Too Close For Comfort

Spring has sprung.  I love the season, but I don't love that it signifies the onset of Tornado Season.  Earlier in the week, local meteorologists all agreed that we'd have rain on Wednesday evening, but that there was only a 5% chance of severe weather.  It started raining yesterday when I picked the girls up from school.  I made a run to the grocery store and before I could get home, Jason called me to tell me that it was getting bad out.  When I got home, we were all watching local weather coverage.  The first tornado touched down in the town where my cousin lives.  I was really nervous for her and her family.  I tried and failed to get a hold of her.  Jason's eyes were glued to the radar.  Poor Addi was shaking like a leaf.  She was so scared!  Karsyn, on the other hand, had her rain boots on and was begging to go outside.  Evan and Payton were both praying for protection when the tornado sirens started blaring. The storm was in direct route to where Jason works - a city where a lot of friends and family live. I'm not sure who to give photo credit to - this picture was on Facebook. The funnel cloud in this picture was directly over Jason's work parking lot!  Fortunately, the only damage done was to the structure of the building and to employees vehicles.  Unfortunately just a few miles down the road, this storm caused someone to lose their life.  All of our family and friends, including my cousin who lives a few towns away, were okay.  Most of them lost power for the evening.  We live only a few miles away from where the tornado touched down.  We never had to take tornado precautions, but we were certainly ready.  Please be praying for the family who lost a loved one and for those who have had their homes destroyed.

A Sunday Surprise!!!

Today was our last day of Spring Break. Our week was nothing short of wonderful. It ended on one sweet note - we got to see Aunt Becky, Uncle Eugene, Kellie, Kyle, and Katelyn.  They live about 8 hours away and the last time that we saw them was over Christmas Break.  It was so hard to keep this a secret from the kiddos, but I couldn't wait to see their faces when they saw some of their favorite family.  They only got to be in town for about 4 hours, but we made the most of it.  We all met at Nana and Papa's house.  Grandma Shirley and Grandpa James were there to wait with us for our special guests to arrive.  Uncle Billy, Aunt Kary, Natalie, Emily, and Stephen all met us a little later for lunch.  We had a great time visiting!!!  Of course, we had to take all kinds of pictures!

Either first or middle - these guys all share the name Eugene 

Cousin Circle - I think we should do this even when they are adults.  What do you say fam???

Kellie, Payton, Natalie, Addi, Stephen, Emily, Kyle, Karsyn, Katelyn, & Evan

Another view of the cousin circle.

 After their last visit, Karsyn decided that Katelyn was her very best friend.  She was stuck on her like glue today. =)  

Girl cousins - I think this might be one of my most favorite pictures ever!

Boy Cousins - I love this one too!

A group that I can totally identify with - the middle children. =)

It's always hard to watch our family get back on the road, but it was such a blessing to get to see them all today!  I think 2015 was our best Spring Break yet!

Girls' Day on Spring Break

Nana and I had a special day planned out for some sweet girls on the Friday of Spring Break.  The girls had all slept over at our house.  When they woke up, Jason and Evan made them all breakfast.  I've got some good guys. =)  I took all the girls in my house, with the exception of Karsyn, over to Nana's house.  (I promised Karsyn that I would pick her up later in the day.  She was a bit too small for our first round of plans.) With Nana on board, we headed to T-Town.  We got there quite a bit earlier than expected, so we went to Barnes and Nobles to waste some time.  I think Addi found her new happy place.  She loved the store!  She's a girls after her Aunt Kary's heart. 

 We browsed around for about half an hour and then it was time for the girls' appointment.  The girls were all getting mini mani's and pedi's at the biggest beauty college in the city.  The school is so nice, that it feels like a spa. 

Sarah, Payton, Jessi, Emily, and Addi

We got asked a few times if we were having a party.  I guess you could call it that.  We were celebrating Sarah moving to town from Arizona and Jessi visiting from Missouri.  Most of all, we just wanted the girls to get to know each other and have fun.  They were all smiling from ear to ear the entire time.

Sarah & Payton

Jessi & Emily

Addi's legs were almost too short for the pedi.  She loved every second of it.  I think Karsyn will have to wait until next year to be tall enough.

They had to spend some time under the dryer.

Miss Emily - I love her beautiful smile!

Addi couldn't have been more cute if she tried.

Then, it was nail time.

Sarah picked silver and red.  Payton went for a mix of purples and pinks.

Addi picked purple...of course. 

The girls had to spend some more time under the dryers.

Here's a look at some perfectly polished piggies.

 And here's a look at some girls that love Nana.

 After the girls' nails were all finished, we had to take Emily home.  She had another sleep over to get to.  We went to our house where Papa was meeting us and where we were picking up the rest of our little family.  We went to Wendy's for a very late, almost dinner time lunch.  Then, we went to see Cinderella.  My goodness, it was a great movie!  All of us, even Jason, Papa, and Evan really enjoyed the movie.  Cinderella has always been my most favorite fairy tale.  When I was in high school, Drew Barrymore starred in a Cinderella movie called Ever After.  Does anyone else remember that?  That was my favorite movie for a long time.  I think I'm going to have to find it, so that I can watch it again.

