One year photos!

After our crazy late night on Friday, we got up early Saturday and headed into Sears for Josie's one-year pictures. I took 4 different outfits and she did GREAT! We got some adorable shots and so I bought many pictures of my sweet baby girl. I have always been jealous of those that get to use the 'cute' backgrounds. With 3 boys I was limited to the American flag and plain dark colors basically. NOT ANYMORE!!!!!! We've got flowers, fields, and windows! Very exciting! Go ahead and let me know how gorgeous you think my baby is... :) And which photo is your favorite?! It's impossible for me to choose just one----just check out my bill :)

Fun side note. The bracelet that Josie is taking off and then eating in the yellow dress pictures was my Momma's when she was a baby. See:

I have had that bracelet for years and years waiting for a little girl to put it on. It's very special for my Mom and I to see that bracelet in another photo! We love you baby girl, you are an answer to prayer!

Present time!

I told you Josie's birthday was busy! Here are the other half of the pics. After we finished the cupcakes and talked with Daddy, Grandmom, and Melanie, it was present time! The boys were insanely excited. I kept reminding them it was Josie's birthday and so they were Josie's presents but that really didn't matter to them. And they ended up opening her presents, not in a mean way, just to help her, Josie wasn't that interested at first. The boys were awfully cute I think. Here's Josie with her presents. She is wearing some new Princess PJs from her Momma. I know that Michael will love them :)
Kaden helped Josie with her present from her Great Grandma.
While Kaden was busy doing that, Gabriel had discovered another present from Mom and Dad. (And Kelly, Josie LOVES that penguin! I kid you not!)

Luke swooped in with the 'big' gift. Josie wasn't so interested at first, check out that face!!!!

Here's the mess we made:Josie chose to eat her special card from her fam:After presents it was a mad rush through dinner and then off to the ballpark for Luke's 7:30 game. (We have to leave by 6:45 or so to make it there by 7.) The temperature wasn't THAT cold, but the ridiculous Oklahoma wind was NOT fun. But we make the most of it. Josie is wearing a onesie, a sweatshirt, a coat with a hood, a knit hat, and her adorable winter coat with a blanket on top! Bless her bones she was like the brother in "A Christmas Story" ("I can't put my arms down!") She was trying to play with some toys but couldn't really bend her arms so she just gave up. None of this bothered her, I swear she is the best baby ever!When we got home it was almost 9 so as I was rushing the boys off to bed Josie started playing with her new Amazing Animals Ark. It is super-cute and she really likes it!

And for today's video. Here is Josie dancing and singing while she plays with her ark. (and please ignore the clothes thrown around the room, remember I had just thrown the boys in bed, I am usually NOT that much of a mess...)

Last but not least here is my sweet baby at the end of her happy day. She is showing off her new Princess sippy cup. We know Daddy will like that too :)

Happy Birthday my sweet angel! I love you so!

ONE-derful busy BIRTHDAY

Josie's birthday was great, crazy, busy, wonderful, fun, and very tiring for all of us! Started out quite early with 2 little boys in bed with me at 6 am. We got up and ready for school. After dropping off Kaden, we (Gabriel, Josie and I) ran errands. Went to get her cupcakes and then to Kohl's (where I accidentally bought Josie 7 pieces of new clothes--whoops!) It was time to pick up the boys, then we drove to get Luke and Kaden's haircut (which they desperately needed), went to Target, went through McD's for lunch--by this time it was 1:45! Quite a late lunch for my crew! Josie had her first cheeseburger and she LOVED it! After that, it was rest time. Around 4 or so we started Josie's birthday celebration!

Part one--the cupcakes: Princesses for our sweet girl.

What am I supposed to do with this?Well, that's pretty good!
Quite a fistful!
For those of you that don't know...her Daddy is away (AGAIN---BUMMER) but was able to call for a couple of minutes to wish his baby a Happy Birthday! You should have seen her face light up when she heard her Daddy's voice on the speaker phone. I didn't get the smile on the digital camera but I recorded everything on the video camera! It was precious!

Thumbs up from the boys! And no I didn't dress them all in red on purpose, just coincidence.
Here is my sweet girl eating her cupcake. When Michael gets home we are going to celebrate right, with a cake and a whole boatload of icing! It will be great! (and no, I don't have a clue what Luke Thomas is talking about!)

After the cupcakes, we opened presents, had a quick, quick dinner as we were running late out the door to Luke's baseball game at 7. We didn't get home until about 8:45 and I had 4 tired out kiddos! I will finish the rest of Josie's birthday photo journey soon!

Happy 1st Birthday Angel Girl!

