The Cochran Clan

The foxes

2012-01-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

Who knew that a children's lock on a door could cause such anger...I'm talking straight rage. Didn't think I had it in me?? Think again. We recently got cheap little children locks on all the doors because of Ezekiel's recent escape attempts (more on that later). But after putting them on I realized not only could my 3 year old not open the door but after 5 minutes of many attempts, I too could not open our front door. Now, in my defense the door was definitely jammed before we put them on so it just made it pretty much impossible to open (or that's what I tell myself). So when I'm carrying snacks, a gym bag, my purse, and jackets... spending 5 minutes opening a door can actually make me want to physically hurt something. You must know what I'm talking about...when kicking or hitting an inanimate object will be the only thing that will make you feel better and those 4 letter words you promised yourself you'd never say in front of the children somehow slip out.

Have you ever noticed that when something bad happens that's a big deal, most of the time God's grace rushes in. It's almost like we know we can't control it and I run to the Lord cause I know He is the only one that can fix it and or give me the grace to walk it out. But it's those foxes in this life that can continually test us, try us, and press us. It's when we are all ready to go and the car won't start...it's when we call costumer service on something and we get the rudest person ever...and they don't even speak English!, it's when our kids decide in the morning that they are plotting anarchy and the rest of the day feels like a war zone, and it's when we kick ourselves (and the door) for putting on the most ridiculous child door locks in the world! It's at these moments through out the day we have a choice...

A choice to choose joy or to choose complaint. To choose Him or to choose escape. To choose the hand that He's given us or to choose fantasy and day dreams. He allows it all...the pressing, the trials, the hardships, the downright irritations and annoyances of everyday life...actually, he doesn't just allow it...He promises it... "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you." 1st Peter 4:12

Why am I so surprised? Why am I so shaken? Whether it be something huge or just a bad day with the kids... why am I so quick to get angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, and ultimately offended and confused with God's ways.

They are opportunity's...each one... no matter how big or how small. He is asking in every trial, "Will you fix your eyes on me?" "Will you run to me?" "Will you, with My grace, choose joy today and let me put My heart of love and peace within you?" "Will you trust me?"

I feel like I fail 99% of the time...but that one beautiful percent when He gives me His heart, His eyes, His perspective...in that place, truly nothing else matters.

This I am confident in...the more I fix my gaze on Him the more I will have His heartbeat and His eternal perspective. Thank you Jesus for His Mercy's new every morning and I will rest in this assurance-
"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" Philippians 1:6

So I am not perfect....I pretty much convinced I am the farthest thing from it...but with His grace I will turn to Him in the good and in the bad....I will trust Him regardless of the circumstances and cry out to Him even in the mundane.

Snow day..minus the snow

2012-01-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

Because it's been so warm this winter the kids have been anxiously anticipating when the weather man would predict even the slightest bit of snow. Well that day finally came. The kids woke up at 5:30 am and school was called off...the high for the day was 15 degrees with a ridiculous wind chill...and the snow accumulation-I think about 1/10th of an inch (yup, our school systems are VERY cautious). haha We spent I think at least 45 minutes to an hour layering them up in 2-3 pair of leggings, multiple shirts and socks and searching through every piece of clothing in the house to find hats and mittens. We finally headed outside and I think we totaled about 6-8 good minutes out there in that fluffy white snow. :) The kids tried so hard to be excited about the snow, but after realizing that this was certainly not "snow angel" weather and the fact that the wind chill felt like it was burning our faces off...we all decided that 6 minutes was enough and that hot cocoa and the nice cozy couch sounded pretty dang good! :) I guess unless some random snow storm occurs, this will have to hold us over until next year. Although I don't think they would see it as a huge loss...hot cocoa, no school, and re-runs of Fresh beat band make for a pretty good day...snow or no snow. :)

Annabella's first makeover

2012-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Our friends (well more like family) came into town for New Years Eve weekend and we we were trying to think of something to do for New years eve. Well Annabella had been begging Katie all weekend to give her a makeover so we decided that New Years Eve was just the night! :) Annabella has had on nail polish before but besides that she has never worn any make up besides lip gloss. So this was her dream come true! I warned her that this was a one night deal...kinda like Cinderella...and after the night was through she had to return to her sweet little five year old self..without makeup. :) But boy did she soak up every minute of it!

Annabella wanted a different color nail polish on every finger and toe.. Katie was very patient. :)

Lipstick...

Eye Shadow AND eye liner!

then Katie straightened her hair! She looks soooo big!! And her hair looks sooo long!

After it was straightened, she then curled it

My sweet little princess

Cinderella and her fairy god mother :)

Happy New Years from the Cochrans!

2012-01-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Christmas/New Years from the Cochran's!!!

Another year goes by and I continue to slack when it comes to sending out those Christmas cards. I mean, I have every intention and then when the moment seems right to type something out...a kid throws up ( no exaggeration haha)...and when it came to getting a family picture taken...well besides my kids now resenting all camera equipment (don't be alarmed if your holding a camera in your hand and my children run in fear at the thought that you might try to force them to be still and smile)...but also there were so many sweet babies being born everywhere, (I love me some babies) that I didn't have time to ask anyone to actually take a picture of us! The above picture is taken by my mom before we all ran out the door to go to some Christmas festivity. :)

So with that being said, here is my late night attempt to a very late Christmas card! :)

Hope all is well with all of you! Things have been busy, busy, busy around these here parts! (Oh wait,I don't know if I can say that anymore,I'm not in Texas) :). This time last year we were packing up our family for the 7th time and moving away...and this time it was back to the mountains of North Carolina. I still can't believe we've been here almost a whole year! Here's a little peek into what we've been up to:

Charlie has been blessed with the amazing ability to work from home! He has continued to keep his job in Houston at MD Anderson and just has to go in about once a year to check in...did I mention that it is SUCH a blessing!!! :) He continues to excel at his job- computer programing- and is in the process of creating some side developments he has been working on. He is still a music lover and now has what he's been dreaming of for 7 years of marriage: a MAN room! :) A room where he can have his office, all his stuff (and don't let boys fool you..they have plenty of "stuff") and of course ALL his music/ recording equipment.

Ezekiel is still Ezekiel. If you know him, you know what I mean. There is not a calm, chill bone in that boys body. I mean I guess when he's sick or something. :) Ezekiel has just really started talking (better late than never) and is a little chatter box. (He's his mother's son!) He will be 3 on Feb 1st and milking every last minute of the whole terrible two's thing! He is quite the strong willed one (as Dobson would say) and is a spit fire to say the least; but one thing about his personality that has just continued to develop over this year would be his JOY! He is joy spilling over. Charlie likes to say, "he is a living exclamation point!" and that he is! :) He wakes up singing and dancing and running 30 mph without a break, I'm not gonna lie...it's exhausting! His favorite thing this year (and for as long as I can remember actually) has been cars. He's obsessed (And I do NOT use that word lightly). He calls cars "bobos"...do not ask me why. haha Another really funny thing he has picked up since he began to talk is he calls Malachi "Bad guy". One day he just started saying, "bad guy...bad guy" and he just saw a spider man cartoon so I was like, "thats right Ezekiel, did you just see a bad guy on tv?" He then began to shout it louder and pointed to Malachi. It was then (about 4 months ago) that we realized that he pronounced Malachi as "bad guy". haha Now we definitely get some funny looks when were at the store and Ezekiel screams, "Mama! Bad guy hit me! Bad guy hit me!!!" hahaha

Malachi is 4 and half and is such a joy to have around. He is our family's little super hero and can't be found without some sort of spider man or power ranger outfit on. He is all boy but also has come into a great love for the arts. He loves to draw and color and will sit and do it forever it you let him. He also loves music and will sit with his daddy and just listen to all sorts of music on his lap without moving a muscle. Malachi is still not potty trained I'm getting very, very, VERY weary after 4 very extreme attempts! **prayers much appreciated** Although, Malachi has always been someone to do something on his own time and this is no exception. He started preschool at a little Christian School right down the road from us and goes 3 mornings a week. He definitely likes it but it is quite an adjustment going from being home with mommy all the time. He likes all the kids there and is even making some friends outside of school, but truth be told...Malachi would rather be with his brother and sister than anyone else in the entire world, and I think they feel the same way in that. Not to say that they don't love their other friends but in the past year the 3 of them are like the little musketeers and are each others whole world. He is also super into sports and is excited about starting soccer again in the spring.

Annabella is five! Wow, just as I type that I feel the weight of it...five...geezee, where did the time go?! She started Kindergarten this year and loves it. (except for the reading and resting part.. she comes every day and makes sure to tell us that she liked everything EXCEPT the reading and resting! haha) We planned on homeschooling her this year but because of a few different things going on we decided to wait a year or two before we bring her home. Although I will say that I was looking at some home school curriculum this week and I got pretty giddy about it!! :) Annabella is ALL girl...ALL posh..ALL princess. I cannot tell her a bedtime story without it having at least one mermaid, one princess, one fairy, and one ballerina....get the picture?! :) She is like living with a real live Scarlett O'Hara...the passion and drama never stops flowing. But with that being said, she is SO much fun to have around! We have tea parties at least 3 days a week and as you can imagine, the conversation is never boring! :) She is currently taking ballet at a local ballet school and of course loves every minute of it! She also has been asking for awhile now about taking violin lessons so I think we will be looking into that soon as well. The kids are super excited about heaven right now and love talking about it. It seems like once a day Annabella will ask with a look of wonder in her eyes, "What does heaven look like again mommy?!" I LOVE watching the Lord working in and through my children...it truly is the best gift a mother can ever have!

As for me, life doesn't ever change too much for mothers of young munchkins. I will say though, it is amazing living literally a stone throw away from my parents...it is SO fun being able to call my mom and tell her that the tea kettle is on the stove and she says, "I'll be right over with the tea bags and cookies!"! Life is no doubt crazy in this season of life...some days I feel like I can hardly keep my head above water and other days (with God's grace) I feel like I can finally get my rhythm down. This season of life is just busy for any mom and now with starting my own photography business it throws everything into overdrive. I am also in the process of trying to home school my boys in the afternoon and although it will take time, I know it is way worth it! The Lord is teaching me to delight in the things He has given me and to not refuse his beautiful gifts. Right now those gifts are a 3, 4, and 5 year old and I want to sow all that I have into teaching them and raising them up to be lovers of Him. I am excited about what the year holds and am asking the Lord that He will continue to show me what is a priority to Him and to make His desires my desires.

Have a blessed 2012!!!

Many Blessings,

The Cochrans

Charlie,Mary,Annabella,Malachi, and Ezekiel

Christmas at home

2011-12-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

After a fun filled, action packed week in Houston we headed home to see some of my most favorite people- my sister and brother were coming to town for Christmas! It seems like the last 2-3 Christmas's something has always come up and my family couldn't all be together for Christmas, so this year it was such a joy to have them all near by!

