Happy Easter :)

3 Days off. A clean house. 2 separate cars. Both sides of the family. 5 egg hunts. Lots and lots of rain. 2 babies with the beginning of a cold. At least 20 chocolate bunnies. Way too much food. 5 tired kids.

We stayed at Uncle John and Aunt Risa's house for the weekend. Thank you for letting us invade :)

Thanks to Grandma teaching Pre-K, the babies even got to color eggs. Her class colored eggs with an egg spinner and she ran out and got one for Emmitt and Castiel. They loved it and took turns :)

This is the closest we get to a nice family picture these days :) At least we are all together.

We visited Uncle Tony and Aunt Katie's house. The kids got to do an egg hunt with their Cousin Olivia :) I don't think this kid takes a bad picture, you are adorable Olivia!

All the cousins together. Yes, I took about 20 photos and this is the only shot with all their eyes open, to bad Emmitt has a juice glass in his face.

It's funny how fast the boys figured out their was candy in all the eggs. This is Castiel asking Audrey for a candy-filled egg :)

Emmitt got lots of loving. It's changing into many different colors. It really is awful but it's not bothering him  :(

Returned home to a yard full of toys :) And thankfully, beautiful weather to try them all out.

Giant croquet :)

Bubbles :)

Flower seeds :)

Sidewalk chalk :)

My Picasso :)  Within minutes he was covered with chalk and poured a jars of bubbles in his lap.

Last Easter egg hunt in the backyard :)

Cas learning to open the plastic eggs :)

Emmitt drooling over the candy :)

Big thanks to the whole family for loving and spoiling our children :) They are still recovering from all the extra attention. Early bedtimes and long naps for a couple days, which is fine by me.

They are still coming down from their sugar highs!

The Shiner

So not as bad as I was thinking, but definitely not pretty.

He's a toughy though!

That's the good thing about boys. If Audrey or Zoe would have done this, they wouldn't have been able to let it go.

Emmitt was fine after less than 30 minute of cuddling.

And since Emmitt was getting his picture taken, while enjoy a blue frosted cookie :) Castiel insisted that I take some of him too :)

When is this kid going to get more bottom teeth?!?

I snapped off 63 photos in the matter of seconds . . . gotta love digital cameras!!!

Walgreens loved me before I got my first digital camera. Now I'm loving my money and my extra pictures :)

Black Eyed Baby

This morning I had to take all 3 boys shopping by myself. I avoid doing this whenever possible, but today I realized I was out of milk, bread and diapers!

Of course Cam refused to walk, so he went in the front of the cart and I put the twins in the back. So you can imagine just how much room I had left in the cart for food.

I have learned to make use of the bottom of the cart, that's where most of it goes. It probably saves me money, I don't have room for any extras.

Someone actually asked "Why do you shop with them all in the cart?" Does she really think it's a choice? Another lady asked if they were triplets, I guess she didn't see Cam's legs?!?

We survived with a trip to the bakery counter for a free cookie. Parents with kids who don't know about this, most grocery stores & Walmart will hand out cookies to kids, all you have to do is ask :)

I always consider a trip successful when I get comments on how good my kids are. They are good shoppers, so much to see.
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Emmitt took another spill today. This is the second time in a week that his face has taken the brunt of his daredevil nature. He really has to learn that not everything has to be climbed and stood on!

This is what it looked like tonight about 10 minutes after it happened :(

He was crying right before the picture, I love that he still smiled for the camera :)

I'm worried about what it'll look like in the morning! But soooo glad that he didn't get his eye.

Zoe said "He'll get a lot of attention and love at Easter" and I'm just thinking "Isn't that going to look nice in all the family shots"

I'm sure I'll have a picture of a pretty nice shiner for you tomorrow.
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Most of the night this house has been busy with a secret mission. I'd love to share, but can't :D
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And I just wanted to share the books that Cameron has been having me read to him over and over all week.

These books are sooo boring to me, but the questions and concentration on his face make me smile and keeping reading them.

