Judy's house...

Chloe

Amber

Kendal

Amber

Brandy and Grandma

Bree's room mate  (Sorry can't remember your name...  :(  )

Bree

Gracie has already found her cell phone...

I guess I can expect to see one of these plastered to her ear

for many years to come..  ;)

Amber

Chloe and mommy..

Auntie and Cassie

Wordless Wednesday!

Some old pictures of my girls in Williams Lake about 10 years ago...

For more Wordless Wednesday...
click here!

Kids are what makes Easter go round...

Ok, Bree...for real..no more procrastinating this time...
By the way, I figured out why I wasn't happy with my pics..
I had hit the AF button on my camera..
Still trying to figure it out...LOL!

Chloe

Amber
(She is my adopted daughter...)

Steve and my grand daughter Cassie

Daughter Gracie

My son Jeremy and Grand son Talon

Best friends...

Ok, sorry kiddo, that is all I have time for now..
I'm off to the library..
I know I should be more excited..but it usually just wears me out..
The kids get excited, and then have tantrums...
and everyone else's little angels..
sit and behave through story time...
while mine...
Well...we will just leave that one alone...  :)
Let's just say they are high spirited...
Have a great day everyone!

Can I start a controversy?

So....not being one to want to start a controversy, I thought I would ask you ~ my readers,  a question...

This morning I was reading a post over at my friends blog.. TyNy Family Updates
and she was discussing the merritts of whether you were a better mother, and more patient
as a young mom, or a first time mom over forty...
I believe the word they used when I had my son was "geriatric"
Give me a break...LOL!

Well...I have a kind of unique perspective on this whole thing of course,
being as I couldn't do ANYTHING in the normal or expected way,
and had my first three kids when I was in my early twenties,
and my last two once I hit 40....
Not that I think my experience is the only answer,
but it is unique...don't you think?

So here gos...
Just my experience.

I find that I am a more patient mom now then I used to be...

(I am sure my girls will want to add their two bits...LOL)

It was funny, but the day before I read that post, my hubby and I were discussing
how different we are now as parents...
I have a lot more understanding when my kiddos don't react the way they should,
I react less to the whole tantrum thing...In fact often getting the "look" from
other parents who think I should be "disciplining " my disobedient babes...
Often also getting looks of contempt when I say things like
"You will live - your sisters did...." when they throw themselves on the floor in writhing
screaming temper..
Not to say I am always patient when they throw fits..LOL!
If you want proof...read here..
and most of all I find I laugh a lot more at their "bad" behavior...
I don't care if they are perfect in church..
or if they are always clean, or if they have been eating dirt...
(What is a little extra roughage...right??)
If they eat change off the floor..
I just take it out of their allowance...  :O


I am definately enjoying being a parent more...
I know how fast they go away from home...
(all three of my oldest are now on their own)
and I know how I felt "empty nest" even when I thought I wouldn't.
I discovered I LOVE being a "over 40 " mom.

Not that I always find it easy...
I don't have as much energy,
so the sleepless nights are harder,
I have more health problems then I used to have..

Overall...I have found the whole experience interesting...
That being said, I am not sure if it is my age that affects my experience?
Or if it has been the school of hard knocks...
And I am VERY SURE that as I mature in the Lord,
I am changing daily into someone VERY different from who I used to be..
Also of course, I am NOT a first time mom...
So I can't speak from that angle..
I have already learned some hard lessons,
and feel very blessed to be able to fix some things
(So I can screw up something else...LOL!)
That's OK...As I told my daughter Brandy yesterday
When she brought over her new boyfriend for supper,
If I embarrass you to much...there is always counselling!!!

So...Weigh in on the question..
Let me know what you think.

For LIL Ole ME??

Sienna from Hon, what's for dinner
just presented me with this award!
It has literally been ages since I have received one
of these, and so Sienna...You really made my Monday
morning!  If you get the chance head over to her digs,
and check out some good ole "down home country cooking..."
I gain weight just looking.....LOL!

In the meantime, the idea of this award is to pass it on
to 12 of your fav bloggers...So...here gos...
This is gonna be hard...

While you wait.....What do you think of my new digs??
I had to change things around a bit, as some of my long time readers
were having trouble seeing my other template on IE....
Oh, blogger, I love you, but you need to work out some of the kinks dudes...

So, I digress...onto the awards...

1) One of my oldest blogger friends...
Barb @ Skittles Place
2) Nugglemama's Handful
3) lowercase letters
4) My perfect little world
5) Webbisodes
6) Living the life of Riley

OK BLOGGER...You are starting to annoy me... (Just told me I am not a member of
One of the Jones....)  I should let my husband know...LOL!

7) I'm a full time mommy

Ok, this is getting hard...My baby keeps spinning my chair around
so that i can read Elmo Loves you to her...

8) One 2 Try
9) Midday Escapades
10) The Chronicles of a Veteran Kindergarten Teacher
11) Things I can't Say
12) How are the Harmons

Ok...So I hope you enjoy your award, don't forget to pass it on to 12 of your favorite bloggers...

Happy Monday!