Me and sister the night she got in

Brother bear and big sister :)

love him!

after a busy week in Houston the kids had fun just vegging out :)

This is what I found Ezekiel doing on Christmas morning...fishing in the toilet. haha

chopping for Christmas Eve dinner and then there's creepy Liz. :)

Snuggling with Papa

Pictures by Grandma and Papa's ginormous Christmas tree!

The Malachi face :)

My favorite boys in the entire universe

They best we could do.... haha

Grandma and Papa cooking away

Snuggled up with Aunt Lizzie and Uncle David

Nap time :)

Fun times with Papa

The kids about to receive their Christmas eve presents- their new PJ'S!!

Papa on Christmas Eve finishing up some last minute presents!

Eagerly awaiting :)

What could be better than Spider-man pj's? Spider man sun glasses of course! :)

My three musketeers on Christmas morning :)

All he had been asking for...power ranger stuff!

The boys were VERY excited about getting daddy's presents- new toy guns that light up and make crazy cool sounds

Annabella getting her first camera!! She is always wanting to come with me to my shoots, so I figured I might as well get her started so I can start putting her to work! :)

Annabella has been begging and pleading for this doll for Christmas. I'm sure you've heard of it..it's the one that pees and poops. Wow, sounds like a real keeper! haha Charlie tried to convince her out of it by saying, "Annabella, we will happily let you change Ezekiel's diaper!" She then looked disgusted and said, "Yuckk! No! This doll doesn't smell bad like Ezekiel!!" haha I guess she has a point. All that to say, we gave in and got it for her. And she really does love it as much as she said she would. She's a little mommy in training.

Annabella has really bad luck when it comes to music globes. She loves them SO much but she has had 3 so far and they have all broken! Now, in her defense none of them were really her fault. She was always being super careful and something would fall or trip and it was brake everywhere. So we decided to try again and get her a ballet globe that plays the nutcracker song. She was sooo happy and thus far has taken such great care of it!

What my family eats on Christmas morning- Blueberry muffins with strudel topping and cheese eggs. It makes me happy just typing it! :)

Annabella told Malachi to watch out for her doll and Malachi just started poking her eyes..haha

After spending Christmas morning with just our family...we walked over to my moms and had brunch and Christmas with everyone.

Malachi playing with his big present...his fire house.

Christmas night my dad watched the kids so the rest of us could do our tradition and go see a movie (this year was the new Missions Impossible movie). After the movie we all went to Denny's. We had our big dinner on Christmas eve and there was nothing else open for 30 miles, so we didn't have too many options. :) But good company over rode the ridiculously greasy food! haha

I felt so blessed this Christmas having such amazing people in my life to live life with!

Christmas in Houston

2011-12-21T19:06:00.000-08:00

Houston, Texas....Oh how I have a love hate/relationship with you. When I lived there oh how I cursed your hot humid weather..and how I resented your bumper to bumper traffic at 2 in the afternoon! BUT the family we have there is so precious, the friends we made there are friends that we will treasure forever, and although I'm not a big city girl, I'm gonna have to say I loved all those malls!! :) So when we visited this past Christmas all I seemed to remember about that busy, hot city was the beautiful faces that I missed so much!

The trip started out with a 17 hour journey in the car with a 2,4, and 5 year old...definitely not my most favorite thing. But before we left I searched Google for every idea out there on how to keep little ones busy on long car rides and I found some great ideas that I had never thought of before. So the night before we left I packed my Mary Poppins bag with lots of goodies including: scotch tape, post it notes, coloring books, stickers, ect... and boy did they enjoy themselves! :)

We were celebrating Christmas with family the second half of our trip; so the first half of our trip was dedicated to seeing all of our beautiful friends! :)

Just can't get enough of these girls :)

Bellabear and I hanging out at the park

Me and my Kelsey

Our old home group had a Christmas party while we were there and I got to see all of my amazing friends that I missed so much! {My Lauren and Heidi}

Playing games with the homegroup...some of the people couldn't be there but I was happy to see every body and their growing children

I can't believe that when I first met these ladies all of our kids were practically babies!

Annabella and Caydon (Lauren's son)

Crystal couldn't be at the Christmas party since she just had her little boy so I went to see her. That baby was ridiculously handsome by the way! :)

Charlie's parents watched the little bits one night so Charlie and I could go out with friends without any munchkins...

Really?! We order an Oreo Sunday dessert and this is what we get..one Oreo?! Lame. :)

Sunday night we settled in and started our Christmas festivities with the family. Sunday the Ullah's came over (Charlie's aunt and uncle and cousins) and we celebrated Christmas with them. The kids thoroughly enjoyed Zachary, Lorena, and Holly (Zachary's new fiance!!)

The kids enjoying some new gifts

It was so fun watching the boys play together...they played together before but now I think they are all old enough that they can just play without the adults intervening all the time.

Sweet Addyson

Annabella and Addyson were two peas in a pod. Annabella LOVED having a little girl around and I think Addyson enjoyed hanging out with the big kids!

Me, Ricki, and Jaime (my pretty mother and sister and law)

The morning we celebrated Christmas together. And it couldn't be complete with the yummy cinnamon rolls.

My favorite people :)

Charlie and the kids getting ready to open presents

Nana and Addyson

Annabella very excited about her new horse for her American girl doll. Although since she has received it she has tried to ride it way more than her doll. haha :)

This picture makes me laugh...oh malachi. :)

coloring with Nana

This is SO crazy! Texas has been going through a drought and all that sand used to be high water!

There was water covering all that grass and sand and it went up to half the dock that they are standing on. That's nuts!

Ezekiel riding one of the baby deer :)

longhorn :)

Cooking with nana

Annabella and Addyson modeling their matching outfits

We had such a great trip and even though the car trip was long..veryyy long...haha....it was way worth it!

The joy of Christmas time

2011-12-13T05:52:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already picked this up...I am crazy about Christmas time! I love any and every excuse to snuggle with my little bits and drink hot cocoa and read the Christmas story...as well as having Christmas parties and eating exorbitant amounts of cookies! :) So here are LOTS of pictures (don't say you weren't warned) from our Christmas season!

To kick off the holiday season my friend and I hosted a black and white Christmas party at the beginning of December to get everyone in to the holiday spirit. I finally got to wear that little black dress that had been sitting in my closet with the tags still on it....motherhood definitely doesn't accommodate cocktail dress attire. :)

Me and my beautiful neighbor Maike. Let me just say a few things about her (because she is becoming one of my new favorite people!) Her and her husband moved here from Germany on business and moved into the townhouse that joins to ours. It's funny cause I told my husband, "Oh I really really pity the person who lives in house next to ours cause I don't care HOW sound proof they say it is...nothing can sound Prof our kids!" haha Now in the morning I will pass them leaving the house and I will say, "So, Im guessing you heard Ezekiel screaming his head off at 5 am?" and she says, "Oh yes, we heard him and felt so sad for you and then rolled over and went back to sleep." hahaha Needless to say, they are amazing and we are soo excited to be getting to know them!!! :)

We played a white elephant gift exchange and Charlie definitely had like 5 different things stolen from him...but this is what he ended up with. :)

The hubby and I all dressed up

Okay, now this was one of the new traditions I implemented this year. I was really wanting to add some new things that we do as a family each year that weren't about buying or getting and I think God led me to some neat ideas that I heard about. This one was based on Saint Nick's day. Even though my kids don't believe in Santa Clause I still wanted them to know all about Saint Nick and where the idea of Santa came from. So I told the whole story about what saint nick did and how he would go on horse back and not tell anyone and leave gifts. Well they just thought this was the coolest thing....SO... we decided to start pretending like we're Saint Nick om the eve of Dev 6th (I think that's when it is...haha). We decided that each year we (as a family) would pick another person or family that we could secretly bring a present to and leave it on their doorstep. This year they picked their grandma, which was convenient since she practically lives next door. We decided to keep it pretty simple this year and they just made special homemade cards and delivered them. The picture about is them holding up their kids and showing me how they had to be super quiet so that grandma wouldn't hear! :)

Right before they rang the door bell and then ran and hid. :)

I told them normally we don't let the person see us so it stays a secret but because it was grandma I let them pop out of the bushes and yell, "Surprise!!!!" :)

Decorating the tree is quite the event at our house. It consists of lots of yummy snacks, dancing around to Christmas favorites (Amy Grant and James Taylor to name a couple) and making the first fire in the fireplace. The kids always have take turns helping daddy putting on the lights.

Then comes the putting on of the angel..this also is a big deal and each kids sooo wants to be the lucky one. This year Charlie tossed a dollar bill up in the air...a quarter is just so over done :)....and let them pick a side. Malachi was our winner this year!

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas but was taken sometime in December amidst the craziness. :)

Another new tradition that I am SUPER excited about is this one... instead of doing "New Years Resolutions" with our kids, I wanted to do something that is more God focused than "me" focused. I told the kids that since it's Jesus's birthday that we should be thinking about what we can give Him for Christmas. So I began to ask them, "what do you think Jesus would want for Christmas?" And of course that sparks up a lot of good conversation...they began to throw out things like, "Maybe a super hero doll!" "new toys!" But I think the best was, "Maybe a game of tic tac toe so Jesus and God can play games together!" hahaha LOVE IT! :) But I slowly began to explain that although God likes those things...what He really LOVES isn't the things we can see with our eyes but whats unseen in our hearts. After some discussing I think it finally started to settle in a bit. Ezekiel was still a little lost in the whole thing but still said they he wanted to draw Jesus some cars for Christmas. :) Malachi said that he wanted Jesus to have some super heroes for Christmas because "Jesus and super heroes like each other." hehe So he put a bunch of super hero stickers on a page. Annabella thought about it for a little bit and then said, "I know what I'm gonna give Jesus...I will give Him my heart!" :) We talked about what that all meant and she seemed like she understood at least in part. Then I had them wrap it up and put in a box. I told them that it would be the first present that we open on Christmas morning and that we would remember throughout the whole year what our present was to Jesus this year! I told them that next year we would bring our old present out (before we make a new one) and see if we had been faithful in giving Jesus our presents!

Malachi making his super hero card

Holding up their gifts for Jesus. :) Malachi is holding the one Ezekiel made as well (the red one).

wrapping it up

and putting it under the tree. :)

Another fun thing I started 2 years ago was to take Annabella to the Nutcracker every year and make it a big date night where we dress up, go out late, and eat dessert! :) This year I had my mom living close by so of course she joined too...as well as some close friends of ours!

Me and my Annabella and Becky and her Ana. :)

Annabella and I about to consume some serious chocolate! Triple Chocolate Meltdown from Chilies...Oh yeahhh!! :)

And of course...what is Christmas without decorating good old fashioned sugar cookies! I let Annabella help roll out the dough and cut out the shapes.

Then to the fun stuff...decorating!

