Smelling Good Girl

I seriously could write a book on Finley Claire!  The other day we were sitting down for dinner and Finley comes down.  I had her go back up stairs to do something and she took way longer than she needed to for the task at hand.  A little while later she came down (if you are wondering why we didn't go get her......you try eating with 5 kids.....we liked one less mouth talking while we swallowed our food whole!)  As she comes down all smiles, Matt looks at me and says, "Do you smell her?"  I had her come to me and I asked her what she did - "I just put a little bit of Daddy's stuff on me!"  Cologne!!  Oh yes, the girl stunk mighty pretty!  She was so proud of herself getting all dolled up for dinner!

Another FiFi moment:  She made a project for me at church for Mother's Day.  She proceeds to announce in the car:  "Mom, I .....Dad, I made you a present for Mother's Day!"  After repeated attempts by Matt that the gift is for me, she refused and we just let her think that the gift was for Matt.  One day the child will admit that she likes me :)  I also got purple shorts from her for Mother's Day - need I remind you I hate the color purple!!!  But I do know that she will complement me when I wear them and of course that will melt my heart.

Compassionate Heart

Today's Objective:  Go shopping for Mother's Day gifts

Departure:  9:00 am - this left me with only 2 hours to get the shopping done, go pick up pictures from Deanna, and get home to feed everyone lunch.  We cut out morning school lessons so that we could get our adventure done.  Plagued by a long list of stores to go in and out of, we took off!  We went to 2 stores and the bank and then we proceeded to sit at a light.  As soon as we got to the light, the kids noticed a homeless man.  We had seen this same man one other time and they briefly asked about him before, but didn't really say too much about it then.  But today they were excited to see him.  As I sat and slipped my hand up and gave a gentle wave, my kids were banging on the windows of the car yelling "HI!!"  The light turned green and the questions started:  "Where does he live?  Does he have a car?  How does he eat?  How does he go to the bathroom?  What happened to his house?"  I answered all their questions and all of the sudden their little hearts were filled to the measure with compassion!  "Mom, we have to give him some money!"  I told them that giving him money wouldn't really help him because alot of the times people who are homeless have a hard time knowing what to do with money, but we could feed him.  So the unanimous answer was to go to the grocery store and get him some food.  I stopped at another store before heading onto our quest and then they piped up, "Mom, he probably doesn't know about Jesus!  We need to get him a Bible!"  I told them that would be a great idea, but I didn't have one in the car to give him.  "Ollies!!!"  Carly yelled as I was approaching the shopping center - we quickly turned in and my babies bought the man a Bible!  (They are at the check out paying for it above)  We then went to the grocery store and got some dry snacks for him to eat and a sandwich.  The kids were so excited.  We wrote in the Bible that we could only feed him for a short time, but through God's word he would be fed for a lifetime.  We wrote about God's promise and Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins.  They were ready to go see the man.  We parked the car at a mattress store and walked across all the traffic (yes with all 5 kids) to get to the man in the median.  They handed him the bags of food and the Bible.  Then Chloe spoke right up and said, "Jesus loves you!"  (Now if you know these kids at all, you know that Chloe would never do this.....but she did!)  I talked to him for a few minutes and then we left.  I am so thankful for the lessons my children teach me daily.  They have such innocent hearts and are taking everything in that we teach them and then they are DOING!  My objective was to get everything off my list done, but they showed me that you need to stop and see others first.  I pray that their hearts never become hardened.  I pray that they will continue to grow and to know the love of Christ.  In preparation for VBS, I am doing an Ephesians study.  These verses came to mind as my kids were showing me how to BE JESUS!

Ephesians 3

Chloe having a Baby!

Today is the first day my kids have ever played being married. Chloe is waltzing around in a wedding gown and Harper is the husband. They decided they were going to have a baby (I am overhearing this so I am hiding in the stairway). They sit down and pray......because that is how you get a baby.....you just pray about it :)  So sweet and innocent!

Little Miss Self Reliant

She never ceases to amaze me!  Today I go upstairs and I find a pair of wet panties and wet pants on the floor next to the bathroom.  No sign of the child and the door to her room was closed.  I open the door to find her sitting on the floor playing like this!  She wets the bed, gets up takes care of the problem, found some panties on the couch where I was doing laundry, looks for pants, can't find any so she sees the legwarmers I found and threw in the hallway to put away once she woke up from her nap.  Nope, she doesn't need me, she can take care of things all by herself!

The Presidents

I love conversations with my girls.  Today was cute.  We were taping money together for a birthday present and they were looking at the bills.  Carly says, "I bet George Washington is in heaven."  I told her as long as he had Jesus in his heart he would go to heaven.  She sat and thought and then said, "Well we learned about him and he liked to read the Bible, so I bet he does know all about Jesus and he is probably in heaven.  So is Abraham Lincoln and George Washington Carver.  They all liked to learn about the Bible so I bet they all are in heaven."  I told her she was probably right.  Then she add, "Well except this last president."  I sat with wide eyes waiting for her explanation why Obama wasn't going to heaven.  "You know he is not dead yet."  She then looked at a $20 bill and saw Andrew Jackson.  She asked if he knew Jesus.  I told her I did not know.  She then asked if we could learn about him.  I told her yes and then she flipped it over and read the back ~ In God We Trust ~ "Well Mom, I guess they are all going to heaven.  It says so right on the back of their money!!"  Oh girl, if only this country was based on God still.....but sadly no.

Easter Bunny

Well, you know I had to torture my children by taking them to see the Easter Bunny. As you can see here, Finley was not about to go see that thing. I had to coax her very much, but she finally broke and stood near him. She was petrified!

I love Finley and Channing staring him down here! But look at the girls.....they finally came around and look super cute not crying!

Happy Boy

Well after years of dreaming of a riding lawn mower, Matt finally got his baby! He was more than excited to have a riding mower for our big lot - mowing last year was for the birds!

He hooked up his wagon and made Chloe test out the sturdiness.

Happiness is........