Summer Fun

This is one of my favorite places. Of course! Haha. I'm always posting about this. It's such a fun thing to do with the family and there is so much to do! Now that they've added the water caves, it's great for summer! We CAN'T wait for the water parks to open. My gosh. Gonna be so, so fun. :D I feel like a kid. haha

Wow, I can't remember what this is called.  Maybe Lady Gaga?

Ryan is my drama kid and always goofin' around

Caleb (at 8 months) Chaz and Ashley

I love how the zoo lets them bring their bikes

Caleb at 8 months

Wow, I weighed more there. This picture is encouraging.  :)

Ivy in the water caves

See guys, even Camels has to shave

My incredibly awesome husband

Girl Tea Party

Last week my babies were sick so I had to stay home from church.  I kept my younger three home and Charles suggested we have a tea party.  So we did!  I could hardly fit at their little table but they were so cute.  Afterward they asked me if I could make them a little tent over their bed.  Here are some cute pics!

Kids are just so fun.  I haven't blogged much this week because I've been spending so much time getting rid of stuff and doing some spring cleaning.  Ahhhh, it feels good.

Sluggish Mornings

Lately my mornings have been so sluggish.  I'm used to popping out of bed and straight to my coffee with energy already.  I don't know if it's the weather change.  It's been getting pretty hot already.  Time for the pools to open and water parks!!!  This summer I plan on taking one kid at a time with me and just running around the water park with them having fun!  I can't wait.  I'm a total beach girl and being that I don't live near one, that's the next best thing. :) 

Things You Don't Say To Your Wife

Family Birthdays

Here comes a truck load of birthdays!!!  Thank goodness for them too.  It means that 1. They are still alive and well, 2. It gives us a reason to party about something, 3. Another reason to be able to have fun with family.  My birthday is next month and then starting in July, all my kids' birthday follows every 2 weeks till October!  Our birthdays are just crammed together.  :D  It's okay.  We call it the party months. Just party hardy.

My sister-in-law Melanie had a birthday and we had fun getting together to celebrate and spend some time with the family. :)

My mother-in-law Maureen was holding her little two grandsons (Melanie's is on the right) and Melanie's son kept leaning over and kissing Caleb.  It was so cute!  They would turn their heads towards each other and look in wonder that another baby was there, smile, and then Prestyn would kiss Caleb. 

We weren't planning on it being a swimming night but Ivy insisted that the water was perfect and everyone should swim!  So the kids went for it and it was a beautiful night.   The water was pretty and the light made the water look like a pretty blue color.  Later Ivy said, "Mom, tomorrow can we go somewhere else to swim?  Because I want to swim in white water, not blue water."  LOL

Charles (on left), Melanie, and her husband Juan sat and talked for quite awile.  It really is so good to have all my family living in the same city.  Some people aren't quite so lucky and have to travel far to visit.  Although I've always wanted to move to a different state, because both sides of our family are here, we've stayed planted. 

Ryan (my son on the right) loved swimming with his cousin.  What a great night it was!  Melanie, it's so good being sisters with you.  Love you and Happy Birthday.  :D

The Great Divide

In the Facebook age:

It seems people are getting braver.

No, I'm not talking about in the sense of doing something heroic.

It's easy to say harsh things to somebody while hiding behind a computer screen.  What do they call it? Cyberbullying?  Adults do it too.  Maybe not so obvious but it happens through rude jabs aimed at someone. 

When someone's profile states that they have 245 friends, what does that really mean?  Is that something to really be proud of?  Are they REALLY friends?

Would they bring you a meal when you're sick?  Would you?

Might they send you a card on your birthday?  I

Gone are the days of neighbors bringing over a warm, right from the oven, loaf of bread and some stew when you are sick.  Walking over just to say hello or the neighborhood kids throwing around the ball in the street.  Even kids riding bicycles down the street is getting rare.  Where are they? 

TV, games, and internet seems to have put such a divide between people even though it seems it was supposed to bring us together.  Sure we have lots of friends now.  In cyberspace that is!  90% of the time I walk out into my front yard, there is not a single soul outside.  I've made it a point to know my neighbor's name next to me and across the street.  But next to them, only 2 houses down?  I have no idea.  Well, I can't meet them because I've never seen them!  At night, you could take a stroll down the street and see every window glowing a flickering blue color.  You know someone must exist in that house because of it.  I have yet to see them come out so I can wave hello or introduce myself.

I bet I could find them on Facebook though.