Malachi, of course, was super perfectionist about his cookie decorating and while the others were working on their 3rd..he was still diligently working on his first. :)

I should have known that Ezekiel's cookie decorating would turn into an excuse to get as messy as possible! And somehow he finds a way to brings cars into every activity he does! haha I turn around and see this (above picture) and he says, "look mama, a train track!" haha

Here are some of the cookies that weren't broken or eaten during the process. :)

This picture was taken on Charlie and I's 7 year anniversary! Our anniversary falls on Dec 11th and therefore is always a hectic time. My mom did watch the kids that day and Charlie and I had a super relaxing and fun day just hanging out but as we were nearing the end of the day Charlie could tell I looked stressed. I finally told him that I was super overwhelmed with wrapping everyone's presents and since we had to leave in 2 days to go to Houston for a week that I wanted all of the present wrapping done before we left. Being the great hubby that he is, he agreed to come home with me and to help me wrap presents for the remainder of the night! :)

Ok, so the next few pictures don't really have anything to do with Christmas but it's just some pictures of what my life looks like in between all the Christmas festivities! The above picture is Ezekiel wearing Annabella's tutu...a pretty normal sight to see in the Cochran household...but for some reason this day he looked particularly goofy! :)

Ezekiel as a cowboy. He insists on wearing that belt and sticking his "sword" through the back loops. We got ourselves a real live Indiana Jones on our hands! :)

The above picture is my kids room. Some people seem like they can do it all...and that's just not me. So this Christmas I picked what was important and chose those things. Now, I will be the first to say that I definitely don't always chose the things that my heart wants to! Oh how many times I have stuck the kids in front of a movie so I could finish editing some pictures or mop my dirty floor. Honestly, sometimes that does need to happen or you would NEVER have a clean house! :) But this Christmas I really wanted to purpose to make what mattered to me a priority. And it mattered to me to make new traditions with my children, it mattered to me to sit with them on the couch and eat popcorn and watch Christmas movies, it mattered to me to sit at the table and make totally lopsided paper chains (hehe).......and cleaning....well...it just didn't matter so much. :)

Thanksgving...Oh SO much to be thankful for!

2011-11-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving this year was warm and full of lots of family and friends getting together and eating WAY too much and laughing WAY too hard! :) I'm gonna be honest though... I didn't wake up super grateful. I woke up actually pretty annoyed, frustrated and stressed about all the things that had to be done that day. As I rushed my children to get dressed and snapped orders to clean up their things, I realized that I was sooo not having a heart of peace and gratitude. But it wasn't until my daughter began to cry, "Mommy, why are you so annoyed?? Why can't you be in a better mood?" that is when I broke down too. "Oh hunny!!!" I cried, "I am soooo sorry!!!!" It's times like this that we mommies have to do the only thing left to do....ask for forgiveness from our children. I told her that sometimes even mommy gets into a bad mood and needs Jesus to remind me that He is our joy and satisfaction and that no matter what is going on around us...we can choose JOY with His grace! It was after our little conversation and some much needed prayer that my day started to turn the corner. I let out a big sigh and by God's beautiful grace He allowed me to have such gratitude, peace, and even JOY for the rest of my day!

The kids before everyone else got there pretending like they were at a camp fire

The ladies in the kitchen enjoying themselves :)

Annabella, Leah, and Sierra.

My hot tea and all the black friday ads.... :)

The table is set...now time to eat.

Wow...that's alot of food. Surely no one could actually eat all that??


Oh I could... :)

all the kiddos watching tv

all the big kids making a toast :)

me and the hubby

me and my Annabella

Ezekiel trying to get everyone psyched up about playing football.. :)

The girls felt the need to go put on princess attire...naturally. :)

Malachi and Ezekiel, the only boys, were finding it their sole purpose for the evening to make the girls as mad as possible... so we finally decided to just put them in my room and let them watch some Spider-man.

The ladies! Wendi, me, mama, Becky, Kelly, Julie, and Maike.

Oh how there is SOO much to be grateful for!!!

November days

2011-11-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

So be ready for A L O T of pictures! I kinda go crazy around the holidays when it comes to picture taking and to save on time I will post mainly pictures for the next few posts and not too much writing. :) November was pretty chill...but still filled with lots of snuggling, playing, and being silly. :)

Snuggle time

play dough :)

This morning the kids had decided to grace me with their presence around 545 am...*sigh*...so I did what any sleep deprived mother would do....tea party anyone?! :)

My Malachi

Laundry...it will forever be my kryptonite. :(

me and my malachi

Silliness with Ezekiel

the best way to make the graham cracker crust for pies...put the crackers in a bag and let your 4 year old stomp the heck out of it! haha

Annabella making a mud pie....in the house. Not sure even how all that dirt even got into the house... haha

Yumm

Annabella can make her own pb&j now!

Malachi practicing Charlie's flute

Annabella at her Thanksgiving production with a couple of her friends.

Annabella and her best buddy Destiny from school

Why is our Christmas tree amidst our "November day" pictures?? Well, I kinda have a bit of an obsession with Christmas and that starts with the tree. :) I called Home Depot at the beginning of November and asked the exact day that their trees would be coming in (which as Nov 18th) and I was there that morning! :)

Ezekiel trying with no avail get the tree off the roof hehe

Daddy helping Bellabear with her homework

I went out for the afternoon and came home to this...very sleepy boys! :)

Love.Him

kisses from mommy! :)

getting out of the house! **Hip Hip Horrayyyy!!**

with mama

reading time before bed

Annabella as fancy nancy...

Annabella as a cowgirl...with a dress on. haha :)

we were making cookies and I said, "okay Malachi now it's time for the flour." and he smiled super big and declared, "mama! I can get it!!!" he ran over to our poinsettia plant and picked off the "flower" from the picture above and said, "Here's a perfect flower(flour) to go into the cookies!!" haha ahhh he is sooo crazy cute!!!

mixing cookie dough...don't worry, his hands were washed. :)

Now last picture, but certainly NOT least, is a picture of a plastic spider. But not just any plastic spider...the kind of plastic spider that strikes absolute fear and panic in a certain 2 year old little boy! I know I should not think that is funny, but trust me....it is. haha Ezekiel is scared of nothing and no-one so when I see that a tiny plastic spider makes him run away...well, it's kinda amusing. Oh Ezekiel...I'm pretty sure only Jesus will ever truly understand you! :)

Fall fun

2011-11-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

So now that I got my new iphone4s (LOVE by the way!!) I am taking even more pictures...(I know, how can that be possible, right?!) Well, I hated hauling around my nice camera and I lost my other one so this serves as my new anywhere/anytime camera! :) All of that to say, I took alot of pictures this month (or rather, in the last 2 weeks! haha) though some of these are taken with my nicer camera..I was so pleasantly surprised with the quality of the Iphone's camera!

Ezekiel and I running errands at Staples. He was being insane! i don't know if you can tell, but he actually broke the cart so there was no backing anymore! The entire staff was trying to help give him things that would help calm him down! *sigh* Then at check out he got away from me and ran behind the counter all the way into the employee break room! He's fast, I will give them that! :)

look at that smile?! what a little charmer!

painting pumpkins

the first day to wear his winter coat this season! I love me some cold weather! I know I am totally outnumbered on that, but there's something about grey skies, cold weather, and cozy blankets that screams, "Make a toasty fire and do nothing all day long!!" :)

Malachi and Ezekiel climbing this crazy looking thing at the park. Malachi did the whole things all by himself!

Some pictures I took of the kids playing in the leaves in our backyard! Cuteness! :)

Oh the many faces of Malachi! :)

We threw a baby shower for my dear friend Julie! She doesn't have a name yet so the banner said, "Baby Barnes" We started off at my house for appetizers..and then moved outside for a nice sit down dinner and then to my mom's for dessert!

My first attempt at cake pops...definitly not like the picture I was trying to copy.. but they sure tasted yummy!!

more fall fun: painting fall trees! :)

Look at Malachi's tree?! He even put little apples on it. the boy is amazing at drawing/painting!

So that's a little bit about how we are spending our fall! I know that was an insane amount of pictures but since I have NO time to scrapbook and I don't print pictures.. unless for my wall; I just have them on here to look at! :)

Family time- Nana and Grandpa in town! :)

2011-11-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Nana and Grandpa (Charlie's parents) came last week and the kids were sooo happy to see them (as were we!). They got to take each kid on their own special day and they are still talking about it! We also got to all go to a farm together and the kids rode horses...they loved it!

Ezekiel lovin on some horses

There was a creek there and it was definitly a BIG hit!! I should have probably stopped them before they all go soaking wet...but I figured they were all having WAY too much fun!! :)

Ezekiel "resting" in the hammock (HA...don't let that fool you...Ezekiel does NOT rest! haha)

This made me laugh pretty hard...Ezekiel walked over to the tire and was going nuts, "Mommy! Mommy!! Wheel...it's a wheel!!) (the boys obsessed with cars) but didn't even notice the giant horse breathing down his back! haha

The kids got to hold baby chickens...precious!

Ezekiel was a little freaked out by them and he went to pick up a lil red plastic container or that he thought would be fun tp play with until he realized all the chickens were after him! hahaha (it was their food container) :)

realizing it was the red box they were after, he quickly threw it down! haha

But I think by far the funnest thing they did was play in a barn that was covered in hay. (Not to self: next time we buy a house, make sure we have a giant barn with hay covering ALL of it! #endlesshoursoffun!)

My little riders...they all enjoyed it but I think Malachi definitly liked it the best! :)

Fun times with Grandpa :)

Nana teaching Annabella Mahjong on her Ipad...she is hooked by the way.. :)

Attempting dinner with the 7 of us...helps to have my new round table!! You gotta love those awesome craigslist finds! :)

Annabella with both her Grandma AND her Nana! :)

Fun times!

Dressing up...it's the thing to do. :)

2011-11-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

My kids have been watching WAY too many spiderman/ super hero shows so naturally they all wanted to go as super heroes! They actually wanted to go as Spiderman, Iceman, and Firestar (it's okay if you have no idea who they are..haha...I didn't either! It is some old Spiderman show on netflix and the kids are hooked cause it has two boy super heroes and one girl superhero. They run around the house...and everywhere else...pretending like their are saving the world!) ALL of that to say, I looked into making the Iceman and Firestar costume (cause we already found the Spiderman costume at a garge sale..score!!) and with all of the material and things I would need to sew it, it was coming up to like $35 per costume! Yikes!! So...it was off to the thrift store for us to see what good finds we could snatch up! And there they were.. a supergirl costume and a superman costume!! And people say that God doesn't care about the little things!! :) The kids were super excited to be any kind of super hero and dressed up pretty much every single day until Halloween!

The big kids laid out their costumes in preparation for the next day! (Annabella of course had to add the princess hat and shoes to her outfit..she couldn't be a super hero without it! haha..she did decide the next day though that she could part with them. hehe)

The three cutest super heroes EVER! :) This is at the fall festival the Saturday before Halloween...and it was freezing!!!!

face painting

inflatables!

