I do have 2 older boys!!!!!!

I thought I would share Seth & Simon's Spring School pictures. I have been posting so many pictures of my two youngest, I thought I'd better acknowledge the fact that I have two older boys! :) It's just easier taking pictures of Samuel & Callie because they're not in school yet.

Seth - 10 years old

4th. grader at Heritage Christian School

Favorite subject this year----Math

At the moment, Seth wants to be a policeman when he grows up.

Simon - 8 years old

2nd. grader at Heritage Christian School

Favorite Subject this year-----Math

Simon wants to be a pet store owner when he grows up.

Do hairstyles affect behavior?

I'll let you decide......keep scrolling to see the results! :)

The Spike.....

Tears......

I don't like my hair this way...
Heartbroken.....

Resigned......

The Middle Part.....

Lookin' good.....

The Side Part.................Uncertainty

Silly......

Happy....

Time for fun......let's jump on the beds!

Switcharoo......Happy kids!

Spring Sewing & Sibling Struggle

Mommy sews a pair of culottes for Callie. She is very happy with her "BIG" outfit!

The happy little girl shows off....the bottom half of her new outfit is completed!Less than 3 hours of cutting and sewing was all it took to make this colorful play outfit.

(Thanks to my sister-in-law, Tina, for sending the e-mail that inspired this creation)

The little girl's brother wanted his picture taken.

The little girl was NOT happy and began to push her brother out of HER spot!

She gives up, sits down in the floor & protests LOUDLY!

The little boy is enjoying this WAY to much. (Methinks he gets this from his Daddy!)

The little girl pushes and pulls, but alas......

the little boy, with chocolate on his face, wins the struggle!

The little girl is NOT giving up. She comes back for round 2!

(She definitely gets that from her Mommy---her determination!) :>

~Facts about Samuel & Callie~

They both like to be the winners.

They both struggle to be the center of attention.

Samuel enjoys annoying Callie.....

and even though it doesn't look like it, she enjoys it! Cause it gives her an excuse to annoy him back...... :)

A Beautiful Sunday Afternoon

After church, Callie & Samuel decided to pick some dandelions. I ran and grabbed my camera and here is where my daughter sat when I got back outside.

I think Samuel's favorite flower is a dandelion! :) He loves picking them for Mommy.
As brothers and sisters do, they started fighting over who was going to pick the flowers. I pointed out to them that there were plenty to go around! :)

Samuel collected quite a large bouquet of dandelions. We put them in a glass jar for our Sunday Dinner's centerpiece. He was thrilled!

A view of my tulip flower bed. There are a few holes in the border that I need to fill in. The trick is remembering to plant the bulbs in the right spots in the fall. Maybe this year I'll remember. :)

Yellow tulips.....

Orange tulips.....

A Purple tulip...

One of my favorite hostas.....It looks blue when the leaves are unfurled.

My special hosta. This was planted from a start from Duane's grandma Caldwell who passed away a few years ago. I dug it up from our old home and planted it here when we moved. My husband dug it up by accident a couple years ago with an excavator. I feared for it's life. I'm happy to see it coming up for another year! I love perennials!!!!

My kids are growing cabbages this year. They each received a plant from school. We were a little worried about how they were looking. The boys were so sad because they thought they had died. :( I was happy to report to them that new leaves were growing.

The next couple of pictures are of my favorite plant to grow ever! Sedum!!!! I absolutely LOVE this plant. You cannot kill it! It survives anything! Another bonus is gorgeous blooms in the fall! I collect every single variety that I can find in the stores around here.

This is a new variety I bought 2 years ago. I transplanted some into a new flower bed on the side of our home. This was just a little tiny piece when I transplanted it last fall. Now it is a decent sized plant.

My new sedum flowerbed. Each one of these plants was a tiny twig last fall. I actually bought 2 containers on sale and broke them all apart in small pieces, planted them, and am pleased with the results. Each year they will keep getting bigger! YEAH!!!!

Back to my 2 youngest.....posing in front of a huge ugly pine tree in the front of our house. The bark is beautiful, but the tree itself........AWFUL! The power company has been trimming the branches for years. Let's just say, we have a pine tree that looks like a palm tree! I should have taken a picture of what the top of the tree looks like! Very sad......

Samuel wanted me to take his picture with his bouquet of dandelions.

Where's Callie? ...here she is!

Where's Samuel at.......

Samuel found a bird's nest. He's looking in the tree telling me that the nest fell down from the tree.

Samuel's bird's nest.

~The END of a VERY long picture post~

~The START of a Sunday afternoon nap~

Video Clips from Easter Cantata 2009

~Easter Sunday & More~

Grandpa Thomas and the kids.

Mommy and the kids. Don't we look like we need the FREE community dinner! :)
Me and my hubby at church. Definitely going to wear a black shirt with this skirt next time! Way too much pink for this girl!!!!

