Weekend Birthday Party

My kid's friend Calie had her 7th birthday the other day so we celebrated Saturday. Brianne can always say that it is tons of fun to have 20 something kids at any party! No seriously, all the kids were really good there and were a pleasure to be around. (I never thought I'd say that because back when I was a teen... they frightened me). Ha ha. All the kids there behaved and were respectful so it actually wasn't "wild like". Maybe just the adults were loud mostly. :D This pic is of my son Kyle below. He is playing on a cute guitar Brianne got for her son when they were vacationing in New Mexico.

Here is a goofy picture of my two older sons play in their games systems. Go figure. It's just like them to be inside doing that rather than playing outside in the water. Ha ha. Well, Friday and Saturdays ARE their allotted game playing time. :D They were just soaking it up while they could. Also there are some other cute pics of all the kids on the slide, my daughter with a birthday hat on. Ivy in her little silly swimsuit (that we would never let her wear after the age of 3), Brianne's husband going down the slide... ha ha. It is always great fellowshipping with friends. Whatever excuse we can get to see each other. It's always a pleasure visiting Bri and Domonic.

My Poor...Wet... Laptop

New Update: Okay, so it turns on, but it gets stuck at times loading Windows. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I will probably have to reload Windows and stuff. ARgh. I'm just glad the whole thing is not busted. I mean, Ivy SOAKED it with water gun till water was coming out. It's a miracle it even turns on. So, we'll see how it goes. I gotta go buy Windows Software to do this. When I bought this laptop from someone, she promised to mail over the cd it came with. She had lost it so, go figure, I haven't gotten it. Will have to go invest. Or go buy another laptop. We'll see. :)

Update: IT WORKS! IT WORKS! IT WORKS! IT TOOK AWHILE BUT ONCE IT DRIED OUT IT STARTED WORKING AGAIN. YEEHAW! (I'm so excited. Can you tell?)

Last night while I was out with my friends, Charles was hanging out with his friend Roger at our house. Well, right when I walked in the door one of my boys told me that my laptop is broken. I'm like, "whhhaaaat?" Oh my. I hope this isn't true. My husband told me that Ivy got a squirt gun and went straight for my laptop. Before daddy could get her, my laptop was completely and totally soaked. Charles unplugged it. Later after it dried out some, I saw that it was completely dead still. Today, it turned on but it freezes when it's tries to load windows. You have to know, that is my baby! I take it with me places like to coffee shops and stuff. Sometimes while laying in bed I'll read other blogs. It's just my ultimate , amazing, and awesome toy. So, you know, I'm a little bummed. Right now I am typing on my gargantuan computer. Well, it feels that way to me after working on a little laptop for so long. It's harder to type on this bigger keyboard. Gosh. I'm so spoiled. I should quit complaining. I hope my laptop works again! Gosh, I love living in America. I know I say that a lot. I can't help it! We have such an abundance here. I am grateful I have a computer at least. Still.... I love my laptop.

Happy Birthday Aimee!

I know it's early but we were happy to come and celebrate you turning um.... 21! Ahem. I especially had fun at Texas Roadhouse because no other restaurant has allowed me to throw peanut shells on their floor before. I almost felt like it was a major no-no because I tell my kids that all the time. At first I didn't know where to put my peanut shells. Then I slyly threw them under the table when no one was looking. Um, until I realized I didn't aim right and they went into my purse. Why my purse? So I made sure to throw harder and aim for the floor properly. It got even better when we started aiming the peanuts right at each other. The best part is talking you into getting on the birthday saddle and having the whole restaurant yell "Yeehaw"! With a cowgirl hat that would've been a dream! (I'm a cowgirl at heart but stuck in body of a city girl). You ladies are all so much fun and goofier than I thought! (I'm definitely gonna have to hang with you guys all the more). Aimee you're awesome. Here is an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The next party we have will be for your bridal shower! Alright!

