Thankful Thursday

Counting my blessings today.

1. My hunky husband.

Yes. That is an ugly, hawiian shirt that he claims is so comfortable but seriously that shirt will be making its way to the dumpster one of these days! And Yes, He actually thinks he looks really good in this shirt! Haha! I love this guy, he makes me laugh. I love his crazyiness. I love how he loves his kids, takin the boys fishing and snuggling with his little girl. He's all man and has the perfect amount of gentlness. I'm so thankful for him and all he does to provide for this crazy bunch. Yup... he's my bestie :)

2. This crazy face

and this one..

and this one..

and this one...

and this one...

3. my sisters

We are a C.Ra.Zy bunch when we get together. Come on I know you wish you were one of us wierd'os!

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 I would add some more blessings but to tell you the truth its just taking too long to go though all my pictures looking for crazy faces! I may have to start this as a weekly series....? Maybe...

Picture time...

I set off for a day to take some amazing pictures of my amazingly beautiful children. The setting was Munsinger Gardens. The perfect place to capture my perfect children in pictures. Or so I thought O.k maybe I really didn't think that this would work! The whole ride there I threatened and yelled that they BETTER BE GOOD! And they behave exactly the way they normally do. Not listening, not smiling, being crazy wild children.

This was the first picture....

I should have know after this picture things would not be going well on this day. This day that I had hoped would go smoothly and I could pretend for just one day that my children and perfect. I'm sure the other garden visitors thought I was a crazy woman shouting and threatening my sweet looking children.

They figured out that they better do as I say or scary mommy was going to come out! and this is about the only picture I got of them all looking at me. Even if Ethan is doing a strange impression of who knows who!

My handsome little man! He's growing up way to fast!

He's missing all four of his front teeth now! I love toothless smiles :)

Love his grin!

Owen refused to smile after the first couple pictures, I was lucky if he would even look at me. He mostly just scowled at me,

Example below....

I really had a hard time with her...she was so distracted by everything ,mostly the dirt, she kept trying to eat it. She's cute even when she's not looking:)

Me and my babies. I wish they would stop growing up! When I look at this I am amazed that I have 5 children! I can't believe how lucky I am to be mommy to this cute bunch :)

He's quite the looker, isn't he? I think so :)

Me and my girl!

The Toddler Tuesday group. We sure have some beautiful kids!

I really wish this would have worked out. All the boys look really happy but Audrey just wouldn't look up. She was fascinated by the ground.

My boys.

I guess it didn't turn out too bad, but after taking over 400 pictures and these are the only ones that remotely tuned out, its a little depressing but, hey, with 5 kids what can you expect. And I think that next time we go to Munsinger i won't be taking my camera, we'll just enjoy the park and all the beautiful flowers.

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures!

The Party!!!

I am sooooo happy Audrey's party is over. We always have a big party for our kids' first birthdays. I think with just having our immediate families over I get worn out by the time their 1st birthdays are over I don't want to do it again.

We had 72 people here ( including our little bunch)That is just our parents and sibling and their families and our grandparents. Yes, we come from large families. Ben is the oldest of 13 and there are 8 kids in my families. I can't imagine how big our families will be when all our siblings are grown and married with families!

 I was so worried when I woke up that morning that it was going to be raining for the party, and it did rain the whole day. I prayed all day without ceasing that He would stop the rain just in time for our party and was having a hard time trying to decide if we should postpone it or move it somewhere else because there is NO WAY over 70 people could fit in our tiny home. { 20 people would probably be too much!} I decided that we would just have it anyways here and I believed God would take care of it. And so I wasn't too surprised when at exactly 5:00 He brought out the blue sky and the sun shone down on our party. It was perfect and crazy ( it couldn't be anything else with that many people) We had so much fun with our families and enjoyed celebrating out little 1 year old princess.

big cake for a little girl!

I know you have all been going crazy wondering what cake I was going to choose from this post. And I chose number 5. I guess it was meant to be since it was already named the "Audrey Cake". I know it doesn't even come close to how beautiful Amanda's cake was, I had to change a little bit of it because my decorator wasn't working for me very well. But all in all at least the middle turned out and it was edible :)

mmm....tasty

Doesn't look too great on the outside....

.....but its the inside that makes it all come together!

Yes, that's 6 layers...and yes it was alot of work but was so worth it!

Loving the cake

Blake and cousin Brett playing Star Wars/Cowboys??

Auntie Jen, Auntie Stephanie, Auntie Joy, Grandma Jodi, Auntie Rosie

Auntie Jaci, Auntie Jessica, cousin Zander, Grandma Kay, cousin Gianna, cousin Melina, Auntie Christa

Auntie Caroline and cousin Garrett

Great-Grandma Noney and Auntie Jaci

Great Grandmas Maurine and Lavonne

Great Grandpas Walt and Benny

Happy Birthday Audrey!!!

Happy 1st Birthday to our Audrey!

We love you so much and are so happy you are ours! We can't believe you are already 1 year old. Time has flown by way too fast. We want to keep you as our little princess forever. You are so loved by your big brothers and they are so proud to have you as their little sister! We pray that you will grow to become of woman after God's desires. And that you follow him all your days!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Yes, this is a little late, we've been so busy around here trying to get ready for the BIG party!

We are expecting there to be over 70 people here! And with the weather being rainy we are trying to figure out what to do, we cannot possibly fit that many people in our little house. Still praying that God will bless us with some sunshine for the party!

Audrey's room is really finished! Ben set up the crib today and we got the curtains hung. So happy to be done with that project even if it was fun. It was so much work too! She is taking a nap in there right now, she looks so cute in a PINK room! Hope she loves it as much I do ;)

It's Finished!

It's Finished!

Well, not completely. I should say the painting is done.

I am so happy with how it turned out. It is exactly what I wanted it to look like! That is a huge accomplishment in itself because I usually am not completely pleased with how the colors end up. I end up just living with it because I am just so tired of painting and too cheap to buy more. This time I am sooooo happy with it. I think Audrey' room is my favorite in the house. It looks like a completely different room.

I can't wait to put the furniture back in. We put her dresser in last night mostly because it was in the boys' room and they couldn't get around it. I wish we would have just waited because it kinda scuffed the floor under it and now I'll have to fix it this weekend. I'm going to wait to put the rest back in until the weekend because I have don't want to have to fix the entire floor.

I took Audrey in to see it about an hour ago and and she just kept laughing! She loved it {I think}! I took some pictures of her playing in it but I forgot I had my flash off and they turned out a little blurry and not in focus.

Here's a little peek into her room. I'll take more once I can feel like I'm not going to destroy and smudge it all up!

I think she likes it!

I can't wait to hear what you all think!!

Sorry the pictures are a little dark, I'll have to retry them when the lighting is better!