Some of the other mommies we met there- Julie and Becky.

And the most creative costume goes too....iphone and speakers! Geezzee, why didn't I think of that?! :)

Annabella and her best buddy Leah who dressed up like a princess (it looks like her mommy got the memo about the frigid temps...hints the mittens, hat, and ear warmers! haha)

Malachi and I had a little mother/son bonding time because Annabella went off with Leah and her mom to go play some games and Charlie had to take Ezekiel to the car after about 10 minutes because Ezekiel was being.. well....Ezekiel. :) I love him... but wow..that boy has more spunk, energy, and feistyness than I have ever yet to see in any human being! #GonnaBeGod'sLittleWarrior :)

Malachi wanted a sword balloon and I told him he had to take a picture with the clowns and he was too freaked out so they jumped behind him when he wasn't noticing.

Annabella learning some bow hunting skills :)

Did I mention that it was Freezzziinnngg??!! Apparnelty it had snowed that morning and I didn't get the memo so we were all in light jackets and Annabella literally balled her eyes out walking back to the car because she was so cold..... this is us showing our disapproval to mother nature! :)

Halloween night

Malachi testing out his awesome web shooting abilities! :)

My big strong young man!!! :)

The crew of Trick or treaters -Mya,Gracie,Bella, Annabella, and Malachi. (We decided Charlie should stay home with Ezekiel this year...the world's not quite ready for him yet! :) But he was okay with it cause him and Charlie went on a little father/son date and he was super excited!)

Me and my lil bits

"Trick or treat!" :)

All in all I think they had alot of fun. Although after about an hour the older kids were running to house and house and Annabella was asking all the adults in our group to hold her cause she said, "I'm just so exhausted and I just can't walk anymore!" haha Then i saw some lady giving her water instead of candy and and after she was done she ran and told me, "I was just so thirsty and tired so I asked the lady for some water and she found her husband and he game me some." haha I got to hand it to her, she is quite resourceful! :) Malachi definitely had fun too but could't quite keep up with all th big kids. He wanted to do things at a little slower pace. When the older kids were done at one house they would rush as fast as they could to the next..but Malachi would just sit on their steps and carefully examine the candy he just received. hehe I love him!

Annabella's first field trip!

2011-11-02T17:53:00.001-07:00

One of the amazing joys of being able to stay home with my lil bits is that I get to do fun stuff like chaporone on their school feild trips! Annabella and her Kindergarten class went to a tree farm and she, of course, had a blast...but it was absolutely freezing!!

Annabella and her best buds

Annabella's Kindergarten class

My Malachi is FOUR!

2011-10-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Some people say as their kids get older, "I can't believe this much time has gone by." But for Malachi for some reason it seems like we have been together forever! I can't quite explain it..I guess as Malachi has been in the heart of God since before time began, I think maybe God put Malachi into my heart way before I ever had him! So now it's strange to think I have only had him as my precious child for only 4 years!

Oh Malachi....how I love him! He is amazing in every way! Yes, we have had our troubles, and our disagreements, and our fair share of kick down/drop out tantrums...but I can say it with all of my heart that not ONE day has gone by that my life is not brighter and more full of joy because that wonderful little boy is in it!!!

He loves to snuggle...loves to play with his brother and sister and LOVES Spiderman! He is NOT a morning person (NOT looking forward to teenage hood for that very reason! haha)..he does NOT like getting messy when eating and he does like anyone messing with the routine of his day! But when you look into the eyes of that precious, delightful little boy- no matter what is going on in the world- it all takes a back seat to starring into his bright blue eyes and cuddling his little cheeks off!!

I asked some questions of my big 4 year old and here were his answers:

What's your favorite movie? - "Spiderman" (Shocker there! hehe)

Favroite food?- "Purple mac n cheese" (okay, before you think I'm poisoning my child with purple food dye-haha- let me qualify....the box of the mac n cheese that he eats is purple....{Annie's Mac n cheese})

Favorite song?- "The Spiderman song! And it goes like this...(begins singing theme song)"

Why do you love?- "Lamby" (his little lamb that he takes everywhere!!!)

Why do you love lamby so much?- "because he is so nice to feel and he's so soft" (he then has to find lamby and feel him..haha)

Whats your favorite thing to do?- "Ride on dump trucks." (definitly never done that before...haha)

What do you want to be when you grow up?- "I want to be a dump truck!" (haha) "I also want to go to the moon...with YOU mommy!!" (ahhh!! one of those moments that i could just squeeze his little munckin head off!!!!!!!! I assured him that in heaven I was sure we could take a little time and go to the moon together!)

Who are your best friends?- "hmm...Annabella." Then I said..."what about Ezekiel?" and he says, "no...he's just too feisty!" haha

favorite sport?- "Skateboarding" (not sure if he's even seen a skateboard in real life, let alone ride one.. silly malachi! hehe)

So there's just a little about our amazing Malachi!

Malachi, we just LOVE watching the little man of God that you are becoming! We love you with ALL of our hearts!!! You are amazing in every way!
Love,
your mom and dad :)

Malachi's 4th birthday party!

2011-10-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

This post is a little belated but I have been busy keeping up with my 2,5 and now big 4 year old! :) Malachi wanted a spider-man party (because the boy is obsessed with Spider-man!!) so a Spider-man party we did have! :)

These cheese puffs have been in my garage for WAYY too long! I don't even remember when (that tells you something..haha) Malachi picked them out in the grocery store and begged that we could get them for his birthday party (that wasn't for at least a month or two at that point...those things have good shelf life, right?! hehe) Anywho...next to spider-man, cheese puffs come in as a close second to things that make him pretty darn happy! :)

Little tags on all the snacks

The other tags say:

Amplifies web making abilities

Enhances wall climbing abilities...and you get the idea! :)

The awesome birthday cake my mama made

The rocks we had to put on everything because it was soo windy that it would all just blow away otherwise.

The cake amidst the "skyscrapers". hehe I personally thought it turned out pretty cute. :)

Kb,Rainy,Erin, and me!

Malachi is getting ready for some spider fun! :)

Ezekiel posing

All the mommies!!! :)

Malachi thought the skyscrapers were pretty cool

pinata time!

treasures

It was getting late and everyone was tired so we decided to open presents the next morning...such a good idea!

One of his MANY awesome presents!!

Happy birthday my little spider-man! :)

Signs that fall is coming

2011-09-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

I love fall..I love everything about fall. And here in one my favorite places to live-Asheville- there are 2 sure-fire ways to know that fall is approaching:

1.The Apple Festival

2.The Fair!

Since my kids hadn't been to either of those yet we decided to show our kids one of the many reasons why we have and always will be a lover of good ol' Asheville in the fall time! :)

The kids at the Apple Festival standing next to one of the bears in downtown Hendersonville. Believe it or not..these bears are pretty famous down here. You don't drive down main street without some tourist pulling out there camera from their fanny pack and snapping a picture of one these colorful furry bears! haha

The kids enjoying their cotton candy and snow cones-a MUST at the apple festival! :) If your wondering if Ezekiel is wearing a leash...the answer is YES! haha Wow, those things are amazing! Shame on me for all those times I looked at moms and thought, "Really?! Geezzee...you can't keep your kid under control so you have to put them on a leash??!!" haha #TotallyGetItNow :)

There was a giant (and I mean giant!) inflatable cop with some gut inside dancing around (I still don't actually now why or what he was promoting?! haha) and Malachi wanted to dance with him. Well he was a little shy but I could tell he wanted to get his grove on so I joined in to help him get the party started! haha :)

Now on to our FAIR experience!!!!

The kids eating funnel cakes. But they didn't even want them! I know-CrAzY!! So I took the liberty to finish it off for them. :)

Ok, so the kids apparently haven't really been on any real rides before and when they saw all the rides they went NUTS! They didn't want to see the animals or eat the yummy fair food or even go to the circus...just ride those rides! And of course the boys ran straight for the motorcycle ride! They LOVED it...until they had to get off. I think I actually saw a man put his fingers in his ears from the piercing screams that Ezekiel was letting off into the universe! haha

Mr. Cool. :)

Annabella and I on the carousel

This made me laugh because Annabella wanted to ride all this fast stuff and we told the kids they could pick one more ride and the boys wanted to ride some fast car ride and we asked Annabella what she wanted and she picked the train that goes around like a 1/2 mile per hour. haha We said, "Annabella, are you sure you want to ride that? It's gonna be really slow...it's meant for the babies." She held her head up high, not caring what anything thought and said, "Yup!!" haha That's my girl! And...she loved it!! :)

The mini roller coaster that the kids went on...and LOVED of course! It was actually pretty fast!

My most favorite picture ever!! haha I LOVE that face!

We finally made it over to the circus but after a couple meltdowns, Ezekiel dropping both his sippy and his favorite car under the bleachers, and Malachi deciding to sprawl out under some ladies feet..we decided to call it a day!

It was so much fun to be able to take our children to things that Charlie and I used to go to when we were dating! I feel blessed. :)

Woman's retreat

2011-09-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

If you are a mom you know that getting away for the weekend is well... virtually impossible! But thanks to my very generous husband I was able to attend a weekend of girls, relaxation, and yummy food! Very much needed! :)

Some of the ladies at lunch..so lovely isn't it?!

Yummm!

beautiful!

My mom, sister,and I's room

Snuggling with some of my most favorite people! :)

Kristi,a zumba instructor gave us all a zumba class in the morning. Super fun by the way!!

I guess I wasn't paying much attention when I was packing cause I packed one of my shoes and one of charlie's! haha

Elizabeth and Pam (my mama)- the beautiful ladies who put it the whole sha-bang on! :)

The cozy living room

My adorable little basket they had ready for me and every other lady by their pillows!

One of the "activities" they had us do was to sit before the Lord and paint whatever was in our hearts...I am NOT a painter but after this I think I could get really into it- even if I'm not awesome at it..it's just fun to have a paintbrush in your hand! :)

Pretty table settings

Kinda hard to see...they had a menu displayed at every meal. That would be fun to do this once week for a date night with the hubby after the kids go to bed- have dinner set for two with a pretty menu set out and candles! :)

All of the beautiful ladies!!

Things are a changin

2011-09-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

A lot is going on in the Cochran household! For starters, Annabella has started Kindergarten...Malachi has started preschool and Ezekiel can finally start to say sentences....sorta. haha :)

Annabella on her first day of school!!! :)

Annabella's new school

Two days after she started her first day of school she also lost her first tooth!

Malachi's first day of preschool!

They all have to wear the same little backpack...cuteness :)

Oh and did I mention that Annabella also had her first sleepover?!!? Her best buddy Leah invited her over for her very first sleepover and she had the time of her life! I guess this is the beginning of many more slumber parties to come!! :)

I LOVE watching them grow up! I am so blessed!

Insanity or simply divine?

