Mean Cowboys and Cute Buckeyes

Most of the time these 4 act like they are related!

They're hilarious!

This is as "mean" as it gets for Brett and Eli!

Don't you just see ornery when you look at this picture?

Never a dull moment around here, especially when we're babysitting!

Just Call Her...MINE!

I just love this picture of Maddie. She looks so beautiful and grown up and yet so innocent and sweet! I love it! However, let me tell you a story about this angelic little gal of ours! Our almost 2 year old has been talking up a storm lately. Her vocabulary has increased tremendously. Even Ron thought it had increased in the last week when he was gone to Montana. She loves to talk! She gets frustrated when you can't understand her, but she continues to repeat it (with much more emphasis) until you finally figure it out. She has her own slant on each of the boys names and loves to call them by name! Especially if she is repeating something I have told them to do! She's quite the little mother. In the last month though, we have noticed that she has an "interesting" name for herself. She can look at everyone in the family and tell you our names, but when she gets to herself, she says, "Mine". She calls herself, Mine! So, here she is...our little Mine!

We Survived...Almost

We are down to just a couple of hours and finally...Ron will be back home with us! We made it! A whole week without Daddy. Although that is a big accomplishment, I don't want to do it again. It's been a LONG week and we are all missing Daddy so badly. As I tucked the boys into bed just now, there were tears. Tears of joy because he's coming and tears of sorrow because he's just not here yet! Oh how we love our Daddy! Ron's been traveling since 7:30 this morning (Montana time). He left our cell phone here with me, so I won't hear from him until he opens the door, but I expect him within the next hour as long as his flights were on time! We packed a lot into this Spring Break week with Daddy gone. I wanted to keep the kids busy and their minds off Daddy being gone, and mine too! We had fun! We enjoyed ourselves and now we are ready for some normalcy!

Imaginations Running Wild

Today we went with 3 other families to the Imagination Station in Toledo. I'm told it is like a COSI or Science Center. Having not been to anything to compare, let me just say all 4 of my kids LOVED it! Here's the group we went with! All from our Farmer Church. There were 4 adults and 10 kids. The other gals were worried about the ratio, but I thought it was a great ratio :) The name fits the place perfectly. There is a big play place for younger kids that the kids can all just let their imaginations run wild. They can play with all kids of things, dress up and pretend. It's a child's dream come true! This fire truck was a huge hit for all 3 of my boys. They played the longest here and had to be pulled away to try something new! Here they are pictured with Owen. There was also a neat area where you had to build different things and try to get them to withstand an earthquake. Andrew and Ronnie are trying here, but they didn't quite keep it standing once the ground started to tremble.

Nathaniel tried these HUGE Lincoln logs. His house stood for a little while once the tremors began.

Here Jami and Lauren are playing blocks with Maddie and Erin! Fun times for all ages!

Little Lauren is only 14 months old and I think even she enjoyed herself. Isn't she a cutie?!

Maddie loved the fountain all the water.

Here Nathaniel and Ronnie are attempting to make the water change directions and come out of another pipe.

I enjoyed this "wind tunnel" with Hurricane force winds. Ronnie wasn't so sure. The winds got up to 95mph.

Maddie found the water table. She got a little wet, but she had fun!

Here Maddie is in the play house, but she is telling me that the sink is "broke". The water won't come on and she REALLY wants to wash her pan.

Ronnie grocery shopping at the grocery store.

Eli just came from a fire, but he actually is working at the hospital in admission too! He's checking me in here and as it turns out he took an X-ray and my arm is broke. (I'm telling you he loved it!)

Done grocery shopping and ready to go home! ...Ok, actually she's not ready to go home, but I just told her it was time - not to happy with me.

We had a fabulous time and the kids want to go back tomorrow! They think we should go back with Daddy too. We did lots more stuff than I have pictures of, it was just a great day! When I questioned the kids on the way home as to what their favorite thing was...Ronnie and Nathaniel couldn't pick. They just like so many things. Eli started with that same answer, but then decided that the most fun was "going round and round when we were parking" - the parking garage! "Oh" and he also liked the escalator! Wow, so easy to please this 4 year old! Maddie loved the water!

If you have kids and are close and haven't been, I highly recommend the Imagination Station --we had a great time!

Surviving

For 3 days this week I had 7 kids in the house. 4 of course were mine, then 3 that I babysit. Usually Ronnie and Nathaniel are at school and usually Ron is here (downstairs in his office). So it was an interesting week, to say the least! But I just wanted to let you know I survived it! I had intended to get a picture of all 7 of them as proof, but only got this one picture. Nathaniel is "mothering" the little ones. He was a big help! It really went pretty smoothly! No major incidents! Very LOUD, but nothing big!