Big Sister Duties

Now that Ivy has a buddy in her room she has taken it upon herself to read to Ashley everyday. You can hardly see Ashley but she is to the right of Ivy and looking at the book. Ivy just climbs in there and starts reading. So cute! I really need to paint that room. I'm just decided what color to do it in. Hmmm... I will have to give it some thought because the white is just driving me crazy.

Little Gamer

In first picture Charles is telling Ivy, "push the button". :D

This is just so cute! Charles was playing a wrestling game where you can create your own character. Well, he created ones for all the kids. He made one for Ivy too so she was excited to play with her daddy. Generally we only play the Playstation on Friday and Saturday but the exception is if mommy is gone for the night. I was at a VBS (vacation bible school) meeting so this is what I saw when I came back. Little Ivy trying to figure out how to make her girl do a wrestling move.

Ivy Loves Her Nana

Ivy just loves my mom. She will want to call her every day. This video shows Ivy talking to my mom on the phone. She is so attached to her.

One night recently Ivy spent the night at my mom's house. I found out she was having so much fun she didn't want to go to sleep (as usual). She is such a night owl. She's been that way since she was born. My boys will go to bed at 7:30pm every night but not Ivy. Even if we can get her to stay in her bed, you will hear her talking to late into the night. I can hear all the men saying to themselves "that's a girl for you". Ha ha! So I made a video of myself talking to her and then I sent it to my mom. She then showed Ivy and taped her talking to the video back to me. I timed my words so she would be able to answer back. This is so cute I just had to share.

I've Got Teeth and I Know How To Use Them!

Yup. I may be the fifth one in the family (hopefully not the last) but I got teeth now. You know what this means? Next time any

one you gets too close, I'll give you a "Love Bite". I won't chomp too hard. It'll just be to get you to notice me. You know, like an imprint... of my teeth. See the big gap between my two teeth? My mom says they are so cute. She said you guys never had a big gap like that. She said she'll know my bite from any other kids because of it. Mom's too funny. She says it's called a "signature bite". Just warning you guys. I like to snuggle. But I like Love Bites even more. Hee hee...

Heinz's Homosexual Agenda

I got this from Homeschool and Etc's site. This is shocking... but then again, is it? Hollyweird has had this agenda for years! I remember back when I was 12 and we found out that some "gay" parts were going to come out in some movies and TV shows. They were just background. People were shocked. But as usual, we are "Frogged" as my pastor would put it. You could put a frog in cold water. Then slowly raise the heat up. They won't jump out. They don't really notice because you are slowly raising the temp. Eventually they cook to death. That's just like us as a society. When I was 12 and my pastor said, "Trust me, this is just the beginning. They will push the envelope". 17 years later, here we are. Even scarier is that churches are trying to put on blinders and say it's okay. We have to be loving.

The bible says:
"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
1 Corinthians 6:9-10

That is just one of many scriptures. That is not to say I am a homo-hater by any means. Like any sin, God hates the sin but LOVES the sinner. There is hope in Christ. That is why Christ came! To save the lost. As Christians, lets not be "frogged" but shared the hope of Jesus Christ and share our faith with others. Don't say, "But what if they are offended?" When I go out, all the time I am offended by what I see or hear. Just like in the schools. They say you can cuss, use God's name in expletives, fornicate, talk pervertive... but by golly, you can't share Jesus. That's offensive! See the silliness in that? I shared Christ in front of my classroom to a teacher that was telling dirty jokes everyday instead of teaching us. He told me I was being offensive. I told him he was offending me by talking dirty in the classroom. After that, he never stopped me from sharing the bible scriptures with my fellow classmates and praying with them.

Hide & Seek Funnies!

Tonight we were playing our favorite family game... Hide & Seek. There are two ways to play. One is if they don't find you right away you can try to run out of your hiding spot and make it to home base before they see and catch you. Or we'll play it to where you stay in your hiding spot till they find you or they give up. Each kid is just so adorable to watch when they are it because they.... well. I'll tell you.

