Introducing Our Newest Family Members

My Mama-in-law just adopted 2 new Newfoundland puppies. Yes. Puppies. Not fully grown yet. If you can imagine. They are brother & sister. Both very sweet, although in need of a little training still. They get along great with Emily's doggie, Sampson (they haven't met Scout yet). The boy dog has a small jealousy problem because the girl dog really loves Sampson. The older boys love the dogs. The littler boys haven't figured out how to stay standing upright next to the dogs, but I'm sure they'll learn once they have had a few more years experience walking & have grown 3 more feet (the boys, not the dogs). Meet Wesley.

Meet Buttercup.

They are very sweet, snuggly & lazy.

To give you an idea of how tall these so-called "puppies" are: the table makes a lovely chin rest for them. They're cute, but need to learn manners still.

Teasing them with pizza is a great help in their training. (And, I'm not sure why, but I'm thinking it's a good thing that Emily's dog is named Sampson.....)

I know that these two sweeties haven't made my Mama-in-law forget about her Atticus........and neither have we. He did leave a big hole in our hearts.....especially in Mom's. A hole so big, it needed to be filled with two of these giant pups.

Jarod's Birthday

I am just amazed that my baby is 10 yrs old already. He's one of the best kids ever. Such a kind hearted young man, who loves Jesus & his family & wants to help others. He is always creating some thing or other. Things that others see as trash, he sees as a potential work of art. I am so proud of this kid. Jarod crowned himself King for the day.

The AMAZING cake that Emily made for Jarod.

He's rough & tough......

.........sensitive & sweet.......

..........creative & artistic........

Happy Birthday, Jarod Matthew!!! I love you more than you'll ever know.

My Easter Birthday

My birthday fell on Easter this year. Justin took the day off of work to spend the day with us. We went to church to celebrate Jesus' resurrection & then just spent the day relaxing at home together. These are the beautiful roses my lover gave me, along with a whole stock-pile of my favorite, very expensive, green tea which he went out of his way to hunt down & buy for lil' ole me. He even let me take a picture that proves he is nice sometimes, & ruin his reputation. He's so sweet to me. I love 'im! :)

I realized, when we got home from church, that I hadn't taken any Easter shots. So I tried to get some handsome pics before they got out of their church clothes. These are the "handsome" faces I got from Jarod & Micah.

Isaac almost still dressed in his Sunday best.

This confirms my theory about the Easter Bunny: it's evil.

Gideon showing off his loot.


Went looking for Titus to take his pic. I was too late. Had to follow the trail to find him.

Boots by the front door..............

............pants in the hall.............

...........shirt in the bedroom............

.........typical Titus in HIS favorite Easter (& every other waking moment) garb: jammie pants!!!

Happy Easter!!!!

April Fools Day

Not much happened on April Fool's Day. Justin had me convinced that he had to go into work for a while, even though it was his day off (he's been working super late most nights because of an extra heavy work load & our vacation putting him behind). I didn't think that was particularly funny. However, I was quite happy when I found out he was kidding. That was the worst prank. Sooooo......not as bad as it could have been. (Not like the one April Fool's Day. a couple years ago, that Justin had me convinced that he & the boys had been in a car accident. "Only a minor one, so don't worry honey." Yeah.) The boys kept doing silly things like drawing on each other in their sleep, pretending to be mortally injured, things of that nature.....nothing that I fell for though. However, they did get me pretty good when they wrapped rubber bands around the faucet spray nozzle in the kitchen sink. I didn't notice the rubber bands & sprayed myself nicely. But I don't think that really counted. That prank happened on April 2nd. But really, every day is April Fool's day around here...... How Titus woke up. Big brothers decided that making him pretty in his sleep would be a good April Fool's Day joke. Mind you. He's not crying about his face. He always wakes up crabby.

The sad face Gideon gave me when I told him that he had to wait till tomorrow to eat any food. It was breakfast time. He said, "But...mama....I'm hungry!!!" I said, "APRIL FOOLS!!!!" He didn't laugh. BTW....his big brothers made him pretty too.

This was how Gideon got his shirt off on April Fool's day. I don't want to talk about it.