Need Energy?

I just love this time of year. Warm days, lovely nights, flowers blooming, tree's getting their leaves back, and the general fact that you can spend an entire day outside without freezing! Plus you know lake time is just around the corner!
So this is what our family has been doing on the weekends, spending time outdoors. One weekend we took a hike behind our house that leads to the lake... eventually. Very steep. It was so much fun that we went into Branson to continue hiking and take the kids to the hatchery...again. Last weekend Sam worked our a**es off in the yard. He borrowed dads chainsaw and decided he was a timber man. The yard looks so much better. It will be a long process, but one day we will have a landscaped yard. Take note though that while Sam was sawing down trees, me and the kids were the ones who had to haul the wood to the wood pile or burn pile. I sound like I'm complaining, but I actually really enjoy working outside! I remember growing up helping work outside a lot with my parents, and now I'm working on my own yard and love it. Very rewarding. Plus it's good to get the kids involved in outdoor activities instead of sitting on their butts watching TV or playing video games. It's funny to watch 4 different kids work in the yard. Devyn is all eager the first 10 minutes, then gets bored and "acts" like she is doing something. More like controlling what the other kids are doing. Sadey is a very hard worker, she doesn't stop until told! Like the energizer bunny...she keeps going and going and going! Luke is another hard worker! He had such a good time. It was fun to watch him be such a boy and try to pick up the biggest logs, he also didn't stop! Nate...well here we are again at Nate. Let's just say he got bored! He worked hard, and then came up to me and said "I wanna help, but not with wood anymore." He walked around with a stick pretending he was a knight most of the day.
Well this weekend was another busy one. To make a long story shorter I will just tell you what we did Saturday. First off we didn't go the hill Friday night, so we got to sleep in and I made us a big breakfast around 10ish. I encouraged the kids to eat a lot because we had a special day planned! This was hard for Sadey and Nate because they don't eat much of anything! We had decided to go to the zoo. The last time we went was when I was pregnant with Nate and Luke was under one. I went on the Internet to see how much it costs, and learned that St. Johns had a clinic going on at the zoo, and admission was free all day. What a deal...we were going! Sam called his mom to invite his sister Kelly, and she was very bored so was glad for the invite. Devyn and Kelly talked the entire way to Springfield without shutting up. This is actually the longest period I have heard Nate go without speaking for a long time. So in that way I am thankful because they were talking to one another and not asking me 20 questions about stuff I don't know how to answer! The zoo was nice. Busy but the kids had a blast.
We dropped Kelly off and went to the place we can never seem to stay away from...Walmart. While checking out Sam noticed the 5 hour energy drinks. And yes that seemed like the perfect answer to our lack of energy at the moment. It was not even 5pm and we were both ready to go to bed. 4 kids at a busy zoo, and the boys wore flip flops that hurt their feet, so Luke complained about his feet most of the time and I carried Nate around most of the zoo...so yes we were pretty tired! We got home and the kids had their gourmet meals of Kids Cuisine, while Sam and I downed our energy drinks.
Let me just say this. Now that I have 4 kids, and know it is impossible to sleep in, I go to bed early!! I was thinking 5 hour energy (comparable to one cup of coffee-that's what the bottle says) so take it at 5 go to bed at 10 or 11! HA HA! One cup of coffee my buttah! I was up past 2am and had to be up at 7 to get ready for church. This stuff is good. Gets the heart a pumpin'! I stayed up late enough to enjoy my husband outside of our children. It was so nice! I was tired Sunday, but I took a nap after church and felt much better. Good times! So if you are ever in need of a energy boost...try the drink.
Hope you all are enjoying your spring and are reminded of God's wonderful beauty!!

Ohh I have a new comment from Nate. On the way home from the zoo, he was telling everyone how he rides a bus. Devyn, "NO you don't!"
"I ride the church bus you FREAKS!" I guess he told them!

Easter Weekend

What a great weekend it was!

The week didn't start off to great with first Nate getting the stomach flu, then me and by Friday Luke. Poor Luke. The kid spent his entire spring break sick and missing out on all kinds of fun. So mom thought that since he had Good Friday off she would have him spend the night Thursday night and then take him to the Butterfly Palace Friday. Just him, something that never happens. Unfortunately being in the middle of many children does suck sometimes! He was so excited, but that all ended Friday morning with mom calling saying he had been puking since 6am! So yes my poor big man had to miss out on another day of fun! One of these days he will get his break!!