The funniest part has got to be me trying to answer his questions. Why is he doing that? What is that for? What is that called? I answer the questions as best I can, but my construction truck knowledge is very limited.

I answer the questions because he is the kind of kid who needs an answer. He's not happy with "I'm not sure" "I don't know", that just leads to more questions.

So I have learned it's just easier to answer with the most logical answers that I can come up with, but half of the time I'm laughing at myself over the awful answers that I'm giving him.

Today was one of those days that I miss the dress up clothes, barbies and the vanity full of fake makeup . . . it has been replaced by all things boys :)

A Chicken Egg = Guilt?

I cracked open an egg tonight for dinner . . . twins . . . it made me feel a little guilty.

I don't ever remember cracking open a "twin" egg before. I've cracked open countless eggs without thought or guilt, but this one made me stop.

I just stood there staring at them for a minute and then scrambled them  :(

I've been doing that a lot lately. Not staring at eggs.

Feeling guilty and I know that I shouldn't be.

I'm getting lots done, but not as much as I want. I'm working out, but not as much as I want. I'm spending time with the kids, but not as much as I want. I looking toward a better future, but it's not a clear as I want.

Some of you will say that I've put too much on my plate.

The fact is, I will always have too much on my plate and never enough time. And I know this. That's what I signed up for when I had 5 children. But they are worth it. Completely.

Expectations are high, but I don't think too high. It's good to think and dream big. It's important to know what you want out of life and go for it. The hardest part for me is knowing what I want.

Sometimes life is a lot of hard work, but I'm always looking toward the rewards.

As a mother, there are rewards in almost everything I do. I just have to remember to look for them, recognize them and smile. It's like the saying, "Don't forget to stop and smell the roses".

There are rewards surrounding me every moment of my life, I just have to remember to take them in and enjoy them.

I am stressed and tired, but the fact is, when I am done with some of these projects, I'm done.

I'm putting myself through this now, so my future is easier and cleaner . . . at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I decided I have to make time for some fun too.

So, a little creativity today, but it shows my mood.

My first ACEO. It's a miniature watercolor. I figure I'll play around with watercolors and ink for a while, then move onto another medium. I've decided to do a series. "Finding my Passion" It's going to be a series of 100 hearts, a journey and experiment to find my passion. Find my love. Find myself.

I realize after a day like today, I need to open my eyes a little wider and relish in my accomplishments, realized what I have in life and enjoy it instead of questioning everything.

"Just Keeping Going", advice from my little fishy friend, Dory

I also need the sun to return . . . it's making me gloomy.

A Cherished Childhood Memory

We all have memories that we cherish from our childhood. The simplest of things can put us right back in a moment or place that makes us smile.

That happened to me this week :) I was going through a bin of 18 month clothing that I had packed in the attic. A friend of mine wanted to use Emmitt and Castiel in a photo shoot this week and the clothes in their closet were getting a little snug.

I crossed my fingers and opened the bin. I had no time to go shopping so I was just hoping for something to work. I wanted to find at least one thing that I was happy with. I was pleasantly pleased to finds lots of options :)

Then I pulled out a pair of bib overalls. And what did I see?!? Another pair of bib overalls!!! Just like the ones that my grandfather wore nearly everyday that I can remember. He may have had more of a wardrobe earlier in his life, but in all my memories, he is wearing striped overalls :)

This is my grandfather, Walter (on the right) with his cousin, Cole

I remembered this photo, so the wheels in my head where turning when I found the bib overalls! I added a white onesie and packed a toy John Deere tractor in my bag. And I couldn't be happier with the results!

I want to thank Julie Ferenzi for her patience in working with my boys. As you can imagine, they weren't the easiest subjects. They were looking, crawling and walking in different directions nearly the entire time. This was my first experience getting pictures of my children taken outside and it was a wonderful experience with amazing results. I don't know if I'll take them back to a studio any time soon :)

If you live in the area and want to have a different experience then you can get at a photo studio, I would recommend giving Julie a try. Check out her website.  http://www.JulieFerenziPhotography.com

She has more examples of her beautiful photography on her site.

