Through the eyes of a 6 year old BOY.

While at baseball last night I watched Austin slide into home plate. As he stood up he got a huge smile on his face. I asked him why he was so happy....his response, " look at the cool grass stain I got on my knees mom, that means I played GOOD".

I will never look at  grass stained knees the same :)

Things learned from a "Clogged Toilet"

I have had one of those weeks where many trails seem to be coming at the same time. I can get into a negative mood and it sets a bad tone in my home. So with this latest trial I have decided to list 10 things that were good. Wish me luck!

The upstairs toilet got clogged and was unusable for about 16 hours.

Good things that came from this:
1.   I got exercise running down the stairs to help my 4 year old go potty (yea for me).
2.   I now appreciate living in a country that provides a sewer system.
3.   I also appreciate indoor plumbing (it was pretty cold last night, would have hated to run to the "outhouse" at 3:00 a.m.)
4.   I have a new appreciation for 2 working toilets in my home.
5.   I acknowledge the fact that they both COULD have been plugged at the same time. 
6.   I am now an expert on breathing through my mouth (that way you can't smell the stink.)
7.   I am contributing to the growing economy by renting a "plumbers snake" from Home Depot.
8.   I finally got to see a "plumbers snake" in action.
9.   I appreciate my husband even more then usual, he was willing to get elbow deep in...stuff, so that we could have our toilet unclogged.
10. I got the opportunity to clean my bathroom a few days earlier then I had planned. It is now spotless (even the ceiling) you could eat off the floor in there (not that I would, but you could).

See I knew I could do it. We can find good things even in our trials.

Another year has gone by.

Shawntell turned 9 on Easter Sunday. She wanted a butterfly cake. I tried a new type of frosting. It never really "set" up. I even tried to freeze the cake. But as soon as it began to thaw the frosting began to ooze down the sides. Oh well it was still good.

See the frosting slowly falling off the cake?

 Shawntell is such a sweet addition to our family! She is so caring and kind. She always wants everyone to be happy. She has a little bit of the "motherly" nature to her. She tries to settle any fight and has figured out how to make her little brother and sister feel guilty about not "doing what they are suppose to be doing". She is an amazing little girl---we love her!

Her first black eye.

This is what happens when you play with the boys!!

The story =  The kids were playing outside when Austin comes running in the house screaming that Kambree is bleeding. I asked Austin what happened to her. He says, "we were playing with the toy cars, making them drive UP the slide, Kambree was at the top and the car hit her in the face. Mom, it is her own fault for getting in the cars way."

11 years old today.

 Paige turns 11 years old today!! She wanted a "Pokka dot " cake. My sister told me to take airheads and put them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and they would be soft enough to roll out and then use a cookie cutter and make shapes. It worked pretty good except that the 4 year old helper I had kept trying to eat them!

11 years ago I was going to lunch at the Training Table with my boss and 4 other co workers. I had a  #24/ no tomato, a lemonade, and cheese fries with special sauce. It was so good! As we left the restaurant (we were just leaving our table) I felt something funny. And then my pants were soaking wet. Yep my water broke right in front of all those great people! During labor I threw up all that great food :(

She is growing up to be a wonderful young women. She is very responsible and so loving. She always does her best, she has a great sense of her self worth. She is AMAZING!

Too bad she is sick today!

A fun project.

This bare wall is in our basement. I found a really fun project in the "Good house keeping" magazine from February.  It said to take pictures and hang them up in a circle. Then get clock hands and put them in the middle to make a wall sized clock. I made a few changes to their idea and came up with this.....

 I have 4 kids so I figured I could use each one of their pictures. It turned out so cute, I love it. I got the clock hands and motor as a kit at Roberts. I used a 40% off coupon. I already had the frames from our old house (yep they have been sitting in a plastic bin for 3 1/2 years....you never know when you will need a frame :) I got them out and painted them black (left over paint from a previous project). So it turned out to be a pretty fun project and not a lot of money.

Some color.

This is the before.....I added some color. I got these drape scarves at Bed Bath and Beyond. (yep in the clearance section, they were the last 2!)

They were a little too long so I had to do a little cutting and sewing. But with the extra material I recovered  2 pillows that weren't really being used any where, now they match. The drapes are almost the same color as my room. There was some extra material left from that project as well so I recovered 2 more pillow. I found 4 more at the DI that totally matched and this is the end result. I am still working on finding a mirror to put over the piano and maybe a shelf or 2.

The lighting makes these pillows look pink, but they aren't. They are the same color as the other ones (it is called "wine").

This is kind of the oddball pillow. I got this one from the DI and when I was washing and drying it it got hooked some place in the dryer and kind of ripped. So I cut out the rip and sewed it back together. It is a little smaller then the matching one, but it still works.