CrossTimbers Easter Party

Easter Party at Cross Timbers. Good Times! The egg hunt was different than we have ever experienced. The church recycles the eggs, so once you've had your hunt you empty your eggs in your bag and put the egg shells into large tubs for use next year. It works out well. Instead of asking the church body to buy eggs and candy, they provide the eggs and you stuff them. :) They had neat tables set up with prizes for the children that got an egg with a paper saying they won in it. Hannah, not knowing the what seemed to be empty eggs were for a bigger prize, shook all the eggs and only kept those that had something in them. Smart girl, going after the candy! I explained the paper to her and she then wanted to find all those ones. Silly girl. Caleb had a wonderful time and would probably have stayed all day! He loved the bounce house and the hammer thing (not sure what it is called). Abrianna liked the colored eggs and Sarah eat the candy through the wrapper. :) We had a great time. Sijah slept in the sling the whole time.

Late night tennis anyone?

Joshua got the kids rackets that are their size.
We are the Crispin 7 Tennis Team!
Caleb just loves to hit the ball, so much I was unable to take a picture of him. :) He was all over the court.
Here are the girls playing:




After running around in the court they desided to run around at the park... busy little kids! Where do they get that energy? :)


Sarah was "flying" in the swing and Abrianna watched her intently. She then wanted off my lap and began doing the same thing Sarah was. Amazing!


A fun evening.

Grammy's Birthday Cookout

Happy Birthday to Grammy... Happy Birthday to Grammy... Happy Birthday to Grammy... How old are you anyway. :) Ok so I changed the song up a bit. :)
Cookouts are one of my mom's favorite things (watching my kids is her top favorite!) This park we are at has a dock for fishing. Caleb was looking very hard for fish that he could not see.


Abrianna, again, thinks she can do everything the other kids do.

The highlight was listening to the geese hong their way to our side of the pond and then be chased away by our kids.


This was Michelle's fist trip home since Sijah has been born. Some aunt bonding had to happen! :)

I love this sling! It is much more comfortable than the 'backpack' type I have had in the past. Sijah likes it too. He sleeps well in it and it keeps him warm on these chilly spring days.

At this park they have the 'death spinner.' No joke. The way it is made allows you to keep spinning by gravity. (My husband could explain it better) Hannah got on it and it kept spinner her and she got scared and couldn't make it stop and well, a little girls nightmare! Poor girl, when daddy rescued her she wanted to get back on it. I told Caleb and Hannah they could not play on it unless someone was with them to help stop it. Who would invent such a thing?


All of our children (as well as all the little children of the world) love to slide. Even Abrianna. Slides, now there was a good invention. Aunt Lindsey had much fun playing with the kids, even the big kids like to slide. :)




Caleb liked to hang out on the dock, he even made a friend. Some nice girl was walking around the park, I guess her age to be about 12, and she stayed with Caleb and talked about fish. Not sure how much she understood him... but they talked about fish and she tried to help him find the fish. Daddy said, "Oh no! Too soon to be making girlfriends at the park!"

Abrianna keeps us entertained. She played peek-a-boo with Grammy for awhile.

Our family! You can see Sijah's hand coming out of the sling.

Art Corner: 6

Paintings that Hannah and Caleb did at Cross Timbers church. Hannah is getting very good at staing in the lines and Caleb, well, he just likes to paint.




Hannah like all forms of art. Sidewalk chalk is lots of fun!

2weeks - already!

What a little joy in our home! He sleeps well - you know that is all baby's do. :) And things have been going pretty well. I am tired - and our home looks like the maid quit on us - but things are really going well. I've heard people say once you have 4, you might as well have more. This transition has been the easiest. Sijah fits right into our family and we have not missed a beat with our day to day schedule. Our schedule for the past 2 months has been:
Get up 7:30/8am, change diapers, watch a movie while mom sleeps, eat breakfast, play outside or in, change diapers, mom tries to make lunch, eat lunch, rest time for one hour, school time for 2 oldest while 2 (now 3) youngest still nap, change diapers, color time with all, play inside or out, mom try to make dinner, try to clean kitchen, change diapers, dad comes home, eat dinner, play with dad for 1 hour, change diapers, bed time 8pm!
Notice that there is no cleaning of the whole house or clothes being done... and well school time has been lacking... but what I am saying is this lazy schedule has not changed. :)
I've always (as in the last 4yrs that I've had kids) the first 2 weeks are the hardest. And they are, until you have the 5th. Then the "worst" is only in the first week.
I should say, it is not all that great. I wouldn't want for you to get the wrong idea. Feeding this boy has been a challenge! His tongue doesn't come forward enough to get a correct latch and for the fist 2 days home he wouldn't latch at all. I'm glad that we got over that. Because of him not latching and then just being so glad he finally latched, I did not correct his 'form' and thus gave myself a breast infection. So for one day I was completely taken out with flu like symptoms and just all around feeling terrible. Joshua was at work... I had 5 kids to take care of... Father-in-Law to the rescue! (An unexpected surprise.) My Father-in-Law came over and played with the kids outside and then got my med. when it was ready. I've heard it said that every child is different - so far all of mine had been the same in the feeding department. While talking with Lactation Consultants, one lady said, "Your boy just doesn't get, does he!" He doesn't. :) With time and maybe a little more growth, he'll get it.

Here are some pictures of the past weeks. The kids really like having a baby brother. Abrianna doesn't have an opinion until she wants attention. We've had fun holding him, and Hannah likes to feed him when I pump. (A big help when Sijah wants to eat and I need to make food for the others.) Caleb calls Sijah "My Sijah." It is very cute how he places ownership over his little brother. I think he did that for Abrianna too. Joshua has a great story of Caleb calling for 'My Sijah' at the hospital. I'll let him comment on that.

IMPinc's latest work

This is Joshua's latest work for MissionForce.



Just wanted to show off my husbands creative work. :)