The smile we have all been waiting for....

I let her take some pictures and this is what she gave us!!

I know, a lot more than you really cared to see, but I couldn't resist.

Something else came off....

Daniel has been begging me to cut his hair all off!! I have held my ground for long enough. Today I gave up and gave him an early Birthday present that I knew that HE would love!!! I don't mind it as much as I thought I would, but I am looking forward to it growing back.

Here is what he looked like before.....

Here is what he looks like now......

Happy early Birthday Buddy!!

The week of OFFS

Tuesday Amy got her mole taken off. She was a very brave little angel. Her parents were a mess. Jeff and I were not allowed to be in the room while they removed the mole. I started crying, because she really wanted us both to be in there with her. (It's a long story, but I promise she never saw me crying.) 20 minutes later she came out of the surgery room, smiling and so proud of her big bandage.

Today Lauren got her braces off!!! There are no pictures at the moment. She is being very shy about showing us her teeth. I will show you pictures as soon as I can. She truly looks BEAUTIFUL!!!

Tomorrow the whole family will be getting all the plaque off our teeth. We are going to be making an EARLY morning visit to our dentist's office.

Cook Off entries

We were a part of a cook off tonight. It was great fun. Daniel and his friends made this helicopter cake. They worked very hard on it!! They actually won a prize for it. They won Best Looking. The boys were very proud of their accomplishment.






This next entry did not win an award, but I thought that it was a creative idea. Lauren and her friend made peanut butter and jelly cutout sandwiches.




Emily and her friend made this pumpkin cake. Not only does it look like a pumpkin, but it was an actual pumpkin cake recipe. They went all out and they got the award for the Best Tasting!! I was told hands down all the judges agreed about the taste! I will have to have her post the recipe on Recipeasy sometime.

I have been tagged

I am supposed to tell you 8 things about myself that you don't already know. Here we go.

1. I will take just about anything that is FREE!!
2. My childhood nickname was Funny Face (after the song...at least that is what my mom tells me)
3. I can sleep ANYWHERE!!
4. I had always wanted to have identical twins, until the birth of my fifth child. It was then that reality sunk in and I realized that I would not make a good mom to twins!!
5. In the heat of the moment, I overreact to just about everything!! Give me a few minutes and my whole outlook changes.
6. Because of #1, we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!!!!
7. I do NOT like winter, snow, or cold weather, but I collect SNOWMEN!!
8. I love to learn new things.

Consider yourself tagged!

Wordless Wednesday

If only my teeth were really that white!!!

My, Oh my

It is not even 7:30 and I have enough to post for my day!!

I woke up yesterday sick and it bothered me ALL last night. I must have woken up at least 13 times throughout the night. I finally settled down at about 6:00 this morning. I was sleeping really well, when I heard Joel SCREAMING at around 7:15. I ran to get him and he was shaking and screaming. I brought him downstairs where I could turn lights on and check him out. The poor little guy had gotten stung by a bee while sleeping in his bed!! (For some reason bees keep getting into the boys room) After attending to the bee sting, I checked Joel's diaper. HE WAS DRY AGAIN!!!! I am SO excited! I hope this trend of dryness continues for the rest of his life. I have great hope that it will, because it happened very much this way with two of my other children. Oh would God truly bless me three times with easy potty training? ( A side note- just so that you are not jealous.....my other two children have been a totally different extreme of potty training. One of them is still having trouble at night. )

Smarties

Joel woke up DRY this morning, so I decided to just go with it. He now gets a pack of Smarties everytime he goes potty on the toilet. He did an awesome job today!!! He stayed dry almost all day long. I can't wait to see what he does tonight.

