Our Saturday

Yesterday the girls and I went to my parents' church for a Mother's Day luncheon. In our group, besides the girls and me, was my mom, Ralph's mom, Sis-in-Love Lynn, my sister Jennifer, and her mother-in-law. The food was good, and the company was good.

Since my sister was in charge of music, Cara and I were asked to sing one of our songs that we have written together. I'm so thankful for times to spend with my family.

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Some coming Events in the exciting life of the Houseful of Blessings are:

This coming weekend, we are going camping at Lake Camanche.

The weekend after that is Mother's Day and Joey is getting baptized!!

To end the post, I will leave you with a little picture Cara took during Math time. This is why Joey takes so long to get his Math done, because he does things like this all morning. I would be worried, except that Danny and Nick were exactly the same way at this age. sigh.

Wow, I'm 40!

So, today I'm officially OLD. At least that's what my kids say. Actually, according to Cara, I was old about 10 years ago, but anyway.......I had a good day. My sweet husband took me shopping and look what he bought me!

Yeah, I'm like that; give me pots, dirt, and veggies to plant, and I'm a happy girl. I gave up on the whole garden thing, because even though it's fenced, the deer always seem to get in (usually because the kids leave the gate open, but sometimes because the deer jump in), and it got depressing. So this year I thought maybe I would just do some stuff up on our deck and just maybe if we are lucky, and we keep the gates closed, the deer will stay off of the deck. It's worth a try.....

Ralph (the master barbecuer) barbecued some london broil for dinner, and the kids gave me money for Ralph and I to go out for a nice dinner, and of course the older kids will babysit. Then we all ate cake and watched a movie together. So, that was my birthday.

I also have some birthday money from my parents, and I may just buy more pots and plants, maybe actually some flowers to make my girls happy. :-) It's Spring, and I just have to plant stuff! I get that from my mom.

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Jackson has a new sand box and he spends every possible minute of every day in it. :-)

Our Fun-filled Easter weekend

The fun started last Friday when sis-in-love, Lynn, came up for a tea party. Now, when we have a tea party, it takes two days to get ready and everyone works hard to get it all done. But it's worth it to bless the guest of honor, in this case, Aunty Lynn.

So then after that, Aunty Lynn gave a couple of haircuts to transform some already pretty girls into even prettier girls......

Saturday morning we colored eggs, and then had egg hunts in the house. It was really muddy outside and the kids preferred to do it in the house anyway.

Then Sunday was Resurrection Sunday!! The day we get to celebrate that Jesus died for us and more importantly rose from the dead. The morning started with Easter baskets, then homemade cinnamon rolls, strawberries, and boiled eggs for breakfast.

Then we went to church where we had a great time worshiping the Lord, and next we were off to visit with my family. This year a sweet friend of my parents, Flo, invited our whole family (us, my parents, brothers and sisters and their families) to her house for a huge meal and fun times. She had hidden lots of eggs for the kids to hunt, tons of food to eat, and of course we got to visit with family, and did I mention eat lots of food? (I was so busy visiting, I didn't get any good pictures, but I'm sure I've got enough pictures in this post already. :-)

So that's what we've been up to. Today is back to school and it's been a bit rough concentrating today after a week off (and I'm sure all that sugar yesterday isn't helping the brains much either). But we'll get back into the swing of things in a day or two.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Rebecca's First Date.....

Wednesday was the day Rebecca had been waiting for--the day that Danny took her out for her birthday ice cream. They went to a newish little ice creamery in Pine Grove. They both said it was the best ice cream they ever tasted. I'm sure Rebecca will remember this day for a long time. She was floating on clouds to get to hang out with Danny. Here they are before they left:

Happy Birthday Rebecca

Rebecca has been having a long, drawn out birthday celebration. It started Friday night with potluck/game night at church. Samantha baked and decorated her a birthday cake to take. So then of course everyone had to sing Happy Birthday, then all the sudden some of her admirers were giving her little money gifts. So that was Friday. Saturday we went to Omi's house to visit with Ralph's family. (His brother is in town from Alaska, so it was a family gathering.) So of course she got stuff from her Aunts and Uncles and from her Omi. Then today we did our family celebration. But Danny had to work, and we wanted to include him, so after church like I had planned wouldn't work. So, we improvised and had a birthday breakfast. So her birthday cake ended up being a breakfast/coffee cake. She didn't care, as long as she got to blow out the candle and open presents. Her brothers and sisters blessed her with some nice things, we got her a doll, she had some cards that came in the mail to open, and big brother Danny has promised her a trip for ice cream, just her and him hanging out together, which she is very excited about. Here she is:

Then at church this morning she was given a gift of some pretty flowers to plant from the Hoffmans, and another present from her good friend, Mrs. Candee, at church tonight. Spoiled!! And, to top it off, she still gets to celebrate with my family who we will be seeing next Sunday for a big Easter get-together!

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Tonight at church was our Easter music. It was beautiful, they really did a good job. Oh, and Cara and I did our Easter song, and I guess it went well, either that or a whole lot of people were just being nice afterwards, cause we got alot of compliments on the song.

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So, tomorrow Ralph has taken the day off work and we go back down to Citrus Heights for one last visit with Ralph's brother, and Tuesday--well, hopefully Tuesday we can be lazy and do whatever we please, cause we are taking the week off for Easter break. The kids and I, that is; Ralph has to go back to work on Tuesday. Somebody has to go to work so I can sit at home all day drinking pepsi and eating bonbons.....

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(Actually I rarely drink pepsi, and don't know exactly what a bonbon is; it's just a silly joke between Ralph and I.)

New Much Better Pictures of Rebecca's Baptism

Ben, a very nice man at church, took these pictures. Aren't they great?

When Jackson gets too quiet....

it's time to go looking for him. Today I went looking for him and here is how I found him. Notice the guilty look on his face:

That is a packet of Baby Alive baby "food" powder. It's not even real food, but I guess Jackson thought it looked like some tasty candy so he quietly cut it open and prompty spilled it all over himself. I bet it didn't taste as good as he was expecting. That boy!!! What am I gonna do with him?