Chaz: He's our perfectionist. He never likes to lose. You will see in the end of the video, he gets caught and he is not happy about it!

Ryan: He can't count normal. He makes his counting to 20 as weird as possible and will do a little jig when he's done. Everything he does has to be exaggerated. He's the counter you see in this video. In this video though he actually counts normal but does a jig at the end. He's so goofy.

Kyle (4 yrs old): "1...2..3...4..5..6..7..8..10..20..30...50...60...80...90...100! Ready or not, HERE I NOT!" Then he runs around and practically scares himself when he catches people and they scream.

Ivy (2 yrs): "1..2..3..4..5..8...9..10........8..9..10...8..9..10...8..9..10! Here I get you!" Then she runs around but screams because she's too scared to check in the corners or behind things. She just squeals the whole time. And... you can never hide with her because her whispers always give your spot away! Either that or she constantly bonks into something while hiding. Ha ha...

Afterwards we all had root beers floats, then showers, and now daddy is praying with them before bed. What a fun family night. :D

Weird Trinity Going On Here

Ha ha... I love the title I put to this. Sooo, yes, these are the three (in this bumper sticker I want) we are out to defeat. One weird one that I'm glad is out of the picture is Al Gore. As our assistant pastor was saying the other night in service, Al Gore and his wife are all talk when it comes to what they really believe in. Did you know that Al Gore once believed in Gun Rights? Now, he is actively trying to take away those rights. It wasn't until he was in the running that all of a sudden he was on the arms of Hollyweird (Hollywood) and he changed a lot of his stands. His wife was the one that headed the movement for music to have a warning label on it for parents to see if words were graphic in it. She had a conviction about it. Also, do you really believe he cares about this "Global Warming" bit he gives? Do you think that maybe money might be a factor? I mean, since he started this whole thing, his profit has increased by 1 million dollars a year. He cared very much and that's why his own house consumed 20 times more energy than the average household. It wasn't until people starting noticing this hypocrisy did he decide to go green. Now that he did that, his energy bill is 4 times more than before. Ha ha. Anyone who cares somewhat about the bible, it's standards, and beliefs, will probably know this truth in what I'm about to say. It's so easy to know who to vote for. Whoever Hollyweird votes for, I vote the opposite. Hollyweird promotes materialism, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, and other abuses. Why would I look to them for my moral standard? Um, no... It would be spiritual suicide to look to them as a guide for anything decision in my life. I so can't wait till we catch Osama. Since Obama is friends with so many shady people (that Bush refuses to make deals/friendships with), maybe if Obama is elected, his friends will give him a break and hand Osama over. That's the one microscopic benefit I could see in Obama getting elected. Since Obama doesn't exactly know what or even how he is going to "change things", I can have this one hope. That his shady friends will be nice for once and help us end this search for Osama once and for all. This won't really stop the problems with terrorist who hate America. I just want to see Osama put to trial like Hussein did. I would give him three choices. Prison for life (which I think he's rather be "martyred", be hung, or be given a sex change and given back into his own country. You know, they don't treat women over there very well. So making him a woman would be a disgrace. I know, that's not very nice! Don't worry, America will do only what is needed to serve Justice. I just love all that Bush has done. I've had a friend die for the freedoms he was fighting for. For the people in that country to be able to taste freedom. Something we take for granted. They are ever so grateful for all the Americans have done, for Bush. Yet.... you never see it in the news. You know.. that's Hollyweird for you.

Lets Talk All Night!