I love when things just fall into place perfectly. That's how I feel about these photos. They are pictures that I will cherish forever and they will always remind me of my own childhood on my grandparent's farm.

I was so happy when my father posted the picture of my grandfather on Facebook, saying that the pictures reminded him of his father . . . wonderful memories . . . a wonderful man :)

Oopsy Doopsy :)

Today was my first pass at P90X.

I have other goals to accomplish around here and today looked like the last nice day for a while to do some outside work.

I don't like cooping Cameron in the house all day if I don't have to, instead I put him to work and he loved it.

I tipped the toy bin on it's side and asked Cam to empty it out and sort all the toys into piles. We threw away all the broken toys.

He took his job very seriously and proudly emptied the whole thing.

Then I let him have some fun as a reward :)

What kid doesn't love playing with water, even if it involves cleaning. My theory is that kids are always willing to help if you give them the right jobs.

He discovered a "bug catcher house" as he called it and was determined to catch a bug. He first added grass, rocks, leaves and mulch to the house, "for the bug to lay on".

He found two spiders crawling on the storage container he had just cleaned for me. He looked at me with big eyes . . . shoot, I was going to have to pick up a spider for him! "Mommy's don't like to pick up spiders" I told him. "He'll crawl into his house" he said, so sure and confident.

One of the spiders started crawling down the side and he place the hole of the "house" right below him and sure enough, the spider walked right in.

I was relieved :) I don't fear spiders, but I don't like picking them up either.

Can you see the sad, teary eyed Cameron behind the "bug catcher house"?

Can anyone guess why he is sad?

Because mean old mommy wouldn't let him bring his pet spider in the house for lunch. I thought about it, but this is only the beginning of summer, and if I allow this, who knows what he will be trying to bring into my house in a month or two. Definitely made it clear today "bug catcher houses" stay outside!

I said in the past how my simple projects always seem to snowball on me. Since the hose was out I decided to wash off the front patio, and I splattered some water onto the side of the house and realized how dirty the house was, so I jet washed the siding, and then of course Windexed the lower windows. I noticed how much bigger the patio looked without the storage container and decided I didn't want it back there, so the only other logical place to put it was in the garage. That of course lead to clearing out the garage to make room. Since the container is taller I had to reposition the tools on the pegboard wall above it and make sure the lid could open. Then I swept out the entire garage, moved the piles of boxes to fill towards the back and the filled ones near the front. Then organized all the bikes as best I could for now. I also cleaned out my flower pots and positioned them ready for flowers. I also noticed that the front yard is in need for some new red mulch, but that's for another day :)

While I was getting tons done, by the way, the twins were down for their nap, Cameron was testing out all the summer toys. The baseball tee, putted around the yard for a bit, pulled the wagon up and down the sidewalk, shot some hoops, threw a velcro ball up in the air . . . he's three, he moves from one thing to another crazy fast.

This is my favorite thing he did today.

First time! He drew a picture of me and then wanted to write "mom". He asked for the letters. I told him "M" and he asked, "the letter that goes up down up down" and he wrote it while I was just standing there. He mastered the "O" a long time ago.

I'm so proud of him . . . a little teary eyed.

He needed a little more help with this one, but he let me, which is a accomplishment in itself.

Do you see "dad"? He was being goofy at this point and wouldn't smile.

I think I'm going to start working with him more with chalk, outside. He won't usually sit still long enough at the kitchen table.

Teaching him to write his ABC's in sidewalk chalk all summer might just work and be fun at the same time :)

After the girls came home from school, we stayed outside.

Castiel moved, it was going to be a great pic of all 5.

Emmitt trying new things and loving it.

Boys cooperating.

Girls cooperating . . . this is usually what it's like trying to get a picture of all of them together.

Castiel's sweet but scary smile :)

Emmitt's new favorite place.

Do you see Cam? Where did that come from???

Another great day and lots more done.

Oh yeah, the "oopsy doopsy" is from Cameron. He probably said it fifty times today :)