Selah

I had a baby shower to go to this morning for Angela Stanbery and her soon to be baby girl Selah DeAnn. I have been painting initial canvas boards for my friends who are expecting and these are the ones that I did for Selah. For those who are curious I do them for commission as well and I have others that I have photographed that I have done in the past.

Madalyn's 3rd Birthday Party

I get together with a group of mom's and their kids once a week to have a play date and get some "mom to mom" time in. We started this group several years ago when all of our first children were between the ages of 6 months and 14 months and at that time there were only 4 mom's (Lindsay, Allison, Sherri and I) that got together on a regular basis. We call ourselves "The Founding Mother's". Since then our group has gotten so big due to inviting more and more mom's to come and join us and also because we have all since then had our second children (and some are even working on their third!).

Today Sherri had Madalyn's 3rd Birthday at their house and invited "The Founding Mother's" families. It had been a long time since we had all been together with just the 4 families. It was great to be able to get together and let the kids play!

Happy Birthday Madalyn!

These are the first born children of our group from left to right: Caleb, Madalyn, Avery, and Zoe. It's funny because Caleb is the only boy in the whole group, even all of the second born children are girls! We are hoping that since Lindsay and Sherri are both expecting in August (two days apart!) that maybe one of them will have a boy...or maybe both! The kids were wearing aprons to help decorate miniature cakes.

Here is a picture of the three of us, Caleb not looking as usual! Dan has been in Harrison since Thursday morning working on the farm so he was unable to attend. Lindsay's husband Dallas always teases me because it seems that every time that we have a get together with them, Dan always has something to do and is unable to make it. Dallas calls him my "stage husband" because he is never around and thinks that he is just hired for show!

Here is Madalyn and Zoe having girl time in Madalyn's bed. I see slumber party's in the future...that Caleb probably not be able to go to of course!

Caleb in his apron!

Everyone was amazed at how good Ariel was at the party. She sat in her car seat and just looked around for nearly two hours and didn't make a peep...and she was awake the whole time!

Here is Caleb decorating his cake.

Easter Pictures

I took the kids to get their Easter pictures done today. These are the scanned ones so they aren't as clear as the originals but I think you get the idea!

Who reads this?

Just curious to know you reads my blogs...send me a comment and tell me you are reading them!

Digital Scrapbooking

I have found a new hobby that I have am just loving! I have always wanted to do scrapbooking but just thought that it was way too expensive to do and it took a lot of space and time. So, I got on the internet and found some great sites on the internet that offer free digital scrapbooking templates that you can use along with the digital pictures that you have. I am using photoshop to help me do the layouts and it is so much fun to be creative. I have only done two of them so far but I think that you get the idea of what I am doing. I will share more as I get them done.
The small font that you can't read in Ariel's is Zephaniah 3:17 and it reads "The Lord your God is with you. He is a hero that saves you. He happily rejoices over you, renews you with His love, and celebrates over you with shouts of joy."
The small font on Caleb's reads "The star that guides me is shining bright, When darkness falls it gives me light. When morning comes my star is still there, It would not leave me to despair. The star that guides me is God's son, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, the only one. He died for me as I would for him, I know my star will never grow dim. Anna McElroy"

Here Comes Spring Time

We have been so busy that I have forgotten to post pictures and updates in a while. Since it has been so nice out here lately, I have been letting Caleb play in the backyard as much as possible. He is so good about staying on the concrete porch and not actually going into the yard. For those of you who don't know about our backyard...there is a huge trash pile from our house remodel the size of a suburban that is taking up the whole yard so there isn't much room for him to play. I was a little hesitant to let him play out there unless Dan or I was with him but he has proved that he can obey us and stay away from the trash pile. The trash pile by the way is in the midst of being removed...we had a 30 yard rolloff bin delivered on Thursday afternoon and Dan is in the process of clearing it out and I can't wait until it gets done! Today after church we stopped at our favorite picture spot at Bogle Park in Bentonville and took some pictures of the kids in the daffodiles...I think they turned out pretty good although Caleb was not very cooperative and we only got one good photo of him and he had nothing to do with getting in the picture with Dan or Me!

Ariel is 5 months old!

Dan and Caleb came down with the stomach bug last week and now Caleb has a cold (coughing, sore throat and clear runny nose). I am glad to say that he is getting better but he is still not feeling top notch!

I am so excited to see the sun out and hear the birds chirping. The weather outside is wonderful. I was able to get Caleb out today and let him play in the front yard for a couple hours. While he was playing I swept the porch and did some cleaning outside that hadn't been done since Ariel was born. The windows have been up in the house for two days and it feels so good to finally get some fresh air in this house!

Ariel is 5 months old today. She is getting very interested in what is going on around her. She hates it when Dan, Caleb or I are not in sight or when we are not talking to her, she just lights up when we come around. She is making silly noises now and blowing bubbles with her mouth. I started her on rice cereal a couple weeks ago and she loves it! She loves life and we love having her part of ours!

Here are a few pictures from the past few days...not too many since Caleb has been under the weather.

Caleb finger painting

My poor boy not feeling well on the couch Yesterday I cleaned out my linen closet and he wanted to help me take the "trash" out...this bag was pretty heavy and he pulled it all the way to the garage door...even down the three steps to our dining room!He picked these flowers for me while he was outside today