Well, Ashley is not fitting in her little cradle anymore in our bedroom since she can now pull herself up. She is nine months old now. We always said that when she can pull herself up, we will pack away the cradle. Sniff.... well, it's that time. So tonight I took her into Ivy's room where Ashley's crib has been set up since before she was born. She NEVER sleeps in it. My two year old Ivy (that you see in picture) is like, "PARTY TIME"! Her and Ashley would not stop talking to each other. Ivy thought it was the greatest thing that she now has a talking pal in her bedroom. At one point Ivy climbed in her crib and read to her. Ashley just sat and listened. I kept saying, "Ivy, if you don't stay in your bed I'm gonna have to take Ashley out". Finally they fell asleep. We'll see how early they wake up together and start talking again.

Fun (and stress) at Amazing Jake's

We got invited to a birthday party at Amazing Jakes. We were really excited to go because we visited it four months ago and enjoyed it. HOWEVER... it was sooo packed this time! My gosh! You had to weave through people. But you know since I love food, it was a great place for me. They have the coolest buffet for sure. Different types of rooms to eat in. As if you are walking into different restaurants completely. One room is a sports type place, another is a movie room, another is a more formal dining room with no TV's, one is Caribbean type. The place is just huge. Anyhow, first off we were an hour late so Jill gave away my ride cards because she thought we weren't showing up. There was a bit of confusion for awhile as to what to do about it. Well, since my sis was leaving she just gave

her passes to my kids. So all night we had to share two card passes. Because Ivy just potty trained completely, she had to go potty a lot from all the juice and I had to take her as soon as she mentioned so she wouldn't wet her pants. I think I spent a quarter of my day in the bathroom! At first the day started off so stressful with all the birthday stuff going on. Poor Jill was soo stressed out and didn't really even get to visit with anyone much. That's what happens with these types of parties! I think it depends what you like. At places like this, count on the fact that you won't do any visiting with your friends or family because everyone just kind of separates and does their own thing. That's why I've always hesitated doing parties out places. I usually like them in our house and just have a big party. Since there is so much to do there, between golfing, bowling, eating (which I did tons of), games, rides, and laser tag... we were there a total of 7 1/2 hours! Wow! I think that was a record for us. Last place we went like this we spent only 6 hours. New record for us...

Home-schoolers Threaten Our Cultural Comfort

I have to admit...... I was here once. I was the person who felt threatened by homeschoolers. I made every reason in the book why I thought they ought to be in school. But.... remember too, or for those of you who don't know, I did have my kids in school but since I've moved far away from any good ones, I chose to pull them out. I didn't do it because I thought school was "evil", (although public schools do have serious issues), I grew up just fine in the public school system. My parents were awesome in showing me scripture and raising us up faithfully in the Lord and so I knew when the schools were spewing garbage. Kids are smarter than we think. Anyhow, enough of my talk!

YOU'VE GOT TO READ THIS ARTICLE.... Home-schoolers threaten our cultural comfort

Read that article before reading on...

I do think it is so incredibly silly now that daycares now call themselves "preschools". I mean, come on, lets face it. We all know it's a daycare so we can have duel incomes. That is such silliness. But... if it makes the parents feel better. I personally can never imagine giving birth to kids and then driving them to a daycare for 9-10 hours a day. That would BREAK my heart. They are mine. I want to raise them. By the time these parents get their kids home, it's almost bedtime. WHY? Why have kids? Who is really raising them? People can question me why I homeschool all they want. I'm gonna turn it around. Why have kids if you're just gonna throw them in daycare so you can have that nice "extra" car, nice clothes, nice house? It's TOTALLY different when you HAVE to. Lets face it though. We are SOOOO spoiled and we don't need as much as we THINK we need. I remember when my husband lost his job back when I had two kids. What were we to do? Should I work? No. I want to raise them myself. We moved in TINY little 1 bedroom apartment. So the boys could sleep quietly in a room, Charles and I slept in a HIDABED. A pullout couch. I mean, it wasn't exactly comfortable. We lived there a year till we got back up on our feet. We had NO car so we had to walk to store. This was so I could stay home. Now, my husband has great job and makes double he did then. But I didn't sacrifice my kids to do it. People can question me all they want about why I homeschool or why I have so many kids.

