cute dresses....

for $5 each at Meijer (75%off). I was so excited. Aren't they pretty?

the ADDITION

I know I haven't posted much on our addition to our house lately, but well, that's because there wasn't much to post. However, in the past couple weeks...we got a lot done. The drywall is all put up. Yay!!! We're almost there! Anyone want to come over and mud and sand with us?? Here's some pics that I took in the dark.

front of the room (facing the road)
our monster closet that one day will be switched over to a bathroom
our hallway?? I'm thinking a big IKEA expedit shelving unit would look really nice there especially so that in case of a fire, we can start an assembly line and get all my scrapbooks out. ha-ha

pretty as a flower

Here's some pictures I took of Makenna in case I don't make it to her 9 month portraits. You can barely see the green flower pot with the black background. Unfortunately with the pink background, no matter how hard I tried I still have a shadow behind her. Oh well; she still pulls off being adorable.

I finally did it....

I finally went to IKEA!!! The IKEA by our house just opened, and although I would have loved to go on opening day...I didn't want to drag my kids in there then. So, I waited until it cooled down a little. (Okay I waited a little over 2 1/2 weeks.) It was just like I remembered. I was driving down the road just staring at it smiling, found a parking spot, and then entered the world of home furnishing and storage solutions! I was in a happy place. I have now completely redecorated my kitchen, the younger boys's room, and my new bedroom....in my head, but it's nice to dream isn't it?

Makenna's cute outfit

Look at her! She's styling! I've had this outfit for a while, and kept putting off her wearing it because I thought it was 12 months. And, yes, she's been wearing 12 months for awhile, so I don't know why I didn't put it on her sooner. However, when I went to put it on her, it was 6-9 months. AHHHHHH!!! Oh well, I squeezed her big tummy into the yellow shirt. It was pretty tight, but the pants and jacket fit fine. (oh yeah, I just remembered, she's not wearing the pants in the pictures. She has on her 18 month skirt!) Anyways, I love these headbands!! I can't just clip on bows or flowers to them!! I"m totally addicted!
Too bad Makenna isn't!





When we got home from church, she was letting us know what she thought of the headband! Poor thing! Kaleb started laughing at her telling us she looked silly.

Here Am I, Lord

The kids sang tonight. We're having a missionary conference at church this week, and I actually had offetory, but I procrastinated and didn't get a song ready, so I asked Pastor if he was okay with the kids singing instead. He didn't mind, and so the boys started practicing this afternoon. I wanted them to think about what they were singing, so we talked about what the words were saying. I tried to encourage them to think of the song as a prayer.

B/F/F

Jakeb has been going around telling everyone that Luke is his best friend. I told him that when I was little, I used to say....BFF. So now he's been going around saying, "Luke is my Best Friend Forever!"

Bunny pics

I took these today. I think they turned out pretty cute. I really loved the one above and I like the one where she's hanging the bunny.

More Easter pic - Makenna

Easter Day

What a wonderful Lord and Saviour we have. I love Easter Sunday. I love how it reminds us exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. How He died a cruel death, but rose again so that we might have a way to go to Heaven. I stand in awe when I pause and think about all that He has done for me...so much that I don't deserve....my salvation, my family, my home...and the list could go on and on.

In the morning the kids woke up to their Easter baskets (supplied by their T-Rex). I love their sleepy eyes.

The boys had some cute new shirts and ties this year, and Makenna had an adorable dress that I picked out last year. Check out the pics.
We didn't quite make it to an Easter egg hunt this year (there's a long story involved with that one), but like always...we had one at home.

These make my mouth happy!

I discovered a bagel last weekend while I was at the all day crop. I seriously think I might have had three of them......I found out that they are from Panera bread, and they are called Cinnamon Crunch! YUM!!! (It's the one pictured in the back right.) I've been to Panera bread a couple of times, but I've never been impressed at all until these crossed my mouth! These things are so good, there is absolutely no need for cream cheese. As of right now, Cinnamon Crunch Bagels from Panera bread are my all time favorite sweet food.
This morning Eric stopped at Chick-fil-A for breakfast...(a very long story right there), and right next door there was a Panera bread. I didn't really think anything of it until Eric asked if I wanted to go get a bagel. Did I ever! (You see I brought one home last weekend from the crop, and he had a little piece, and fell in love too.) He sent me over to get two. Well, they were 99 cents each or a Baker's dozen for $8.......which one do you think I was gonna do. I had to get the best deal! So out I walked with the most delicious box of bagels ever! Eric's decided that we need them every Saturday morning. (There's one less than 5 minutes from our house!) My mouth is gonna be soooooooo pleased with me! (Too bad my body won't be. ) Oh, and I was looking at their menu online and saw that they have a Mocha chip bagel too.. That's sounds yummy too.

