We have uploaded!

Here is sweet Hannah on the soccer field this past weekend. Really I was testing our internet. YEA I am able to upload pictures. I will post some more when I have some time.

Prayer Time Again

We are still having internet issues, while I can check my mail and surf the web, I still cannot upload any pictures. Get ready to be bombarded when they fix the issue, which again we are told should be early this week. I did however come across this blog, because I blog stalk, that could use all of our prayers. Get your box of kleenex ready if you go to this site. It is a family that has 3 girls and they are pregnant with their 4th. However, they have known for several weeks this baby, Audrey Caroline, will not be able to sustain life outside of the womb without a miraculous intervention. They are very strong Christians and just want the Lord's will to be done. They have moved the delivery date to tomorrow, April 7th. Take a look at their story http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com and remember them in prayer. They are facing issues that I cannot even imagine.

It's been awhile....

My goal when I began this blog was to keep everyone updated on our daily life with three little ones. It seems as though I am getting further and further behind as the days go by. However, I do have a legitimate reason. We have had issues with our internet and I am unable to upload pictures. They indicate that the problem should be fixed within a few days. Apparently they don't understand that I was behind before this "problem" started and therefore everyday puts me further behind. I have to admit, my house is staying a little cleaner, dishes are being washed faster, and the laundry is done in a more timely fashion since this internet issue. I don't even like to acknowledge that because I think that makes my husband right again. He ever so kindly reminded me one day that if I did not blog stalk everyday, I could probably get more done. Before everyone is upset with him about acknowledging the obvious, let me make this clear....he only said it after I had been complaining about not being able to get everything done around the house. We make time for the things we hold most important, right? That's okay, I will just remind him about how Hannah commented on our neighbors garage after she had been over their house yesterday. She said, "wow, their garage is so clean, like there is only one small spot with things in it". From the mouths of babes......

Update on Luke

Sorry we have not updated you all on Luke before today. We have had a whirlwind of a weekend so far. We have had 3 birthday parties, Hannah's 1st soccer game, and Luke's surgery all within 2 days! Needless to say, we have been crazy busy.

We got home midmorning yesterday. Luke was a little grumpy at first and only napped 40 minutes the WHOLE day. Everything went really smooth with the exception of his IV after he woke up from the anesthesia. He was very angry, which is normal, but he kept trying to take out his IV. It was so sad. He just kept saying his arm hurt and he wanted it off. It broke my heart. He was pretty inconsolable for a little while. He was on a soft liquid/food diet yesterday but today he wanted to eat everything he saw. He has bounced back like nothing every happened. We have kept him home from all the birthday festivities, however we did take him out to the soccer game. He would have been sad to miss that. Nothing like a little West Texas wind to cure any ear issues, right? He is such a great little kid. He even sits still for his ear drops and tells us "its leaking out" when he gets up and his ear drops run out of his ear. We were also sent home with some tylenol with codeine, however, we have used it one time and will not be using it again! I think it has had the adverse effect because after he took it around 2pm yesterday he NEVER went to sleep. He was running around acting very hyper. Thing have been great, thanks for all of your prayers.

Pray for Luke

Some of you may already know, but Luke goes in today, Friday (28th), to have his adenoids removed and a tube put in his left ear. He had tubes last February and he did really well until winter hit and he had several ear infections again. Please remember to pray for him when you think of us today. Because of his adenoids being taken out they will have to start an IV and we will have to stay in recovery a little longer. Our Dr. said that the recovery is similar to having our tonsils taken out, just not as painful. Our little guy does not like to feel bad so pray that he would feel better soon.

Working Smarter Not Harder!

