How amazing are these

I am changing some things on my blog today. Today I moved someone from People I think I know because I crashed their blog, to friends we love. On Sunday we had the privledge to meet Catherine. http://www.catherinelaceyphotography.com/ She took some AMAZING photos of our family, and truely captured the best of all of us as you can tell by this sneak peek. You know, just a few of the nearly 1300 pictures she took of us!! If you are looking for someone to take some amazing pictures of your family, I highly recomend Catherine. Amazing, and I am so glad I can now call her a friend.

you can see more pictures on her website www.catherinelaceyphotography.com and go to clients.

Tori's first T-ball game.

I have so much more to blog about, but in the meantime!!

Tori had her very first T-ball game on Saturday. She was a bit nervous about starting...after all, "how are people going to know I am a girl"...Well, it was incredibly cute to watch, everyone knew she was a girl *could be because she shakes her hips when she walks onto the field* or it could be the pink bat, pink helmet, the pink and purple glove, or the pink ball that she took up to the tee to hit...what a girl!! Well, she got the game ball that game...for "awesomeness" but he told me after it was because she was very aware....you see, when someone on the other team hit the ball EVERYONE, yes everyone, including the first base person, runs to get the ball, its like a race, and who ever gets there first wins, and yells at their other team mates, no its my turn!!!

No order...so the coach pulls them aside after the first inning, "ok, ONLY the people who are close to the ball go get it, not everyone, we want to get the ball and throw it to first base" he got an "Ok coach" from everyone. Well, guess what happend the very next inning. Yup you guessed it, everyone ran...except Tori. Tori my sweet little girl stood there. Looked up at the coach and shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes and says "I just told them, boys never listen".

Psalm 55

Listen to my prayer O Lord, Do not ignore my cry for help! Please listen and anwser me for I am overwhelmed with my troubles...

This was Tori. For the last week "Louise" has been missing. Louise is her American Girl. She loves her, she sleeps with her, she takes her to church because she put up one of the best arguments I have ever seen from a 5 year old...."mom, I love her, and when I die and go to heaven, I want her to be there with me, so she needs to go to church to hear about Jesus" "well Tori, when you get home from church you can tell her all about Jesus then, I dont want you to loose her" "mom, would you let Jakey stay home from church and just let me tell him about Jesus?" you make a good point... Missing. The last place we say her was under the pool table last Wed. when Ty and Sarah were here. The only other place we went was Church on Thursday morning, so we were fairly sure she was lost at the house. We have looked all over. All of us. There was a reward involved... by me. I was lost without Louise too...for diffrent resons of course!! The $3.73 cent reward was sitting on the counter waiting to be claimed. Today, with 5 kids here (Ty and Sarah) we set out again to find Louise. After all, we are talking big money here. Thats 3 toys at the 99 cent store. HUGE!! Not to mention the special shopping trip. So after looking most of the morning, and still no Louise, I was getting worried. Wondering if I could find one on Craigslist or something (she has literaly been heart brocken with tears every day) So while the "babies" Sarah and Tara were still asleep, I sat the kids down, asked them to hold hands, we were going to pray, Pray for Jesus to be our eyes and our hands to help us find Louise, after all, he led mommy to her diamond a few months back, and he cares for what we care for, Jesus loves us that much, that he wants us to be happy. So we prayed together, The 4 of us Ty, Jake, Tori, and me. I told the kids if 2 or more agree, it shall be done in His name. The kids all prayed, very serious prayer, "Jesus, be our eyes, be our hands, help us like you helped mommy (or Auntie kat), please help me be able to buy a squirt gun with the reward money so I dont get to hot" they set off, ready to be Jesus' eyes and hands. Within 1 minute (not kidding) Ty screamed out "Jesus lead me right to her, I was His eye balls and he found her, He does care". What an amazing lesson my kids and I both learned today. Pray...first, not a week later. We have been looking for a week, why was she not found, because we didn't ask to have Jesus be our eye balls, He does care, he cares for what we care for. Why didn't we pray when she first went missing? Could have saved everyone quite a bit of heart ache. Pray first, then find.

Side note story to celebrate we decided to go to the park when the "babies" woke up, I said "ok everyone lets get our shoes on" Ty said "I can't find my shoes" Jake said "come on guys lets get together and pray" cutest thing watching them on the stairs holding hands "Dear Jesus, please be our eyeballs, help us find Tys shoes, lead us to them because you care about us going to the park" I found them right after and Jake screams out "it does work, Jesus lead you right to them". Yes Jake, prayer does work.

Tidbits

Jake "mom, I dont want to take a bath, I already changed my undies today"

Tara after her telling me what she wanted about 10 times and me not understanding her and her getting frustrated "I pookie" Pookie is one of Taras books that she loves, Pookie doesn't tell his mommy what the matter so the mommy has to guess. Tara likes me to guess... still have no idea what "anano" is.

Tori last night "goodnight mom, goodnight Tara, goodnight Mac, goodnight Elijah, goodnight Jake, goodnight American girl where ever you are." Tori lost her American girl at the house here last Wed. Last place it was seen...Tara walking to the kitchen holding her. We have searched. I feel bad, she really misses her.