Can you believe it?! Josie Claire is one year old today! She has been in our lives for one year?! I cannot tell you how much joy she has brought to my life. I had wished, waited, and prayed for her since I was a little girl. I wish that I were able to express how much I love her but there are no words. Thank you God for my precious, precious angel. Keep her in Your care. Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

Birth day:
Couple of days old:
6 month pics:

Today, her happy birthday! Waking up:

Waiting for breakfast:

2 waffles for the birthday girl:You can bet there will be LOTS more pictures to come. What an awesome day!

Missed in March

I didn't really blog too well in March, I skipped around, missed many days, it was all kind of a mess. Seeing that it is now APRIL (which I cannot believe!) I thought I would do a recap of what I missed in March. Hopefully now I will be caught up and here's to a good month of on time blogging!

Josie was SO happy to be playing with Kaden-man:

Kaden loving his shapes puzzles from Grandmom:

Gabriel being the goof that he is:

A couple of Kaden t-ball pics that are too good not to share. The first one is a tribute to Uncle Thaddeus and his high baseball pants. In the second photo, check out those ears! It looks uncomfy but I guess K didn't mind:
He looks like Jorge Posada in there! Too funny! Here's Ms. Josie at Luke's last basketball game:And this is for you Samantha Jane! When we were coloring our eggs we were deciding who would get to be on them. We have a "Grandmas" to cover all of them, a generic "Aunts" and "Uncles", a Logan and Aurora egg, and when we getting to the end, Kaden yelled out "We need a Sam egg!" So there you go girl. Feel proud, you specifically made the egg list and even got to be a 2-toned!

And here is picture of Luke getting ready to score a run. This game was special, my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Don were driving through and stayed the night with us. Mike was at Luke's game with them while I was at Kaden's practice with Gabriel and Josie (we were in the car, it was CRAZY windy). Thanks for stopping by. And for those of you who understand this, we treated our fam to Ted's! Yum. What a great visit!
And just in case you have forgotten, my angel baby will be ONE on Friday! Can you believe that? I sure can't. Look forward to lots of pics that day!

Baseball is back!

Yeah! The season has begun once again. I had family at the Cards opener yesterday, they got rained out but all will be back for today's make-up game. Let's go Cardinals!
Quick story. Luke and I were watching the Busch opening ceremonies and all. Kaden and Gabriel would run in when we were cheering loudly and then go back about their business. During the game when Yadier Molina (Cards catcher) was up Luke and I were cheering for a hit and he got one, we started chanting "Yadi, Yadi, Yadi, Yadi..." Kaden comes running in, yelling with us, after a couple seconds, he turned around to me and said "What ARE we saying?" It was so funny. He'll learn, oh yes, he will learn. And a note for Ben--when they announced the 3rd baseman, Luke said "Where is Scott?! Did he get fired?" That kid is too funny!

I never did post the end of Luke's basketball season. So here we go. He had a celebration the night before we left for Spring Break. Kaden had a t-ball game so Daddy took him to that. Josie and Gabriel had daycare at church so it was just Luke and I at the fun! It was a very active, audience participation centered talk. We had lots of fun, laughed and laughed.

Luke playing in one of the games, he made that shot:

Here are some of the boys singing and dancing to a silly song:You'll like this Mel--they had some of the coaches go up on stage, put pantyhose over their heads and suck chocolate pudding off a plate. Yum! I can see you cringing! It was hilarious and of course the kids all loved it!Luke with his prized possession--a new basketball and 2 tickets for free putt-putt! Fun! We will certainly play b-ball again next year!

LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was going to write to you about our sermon at church yesterday. About how we started a series on the seven deadly sins. Anger was yesterday's sin. I was going to tell you about the kind of break-through I had. Let you know that I realized most of my anger is rooted in my own selfishness. If I can work through those issues, I will gain more patience and be the better mother and wife I strive to be. I had a long and winded way to inform you of all of this. But it all has changed because of Joe's post from yesterday! Yes--to the right there go to my links and go to Joe's blog and watch the video he posted "Laughter is the Best Medicine" (dated March 30th) It is amazing, wonderful, and instantly brought me to tears! What an amazing God we have, what a blessing he has sent that family! Thank you God for laughter.

(okay--here is the side note for the few of you that read this blog and don't know who Joe is, everyone else--GO AND WATCH THE VIDEO and celebrate with them! I actually don't know Joe, I have never met him, but I do know his wife Laura (link above his) Laura is my age and grew up in church with my cousins. Since I have always gone home to St. Louis for visits I have known Laura since junior high, if not before. In fact most people on my links are special people from the Mid-County Youth Group. I am blessed to know them, they have touched my life in a very special way. Anyways, Laura and Joe's son was born with many medical difficulties and has gone through an unbelievable hard time in his little life. I became addicted to reading Joe's blog and praying for little Ira as so many have. Ira has made leaps and bounds this year already and we all marvel at God's answer to prayer. I promise this family will touch your lives and your heart. Now go, watch that video and cherish the laughter! Praise God!!!)