It would appear that I need to update my blog! Wow, have I really not updated since January?
We are still alive & well. :) It looks like winter is about wrapped up & we are moving on to spring. I am ready for that change in season. To see flowers in bloom again, green grass [well if I don't have my own grass to look at at least I can look at other people's grass], warm days, leaves on trees, local produce... The list goes on & on.
 Lets rewind back to February. Cole had his 4th birthday, he was quite pleased to arrive at such a big age.

Other happenings of great excitement were the school Field trip to Powder Horn for a day of fun!

Dale went with the children, so I have pictures but not first hand experience of the event. :) It sounded like a fun day!

 I was trying to get a picture of all 6 of the children lined up according to age, as you can see Sierra was not about to participate!

 Not even for a picture with just the girls...

Big sister has her firmly clamped to her side & Sierra is letting her feelings be made known!

In late January Dale & I went over to Westcliffe for the funeral of our friends Erv Miller's little girl. I was really glad we went the occasion was heart wrenching, so many thoughts went through my head as I watched them bury there precious little girl... How do you say good bye for the last time on earth?... How do you pick yourself up & go on? All I wanted was to go home a hold my precious children & make sure they know how very much I love them!
Wectcliffe is a beautiful part of God's creation.

The houses look so small compared to the majestic mountains rising above them.

 Sierra dearly loves her big brother Micah... It is so interesting to watch them interact together. He is so good with her...

 Little face squashed in there watching angry birds.

 Yummy! Muffins are good things. :)

 My girls in there matching dresses, & when they match Ashlyn also thinks she should wear a veil like Briana does. :)

 Licking a spoon while sitting on the counter. This is where she often sits if I am working in the kitchen & she loves to taste everything. :)

 Monday morning I tackled the girl's room. Sierra had been sleeping in our room since she was born. I was waiting to move her to the girl's room till she sleeps through the night. Its doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon, so I decided to just go ahead & move her now. I had to move everything around in their room to free up some wall space for her crib. This is how things are situated now, I don't have a picture of her crib. Its along the back wall that you can't see in the pics.

 She is sleeping just as well over there as she did in our room. ;) Wakes up 2-3 times a night... I am so glad to have more space in our room! We had about 18 inches between her bed & our foot board. & that is the path to walk through to get to the bathroom.

Sierra always wants a bite of whatever someone is snacking on. Love Cole's mouth here...

Ashlyn is quite the competent young lady. She smells a dirty diaper & she gets out the wipes & clean diaper to remedy the situation... Poor Sierra was bent in a pretzel shape at one point during this diapering process. Ashlyn had told me before that she can do this, but this was the first time I saw her do it. Briana won't attempt it, she says Sierra is much to wiggly. Well Ashlyn just uses her authoritative voice & soon has her bent into submission.

This little man consumes an amazing amount of food for his size! He can eat two pieces of toast [homemade bread] & still needs a bowl of cereal to finish things off.
 He could live quite happily if there were no vegetables in the house. The boy that used to eat 2-3 helpings of green beans now can barely force down 4 beans! The only kind of potato he tolerates are mashed. What does he like? Eggs, spaghetti, cheese, bread,meat, taco soup, pepperoni pizza, and a few other things. No, we don't cater to him, he still has to eat whatever is made for supper. I have had picky eaters before [Micah was horrible] & they outgrow it.

 Nothing like a game of Angy birds to get them all on one chair!

That about wraps it up for now...

New look

This is for those of you that wanted to see how the bathroom painting project turned out.
First of all I only have before pics of one of the 3 baths.

This is the downstairs bathroom/laundry room before.

     

 This is after. Color is not showing up the greatest on here. The wall by the sink is a dk gray, the other three are a cloud gray.

Welcome to the monkey zone.:) The walls in here are tan & the theme is monkeys. So far there are just a few things on the walls, that  adorable monkey was found at Hobby Lobby & the wooden plaque on the wall was made by my son...

Clears throat, any questions which son would have come up with this???

Now let us be swept away to Paris...

This is the master bathroom. The walls are a soft aqua & I am accenting it with brown & white.

The wood on the mirrored cabinet will be painted dk brown sometime soon. :)

There you have it.:) Its quite a switch from the white bathrooms that I started out with. I am enjoying the change & am wondering why I waited so long to paint!

Of winter & wintery things

Wow, I am really behind... I haven't blogged on here since Nov.1. But see its not my fault, I was given a eepad for a early Christmas gift by my dear husband. :) Now I don't have to go up on the desk top PC to go online, but I haven't figured out how to put pics on my blog through the eepad. So, its not my fault... Wrong! I have no one to blame but my self.
 Enough of that line of thought, lets see where do I begin?

Some things never change! Ashlyn is still as silly as ever.:)
 A big change was when Shane went from 7 to 8! He was thrilled to finally be the big 8.:)

The day after his birthday party was a sick day for Ashlyn.:(

 That horrid flu took its rounds through our family the first weeks of December, just when it seemed like it would never end, we were all healthy again.