So, I know I am a little behind but we have been out of town for Easter and well, there are not enough hours in my day sometimes. We will see if I can manage to post some Easter pictures soon, but for now, here are some from a city-wide egg hunt we had the weekend before Easter. With one egg hunt at their school behind us, we were all a little wiser. Hannah was PROUD of herself. Mommy taught her an invaluable lesson, "work smarter not harder". We put this into practice, and well, look at her basket and you will see the outcome. While we were waiting for the hunt to start, the kids got their faces painted. They all wanted Easter Eggs. The line to see the Easter Bunny was a little long, but worth it, to the kids at least.We were surprised that all three kids liked the Easter Bunny. We really don't push the whole bunny thing at our house, so they have not been that prepared to sit with him. We have always just told our kids that we give them a basket on Easter morning. The idea that some fuzzy bunny, dressed in a dirty germy costume, comes into your house while you are sleeping for some reason does not sit as well as some old gray haired man who comes down your chimney. I know it is weird but we can explain Santa being Jesus' helper easier than a person dressed in a bunny costume. We try to focus more on the Resurrection and the Easter story. Which by the way, if you ever need any tools on explaining the Easter story, we would highly recommend the Resurrection Eggs that we found at Mardel's last year. Everyday, the twelve days before Easter, you open an egg that has some tool/symbol that teaches about the Easter story. Even with all this teaching, the egg hunting still plays a major role in our kids Easter story. Maybe it is because their mom maps out and strategically plans so that we get good candy. Hannah took off when the whistle blew. We had to leave these boys behind! Okay, to all of you who are asking yourself "how could working smarter at the egg hunt prove beneficial?" Well, as you see, Hannah was off running all by herself after the whistle blew. The theory......pass up all the kids who stop right at the first sight of an egg. Flee the temptation!!!That's right, pass 'em up and go to an open space with lots of eggs and NO KIDS! Yes, she had to leave her brothers and her dad behind, but mommy and Hannah were off running. Not to worry, her brothers benefited too, she shared the toys/candy that she did not want or like. That's my girl!

Here is Hannah with her basket full all due to smart egg hunting! Not every child had such a smart parent guiding them though. We passed up a little boy who did not have very many eggs. Jason asked Hannah to drop a few of her eggs on the ground so that he could pick them up. Hannah responded quickly saying, "dad, egg hunts are not to give your eggs, you are supposed to pick up eggs." We were so amazed by her response, we did not even know what to say. We just kept on walking hoping no one else heard this little girl who I know for certain has been taught to share with others who do not have as much.

In an effort to help our family share their eggs, Luke just kept dumping out the contents of his basket on the grass. The little kids that stayed close to him definitely had the parents who also have the "work smarter not harder" mentality too. Those kids definitely benefited from his class clown approach to egg hunting.

Our partners in crime, our little neighbors also came to monopolize the eggs.

If you can imagine, the park with hundreds of kids and lots of Easter baskets was not necessarily the best place to keep the kids attention and take a picture. Three out of five looking is not too bad.

IT'S HER BIRTHDAY!!!

For Hannah's actual birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate. Chuck E Cheese was definitely not our first choice on a Friday night, but it was HER birthday after all. Hannah wanted to take our sweet neighbor, Ashlyn with us. She is one of Hannah's favorite little girl friends. Anytime our neighbors are outside our kids think that it should be an open invitation to run down and play. It works out well as Ashlyn has a little brother that is one week apart from Luke. We all love that family so it was no surprise that Hannah wanted her to come. We had a great time.

All the kids with the big mouse.


Hannah and Ashlyn

Hannah wanted to take her cake with us and apparently this five year old gets what she wants on her birthday.

Hannah got to open a few presents while we were there.

Logan's favorite thing was to collect all the tickets from the machines and store them in his cup. He was not very interested in playing games.

We had to convince Logan to "feed" his stash of tickets into the counting machine. He did not want to give up his collection, but he wanted some cheap toy that would fall apart within the next week.

When we got home, Hannah got one last gift for her birthday... A NEW BIKE.

Reason to Celebrate!

I mentioned before that Jason recently started a new job. Some of our sweet dear friends decided to surprise him and take us to dinner at On the Border. They even thought it was cause enough to give him a cookie cake! Thanks Andrew and Susan, you guys have been a great encouragement and source of support. However, do not think that the help stops here, Jason will have a lot of questions for the accountant soon!

