Jace's 3rd Birthday

(excuse the bad pics of me and trey!  we never take good pics together with the kids!)

Uncle Matt & Kai

some older pics of Jace

Jace's 3rd bday is coming up soon.  I thought I'd post some pics of her from the past year.  This one with the red bow is from her 2nd bday party last year!!!

first "serious" stove top incident

Precious girls

playing in the dirt

jace and aubie playing with bubbles

sweet sisters

beautiful girls

Blessed...

I love my life.  It may not be how others want their life to be, or even mine.  It is not always easy, but it's not always difficult either.  I am where I am suppose to be, doing what I have been called to do, in this moment of my life.  People disappoint.  God does not.  When I put too much importance on relationships, other than with Him and through Him, with my husband and children, I inevitably run the risk of being hurt.  Friends hurt your feelings, but God does not.  People you thought you were important too, you realize you're not.  You are to God.  Family disapproves of life decisions you feel called by God to choose.  God does not disapprove.  But through some of life's disappointments, in and around relationships, God shows you grace.  Grace through Him, with Him, from Him.  Do you know that God has given me four miracles to date?  Jesus.  Trey.  Jace.  Rory.  And now I am expecting my 5th little miracle!  Another beautiful, loving, blessing in a child.  I will admit, the thought of 3 children (3 and under) makes my stomach hurt (NOT morning sickness either :)  But, obviously, God knows I can handle it.... otherwise we would not be so blessed.  And blessed we are....

Jace's first dance class...

was a great success!  She LOVED it :)  And although it's a little later than I would like since she no longer naps, she did extremely well.  She listened and followed directions, and tumbled around willingly.  She's the youngest one in there, and is the only one not currently in preschool or daycare, thus has never had any sort of group activity with another adult without me.  But they came out and told that she did great, and so I am pleased (and a little relieved).  I think her favorite part was the tap dancing... I tried to get a pic but it is obscured by the blinds but if you look closely you can see her :)

Laundry

so in the midst of all our outdoor swimming fun I have neglected a few serious house things.  One being the laundry... it's absolutely amazing to me how much laundry a family of 4 actually produces.  I can only imagine what it would be like if our family were bigger :)  The point here is that I did not do ANY laundry for a little over a week (sh... don't judge--- we were having LOTS of pool time).  Needless to say all 3 of the tall laundry baskets were full, as well as the little one with Rory's clothes, as well as some on the floor of the laundry room.  (should've taken a pic just to get my point across here)!  Well, 20 millions loads later (DRUMROLL PLEASE)  there is only a towel, some wash cloths, and one dress (Roar's) in there now!  It took 3 days of almost back to back loads but every thing is laundered, folded, hung up and, most importantly, PUT AWAY!  YAAAY!  Of course this only happened because we actually spent a few days at home...  but the point is that it's done, AND I DIDN"T just throw the clean clothes unfolded on the floor (which I have been known to do!)

Link...

Top 100 picture books

some new pics

here are some pics from a weekend with Uncle Matt, Kai, Katie and George (friends).  We watched them Friday night and the next morning for a little while too.  My plan was to play outside for the majority, but then it rained!  So we improvised with some inside fun.  First off, my friend Michelle graciously gave us some spaghetti casseroles for dinner so that I wouldn't have to cook.  And while ALL the kids LOVED it.... feeding 5 children spaghetti was not the best idea :)  Essentially they all had to be hosed off BEFORE bath time!  I did baths in rounds too.  The babies went first, and then Kai, and then the big girls.  Well, while Uncle Matt was diapering and putting pjs on the babies and Kai, and I was just starting to get the girls out, Kai threw a big bouncy ball into jace's ceiling fan and busted the light bulb EVERYWHERE.  I am ashamed to say that I said a (hush, hush, don't judge me here) BAD word...  so Matt herded the kids to the living room while I vacuumed and cleaned up her room so that they wouldn't cut their little feet.  After that, it was DEFINITELY bed time!  Rory, George & Kai went right down, no problems there.  But I made the mistake of letting the girls lay down in my bed to watch a movie together...  I should have put Jace down first.  She'd have been out like a light (seeing as how she DOES NOT nap anymore).  Instead, she decided it would be fun to torture her friend, Katie, by stealing her Pooh bear and sitting on it!!!  But finally, after an hour or so they were both asleep!  They all slept well too.  George got up at 6:45 and the rest followed suit shortly after that.  I had to promise Katie banana pancakes and OJ for breakfast to get her to go to sleep so that was of course the first thing we did.  But everyone ate, everyone was in a great mood, and there had not been one meltdown yet... BUT it was definitely raining out.  SO 5 kids stuck inside would definitely lead to some tears I thought.  But instead we crafted for awhile:  we made our names with glue and glitter, and played with playdough, and the girls made fairy wands decorated with glitter and pompoms!  They thought the glitter was pretty fun... and there is STILL glitter in the kitchen in some spots!  But I don't mind.  Next we moved on to dress up and that entertained them for a good while... they dressed up and danced and had tea parties with ALL the stuffed animals (and they graciously let the babies play too).  Well, then Matt and I decided to build them a sheet tent in the dining room....  THEY ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!  IT WAS A BIG HIT!  That entertained them for HOURS....  It was actually a pretty wonderful weekend, as the pics show for themselves.   

Rory's fridge toys....

...were finally located at the bottom of trey's laundry basket in the laundry room.  And since I am a million loads behind, they have been missing for over a week.  She'll be happy to see them tomorrow I'm sure.  Jace, on the other hand, will not be.  She's probably the one who put them there to begin with.  For some reason, when Roar plays with these particular toys, Jace gets pretty annoyed.  I actually think its hilarious that Jace had the mind to take them OFF the fridge, march DOWN the hallway stealthily, MANEUVER the laundry room door open (it has what's suppose to be a child proof handle on it but she knows how to open them---- so NOT Jace proof) and DIG out her Daddy's clothes, PUT the toys in the taller laundry basket,  and THEN PILE HIS CLOTHES BACK ON TOP!  Mean for sure, but pretty funny all the same!