Pictures from the weekend-

Having four kids requires an extra amount of quality family time...we were in need of a long dose this weekend. I love spending weekends at home. I love going out as well but there definitely needs to be a balance. Finding that balance is sometimes difficult with so many activities fighting for our attention, but every now and then a weekend comes when we are not forced to say no to something. I long for these weekends...

Especially with the nicer weather because we are able to spend so much time outdoors;

Watching with enjoyment...

Cailtyn climbing trees and swinging...

...Micah building things out of sticks, boards and bricks and riding his bike

...and Cassidy chasing the dogs and kicking the soccer ball.

AND of course watching Dakota discover all the beauty of the outdoors.

Family life is a blessing from above~

Curly head...

It's fun to have clients come simply because once I start setting up someone around here wants to help. Today this curly head girl volunteered. A rare occasion indeed to get such a pose from an active little girl.

Praises~

I am so thankful today to wake up feeling pretty much 100% better! God is so good.

I have slept so much lately that I really had a hard time getting some good Z's last night. I think I finally snoozed around 1am all to wake up an hour later to Dakota crying. She cried every hour until 4am. So glad I have full strength back to deal with her! She doesn't usually cry AT ALL in the night. She is just cutting 2 top teeth and has a bad diaper rash which makes for a sleepless night of discomfort I am sure!

This past week has been challenging but God's grace is sufficient.
I have never had a more severe headache like I did for the past week or so (and it did last a good week!). I do know that God gives me these opportunities to learn to lean more on Him. His grace covers me and for that I can learn be thankful in every circumstance.
Still learning to lean on Him...

~KML

She's still growing!

Some pictures from this week:

I love her expression here...

I love these eyes..

check out more here:
http://www.justbephotography.net/

Sisters~

This isn't the best quality photo... I just love their expresions.

Warning: This post is not meant to offend anyone...

Or gross anyone out!

Mothers of boys will understand.
(Although there are plenty of little boys who I could not imagine doing the following.)
So, by now everyone is wondering what in the world am I talking about?

Micah is all boy and continues to prove this fact over and over again. He's wild at heart, no doubt about that. He also likes to think outside of the box...or the bowl.

Apparently both Caitlyn and Micah had "to go" at the same time today.

Running to the same bathroom they both relieved themselves...
Caitlyn the traditional way and Micah in the sink.

I was caught off guard when I heard Caitlyn yelling, "Mom! Micah's peeing in the sink!!!!

Needless to say he did a clean job...
He also informed me that he cleaned it up...everything that didn't quite make it straight down the drain that is.

Honestly my kids are not always out of control... AND we do have bathroom "rules."

Sometimes kids are just kids.

And often my kids give me a much needed laugh.

So you know you are mom of little ones...

When you find gluesticks and matchbox cars in your cosmetics.
Yes~ I have one very creative little girl and one little man who loves cars.

Easter Sunday~

Yesterday was not our typical Easter Sunday. And by the looks of how many posts I have done today this is not our typical Monday. I am still feeling under the weather a bit and the kids are exhausted from our week. The excitement we had is finally catching up with them. Everyone went down for a nap today and they will still go to bed early tonight.

Yesterday I was still feeling sick so we didn't even make it to church. The day just wasn't the same! Caitlyn was looking forward to Easter for quite some time which made me feel even more terrible for missing out on church and other activities.

Greg read the kids the Resurrection story and we had an egg hunt in our yard.

That's about it. We also had a very easy dinner with my parents and GG (Great Grandma)

but it still wasn't the same.

Caitlyn had expectations to decorate and color eggs and have plenty of company.

It didn't happen.

The sweet thing is that she completely understood and said:

"Don't worry mom, it's OK. We can do it next Easter."

She has such a sweet attitude about things...usually:)

I went to bed feeling like a bad mom!

I also went to bed wondering how we got the name for Easter anyways...

unfortunately we didn't find anything very interesting.

If any one out there knows I would be happy to hear.

Probably the highlight of my day was listening to Greg read to the kids.

There is something special about Daddy.

Something that I can't explain.

They would have listened to me if I read them the story...

but I don't think it would have stood out as much.

I get to read to them everyday.

When I said goodnight to Micah he told me that he liked it when Daddy reads to them and tells them about Jesus.

I asked him, "Why?"

His answer: "Because Daddy tells us things about Jesus that we don't already know."

I think he enjoyed hearing the story straight from the Word.

After all it is the greatest story of them all.

I also believe that they have the greatest Daddy

to read it to them...

I think they believe the same.

Still catching up from all of the activities last week...

Another great memory the kids made this past week was flying a kite with Grandpa at the lake.

Thanks Grandpa!

Mr. Micah Man and little Miss Paige...

~Just a couple of the nicknames we have around here~

What's new with this girl...

These past few weeks have been an explosion of development. She is officially sitting up...yes she started crawling before she completely sat on her own. I think she could have done it earlier but didn't really see the need for it :)

She is pulling up all of the time...mommy has to stay near for fear of her falling. I don't want to see any bruises on her little face yet!

She is trying to do so many things and yet she seems too little to do them.

Two days agao we were at my parents house and she pulled up on a toy box. That alone isn't unusual these days...but then she proceeded to push and slide it on the tile, taking steps as she went...that shocked me. I wasn't quite ready for that!

Cassidy quickly learned to pull up but she walked later than the two older kids.

I am waiting to see what sweet little Dakota will do.

She has also officially learned a new sound.