LET ME ASK THEM INSTEAD... Is your house/car/SUV/possibly even extra cash/shoes/clothes worth it? Is it a good trade?

I get questioned all the time about why I stay home, homeschool, and have five kids. It feels good to turn it around. :D

Gosh, I love blogging.

My 29th Birthday Party

My mom did my party a little late because we wanted my sister to be there. She ended up not being able to come so we visited with our friends my kids swam, then we rode on the boat again. It is just so pretty and I'm a lover of any body of water. Ha ha... I have no beach nearby. Sniff... Anyway, thank you to my friends who came! :D I don't know why my little Ivy has to flirt with the driver of the boat. Sheesh. It's not like I was like that when I was younger....
Anyhoo, we decided to stay by the kiddie pool today so I wouldn't have to go dive in after them fully clothes. ha ha... We visited the island again in the middle of the lakes and then we saw the mother duck with her babies. It was sooo cute! I had fun with all our kids too. There was Eighteen of us on the boat. 9 were kids. :D Thank you mom and dad for everything. You are awesome! Pics are of my most of us on boat. We couldn't get everyone in picture. Our good friends Roger and Becky! Look at the pic where I am posing wiht my family alone. Except for one extra. Little Ruthi in in picture too. :) I switched my numbers around on my cake for it to say 92 instead of 29. Hee hee. Made me grateful not to complain about turning only 29. Then you see a pic of Charles, Ashley in carseat, and my dad. :D Oh, and my good friend Aimee is on boat too! (Brandon, we missed you and wished you were with us)!

No More Cuddles!

Little Stinkers

So now that Ashley can crawl everywhere, she doesn't like her playpen, her saucer, or her cradle. She only wants to crawl on the floor and leave her mommy worried. So I have to keep more of an eye out. I think I need to go invest in that walker so she can get about without getting into something. So I put away her saucer (the plaything you see with Ashley and Kyle in picture). kyle likes to put that babydoll dress on her head like it's a hat. That's Ivy, my two (almost 3) year old when she was at Nana's house She would live there if she could! Ha Ha!

P.S. My boys are in Heaven right now. Friday and Saturday is game day on the playstation. That means no time restraints. So we just put it up when it's not those two days. This makes it so much easier instead of trying to monitor them everyday on it. :D

Flashback May & June 2007

I forgot how I always do a flashback every month to see how much has changed in one years time! It is so much fun. It would shock you to see how many things happened that you forgot about. This is why I love blogging.


June 2007 was a bittersweet month as my friend passed away from cancer. She was also my sunday school teacher when I was younger. I was starting to get big being that I was pregnant with my little Ashley. :)









May 2007 was a fun month with Mother's Day and posting some pics of my newly decorated house. Even more exciting was my new ultrasound picture telling me I was having a girl in my tummy! Yeah! I got to see my house before it was painted in the living room. Also, (choke, sob) before it started getting more cluttered. Actually, I am proud right now because I've been bagging up things collected over the last year and donating them. As things come in, other things need to go out so it's not so hard to clean!!!

I Killed My Parakeets!

Where we live it gets pretty darn hot around here. So over the weekend, I think on Saturday, I went out to feed and give water to our chickens and our Great Dane. Well, in the rush that I was, I forgot to make sure our parakeets had water. I fill it up every other day so it's not like I don't check often. So, because I forgot, I went out two days ago and found them face down in their cage....

SNIFF......

