Have I ever mentioned...........

that my children have fantastic imaginations???

They do....they come up with some crazy things and entertain themselves for hours sometimes!
They like to dress up and dress each other up........here's what Katelin looked like last night.

She kinda looks like a swimmer or an arabian princess??? Any guesses on whos responsible for this look???

Rylie is usually the ring leader on playtime, she is a little bit of a control freak but that's okay.....she really is a phenomenol big sister and the imagination and creativity she brings is Amazing!!!!

My beautiful girls.....love, love, love them!!!

As promised.....

I am sharing news about my incredible little Owen! Every month the kid's school has a character trait they learn about and February was Fairness. At the end of the month each teacher chooses 2 kids who have shown that character trait. As i'm sure you have figured out.......Owen was one of the two kids from his kindergarten class! I'm proud of him, he is such a good boy and he is a remarkable student!

I, of course, attended the assembly this morning and there he is with all the kids who were recognized for fairness. They receive a certificate and a free meal at Red Robin. I think he is oblivious to what's going on while he's up there.....he just kind of stares into space waiting until he is told to do something.

It's not really a surprise he showed fairness.....when you have a big family I think that is kind of a trait you have to learn.

Yesterday morning he was watching TV and Evan was playing on the floor, well he went over picked up Evan just because he wanted Evan to sit with him. He is such a sweet boy......I sure do love him!

A bit of this and a bit of that.....

I think that will pretty much sum up this post.....a little bit of everything!

Where to begin............how about with a tooth, yes thats right....Evan has his first tooth and I got a picture of it!

Can you see it??? It's there, I promise and the drool to go with it!

Here's Ev playing this morning....how cute is he??? Seriously, it's almost unbearable...he's just too stinkin cute! He loves the cube Santa brought him for Christmas! And I think crawling is in the near future, he's beginning to rock on his hands and knees quite a bit. However, getting around isn't a problem, he just rolls and scoots to where ever he desires!

Playing in his crib!

Evan playing with Katelin in her room.

Speaking of Katelin.......oh my, this crazy girl of mine! I'm telling you, we have some adventures ahead of us with her but she brings so much laughter into our lives.....it's crazy!!!
So Sunday we are heading to Ottawa for Maddison's birthday party and Katelin wanted to play with the GPS (or SeePS as it sounds in Katelin talk), no big deal, I let her play with it in the car. Then she says, "mama, i'm on daddys thing....he's going to beat my ass Ummmm *giggle giggle*".....I do reprimand her for cussing but I think I also tend to giggle a little myself. She knows how cute she is.....*sigh* even if she is cussing. Luckily ass & damnit seem to be the worst of it (except for one time but I don't think I should share that story on here, it wasn't so cute and Daddy got reprimanded for that one.)!

Despite some of the things that comes out of it.......what's not to love with a face like that!

Then there was the gum incident.......Katelin likes to chew gum and she does pretty well with it. Well the other night she fell asleep while chewing gum, I guess it's because she was chewing as she fell asleep but she had her teeth clinched tight. So I literally had to pry open her mouth and pull out the gum. It was kinda funny to watch, not a very good pic (taken on Chet's cell phone) but here is me prying gum out of my sweet girls mouth. But it had to be done, I didn't want her to choke on it.

Katelin has learned how to draw Mickey Mouse and if I do say so myself she did a great job!

Okay, Okay......you're right.....she didn't draw it, Daddy did! I still think she has a talent in the art department though!!! She wanted daddy to draw all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters but that didn't happen.

I don't have any new pics of the big kids but I will have something special to share about my O tomorrow so you will just have to wait until then.

And a quick tidbit on my Ry....I've mentioned before how Rylie can throw quite a fit when she is told something she doesn't like, well......last night was no exception when she did not want to take a shower but I stood my ground and she took one. After her shower still dripping wet in a towel she sat next to me and said, "mama, i'm sorry for how I acted" and I said, " you know you still are being punished and are not allowed on the computer until you earn it back" and she simply said, "I know." I'm proud of her, she is aware of when she does wrong and apologizes without being told to do so. We continued to talk about it and she told how she knows she is acting wrong but she says it's like her brain just tells her to act like that because she is soooo mad. It may just be her having the maturity to learn to control her actions better but we agreed to discuss it with the doctor at her 9 year check up.

Is it Monday Yet???