Payton's first slumber party, followed by a super fun, busy, wonderful girls' day was a big success!  I hope it will be a day that the girls always remember.  

Art, Tacos, & Sundaes

Thursday of Spring Break was another fun day.  As a matter of fact, the fun isn't over yet.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  This morning, the kiddos and I met up with Papa and Jessi for breakfast.  We ate and played at McDonald's.  I had to kind of twist Papa's arm to get him to eat there.  I think we can all agree that the food there leaves something to be desired.  And wouldn't you know after all that convincing, they got his order wrong?  But, we didn't really go there for the food, we went to play.  The kids played hard for an hour.  Papa and Jessi went on to watch the new Sponge Bob movie and we went to finish our slumber party prep.  We went to the grocery store and then tried to rest up.  Later in the afternoon, Papa brought Jessi back to our house.  Jessi went to art class with Payton and Addi.  The girls had a lot of fun!  (The teacher took these pictures.)

Addi painted by our friend Taylor.

Jessi & Payton

Artists hard at work.

While the girls were painting away, Evan, Karsyn and I came home to get busy cooking up a taco feast. I was so glad that Jason pulled into the drive the same time that we did.  He is such a good daddy!  He jumped right in and started helping. While dinner was cooking, Uncle Billy and Aunt Kary dropped off Emily.  Shortly after she arrived, Evan, Emily and I went to pick up Sarah and Silas.  We dropped the boys off at the house and then went to pick up our artist girls.  If you are counting, that makes 8 kiddos!  We ate Tacos.  Silas and Evan watched a movie.  The girls played Clue.

When the boys' movie was over, we had sundaes.

When the boys' were done eating their ice cream, Jason and Evan took Silas home for the evening.  The girlies are continuing on the fun right now.  As I type, they are watching a movie. =)  More fun is scheduled for tomorrow.

Spring Break Hump Day

We had big plans for Wednesday of Spring Break.  It was supposed to be the day of our super, spectacular cousin sleep over.  Jason and I had been talking a lot about replacing the carpet in the girls' bedroom.  We thought we had plenty of time to install a floating floor before our guests were due to arrive.  At about 4 p.m., this is how our house looked.  Everything from the girls' room was in the dining room and we were still scraping up the carpet padding.

There was an abundant amount of glue used under the carpet padding.  It was a mess!  At one point, Jason and Payton were using a shovel to try to scrape carpet padding off of the sub floor.  Since it's Spring Break and we have plenty of other days to choose from, we decided to reschedule our sleepover.  In spite of the cancellation, we still had a lot of cousin fun.  Jason stayed home to work on the floor.  I loaded up a car full of kids and headed to Sonic for corn dogs and root beer.  Then, we went to church.  Payton, Sarah, and Jessi had so much fun giggling and talking the entire time.  These girls have been separated by oceans and different states, but you would have never have guessed that from last night.

Big church wraps up a few minutes before the kids' program.  I had the chance to watch the kids play.  They were running relay races and having a blast!

The kiddos were all running so fast!  The look on the big girls' faces cracks me up!

After church, we dropped everyone off and came home to see that Jason just about had the floor done.  It looked great!  I have a few final touches to put on the girls' room, but I think it's just about complete.

We have lots of fun and plans for the next few days.  We're also keeping a super big secret from the kiddos about something that will happen this Sunday.  I can't wait to see the looks on their faces. =) 

St. Patrick's Day {2015}

This St. Patrick's Day has been a lot of fun.  We had Jessi sleep over last night.  The kiddos were all pretty worn out from our zoo day yesterday, so they slept in this morning.  After they woke up, Addi and I whipped up a green breakfast.  Addi was amazed with the green pancake batter.

Green pancakes, green scrambled eggs, and a banana made for a yummy St. Paddy's Day breakfast....even if it didn't look too pretty.

I always try to do a sibling picture for the holidays.  Last year, I got a great picture nearly every time.  This year, I think I'm going to have to learn some new tricks.  Here's the best two. (Payton and Jessi had to borrow shirts from Evan.)

 We tried one with Jessi too.

 After trying to take a pictures, we headed to the movies.  I was so excited to see our Daffodils in bloom!

We went to see Big Hero 6 at the dollar movies.  We love to go on Tuesdays, because it's 75 cent day. =)  Evan, Payton and Jessi really enjoyed the movie.  Addi didn't get into as much as they did, but she like it.  Karsyn got kind of bored. 

After the movie, we picked up Papa Gene for lunch.  We went out for pizza.  We decided to take our left overs to Grandma Shirley and Grandpa James.  Grandma has lost all of her hair due to radiation treatments.  I was a little worried how she would be feeling about that. When we got to her house she had a smile on her face and such a peace about her.  If cancer is trying to scare her or shake her, it just isn't working.  I know she's laying all of her cares upon the Lord and He is keeping her close.  The kiddos really enjoyed our visit there.  We had to leave, because Evan had soccer practice.  It's been a really good day!   Now, to take a look back at St. Paddy's Day Past.

St Patrick's Day 2009

St. Patrick's Day 2010

St. Patrick's Day 2011

 St. Patrick's Day 2012

St. Patrick's Day 2013

St. Patrick's Day 2014 (My favorite yet!)

St. Patrick's Day 2015

May the luck of the Irish be with you!