They were out of water. They are in shade but it don't matter. They must've been playing in their water and emptied it out quickly. They do that a lot. Well, I came in the house and I cried and cried and cried. The kids were saying, "What's wrong mommy"? I finally told them what happened and they ran outside to see for themselves. It just broke my heart. I know... they are just parakeets. I love animals. No, I'm not weird about it. I don't like feeling like I killed them though. Like the time we had a bunny rabbit and I was little. I put a shiny penny in it's cage to see what it would do and the bunny choked on it and died. We had to all bury it. It was very sad and I felt so guilty. It's kind of like the time I tried to catch my pet fish and I accidentally squished it to death. Geesh....
Oh did I tell you my rooster escaped a couple of weeks ago out of it's pen and died! Daisy didn't attack it but I think she played with it and well... she's a great dane so she is really strong. Ugh... so I'm having a hard couple of weeks. I already feel like utter poop about it. So, I cried again last night at church when I told a friend. Not bawling. Just tears because I felt so bad. Okay, I am just way too sensitive of a person. Sheesh. I even cried when my son's pet grasshopper died. We cried together. It's hard going through life this sensitive!!!

Kelsey...The Miracle Baby

Note: Turn off Music (under my profile on right sidebar) before playing video.

Waterpark Fun

On Saturday we went to a waterpark for my birthday. I'm a total summer girl so I just loooove the beach. Since I have no beach near me I have to settle for waterparks and pools! LOL. Sooo, this is our fun we had on Saturday. It was just a beautiful day and the kids had a blast. I got a Play Station 2 for my birthday which is just totally cool. However, since my kids are a little too obsessed with games, we keep it up in the closet during the week. It is only taken down on Friday and Saturday. Then it's put back up till the next week. I got myself the Incredibles game because it's my favorite! It's just so much fun. I hope to get the Wii for Christmas so I can get some of the fitness and boxing stuff. Also some other fun sport games and Guitar Hero. Stuff like that. We loove get togethers at our house so we want to have a couple different game systems on our Friday nights that we have with friends. Or sometimes we just play board games and stuff. :) Anyhow, here are some great pics! I turned 29! Ohhh, it's my last year in my twenties.

Happy Father's Day

To My Love Charles:

Happy Father's Day to my love, my friend. You are more the daddy than I ever could've imagined. You take the time to pray with the kids every night before bed. You play wrestle fight at night when they ask. You guide them and show them scripture in the Bible so they understand what is right. It takes time to do that. It is so easy to just be busy every day and never slow down. You care enough to show them to Christ and be the example they need. You are not all talk. You live it. Thank you for being the priest of our home and caring to pray everyday that God would guide and direct you. You pray for our protection. You go to work every day and work very hard to provide for us. Because of you I get to stay at home, raise my own children, and homeschool them. How could have ever gotten so blessed? Thank you so much for everything. You amaze me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

To My Dad:

Thank you for raising me up in the Lord. For being a good example. It's not a matter of you being perfect, but the fact that you kept going. You never quit the race. You taught us to dust off our failures, learn from them, and how to look to God for strength. You are the hardest worker I have ever seen and it is not taken for granted. When I was a little girl, I would sneak out of bed real early before dawn, to see you praying on your knees each morning. You showed me what it means to truly serve Christ. More than just attending church, but giving our whole lives, our words, our actions to Him. You showed me what a difference it makes to serve in the church. To be a servant of Him with a cheerful heart. You gave of yourself as a husband, father, and as a leader in ministries. Even though I had no choice, if I did, I would've picked you as my father. Thank you for everything.

Celebrating My Twenties!!!

Today, on Flag Day, I am 29 years old! I am celebrating my twenties. That is my theme today since it's my last year in my twenties. This is my family. I was raised in a Christian home, praise God! My mom and dad have stayed married all this time. That alone is a miracle these days! The top three pics are of me on my 18th birthday, one of my birthdays holding my present (I totally remember insisting sticking that big phone I got in doll package), and another older birthday. The rest of are my sisters and I (I am the blonde one of course), my mom and dad, and an old fashion portrait taken when I was sixteen. It has been a good 29 years. Now I get to tell everyone that I'm in my twenties and my husband is in his 30's. Ha ha. He is only 3 years older than me. Today for my birthday I'm going to a water park. Next week we will be celebrating with my family. :)