She makes this grunting sound when she is unhappy about something...it is not a cry but a grunt of annoyance. She continues until she is relieved of the annoying circumstance or someone distracts her with something else.

The funniest time I saw her communicating her feelings of annoyance

was with her big sister Cassidy.

Cassidy has been a great big sister and up until this last week she has ALWAYS been so kind to Dakoata...until Dakota officially took away something that she was playing with.

We were playing a board game and Dakota took away some of Cassidy's game pieces.

Out of frustration Cassidy quickly tried to grab the game piece away from Dakota...they both became frustrated and looking on I couldn't help but laugh.

They were both tugging and pulling on the same piece as Dakota let out her frustrated grunts.

It was hilarious! And definitley a learning experience for them both.

And so it begins.

More family memories...

enjoying the river...

Riding Tommy...

This horse was actually going crazy but these two seemed to calm him down...for the moment.

Cole loved his baby cousin and constantly asked to hold her.

The kids loved the wave runners...

and the hot tub! The lake water was FREEZING cold so it became a great alternative to freezing to death!

Caitlyn really enjoyed playing with her cousins...and loved getting them with the squirt gun!

Cousins

The kiddos have had a blast over the past week with their cousins from Arizona. It was a full week with all kinds of activities. I am so thankful that they had this time to share special memories together. My brother is great at coming up with ideas that include all of the kids...He bought some water balloons and some squirt guns so we had a couple of water fights...great memories. We spent some time at the lake and some time at the ranch by the river.

The time together was a little hard for myself and for my parents with my sister being absent... definitely bittersweet. The last night we were together the kids spent the night at our house and they each talked non-stop. They talked more than ever that night. They each said they had such a good time and they didn't want to go home... they wished they could live here. I wish they lived here. They are all good kids and my brother-in-law is doing an amazing job as a single parent. I applaud him.

I do miss my sister and pray for her daily. It was hard not having her here with our family. I continue to pray that grace would meet her where she is. Her situation is one that I cannot understand so I try not to...I try to pray but honestly I am often lost for words.

I also pray for each of my nieces and nephews. I wish we could share more memories together like we did this past week. We will definitely have to do this again. I was worn out by the end of the week and sick fighting a sinus infection but so thankful for the time we spent together...hoping that each of them were blessed. Not blessed by the new activities that surrounded them but blessed by the love that we shared. Blessed by their Heavenly Father who is the provider of every gift that comes our way.

He is risen! Stand in awe...

Gracious and astounding

God's love so confounding appears to us

In a cleansing flow of blood!

The Son left throne and glory,

Bore the Father's wrath and fury in our stead;

And for the sins of all He bled!

Chorus:Stand in awe and worship!Raise a voice and worship,

Come adore

The King of kings and Lord of lords!

Behold the Lamb in Heaven

He was dead but God raised Him from the grave,

For His arm is mighty to save!

Now glorified and reigning

The keys of death and Hades in His hand,

And all hail the Lord of every man!

Stand in awe and worship! Raise a voice and worship

Come adore

The King of kings and Lord of lords

The King of kings and Lord of lords.

I have always loved this Jeremy Riddle song.

Happy Easter!!

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of JESUS.

"From prison and trial they led HIM away to His death." Isaiah 53:8

The ONE who existed from the beginning is the ONE we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life."

I John 1:1

I saw this on a shirt today and it caught my eye...

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. "

Romans 12:2
The Message

This is such a classic Cassidy picture...

Ephesians 5:8

When I took this picture of Micah walking into the beautiful blue sky,

this verse came to mind...

A prayer for this little man as well.

He is a strong-willed little one

but at the same time very tender-hearted.

I pray he will be a mighty warrior and light for Christ

Thank you Nana and Papa for the special memories you made with us and with our kids. You are loved!

Little discoveries...

Dakota loved her first camping trip!

She discovered rocks and dirt for the first time...touching them and

YES tasting them...everything goes to the mouth.

Camping adventures

We had a blast camping out by the river at the ranch with Nana and Papa...wish the rest of the family could have made it for the entire time:) but it was good to see everyone when we could. The day was hotter than we could handle so we spent a couple of hours indoors during the late afternoon. Is it really only March?

Papa set up the trailer but Micah was looking forward to sleeping in the tent with Daddy so they shared some great memories together. I was happy to get a bed... as was Caitlyn and Cassidy. It was pretty cold in the night but we made it! I think I got at least one full hour of sleep in that night. Caitlyn had a bad dream and Cassidy kept waking up saying "Mommy, I told" (cold).

Caitlyn loves Tommy (the horse) and spent a lot of time with him...Papa showed her exactly what to do. They even took Tommy for a swim. YES! a swim...I didn't know that horses like to swim but Tommy sure did!

We had s'mores and hot dogs and Cassidy sung a few songs by the campfire. She loves to sing.
After spending one night and an entire day outdoors we were ready to get home...and ready for baths.

We had a blast though and will definitely plan a camping trip again.

Guess What?

She will be 7 months on Saturday!

This little girl has officially started to crawl~

She is much faster than last week.

Last night as I was putting the kids to bed she crawled all the way from the

family room into the girls' room...

her brother and sisters cheering her on all of the way.

She is also already pulling up on things

and twice today I have seen her sitting on her knees rocking back and forth.

It is so fun to see her go thru all of these stages but at the same time I am a little sad that

in only 5 more months she will be a year old!

Friends

making silly faces...

Love the drool on these two.