spring has sprung..or is it summer???

Thursday morning I was hanging out the laundry and here was this little sweetie sitting in the woods (where we have a campfire ring) singing ever so sweetly.

I try to keep myself from taking SOOO many pictures sometimes...and simply enjoy the moment...but I see how fast this time is going for these little ones to be at home with me. Then I think how will I remember this moment if I don't snap a picture?? How is this journey through motherhood so very frustrating one hour and so very blissful the next??? Just that morning I was wishing for one hour of non-conflict. William was struggling to get the dishes put away from the dishwasher. He was letting the forks talk to one another than the spatulas were swords...and so it went for 1/2 an hour. I was wanting to get on with the day to go on a walk and play and him to be done..so I could put yet another load of dishes into be washed. But there he was taking his sweet time. So I set the timer for 15 minutes for a job that should have taken 5 minutes. With an explanation if the dishes were not done before the timer went off, we would get the golden rod out. I was out hanging out the laundry and I hear this moaning cry coming from the kitchen....

The timer had went off and he was not done. I hate when that happens. What is supposed to be the motivator to follow through with a job...turns into what he must have thought was a bluff. HATE to spank. But I also want to mean what I say when I say it. So in we went. See what I mean??? Blissful out here with smiley face and frustrating inside with the dish boy. As soon as I spanked him, he came to me hugged me and said he was sorry for messing around. I love that he is still at such a teachable age...such a soft heart.

We finished our work indoors and headed out for the rest of the day. Pure joy to be out after such a long winter.

Yesterday was in the 80's and we jumped the gun and got the kiddy pool out. It kept Suzy entertained for about 2 hours. It was so fun to listen to the joy and laughter.

Friday morning we were invited to join Marlys and Jessica for breakfast at E-haus.

Jessica had just drove in the night before bringing Grandpa's car home from Florida for them. Rod and Jessica were just in town for yesterday morning and then heading to Indy for a wedding Jessica was singing at yesterday afternoon.

Love Love Love these girls. We had so much fun.

Love this. Jessica told each of the kids they could pick one candy. How sweet...they were all pleased as punch. So fun!!

Quote of the day

by Jack yesterday at breakfast

Jack: "My water is all gone, I could use a beer."

Ummm...You forgot the "ROOT" part of the beer JACK!!!!

William Lewis

What I was doing 5 years ago today......having a wonderful c-section. Welcoming our 3rd baby into this world. See them pulling back on my tummy to get him out? Pretty cool...eh?

William Lewis

April 22, 2004

8:02 a.m.

8 lbs. 13 oz.

21 inches long

We named William for my Grandpa who was named after his dad.

My Great Grandpa...isn't he handsome?

And these are my maternal grandparents.

Isabella was 3 years old & Jack was 1 year old. It was so awesome to see the look on their faces when they met their new baby brother for the first time. Looking back on these pictures...I'm wondering how did we do that....3 that were 3 and under??? O.k. well I know how we did it...Just how did we manage the day to day?? Maybe that's why the nurses kept looking at me funny.Loved packing him up in his car seat for the first time...to take him home.

Ohhh...the power of pictures. I can almost smell this little pumpkin looking back over pictures of him. I would love to squeeze this little William at this stage just one more time. Yummy!!! He was such a good, good baby. I remember being amazed at how fast he would fall asleep. We would lay him down in his crib and he would fall asleep usually before we got to the door. He was so laid back even as a small newborn. I was shocked since neither of our first 2 children were like that. William is still my most contented child.

Wow....fast forward one year...

...and this is what we were doing. Already one year later, how did time fly so fast? We celebrated William's birthday in our basement apartment we were renting while our house was being built.


And then another year flew by....

and he is in love with tractors. Loves them!!!

William my handsome 3 year old.

Oh my goodness here comes 4 years old!!!

and here comes 5.

Last night my sister came over to bring William a gift...since we have small group tonight. We made a little celebration with chocolate pie. William's favorite.