Makenna's 9 month pics

Look who's growing up! She's nine months old now. Crazy,huh!!! In just a couple months she'll be a whole year old! Man, the time has flown by. Let's see...what are the milestones she's accomplished by now......she's gotten enough hair to put a bow in it! Talk about more dress up. She's not crawling although she has some great stretching/reaching skills...I'm talking almost splits stretching skills. She's eating a lot of regular food. She's completely done nursing, and Eric likes to think that she's saying, "da-da."




(Check out all the past months by clicking on each month: June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January,and February.)

Someone thinks he's cool. EDITED

Look what Eric is sportin'.....a little...shoot, I don't even know what they're called...a chineard??? You know...a beard on the chin??? I guess it's not even on the chin. It's on the little area underneath his lip, so maybe it would be a lipeard? He thought he would be cool to shave his goatee off tonight and just leave this. What do you think?? I told him he's trying to be like Jared Ferrell. Ha-ha!!!!!!



PS I totally forgot to post this with the post yesterday...Okay maybe I didn't forget, but well, he was just kidding. He shaved it off before he went to bed. So not into the patch of hair thing.

hugga-wugga

just a little something to make you smile. Plus, the boys liked it, and it's easier to find it on my blog than to find it again on You tube.
and

Crop it up!!!!

Yesterday I went to an all day scrapbook crop with my friend Mindy. It was awesome. It was from 9-9, and I felt like I got tons done. My goal was to get 25 complete layouts done. I didn't quite meet the goal, but I did pretty weel. I think my total for the day was 30 pages...which included some one page layouts, but mostly 2 page layouts. I got all my Easter photos done from 2006 along with the boys' soccer pages, and most of the July 4th party that we had in 2006. Yup, that's how far I'm behind.
(Okay, Mindy, if you're reading this....this is where you might want to stop reading because I'm about to gloat about my prizes now! Gloat might be too strong of a word to use...I'm about to share my joy of my prizes.)
So I won some prizes while I was there, six to be exact. I took a picture of my three favorite ones (so as not to rub it in to Mindy too much). These are do-it yourselves kits that include all the stuff to make home decorations. I have a clock, the words HOME, and a clip board. They had a big wheel to spin, and depending on what you landed on, depended on what table you were able to draw from. I ended up getting to choose from table three three times!!! My other prizes included a Anna Griffin Paper pack, some pregnant stickers, and a bottle of paint. Who-heee!!!

This brings me to my next announcement. I've decided to start another blog that's dedicated to scrapbooking stuff. I don't really scrapbook that often, but when I do...I want to post some things...like reviews of products and special techniques. Anyways, the point is...not everyone that reads this blogs cares about that sort of thing, so I'm gonna start a new one that will only be updated occasionally when I finish a new page or try a new product or technique. I'm pretty excited about it though. To see it, click here: my new blog, Scrap-N-Chat. (Okay, all you non-scrappers out there, stop rolling your eyes and laughing at me!)

PS: Thanks, Mindy, for inviting me to the crop, and for putting up with me. I can't wait till next year.

PPS Oh yeah, and for all those who are wondering who watched the kids. Yes, you might need to make sure you're sitting when you read this: Eric watched them all day long by himself. And he only called one time for help. (I on the other hand called home quite a few times.) He did great! Thanks, Eric, for watching the kids. It was nice to have a break!

My Man loves me!

Look what he brought home to me! He stopped by Costco and picked up my pictures even though he had already been there today, and he bought me some scrapbooking stuff at Target. (He was there looking for Geotrax.) Thanks, Honey!

mall play date

Yesterday, we had a mall play date with some friends from church. We met up first so that the kids could play at the park. There were my friend, Amy and her two kids (Addison and Anderson), Barbara and her three kids (Micah, Moriah, and Ross), and then me with all five of my kids. Ages ranged from 3 months- 8 years old. Talk about craziness. Actually they were all really good, and we had a great time. We met there so that we could get Barb registered because she's expecting baby #4, so we were off to Babies R'Us. You should have seen the workers when we all paraded into Babies R'Us to register. I could almost read their minds...thinking....."haven't they ALL done this before???" I also bought a baby gate for our kitchen. That was fun carrying all the way back across the mall. Thank goodness for kids. Luke and Moriah took turns carrying it. (Yes, that is Luke having fun with a GIRL!)