I said all those sweet things so that Andrew would not be too upset with me for posting this very professional picture of him. Good thing my hubby never acts like that!!!! YEA RIGHT

Got EGGS???

This week is Spring Break at the kids school, so they had to have their Easter parties and egg hunts last week. The kids did not mind that it was a little early. Party days at school are a little crazy for both parents and the kids. This year has proven even more crazy, if that is possible. Hannah's class has their parties at 11:00 am while both boys have their parties after their nap, around 2:00 pm. So I drop them off, run get some things done, return for Hannah's party, leave for a little bit, then return for the boys party. This party was one of the 1st where Jason has not been able to go due to his new job. However, this is where I tell you how much I love their school. One of the administrators heard me asking Luke's teacher about where exactly their egg hunt would be because I was on my own to take pictures etc. She stepped in and said that they would find a place for both of the boys classes where they would be close to each other to help me out. I know that we pay for them to go there, but I also know that they truly love my kids. This is our 4th year there and I truly have very little to complain about. Okay, I realize I got a little off the subject, but it helped the egg hunt go rather smoothly for me so I had to share. As far as the egg hunt, let me just say, they love them some Easter eggs. We have had plastic eggs all over our house for the last week. They have carried them around transferring them from one basket to another, dumping them out, then starting all over again. They even stuff them with various items from around the house. You never know what you will find in one.

Hannah and her class enjoying Easter snacks before their egg hunt.

Hannah's egg hunt proved more difficult than the boys. Every child in her class picked a number and then had to find only the eggs with the number that they picked on it.

Hannah was proud of her success in finding all the #6 eggs.

Luke passed up all of his little friends to find the eggs.

Luke was off by himself while his friends were all gathered around the same group of eggs!

After the egg hunt, Luke's teacher tried to make sure every child had the same amount of eggs. When she counted Luke's eggs, she realized that he needed to "share" a few of his with his little friends. Luke responded by saying, "no, I don't want to share my eggs". For those of you who are not around Luke a lot, he is a very verbal 2 year old, especially in a situation like this!

Logan was off and running to beat all 3 classes of 3 & 4 year olds to the eggs.

Because some kids get distracted by trying to open the eggs right when they pick them up, the rule was to hunt for a dozen eggs then stop. I am not sure who thought that this rule would apply to a 3 year old! Logan was insistent that he could hunt for as many as he could find. At this point, I just looked away! Don't worry, we did not cheat any kids out of their eggs, his teacher counted his before he went home.

My boys...making sure every last egg was accounted for....in their baskets!

Logan gave up on the eggs and started playing. Notice though he would not put down his new bunny basket they made in class!

Taking their eggs and going home!

Our Birthday Princess!

We celebrated Hannah's 5th birthday early (the weekend of the 8th) because her birthday is always at the beginning of Spring Break. This year Hannah begged and pleaded to have her party at a place that has several inflatable jumpers for both the kids and the parents to play on. After two parties at our house, one being just two weeks prior, we agreed with her and it was actually a welcomed thought. My first thought was this way I did not have to have a super clean house nor did I have to clean up again after the party was over. So, off we went to the jumpy place where 17 of Hannah's little friends would soon be arriving. She loved every part of it. One of her favorite parts was that the birthday star gets to paint their hand and put it up on the wall. Of course, her brothers did not quite understand why they could not participate in the hand painting, after all they are brothers of the birthday girl!

Hannah loves the Care Bears so of course we had to have a Care Bear cake. Our friend who makes all of our cakes did a wonderful job. She absolutely loved her cake. It was amazing how happy a birthday cake made her! She also enjoyed opening her presents. It was refreshing to see girl toys after two boy parties! I am not sure Hannah could handle another tractor or toy vehicle in our house.
After a day like this, we knew that she would be extremely tired. She normally sleeps with a few toys, but tonight this is what we found.....all of her care bears lined up apparently tired also.