I'm so blessed to be this little boy's mama. He is a bright spot in my day. I love his cheerfulness, and helpful spirit. He is often looking for ways to help me. I can remember one day a while back when I told him to get ready to go to the grocery store and he got his shoes on and then went and got mine...and lined them up right in front of me so I could easily slide them on. He loves to please. This week Suzy was helping me carry up frozen hamburger from the basement and when she got up here her hands were very cold. She was fussing and complaining. I was busy with something else....but when I turned around there was William with her one cold hand in the two of his warming her hand up for her. He was asking her, "Is that better Suzy? Are your hands warm now?" I wish I would've gotten a picture. William reminds me so much of his dad. He is so delightful. He loves to learn and is a self teacher. He just keeps working at something until he learns/memorizes it. Isabella and Jack have been teaching him addition, and he gets it. He really gets it...I can't believe it. So last night Jack and William were doing addition flash cards. And blow me over William beat Jack on some of them!!! What a guy. Neither of my oldest caught on to math that quickly.

Here is a quote from William while we were in the van headed into Goshen.

William: "Hey, this is the way we go to the baby shop."

Me: "the what?"

William: "the place where you get the baby out of your tummy.

Me: "Ohhh...The hospital."

William: "Yeah, the hospital."

day 9, 10, 11, & 12....of Florida

Promise this is the last post of me reliving my Florida days....some of you wanted to see this last couple of days so here you go...

Day 9...shock of all shocks I know --we went to the beach. Smile smile smile. It was a beautiful day and so most spring breakers were there at Siesta also. It took us about 20 minutes to find a parking spot..and another 20 minutes to walk to the beach from our parking spot. Even though we were at the beach early...by 10 a.m. Well not that early...but early if you are on vacation...right. But it was a good work out...and lots of great things to see on the long walk there.

Jack spotted this sight first....

Not something us Northerners see...ever.When we got to the beach...we met up with cousins. What a blast to watch the kids play and catch up. Pictured above:
Andy & Danielle, Donovan & I, Jenn & Randy

Donovan was in charge of entertainment...and gave the kids rides on the boogie board. Almost like sledding only with water and sand.

That evening we were invited over to Rod and Jessica's since they were not able to make it to the previous get together at the park. Loved eating outside....loved eating Jessica's good food....loved not cooking....

Loved laughing until my cheeks hurt...love these people.





Day 10....Jessica hooked us up with a pool of a friend of a friend. Great fun to play in the pool. I was surprised how Suzy would jump right in like she did last summer. She went right under, it was great. I thought with age she would get a little more fear of going under. But she loved it, as long as I had my arms out to catch her, and counted to 3. William on the other hand has no fear and more than once that day I pulled him up...because he went to far walking until he couldn't reach. He would get scared and then about 20 minutes later go for it again...venturing out to deep. I'm hoping swimming lessons will give him the boost to swim independently this summer. Isabella and Jack were in the deep end diving for pennies.

Later that night we went for dinner at a sea food restaurant. Isabella and Donovan both ordered fish. I had some yummy chicken.

Day 11 was Easter Sunday. I had Easter goodies for the kids and they opened those before we went to church. I love the excitement they had of opening their little surprises. I love the fun of getting them dressed up. We also did the Easter story through Ressurection Eggs this year. It was a neat way to retell the story of Jesus dying on the cross for a young audience. It had a huge impact on their little minds.

Easter morning we went to Abundant Life Fellowship, the church where Donovan's first cousin is the youth pastor. Also 2 other cousins attend there. It was good to be in a church with family on Easter morning.

After church Danielle and Andy invited us over for lunch....with all the trimmings.

Let me share the menu with you....

Ham

Mashed potatoes

& Gravy

Corn and green beans

Hot rolls

Mac & Cheese (for the kids)

and Pie
Hello!!! It was awesome!

The above pictures shows our kids toasting with Sweet tea...to the awesome lunch. It was so cute Austin (their oldest) even said prayer for the kids table. I didn't hear the prayer...but for days after that William repeated how Austin prayed....."Dear Jesus, Thank you for dying on the cross." Isabella informed me that, it was how Austin prayed for Easter lunch. It's pretty cool when your kids learn from their cousins a prayer like that.

Our hosts.

After lunch the kids went outside for a water gun fight. It was around 85 that day. How awesome to be sitting outside soaking up the Florida sun.

That evening we were also invited to another Easter Celebration with Donovan's Aunt Wilma and Uncle Reuben and their family. It was such a bummer to decline...but we had a lot of junk to pack in our trunk that night so we could leave at a ripe hour of 3 a.m. the next morning.

How sweet that Aunt Wilma brought down an Easter basket for our kids with 4 of everything for our kids. How very very thoughtful of her....thanks Aunt Wilma. It was a great way to pass the time the next day.



