Columbus Weekend

After a long 4 day weekend away, we are home recuperating from our family time out in Pa. We had a wonderful time with family and friends, a great time of fellowship and enjoying God's beauty.
There is something about the sweet air in Pa. that just makes my heart melt, I love viewing all the clothes lines, that are full of dresses, shirts, and slacks from the Amish men and women.
The clothesline seems to be a reminder to me of how grateful I am of the family that God has blessed me with. To hang each item and be reminded of whose it is, and flooded with memories of what happened when they were wearing it.

I am so grateful to my Lord for my family. He has blessed me with five beautiful, rambunctious children who love him and seek him in their lives daily.

Is my life busy, yes it is! Is it stressful? At times Oh yeah! But am I ever so grateful to be the stay at home mommy to my blessings, I sure am.

Friends remind me of that when I'm whining about the loads of laundry or the floor being scattered with toys. All too soon this season of my life will pass, and I will once again have a spotless and quiet home. But for now, I am blessed by messes, and chaos!
Praising God for the opportunity to be the parent of His children!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Puddle Fun..

So after 3 days of rain last week, we had an Indian Summer day.
Emma and her bff from next door were enjoying this lovely day..by... puddle hoping. This was the last pic before baths that afternoon. Don't they look like they had some fun!
What I love about puddles...the are so inviting to children..it normally starts off as a "walk in the puddle" usually very slowly and they enjoy watching the water flow around their feet. And then it becomes a jump and some giggles, cause now were getting a little wet, Oh wait Mommy hasn't stopped me yet..Now it's an all out puddle war!!! The girls had a blast. They were completely soaked by the end, and needed tubs, but the smilies and laughter were so worth it!! Emma's denim skirt was so heavy that when she turned around we saw her plumber's crack! :)

Brianna sat first, Emma is trying to deciede if she wants to sit too!

This is the one who started it all!!!!

September 11.

My heart still aches for those who miss thier loved ones. And for those who gave thier life to help those in need.
Solemn day...

Sesame Place

On Tuesday afternoon, we were blessed by friends of ours with a trip to Sesame Place in Pa. Thank YOU Martin Family!!!! It was the first time we had gone with all the kids!! Can I just tell you they LOVED it!!! Below Miss Anna is trying to catch the small fountain that spurts up water. Emma splashing around!!

My good buddy Janet and little Julianna (14 days old) And another successful homebirth!! YEA!!!

The Daddies!!!

Ash and her buddy Ernie!

Momma, Daddy and Belly, what you can't see is that she was purposely holding her legs up and floating while we were holding her hands!! It was too cute!!

Jake and Joshua!!

Daddy and Bells!

Jacquline!

Family Pic!! Matt is missing b/c he's not a ride person, and he wasn't feeling well the day we went, so he stayed home with Grandma.

The end of the night!! Can you tell she had fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yard Sale..

Our yard sale venture went well. 4 of us put this thing on. Below is all Kim's junk. Except for the neato waterslide, that's mine..that I tried to off, but it didn't go!

One of my bestest buddies, Shanna and that's little Caleb I was there when she homebirthed him a little over a year ago!! More junk!!

Anna chillaxin by Grandma's stand!!

A larger view of it all!!! All those clothes are mine!! I have to be rid of them very soon. I hang on to stuff wwwwaaaayyyyy toooooo loooonnngggg!!!!!

It was a fun couple of day, believe it or not depending on which friends stopped by to see us we had as many as 30 kids there at some point. With me, Shanna and Kim there was at minimum 13 kids present.

Shanna has been blessed with a bigger home and a 1/2 acre of property, sooo really we didn't see the kids much. Shanna mil was there, and she made pb&js for lunch for all the kiddos and even had them in the yard exercising!!

The funny thing is Shanna's mil, my mom, and a close friend of Shanna's mil, had all worked together in Nursing for about 20 years. So they had a great time of catching up with each other and reminiscing of the past.

As far as money goes my mom made the most!!! I made $116.00! And the rest of the girls made a little over $100. a pieces as well I think. So it wasn't a huge money maker but we had a great time and a ton of fun!

Our Week thus far..

So we've spent a majority of the week getting all our crap ready for the MEGA, MONSTER, HUGE, MULTI_FAMILY yard sale this tomorrow and Friday at Shanna's.

Tonight we will move the last of the big stuff!!
I'm praying we sell some junk!!!

Today we are baking brownies, cookies, and muffins for the kids to sell tomorrow at thier stands!

I can't believe that amount of junk I have hidden in this house!!!

Hopefully after the yardsale I will have earned enough to pick up some school stuff that I need for the upcoming year.

I'll post some pictures later of all the goodies!