2011-09-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

My life is crazy most days...there is usually not a day that goes by that my hours are not consisted of ridiculous amounts of laughing and a good bit of crying! :) Everyone tells me this time will go by fast so I do all that I can with God's grace to cherish every little bit of it!

This just so sums up Ezekiel... loves food...loves being messy...and is very secure in his masculinity. haha

my little drummer boy

This was one of those moments that your just not sure whether to laugh or yell! haha I was in the other room for 3 minutes getting dressed and Annabella comes in and says in a frantic, "Mama! It's the boys...come quick!" (haha...that is just SO Annabella....miss dramatic! I love it!) Anyways, I come into the kitchen to find them cracking every egg and smearing them all across the kitchen floor....

they decided that cracking them wasn't fun enough so they decided to throw them like baseballs across the kitchen. (they were soo in their own world they didn't even acknowledge that I was there taking pictures....that worked out well cause I took the pictures without them thinking I was condoning their behavior...although, it was hard not to laugh!)

I am trying to turn our garage into my own little crafty room/office and Malachi was helping to paint a desk that we found on the side of the road...teaching him to be thrifty! :)

my little worker bee

Another one of those crazy moments. I knowingly let the boys play in the bathroom- knowing that they were probably using their cars as boats in the sink and getting themselves soaking wet. I guess it's one of those times when you're like, "I mean, why say no...what's it gonna harm anybody?" :)

Well that theory got shot to the ground when I walk in a minute or two later and somehow they had found a pen or maker and had drawn all over the wall! :( Geezzee...you give them an inch... Thankfully, after much scrubbing, it finally came off!

This was one of those absolutely precious moments! We were all exhausted one afternoon and Ezekiel went down for his nap...I fell asleep on the couch and Malachi was SO tired he fell asleep on the kitchen floor. I woke up to a pillow under my head and a blanket on me...and Malachi was also covered with blankets and such! Annabella had been busy being mommy while we were all napping! :)

What we do for fun :)

I walk out of the kitchen for a minute...and this is the result. *sigh* I have decided he has to eat with no clothes on! haha :)

So yes, life is insane at times...but I would't have it any other way, which makes it...simply divine! :)

9 blog posts in ONE day??!! haha

2011-08-24T18:36:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say...if your reading this and it looks like I posted 9 posts in one day...it's beacuase I did. haha Well... actually I started 9 differnt ones throughtout the last 3 weeks and I finally actually finished them and posted them....

Okay...that's all I had to say. Good night. :)

Homeschooling on hold...

2011-08-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was able to talk I was lining up my dolls and "teaching" them. Teaching them how to read, write, and draw a circle. When asked what I wanted to be I told everyone at a very young age: "A teacher!" And I never swayed from that thought one time. Well, when God had other plans for my life and I started having children the natural course of action for a mommy who loves to teach would be of course- homeschooling, right???

So about 1 year ago I did what any other stay at home, home school eager mom would do- I started hitting up all the homeschooling books..all the conventions..and all the resources that I could get my hands on. I wanted to be in the know. I planned out Annabella and Malachi's preschool lesson plans and our field trips weeks in advance. And I loved it!

But then we moved...and life started getting a littler crazier for various reasons and we are working through some major discipline troubles with a couple of our kids...and all of a sudden when I was teaching Annabella it became a war. A war of who is gonna win. I think I was thinking, "I told myself I'm gonna home school, it doesn't matter what's going on around me...I'm gonna make it happen by golly!"

And trust me...that road didn't end well. Things stared to down spiral quickly and everything around here got to be pure chaos....and then all of a sudden I got the glorious revelation.....
I don't have to be teaching her math and science to be homeschooling. Actually, the truth is, the FIRST part of homeschooling should be establishing peace within your home and within your children.

I can't even tell you how free I felt. Not to say that I might not even home school next year! But just for this season I got sooo excited about being able to work on things that REALLY matter right now without becoming hyper controlling that we don't have a home school room to work on our letter chart! She can come home from school with a peaceful environment and me waiting to give her a yummy snack and a listening ear to hear all of her stories from school. I can work on being less busy...and investing that time with my boys while she's at school. I can learn the beautiful art of resting in the Lord and enjoying the simple pleasure of the mundane without adding more things right now. I can work on asking the Lord for wisdom about how to deal with certain discipline issues with my kids without pushing them aside because I have a lesson plan to create.

The truth is....I can't wait till I get to homeschool...it's something I have always wanted to do, and can't wait till the Lord releases me to do it! But for this season, I will be content and receive the other tasks that the Lord wants me to focus on...and to do them joyfully!!!

The funny things kids say

2011-08-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

My kids are nuts! But boy do they make me laugh! :) Everything is just so much funnier when they are around! Here are some examples from the past few weeks...

Annabella- "Mommy, I wish I could get an American girl doll."
Me- "Well, honey..you'll just have to wait..."
Annabella- "Mommy.....what's a wish anyway?" haha
Me-"It's when you really want something."
Annabella- "Well then...I wish for everything!!!" #Smartgirl :)

Malachi was putting one of Annabella's little toys near his nose and I warned him not to put it in his nose cause it could get stuck up there and we would have to go to the hospital....and he said...
"MOMMY! You have to go to the hospital!!! You stuck something up your nose!" (referring to my nose ring) hahaha

We were at a restaurant and it was just Annabella, my mom, and I. Two older people sat down at the table next to us.
Annabella- "Grandma, those people are old!
Grandma- {Quietly hushing} "No annabella, they are just older...not old."
Annabella {now shouting} "No, they are old! Like REALLY old...like how old GG was!" (her great grandmother)
haha I'm not sure if they heard us...but probably since Annabella was doing her best to announce it to the entire restaurant.... Geezzee, we gotta get on that whole "teach your kid to say the right thing in public" thing. haha

So we were at Chick fill A..my kids most favorite place in the whole world (okay, probably because that's the only place I will take them haha) But, like most of the kids...they just LOVE that big Chick-fill-a cow that comes in every so often (usually on Saturdays) and gives kids a hug...a hand shake, ect.... well of course my three kids were super excited to see Mr. cow man, so they ran up to him with all the other children hoping to get a high five. Well when it was Ezekiel's turn...the cow leans over to give him a hand shake and what does Ezekiel do......
LICKS HIM! Yup! He just runs up to the cow and starts licking the belly of the front of the cow costume. I mean, really??!! Who does that?!! haha Oh the mind of Ezkiel...who could ever really know? haha... I LOVE him.

Annabella was singing
and Malachi screams- "Bella! Stop singing!!!"
Annabella- {keeps singing}
Malachi- Ahhhh! Stop!!!
Me- Malachi! She can sing if she wants to!
Malachi- But mom! She just sings so badly!!
hahhaaha! And so it begins!

But apparently, Annabella has a little different view of herself because a couple days she says in the car randomly, "Mommy, why did God want to give me SUCH a GREAT singing voice??" hahha I laughed pretty hard and then said, "I guess cause He wants you to worship Him alot." She just shrugged her shoulders and responded, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Lastly....(and I have a picture to go along with this one)...

Annabella- "Malachi you HAVE to get in this suitcase!"
Malachi- "I don't want want to."
Annabella- "Malachi..you HAVE to!"
Malachi- "I'm too scared!"
Annabella- "Malachi, you have to be brave now...it's time." hahhaa

And then when Annabella wanted a turn she asked Malachi to push her around and he said with a sigh, "I just can't Bella...you're just too heavy!" haha

Am I just biased or are my kids down right hilarious??!! :)

How is she already FIVE???!!!

2011-08-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wow! Why does 5 seem so old all of a sudden?! I mean I look at her and I see a young lady! A crazy, silly, adventures, girlie little young lady. I know that every mother must say that...I mean, it's what us young moms have heard from the beginning- "Don't waste this precious time!" They are gonna grow up so fast!"- But somehow in the midst of sleepless nights and potty training you lose sight of all of that and are just praying that one day they will be old enough for you to actually go to the bathroom without having them there!

Well, for the most part...that day has come. Of course she still needs me..a lot! But she can start thinking on her own and has her own thoughts about things- actually quite scary. haha   She can play in the backyard and just come and check in every so often...she can make her own pb&j (well sorta)....she can pour her own orange juice (more or less)...and she does a pretty decent job at picking out her outfits every morning.

Here is some Annabella's favorite and not so favorite things at age 5 (right from her own mouth) :)

Favorite song- "Um....anything I make up is my favorite."

Favorite movie- "Tinkerbell!!"

Favorite things to play- "Hmm...painting and...of course to play with my fairies too!"

Favorite food- "Sweets! Like chocolate, ice cream....really I like all the sweets in the whole world!"

Your best friends- "Leah and Ana!!"
                             Me- "Annabella, what about Malachi?!"
Annabella- "Mooommm...he's not my friend...he's my brother!!"   Well okay then! :)

What do you want to be when you grow up- (without hesitation) "A PRINCESS!"

How many kids- "10." (stated very a matter of fact. haha)

What do you think your husband is gonna do someday- "A prince of course! Because I'm gonna be a princess so he HAS to be a prince!" hahaha

If you had ONE day to do whatever you want what would it be- "Hmm...well, that would be okay with me cause I would want to do alot! Like...play all day of course. Then I would spend some alone time and rest a little."

Okay now Annabella, lastly...tell me things you DON'T like at age 5-"Umm...playing with my brothers...well sometimes.... and...I DONT like eating jelly fish because they belong in the ocean (hahha)...playing in the mud (she totally does like that haha )...doing nothing....not having anyone to play with..." (that sounds about right)

And just for fun I asked her what she thought Mommy's favorite things were..and some were cool...others, not so much! haha (you should try this with your kids...they are painfully honest!)
Annabella- " Mama, you like....
                   - Resting...(thats a good thing...I think..haha)
                   - hmm...reading your Bible (yayy! She notices!)
                   - dressing up (not sure how many times she's actually seen me "dressed up" but ok...haha)
   - umm.....snuggling with us (sure do! )"
Me- "Anything else mommy likes?"
Annabella- {without hesitation}-"You like peace and quiet when you're on the phone and NO ONE bothering you!!" hahaha The truth comes out!

So there ya have it!!! haha I love her so much!

Happy birthday my sweet little bundle of joy!! May you be the beautiful, amazing, woman of God that He is so wonderfully making you out to be! May you love Him more than anything and trust Him with everything! May you fix your gaze on what is not seen rather than things that are seen. May you love with His love and be filled with joy over flowing!

I LOVE YOU ANNABELA JOY!

Annabella's 5th birthday party!

2011-08-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

Annabella wanted to have her 5th birthday at McDonald's and I, of course, had other plans...big plans. I mean, it's her 5TH birthday, right?!! :) I guess sometimes you just have to look at the facts and ask yourself.."Who am I actually throwing this party for anyway??" And she wanted McDonald's...no way around it...good old fashioned french fries and a play land. I will tell you what though, I have never spent so little time on a birthday before! I think this just may be a new trend... :)

I love Abby's face!

