New camera!

I've been wanting a digital SLR for a while now, and this weekend we caught a really good sale on a package deal that came with the camera and an extra telephoto lens, so we couldn't pass it up. I love messing around with it...it brings me hours of enjoyment! :) Like I have massive amounts of time on my hands... We went over to my mom's house on Sunday, so I took some there and then that afternoon, Mike was mowing and the kids were playing in the backyard, so I figured it was a kodak moment (well, Nikon moment really) and I got a few really good ones! I have to admit, some of the best ones were actually accidents. :D

Random Spring stuff....

Cuteness...

Singing to Jesus...

Chloe singing...

Preschool choir

Laney waiting for the program to start

Laney saying her verse -- Psalm 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect; it gives us new life."

Elem. choir

Boys will be boys....

"What the...??"

"Um...you're sitting on me."

"Get off now"

Playing outside...

Laney drawing her hopscotch thing.

Baby bunnies we found in my mom's backyard. The mom kept hopping by us...probably trying to tell us to get away from her babies :)

They were so sweet!

The girls had their karate tests tonight for the next belt color. They don't allow parents to watch the testing...for obvious reasons, but I'm pretty sure Laney did a good job, Chloe on the other hand...I dunno about her. She was doing pretty good today when we were practicing at home, but she is easily distracted and then says she can't remember what she's supposed to do. Who knows how she did tonight. Laney said she did everything right, so we'll see. We find out if they advanced to the next belt color next Monday at the awards ceremony. I really love their sensei. He's a Christian guy and a police officer for Blue Springs. He's very nice, but very stern...he definitely doesn't mess around. Every week I have to write a note telling him if the girls had a good week and if they did their homework...which is anything from setting the table, obeying the first time, brushing teeth twice a day to no TV for a week, no pop or candy...stuff like that. It changes every week. If the girls are acting up, I just tell them that I'm gonna let their sensei know how they're acting and they straighten up really quick!!! I love it! Of course, I can also say that Jesus isn't pleased with how they're acting and that works too. I obviously want them to be more concerned about pleasing God than pleasing me or the sensei! Something we tell them all the time!

Video of church program...

6 month Isaac

My baby is 6 months old!!! He's growing more and more every day! He's eating more baby food...still size 1 jars, but he's doing alot better with it! He loves all kinds of fruits and veggies! I think we're gonna try him on size 2 here in a little while. He loves his exersaucer and eating his toys...everything goes right in his mouth! He rolls everywhere now and he sleeps through the night...usually. He started waking up 2 or 3 times a night around 5 1/2 months. I think he may have been going through a growth spurt. He's doing great now though!! He cries alot when I leave the room (he's very attached to mommy), but he's a pretty good baby overall. He likes to watch cartoons with his big brother and sisters. These last 6 months have flown by and I have loved every single day with him! I couldn't imagine my life without my Isaac! I love you sweet boy!!

Family pictures

We got pictures taken on Saturday, and it went ok. Elijah was a holy terror, but we still managed to get a few decent ones. We had them taken at Flash because we'd gone there once before and really loved it! Well this time was a little different. Last time we went, they had 2 people in the room...one taking the pictures and the other helping with the kids. There was only one person this time and she wasn't all that great. They made us wait for about 15 minutes before going back, which gave Elijah time to run around and get really energetic. So by the time we went to take them, he was having no part of just sitting there looking at a camera. He was squirming and crying when we were taking the picture of all of us, and the lady just kept saying "Look over here!" I was like, um...he's not gonna look at you just because you ask him to. Do you have any toys or something that will get his attention??? So finally she got a baseball out that he played with for a while... Geez, you'd think with the money we're paying for these pictures, that they would have a better plan of getting kids' attention other than to just say look at me! oh well, we still managed to get a few that I really love!

Like this one of Elijah and Isaac...
















And this one of the girls... Of course, the girls did amazing!!



















This is the best one we got of all of them together.

















We had her take some of just Isaac since we haven't taken him to get just his pictures taken yet.















This is the picture where Elijah was just being horrible.

Potty chair

This may be a little inappropriate, but it was so cute, I couldn't resist putting it on here...and hey, it's my blog, right? I haven't officially started potty training Elijah, but when he goes poo-poo, he usually tells me and sometimes I have time to get him to the toilet before he goes. Mike rushed him to the bathroom when we heard "I poo-poo", and I snapped this picture of him on the loo. I just love how he clings to the car...he ALWAYS has a car in his hand, no matter what he's doing. :)








































He wasn't too happy about the whole picture on the potty thing, I mean who can blame him, right? But I have to have these blackmail pictures for those horrible teenage years I'm sure, like all parents, we will encounter. For now, I'm sorry about this Eli, but you're way too cute to not take them! :)

Programs

Chloe is in the pre-school kids choir at church and they sang a couple songs last night before the service. She LOVES singing on the stage in what she calls the "front room" (aka: the sanctuary). She loves being the center of attention! :) I curled her hair and took some pictures of her before we left, because I knew her hair would most likely fall before we even got there...and sure enough...

Thursday night Laney had her "Bug" program at school, so my neice came over and watched the boys so Mike and I could go (with Chloe and Grandma Carol, of course) and not have to deal with trying to control Elijah...I don't even want to think about what a headache that would have been!
Here are the pictures of the girls' programs.

She had a small solo in The ants go marching...she was number 8 :) Here's a video of it. (The video starts with 6, so it takes a minute to get to her)

Easter