Today our precious C.J. turned 5! We had big plans to celebrate this milestone year, but God had other things in mind! Instead of our yearly family indoor swimming celebration, we were snowed in with 30 inches of snow. So, the older siblings promised C.J. they'd build him a snowfort. He was a good sport and seemed to be fine with that change of plans! That morning, instead of our dinner celebration with Aunt Kari, Uncle Stephan and Bernadette we had a special family breakfast of waffles, bacon and eggs.

Then, last night we got another foot of snow so today Daddy was home again. So, we had more time outside in the snow with a special cookie baking session in the afternoon. Up above you can see the kids outside enjoying the mounds of snow. And below you can see that the mound of snow is taller than C.J.

After a fun time out playing in the snow while Daddy did more snow shoveling, they came in to decorate the sugar cookies that C.J. and Lela had made earlier. And, boy did they have fun eating, I mean, decorating the cookies!

Here they are hard at work...Karis even participated! At first we thought she didn't like chocolate, but it grew on her. After the first few tries she started to eat the chocolate chips.

Drumroll please! Presenting the masterpieces: Up firstwe have one of C.J.'s special creations.

Next, we have our only cookie with words made my Lela along with one of Nate and Justin's masterpieces.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY C.J.! We love you and are so enjoying watching you grow up. One thing that you have been really into the past few weeks is chess. Every spare moment you are asking if you can play chess on the computer, play chess with Brianna, play chess with anyone who's available? Daddy was amazed at how much you really understood. Another thing that you really enjoy is doing workbook pages at the table, doing crafts with Lela, playing Star Wars action figures with Justin, playing superheroes with your brothers. Mommy really enjoyed snuggling with you the other night on the couch...Daddy said we were snoring!

Daddy was looking forward to your Super Hero birthday party this weekend, but due to the snow he decided that he'd rather postpone that until next year and he's planning to do something special with just the two of you sometime soon. We'll also plan to have an indoor swimming party closer to Lela's birthday and make it a joint thing this year. Right now you are playing chess with Daddy and then we're going to watch a movie at your request. Hope you've had a special day! We love you!

SNOWMAGEDDON 2010: The beginning half of February has been full of snow.

This is the front yard. The door is to the right.

This is our view out the backdoor into the yard.

This is the bush that has been broken and ripped apart in our front flowerbed.

This is a snowdrift in our front yard. It forms a peak like a mountain.

This is a monster icicle hanging off the front corner of the house. We've already knocked one down from here.

This is the view from our house looking out at the parking lot. Our van is there to the right. The snow is so high and the top of the van is snow covered. Therefore you can barely tell it's a van. The tops of the vehicles are barely visible because the snow is piled up so high.

Here we have the kids at Pop's! This is before JeJe went to pick up the Trout kids. You can see Justin, Lela and Nate in the background on the couch all facing the same direction. GUESS WHAT THEY ARE DOING!? You guessed it, watching TV!! Brianna is too busy talking, jabbering and putting on a show to watch television. :o) I believe that C.J. is in the rocking chair facing the television that you can just barely see the back on in this picture.

Brianna is posing! JeJe (my mom) said that Brianna took over for Nana. She said that Nana was always talking and laughing and Brianna is the same way. She truly is a joy to have around and constantly keeps us laughing. Some cute things she's said that I'm remember right now are:
1. "This is not Texas, this is JeJe's house! " Nothing was Texas as far as she was concerned.
2. "I'm not the Mommy, Mommy is." to herself at church as she walked along with her bookbag.
3. "I'm not hungry anymore." meaning she doesn't want anymore of whatever you're trying to get her to eat.
4. "I want Mommy" when I left her in the nursery on Sunday morning. The sweet lady working in there tried to talk to her and she spit at her with a horrible look on her face. I was horrified! She did not stay in the nursery after that. Now that I think about it I should've had her go back and apologize to Miss Tammy.
 
She never meets a stranger and is so expressive. I guess that has it's plusses and minuses!

After my week in Dallas visiting friends me and Karis met Mama, Kirby and the rest of the kids in Mt. Pleasant to visit Pop for the day. The Trout kids came over, too, so the cousins had a blast playing together. For lunch Pop treated us to some real Tex Mex cuisine at Two Senoritas. Thank you, Pop!!

Here is Pop enjoying some sweet time with his great-granddaughter, Karis Elane.

On Thursday, August 6th Karis and Mommy set out to spend the night with Uncle T.J., Aunt Sonya and Cousin Samuel. Samuel was scooting all over the floor, dragging himself anywhere he wanted to go. He actually had his first taste of dogfood while we were there. Thankfully his daddy rescued him almost immediately, but I'm sure he'll be visiting Neville's many more times before it's all said and done. While we were there Karis was sitting up and playing with Samuel's favorite orange toy ball, watching Baby Einstein and watching Samuel scoot around. I think she learned a thing or two from her cousin because it was only a few days later when she started doing the same thing!

Watch out, Samuel, here I come! Take note of Neville in the background. He had distemper when he was a baby and now his tongue just hangs out of the side of his mouth. It is so cute and funny! He's a sweet dog and my sister loves him just like a kid. He prepared her for motherhood because she had to get up with him all through the night and feed him from a bottle. The vet didn't think he would live through it, but obviously he did.

Samuel Keanen Barron: What a cute baby! I'm such a blessed Aunt and Mommy!

Can you see Karis' mosquito bites? 1...2...3!

This is Samuel's favorite toy! They took him to Babies R Us and this is the one he latched on to. Karis thought it was a good one too! We had a fun time playing and Sonya's mom came over to see us, too. It was a short but sweet visit! We are looking forward to seeing them again on the 21st to celebrate Samuel's ONE YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY!

A few weeks ago at Lela's Gems Retreat a sweet young girl was asking if she could hold Karis. The whole afternoon she pretty much held Karis. She eventually asked if she could be my mother's helper this summer. During the weeks that followed I kept seeing her at church and being reminded that I needed to talk to her mom. Well, it has now been arranged that she is going to come over 3 times in the next 2 weeks to help me with the kids. I am just amazed at God's care. This happened right as we are finding out that Jeremy is going to be working overtime for at least the next 2 wks, meaning that I will have the kids all by myself everyday, all day, until they are in bed. My sweet mother's helper will be bringing an activity to do with the children and I'll be able to do some homeschool preparations for next year before we head out to Texas in August.

 Thank you Jesus for meeting my needs even when I don't know what they are!

Just had to share some pictures of our sweet Karis Elane.  She went with us to the Spy Museum, because, well she goes everywhere with me...she is such a joy!  They don't allow strollers in the museum, so I carried her in my Ergo carrier and she was wonderful.  She slept for a lot of the time and never fussed once.  

This past Wednesday we took a trip with some friends to the International Spy Museum in D.C.  We met up at the metro and rode down.  Lela enjoyed her Little House on the Prairie book, Nate kept his eye on the map to make sure we were staying on track and Justin, of course, spent his time playing with his friend, Matthew.  He's the socialite of the bunch!  When we got to the musuem, we enjoyed some quick fast food from home before heading in to tour the museum.  The boys really got a kick out of all the gadgets, the secret tunnel and did I mention there gadgets?!  Nate is really interested in Ninjas right now, so he was excited to find out that there were Ninjas featured inside.  Unfortunately they do not allow photography, so all we could get pictures of was our metro ride and outside the museum.

On Memorial Day the kids had a blast playing with their friends, riding the carousel and the train around the park.  Here are a few pictures for you to see the activity.