Not to often will you hear me say those words!!! But I think I may have said it a few times over this past weekend. Not that it was a bad weekend, just very very busy. And I enjoy and need my downtime, not that I have a lot of actual downtime but just my usual crazy time at home is my downtime. So Friday was spent, much to my husbands dismay, with him running me all around town getting ready for by best friend Mandy's baby shower. I sure do love my husband, he got a little grumpy near the end but was a trooper for the most part.
Saturday I had a brunch for Mandy's baby shower. It was one big shower with her friends, her family and Chad's family so I was a bit nervous about it all going okay. I had already made one big goof and left the date off all the invitations, didn't realize until after they were sealed, stamped and ready to be mailed so I glued a little note apologizing for my "mom brain" and sharing the date of the brunch. I felt pretty dumb after that but hey.....it happens. Everything was going really well until time to move the gifts over to the guest of honor to be opened! I dropped one.........normally not a big deal, right???? Most gifts are full of clothes, diapers, blankets, ect...... No, not the one I dropped, I dropped the one gift that contained something breakable, not only something breakable but a handmade piggy bank so I couldn't even make up for what I broke by paying for it. If you know me, well you know I tend to be a wee bit sensitive plus I already had anxiety built up. The gift was from Chad's step grandmother and her and her daughter, understandably were quite upset and were sure to let me know they were quite upset. They could have been a bit nicer since it was an accident but I know they were upset by it and I just still feel so horrible, it had me in tears. Mandy, however, assured me it was okay and made me feel much better as she is so good at doing!

Anyway, let me share some pics from the shower...............

Cake, balloons, gifts galore and guests!

Some of our younger guest.....Christopher with the balloons, Lydia & Christopher, and Mandy with her friends little baby girl!

Christopher helping grandma clean.

The beautiful mama to be with her first born Christopher!

I hope Mandy had a good time, she is a wonderful friend, an incredible mama and her baby girl is one very lucky little girl..........she has a spectacular role model!!!

I went directly from Mandy's church where we had her shower to another church in Liberty.....This all took place on March 5 which is one year from the day that we buried Chet's mom. And we were back at the same church exactly one year later with most of the same family members for a memorial service for Chet's Uncle Joe (Chet's Aunt Michelle's husband)  who had passed away a little over a week prior. I missed the service due to the shower but I wanted to be there and see all the family. I had only met Joe a few times but it was obvious how many people loved him and I know Chet has a lot of memories of him. So RIP Joe!

Sunday we went to Miss Maddison's 9th birthday party, Chet stayed home but the kids and I went. I don't have a large family so my friends are my extended family and as always we had a great time. The kids playing and the girls talking..........always good for the soul! I will probably have another post tomorrow, more pics and less words but that is how my weekend was and well today (Monday), I didn't leave the house, got most of my laundry done, house is pretty in order so I got my downtime!

Raisin' us some Rednecks!

We moved to the country almost 3 years ago and our kids Love it!!!! We believe in the right to bear arms, although we think their should be more regulation on who has the right to bear arms but that's a whole different blog. Anyway......we believe in teaching our children about guns, how to use them and how to respect them. To do this you start at an early age, you allow them to see, feel, hold and shoot them. By doing this you remove the curiosity they have of guns! Chet has his conceal and carry license so he can legally carry a gun and I hope to get mine at some point.. So we took the kids outside today and let them shoot our air rifle.

Owen has shot before but I think he is just now getting the strength and coordination to do it and enjoy it and boy did he ever......................

Chet had him shooting at a can and he was hitting it! It amazes me how much he has grown up! He's making his daddy proud because he's on his way to being a true redneck! He hit the can standing up several times but then had a little trouble keeping it steady so daddy got him a chair and then he was hitting one after another about 25 feet away from him!

Katelin got a turn too but she was more interested in playing with and finding the green bb's, which she called marbles! She now has her "marble" collection in a cup!

And watch out boys.......my girl is learning to shoot a gun! Rylie is a pretty good mixture of tomboy and girly girl, probably a bit more girly girl though but she does enjoy doing all these things especially riding 4 wheelers. I'm pretty certain she won't be taking any crap from any boy, she doesn't take it from anyone else.

And my Evie......he's not ready for shooting guns...........yet! But it's always good to share his sweet face with the world (or at least the teeny tiny population of the world that reads my blog). I have no doubt he will be jumping right in with the big boys before we know it!

And to anyone reading this and feeling concerned about us having guns in our house.......I promise you, even though we teach our kids about gun safety, we keep all guns and gun paraphenalia put far away from access of little people!

Spring is in the air!!!

We usually do homework right after school but not today..............it was way to nice out so we played outside


How pretty is she??? Rylie is starting to look so grown up!
And I love this pic of Owen...he has a real smile not his usual fake one!



Katelin wanted to sweep the porch for me!

Evan's first time in a swing and he loved it! Obviously this was Katelins swing but he doesn't care that it's pink.

Playing outside and they wanted to sit in my van.....this is kind of a scary glimpse into the future, I am in no hurry to get to the point of Rylie driving and Owen going along for the ride (hopefully he won't be hanging out the window then)!!!

My sweet little Katelin!

Look at that face! How could you not LOVE it?!?! My heart seriously melts everytime I look at it!!!

What's a girl to do.......

when she has a pretty pink pair of cowgirl boots but no horse???

She finds the next best thing....................

Daddy