5 YEARS OLD! :)

Annabella was a little pouty in the beginning because one of her friends didn't want to climb the play place..so we had a little drama...but then we just had a little talk and all was well.

Annabella and Leah

and where was Ezekiel? trying to eat the cake of course! haha

The girls began to congregate at the table because someone had brought a jewelry box and they just thought it was the coolest thing ever! (those are exact words, of course! haha)

Malachi got antsy so my mom gave him a little ride :)

yumm

"happy birthday to you...." :)

Charlie, me, and our little bellabear! :)

I just love how excited Annabella gets when she opens gifts! I think that was when she opened her tinkerbell snow globe...unfortunately, we have VERY bad luck with globes. Annabella loves then but something always happens and they always break. This was her 3rd globe in 10 months and this globe broke 3 hours after her birthday party. :(

That night we had a girls night at my moms house and she had some gifts for her to open

Her new fairies and fairy house!

A big thank you to all the other little fairies that came to her party to make it special! :)

Another garden update

2011-08-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Well it's almost the end of the summer and out first attempt at a full garden has gone pretty good. I mean, we definitely made some mistakes but we got LOTS of yummy veggies too and also learned a lot! I am excited about starting again this fall and being able to plant all the winter crops!

Some things didn't produce at all - like the beans (gonna have to figure that out for the spring)...and there weren't very many peppers, but overall it was very successful!

There were TONS of tomatoes

And lots of cucumbers, squash, and zucchinis too!

We found our summer spot

2011-08-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

This summer has been fun..but it's been hot! And those of you who know me....I. DON'T like the heat! So when I discovered a great lake close by with a little sandy beach..you better believe we were there A LOT! The kids loved it of course...although Ezekiel has this thing he does...he likes to take whatever I say and do the opposite. Oh, your kids do that too? :) Needless to say I think next summer will be really great with him..but this summer was..well...interesting. haha So on our last lake trip before school starts I decided to take just the big kids and left little Ezekiel at home. WOW! I am contemplating not having anymore children!!! haha It was soo easy just having two kids over 3! I mean..I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! {angels singing} :)

Malachi found a butterfly was chasing it around a good long while untill he finally came to the conclusion that the butterfly could out run him. :)

awkward brother/sister picture...haha

Annabella and her best buds Ana and Leah.

Malachi just chilled by himself

the girls :)

Although, as much as the summer was fun...I'm definitely looking forward to some cooler weather!

Columbia.....South Carolina that is... :)

2011-08-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

We decided to go on a little week getaway just me and the kiddos. Charlie had to work so I took the kids to our bestest friends Sami and Bekah's's house. I'm not gonna lie...it was pretty insane! haha 5 kids...3 big people...and one modest house - it was something to behold! But it really was super fun! When we finally put all the kids down we would just sit on the bed (yes...the 3 of us!) and eat Doritos and talk till wee hours in the night. The only problem with that was that Ezekiel decided to learn how to climb out of his crib on this trip and came strolling out of his room around 5:30 AM most mornings! Yuckkk!! Thankfully the one night we stayed up till almost 2 and Ez got up at 5:30...Bekah took all 5 kids and let me go back to sleep! (I know...amazing right! Especially because she got just as little sleep as I had!)

I didn't take near as many pictures as I would have normally but I think I was truly in vacation mode --just chilling every day in pj's and sitting on the couch drinking way too much coffee and watching the kids destroy the house-- yup, that sounds about right! :)

Well at least I got a some pictures..and it truly captures the week perfectly! :)

Like I said...we didn't do much..like clean for example. :)

We did make it to the park a few times and although it was crazy hot, the kids enjoyed getting out

Annabella having her "quiet time".

But after the hot park....everyone crashed (that includes the mommies!)

But there was also plenty of time for silliness

Malachi lined up the all the stuffed animals and serenaded them with a song

Annabella wanted to make my hair all pretty and this was the outcome! haha If you are wondering, those little strings are plastic sticky ties...so yes, it took foorreevveerr to get them out! haha

brothers. :)

I'm not sure if these pics will give it justice...but I was trying to capture my kids at their most favorite pastime- chasing each other around the house and tackling one another to the ground. :)

I think you get the point! haha

So overall..we had a lot of fun!

Girls time

2011-08-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

Jenna came in town last week on her way to moving to Nashville and we got to do some long awaited snuggling, chatting, and insane amounts of laughing. Of course, even though I love my jenna, it wouldn't be the same without the other girls in our little tribe. :) It is SO nice to just sit back and giggle with girls that you have known..well for forever!! :)

Annabella taking a turn snuggling with baby Rainy..as you can imagine, Annabella LOVES babies!

But something that I didn't know that Ezekiel also LOVES baby...

Or is it just Rainy that he's fond of?? haha

Girls night out

We were at a brewery in downtown Asheville and some adorable old man was selling apples (yes, i know-random!) so of course, we couldn't refuse! But now..what do we do with them?! haha Actually it's kinda funny cause I took them home that night and the girls asked if they could have one the next day and my kids had gone through the WHOLE basket and taken a bite out of each one and then put them back. haha

Holding little Rainy at dinner..while she chows down on some...lemons?? haha silly girl! She's a tough one! Just like her mama! :)

The girls!

My beautiful elly!

A very talented street musician played a beautiful lullaby for rainy..precious!

Wish I got to see their pretty faces more often but I'm grateful for what I get! :)

The day has come...

2011-08-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

The day has come when Annabella doesn't want to play with Malachi....every second I mean. When (heaven forbid) she wants to have a little alone time. She and her brothers are the bestest of friends but I'd say she has been a pretty good trooper about sharing her room with them and having Ezekiel destroy every attempt at a tea party with her and her dolls.

Well Malachi apparently had no idea this day was coming. He thought they would be attached at the hip forever. He couldn't even imagine that there would come a day that she would have her OWN little girl friends that wouldn't include him.

It's actually kinda funny. Everyone always talks about their kids having jealousy of the other siblings and for the most part my kids NEVER had any of that! They all never really knew life without each other and could never imagine life without the others. Which is why when I saw jealousy's ugly head rising up in Malachi I was a bit taken back. But it wasn't cause I was giving Annabella all this attention...oh no. It was because all of a sudden Annabella had a friend over and she didn't want to play with him. I'm gonna be honest...jealousy I don't even think is the right word here...it's more like devastated.

Yes I know that seems a bit drastic to say. But it was like he was seriously mourning the loss of his best friend. He was sad. He was angry. He was mean. He was hurt. It was actually quite sad and as his mom I was trying my very hardest to not minimize his feelings but to explain what was going on.

But then something happened.... it was like something finally clicked. He thought "wait a second.....maybe if I don't whine and scream and throw myself down they might actually want to play with me." And then...just like that...I heard Ezekiel destroying something the girls were playing with and the girls screamed and Malachi runs in and says, "Don't worry I can help you!!" and proceeds to pick up all the things that Ezekiel messed up and helps them put everything back together. After he was done helping, Annabella exclaimed, "Thank you Malachi!!!!! You are brilliant!" haha It was like I was watching my little boy grow up right in front of my eyes! It was like he finally got it...even if just for today. And from then on the girls actually wanted to include him!

Now I'm not saying there are not gonna be days when one of them is going to feel left out, but my prayer has been from before they were born that they would have SUCH an agape love for one other and such a bond of friendship. And I really feel like the Lord is answering that prayer!!!

Here are a couple pictures of Annabella, Malachi, and their friend Leah playing in the rain together ! I thought after their sweet restoration of friendship, letting them play in the rain was the least I could do! :)

Malachi and Annabella running through the rainstorm.

Sweet little Leah was a little too leary of going in the rain.... haha

I didn't get a picture but she finally decided to go play with them and so the 3 of them chased each other through the rain drops.

For some reason this picture just makes me laugh... :)

I think the moral of this story is...we gotta find Malachi some more boy friends! haha :)

If you were a fly on my wall...

2011-07-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

If you were a fly on wall you would probably notice all of the dried yogurt that gets flung across the room and never cleaned up. You might witness a few tantrums that experts could not even explain...and you might even see first hand how 3 small people can single handedly destroy a house in a matter of minutes. Well today was one of those days. Sometimes you just have to wave your flag and surrender. Surrender to ciaos...surrender to dirty dishes, and definitely surrender to the sound of laughter by three insainly adorable children that only comes form turning the house completely upside down!

See...how could you stop that joy?!! even if it is caused by destruction! :)

More summer fun

2011-07-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

My boys are obsessed with Cars..and when I say obsessed, I mean obSESSED! haha So when we took the family to see the new Cars 2 movie, it was no surprise that they were glued to their seats! Look at that face...that is one intrigued little boy.

Trying to get a family picture but as you can see...it's a little eaiser said than done. haha Ezekiel was wayyy too busy looking at the cars than actually taking a pic in front of them! :)

Charlie and I got to spend the whole afternoon together in down town Asheville...talk about a RARE thing!! haha It was super fun! We just walked around aimlessly taking pictures of each other and walking in yuppie stores that we could never afford to get anything from....my favorite kinda day!!! :)

I was teaching Charlie how to use my camera...he's getting better at it! :)

My favorite place to eat!! Veggie hummus sandwich and homestyle fries...YUMMMM!!

I come out of my room to this! :) I asked what they were doing..."were having a camp out mom!" well, of course you are..what else would you be doing?! haha

I'm sure McDonald's would be happy to know that their happy meal boxes are being recycled into a knights helmet. :)

I was cleaning out the car and the next thing I know Annabella and Malachi are taking everything out of the guarge and putting it on the driveway...*sigh* kinda funny, kinda not... haha

They said they were in a rock band and this was their room. :)

You gotta love um! :)

The wasps of this life

2011-07-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

So there is this theme that keeps following me everywhere I go...and it has to do with bees...but more specifically..wasps.

Just for the record...I hate wasps. Maybe because they terrify me (even though I could crush one with my pinky) or maybe it's because I just think their evil little creatures that don't deserve to be able to fly around and sting whomever they please...either way...I just don't like them!

Little side story- There was a wasp that flew in our house and I was...well, for lack of better words...freaking out! Annabella was on one side of the hall and I was at the other end and the wasp was in the middle of us...Annabella had to talk me off the ledge and SHE ended up having to kill it! (And the worst mother award goes to..... haha) All that to say....I HATE wasps!

But for some reason for the past like 2 years or more every house we live in and every where we go we have to battle some sort of wasp problem. In our last house we couldn't let the kids go outside, like hardly ever because there was tons of wasps that lived inside our back deck. And now the house that we are living in, every time we go outside we are greeted with a wasp trying to get inside our house. It even happens when were out and about..... when we go to the gym it just so happens that a swarm of wasps live in the bushes that we have to walk beside to get in the door. And so on and so forth!

