The girls meet the boys...

A few weeks after the twins were born we were finally able to take the girls to meet Caleb and Tyler for the first time. The girls got colds right after they were born, so we patiently waited. We celebrated Mother's Day with Nonni too, so it was a fun-filled evening. Alyssa seems to be a natural little mommy and although Meredith had a rough start she finally quieted him down. Now me on the other hand, I'd have to say I am grateful that God gives me one baby at a time!

Alyssa's 5th Birthday Party

Kristen's 30th Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Alyssa!

My baby girl turned 5 today!!! Well, acutally not until 10:01pm, but we celebrated already. We had a normal day, but then went to watch her ballet teachers recital then out to dinner at a place of her choice (Olive Garden) and to GolfSmith to get her birthday present. Yep, thats right, GOLF CLUBS...



So now off to bed, to get a good nights sleep so that i can get ready for a birthday party tomorrow. We have about 10 little girls coming over!!! I'll post about that in the next few days.

These 5 years have gone by so fast, I don't even feel old enough to have a 5 year old - but obviously I am. We are so blessed by God with Alyssa, she is growing in serving around the house, by empting the dishwasher, setting the table, putting away all the girl clothes, she even helped me clean my bathroom this week.

Happy Birthday Alyssa! We love you!

Central Florida Fair

This past Monday we celebrated our 10th or 11th year of going to the Cenrtal Florida Fair with the Brooks' and Jones' families. The Davis' joined us this year and Kathy too. There were a total of 10 kids. It was so much fun! I think we all had some sort of stomach ache afterwards from all the yummy food we ate. The kids just went from ride to ride one right after the other. We got there at 4:30 and left at 10:30. It was a late night, but we sure did have a great time!

5 days old...

Caleb David and Tyler Andrew made their debut last Friday, April 18th. Here are a few pictures. More of Caleb than of Tyler only because Tyler was being hogged by other family members. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Caleb weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 17 3/4 inches. Tyler weighed 8 lb 8 oz and was 18 inches long.

Pictures of our trip to Arizona

We are home...

We arrived home about 1:30am last night (Wednesday) from a long day of traveling from Arizona to Salt Lake City and then a tremendously long flight to Orlando. We all took some medicine to help us sleep and we all woke up at 10am this morning. We were greated by a joyful smile and an unknowing tilt of the head as we opened the door to dear little Brooklyn. But what a joy it is to be with her again. It was a long week of wonderings about how she was doing, what she was getting into, what she would be like (attitude) when we got home, if she would look like she grew up at all, etc. The musings of a mom, i'm sure you all know what i'm talking about. Today has been full of unpacking, checking email, going through the regular mail and a few loads of laundry. I'll update a blow by blow account of our wonderful trip to Arizona as I can.

3rd Annual Strawberry Picking Day

Last friday, the girls and me and a lot of friends from church went strawberry picking. We had a lot of fun. The girls gave up early this year, as you will see in the pictures. We had only been there about an hour and they thought it would be more fun to have snacks and play in the van. Brooklyn got completely filthy and I don't even want to think about how much dirt she ate. She would walk down the rows and squish the strawberries in her hand and then shovel it in her mouth. I could only handle that for so long. The thought of the dirt and possible bugs she was eating was too much for me. So she went in the car too, and her mommy prayed, Lord protect my little girl from anything harmful she ate today. We had a great time. And we came home with 20 quarts of strawberries for $10. They sure are yummy!

Easter

Easter came really quick for us this year. But we managed to pull it off. I thought you'd enjoy the pictures from two days of festivities. We did Easter as a family on Saturday and then Sunday after church we went to a picnic. We had a great time!

Countdown to Arizona

We are leaving next Wednesday, April 2nd to fly to Arizona to visit our dear friends the Nam's. We are taking the older girls and leaving Brooklyn for a whole week. In effort to help the girls understand when we are leaving we made a calendar. Please excuse the art, I am not a very good artist.

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk...

So I don't normally cry, but today I almost did. Have you ever had one of these days...

The floor was mopped and carpets vacuumed before noon (thanks to a lovely friend of mine) anyway. Lunch time came and guess what - PB & J sandwich crumbs all over the rug. Then at dinner, milk was spilled again mostly on my rug, but splattered on my newly mopped floor.

"Oh no", I said, "not on my clean floor". And although not a biblical approach to my immediate temptation. I thought to myself, "don't cry over spilled milk". And the reality is, it doesn't change much. Yesterday my floor was dirty, today my floor is dirty. Yesterday my girls has sippie cups, today they got to use "big girl" cups. Today they are 4,3,1 and in the fall I'll start homeschooling and in the blink of an eye my girls won't spill milk all over my floor, they'll have milk spilled all over their floor.

Mean Friends...

Just so all my sister and her mean friends know. I deleted the picture that you were apparently giving her a hard time about. What I want to know is why "friends" would give her a hard time?

And just so you know, I unknowingly included that picture - in an effort to update my blog as quickly as possible, I just posted them with out editing them. I guess I'll always have to edit them if Kristen is in them so that her friends don't give her trouble.

Kissimmee Park Day

Last week, Kristen and I and our girlies all went to Kissimmee to spend some time at my Aunt Caroyln's house. We had a ton of fun, they have lots of fun things to do at their house. One of the most special things we did, was to take our girls to a park that my mom took Kristen and I to about 25 years ago. We have pictures of Kristen and I on the same play equipment. It was a lot of fun. Granted the play ground wasn't all that exciting to the girls, but they did have a tetertoter (sp?). I don't think my girls have ever played on one, so that was the most fun.