Conference Week 2010

I didn't get to blog much last week because I was so, so busy with conference week.  :)  It's where all the churches we've planted around the world and grandbaby churches gather for a time of refreshing sharing of reports of what God is doing in their churches.  Since I'm a member of the parent church, we more help with the duties behind the scenes.  Watching the babies or tots while the pastor's wife is in service or helping in children's church for the older kids.  It means so much for these families to come every year and have conference.  They are sent out and starting churches from ground up.  It's not a easy task when you're not offerering social delights and programs to attract people.  Just the gospel and healing.  That's where it's at.  Instead of putting the money into having a bigger building, our church puts it into launching new churches around the world!  :D

Above:  Song service Sunday morning.

Above:  We're listening to a call put through the speaker system from Pastor Van Staden in South Africa.  That's why their pic is on the screen.  He is giving a 5 minute report of what God is doing over there.  Awesome!  My sister is also in South Africa.

My husband's friend (on the right) was just sent into another city last year.  He's still close enough for us to visit.  :)

Above: Pastor's praying during the alter call after the sermon.

Little Jeremiah praying at the alter.  :)  So cute.

Caleb Is Crawling!

Oh man, Caleb is 8 months old now so I should have suspected that he would be crawling. I know babies usually crawl sooner but I really tried to prolong it. A little tiny baby crawling around my tiled house with other kids can be scary. So he's always been in a small playpen, high chair, or saucer. Despite me trying not to let him grow up so fast, all I did was set him down for 5 minutes at a birthday party and he crawled away. It took him only a few minutes to figure out how to move his legs forward. Now, Caleb is not so happy being put in something stationary. He wants to take off and get into everything. Argh! Haha. Sniff.... it always starts here and then they go crazy and learn everything.

So after he masters crawling in 10 minutes, he decides that that's not good enough, so he stands up!

Oh my goodness.  My baby is growing.  My oldest two sons walked at 10 months old so I'm really hoping Caleb doesn't follow the trend.  Whyyyyyy do kids have to keep growing up so fast?  I know it's a blessing.  But I am not looking forward to my kids going into teens and then moving out.  I know I'll have a teen in 3 years but I try not to think about it. 

You know, when I was a teen I DID NOT like kids.  I ONLY babysitted for the money.  For some reason I always attracted kids to me.  I never tried to.  One time I opened the door to my church and I heard "Jennyyyy!" by a whole herd of kids. They all ran to me and hugged me until I fell down.  I hated it!  I just wasn't a kid friendly person.  I mean, I was NICE to them.  I just had no desire to babysit, volunteer in church nursery.  Nothing. 

Then the miracle happened after I got married just 11 months later.

I found out I was pregnant with my first baby.

It took me a bit to get used to changing diapers, making bottles, hardly sleeping.  It took a LOT of my selfishness to die.  I certainly didn't really want anymore for some time because I could not get over the fact that my sleep was deprived.  Then something else happened when Chaz was ONLY 3 months old.

I found out I was pregnant again.

I still remember my dad saying he was worried about me.  He knows me well.  He knew I was still the same Jenny.  Still the same girl that cared only about her needs more than anyone else's. 

It was my second that started to break me.  I started to cuddle more with my little ones.  It was a slow transformation in my heart.  I started to have some fun.  I started not minding all the nursing and eventual bottle feedings.  The selfishness started to break away.  I still LOVED my sleep and I got pretty cranky about it.  Every time I got woken up in the middle of the night my husband says I would say under my breath, "No more kids."

Then the miracle happened.  I finally figured out kids are great! Kids let you learn life all over again through a younger mind!  I no longer rushed my kids if they wanted to bend down and smell a flower.  I now had a reason to go down every single aisle at Toys R Us just to look at all the fun toys!  When my kids want to get on a bike and try it out around the bike aisles, go for it! 

Then one day I threw my birth control pills away forever.  It's been 8 years since I did and 4 more kids later.  I'm still having fun.  It's an adventure to find more fun kid places to go to. It's hard for me to understand when parents never want to do something just for the kids. I think when your selfishness dies, you find joy into watching your kids eyes light up and hearing their giggles.  It's fun to go to the skating rink just to see their wobbly legs learn how to skate.  Christmas is no longer really about you.  The kids can't understand why mom and dad are happy without receiving a present.  I know why.  Because it's a gift just to watch the kids open presents and express their excitement and wonder over their new toy.  I don't always feel like putting up a Christmas tree but my kids still find it wonderful to decorate it and see the lights. 

Now, when my little baby wakes up in the middle of the night, I smile because he's worth losing sleep over.  I get to give him some kisses, a bottle, and snuggle him back to sleep. 

