Leighton Ann

This is the reason that we have the toilet-using kids close the bathroom door when they are done. Leighton was having the time of her life with a half unrolled roll of tp when I found her. :)
After a dinner of baby food carrots and a leftover piece of pizza cut up in bite-sized pieces the babies munched down on baked sweet potato sticks....and here Leighton is chowing down on an asparagus spear. By far, this little girl has been my best eater. She couldn't get enough of the mixed vegetables I gave her for dinner last night, unfortunately she broke out and was fussy afterwards (based on the peas, we are concluding). It's really not a surprise that she goes crawling around the house sweeping her hands under the sofas looking for dustballs to eat. Poor skinny thing thinks we're starving her to death. :)

Happy Easter!!

It was a bit of a depressing Easter day for me...mostly b/c we didn't really spend it with anyone. This is the time that it's sad to be so far away from family.....everyone here has family in the area so they spend it with each other. After church we came home, ate lunch, babies napped, we watched the end of our taped American Idol and put together a toy shelf that we had bought from IKEA yesterday when we were in Orlando. On a side note, I love IKEA! We put the big kids in childcare and wandered the set up rooms looking at all the reasonable prices and picking up little things....packs of straws and new toilet bowl brushes. :) What a fun place. Anyways, we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner tonight, which was nice b/c I can't see my kitchen table with all the clutter and I need to do a grocery run. Not the most devotional Easter sunday for me this year....but definitely grateful as I remember Christ on the cross and what that means. Happy Easter, friends... He is risen, indeed!!!

Btw...the babies weren't too cooperative with the pictures...sadly you can't see Matthias' little man tie under his vest.

Siesta Key Beach!

Josiah has been loving karate. I'm actually taking karate from Sensai Jack, too....his adult class at the YMCA on monday nights. It's been a lot of fun and a real good workout. Jack leaves for NC from May to November, so we're trying to figure out what we're going to do while he's gone.


We got the kids out of school early on friday afternoon and went to Siesta Key beach where we met the Patton's (who were down here for spring break from Virginia)....this is really the first time that we put the babies in the sand to play and they loved it! Leighton really loved walking with Laura in the water (Matthias was scared of the water)....it was a lot of fun and a lot less work for us, one with a lot of arms to hold babies, but also without having to worry about not putting them down in the sand. We had a great time catching up with our friends and were glad to get to the beach again.

Jenner's spring break!

AJ loves to make faces in her pictures...this one is classic:

One of my dearest friends, Jenn, flew down to sunny florida last week to spend her spring break with us! I, as well as many of her friends, wondered why she would want to spend her spring break with me and my five kids, mostly stuck at home. :) And I know it's just b/c she loves us! We had a pretty typical week (for me)....feeding kids, pulling wagons, cleaning up the mess.... attempting to scrapbook but not getting much done. Anyways, it was so good to have Jenn in my world for a week...the kids love her a lot and she definitely has more energy than I do to spend on them. So....here's my shout out to Jenn!! We love you and were so glad to spend a week with you!!!

Here are the two little girls with Jenner. We were at the twin's pediatrician's appointment. Matthias is weighing in at 22# 9oz. measuring 29 1/4 inches and Leighton is right behind him at 18# 2oz. measuring 28 3/4 inches. They were healthy and looked great! (of course both of them got sick later in the week and they continue to pass things back and forth to each other even now) Leighton still has 7 teeth last I counted...and Matthias has his one! These babies continue to bring us such joy...in the midst of the chaos. :)

Oh, and I thought I'd go for a different background look (inspired by Tabitha, of course)... I liked the girly-aspect (flowers), but earthy "me" color.

Thanks Grandma!

So, the twins got a wagon for their birthday from Grandma. It is a two-seater, but somehow all five of the kids managed to wedge themselves into it together. They (the babies) LOVE their new wheels and can't get enough rides up and down the driveway. Thankfully there are 3 big siblings to take turns pulling them. :)

The twins turn 1!!

The twins turned one yesterday (the 7th) and we had their birthday party today at the church. I am amazed that we made it a year...it's been a great one - definitely hard, but so much fun! We invited the church (of whom about 12 showed up) and some friends that we've met (about 12 or so more, including kids)...the twins reaction to their cake was typical of who they are. Leighton was very tentative, and picked at it, sucking her fingers in between bites. Matthias picked at it a little bit...and then after realizing what it was, laughed and was a bit more into eating. He still wasn't super messy, but he continued to eat long after Leighton had said that she was "all done" (which she is doing now with sign language). They received a ton of new toys and clothes even though the invitation read "please no gifts". It was a lot of fun and we were able to spend the rest of the day with Jenn (who is in town visiting for her spring break) and the Weaver's back at our house. We're exhausted and the house is a mess, but it's been a fun day and I was happy to be able to celebrate the lives of our big one year olds with some friends in town. Thanks, everyone, who remembered us with phone calls and birthday cards!! It's a little hard to be so far away from family and have them miss this special day, but sweet that we have some good friends in town who love our kids and are happy to celebrate with us.

My 3 girls....and some twin shots.

I know, I know, Leighton doesn't look all that cute in this picture, but I thought it would be good to give a fair representation of my day. :) Poor baby girl is getting over the roseola virus (three days of a fever, and then a full body rash) and there are several spots in her mouth that I can see the swollen-ness of teeth about to pop through. She was miserable today...and cried everytime I wasn't holding her. I'm headed to Wal-mart first thing in the morning to get some baby ora-gel... hopefully she'll be doing better tomorrow.

The babies have been fighting over the toy walker...usually Leighton will get it and start walking and then Matthias will realize what a great idea it was and grab it from her and go speeding off. Their cheeks are full of goldfish crackers in this second picture. I cannot believe they turn one in 3 days!!! I almost can't believe I survived this first year! The year went by so fast even though there have been days that seemed like forever. We're having a party on Saturday, so I'll definitely be posting pics of babies and cake and such. :)

I've been trying to process through some thoughts from a women's conference I went to on Saturday. Several women from my church drove out to Sarasota to hear Tara Barthel speak on "Women and Peacemaking-a Journey of Grace". It was a great day of being reminded of the Gospel and our call to resolving conflict in our lives and seeking lasting peace. She talked about how we tend towards making hypocrites out of our children when it comes to conflict...well, it was actually a quick point she made, but it stuck with me...probably b/c our kids have been fighting a lot lately and I've been thinking and praying through how to address it better. The fact that we "force" our kids to apologize to each other, when in reality there are a lot of times that they really aren't sorry for what they've done...probably just sorry for being caught. And then, to have the other child say that they forgive their sibling for what they've done, when in reality...they're mumbling out "I forgive you" with a bad attitude. There is definitely something to be said about creating a habit of apologizing and forgiving, but there's also something to be said about taking those moments of conflict and using them as teaching moments to remind them (and myself) that we forgive because Christ has forgiven us!.....not just b/c mommy told you that you need to. Getting to the heart issue with the kids (especially the big kids) has been a challenge for me lately...but this peacemaking conference was an encouragement to me in the midst of it.