a glimpse at our lives....and the babies are walking!

julia's 3!

Julia turned 3 on the 13th!  She is such a sweet girl!  She likes to do whatever Katey is doing, but also doesn't mind playing by herself!  She is a snuggler!  And a little love bug!

For her birthday this year, we didn't do a whole lot (we're sort of slightly busy).  We had a little family time and then that evening had a little party with Nana and Tata--with cake and ice cream and presents.  And her Elmo balloon of course!

We enjoyed some Dion's pizza for lunch!

Ashley--happy girl!

Ainsley--not so happy!

Katey--pretty girl!

Mama and the birthday girl!

About to go into Chuck E Cheese...they are so excited!

A little Chuck E Cheese time!  Good thing the place was EMPTY!

All four girls!

Julia had a few "requests" for her birthday--first and foremost, an Elmo balloon!  Second, pink balloons!  Then a strawberry cake, strawberry ice cream and strawberry milk.  She liked all of them except for the strawberry milk!  I think it was too weird for her!  Haha! 

Presents!

Cake time! 

kate's 5!

Kate is FIVE!  We had a pretty small little party since we just moved to Las Cruces and didn't really know anyone yet.  It was just the family--plus the cousins were here from Las Vegas!  Our family celebrated with her with a whole day of fun!  And then we had a princess party with the rest of the family. 

Fun at Chuck E Cheese--it's sort of a tradition! 

Me and the birthday girl!

We also went to the indoor bouncy house place in the mall...they had so much fun! 

When we got home we opened some presents!  Katey did this puzzle in record time...she never ceases to amaze me! 

Here are Katey, Julia and Reagan doing some princess crafts at the Princess Party!

Nana helped make them into real little princesses, make-up and all!

Princess Cupcake Cake!

Um.  I think she liked the ice cream?  =)

Yeah,  I don't think I'm ready for her to have make-up yet!  Ha!

Me and my little Princess!

we are officially "books are" fun reps!

We finally have our dream job!  We are Books Are Fun reps!  Well, mainly Jason is, but I sort of am too since I help when I can!  He travels around to different large corporations (like hospitals) and sets up book fairs in their lobby for a day or two or three!  It's really great! 

I kind of can't believe we're actually working our dream job! 

katey's a 1st grader!

I just can't believe Kate's a 1st grader!   Wasn't she, like, just BORN?! 

We decided to homeschool Katey again this year and it has been such a blessing!  We found this really great curriculum (Timberdoodle) that I LUH-OVE!  I actually look forward to doing school every day with her!  And her genious mind continues to blow me away.  She just has an incredible memory and understanding. 

we closed on our house!

In August, we closed on our house!  It's a foreclosure and has needed a LOT of work.  So between homeschooling, three jobs, four kids, church....we've been working to fix it up!  We're hoping we'll be ready to move in in a couple of weeks! 

ummm....so we moved, FOUR months ago!

I'm kind of in shock at how long it's been since I last posted, and how much has happened in our lives over the last four months. 

So...we no longer live in Vegas.  After 5 1/2 years, we finally got out!  =)  A job opportunity came along in El Paso, TX, and since J's parents live about 45 minutes from there, we decided to pack it up and move the fam half way across the country!

We are now residents of Las Cruces, NM and couldn't be happier!  

easter 2011

We had a great Resurrection Sunday yesterday! The girls were all dressed in pretty pink dresses from Nana and Tata!

Julia and Kate in their pretty dresses!

All four girls!  So pretty!

Julia looking for eggs!

Katey looking for eggs!

Dada and Ainsley!

Mama and Ashley!

Us and the twins! 

guilty!

These girls love them some wipes!  It's a battle for us to keep the wipes IN the container so usually the container goes on the couch when not in use.  But sometimes we forget.

Busted!

this girl is goin' places!

i like cheerios...a LOT!

the bigs with their babies

dancing machines!

This is for you Grandma & Papa!  Ashley's on the left and Ainsley's on the right!  Notice Ainsley's eyebrows when she dances...cute!

water works!

Who knew playing with water and a few plastic containers could be SO MUCH FUN?!


When I told/showed the Big Girls what they were going to do...they were ecstatic!


I spread two large bath towels down, then filled up two plastic containers and one large pot with dish-soapy water, gave them some measuring cups and spoons and said, "Have at it!"


They loved it!  Several minutes into the playing, I heard hysterical laughing so I went to investigate.  They were dipping their foreheads into the water and then laughing at each other!


That should've been my first clue that things were about to go awry.  About 10 minutes later they decided it would be a good idea to dump all the water out of the containers, onto the towels.  Too bad the towels weren't big enough to contain all that water!  *sigh*


The good news?  We now have VERY clean kitchen floors!  =)


Even though this fun activity didn't end the way Mom would've wanted, it was still a great activity, and we WILL do it again!

cutting back is sometimes the hardest

Sometimes we have to cut back, because we don't have enough of THIS:

And here's what I've learned from this little lesson: 

Cutting back is WAY harder than adding on!  

It's so much more FUN to add texting to your phone than having to take it off.  It's WAY more fun to add a DVR service to your cable than to suddenly have to live without it.  

And once you've added the extras on...wow is it hard to have to live without them!  

We are in the process right now of cutting back.  We are in a tough spot with Jason's job, struggling month to month just to make ends meet.  So you would think that it would be a no-brainer that we need to cut back.  It IS a no-brainer...it's just a HARD no-brainer!  One that I've been wrestling with for, well, months now.  I keep thinking, "It'll get better.  It HAS to get better."  But it hasn't.

So a couple days ago I finally took the plunge and took off the texting and internet on our phones.  All of it.  Seriously...before we had it, it was no big deal that we didn't have it.  But having it for the last few months has opened up a whole new, super fun, texting and internet world, right in the palm of my little hand!  And stepping back from that is hard, REALLY hard.  But it's for the best.  I KNOW it is.  Those things are extras.  Big time extras.  

And we're going to live without those wonderful extras for a time!  This is just part of struggling to be wise with our money.  I know that this decision is the more God-honoring one, and that brings a huge amount of peace...and is helping me to be content.  

So if you need to get a hold of me...please don't text, call!  =) 

love them!

 Love my big girls!

Katey girl!  Notice the baby in the background!  Cute!

Julia nut!  She is such a cuddlebug!

Most of the time they just love each other so much!  They're best friends!