Randomness

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! I got several very sweet cards from each kid, my mom and my husband. I got a dozen red roses from my husband and kids, a clay pot and photo album from Cobe, and a picture frame with Brooks' picture in it from him. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Yesterday was the last "real" BSF- next week is a fellowship and sharing night, but no lesson to prepare for it. It seems like I won't know what to do with my Monday nights from now on- 32 weeks of BSF each year. I always look forward to all that I will learn, even though sometimes I dread going. I am blessed each week that I go. Next year is the study of Moses, so I hope I can work out going for my 5th year. Tonight we have another baseball game- we play the Braves. We are heading out the door pretty quickly to make it to that. Some pictures:

Lynette emailed me this one of Cobe from the game on Saturday- thanks Lynette!!!!!
Brooks accomplished the goal of learning to ride his big "2-wheeler" and he is proud as punch that he can do it. It is torture to get him off his bike now that he knows how to ride it.

Brooks' "girlfriend" Kennedy got to spend some time at our house yesterday. She is in love with Brooks and he likes her too, even though I only overheard him telling Cobe that when he didn't know I was listening. He won't admit it to me. :-) She's a cutie!
Sadie was pretty thrilled to have her here as well. Sadie, Kennedy and Maya

This was what Brooks did everytime I tried to take a picture. Kennedy was begging him to get in a picture with her, but he refused. She kept saying, "I really want a picture of us together Brooks for my mom." So cute! Mister sly-guy kept hiding behind a broom so I couldn't take one! He was WORN OUT last night from having to show-off for her all afternoon! After she had dinner with us, he asked when she was leaving. It whipped him trying to impress a girl for a full day! :-)

Exhausted!

I'm whipped tonight. We have had a busy week- parades, crazy work schedules, baseball, etc. It has all been fun, but I am paying the price tonight. Today started with Cobe's 9am baseball game. I first swung by Rodney and Liz's to see the baby and pick up Landon to take to the game with us. That baby Olivia sure is a cutie! I can't remember any of my babies ever being that small (which they were) but my brain can't comprehend taking care of such a little peanut! We went to the game- Brooks was thrilled to have Landon along to play with! Those two are cute together. Cobe got "walked" every time up to bat- never hit one, but he didn't strike out either. ;-) His team won again. I'm hoping for his sake his winning streak continues! I left during the 6th inning to rush over to the high school for Maya and Aliyah's dance recital. Unfortunately, I was exactly one minute late and walked in the exact moment Maya's ended. Ugh! But at least I got to catch Aliyah's and Josee's and several of my students' dances as well. We left there, came home for lunch, and left again for the parade. Sadie loved every minute of it. We cut out a little early from the parade, headed to Meijer to pick up a few groceries, went and checked on the new house, delivered some jewelry from my party last week, and came back home. Two guys came from Ada to buy my china cabinet and hutch that I re-listed on Craig's List Thursday night. After they left, we ran and picked up some dinner. See why I'm tired? :-) I made a jello salad for tomorrow's lunch in there as well at some point. After the kids' bathed, I put them to bed- it was 7:42. Funny thing.... they are all quiet as mice and needed to be in bed that early I think. And I'm heading there myself REALLY soon.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mothers I know. Being a mother is definitely the toughest job I have and the hardest role in my life, but it is also the most rewarding. I can never thank my mom enough for all she has done for me over the years- sorry for never appreciating it enough as I was growing up. I had NO idea what you had to do to keep our family safe, happy, healthy, well-fed, well-dressed, active in sports and church, doing well in school, ETC. ETC. ETC!!!!!! THANK YOU MOM- I now appreciate it more than you know!

I also pray for those mothers who have lost children and those children (no matter how old of a "child" they were) who have lost their mothers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Recent Pictures

Here is the only picture I could take of Cobe today- he wore a hat this morning, a hood at the parade, and hid from me numerous times. I caught him by surprise to snap this one as he ate his lunch.


This is Sadie the other night- I was trying to get a picture of Cobe and he wouldn't let me. She is always a willing model.
Presley came over this morning, and we had a blast with her. The girls played so nice together and were SUPER easy- I didn't have to intervene once. They are so cute together. We went for a walk, then they played with babies or "went shopping" the rest of the time.
And Brooks was quite the ham at lunch. He was saying all sorts of stuff to try and be funny so Maya and Sadie would laugh at him. He posed willingly for me, so I thought I better take advantage of his good mood and turn it into a photo opportunity.

