Here's More

I forgot how incredibly difficult it is to get five kids and a husband to cooperate and take some family pictures. I didn't hold out much hope for many good shots because the kids......well were being kids. But turns out Amberlyn is the awesomest miracle worker around. There were so many cool pictures, it's hard to pick my favorites!

Aislyn LOVES her daddy. He just might LOVE her a little bit too!

Bronwyn loves her man! Seriously I have really been loving this guy lately. I mean I always love him but lately I just love everything about him.

Townsend=silly face. I think 99% of the pictures of him had some rendition of his "cross-eyed, monster teeth" expression. So this one looks real nice.

"Oh man, she's smothering me....again!"

Real Smile

A few months ago I mentioned my quest to capture Thomas' real smile in a picture. I have still not been able to achieve this goal, but his super-awesome neice Amberlyn was. She offered to come and take some pics of our family. There were so many great ones that I'll have to post later. I just wanted show the world before I forgot. I especially love that you can see right up my nose in this one.

I love this guy. I love his smile. I love that he makes me laugh every day. I love that our kids call him "silly daddy."

Homeless

I promise we provide adequate food, shelter, clothing, and even blankets. But somehow swaddling herslelf in newspaper makes naptime a little more appealing. Oh how we love our Aisy J.

I'm Back!

Late Sunday night I began feeling the tell-tale signs of yet another trecherous breast infection coming on. Sure enough within just a few hours I lay shivering in my bed with a 103 fever and every inch of my body aching like....well something agonizingly painful. And of course just to give you some really great imagery my breast was redder than......well the reddest thing you can think of. I kept having strange half awake/half asleep dreams of my death and being so mad that I knew Thomas would have to get married again because let's face it, who could take care of five kids all by themselves. And of course to top it all off Thomas is out of town for two weeks in Washington DC. So it was just me and the kids.
Anyway as I lay there shivering/crying/fitfully sleeping for three days I realized how many wonderful people I have in my life. And I was filled with gratitude. First my sweet Marley Mae was ever attentive to me and the four younger kids. She did an amazing job of keeping everything going. Then wonderful Sarah went and got my prescription filled, without which I'd probably still be in bed. Then Barry and Tim came and gave me a blessing, again without which I'd probably still be in bed. Glorious Jessica brought the most delicious tomato soup, the only thing I could even begin to think of eating. Marianne came and took Aislyn to play with her girls and even took Marley and Townsend to make a little movie, so they didn't go stir crazy. And then my angel mama came all the way down from Gold Bar to help me for a day. She's a miracle worker. I swear within 15 minutes of being in the house she had everyone happy, the house clean, laundry going, and the kids fed. I am so thankful for all the kindness. I hope to be better at chosing the better part and helping whenever and wherever I'm needed. Thank you so much everyone who showed me so much love. I am very blessed.

Halloween AKA Silver Spray Paint on Everything

No, he's not dancing the robot he's just trying to retrieve his funnel!

Here we have our bunny, our angel, our tin man/robot, and our fifties girl.

Handsome the Spider

Anyone who knows me at all will be EXTREMELY surprised to see photos of spiders on my blog. You see spiders are the single most frightening, disgusting thing on the planet(in my humble opinion). However over the last couple of weeks my kids have grown rather attached to one particular spider. He took up residence outside the window on our staircase about two weeks ago. The fact that he chose to keep double paned glass between he and I is the reason he is still alive. A very wise spider indeed.

We've been able to witness nature at it's finest. We've seen artful web building. We've been awed by the capture of japanese beetles, watching them become wrapped in a cocoon of death and then having their guts sucked out.
Just a few days ago Aislyn asked me what his name was. I said he didn't have one and that she could name him. She said," I think his name is Handsome because he is a such a nice spider." So Handsome it is. Not a word I've ever associated with a spider, but I'm growing.

So today this punk kid spider comes and tries to kick Handsome out of his prime real estate. We were all huddled on the stairs for almost 45 minutes watching the drama unfold as this little spider keeps trying to attack our guy. He kept biting Handsome and hitting him with his icky spider legs. It was crazy. Marley and Townsend went outside and tried to throw rocks at the attacker but to no avail. I think she was almost crying......over a spider!

Finally "Killer"(as we called him) gave up and left. We were scared that Handsome was done for, he was all curled up like a dead spider does. But much to my children's joy Handsome is now spread out in his web eating some dinner.

Just looking at these pictures still make me a little nauseus.

Popsicles and Cupcakes

Jairus James turned a whopping three years old while we were gone. As requested he got popsicles and cupcakes and a big number three candle to go on top.What would we do without Jairus? He is my snuggly, lovey little guy. So very tender and easily heartbroken. There's nothing better than his little voice saying,"I wuv you mom". Just recently he become an amazing prayer. He would literally pray for ten minutes if you let him. He'll go through an entire days' worth of events, thanking heavenly Father for everything imaginable and then proceed to ask for a few necessities like keeping the monkeys away so they won't bite him while he's sleeping. I don't know where it came from but he has an crippling fear of monkeys. Slightly unusual, kindof amusing, and very serious stuff for a three year old.

Jairus is my wonderful big boy. I am so grateful for each one of my children and all their unique traits. They make life interesting, entertaining, and never, ever dull.