Ahhh! The Smell Of Spring!

I'm so happy that the snow is melting! I can walk outside and smell nice fresh air! But I hate the mud. This time of year is wet and gross. So much snow melted in our backyard that it flooded our basement. All of Mark's work papers were ruined. We had a few storage things that got wet but most of our storage stuff was up off the floor or in plastic bins. There's nothing worse than the smell of a wet basement. That's why I'm so happy to be able to walk outside and smell the fresh spring air!

Broken Ears

Hallie is very clever. Yes, clever indeed. When I tell her to clean her room, eat her food, be nice to her brother, she just tells me her ears are broken and she's not sure that she can hear me. Seriously??? I wonder what she will come up with next...

Blessings

Here is Natalie figuring out her toys on the exer saucer. She is so funny. I forgot what it was like to have a little baby. The smallest things are so interesting and such a big deal. I love my kids so much. They mean the world to me. I was reading people's comments on an aritcle about a very large family and all they could say was it was irresponsible to have such a big family. The earth is over populated and there are limited resources and blah blah blah. They talked as though kids were objects and more of and inconvenience than anything. It was so sad to read all those comments. I am not someone who wants a ton of kids, but my life without my three would be boring! I would be missing out on so much. Asher's tender heart, Hallie's silliness, and Natalies's beautiful smile. And knowing the big picture, those little spirits will be on this earth one way or another, over populated or not. Anyway, my kids are one of the greatest blessings in my life and I'm thankful for every moment with them.

Natalie's Blessing

We blessed Natalie this past Sunday. Thank you everyone for coming to support us and being there on this special day. And thank you to those who stood in the circle, it really was great of you guys. Natalie looked beautiful, didn't she? She really is a special girl and she really adds so much happiness to our family. When you see her smile and talk all the time, it's hard not to be happy. What a sweet girl.

This picture was so cute. That smile is just adorable. This is her everyday smile. Really, she is a good baby when no one is around!

And another picture to show off another cute face!

Christmas Memories

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Christmas

This was Natalie's first Christmas! I thought it was a lot of fun. She was overwhelmed by the third present, but she was very cute seeing her other gifts. Over the Christmas holiday we realized that she is a homebody and doesn't like large groups of people. She really is a good baby, but she cried and was fussy the whole time. We would come home and put her down and she would just smile and laugh. I'm not making it up, I PROMISE! I always say how good she is and then we go somewhere and she just cries! Anyway, the rest of Christmas was fun. We went to the in-laws on Christmas Eve, opened our presents Christmas morning (Santa brought us a Wii), then we went to Jennifer's Christmas evening. It was a fun Christmas. I think my favorite part of Christmas was watching Patrick open his present from us. I thought I was funny because we bought him a book and i wrapped it in a shirt box. So he opens it and it's wrapped again. He unwraps it and it's in a plastic grocery bag. He takes it out and there's another bag! Then another and another and another. I think there was 6 or 7 bags he had to take his present out of. He gets it out of all the bags and it's wrapped again in tissue paper. It was hilarious watching him! I had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard! That was better than THE BAG (see picture on right side of screen)!

Asher's Birthday

Asher's birthday was on the 22nd of December. I can't believe he is 6 years old already! We had a family party for him and he really enjoyed everyone being there. I always try so hard to make sure his birthday is separated from Christmas because all of the family Christmas parties and his birthday seem to mix together. This year I decorated his room for him so when he woke up he had balloons and streamers all over his room. He thought that was pretty cool! I just can't believe how fast time flies!

Baby Jesus

There are times when Hallie says the silliest things, but today she was so sweet it literally brought tears to my eyes. We were listening to Christmas music and one of the songs you could really feel the Spirit. So Hallie said she liked the song and I asked her it if it made her feel good inside. She said " Yes, it makes me feel like I want to hold baby Jesus in my heart". It was the sweetest thing to hear her say that. Sometimes I wonder if Hallie really "gets" what I try to teach her because she always acts like she doesn't care. But it's those little moments like that one really validates all of the effort I put into teaching her. And to know that such a little girl can recognize the Spirit is really inspiring to me. It's nice to have little children remind you of what Christmas is really about.

Heart Checkup

Asher had an appoinment with his cardiologist today. Things just look better every year! Everything looks great & sounds great. That second surgery that was always a possibility is now slightly possible as an adult. He has asolutely no restrictions on anything and instead of yearly checkups we are going to take him in two years. It was such a shock when we found out he needed a surgery when he was only 2 months old and for everything to be going so well now is such a blessings for all of us.

ALLERGIES?

Today while Hallie and Asher were eating lunch I was in the other room taking care of Natalie. I heard Asher growling and roaring at Hallie. She told him to stop so he continued doing it longer and louder. That's very typical of Asher. He teases her all the time. Well, she finally got sick of it and said "Asher, I am allergic to being scared so stop it!" He growled again so she yelled "I AM ALLERGIC!! STOP!" Allergic of being scared??? Where does she come up with this stuff?