Baptism

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the triplets baptism. It was so nice to have so much family around to show their love and support. Thank you to those who could be there and to those who wanted to be there so bad but couldn't.

It was a very loud baptism with all the kids/babies but it is amazing to me how the spirit can still be felt through it all. I just sat there thinking and praying in my heart that my children would live their lives so that they could always feel the spirit even through the "noise" of everyday life. I am sure that every parent would agree that all you desire is for your children to live righteously and that they will gain their own testimonies of the gospel and that they will share those testimonies, thus strengthening themselves and others around them.

We have had a few struggles here in Omaha and I have to admit that I have been tremendously "stressed" and I do not handle stress very well, I will admit. When I have stepped back from the situation(s), though, and looked through God's perspective I know that it is to strengthen our family bond. I have felt an even stronger desire to keep my family close. I have a stronger testimony of how important it is to make your home a refuge from the world. I want to do more things with my children so they know how important they are to me. I want them to be able to feel an almost tangible difference when they walk through the door into our home.

I am realizing that the older your kids get the more fervent your prayers become. I am so thankful for the strengthened testimony that our Heaveny Father is there and that he will help you through your trials. You cannot go through them alone and He is always there bringing thoughts to your mind through the Holy Spirit to calm you, to comfort you, to guide you as to what to say and/or do.

I love my children! I love my husband! I love my Heavenly Father! and someday, I will look back on these experience we are having and, through God's help, see more of his perspective of why we are here and what we can/have learned. Love to all!

Surprise visit from Kandis!

On Wednesday the door bell rang and when I went to answer it it was my good friend, Kandis, visiting from Utah here for the tripelts baptism this week!!! WOW! I was in shock. It has been a very fun visit. Here we are in downtown Omaha at the Old Mrket Place. It was a beautiful 80 degrees:-) Thanks Kandis!!!

My trio!

Happy 8th birthday this month to my beautiful triplets; Meagan, Chase and Jenna. They are truely best friends. It was so fun to see them interacting for these photos. They made me laugh and tear up with joy and love for them while watching them. They have such a special relationship. So many fun pictures but I only posted a few.
(Thank you to Trinity for making time to do this for us and for her wonderful talent of capturing their sweet personalities)

DISNEY WORLD!!!

We went to Disneyworld this last week and has SO much fun. We met my brothers (Greg, Nate, and Tom) and my SIL's and kids there and had a blast. The weather was perfect (except for Friday mornings 45 min. down pour) and the company was just as great.

Here we all are at Hollywood Studios.

Here are Chase and Meagan posing like Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charles.

My little pirate girls. I love this picture of the two of them.

This is everyone except Tom, Jane and their 3 kids. Their kids are younger and so they did their own thing most of the time then we'd get together in the evenings. It was fun to say "17" when asked how many in our group at each ride.

Here are the kids posing at one of their favorite rides; TOWER OF TERROR! We love that ride. I think we went on it 4 times. Our other favorites are Splash Mountian, Rockin' rollercoaster, Space Mountain, Expendition Everest, Test Track and Soarin'.

Gotta have a picture with Mickey. Tyler claims to be too old to pose with Mickey.

Pinewood Derby time....

Ryan was excited about his car this year. He picked out the design and had fun painting it (with Mom's taping job to help with straight lines). His certificate was for most "aerodynamic".

Ryan's car is second from the left. Out of 4 races he won 1st place twice and 2nd place twice. He came in 6th place in the end...pretty dang good if you take into account there were 26 cars/scouts. GO RYAN!

We are off to Disneyworld in less than 12 hours. We'll post some pictures:-).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

All dressed in green so as not to get pinched, all 5 kids are dressed for school. Actually, after this picture was taken Ryan and Tyler went and changed their shirts so they weren't wearing green and then had me draw a green four leaf clover on their arm so someone would pinch them thinking they weren't wearing green and then they could pinch them back 10 times after they showed them they were.
(On a side note, it looks like Chase needs new jeans...LOL)

Hobbies

Chase put together a spiderman glider with Dad and then had fun outside watching it glide since it was a beautiful 75 degree, sunny day. We thought we bought a kite but he seems to like the glider just as much.

Crazy mom was inside teaching the girls how to cross stitch. I don't know why we decided to do an inside activity on such a beautiful day but the girls are so cute; "Mom, am I doing good?" "Mom, does this look pretty" "I'm getting good at this, uhh mom?"

They have very intense looks on their faces while they are stitching. They are very proud of what they have done so far and can't wait to show Gamma and Grandma when they come next month for their baptism.

From the mouth of babes...

Our brave little sweeties sang "I wonder when He comes again" in Sacrament meeting today while Aunt Karen played the harp and Unlce Paul played the piano. They did fantastic! I am so proud of them! I had several people tell me how they really felt the spirit.
Meagan had the "comment of the week". I was pouring honey from the big jar to the small, squeezable jar for the kids and Meagan says, "That sure is viscus". What? Mom-"What does that mean?" Meagan-"thick and sticky". I asked her where she learned that word and she said they are studying gases, solids and liquids in school right now. How cute is that?!?!?

I love that Jenna and Meagan are best friends. They love to giggle and be silly together.

Chalk art!

Yesterday was a beautiful 62 degree day so the kids drew art with sidewalk chart on driveway. Here are some of the masterpieces....





Tyler's "final draft" :-)

There each chose a square and went to town.

Jenna with her rainbow.

Meagan drew a picture of our beautiful day.

Tyler spent an hour and a half working on his.

Tyler's became a group project at times.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, so these pictures are slightly out of order. This is an "iLove" (iPod) the kids made for their Valentines. I got the idea out of Family Fun Magazine. They are SO cute! The iPod is a box of conversation hearts and the earplugs are mini reeses peanut butter cups. The songs were "You got a friend", "All we need is love", "I want Candy" and "Happy Together".

We made heart shape pancakes with pink coloring and red sprinkles and the girls made chocolate dipped strawberries and yes, that is pink milk:-).

We all ate and then at 8am we brought Dad breakfast in bed...I think he liked the sleeping in part the best though:-).

This is the kids making the iLoves.

SO, as some of you know we got a huge (at least 8 in.) snow storm yesterday. I guess we will be doing some more crafts today and of course there will be some sledding so stay tuned for more pictures. HAPPY VAENTINE'S DAY TO EVERYONE!