Sunday game time

After church today it was Hungry Hungry Hippos, Pick-up Sticks, Polly Pockets, and legos. Can't forget the legos.

jacks

She's growing up

Thoughts on peace

I heard a woman talking about peace yesterday and I've spend much of today with her words on my mind. She said it's misunderstood. We seek after it.. ache for it even.. when in reality all we have to do is give in to it.
I've wondered about this all day. Is it really so simple? I understand that happiness is often.. ok maybe always.. a personal decision. Is peace the same way?
I believe that God wants our happiness above all else. His peace is a part of that.. but in the chaos of my day how do I find it? Peace and quiet are just not possible in our home. So I have to find peace without the quiet.
I do ache for it some days. I feel frustrated by the mess or the children bickering and peace is a stranger. Other days I feel a lovely, still place in my heart despite all the crazy going on around me. Those are good days.. So tomorrow I'll choose peace. I'll give in to it. Accept the gift. I want it to be that simple. I hope it can be..

Ty

picnic at the park

shooting into the sun

I just can't resist it. I love shooting into the sun and someday I'm going to figure out how to do it right!! I want all the sun rays without the haze. There must be some kind of post processing...

dress up

For dress up today we had a brides maid, pirate, wizard, and dragon all playing together. I got invited to be the grandma.

parenting

It's getting harder you know... this parenting business. When they were babies my frustration was simply lack of communication. "If you could only tell me what you need or want I will gladly get it for you!"Now they can tell me exactly what they need or want. Oh no, no, no.. that is definitely not the problem anymore.
I've decided it all comes down to teaching self control. Controlling one's thoughts and words and actions seems to be the key. But before I can teach it, I have to actually do it myself. Heaven help me!!
The deeper I get into this parenting business, the more convinced I am that being a parent has less to do with raising them and much more to do with becoming a grown-up myself.

If one is good...

then more must be better.

Love the smirk!

The swing

We bought a garden swing a couple of years ago and have loved, loved, loved it! It's the place we go after the kids are in bed to talk about our day and just be alone together. It started looking pretty shabby so I decided to recover it. Here's to many more years of swing time with my awesome husband!

gulls

Deep Sea Fishing

Brent did this..

So we could eat this.

I love living in California!

the ice cream man and I are not friends.

The kids got allowance today which means they waited for the ice cream man all day to blow their money. Never mind that I have several kinds of ice cream in the freezer as we speak.
I had to laugh at how readily they pose. You can tell their used to a mommy that takes pictures. Hey, I just had an awesome idea! They should put that "ice cream man jingle" in smoke alarms. My kids would bolt out of bed and be out the door in the dead of night... problem solved.

Super Lauren

Strep Throat

Oh yeah, I've got it. Day number two of unlimited Phineas and Ferb, kids running amuck, and cold cereal for dinner. We just keep on keepin on..

neglected

My Awesome Sis and my MIL both pointed out to me that I seem to be neglecting this dang thing. And it's true. In the turmoil of our move, my blog has been on the back burner for well over a month. In an effort to do better I told my Awesome Sis I would do another 30 challenge. No stress about writing anything.. just thirty days of pictures about our everyday life. So here's picture #1.