Amazingly the sickness held off the entire weekend. It came back with a vengeance starting on Monday. Luke again, Sadey then Sam and Devyn got it! Just 24 hour episode, Thank God! Ohhh one funny thing about it! The older Devyn gets the more she seems to fight me over EVERYTHING. I guess I should understand this since I did the same thing to my mom, but it doesn't help to know this! She got up yesterday releasing fluids from both openings, and then insisted that she HAS to go to school. "We are having Map Testing, and I can't miss it!" Persisted on and on to the point I was ready to throw her out of the house! So I woke up Nate, made her get dressed and drove her to school! Making sure she understood that I would NOT come and get her! This was her decision and I hope she made the right one! I went to see her before church started that night, and she told me that she got sick at school a couple times. But she DID NOT make a mistake by her decision to go...she was fine. "I'm Fine, I feel good"! Blah Blah. Sometimes I wonder why God gave me girls, I just don't seem to be to good at this stuff!

We were blessed with my brother and his wife's presence on Friday night! They hadn't been down in a while so they decided to come down earlier than they usually do. I'm so glad they did! As always I really enjoyed their company. Andrea helped me with the egg decorating, and Dan and Aj both helped with the egg hunt! The kids enjoyed their Aunt and Uncle tremendously!

The egg decorating was adventurous, as always! My kids always go to church that week with stained hands that look like they have not had a bath in a while! The girls did pretty good at keeping their hands clean, but Luke an Nate used their hands to dip their eggs in and out of the dye. Nate washed his hands when he got done decorating (more like breaking) his eggs, and was upset that the dye didn't come off of his hands. He couldn't understand it!

We decided to have the egg hunt on Saturday since the weather was going to suck on Sunday. Easter should be a holiday that is required to have nice sunny warm weather!! The kids had a great time hunting their eggs at Nana and Poppa's! We had a great dinner and more important a great time together as a family!

Sunday we went to church as a family to celebrate our risen Lord, and then we carried on the celebration at mom and dads with a great lunch! It was such a great time! I always enjoy those long weekends with family, this one was especially nice since dad was home! Plus I really enjoyed watching the kids bond more with their Aunt Andrea and Uncle Dan. Dan couldn't really get away from Nate, he demanded most of his time. I loved watching them!

Lots of things Happening!

Well once again it has been awhile since I have blogged, so I have many things to tell you!






1. Devyn got her green belt in tae kwon do! She is so awesome! She excels many of the kids in the class! Devyn can do just about anything if she puts all she has into it. If she is not interested watch out...it won't happen! But she loves tae kwon do, and it shows through her performance, it truly is beautiful to watch her!































2. I got my hair cut! When I decide to do something different with my hair, I never seem to do it in a small way. I figure it's hair it will grow back. I have this philosophy only if my mom or Kristal does my hair. I trust both of them completely! I have NO luck with anyone else. I cut off about 8 inches and took all the blond out! It was killing my hair. I haven't had healthy hair in a long time. Now it is brown with red highlights and very healthy! I'm loving it! Sam likes the blond of course (most men do), but he likes my new cut!

That's an up close pic, but you get the idea, I hope.

3. Our project. We have lived in our home for 6 years, and all of those 6 years I have wanted to pull up the carpet in the living room. Sam protested until this year when the carpet started pulling away from the tile near the fireplace. I pulled it up to reveal the beautiful hard wood underneath, and he went for it! This was not a small project! It took 2 full days of hard work! Plus the tile that we changed by the fireplace took another few days because of all the layers of work. It turned out awesome! We live in a very different house now. The living room is transformed! There are a few scratches and wear on the floor, but that brings character! The carpet was so nasty, Sam thinks there was black mold on it! So we are hoping that it will help our children's allergies to have it gone, and most of all Luke's breathing problems. We went to spend the night at Sam's parents house last Friday and when we came home it was the first time our house didn't smell like mold! It was amazing!

4. Sadey received an award for being Character of the Month. Those who know Sadey will enjoy this story! If you don't let me just say this...Sadey is a very very smart little girl, like she is in first grade reading on a third grade level and her writing is even better, but Sadey tends to be very ditsy sometimes! Anyways I was so excited for her and even more excited that I would be able to attend the breakfast with her! They have all the "character of the month" children and their parents come together for breakfast and give them an award. I had asked Sadey what the character word was, and she told me commitment. I asked her what she did to show commitment and she replied that she had no idea! Ok that is funny within itself, but it gets better. Nate and I get ready, go to her school, and start enjoying breakfast. Her principle gets up and explains the program and that we should be proud of our children. She then explains that the character word of the month is........drum roll please...........Cooperation. I'm laughing too hard to even type! Sadey looked at me with her huge blue eyes and said...OPPS! OHHH ya it is cooperation! She still has no idea what she did to show this character though! But as her mother I can see her showing cooperation a lot more than commitment! That's my Sadey!!