Temporary Template difficulties...

I tried a new blog template, but I will be changing it, as some of my long time readers
are having difficulty reading it on IE....
Please be patient with me, while I try to rectify the problem...
Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, it will be back to normal..
Or as normal as anything gets around here!

I'm such an idiot...

I took pictures for my family on Easter Sunday with my new Nikon D-90..

and was frustrated by the quality of the pictures...

I haven't used that camera since...

until today, when I realized that I had it on Manual instead of Auto focus..

~Smart I know....~

Any ways Bree...Here is the start of them

Daughter Brandy with my grandson Talon, and my son Jeremy

Daddy and Autumn Grace.

Chloe

Daughter Krystal and boyfriend Steve...

Daughter Bree

Grandma and Grandpa Jones saying grace...

Nice look Grandpa! LOL!

Brandy and Grandpa..

To the rest of you...Thanks for your patience 

sitting through all my family photos!  :)

I brought my kids to Sobey's and lived to tell the tale...

If you read my post from a couple of days ago,

You know how I feel about shopping with my kids..

Some of you expressed sympathy

laughed uncontrollably at me....

while thinking "that would NEVER happen to me...

(You obviously haven't had kids yet...)

To you all I have to say is ...

MUAH HA HA HA..your day will come...

(Except for Sienna  bless her heart who completly understood...)

Well today, I brought my little princess for her first ever swim lesson,

and she ROCKED...

Where the other little ones were crying and hanging on to mommy/daddy

for dear life, 

My little girl was diving in on her first try...swimming laps around the pool...

(OK...so I'm exagerating...but she sure wasn't scared of the water...

and she had a blast..)

Grandma watched big brother on the pool side, 

and took pictures, Hopefully avoiding me in my swim suit...

Mostly because I threatened her with permanent babysitting duty if I 

saw any pics of me online.. (kidding..)

We took the little ones to McDonalds afterwards for lunch..

They had fun till Jeremy got stuck in the big toy

and Grandpa had to climb up and rescue him...

Where is a video camera when you need one..

I would have loved a picture of Grandpa with his feet sticking out of the kiddy slide!


Afterwards Judy wanted to check out Sobey's dollar days...
WITH MY KIDS...WITH A KIDDIE CART
after I just sworn two days before I would never do again...
and what do you think they did?
THEY BEHAVED!
Thanks kids...make a liar out of me..

Right now my son is outside with my hubby and my FIL doing "Man stuff..." as he put it...

Someone vandalized our gate to the back alley..

It was on its last leg anyways, 

so Jeremy and Daddy headed out to the "man store" aka Home Depot

to pick up drill bits, and some wood.

then to work...

Daddy's little shadow "helped" by measuring everything in site...

stepping on Daddy's foot when needed 

and shining the flashlight ...all over...

He was quite proud of the fact that mommy and Gracie

weren't helping cause it was only for the men....

His next goal after helping daddy and grandpa with the gate..

is to build a car.......

Meanwhile...Gracie helped mommy, by trying to pick up 

ladybugs and squash them...but I didn't think you really wanted a picture of that...

So I leave you with one last picture of our future carpenter...

Meet My Grandson...

I don't have much time to post today so

I thought I would introduce you to my grandson Talon!

(Or Tallon Ballon as I like to call him...)

Tally is three months older then my son (3)

My daughter and I were pregnant at the same time..

In fact I was her labor coach...

and was present at his birth...

What a rewarding experience!

Tally is a great kid,

Loves cars, and sports

and his baby sister.

He and his uncle Jeremy are the best of friends..

He is a pretty easy going guy

Love you Tally!

Easter Sunday...

Yes, I know...

Easter was a couple of weeks ago now, 

but I have been procrastinating..

I don't suppose anyone else knows what THAT is about??

This is my grand daughter Cassie...

Isn't she precious??

I think so, but I might be bias...

Pastor Doug is hiding in the background...

For those of you who are new readers, 

I have to briefly explain what my Easter Sunday was like..
I had a BAD morning...
Has anyone ever noticed that church mornings are some of the worst?
Well to make my morning more difficult,
We were visiting a church we used to go to ~ Avonhurst Pentecostal
(Great chuch by the way)
and Kendal wasn't home to help me,
(He was helping out on sound and had to leave early)
I dressed up Gracie REALLY PRETTY..
However, they were being rotten little angels
creatures from the deep..
and by the time I got to church Gracie had pulled out her pretty pony tails
and stepped in mud up to her knees...LOL
and I was so stressed out, I forgot to take off my slippers!!
 Good thing I wasn't out to make first impressions..

She looks like her mommy...

This is my friend Kim...
I keep wanting picutres of her African outfit..
She picked it up when she was on a Missions trip last year..

Tomorrow Bree, I promise I will TRY to get to the pictures you want...
I will not procrastinate...I will not procrastinate...I will not...
(What was it I had to do??)

Now, I am off to take my youngest to her first ever swim lesson...
I am NOT looking forward to being seen in a swim suit...
I can promise there will be NO pictures of that...
RIGHT JUDY?