Face Painting

This was done at the Kuna's Craft Fair.
Marki's flower. I am still surprised she didn't choose orange. Batman

We pretended Lee was Batman all day. He loved it.

She's going to be this year's winner!

My friend Tracey will be competing at this year's singing competition, hometown idol. I can't wait to go and listen to her. She is amazing. I like the music she sings better than the original artists. I'm not even kidding. Her voice is the most beautiful voice ever. We can't wait to go and cheer you on! Good luck Tracey!!!

Our Little Man

9 months today! This boy can just melt my heart. He has a constant smile on that adorable face. Such a sweet boy. When I go and get him from a nap he waves at me and laughs. He still has issues with his acid reflux. It seems nothing can stay in this little one. His new medicine is working a little better so hopefully he can start keeping food down. My poor little sweetheart.

He loves his bath time and I'll have a video of him on here soon splashing about.

A Joke from Marki

"Mommy, how did the house run away with no legs? He ran away on his head! ........Mommy? Why aren't you laughing?"

Marki laughs hysterically at her own jokes. I usually follow suit but this one I had to think about for a second. :)

The Ice Cream Man

Yep, it's that time of year. We have saved dollar bills all winter just for the ice cream man. I can't even explain how many times last year we heard the music and instantly my children got so excited. And of course, most of my summer was spent last year running down the sidewalks trying to find which way he went with my children following, dollar bills in hand. I love seeing their little faces light up when they hear that music. Still I hope he won't be coming to our subdivision too often this summer:)

Thank you for our outfits Poppy and Grammy!

The Benjamin Bummer

Or that's what I was called during this camping trip. In other words I am definitely a mountain camper....not a desert camper. Give me bears, bats, and mountain goats any day over lizards, badgers, and beetles the size of your head. Mark and the kids had a blast. Even with the billions of bugs hitting you in face everyone but me seemed to not care. My kids enjoy finding many different bugs on a daily basis and just love picking them up and bringing them to me. My daughter is afraid of dogs but give her a spider or large beetle and she thinks it's the bees knees. We did try catching a lizard but to no avail.

At one point Marki told me to quite complaining and enjoy myself. Don't get me wrong, camping is one of my all time favorite things to do in the summer just not where we went this particular time. I must dwell on the beetles now. They were so big that I didn't even want to step on them. Mark squished one and when Levi found it he got really upset and cried, "He's dead for sure!" We didn't catch anything and some friends of ours said the bugs got even worse after we left and everyone who set up camp left. I guess I wasn't the only party pooper.

Lessons (Written By Rossie)

My dear friend Rossie wrote this months ago. I hope it is okay that I copy it to my blog. I just love what you have to say and it was so beneficial to me. You are such a great writer and I look forward to what you write next!


Ecclesiastes 3:1 "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."
You all know the chapter... "a time to be born, a time to die" and so on. There are two things I am learning from this particular chapter.
First, God has prepared our hearts for these seasons we will endure, however, if we are not under His covering and protection and consistently in His word, then these trials become very overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, there are some seasons much more difficult than others such as death. But for the others, moving, illness, pregnancy, unbearable children etc, we are being watched as to our attitude and reactions. If we are in a constant state of grumbling and complaining, not only does it do us no good, but our children are a reflection of us. The ugliness we see in our children is probably an adjustment we ourselves need to make. If we are aware that God HAS prepared us for this season, then there should be a attitude of victory. We know that "all things work together for the good of those who love Him." What does this mean? Yes, we have trials, and yes things may look and seem very bad, but we already have victory. We need to keep our attitudes in check and be an example of Jesus to our children. What better thing can we pass on to them than to keep a heart of Jesus even when we are going through a storm. Sometimes, when I get stuck in a whining, complaining, grumbling rut (which really doesn't happen very often..not really anyway ;) ) My favorite thing to say to myself is, "Oh Rossie, put your big girl panties on!" If I forget to remind myself to do this, then my mama usually does it for me!
Second thing I am learning is that our children should be bringing out the best in us. No, that doesn't mean that is will be all sugar and spice. It WILL BE HARD, but it is these hard times that train us and mold us to patience, wisdom, kindness, gentleness and best of all self control. Truthfully, God is using our children, even the strong willed ones, to help us become more like Him. If we don't have this mindset, then yes...we will be yellers. Threatening and chastising our children constantly. I have to look up the verse, I can't think of where it's at right now, but it says,"do not provoke your children to wrath." We should be encouraging them and prompting them to goodness. Never give up...keep knocking at their door, keep talking to them (even when they aren't listening), keep loving them (even when they push you away), deal with them kindly (even when they are mean), listen to them (even when you don't want to hear what they have to say), respect them (even when they are disrespectful of us...how else will they learn)...after all, if the King of Kings does all this for His children, then shouldn't we do it for ours.
Author: Rossie A.