String lights are so fun! That little boy in the background  totally ruined this string... If you twist the bulbs around while they are lit they will burn out. Oh will it was just lights.

My two big helpers! Washing the dishes was so much fun :)

The Christmas program was nearly cancelled with all the sickness among the students [or cast].:) When the night came for the program they were all able to be there. The directors chose the perfect play for this year, because of how messed up it was intended to be I had no idea when they missed a line or two.:)

Squinkies,football,semi,legos,stroller,doll... Presents are so much fun!

Now we are off to PA for Christmas! This is a story in its self. We had plans to drive all  the way out there. No, I was not looking forward to that long drive. Not one bit! But we had to get there somehow & driving was the cheapest way to go. About 10 days before we left our friend Rick offered us a ride to OH on his plane! Wonderful!!! We still had 4 + hours to drive from there, but no complaining here! That is a fraction of the hours it takes to drive all the was from here. It seemed crazy on Sunday morning while we were at church, to think that by late that evening we would be in PA.:)
 I am telling you if your gonna fly private planes are THE way to go.:) No security checks, no running to catch your plane!

 Looking towards the front to see how Rick does things.:)

 Can't make much sense out of this one? It was tight in there & they were all trying to watch Cole play angry birds.

Horrors! He has blue snot...

Olivia Wengerd & Ashlyn... We slept at Carl's the first two nights we were there. Mom & Dad's house can only sleep so many people then it is FULL.
 Olivia & Ashlyn enjoyed playing together. :) My dad has always thought Olivia looks like Ash. Maybe a little, but their actions make them look more alike.:)
 Now lets go to Grandma's house for Christmas!

 The lovely Mr & Mrs Shetler... Mr. cuteness himself is Logan.

 The girls... They thought they didn't have nearly enough time together with Emily!

 The boys...

 There is my Cole that loves smiling for my camera.

 All the presents at Grandpa's!

 This will be a treasured picture! Seems like I don't take near enough pics of the children with  their grandparents.

 SNOW!!! There was an abundance of it this year. It was gorgeous to see & so fun to play in!

 The girls in the tree... Not sure why this was so fun???

 I remember breaking off icicles when I was little. They find it just as much fun as I used too.:)
There was so much snow while we were there that we couldn't go visiting like we usually do. The van we rented was horrible in the snow, so we spent most of our time hanging out at my parents house. I  was sad that I didn't get to see people like, Mary Hochstetler, Elaine Miller, & many more! I am so glad we stayed at Carl's or we would not have seen them either!
 Our flight home went well & we were all ready to see our cozy house again. Well it was not so cozy... The boiler was not working, so the water froze... We did have two electric heaters going to warm the place up a bit, but when its bitterly cold outside they just don't keep up.
 Our landlord came out as soon as he heard our plight, they got the water thawed & running again. The boiler is still touch & go.:( Some days Dale can get it to work & it roasts me out of the house, other days it just stubbornly refuses to work. The repair guy is waiting on parts again.:( Mr. Chris feels so bad that its taking so long, but it can't be helped.
 Speaking of cold. We have seen some serious cold this winter. -0 many nights & only getting up in the teens during the day. We have had snow on the ground all month, unusual for the valley! The children have gone sledding on our hills many times. Its great fun to fly down those "cliffs".:) The walking back up is where its not so fun.

Sierra seems to think that emptying out my Tupperware several times a day is her personal duty. :( She also enjoys the lid drawer, but when she tried it with some of the other cabinets I said enough is enough!
 She is saying more & more words. I have also gotten her to do a bit of sign language, she picks that up real fast! Nights are going a lot better, she still wakes up several times. Normally all she needs is her pacifier put back in a the tag of her blanket tucked back in her hand.:) Its so nice to have her wake up happy!
 The past month I have been helping Inez some at the store till she gets a replacement for Erin. I enjoy working there & Dale is a great sitter for the children.:) I sure couldn't handle working full time plus coming home & taking care of my family the way some moms do! Gives me a fresh appreciation for the blessing I have of being able to stay at home with my children & only going to work for fun.:)
 This week I started painting our 3 bathrooms. I have 2 down & 1 to go.:) Its so fun to give things a fresh look. I didn't realize for old & dirty the walls looked till I put paint on them! The downstairs bathroom I painted 2 shades of gray, the master bathroom is aqua with brown accents & the children's bathroom I am still trying to decide what color to paint.
 Whew, that's quite the update! That's all for now folks. :) Have a wonderful worship service tomorrow!

The little things...

So I am the first to admit that I am creatively challenged... No one complains about it [at my house]. But all the neat things I see on pinterest leave me wishing I could do a bit more!
 Enter Ashlyn's 6th birthday. I searched pink cakes on pinterest & came up with one I thought was really pretty. The blogger said it was really easy, I am thinking maybe I can do this one.:)
 With prayer & a vote of confidence from a friend I started on it.

Can't wait to see what the girls say about it!

 This is what Cole thought of it all.:) Maybe he licked just a bit too much icing!!!