Fishing at the lake

The kids begged Russell to bring them fishing and here are the results......

My awesome laundry room makeover!!

Last week before we left for the lake I decided I was tired of walking into a depressing laundry room. I decided I was going to do something a little off the wall for me. I tend to paint things in tan or some shade of it, so off to the store I went to get some paint that was definitely out of my box of comfort. So here is my boring, yucky laundry room...

And here is the laundry room I now LOVE!!! A little turquoise paint and some brown and tan vinyl from my mom and I have a completely different room. I can't believe it is the same room, I love it! I smile every time I walk in there, which is often.

Last day of school!!

Woo Hoo!!! It was our last day of school today. I am excited and of course the kids are excited. No school for 2 weeks. I sooo needed this break and I think they were ready for a break too! I am going to bribe my kids into keeping up with their math. I am going to let them go to the dollar store and pick out a "prize" everytime they earn 5 points (a point equals 2 pages of math). Not to excited to bring more junk into the house, but I know it will motivate them to keep trudging along.
We are going to school this summer on and off. The kids weren't to thrilled about that at first. I explained we would take off a week or two every three weeks. I like being able to take time off in the fall and winter and so we can really enjoy doing fun stuff together and this allows us to do that. So I get a 2 week break to think about nothing but sleeping in and bein' lazy. yeah right!!! That's probably not gonna happen. Oh well, at least I won't have to be naggin' the kids about getting their work done. Gotta love summertime!

I couldn't leave Peter out!

I couldn't leave Peter out of the pictures, so here are a few pics. of my sweet little baby.

He loves to smile. He sure is a happy little guy!

You just have to smile!

I had a great mother's day thanks to my sweet hubby and thoughtful children! Russell made me breakfast in bed and it was healthy which always scores points with me. I told him not to buy me anything I just wanted the backyard play area to get started and he did it, I was soo excited. Austin bought me a twilight shirt....






Charity bought me flowers...
Christian made me a card which said he would babysit which made me laugh. He is really good at holding Peter though.
















Grace and Noel gave me a card which their sister Charity so sweetly made. She is so crafty.
















I had a great day thanks to a great family! I love being a mom and a wife, well most of the time anyways!

My family!

O.K. so we aren't great picture takers!! :) It's hard to get 8 people to do the right thing at the same time. But this one shows most of their personalities!! The only one who has changed is the baby he has gained several pounds. I'll have to post a recent picture of him soon.

Mother's Day

I feel so blessed at times (usually when I open my eyes and look around at all I have)! I have 6 children and I'll tell you what they are whiney, crazy, messy, ornery, sweet, loving, thoughtful, hilariously funny. I love them so much for all these wonderful and not so wonderful traits. They try me to the point of breaking and then I realize Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience, I haven't learned this one very well yet. I hear them yelling at each other or speaking unkindly and I realize yet another lesson Heavenly Father is trying to teach me. I learn so much from my little brood and am so grateful for these lessons. I love being a mom! I do have to give my husband credit he makes my job so easy at times. He is a great guy! I am grateful for this famiy my Heavenly Father has blessed me with!