Trying to take a picture of Simon in the backseat of the car. This was on the way to Daniel & Tina's house for Easter dinner. Callie and Samuel were both laying on Simon's lap and he wanted me to get a picture of them. I couldn't exactly get the angle quite right. I was holding food in my lap, trying to twist around and take a picture at the same time. Didn't exactly work out!! :)

Callie & I blow out the candles on my ooey-gooey-yummy birthday cake made by Tina! "Thanks for the wonderful B-Day Cake, Tina" What an interesting name you gave it! :->

Let's start with the day before Easter. What a crazy, busy day!!!! It was my birthday, so I decided I would take it easy. Ha! That doesn't happen for a mom of 4 kids on a Saturday. I got to sleep in until exactly 8:02 AM when my daughter climbed into bed, hands me the container of strawberries, and asks me for one. I guess that could have been worse. I could have been rudely awakened by the entire pound of strawberries rolling all over me and my bed. At least she didn't try to open them herself! :) Next, the phone rings. My dad calls to wish me a "Happy Birthday" and asks how it feels to be 21!!!!! Let's see, when I was 21 I was mother to 1 boy!!!! A lot has happened since then. Next, I was in the sewing mood. I decided to make my 2 nieces in town a purse for Easter. I got out the fabric and started cutting and sewing. At 10:45AM I was finished with 2 purses and due to have my kids at a church egg hunt. I was still in my pj's! My kids weren't too happy with their mommy, but I told them that it only takes mommy 5 minutes to get ready, so if they helped get the 2 youngest ones in the car, we would make it on time. I went to get ready and they got everyone buckled in the car. I hopped in the car, looked at all 4 of my kids and notice a couple did NOT have their coats on. It was COLD outside! We unlocked the door, grabbed the coats, and headed for the egg hunt. We made it on time!!!! The kids enjoyed their egg hunt. We got back home around 12:30 PM. Seth and Daddy were due back at church for a choir practice. I grabbed some bread, meat & cheese and hurriedly made some sandwiches. All 6 of us were fed and out the door less than 20 minutes later! 2 were headed to church for choir practice. 4 were headed to go buy mommy some hose. I was desperately in need of some hosiery for church. It's kinda hard to find clothes to match black and navy winter tights when it's spring!!! My sister-in-law told me that Cato's had some cute jean skirts in. I decided I would treat myself and go in the store and look around. Keep in mind I had 3 of the kids with me. I gave all 3 of them the lecture on how to act in the store. They all solemnly promised to stay right beside mommy and be good. Well, let's just say, my 8 year-old kept blowing up a yellow balloon and letting all the air out of it and my daughter kept running away from me, saying, "I don't want to hold your finger!" I told my son to stop doing that with the balloon and kept chasing my daughter down. The last straw was when my daughter ran away again, this time to admire herself in the ladies dressing room mirror. I quickly scooped her up determined to get out of the store as fast as I could. I looked over and found my son blowing up the balloon again! As I am hastening to the door as quickly as possible, a lady calls after me that my daughter has lost her pink shoe. There goes my fast exit. I retrieve the shoe and left without ever finding the cute jean skirts. That's exactly why I do NOT like shopping with children. My blood pressure rises along with my stress level and I am sure that I have a few more gray hairs on my head from the experience!!!! Well, it was on to Wal-mart with 3 very sad children. They were being punished. They didn't get to look at and buy the toys they wanted to that day. The rest of the afternoon passed by in a blur. That evening we went and saw the sand sculpture here in town with some friends. They offered to watch all 4 of our kids so that Duane & I could go out for my birthday! We took them up on the offer, and went off to enjoy our evening. We decided to try out a new restaurant in town, Vino's. Upon arriving at the restaurant we were told the wait was 5-10 minutes. That wasn't too bad, so we sat down to wait. Their was a poor woman staggering down the hall drunk, numerous people kept coming out of the kitchen to use the bathroom, including one woman that had her pants unzipped!!!! The more we saw of the place, the less impressed we were! Finally, we got up and left. We drove across town to Tony's and got a pizza and onion rings. We love pizza!!! In fact, I could eat it every day of the week! Later that night, I washed and curled Callie and I's hair. I figured I would save some time on Sunday morning. The next morning, our hair was still wet!!!! I had to take all the curlers out and dry and then re-curl our hair! In addition to that, I had to iron shirts for the boys, mix up, roll out, and bake some dinner rolls for Easter dinner. We left the house in an absolute disaster and headed for church! Easter dinner was a relaxing time at Daniel & Tina's house. We both forgot to take any pictures except for the one of me and my birthday cake. That afternoon, we flew back home, had a short nap, and had to pack the car for a trip to my parents house. I, along with the 4 kids, drove to Germantown after the Sunday night service. It was a loooooong, noisy drive. We listened to about 5 Adventures in Odyssey stories before arriving at around 10:00PM. A little after midnight, I collapsed onto the couch to sleep. A couple hours later, Callie & Samuel both came in and woke me up wanting to go to the bathroom. A couple of hours after that, my dad was getting ready for work and I woke up again. Not very much sleep for me that night!!!! That morning my sister-in-law, Sarah, picked me up and we went shopping and had lunch together. Those few kid-free hours managed to wipe away all the stress of the weekend. It was a much needed break!!!! A few hours later, it was on the road again. I left the 2 older boys with their grandparents for the week. The 2 younger ones went to sleep right away and I listened to Father Gilbert mysteries on cd while I drove home in the rain for 2 solid hours!!! I arrived at home, taught some lessons, unpacked & decided we would go out to Olive Gardens for supper. Duane & I along with Callie & Samuel ate until we were stuffed. The highlight of the evening was when Callie took a bite of the hot peppers they put in the salad!! The noises and faces she made attracted the looks and smiles of those around us. I didn't feel so bad about her carrying on when a little boy let out a belch that would rival a grown man's! I guess it was 'family night' at Olive Gardens! We went back home, I watched a movie on Netflix and then collapsed in bed and very tired but happy 31 year old woman!!!And that was my Easter/birthday weekend in a very large nutshell! How was your weekend?????