Jake "I am not being mean, I just hit her with my toy, she was not being patient and loving"

Tori after praying for a "big pool with a diving board" every night for dinner for months a few night ago said "Dear Jesus, since you dont have enough money for a big pool with a diving board just any size pool thats big enough for a diving board is fine...and bless this food even though I want steak."

Elijah "pretty good report card huh mom"...hmm maybe he just doesn't understand what "good" means....1 B (in PE) 2 C's, 2 D's and 1 F. Hmm, pretty good compared to???? "Yes Elijah, I am very proud of you for getting a C- in Social Studies...this is much better then the D plus you squeked by with last report card...However the F in Science that you were getting a B in last report card I have issues with...isn't Science your favorite subject?"

The braids.

Tori has a friend at Chruch, Camdyn. Tori really likes Camdyn, she talks about her quite often. Not about how nice she is, or how nice she dresses (which is a very Tori thing to say...she is vain) but how beautiful her hair is. She always has more then 5 "ponies" in her hair...they are "twisties but not braidy, but twisty, and there are a lot, more then 5 twisties but not braidys". Its a big deal. She asked the other day if I could make Taras hair like Camdyns. Twisty, but not braidy...I tryed....At least I got the more then 5 ponies down.

Bonus though, when we saw Camdyns mom at church she said she would teach me how to do the twisties, but not braidy, but twisty. Tara liked the twisties, (that ended up being braids), she kept them in for a full day...Note to self, remember the ringlets I showed you a while back...she has body in her hair, if you leave braids in for 24 hours, it might not ever come "down". Tori liked it...she said it looked like Elijahs "fro" which he was really sporting a few months back, It did...

Dinner is in 10.

I love Costco...

Right now, I love Costco even more. Really, what other grocery store can you go to, spend $400, and still not have anything for dinner...

Right now, we are in baseball, to say we are busy is an understatment. I like quick and easy meals for baseball season. McDonalds is our friend during baseball seaon. We literally have 20 minutes between getting Elijah home, and off to baseball practice. Not a lot of time for dinner...until costco!! they have this fantastic Teriyaki chicken there. It said on the package ready in 6 minutes. Really, how good can it be if its ready in 6 minutes, I figured proubably better then McDonalds, and cheaper. A family of 6, $30. We tryed it, and we liked, we liked it, because we tryed it (Ok, maybe we have been watching Yo Gaba gaba to much...) I made the chicken, (stir fry style) made some minute rice (ready in 5), steamed some "trees" (broccolli), and made my favorite again from Costco, Cherry Almond Bleu salad. Thats right, from the moment I decided I needed to get dinner made, to it being on the table, 10 minutes. That left us 10 minutes to eat....not bad!! Dishes...Well, those will still be there in the morning. So next time you go to Costco, pick up some Teriyaki chicken...Try it you'll like it, you'll like it because you tryed it...actually you will like me because I told you about it.

The end of an era...

Today marks the day...its the end of an era...The sippy cup era. Well almost! Today I cleaned out the sippy cup drawer. Tori and Jake at 4 and 5 are getting to old for sippy cups to be used on any sort of regular occasions. I started thinking this last week while unloading the dishwasher and noticing that Tori and Jake had no sippy cups in there, just Tara. So for one week I have been keeping a running total (in my head) on how many sippy cups of theirs were in the dishwasher. Grand total....1 1/2. The one should really not count though, as Tori got Tara a cup of water, and asked if she wanted it in one of Toris big girl cups (meaning her princess sippy cup), and the half, well, its only the bottom half because thats how they drink at my house now. In "big" cups. Breakfast, at the table with somthing to drink, lunch same thing, dinner, same thing, when we go to church, they have water fountains. I got to thinking when the last time I had actually made them a sippy cup to drink out of, and I think it was at disneyland where I knew we would be out all day and juices there are about $4! I have also made them some at my moms house, but they have "big" cups there and can sit at the table. So the era is finished. I have packed up all but 2 sippy cups of theirs (for disneyland, and long trips) and Taras sippy cups are all alone. Bottles, gone, sippy cups, 2 out of 3 isn't bad, whats next...perhaps diapers? (ok, wishful thinking, but she had gone pee in the toilet at least 2-3 times every day for the last 5 days on her prompting) My babies are growing up!!

Waffle Morning

Every once in a while Jim takes the morning off, and does a Waffle morning. Its the kids favorite time, (and mine too) Jim cooks waffles for everyone (from scratch not bisquick), and I am just in charge of making coffee (handled). The kids get soooo excited and pull up chairs to the counter and "help" dad. And of course by "help" I mean taste test! yes folks, he is THAT good. He works, eats, and makes waffles.

He is actually talking to one of his clients in this one. Real work saying "yeah, I am running a bit late, I wasn't getting out of the house with out making waffles for the kids this am".

the 4 munchkins ready to "help".

Jake had to go pee, but I still loved this picture!

Tori is soooo very excited. Waffle days are usually her idea...and by idea I mean she says "dad, remember that your the best dad ever and you make waffles better then anyone?" "yes Tori thanks" "can you do that again so I can remember?" She suckers him in every time!

Jake a bit to busy eating to actually smile (yes folks, he did get dressed during the process)

Tara thinking she was a big girl with a fork, and by big girl I mean hold the fork in your right hand and eat waffles with your left.