Excuses to eat

It was there.
It was there in front of me.
It was nearby in the closet.
I may never have an opportunity to eat this particular food again.
It's hot now, and if I don't eat it, it will get cold.
It's cold now, and if I don't eat now, it will warm up.
I'm tired.
I'm wide awake.
I'm mad.
I'm sad.
I'm lonely.
I'm unhappy.
I'm happy and really should celebrate.
I gained a pound so it doesn't matter anyway.
I lost a pound so I deserve a reward.
I already ate one bite so the next 50 (until I'm stuffed) don't matter.
I already "blew" my diet so I'll just punish myself by blowing it more.
It's my favorite.
It's not my favorite but I might get hungry if I don't eat it.
This food is really special so I should appreciate it by eating it.
This food is really expensive and I don't want to waste it so I must eat it.
Everyone else is eating so I must eat too.

He did it too us...again!!!

Joel sent his family on a wild goose chase today! We went looking ALL over this camp trying to find him. Joel had been in front of our house playing by himself, when Daniel saw him last. We yelled Joel's name, we asked everyone if they knew where he was, and searched inside of the closest buildings. NO JOEL!!! After searching all the normal places, Daniel ran to check one more place.

Joel's bed!!

Sure enough, that is exactly where he found Joel. Apparently our little guy had climbed up on the counter, found his Binky, and had gone to his bed to take his afternoon nap!! This is the second time we have "lost" him and then found him in bed! Gotta love that he knows when he is tired, but couldn't he tell us before he goes to bed?

A GREAT LINK!!

If want to know what to pray for these upcoming elections, go to this link!!

How old are you Dear?

You know that you are getting old...when you are driving down the road and you can't hear your wife talking, so you reach to turn the radio (which is off) up louder!! Jeff actually did this tonight. I thought that he was sick of hearing me talk so he was turning the radio on, but instead he was trying to turn me up!!

I have gotta get better at this....

I have so let my blog go!! I have got to be better at posting more regularly again. I think about posting, but I find it hard to make the time to do it. I have to be able to carve out a chunk of time without distractions, in order for me to blog. I can't seem to find that time any more. Maybe I should try a new approach. Instead of taking so long for each post, maybe I should just sit down and make shorter posts. I have to do something!!!

This week and next is Fall Family Camp!! What does that mean? It means that......I am BUSY, BUSY, BUSY/ I do not have to cook any meals for the next two weeks/ I do get to bake TONS of cookies though/ I have to eat in the lodge with a picky eater two year old and 100 other people/ I am doing childcare for the services (4 yr. olds thru 1st grade)/ We stay up late each night and get up early each morning/ and the best thing that I can think of......NO SCHOOL!!!

I have been thinking a lot this week....I miss my mom. I really wish that we lived closer!!! NOT next door closer, but A LOT closer than Michigan and Arizona!! I would so love to be a half an hour or so away from her. Maybe someday that will happen!!!

It's where?

I lost my favorite mixing bowl!!! I looked all over the house for this huge metal bowl with absolutely no success. I used some other bowl and kind of forgot about THE bowl until today. I asked Jeff if he knew where it was. He had no idea either, but he asked me when I last used it. I immediately remembered where the bowl was.....










RIGHT THERE ON MY KITCHEN COUNTER!!! It had been up there for Jeff to make his popcorn in!! NO LIE.... I had dug the bag of parade candy out of that bowl at least twice last night alone!!! Sometimes things just don't register to me!!

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

Wasn't Jeff an adorable baby?

I so see Joel in this picture!!

Correct me if I am wrong, but I see Emily in this one. (I will skip the teenage years and go straight to the man I fell in love with. Okay he was about ten years younger this this man, but he looks the same.)

I love this picture. (He was so happy to have his weeding ring back. Amy had sent it out our front door attached to a balloon. The balloon got caught on one of the many trees outside. Jeff climbed up that tree to retrieve his ring. I begged him not to do it, but he just had to have his original ring.)

Happy Birthday Honee!!! I love you and I am SO glad to have you as my best friend. I look forward to MANY MORE years together. Thank you for being so committed to your family. We adore you and we miss you horribly when you are away.