So one day when we were getting in the car a swarm of yellow jackets or wasps (they are all the same to me..yuckkk) started racing around our car. The kids were already strapped in and 3 of the wasps flew in the car. The kids were freaking out and I didn't know what to do. I quickly got the kids out and just prayed that the wasps would leave so we could quickly get in the car and slam the door. Miraculously, they all just flew out and we all jumped back in the car and slammed the door. Annabella's first thing she said was, "Mama, are they gonna follow us home?" The weird thing was when we got home home it just so happened to be that some more lovely wasps were greeting us when we got out of our car. We all raced in the house and shut the door. We all sighed a big sigh of relief and I assured Annabella that we were safe now and they could not come inside.

This is when the Lord began to speaking to me. The enemy is lurking...just waiting for an "open door" so he can swoop in and attack. Ya see, when we were in the car and all the doors were shut the wasps were just flying around the car almost searching for any holes they could find to sneak in. I comforted the kids by saying that there was NO way that they could get in and get us because we were in the car and it was all locked up.

Then I felt like the Lord said, "That is house is how you are to treat me. I am your refuge."

Outside of complete dependence on the Lord we are absolutely hopeless; doomed for attack and ultimately..death. We have no hope, no security and are just a walking prey for the enemy.

We were created to be in the presence of the Lord. Surrounded by Him night and day, soaking Him in and dwelling with Him. That is the only way we were meant to live... to survive.

So back to the story....so then remember how I said when I got home there were wasps waiting for us. Well, on the car ride home I was kinda thinking on the revelation the Lord had just given me and I was soaking that in but it was a long car ride... so after about 10 minutes I started thinking about other things and day dreaming about this and that. So when we got out of the car and the wasps were there the Lord had another revelation for me....

I felt like the Lord was now warning me, "Don't think you can just have a little "dose" of me and that will cut it. The enemy is waiting to destroy you. the second you "open that door" so to speak...he is waiting to attack. So the Lord reminded me not to become distracted with the things of this world and to fix my eyes on Him...because when i am surrounded by Him "shutting the door" or some cases "slamming the door" of distraction and the things of this world and just fixing my gaze on Him....in that place no fear can stand. In that place.....there's freedom.

So Lord if it takes having to be reminded every day by wasps trying to get in my house...then do it. Because I don't want to forget that You Oh Lord are my source of life, that You oh Lord are my source of refuge, and that You oh Lord are my freedom!!!!!!!!!!!

Only in You oh Lord can I stand. Let me never forget that.

July 4th weekend

2011-07-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

This July 4th was different than other years...mainly because for the first time we didn't actually go and see the fireworks. Charlie and I decided this year we would opt out of sitting in traffic for an hour and chasing Ezekiel around the field trying to convince him that sitting and watching fireworks is fun. haha Maybe next year! :) But we had a lot of fun during the 3 day weekend just hanging out with friends and family and enjoying each other.

Our 3 day weekend started out by going to a surprise party for our good friend Chris. (this is his surprise face..haha)

the guys hanging out

The kids SUPER excited because they finally caught a firefly! They had been trying all night long!

One of my most favorite things about summer- hanging out with friends...kids chasing fireflies...eating smores around a campfire and all the guys jamming out on their guitars. :)))))

Me and my Becky! :)

Me and my Charlie! ;)

Charlie and the kids made Charlie's favorite cookies-Chocolate Oaties (the no bake cookies)

In the process of making cookies Annabella came down with the hiccups. Well, Charlie has an age old remedy for that one- a spoon full of sugar. The kids LOVE it (of course) and it actually works!

The kids are on a painting kick. They want to paint every day...I told them we are gonna run out of paper, but then we decided we would put it to good use and start wrapping presents with it. (So if you receive any gifts with pink painted paper, you'll know why! hehe)

This was on July 4th. We had a cookout with a bunch of friends and the kids just stayed in the water the whole time. Well, actually that's not really true. Ezekiel and Malachi wanted to get their clothes on and then next thing I know they are outside in their nice warm clothes rolling in the mud. So then my friend give them some skirts and tank tops (she only has girls) to wear! It was pretty awesome! haha But then...they ran outside AGAIN when i wasn't looking and got in the mud! Ahhh! Boys will be boys! :)

Here is Ezekiel sporting his nice scalloped tank top with girl soccer shorts and some fashionable goggles for his accessory...of course all covered in mud. :)

Malachi will find a guitar anywhere! I love that he loves music so much...although I don't know how he couldn't being Charlie's son and all. :)

All the guys played croquet and they got pretty into it...haha.

I hope you all had a great weekend too whether it was filled with fireworks or just snuggling with your favorite people!!!

Mini Vacation!

2011-06-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

We had been wanting to visit our dear friends Sami and Bekah for a long time and the opportunity finally presented itself! They only live 2 hours away so we have no excuse not to pack up our things and go down there every couple months! :)

The kids were having a jam session...we raised them right! :) (oh and apparently all the pics have my photography logo on them..don't know how that happened, but now you can see what one of my logos look like!) :)

My little drummer boy

Ezekiel of course found the ball pit! haha

The kids finally quiet and watching a movie!

Ezekiel and Jojo playing

Bekah and I went to some garage sales on Saturday morning and we found a little inflatable pool for the kids to play in. My kids did not waste a minute! They were running as fast as they could and would jump in. They are my little fishes!

Sweet little Elizabeth and Josiah had fun but were a little more cautious. :)

Snack time!

Sami had some Christian rap music that his friend made and my kids LOVE them some dance music! So we had a little dance party is the kitchen.

haha

Rest time! :)

Before we left, Bekah and I snapped some pics being goofy... :)

I miss you guys already!!!!!!!!!

Last game of the season

2011-06-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

The kids just finished their last soccer game for the season. Was it fun? I mean...I guess you could call it that. Annabella enjoyed it...kinda. After about 5-7 minutes of playing she would ask to come out and feel her blankie claiming: "It's too hot and i'm stressed out!"haha. Malachi on the other hand did pretty good at most of the practices but basically refused to play in any of the games. He spent most of his time eating the team snacks and running around the other fields nearby with Charlie. We can't quite yet decipher if he's just way too young or if he just could care less about soccer...I decided I might try again next spring so the boys can do it together. As for Annabella, I think she might be sticking to what she loves for awhile- ballet. She is also begging us to get her violin lessons, so that might be on the horizon as well. But as far as soccer goes, we will just have to wait and see. No future Beckham's yet, but maybe still to soon to tell! :)

Here's some silly, fun, and hilarious pics of their last soccer game of the season:

Annabella and her best buddy Leah rock the soccer field, but refuse to do so without being hand in hand! haha

Me and my precious Malachi snuggling while the other kids play soccer. :)

Go Bella go!! :)

Malachi is getting stressed because the coach asked him if he wanted to play...too much pressure. haha :)

But when it's all said and done, let's face it...we know what this is all really the coolest thing about playing soccer---the trophies! or at least, my kids think so! :)

And to top it all off, they had a giant bounce house and yummy snacks in celebration of their last game!

So I think all in all, I am glad we did it! I'm not sure they actually learned much; but they got to run around, hang out with their buddy's and eat yummy snacks- I'd say that's a success! :)

Annabella speaks out!

2011-06-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Annabella- "I want a baby sister!"
Me- "Well, sweetie, maybe someday we can have another baby, but I don't know for sure if it's going to be a baby sister..only God knows."
Annabella- "well, I want a baby sister!"
Me- "Well, what if it's a baby brother?"
Annabella- "Hmmm...We could put him up for adoption!"
hahahaha

Just thought I would share!

Summer time-What we've been up to

2011-06-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Summertime puts a smile on my face. Anything where you have an excuse to make the kids stay out back and then hose them down when it's all said and done...well, lets just say it makes for happy kids and one happy mama!

For example....hahaha... now in Ezekiel's case, he should probably be hosed down even if he's just stepped outside for 2 minutes (being that, in that time he would most certainly have found any mud in the nearby vicinity and rolled in it!) :)

We were having a party and after we (the mommies) stepped in and decided they had destroyed enough we forced them to all sit on the couch. haha They ended up watching Angelina Ballerina (the girls wearing their princess dresses and the poor boys are WAYY outnumbered)

Annabella wants to be all grown up. She grabs one of my books ("When God Weeps"-a book about suffering and the Sovereignty of God), climbs in the adult seat in our car (aka. no car seat), crosses her legs, and begins to look like shes in deep thought about the life. Stay little Annabella- trust us big people...it's way funner! :)

The kids ask me to play legos and I'm lucky to make a car or somthing...Charlie plays legos with them and they come up with this! haha :)

The awesome perks of having Charlie work from home- snuggle breaks!!

Ezekiel goes into his room for a little bit and comes out like this..I mean the hat and the shoes I can maybe get but when did he decides, "I think no pants would reaalllyy complete this look?" haha

The kids made the back deck into their "home". Geezee as if our house isn't good enough?! haha :)

Wow Ezekiel...you are sending me mixed messages. Are you a fairy princess or a Knight in Shining Armor?? :)

Malachi was very sick the first week of summer..poor baby! As the other two just ran circles around him, this is where he stayed. :(

Now that's more like it!! My little warriors! :)

I love summertime!

Garden update!

2011-06-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

l Okay so last time I posted about this I was about to go on vacation and I was letting my kids put in some (almost dead) lettuce in- basically just because they kept bugging me about putting something in the ground before we left. WELL....those half dead lettuce leaves turned into into this....

Before we left on vacation....

Very pitiful...we thought for sure they would be shriveled up nothings when we got back..especially because we were already planting them way too late in the season...

And this is them now!!!! And this is after I already have cut off a bunch of pieces for a salad!!

**Oh and I have to take a time out and tell a little side story that is too awesome to be forgotton**
While these pictures were being taken here's a little picture of what was going on around me:
--I went out to go gather some lettuce and take some pictures when all the sudden..**Yikkkess**..a bee stings the bottom of my foot! I know...I know..shoes would have been a good idea! Anyway, I am in pain and my foot is swelling but I'm determined to get these pictures. My friend Wendi is over at my mom's house and sees me hobbling around so she comes down to help. While she is helping me out all the sudden Ezekiel comes running down the lawn naked (Annabella must have opened the door for him..how he was naked...well, that's just another mystery into Ezekiel..haha) So I'm trying to get him to go back inside when all the sudden he starts taking a poo on the lawn! I scream, "Hurry Wendi, quick hose him down!" She ran and got the hose and she proceeded to hose him down and he just ran around and squealed. haha
Story of our lives! :)

Okay back to the garden..... :)

I think it's just as much fun for me as it is for the kids to watch them grow!

I know the Lord has so much to tell us through gardens and growing things-even when you think something is almost dead and not worth much- it's AMAZING to watch what HE can bring back to life! :)

So long preschool!

2011-06-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, Annabella is officially not a preschooler! I can't even believe it! We have been so insainly blessed to have a wonderful friend who has a Montessori School out of her home. Annabella has had the awesome privilege of being her student and learning so many great things!!!

