10 Great Things about 10 Years

This past March 30 (just a couple of weeks ago), Greg and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Ten years!!! - four children, on our second home, one dog, many celebrations and heartaches later, we are still in love AND I still LIKE being with him!!
 I was thinking about this a lot today while I was cleaning.  I decided to list ten great things about my husband.

10-He notices when I do things around the house and says thank you even for mundane tasks.
9-He puts his dirty clothes in the hamper and keeps things tidy.
8- He works hard to fix things - we have never called a plumber, electrician, repair man, etc. for anything around our house.  He has saved us a lot of money by fixing our cars and on house repairs.
7-He listens and acts interested in things I enjoy.  He supports things I enjoy doing like scrapbooking and always says nice comments about things I create.
6-He notices when I have a new pair of shoes, earrings, purse, etc. and comments on it.
5-He is very competitive and loves playing games with me like Scrabble, WordFeud, Trivial Pursuit, etc.  He does not like to lose, but neither do I!
4- He makes every effort to be very involved in our children's lives.  He has attended field trips, volunteered at their school, coached soccer teams, etc.  He is not a part-time dad.  This is HUGE to me (and to them - even if they don't say it!).
3-He loves being with me.  It doesn't matter what we are doing - watching TV, reading side by side, riding in the car, going to a show, with our friends - he will do just about anything just to be with me.
2-He values our faith and tries to instill it in our children.
1-He loves me in a way that no one else ever has (or will!).

Here is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day.  It was a candid shot someone took of us while other people were doing formal pictures.  This isn't a great shot, because I took a picture of a picture, but you can see how YOUNG we look and how HAPPY!

Here's to many more years of happiness.  I love you, Greg!

Laundry is My Nemesis

SERIOUSLY -
In a family of SIX, there is a LOT of laundry.  It feels like a never ending task.  But I enjoy doing it.  I love the smell of fabric softener.  I love seeing an entire pile of folded clothes sitting in the basket, waiting to be put away.  There are not always tangible results of my work around our home, but clean laundry is a picture of hours of my time.

See:

I know everyone has a "way" to do their laundry.  You sort certain things, you fold certain things, etc.  I fold underwear (my roommate in college made fun of me for this!).  I match socks.  My socks and Greg's get folded in pairs.  The boys get rolled because they will mismatch pairs when they pull them out of the drawers if I just fold them.  I put everything neatly back in the basket and lay all of the pieces that need to be hung up in the closet on top.

The top picture is Jake's laundry.  I recently went through his drawers and closet and put all the "baby" stuff up.  I'll save the drama and say it was a rough morning for me!  I also went through and picked out all the next size up for summer/spring out and washed all of it.  I spent an hour this morning putting all of his clothing away, changing his bed, etc.

The second picture is Andy's laundry.  I also went through his drawers and closet this morning.  I spent another hour doing that and putting his clean clothes away, packing up clothes that were too small, changing and making his bed.

The third pile is a stack of clean clothes I laid on the bed last night for Greg to put away.  I guess he was too tired so he stacked it on my cedar chest at the foot of the bed :)

The sad thing is  - I spent a good portion of yesterday and today doing laundry.  Already today there are dirty clothes in each hamper!!!

One last story about laundry - yesterday I took the water hose out of the drain in our laundry room (inside the wall) and poured some Drano in the pipe.  We have an older house and occasionally we have to do this for the drain.  If not, the water pumps out from the washer and spills over.  The last thing Greg told me with his instructions was to make sure and replace the hose.

LUCKILY I was still downstairs and listening when the water began pumping out of the wash cycle and realized - I forgot to replace the hose!!!!  Needless to say, I created quite the mess to clean up in the laundry room.  Mopping the floor, drying the wall, and twenty minutes later, I resumed that wash cycle!

How do you feel about laundry?  Do you pray over your family as you clean their clothes?  Do you dread it and put it off as long as you can?  Tell me what you think about it!!!

Seven Months Already

Thursday, April 12, Jake was seven months old. 

FLYING BY......I wish I could slow him down, but he keeps growing!

He is such a happy baby most of the time.  He smiles with his whole face.  He really likes to hear himself squeal/scream right now.  He loves the aquarium on his bed and has figured out how to turn it on.  He scoot backward when he is on his tummy in the floor.  He rocks back and forth on his knees some, but no real movement yet. (This I am OK with - not ready for a mobile baby!)

Here are some pictures from the last month.

 Relaxing at Grandma's house

 My happy boy in his chair.

 Carter wanted to hold him and was so sweet with him!

 Noah was "watching" him while I got some things packed up to leave.  Jake looks like he was watching Noah play the Leapster!

 Noah was playing Peek-A-Boo with Jake and got him deep belly laughing.  It was hilarious!

 Jake was just kicked back while we went through the Zoo over Spring Break.

 On Easter Sunday at church.

 Look at those BLUE eyes!!!  He is just hoping his brothers don't drop him.

Jake is getting a little attached to his paci. 

A Little Spring Get-away

Last weekend we headed out for a four day trip to Pigeon Forge, TN with my family.  My parents shared a 3 bedroom suite with us.  My two sisters and their families shared a 4 bedroom suite.  The place we stayed at, Wilderness of the Smokies, boasts a really nice indoor waterpark, two outdoor water areas, miniature golf, laser tag, indoor ropes course and rock climbing wall along with several restaurants.  My family did not leave the resort the entire weekend.  My sisters did some shopping at the outlets, but I stayed with the kids in the water park. 

We were able to watch the University of Kentucky defeat the University of Louisville in the NCAA final four on Saturday night.  That was a great game and we were all excited to see UK win!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

 Blake ready to climb!

 Noah was concentrating hard!

 Andy was obsessed with his tickets!  He won 11 at the arcade and it was a BIG deal!

 Another shot of Blake on the ropes course.

 Carter on the ropes course.

 Andy was too small for the climbing stuff, but he rode a ride that dropped quickly and liked it!

 Ella with Jake waiting for our table Sunday night.

Big three waiting to go back to the water park on our last night.  They shut the place down at 10 pm!