Can you believe this head of hair? She is scary! Such wild hair and it matches her wild personality. After lunch, we put pigtails in to calm down the mane a bit.

It has been a fun day so far. I didn't have to work today, and the kids had a half day for Tulip Time. Presley came over this morning to play while Kristen went to her ultrasound. (I am not going to spill the beans Kristen b/c I noticed you haven't posted your news yet!!!!!) We had plans to go to the parade, but it started POURING. We nixed those plans, but about 1:30, it stopped raining and we decided to go for it. So glad we did- the weather was perfect for a parade and Lisa had put down blankets so we had good seats. Wendie and Missy brought plastic bags/tablecloths and put those on top of the wet blankets so we could still sit on something dry. The parade seemed short, but the kids enjoyed it and their trip to the Peanut Shoppe for candy & treats! After the parade, we went to Chase's and picked him up. He came back here to play and the boys are in the basement now being loud. They played basketball for quite awhile before coming inside.

Another showing tomorrow... SPONTANEITY people! SPONTANEITY!!!!!! At least our house is still clean from Monday- just a little wiping down/straightening up to do tonight after the kids go to bed.

Tomorrow is another half day- I have to work though. This weekend brings more baseball and another parade, and hopefully I can make it to Aliyah and Maya's dance recital as well. We are having a mother's day lunch after church at Jen's, as well as celebrating Jake's and Braelyn's birthdays. Looking forward to the weekend and to summer- only 16 more days of school and 4 of those are half or delayed start days! YIPPEE!!!!!!

The Haircut

No, this is not it.....


Boy, oh boy, did we have a traumatic 18 hours at our house! Cobe got his hair cut last night and you would have thought the world was ending. His hair has needed cutting for some time now, but he wouldn't agree. He finally agreed on Sunday that he would have it trimmed. Well, I called Lisa and told her to cut it all off once he got there, which she did. She regretted it though and felt like it was her fault that Cobe was so upset WHICH IT TOTALLY WAS NOT HER FAULT!!! But I knew how she felt, I felt horrible for making him so upset. He said he was so embarrassed to have hair that short because his ears were too big. Poor little guy got his mama's ears, but they are not nearly as bad as mine were. He looks adorable to me with his short hair. He was so happy when he got home from school and seems to really like his new short do now. It only took him a day to recover! :-) Brooks was so sweet and said to me in front of Cobe, "Mom, I really like Cobe's new haircut." I think he thinks it is cool now. I will have to try and snap a picture of it tomorrow- he was not about to let me do that today!!!! The picture above is from Jennifer -thanks Jennifer! She took it of Cobe on Friday at their walk-a-thon celebration. This was the last picture taken of him with his long hair.

Cobe had another game tonight- his team beat the Orioles 13-1. He scored a run and had a good play at 2nd base as well. He was up to bat 4 times (walked three and struck out once). He seems to be getting the hang of this game. It was a fun night because Lynette was there, Tonya was there, and Medendorps were there because all of our boys were playing on different fields. So I enjoyed myself since I could run my mouth! Grandma and Grandpa Hains even made it to the game. Grandpa got beaned with a foul ball from another field- hit him right in the hand and then hit his knee. Ouch! We left the game and met up with Jen and her boys at Old Mill for ice cream with Jim, MJ, and the Hains. We took Landon and Bailey with us, and Chase and his family met up with us there as well. The kids had a blast wrestling in the grass. Cobe's team plays Landon's team on Saturday morning- the rivalry heats up because both teams are undefeated!!!!!! :-)

We had yet another showing yesterday. We did not even want to bother- it is the same indecisive family that has already gone to see Amanda's house 3 or 4 times. They have 4 kids, so I already tried to tell the woman our house would be too small for them. But she arranged it with our realtor, so we had to show it. Ryan cleaned the house from top to bottom before we found out it was definitely this woman, so I felt bad that he put so many hours and effort into cleaning it. It really is frustrating when you know you have a showing for someone that you know doesn't really want to see it. I think Kyle said this lady's realtor said he has shown them over 60 houses, and they still can't find one they like. Hmmmm..... seems like to me they must have more time on their hands than I do! I have decided that people need to be more like us, the Bells and the Lauritzens- see something you like- boom- make an offer that day! :-) Why can't someone be spontaneous with our house?????? Aaaaahhhhh, I can only dream about what it will be like to never have another showing again -EVER!!!!!!

