The Long Awaited Birthday Has FINALLY Come!

She is SIX-FINALLY (going on 15). Here she is today with an outfit we gave her. She loves it! It looks so cute on her!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful, kind hearted, thoughtful and gentle girl in my life. Bethanie is such a good person. I have said it before, I want to be like her when I grow up. I just love her to pieces. She makes me feel so good.

Here is a pretty dress that Aunt Cindy and Uncle Greg gave her. Bethie is all about clothes. She is such a girler! Here (below) is the cake that I made for Bethanie for her birthday. It looks like a fluffy girler pillow! She is so funny-she told me way back in February that she wanted a heart shaped cake. Good thing then because they still had heart shaped cake pans out for Valentine's Day.

Here is "White Grandpa" with his best buddy, Miss Madison. She is totally a Grandpa's girl. Both of her Grandpa's have a special relationship with her. She loves her Grandma's but it is all about Grandpa's for this little one!



Here is Matthew hamming it up for the camera! He got new glasses yesterday, and so he can see better now. He is so happy!

All in all, the past couple of weeks have been in whirlwind fashion. This morning was no different. We had quite the gully washer in rain. We had about 2 1/2 inches of rain in half an hour this morning and we found about 2 inches of rain on our family room floor in the basement. It was so sad to see kids toys floating around, new carpet soaking wet. We managed to clean it up, but it really put a damper on our spirits for the day. It is still a special day though, six years ago a sweet little gift was given to us!

Kindergarten Graduation...

Look at what a beautiful young lady Bethanie has become! Tonight was her Kindergarten Graduation. It is also the last day she is five years old! I cant believe what a sweet, loving person she is. I am so proud of her!

Here is our goofy family. Miss Madison wanted NOTHING to do with the picture. Matthew and Bethanie were very happy, and then there is Jeff and me. LOL!

See what Jeff's dad has been up to...

Al estimates this larger catfish to be about 28 lbs. He fought this fish for some time. At some point, it was the fish that got away from some other fisherman because it still had the hook in its mouth! I hope we get invited to THIS fish fry!

Madison wouldn't let go of Grandma. She didn't want to get too close to the whopper. She hung on tight! I cant say that I blame her. Its bigger than SHE is!

Summer is upon us!

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the summer! I cant believe it is here! I usually come upon summer with mixed feelings. I LOVE having more time with the kids, and being flexible in schedule, swimming, gardening and so on. BUT, I also worry about the flexible schedule because Matthew needs a rigid routine that summer can not provide. We do have a lot of fun activities planned though, and we are looking forward to them. We are going to walk to the swimming pool daily, swim for a while and walk home. This will be great exercise for us all, and a good way to burn off excess energy. Bethanie will be doing a dance camp in July, and she will go to summer school. Matthew has a program provided for him once a week with serious structure (mingled with fun), and for the two of them they will get to enjoy summer play ground each day. That lasts for nearly 3 hours a day. Thursday is Kindergarten Graduation for Bethie and I am so excited. Friday is her birthday and on Saturday and Sunday (possibly Monday) we are getting new doors and screen doors installed on our house. I am so glad for this! So, for today that is all I have. I think it is a good day to nap (since it is fairly quiet). :O)

The Big Birthday Party...

We had such a blast. There were lots of kids there. Bethanie is on the far left, Matthew is in the back in the middle and of course, Madison is there too. Two kids were not pictured, but the day was so much fun. We played cowpoke games, had water gun fights, used the water guns to shoot lizards, we had a straw dig where we put prizes in a swimming pool filled with straw and they had to dig for the prizes, we hid a snake in a tree and they had to find it (winner kept the snake), we played one legged tag. We had cream soda, cupcakes, trail mix. The parents all thought it was a fun idea. I used this picture as the "Thank You, Pardner" cards. It was fun but we are all exhausted and ready for the day to end.

Here is Bethanie and three of her friends. Bethanie is the one that is second front the right in the red shirt drinking her strawberry soda.

Here is trouble! These are some rough and tumble cowpokes! This cant be good! LOL! It is Matthew (on the far right) and Bethanie's Boyfriends Kye and Anthony.

All in all, I cant believe my sweet little Bethie is turning SIX!!! :O( My heart aches for this, but yet in some ways I am over joyed. She is such a delight and Friday is her big day, but for the most part the party is over. Mom is too pooped!

May 14, 1973

I was born! Yes, yes yes. I turned the big 3 5. I am OK with it though. I don't mind growing older, unless you count the increasing aches and pains that hit, the elasticity decreasing in my skin, the occasional new silver hair you have to figure out how to hide.