Thank God He gave me these little wonders.

I needed them.

Twin Baby Moose Playing in Sprinkler

The lady that filmed the video wrote this about it.....
The mother and babies had been in our yard off and on in the morning and the mother seemed hot. She had been laying down and panting hard on the side of the shed for about an hour when I realized that I should put the sprinkler out for them. Then it happened.....:)

Surprise Homecomings

Get your kleenex!

Birthday Party Fun!

Poor David is getting wrestled by the kids! That is the birthday boy's uncle. He was having a grand time but you can tell after awhile it wore him out. LOL.

The birthday boy's grandpa is on the right.  It's starting to get pretty hot out so it's nice to be in the cool and out of the sun.

My husband Charles (below) giving Ivy a snuggle! 

The birthday boy's little sis and Grandma.  :D  I thought it was a sweet picture.

My little Ashley loves to have her picture taken.  She is so sweet with her little curls.  I love, love her little pink Converse shoes.

Time for the pinata!  Bring the violence!  haha.  I think it's funny how people think it's evil to hit a pinata to get the candy out.  When I was little I never had any weird thoughts about it.  Now, if parents put the idea in their head....well, ya shouldn't do that.  "Hey little Johnnie, just imagine what you could do by hitting your dad with a bat!  You might get some money out of him!"   :P

The birthday boy ready to take a swing.

You HAVE to see the faces in the picture below.  So funny!  I didn't see this until I was looking at all the pics when I got home.  Ivy had hit it and some candy came out.  The look on everyone's faces.  lol.

Ivy's got her candy!  She's so happy. 

Greg and Roger hangin out. 

Jeremiah (below) is 6!  I went to Walmart to pick him up a couple of those classic guns with the holsters.  They said they discontinued them.  I was like "whaaaat?  Why?"  The lady said Walmart decided too.  I looked around and I couldn't believe it.  Not one single toy gun.  Come on.  You know, my kids when they play, they act like they are soldiers. Soldiers that protect our country and people.  That's not something I'm ashamed of. I love how they think like that.  I can't believe Walmart did that.  Goodness gracious. Boys will pick up a stick and pretend it's a gun.  Did you know my son got in trouble for doing that on the playground at school one time?  Since we couldn't get him the guns, we got this shirt and hat instead for him. 

The birthday boy's sis below. Michele was bummed they couldn't get a cake for him so they got the next best think.  Cupcakes!  I think it's a great idea because there is no cutting and no plates needed.  They even make them look like cakes these days and write on the top when you first get it.  I would like to do that this year for my kids on their birthday.

My daughter Ashley (below) showing me her yummy cupcake.  She's MY little cupcake.

It was a hot day so Chris set up the little pool for the kids in the back!  Good thing he had a pump.  I've actually had to blow up one of those myself once when I didn't have a pump.  NOT FUN!  LOL

Question For Gardeners

My Roma tomatoes. I call them my "Tony Roma" tomatoes. :) I like how differently they look than the regular tomatoes I show below.

These are my Early Girls. This is where I have a question. I know with some plants it's important to thin out the vegetables or fruits some so the others can grow bigger. Is that true also with tomatoes? Can I just leave them be? I've grown tomatoes before but I've never had so many tomatoes per plant. I have 20 on this one alone.

Children's Church

This week has been super busy with Children's church and conference. I've been trying to find ways to volunteer for stuff since so many pastors and their wives come for encouragement and sharing of reports. It's a relief for them to be able to be in church without having to worry about their babies or kids in Children's church. Since I didn't have nursery duty last night, I asked the children's church if they needed help. It was fun and wild! haha. I had to take a few pics.  My nursery duty is Tuesday and Friday.  What cute squishy babies they are!  It was cute seeing them all set each other off.  Tag crying.  So cute.  They are in a place they are not used to so it's understandable of why they missed their mommies.  I would put a baby in my left arm and one in my right.  Once those two were settled down or fed, set them down and rescue the next two.  I have it Friday again so I get to cuddle them again.  ❤

This year was about planting. (planting churches and evangelism) So, they came up with a theme about farmers who sew their seeds. Tilling the ground and harvesting. So it was cowboy theme this week. :)

I love kids!  I love what tender hearts they have towards God.  There is so much we can learn from children.

Above:  The kids working in the "garden."  My son Chaz is in the black shirt.

Above:  Two of my favorite youth workers!  Ruthie and Breanna.

Above:  Eddie praying with the boys. 

Nancy praying with the girls.