On their last day we all had a potluck and Annabella wanted to show me all the fun things they do!

Good job bella bear!

The fun cake that Mrs Amy(one of her teachers) made!

Annabella's class and her wonderufl teachers! (Mrs.kelly on the left and Mrs.Amy on right) :)

The kids after we got home! I guess the boys learned quickly-school is tiring! haha :)

Strawberry goodness

2011-05-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

I had high hopes of going strawberry picking and being able to pick enough strawberries to last us through winter and make us enough strawberry jam to be having pb&j picnics every afternoon. Well, that definitely didn't happen! haha First mistake- I was way to late in the season. We should have gone like a month ago...oh well, there's always next year! :) Second mistake- I brought three children. Enough said. haha
But we definitely had a lot of fun; and even though the kids were done after about 30 minutes...I think we still got a pretty good amount!

Ezekiel did surprisingly well! He loved walking up and down the rows and finding all the red little treasures under the leaves! :)

Annabella just frolicked around picking up each strawberry and then skipping a little while longer till she felt like getting another one, then after picking maybe 4 or 5 would sit and rest while. haha :)

Malachi enjoyed it too, although after he and Annabella discovered a little river running by the farm, they we were occupied elsewhere. :)

Look at those tiny little strawberries

I don't know if you can see, but that's like a million tiny little strawberries...I'm not gonna lie...they took fooorreevverrr to chop up!

chopping, chopping, chopping

Laying them out to dry before I froze them.

So it was a little more work and not quite as many as I would have hoped; but the kids had a great time and I think we will have enough to make quite a few smoothies...so I think overall, it was a success! :)

Beach Trip Part 3- Family pictures

2011-05-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know I've kind of dragged these beach pictures on forever.. but these are some of my favorites! Below are some posed and some verrryy not posed pictures throughout the week by some insainy cute kids!

My favorite of him...captures him perfectly! haha

I LOVE their faces in this one! haha

but I'm pretty sure I LOVE their faces in this one even more! haha :)

And my amazing sister did an awesome job taking some family pictures of all of us!!!!

Ricki had some awesome animal masks that we couldn't pass up! :)

So that's the end of the beach pictures....we had sooo much fun, even with all the craziness! Sometimes vacations are way more work than just sitting at home...but then again, wheres the fun in that???!! :)

Beach trip Part 2- Me and my bella

2011-05-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

When the boys were taking a nap one day Ricki (Nana), Annabella, and I decided to do some exploring! I thought I would share some photos from the fun we found! :)

We found the cutest little children's boutique with awesome hats!! :)

and sunglasses!

then we were off to another store to see what we could find..

hahaha classic

Our "coffee" break...or should I say Chi tea and chocolate milk break! :)

We even found a time for a little hula hoop:)

Love me some time with my Bella.

Beach Trip!

2011-05-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

We just got back from one of the quaintest little beach towns I've ever seen! We went with Charlie's family for a week to Rosemary beach on the pan handle of Florida and we had so much fun! It worked out that my mom and sister had a beach house in that same town that week! So it was super fun!! Well besides two of the kids getting super sick and thinking that they might have the chicken pox. But I mean, whats a family vacation without a little drama?! :) OH and maybe the most awesome thing...Malachi went on the potty!!! Just once, but hey, there's hope!!

First things first...explore the house! And being the amazing house that it was there was these super neat windows perfect for putting on performances. (Oh, and try not to notice the naked bum in the picture...it's just Ezekiel..haha)

Annabella closing the curtain before the boys performance :)

Now it's Annabella's turn to give us her production!!

My favorite people all in one spot!! :)

Ezekiel lovvvveedd the sand and we thought he would love the water too but after a couple falls into the raging waves, he was all about daddy's arms.

Burying daddy...

Malachi and Grandma playing airplanes (there were some fighter jets overhead and the boys of course had to re-enact them!)

This was our first day out on the beach and Annabella got a terrible fever (although she still refused to go inside so Charlie just cuddled her while she watched everyone play)

Daddy's make the best sand castles!

In case you can't tell...I'm a mermaid! haha

Annabella wanted to join in on the fun

Uncle Nick all buried up

kisses

I.love.this.town.

The night after we got there, not only did Annabella get a terrible fever but Ezekiel got a rash all over his feet and could not sleep more than 20 minutes without waking up screaming. (poor baby!!) This picture is taken when he woke up late as all the big people were down stairs and even in the midst of his pain he couldn't help but just fall alseep on the hard wood floor! We were all ready to take him in to the doctor the next morning, but thankfully he started feeling better just a day later! Praise God!

Me and my precious Annabella

tickles

I love them

Me and my beautiful sister

The boys found this octopus that someone must have made the night before...needless to say, they went nuts!

All the grandparents and Auntie Lizzy watched the kiddos so we could go have a night on the town!

We even got some cute pictures of the Nana and Grandpa with all the grand kids...(now, I can't promise their all happy, but hey..at least there not having complete meltdowns.....most of the time. haha)

hahaha this picture makes me laugh soooo hard! I was trying to get them to hold hands and they were screaming and fighting and this picture looks so sweet, like they have chosen to actually be close to one another! Wow if this picture only had sound! haha

The kids after a long day of the beach and pool

we rented a pontoon boat for the day to go see some dolphins (which we DID see!!!)

This is where Ezekiel was if he wasn't roaming around the boat like a drunken sailor going, "Wooahhhh, Whoooahhhh...".. then falling to the ground laughing and doing it all over again!

Look at that little beauty!! Or BIG beauty!

Our own personal Flipper :)

Charlie having to hold on to Ezekiel so he didn't jump out into the open sea haha

Yummmm

Diggin in :)

I LOVE that face! hahaha

Worn out

My little beach princess

My little beach babe

My little beach bum

My whole world... :)

Packing the kids up

2011-05-13T19:19:00.001-07:00

We're packing to get ready to go to the beach for a week! WHOO HOO! :) And the kids thought they would make it easier if they went ahead and packed themselves....literally! :)

Now you see them...

Now you don't. haha

Even in the stress of cleaning and packing, they can still make me laugh! :)

The beginnings of a garden

2011-05-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to start a garden for about forever but there was always something that came up. But Annabella's enthusiasm for gardening could not go unnoticed and forced me to take action! :) I sure hope, for her sake, that everything we plant doesn't die! She could be ruined forever! haha

First we mixed the Vermiculite, Peat moss, and compost and it took well...forever! haha We had to turn it over and over again on that giant tarp because we weren't supposed to use a shovel...talk about a work out!

Annabella is trying to show off her big muscles from helping turn the insanely heavy soil :)

Now that the soils in, Annabella helps till the ground

We have to leave for the beach in two days so we opted to plant everything when we get back. Although we were already a little late to be planting lettuce so we decided to go ahead and get it in the ground. (Plus..if Annabella had to go through all that hard work and not even get to plant something she might have just given up all together! haha)

My little gardener

Malachi decides he loves the garden too!

Definitely not much to show for now...but it's something! :) I can't wait to come home and see how they've grown and to plant all the rest of the yummy things we have planned!!

This is what I have to live with- A tribute to Ezekiel :)

2011-05-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

He's crazy, lovable, and sometimes feels certifiably insane! (kidding...sorta..haha) He makes me laugh harder than anyone...ever. And that's saying alot! :) His favorite past time is consuming the largest amount of dirt and mud possible and then rolling in it. He enjoys climbing anything he that could potentially seriously injure himself. He definitely has monkey like tendencies; good thing I'm so grounded in what I believe or I just might think he is the "missing link"! haha He eats everything, and I mean ev-er-y-thing! He wakes up laughing his head off (at himself, of course). He somehow reaches out of his crib and finds a book almost every morning to rip every single page out of. He has an obsession with cars that makes Dale Earnhardt Jr. look like a car hater. He will do anything to make anyone laugh. He has more joy than I could have ever prayed for.

a very small example of his craziness...

We just finished eating spaghetti and as we were all cleaning up we find Ezekiel pouring ALL of his spaghetti into his water cup and then throwing it across the room. What you don't see is...after he poured all the sauce and noodles in his cup he started chugging it. Yummm...haha

And then when he was done with that...he just poured it all over himself....naturally. :)

But don't be mistaken...oh there is something that Ezekiel is terrified of. I'm talking a straight up phobia.

--Feather Boas--

Thats right, feather boas of any kind. When Annabella leaves her dress up stuff lying around and a feather boa makes it's way towards him...he has a panic attack. Just earlier today he got a piece of it stuck to his toe and he started screaming in terror. Is it terrible to say, I couldn't help but die laughing. He just kept staring at me screaming and pointing to the fluff on his toe. " OFF, OFF mama!!!" he cried! I then took it off and said, "baby it's nothin to be scared of." and showed it to him. When it came close to him he just screamed, jumped back, and ran across the house.

So there ya have it. Who could ever really understand the mind of Ezekiel? I have a feeling I have a VERY exciting, and interesting 18 years ahead of me!!

We love you Ezekiel bear!!!

The confessions of a mommy whos plumb out of ideas

2011-05-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

Potty training

So I have been putting off potty training Malachi for quite some time now. In my defense, I really was trying. I would ask him all the time if he wanted to go potty and he would say, "no thanks mom, I wanna go pee in my diaper." I mean, what the heck are you supposed to say to that?! haha The last time I tried to potty train he cried his head off like I was walking him to his death or something! And it finally ended by him peeing on the fridge, and me gasping and saying "Malachi, what are you doing??!!" And him responding, "I'm just peeing on the fridge...and I wanna pee on the ceiling too!" Like I said...#OUTOFIDEAS

But finally I decided I needed to crack down and do some potty training boot camp. We talked about it all week. Oh we had all the Orange juice, hot cocoa, and apple juice a boy could ever want. I looked up every potty training blog, book, and article. I tried every strategy I could think of all at the same time...and the result- after 5 days of no diapers, streaking around the house daily, and consuming insane amounts of juice.........not exactly what I had hoped for.

It's like he just doesn't care. He would go pee in his pants and not even tell me. Oh and (the following could be TMI so be forewarned! haha) he would just poop on the floor and would grab a paper towel, pick it up, and throw it in the trash! Who does that??!! haha

So after 5 days of having a timer on for every 15 minutes and singing to him and reading to him every story while he sat on the potty....the result was no potty..at all! Nope, I think he was on strike. He didn't go poop or pee even once. I gotta hand it to him though, when he is determined not to do something, he will stand by it regardless of how many gummy bears I'm dangling! haha Surely that will be a good quality later in life! :)

Malachi is one amazing kid and I know he will do it when he's ready....I think. haha I mean, he has to potty train sometime, right!? haha

At the end of the day...or the five days I should say...all I could do was throw up my hands and say "lets try again next month" :) ..and then snuggle with my poopy diaper boy and let him know that I will love him even if I am changing diapers for the next 5 years!

Oh the things we do for love. :)