Elijah found the DVDs

STINKER! but he's so darn cute... its hard to get mad!

Info- Mercials

We do not have cable. SO, my girls are only able to watch cartoons on quobo which is like PBS. They enjoy them and so do I seeing as they are all good, not trash. But, the twins never see commercials (except when they are at grandma and grandpas and they LOVE commercials) instead they see infomercials- things you can only buy off of TV. Today as I was doing the dishes from breakfast, Arianna comes to me and says that we need a Roto-Tool so we dont have to dig in the dirt with our hands. Its so funny- they know them all and always tell me when the product would come in handy. Like the cell phone clip- they can tell me all the benfits of having one- I couldnt find my cell phone in my purse one day, so Arianna told me I should get the clip on TV because then it wouldnt get lost! Funny.

Pancake Fiends

Pancakes are my girls FAVORITE food- they would eat them morning noon and night:)
I made up this great recipe that works well for us... I mix up all the dry ingredients and store them in separate baggies so I can just grab one in the morning and add the wet ingredients. I used to buy pancake mix at the store, but this is still easy, cheaper and healthier!
Dry ingredients...
Before hand I mix reg flour, wheat flour and wheat germ
all together and then use that mixture for my recipe.

1 1/2 cup of dry mixture
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Add....
1 egg
1 1/4 cup milk
3 Tbs butter (optional)

And I add a few chocolate chips for flavor:)
Super easy and yummy

Elijah Update

My poor little guy has quite a week. Tomorrow will be his 10 month birthday- where has the time gone. This past weekend he went for his 9 month appt and weighs 16lbs 2 oz and is 27 inches long. He had 3 shots since we were a bit behind. Well, that night he got croup SO bad! He was struggling to breathe, so we took him to the ER. Marks parents watched the girls(we are so thankful) so Mark could come too. We spent 6 hrs there with no sleep. They gave him steroids to open his throat and a nebulizer treatment to help him breathe and then monitored him for 4 hrs to make sure he responded okay to the treatments. He did and we were able to go home at 7am. We went home, then to a soccer game, then to a birthday party and we were supposed to go to a play but it was too much on NO sleep. Elijah did okay during the day (we didnt take him all those places- he rested at home!) but by night time he was wheezing again. Sunday morning, we took him back to the ER where they redid all those things and sent me home 5 hrs later. We havent returned to the hospital and he seems to be on the mend.
Thank the Lord!
I am SO ready for HOT weather and no more sickness:)

Elijah is growing up. Sniff.

Can you see his two little teeth? He just got them and can now bite!

He crawls all over the house (army crawls) and LOVES to play with toys and his sisters! He is constantly pointing at things with his little finger and grunting. He loves to laugh and be tickled. He also just learned to clap and wave and raise his eyebrows which makes Mark and I crack up!

He also loves to hit things and make noise. This is the first difference I can tell between having a boy baby and a girl baby! Its great!
If I didnt already have 3 girls, I think I would LOVE more boys!!

Don't we look spiffy!

Make sure to freeze this image in your brain till next Easter since Mark NEVER wears a suit:) Doesn't he look sexy?:)I may be biased but I think I have the CUTEST kids ever!

Arianna
Sophia

Elijah

Ella

Easter Morn

The girls opening their baskets- filled with some candy, a soft bunny,
scissors and a small Tinkerbell toy

Elijah wasn't too sure about what was happening, but he enjoyed his rattles and empty egg.

Don't Hershey Kisses taste SO much better at 6am???

Elijah LOVED the blue easter grass:)

We finished off the morning by going on an egg hunt inside. In each egg were little toys that told the story of Jesus's death and resurrection. Sophia and Arianna know so much about the Gospel and I really think they are getting a grasp on what it truly means to them. I pray that God continues to draw them and I continue to present the GREAT truth of salvation and grace on a regular basis!~

Ella and her Boyfriend

Aren't they so cute! I think they look so alike...

The Blue Butterflies

My soccer stars in their first soccer game! Of course, Ella had to get a picture too:)

Coach Steve talking to the girls-

Waiting for their turn to play- they play 3 on 3

Finally their turn- they didn't score any goals and it was hilarious because I think we were distracting them. We would yell "Go, Sophia" and she would stop what she was doing and look over at us and give us the thumbs up or wave- it was SO funny!

The Three Musketeers:)

Ella wanted to be a part of everything so badly!

Sophia kept coming back to love on Elijah:)

Everyone eating their snack

Arianna took it pretty hard that she did not score a goal. She even cried when another team member scored. Oh my, I think we may have a competitive child on our hands. We tried to emphasize that this is for fun and you dont have to score as long as you had fun.
I don't think it helped.

Easter Egg Festivities

We went to Karie's house to color eggs and share a yummy feast. It is so great to have good friends to share fun times with. Sophia LOVED coloring the eggs.

Arianna took it very seriously. It was cute.

Ella kept putting the eggs in all the different colors over and over and over again. And before we went to the Smiths, she managed to get the egg kit open and ATE a yellow dye tablet!
Can you believe it?

I am a BLESSED mother to 4 beautiful kiddos!

Elijah and his friend Jubilee:) He loved grabbing her face.

All the kiddos eating lunch- there sure were alot of them and there would have been about15 more if all the older siblings were there- crazy!

Thank you, Karie for a great time of fellowship and fun!

Thursday's Concert

On Thursday, I was able to go to a great concert featuring 5 different bands. I went with Jeremy and Jenny Doan and Jeremy's sister and boyfriend. It was $10 a ticket pay at the door so we were pretty close in line and were able to get really good seats inside. (Mark was unable to go since 2 of the kids were sick with colds and we felt bad sticking them with a babysitter) So, since he went to California for 8 days, I got to go to the concert:) We had heard on the radio that Tenth Avenue North was going to be at a Starbucks in town so I was able to go and meet thembefore the concert- they were super nice and ooed and aahhed over Elijah:) I LOVE the above picture!

Tenth Avenue North played after The Afters:)(no picture of them)

Jeremy Camp- his story is amazing, how he met and married his 1st wife knowing that she had incurable cancer. She died shortly after and now he is remarried with 2 kids! He also is a GREAT musician= you can tell he really believes what he sings and he gave a great challenge about truly being on fire for God.

Mercy Me (part of them)- also Hawk Nelson played too but no pictures of them:)
Thanks to Jeremey for taking really good pictures for me
since all mine were turning out really blurry!

MARK IS HOME!!

He's home! He's home! He's home! I am elated! We picked Mark up last night at the airport accompanied by balloons! The girls were SO happy when he got off the escalator and wouldnt let him out of their sight all night and even today! They keep hugging him and saying "I love you, Daddy" Its so cute! I'm glad my girls absolutely adore their daddy! Elijah was so cute to watch too. He kept reaching for Daddy and hugging and kissing him- adorable:)
We spent the day today playing with him! We went down to Highlands Ranch to check out a school for the twins and then went to a cool place called Monkey Business which was AWESOME! It was a HUGE play area for kids up to age 6, and the best part is they have a coffee shop area for parents where they can still see their kids play- awesome! I was a big fan and will be back again.
Mark had to go to soccer practice and of course, the twins went too- they wouldnt let go of his legs when he said he had to go, so they tagged along!
We are so happy to have him home!

Night #5 and 6

Weird but the same thing happened two nights in a row...
2 am- Sophia comes in bed with me
4 am Ella comes in
6:30am- everyone is up
Elijah is really doing well at night- he never wakes up anymore! Every once in a while he cries but I let him tough it out and he goes back to sleep-only one more night and MARK GETS HOME!!! We are ALL so excited!