Pap and Grandma

Yesterday we went to visit Pap and Grandma! It was a fun visit! Pap even took us all out for a fun pizza lunch! Thank again Pap!

Maddie was entertaining Grandma while eating her pizza!

I didn't manage to get pictures of all the play time, or reading with Grandma or even our fun walk. In all actuality the best part for me was a 2 hour nap! I haven't been sleeping to well since Ron has been gone and finally at Mom and Dad's I was able to relax enough to crash out! I so desperately needed it.

Unfortunately, Maddie and Eli did not nap, so it was a quiet ride home, but everyone was refreshed this morning!

It's nice to be close enough to Pap and Grandma to run for a quick day trip!

Very First Tea Party

Yesterday I had my very first Tea Party with Maddie! It was wonderful. I loved it. We had tea together then got out the plates and had pizza too! She is a HUGE fan of pizza and would eat it EVERY chance you let her. So we had our pizza and tea.

We blew on both because they were just too hot to eat and drink at first. Then we (Maddie really) remembered that we had forgotten to pray. She said, "eyes, head, pay". Which in Maddie language is close your eyes, bow your head and let's pray! I said, "Oh you're right, you pray Maddie". It was beautiful. She gave a beautiful prayer in which she told Jesus thank you and talked to him and then said Amen! I loved it!

I hope I get invited to many many more tea parties with my little girl!

Even Baby was invited, although she had to sit in the basket

I was so excited I ask her if I could run and get my camera to get a picture of our tea party, she said, "yes" and waited on me. But after the 2nd picture she had to get up and see her picture!

"C" Verse

I have to share this very cute story about Eli! On Saturday evening we got a call from a parishioner that her 10 year old son was in the hospital. They were thinking it was his appendix, but weren't sure. She left a message on our machine and I could tell she didn't remember Ron was gone and would like to have him come. I quickly made some phone calls and lined someone up to come and sit with the kids while I went to the hospital in Ron place. I got everyone fed and bathed quickly and changed myself, then had just a few minutes to sit in the study and pray. As I opened my Bible to see if I could find a verse to share with this mom and young boy, Eli came upstairs and saw me. "What are you doing mom?" "I'm looking for a verse or verses to share with Alex and his mommy", I quickly answered. "You could share 'C'!" It took me only a few seconds to realize what he meant. We are learning his ABC Bible Verses and the "C verse" is...Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Ephesians 6:1 I smiled at Eli and thanked him for his help! Another proud moment. My 4 year old knows his Scripture! and even better he's giving his momma advice on sharing it with others! Cause really, every little boy should know his "C verse".

Fun with Neighbors

Sunday afternoon we were invited down to some friends of ours here in Ney. Mr. Tom and Ms. Barb have a new garage that they hang out in a lot. It has a basketball hoop, TV and lots of kid friendly stuff. The boys enjoyed eating pizza and watching March Madness with Mr. Tom. I think they missed watching with a guy. I mean I get into the games, but it's just not like having Daddy here!

Then they played a little March Madness of their own! Eli even scored!

Maddie had fun too! Thankfully she doesn't know how to spell yet!

The Vances' have 3 grandchildren who are around our kids age, so they have lots of cool stuff!

Ms. Barb even played a crocodile game with her 2 granddaughters and Eli!

The kids and I all had a great time! Great food, fellowship and just all around Good FUN!

Disappointment

Last night our Buckeyes played Kentucky to determine who would go to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament! The only problem was that they weren't scheduled to play until nearly 10pm. That's ridiculous, if you ask me - but no one did! So I told the boys if they went to bed early (7pm) and took a nap that I would wake them up to watch the game.

They all agreed, and crashed out pretty good. So at 9:45 I tried to wake then and it was a bit of a struggle. They wanted to watch, but they didn't want to leave their beds. We decided we would camp out on the floor during the game.

Then I decided we needed some popcorn while we watched! They enjoyed it!

Nathaniel and I were into the game!

We were all pretty into it, until that final buzzer! Our Buckeyes lost! You can probably tell from this picture below that there were tears shed after it was over. This pictures shows the Florida game going into overtime (in the background), but it shows the boys disappointment after a tough loss!

It was a rough loss! AND especially at midnight! But the boys are still fans. They all 3 wore their Buckeye Sweatshirts today! So now we have to wait until football season to cheer on our Buckeyes Again!