It was a good day today. We started off when my dad called me at **gasp** 6:30 a.m. to wish me a happy birthday. Even Matthew was still asleep that early! LOL! For some reason he thought we would be up getting kids ready for school. I rarely get up before 7 a.m. unless I have to. I am such a non morning person. In fact, because I am now in my mid thirties, I can honestly say I am allergic to waking up that early. Thank goodness summer is coming, because that means NO MORE ALARM CLOCK for three months.

So, after we got up, got the kids ready for school, we dropped them off, came home and got ourselves ready for the day and then went back to the school for a meeting about Matthew. Then at 10 a.m. we went to Bethie's class with birthday treats to celebrate her birthday because school lets out the day before her birthday and we wanted to have treats with her class. Her birthday party for the class is going to be on Saturday with a cowboy/cowgirl theme.

Then on home for lunch and a birthday nap and by the time that was done, it was time to pick up the kids from school. I then went to weight watchers, just to weigh in, not stay for the meeting, found out I lost 3 1/2 lbs this week, YAY ME, and then left, came home to eat supper, went for a 2 mile walk, had birthday cake got kids ready for bed and now here we are!

Here is Bethanie with her class enjoying strawberry cupcakes

frosted with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.

Mother's Day...

I had a very enjoyable Mother's Day. We went to Church (as we always do), and in Primary we made the cutest little flower pots where the kids could color the inside part and the flower pot sat inside.

After Church we went over to Jeff's parents house and he gave her a mini rose plant which was just beautiful! They made an amazing meal. Al (Jeff's dad) has been out fishing and so he caught some whoppers of catfish, so we had a fish fry. It was DELICIOUS! It was nice spending time with them and not be in a hurry to get some where for a change. Here is Jeff and his mom:

So after we left Jeff's parents we went to my parents. I had made my mom a DVD of a collection of pictures of all the family. The song on the DVD that the photos were played to was Don't Give Up (You are loved) by Josh Groban. Mom was so touched when she watched it she cried. That made me happy to know that she understands how we feel about her. She is the strongest woman I have ever met. She has been through so many trials in her life yet she remains happy, peaceful and positive. She is such a role model to me! Here is my mommy and me picture:

I am blessed because I have the best of both worlds. I have a mother that loves and supports me, and I have a wonderful Mother In Law. Two women to bless my life. I am so grateful for that! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

My sweet husband...

treated me and Bethanie to manicures today. I have only had one other, several years ago. I opted for a French Tip even though my nails are at different lengths, and Bethanie opted for a really pretty metallic red with gold sparkle polka dots. It was fun, but now I cant type because they feel funny. :O)

She is such a girler. She loved being pampered. She smiled with such satisfaction.

She cant wait to show her teacher on Monday. She is treating her fingers as though they have REAL gold on them. She wants them to stay pretty!
It's my turn now. I liked the hand massage that went along with it. It is amazing to me how many muscles are in your hands that need massaging.

My pretty French Tip finger nails.

My husband is so sweet to do this for us!

Such drama!

5 year old girls are so full of drama. Yesterday as Bethanie passed Madison in the Kitchen, Madison reached out and hit Bethanie. Bethanie shrieked bloody murder, "MOOOOM, Madison HIT ME!!!". I replied calmly, "Bethanie, its OK, she is just little and is still learning, and you didnt get hurt. You need to grow some thicker skin". In tears, she exclaimed, "Moooom! I have to grow some!!!". I was rolling on the floor laughing and Matthew came up to Bethanie and told her that it was just a figure of speech, and we explained it to her and she laughed. :O) Girlers.

I have a lot to blog about...it seems...

My husband is so sweet. I came home today after picking the kids up from school, and found this bouquet of flowers (its a basket) sitting on my coffee table. The flower lady MUST have put it in the house because I was gone, and no one else brought it in. I feel bad that she did that because the house was a disaster! LOL! Oh well. I guess that is small town life. :OP But anyway, back to the story....Jeff sent me these flowers and the card says, "I'm so proud of your success!". I know he is referring to me meeting my first milestone at WW last night. That made me feel so good! I am so lucky to have him for my husband. I know he loves me and he is truly a gift from Heavenly Father to me. I love him.

I love Spring time...

Our apple tree is in full bloom and it is BEAUTIFUL! I love it when this tree is in bloom. Last year we only had two apples and the squirrels got to them. I am HOPING that we are going to have some apples this Fall!

I spy.....

some little red shoes............I wonder who they belong to!

PEEK-A-BOO! Oh there she is! A new hiding place!

You're so silly!