Camping!

Oh how we love to camp! We headed to our favorite campground, Beaver Lake Dam, the last weekend in April with the Smiths and Woodys. On the negative side, it rained all Friday and most of Saturday. On the plus side, the Smiths have a camper and they were so nice to open it up to all of us! We always give one meal to each family so that you only prepare and clean once. I love that! The kids had their own little bunk room with a tv and the adults hung out in the living/kitchen area most of the time. As bad as the weather was, we still had a wonderful relaxing time! Thanks to the Smiths for the dry sleeping arrangements! I'm ready to go back!

Tulsa Trip!

The weekend of April 20th we traveled to Tulsa. Kati had asked me to keep Carter and Keeli for the weekend and my BFF since junior high, Himali, was having an engagement party! We also stopped by Josh and Lindsey's new house to celebrate with them!

Saturday morning we took all 4 kids to Bass Pro to walk around and see the animals. Then we stopped in Chuy's Mexican Restaurant for lunch. The kids were all great at the restaurant and I was so glad. We got a few stares as we walked in toting 4 kids all 3 and under. Eh, we didn't care!

Saturday night was Himali's party. She is Indian and so is her fiancé so this was a traditional engagement celebration. She looked gorgeous and it was so nice to finally meet Niloy. I can't wait for their wedding in September!

Trip to Clinton!

The first weekend in April was opening weekend of turkey season. Hunting turkey is one of Daniel's favorites! We headed over to the Roushes house in Clinton so Daniel could hook up with Rusty, Michael, and Adam for a little guys' get together. Chandra was so gracious to open up her house to Shelly, Mendy and me along with our 6 kids. Chandra and rusty have three of their own so we packed 4 moms and 9 kids (all 5 years old and under) into one house! Thankfully we had beautiful weather and spent a ton of our time outside. Along with playing outside comes lots of sweat and dirt. We figured out around 6 on Saturday night that the hot water tank had stopped working. Awesome! Ha! We started boiling pots of hot water, just like the good old days, so we could give the little people baths. Us mamas just braved it and took cold showers. Ouch! We all had good laughs over it! Add that to our little bit of hysteria from refereeing 9 kids all day and I think we would have made great mental hospital patients! We had so much fun, though!

Thanks for a great time, Chandra! Oh, and the boys were 3 out of 4 for killing turkeys. Good for them. Ha!

An interview with Sarah at age THREE

What is your favorite...
Color- pink
Toy- Doc Mcstuffins doctor kit
Fruit- grapes
TV show- Team Umizoomi
Lunch- apples
Thing to wear - panties and nightgown
Game- Umizoomi game on iPad
Snack- goldfish
Animal- cow (Grandfather should be proud!)
Song- Hey Hey Song (It's the verse, Joshua 1:9, set to music)
Book- Minnie Mouse book (not one in particular)
Best friend - Jude, (Followed by Riley, Drew, Ellie, Timmy, Melanie)
Breakfast- pancakes
Thing to do outside- play with balls (not even sure where this answer came from because she never plays with balls outside, ha!)
Drink- juice
Thing to sleep with- Minnie, Honey, Baby
Dinner- milkshake
Thing to be when grown - Cinderella
Thing to do with mommy- go to the store and buy eggs (ha, what!?!?!)
Thing to do with daddy- go to store

Some more facts about my THREE year old...
-loves TV, pretty much anything animated!
-can dress herself almost fully except for socks and certain pairs of shoes
-still refuses to work with me on letters and numbers (maybe MDO in the fall will help?)
-never loses anything...ever. She always knows where any random item is.
-loves "my church" (Trinity Grace Church) and "red church" (where we go to BSF)
-anytime I ask her who is coming over or where we are going she says "ri-wey jude?" (Most of the time she is correct, ha!)
- fully potty trained, although has occasional full weeks of accidents???
-in bed around 8PM; awake around 7AM
-she is an extremely girly girl. I guess that's good, but its so hard for me to embrace!
-her favorite number is 2-4-9 (not two hundred forty-nine). Seriously, anything requiring an answer with a number gets this for a response.
-loves to help in the kitchen (my OCD also struggles with this)
-loves her sister but doesn't always show it.
-Also, she calls Caroline, "Liney-Cat"...always. And, it might be the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Per Sarah's request we had a princess party to celebrate her big day. She had several friends come dressed in their princess gowns and superhero costumes. She felt SO special. Thanks, friends, for loving on my little girl. She also got to celebrate her birthday two other times...with Papa, Ree, Buggie and with Cmom, Grandfather and Aunt Bet Bet. I think SJ thinks her birthday lasts all month! She loves it!

Ogden, America

We visited C-mom and Grandfather over Easter weekend. We haven't been down to LA (lower Arkansas) since August. Well, Daniel went in November but only took Caroline with him. Anyway, we had a blast playing outside, looking at cows, riding the four-wheeler, visiting with Aunt Lois, playing in "chocolate milk" and visiting their church. Aunt BetBet joined us and we celebrated her birthday and also with Sarah's just a little early. Thanks for hosting us C-mom and Grandfather!

Spring Break 2013

Our 6th annual spring break trip was a blast! Aside from the cold, snowy weather! The Lutzs were able to rejoin the group this year and it was so wonderful to hang out with them! We also brought a babysitter along because our group now has 8 kids, wow! As usual, we spent most of our time eating, shopping and enjoying wonderful fellowship. This trip is always good for my soul! I'm thankful that we have made this trip a priority every year. It's so fun!

(Sorry the pictures are cut off. If you click on the first one I think a slideshow should open and the full image will be available!)