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow or the next if I can sneak in a picture of my little boy's cute new haircut!!!!!

Brooksie's New Skills

Here are some pictures of Brooks on his little bike. He is already a pro and can pop wheelies! He is quite comfortable riding without training wheels even though he has only been at it a few days. The next step will be to get him on his bigger bike. :-)



Is this a proud face or what???????

We have had such a great weekend- CALM which is why it has been great! Saturday Cobe won his 2nd baseball game (6-2), so that was the highlight of the day. The fireworks were canceled once again Saturday night b/c it rained all afternoon/evening. So we stayed home. It was nice to be home with just us. This morning, we went to Sunday School and church and then over to Knollwood to see the progress on our house. They have drywalled the entire house and are ahead of schedule. It is looking good! We hit Subway then headed home to eat. Sadie went down for a L-O-N-G 4 hour nap, and Lisa and I went for a walk. Cobe went to Onstott's to play. When I got home, Tina, Luke and Micah came over which was nice b/c I haven't seen her in forever. We got to catch up and chat for awhile, then Ryan and Jason took Cobe, Brooks and Jake golfing. Sweet! Free time for me! We were going to go downtown to Kinderplaats and to take pictures of the kids in the tulips (for the calendar mom!!!!), but once golfing was suggested, off they went! Fine by me... the tulips will be there tomorrow, and I didn't know that Sadie was going to sleep until 5 o'clock! She is still in snuggle mode and is on the couch with blankets watching Little Bear. I am going to go try and throw something together for dinner so it will be ready when the golfers return. Hope everyone has a great week!

The Slumber Party that Wasn't

I thought we would be going to Cobe's baseball game tonight and then meeting up with some people for the Tulip Time fireworks, but the storms predicted changed those plans. It stormed mid-afternoon, so the fields were too wet to play and it is storming again now and raining hard, so I guess it is a good thing they postponed the fireworks until tomorrow night. It was a beautiful afternoon though after it stopped raining. Once all of our plans were canceled, the boys both wanted friends to spend the night. So Cobe invited Chase and Brooks invited Evan to come over. All was well until it neared bed time. They had all had so much fun- the big boys hibernated in the basement, and the little ones had been riding bikes outside, then watched a movie upstairs. But then Evan decided he wanted to go home, and Chase decided he wanted to go home as well. Cobe ended up going to Chase's to spend the night instead. No, we aren't mean to the kids when they are here- I promise! :-) They both just got a little homesick.







Sadie had a fun day with Kendall as well. They play very well together. Sadie was worn out tonight after trying to keep up with the diva all day! ;-) Rob said Missy did very well during her surgery. I hope to talk to her tomorrow to hear her say how easy it was so I can have it done!!!!!!!!

Brooks surprised me tonight and showed me that he can indeed ride a 2-wheel bike. This has been a touchy subject because he has never been interested in learning to ride his bike without training wheels. Cobe was 3 when he learned, so I kept pushing Brooks to try. He had absolutely no interest... until.... we went to his bike-a-thon last weekend and Evan was riding a 2-wheeler around like a pro. It must have sparked something in Brooks because he had been practicing all week by himself without even asking us for help. This afternoon, he called me outside, and he took off on his bike. I could not believe it! So he got to show Evan tonight when he got here that he now too can ride a bike! Boy was he proud! He hasn't showed his dad yet, so he is saving that surprise until tomorrow morning.

Cobe has another baseball game tomorrow-don't know yet if the fields will be dry enough to play on. His coach seemed to think that they may still be too wet, so we'll see. I hope he gets to play! We will try to go to the fireworks tomorrow night if the weather cooperates. Tulip Time equals rain every year for some strange reason!!!!! Have a great weekend!

A Favor

If you are reading this, can you stop a minute and surround Missy in prayer? She is having her Lasik eye surgery done today at 1:30 and of course is nervous. Please stop a moment whether you know her or not and pray that the surgery will be a success and that Missy will feel a calm due to the many prayers that surround her. Thank you!