like it when it gets dark early so you know it's time to go to bed. I like it that the grass doesn't grow and you don't have to mow. I like it when it is cold outside and you cover up to get warm. I like it when the ice glazes over the trees. I like winter....love fall too.....love it when school starts and we get into a routine. Love football games even though I don't know anything about football really. Love caramel apples. Love the colors in the trees and such. Love fall.

Anyway, I said, This is why I like winter....you aren't all hot and sticky.

H says, Yeah, but you have to be careful for those big bugs.

Me: What? This is said through laughter of course.

H: Yeah, you know those bugs in the snow.

Me (well, me and Autumn): What bugs? (again, laughing)

H: Those bugs in the snow....they bite off your toes.

By this time I am just cracking up.....no holding it in. Autumn however, being the smart mother she is, gets it.............Autumn says: Oh, you mean FROSTBITE?

H: Yeah, that's it.

We just CRACKED up! I am just imagining her walking through the snow looking for those bugs that bite off your toes!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! I know I am writing this with just 45 minutes left in the day, but happy 4th anyway! We had a great day at church and at God and Country Day, although A had a little bug (like a sick bug not an insect bug) and she had to stay home, well with Autumn. I didn't take pictures. These pictures are from last year. Actually, I took over 300 pictures, but they were for the church, not of my kiddos. But they wore the same dresses they have on in the picture, except there were 3 not 4 of them.

After God and Country Day, we were cleaning up dishes and such in the church kitchen, and one of the men started talking about how memorable his 4th of July was in 1970. Hmmm.........what in the world made that so memorable? Well, he started talking about where he was.....war.....and the fireworks he saw that day killed a bunch of men. He told it in detail, but I was in such awe just trying to imagine this day for him that I didn't remember any details of it. I am always thankful for the men and women that served and now serve our country, but this story and the way he told it just made me appreciate their service in a whole new way.

So I got home and I was telling the girls and Autumn about this story. I told them that Gary was telling of his 4th of July in 1970 when he was in the war and they got attacked and a bunch of men around him died.

H says: Did he die?

Me: H, did he die? If I was talking to him do you think he died?

I really anticipated a quick response, but it took a minute............................Oh! Yep, there's the light bulb. There we go.

We were still kind of chuckling thinking of me talking to the man who died when we got the next question. This time from M: YOU got attacked from a bomb?

Oh dear. I rolled my eyes, smiled and didn't even answer that one.

Actually, I should probable answer that one and clarify for everyone that I was NOT attacked by a bomb and I do NOT talk to dead men!

Again.......I am so thankful for those who fight for our freedom! Happy 4th!!!!!!!

My mother--part 5

S picked this rocking chair. I LOOOOOOOOVE this rocking chair!!!!!!

When I was a baby, my feet turned completely inward. So my mom had to put these special shoes on me when I went to bed. The shoes were connected by a bar........this kept my feet straight and solved the problem.

Solved that problem anyway........the other problem was, that my mom rocked me with that brace on, which made marks on the wooden rocking chair.

My dad would "get mad" (not really mad, maybe just irritated) because it was scuffing up the rocker. Well those scuffs made that rocker a million times more special to me AND my dad......AND the girls!

They love that story. I love that story! It makes us all feel connected to her. I love that!

My mother--part 4

A has just learned to read and her favorite book is Dick and Jane. But she calles it Dick and James.
My mom was a teacher, so of course she loved books. We love books. We have a TON of books!

I love these old books. I love them because I like the old pictures and such and also because they remind me of my mom. A likes them for the same reasons.

She was a happy camper because they don't get to get these books down all the time.

This picture below was her idea: like she fell asleep while reading!

Sounds like a good idea to me........good book, nap on the blanket with the sun shining....not a bad idea!

Dick and James!

I feel connected to my mom when I look at these books. She feels connected to my mom when she looks at these books.

I lov that!

My mother--part 3

H likes to create. She is very creative. She has a good eye. She loves scrap booking. We think she would love to sew, but Autumn and I don't sew, so we don't know who can teach her!
My mom didn't sew a lot, but she did some. In looking through her sewing box, we found lots of scraps of material.

We have found some projects that were started and never finished....not because she died, but because she was always ambitious to start a project, but ran out of time to finish it!

Now I know where I get that!

H loved looking through all of the sewing stuff. She loved wondering what projects my mom made.

She felt connected to her. I love that!