Day 12 came and we got up at 3 a.m. we loaded up the sleepy kids and headed out. It was a great driving day and we had no traffic or weather problems. Which was a huge blessing. One sad, sad moment of my driving was to pass this great and awesome place without stopping.

Esp. since I still have a gift certificate to use from Christmas! Well another day I guess. The first 2 days of being home I have to admit were pretty depressing. Just getting into the swing of things and getting back to reality. Now Donovan he loves the trip home. Loves to be home. The man is a home body by nature. Me...well I think I would've stayed in Florida (if not for the cash flow issue) for another week. I just love to travel. I just love to be in a new place. The reality of back to the grind was just a little hard for me. But after a couple days...and catching up on the unpacking and laundry, seeing friends and family and I was happy to be back in my nest.

How do you do coming off of vacation?

vacation days 6, 7, and 8

Day 6.....Was cold!~ So we headed off to the Aquarium. What a bonus...we googled coupons for the Mote Aquarium and found $3 off per person. Which was the deciding factor for going. COOL!

SO GROSS..But the boys were fascinated! I thought things that looked like this were only in the movies.








My favorite part of the aquarium was watching the jelly fish. They are so transparent, beautiful, and so deadly. It was so cool to learn more about them. Some of my learning came from my daughter, who has read so much about marine life and esp. jelly fish. Am I smarter than my 3rd grader? Probably not. I loved watching my kids learn hands on!

If you look close you can see Nemo.

Touching tank.

Pretty cool sharks.

Sting rays, that have been snipped so they can not sting.

Lovin' it!

Day 7-

still a little chilly.....so this morning we colored Easter eggs.

After the Easter eggs....we headed off with a picnic lunch to the
The John Ringling Bridge. Such a beautiful morning for a walk.

Half way on the bridge, watching the boats.

Made it across!

I love how my girls love each other. Not always do that skip around and hold hands..they have moments. But this morning they were very endearing.

After the walk across the bridge, my monkeys asked to climb this great climbing tree. Then we sat on the park bench for a picnic.

Just before this picture was taken we were watching the ocean and saw just beyond the shore...a dolphin. He was swimming so close to the shore. When we looked closer it looked like his fin was clipped...maybe by a boat? We're not sure. And as fast as I was with my camera I could not get a good picture of him. Bummer! But it sure was cool to see him!


Later that day....My cousin Jenn & Randy offered to babysit so we could go on a date. How very very generous! We were due for a break after a 20 hour ride in the van with 4 kids...don't you think??? We went out to St. Armands Circle for dinner at an outdoor cafe and then later went to the beach for a walk.

No, we didn't take a photographer with us on our date. If you are wondering we had a tripod.

Some of my favorite shots from that night.

I'd like to get some of these enlarged and hang them in our room. I'll add that to my to do list for next week.

Day 8

Yes!!! Warm enough to go to the beach!

I don't know what William is saying to Suzy but I love the looks on both of their faces. I love Suzy yanking up her shorts...that are just a little too big. What do you think the big brother is telling her??

Working hard...because my husband has a hard time sitting still. Fine by me. :)

This little girl was due for a nap. I wasn't sure how nap time would work for her. I just know that when she misses it, we are all miserable. While on vacation I wanted to be flexible...but really who wants a fussy 2 year old to contend with? So after lunch, I told her it was time to lay down. She did! It was amazing.

We put her under the umbrella and after about 15 minutes off she went to sleepy land. I was beyond excited. It just made the magazine I was reading that more enjoyable.

Later that night we had a picnic at the park with Donovan's extended family that lives there. I adopt them as my own. I love them so much.

I was in awe of all of the beautiful green. All the beautiful landscape there is in Sarasota. One of our children are missing from the above picture. He is busy finding something.

And then he came running to me to show me.

This sweetie pie...is so endearing. Thank you William for thinking of your mama.

Jenn, Me, Danielle, and Wynette

My fun cousins. You girls are so sweet. Thank you for hosting us with yummy food and loving me.

All our kids....as you can see the girls are outnumbered.

More to come. Hope your not getting tired of vacation pictures. Because there's 4 more days to talk about.

Quote of the day:

William: How did he get alive when He died on the cross?

Donovan: It was a miracle-God is all powerful.

William: Jesus looked weird with all that blood everywhere after he got off of the cross.