After getting Barb registered, we went to eat in the food court, then it was off to Bass Pro Shop because I told my kids that we were going to go look at the fish and turtles. I told them that there was absolutely no way I was going to climbing the water like Betsy does to get a turtle, and they were so sad. Fortunately, when I looked int he water, there was one actually swimming right up to me. Betsy, you would have been so proud of me! I leaned right over and picked that little critter up and let the kids look at it. (Seriously, Betsy, can you picture me getting the turtle??? Crazy, huh? You sooooo rubbed off on me! If only I would have gotten pictures!)

deals, deals, and more deals

It's that time of year for good deals!!! Seeing that I have five kids...well, I have to be pretty thrifty! Obviously, I did not get this all at one time. It's been over the past couple of months.

So let's see.....Sears had 50% off their clearance prices....got lots for Makenna next year....dresses for $4.50 and got some shirts and ties for the boys

Then here's some outfits from Kohls....

I must say girls are so much more fun to buy for than boys...not to mention I have tons of boys clothes. But the older boys are starting to outgrow some of their clothes. My friend, Amy found these for the boys at Walmart. I think the most expensive thing was $3.00 She got khaki pants fot $1.50. Thanks Amy!

Then we have the clothes that I got at Walmart. Shirts fot $1 and dresses gor $3!!!! (some are as big as 3T, but she'll eventually wear them!)Then after getting such good deals everywhere, I splurged at Costco and got these dresses for $5 each. Poor Makenna has plenty of winter stuff for next year, but no spring/summer stuff.

snow, snow, and more snow

Let me just start off by saying this past Monday 3-3 was absolutely awesome weather. It was like the beginning of spring. It might have even hit the seventies, then we had Friday 3-8, where a BLIZZARD started and went on all day and onto Saturday. By Saturday we had at least 8 inches of snow if not more. Talk about crazy weather! However, this was one of the first times the boys all got to go outside and play in the snow. (Oh, by the way, it's 3-10 now and the snow is melting quickly...it was 50 degrees today. We went out without jackets!
Here's some pics of the kids in the snow. Even Makenna got pictures in the snow right before she fell face first in the snow and lost her love for the great snowy outdoors.

"It's raining...

...in the house!" These are the exact words I hear from my seven year old son, Blake today! Of course at first I simply ignore him because I figure he's just fooling around...at least until I heard it.....the sound of rain falling in the house. Then i saw it, the rain pouring down into the basement from the above bathroom. Luke was taking a shower, so we had him turn off the water. Then the rain turned into a drizzle then into a sprinkle. We put a bucket underneath it just in case, and then we moved on with our day. Later when I went to the bathroom I started swimming in a pond, a pond that had been created by none other than Luke himself. He had taken an entire shower witht he shower curtain on the outside of the tub causing the water to pool up on the floor and run into the closet down a little crack in the floor onto the basement floor downstairs. I asked Luke if he didn't notice the lake that he created in the bathroom, and would you believe he said YES! And that was it....never once did the two connect in his head......pool upstairs........raining downstairs.

Eric's 37th

Poor guy! He didn't get to do anything too exciting for his birthday. I guess that's what happens when you hit the big 37!!! He took the day off work to do some freelance work on the side. I had meant to take the kids out and get a cake and presents, but Jakeb was still running a fever, although with a fever, he went outside with the rest of the boys. However, for dinner we went to Toot's again and spent $11 something for dinner. Yum! Then it was off to Costco to get some food and his birthday present which by the way is what he's holding in his hand. It's what he wanted - a heavy duty tape measure. (It was hilarious. He was in his office and all of a sudden I see this tape measure poking through the door and then it turned on my TV. Note to all you non-handy people: most tape measures will get all flimsy when extended a long distance. Shoot this one turned on the TV and turned it off.) Regardless, I think he had an okay birthday. I love you, Honey!!! Happy Birthday!

Does this make me look FAT?

I hope no, but today, my brother was playing with me when I overheard him tell my mom....."Mom, this shirt really makes Makenna's belly look big!" I mean, seriously, what is he trying to do...give me a complex? I'm just a baby! Does it matter if my belly is naturally big? It's not like he has the tiniest belly ever. It would be different if it was coming from Kaleb. He's extremely skinny, but Luke? Seriously! And you know what else? I didn't even hear Mom correct him. She simply said it was the outfit I was wearing. I've heard her complain about outfits making her look fat, but I have a real hard time believing outfits can make me, a cute little baby, look fat! Seriously, the nerve of some people. I'm not fat, I'm just cheerfully chubby!