guns for girls

thanks, ben, for letting us shoot YOUR gun, with YOUR CO2, and YOUR paintballs!

target:sister: shoot...shoot: miss...miss

abby: shoot...shoot: hit...hit just as a side note: abby is one of 5 sisters...pretty impressive if you ask me!

thought for week of march 29

No man can do me a truer kindness in this world than to pray for me.
~C.S. Spurgeon

EPIC

the new teenager word around here...EPIC

in case you're wondering, here are some uses: epic game, epic dinner, epic hoodie, epic car...anything over-the-top amaaazzziiinnnggg!

and this, my friends, is a visual of EPIC:

and (this is a quote straight from steven, the proud owner of this...um...g.l.o.v.e.) "Do not let the duct tape fool you this glove still has nasty scooping abilities". ok-whatever, mister., all i can say is: it's so EPIC!

Definitions of epic (n)
*long narrative poem: a lengthy narrative poem in elevated language celebrating the adventures and achievements of a legendary or traditional hero, e.g. Homer's Odyssey
*elevated narrative poetry: the genre of poetic epics
*large-scale production: a work of literature, cinema, television, or theater that is large-scale and expensively produced and often deals with a historical theme

Synonyms: marathon, heroic, classic, larger-than-life, impressive, ambitious, grand

at first i was a little confused w/the whole 'historic', 'narrative', 'legendary', 'literature' definitions. but then...oh!!!...i saw the synonyms and knew what it really meant: larger than life! impressive! grand! and my personal favorite: classic!

thank you, encarta, for clearing that up for me

kids again

this is such a cute song...if you can find it on itunes, it's worth a listen!

kids again...chris rice

have we all forgotten who we are?

when will we all grow up and loose our heart?

we gave up our innocence and energy.

remember how we used to be

when we were young and running free?

ok, everyone get outside and play

give the sun a chance to kiss your face

let's play chase and let's pretend

c'mon, grab another hand and skip along

and laugh the way we did when we were young

c'mon, let's all be kids again!

how 'bout those summer days and simpler times

watching the clouds parade across the sky?

we had so much more back when we had less to loose

that's the mystery of being young

go ride your bike, go climb a tree

lunchboxes, crayons, tie a swing

jump with a friend into the creek

and hey, you might just skin your knee.

make time for catching fireflies, lie in the grass,

smile at the sky, don't be afraid to laugh or cry

more bedtime prayers, more asking why

daffodil

Liv came running in the house yesterday "a daffodil!!" It really IS spring!!

rice cakes

ok. i'll admit it. i luv rice cakes. i have a bag in the office for when i need a little snacky. plain. stale. dry. yummy. don't get me wrong, i like the salty, buttery, non-stale ones better...but i'll eat them any way you can serve them up. rice cake lovers of america~admit it~it's so freeing.

happy spring? yes, happy spring!

the first day of spring on saturday it was beautiful here-sunny and 75. today this is what's going on...again!! but it helps to have optomistic kids:

as i was taking this picture...

liv was writing this...

love your positive outlook, liv!

ears pierced

after 12 years of waiting...mady get's her ears pierced. she barely flinched. i probably would have called PAIN and worked it for the next day, at least. but that's not how mady rolls.

the doctor made ME put the marks on her ears where the earrings would go. i guess without tort reform i could sue her for trillions if they were a little crooked!

dr. ungerleider...the first ear (notice she's still smiling)
she still wanted to hold mommy's hand
(i was so proud of livie...she took this and i didn't know it-thinking like a true photographer)

done. yipee!!

wish i was a bird

if i were a bird, i'd want to live in his house made by livie in shop class. love the color of the front door!!

mady & ben turn 12 3/17/10

that's one way!

well, one way to clean a fridge (& freezer) is to have no power for 3 days and have to throw everything out. look at this baby...never seen it so clean!

flooded basement, march 13

while we were in chicago, there was a huge storm and trees were uprooted, huge branches cracked off trees, power went out and basements were flooded. we had 3 (no uprooted trees). we weren't home. the older 2 kids were. they were amazing! since we had no electricity, our sump pump wasn't working so we got water. the majority of the work fell on our kids and they were great. i just have to say this: THEY HAVE AMAZING FRIENDS!! it's been said that you find out who your true friends are when there's a crisis (although a lot of them had their own flood issues-some even evacuated!) some of the real ones jumped right in (not literally, though i wouldn't put it past steven!) to help clean up. and so did ours. we are very blessed with the people in our lives!!!


anywhoo-here are some of the pics that my daughter so wonderfully took (it was actually one of my first questions when i heard -"are you taking pics?" "YES, MOM". (make sure you use the inflection of stupidity when you say this) (i have NO idea why this is underlining!)

chicago, chicago

from 3/10-3/15 ed and i went to the midwest. he had a conference wed-sat. so...i went shopping-duh! and while we were there, some of the kids from his graduating class organized a get-together for those who had graduated 20 years ago! 20 years out of medical school!!! it was a lot of fun to see so many of them again. i just love hanging out with my sweetie!

(taken from the 'waiting, lounging' floor of) the hyatt chicago turning the river green for st. patty's day-neat! (taken from our room)

paintball. saturday, march 6

finally! jake took ben paintballing with his friends. he had a great time but didn't realize that getting hit was going to hurt so much. man up, bud.

orderly

i just had a 'duh!' moment. i'm thinking that since i haven't blogged for about a wk or so, how i was going to organize my pics to put here. (that sentance is a grammatical nightmare!) i definitely want to post what's been going on because my Life 365 is taken directly from here but...and here's the 'duh, lor!'...you guys have no idea in what order things are happening so what do you care what order the events are in, right? right.

isn't this hysterical??!! and cute in his own little way!! i actually know someone who looks like this. don't ask.

thought for week of march 15, 2010

Don't let anything distract us from seeking God though His Word and prayer.

baking at 9pm?

what kind of girls decide at 9pm that they're 'bored' (they should have told me~i would have found them something to do!!) and they want to bake. these girls...these sisters...these weird children! well, at least i know i'm doing something right...they took pictures ;)

follow the rules!

the kids were making joe corby's pizzas and i was cleaning up my desk with my back to them. all of a sudden i hear jake say, "Liv! Follow the wall rules!" what? apparently there are 'jake rules' for the way you put your sauce on the crust. if you look closely...very closely...you can see that liv's sauce got on the side of her crust where it's raised (therefore the 'wall'). oh, jake, lighten up, would ya?

snowy day craft (2-16-10)

always a craft to do at our house!

karen's "new" house 2-19-10

isn't this gorgeous?!! i walked in to her newly remodeled condo and thought she got a new couch, new chair, new flower arrangements, etc. it's beautiful! so much more 'karen'! she's such a 'cozy' girl...always ambiance galore...especially the candles! i wish i would have taken more pics but, hey, we were busy scrappin...and watching the olympics! ;) thanks for having us, karen...you're a GREAT host!!