Overall, there is some sense of sadness this year as the birthdays are almost over. I love planning and hosting the parties probably just as much as the kids do. My husband calls it obsessed, but I have always wanted our kids to know how important their birthdays are to us. They (okay me too) have so much fun anticipating the upcoming birthday. With Hannah's birthday, we feel as though we are entering a new stage of life. We realize that we only have a few months left with her before she heads off into the world of public school. It is different to think about the fact that other adults will influence her thought process most of the day, five days a week. However, we feel as though this is where she is supposed to be. It might be a little sad come August, but we are not even going to go there now!

We celebrated again this week, she made sure that we remembered that her party was not on her actual birthday therefore she needed to celebrate again on her actual day. We will post those pics soon!

Happy Birthday to our Daddy!

THE BIRTHDAY BOY!

This past Saturday was a busy day for our family. First and foremost, it was Jason's birthday. He was bombarded first thing that morning with Happy Birthday songs and hugs from all three kids. He did not even make it out of bed before the kids ran to get their presents for him. His birthday was somewhat overshadowed though. You see, it was the same day as Hannah's birthday party. Hannah was very sweet and even told us that she wanted to tell our "cake lady" that she wanted her daddy's name on her cake also. Jason passed on sharing the Care Bear birthday cake, but he did get his very own cookie cake made by me and the kids. After Hannah's party we went to lunch with some friends then off shopping for some new shoes for his new job. (He started a new job this past Monday). We are still amazed at the provisions the Lord has laid out for us. I am not sure why we sometimes, alright most of the time, think that He will give anything less to His children, but we still do. The Lord never seems to amaze me. He provided me with a husband who is absolutely wonderful. Don't worry, I don't fool myself into thinking that he does not have any flaws, I probably know every one of them. Maybe if he forgets my birthday or our 10 year anniversary this year you will be able to read some of them! Now he will be marking his calender with a bold red marker! Seriously, he is great. He has been such a great dad to three sometimes demanding little children. He plays and wrestles with them but also has done his part changing diapers, preparing meals, and getting up in the middle of the night. You name it, he has helped with it. This job search that we have been on the last few months has shown me even more about him. It has always been our heart that I stay home with the kids. We knew from the beginning that that would put additional pressure on him to find a job where we would not have to eat dirt all the time. He has never thought twice about that, in fact he does everything he can for me to be able to stay home. He also makes sure that because I stay home I have adequate "me" time. He encourages me to go out with the girls and never discourages me going scrapbooking for a WHOLE weekend. Yep, you read that right, he watches the kids a few times a year from a Friday to a Sunday so I can go hang out with my other crazy girlfriends who spend their precious extra time scrapbooking for their kids. I am not sure why I have not seen pictures of things like Hannah's hair, but I can only imagine. My imagination has been left to run wild, therefore we try to make sure our neighbor is home to fix her hair for church and other functions outside the house. There is something about having another mommy who has a little girl do hair versus her own daddy! Thanks Angie, you make it possible for me to be gone too. (And, I know my kids are always in good care because "Safety Man", Allen, is always watching in the event that their daddy is preoccupied.)

Sweet as can be!

The kids had class picture day at school the other day. They were all smiles, at least they were when they came home. I took this opportunity to take a few pictures of them together while they were all happy. It always starts out good and calm, then they just cannot resist the urge......

Time will tell if they smiled like this for the pictures at school! School days for the boys are always interesting. They take naps earlier at school than they do at home, which means that they have a long evening in store once they get home. We try not to plan too much for them on the days that they have gone to school because it has the potential to backfire on us. They usually go to sleep a little early on those days. It is all worth it; they love going and mommy gets a lot of things done. It is amazing how fast one can run in and out of a store if you do not have three kids to get out of a car seat, three kids to keep track of in a store, and three kids to get back into their car seats again. However, I do have to say, my kids are USUALLY pretty good in public. Maybe my definition of "good" is not the same as others, but I figure if no one is knocking items over while kicking and screaming on the way out of a store, then we have success. I say all of this fully knowing that the next time I am in public with my kids, people will wonder why I let them out of their cages!