How do you house train kids???

Okay-so my dog is better behaved than my kids are these days. Today I attempted to clean (and how is it that just when I think I have gotten all the laundry done-There are at least 2 more loads that have magically appeared in the hamper?) and in the midst of the cleaning-my kids decided to tear up some styrofoam out on the back porch and pretend it was snowing. And of course this styrofoam has static cling-so it is nearly impossible to clean. So then I had the brilliant idea of vacuuming the kids to get the styrofoam off of them. Worked like a charm-but then they thought it was so much fun-they went out and made themselves a mess again. Sigh.

Baby Lauren thinks she is a puppy now. She wants to be in the dog crate-and throws a fit when I don't let her eat puppy chow-what a mean mother I am.

She still looks so tiny. She is in the 90th percentile for height-and the 25th for weight. She just looks a lot younger than she is-but it's cute.

New House, New Dog, New Season

Alrighty-

As many of you know-we got ourselves a new puppy. He is the sweetest, calmest puppy I have ever seen. Me & the kids & a friend went to the humane society to look at puppies. Luke wanted a "little puppy he could hold in his hands". Well, when they brought us out several tiny puppies, they were hyper, and crazy-and Luke changed his mind real quick about a little puppy-Emmy concurred. So I asked the lady we were working with what she recommended. She said "I would hate to give him up-but I think we have the perfect boy for you" She brought in Alex, who immediately sat down, and cocked his head and waited. When we put out our hands he came over and licked us. When we told him to sit-he sat. He licked the baby-and she laughed. It was just perfect. Turns out-Alex was brought in when he was just a few weeks old, and someone had pulled his hair out and put him in a dumpster. A huge black man found him about an hour and a half away-and drove in a thunderstorm to bring him to the shelter. The man's name was Alex. The shelter didn't think he was going to live-he was in pretty bad shape. So the head guy at the shelter took him home with him every night-and let him live with him for the last 3 months. He never went in the kennels with the other dogs-he lived under the counter with all the people who worked there. So-he is house trained, crate trained, knows commands, and is so sweet to the baby. He is a big boy-part rottweiler and part german sheppard-so he will be HUGE, but he is going to be an outside boy most of the time-so it should be good. The kids love him-and are still worried that we will be taking him back. Luke wants him to sleep in the bed with him-yeah right. Emma Grace tries to play with him-but when he gets hyper-she's done. Baby Lauren LOVES Alex. she is as sweet with him as he is with her. Considering they are technically about the same age-I am very impressed. Here are some pictures. (I know the caulk in the bathtub looks hideous-but it's on the to-do list) And this is what the house looks like now that Steven has finished painting it. I think it looks fab!

Laying outside of the bathroom waiting for the kids to get done with their bath

What a handsome boy

(Note: the white on his head & ears is where he was trying to help Daddy with the painting)

It's nice being able to bathe them all at the same time

Those are some seriously studly muscles!

She wanted to get out and play with the puppy

The new paint job

The old paint job

The camera is fixed!!

Okay-so I fixed the camera-I think.

I am going to start posting pictures-and take some more when I get home tonight and put them up later tonight.

Here is a picture of us (sans Baby Lauren) at the circus in February.

Here is Emma Grace waiting to Jump Rope with the acrobats. While the guy was holding her and jumping rope, guys were flipping all around her, with thousands of people watching-cool.

Mid Jumping

More Circus-fun with Daddy

Luke man really liked it when they put the 7 motorcycles in the "cage of death" and drove them around-he said he wanted to do that when he grew up!

Christmas morning.

Luke mad at me for making them stop playing with their Christmas toys and take a dad-gum picture-what a meanie!

The first snow in the new house!

Cheese!!!!!

I think Daddy had as much fun as the kids!

What? I'm not gonna throw it at you

(of course as soon as I took the picture-he did)

Sheesh Louise!!!!!!!!!!

Okay-I know I am in the doghouse for not having posted in -almost literally-forever.
But to my defense-our digital camera has been broken and I haven't been able to upload pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get a new camera this weekend. I am going to look anyway.
A little update on what we've been doing the past 4 months.
Lauren will turn 1 this Sunday-the year has flown by. She is walking now, and only takes a bottle at night. She is normal size-but looks younger than she is. People are always suprised when I tell them she is almost 1. But it does make it look cute when you see her walking around-like a little tiny doll baby.
Emma Grace is doing good. She is still the dominant child. But she is everybody's favorite. She is so affectionate, which also translates to passionate, which is not always a good thing:) She is learning how to write her name, as she wants to do everything her big brother does. She is very smart, and loves playing outside.
Luke is still a great big brother. He is big enough now that he helps with Baby Lauren. He really likes doing "manly" things with his Daddy. He really likes school, and loves writing his letters. He is still obsessed with Power Rangers and Transformers. It's pretty cute seeing him do his power ranger moves in front of the tv-very intimidating!
Steven is still doing good. He is still working at the Church Communications company . He is the Sr. High/College Director, as well as the Evangelism/Outreach Director at our church right now. It's a lot on his plate-but he really enjoys that kinda stuff.
I am still the Children's Director at church-and I still love it. Right now is an exciting time in our church's life-there are a lot of things happening-and good things! Our church is Cedar Grove, the church where Steven's Parents have gone for the last 15 years, where Steven did his Youth Internship, and the Church where we got married. We love it!
Well, as SOON as I get a new camera I will post new pictures.

It's that time of year

Well, things are very busy around here-with Christmas programs, parades, and me starting my job at the church-we have been going every day.

Here are some new pictures-warning-there are 3 months worth-so beware! :)

we had Pawpaws 60th birthday party-it was a blast

Baby Lauren can sit up all by herself and play-she has just started crawling as of last night
This is our first attempt at braiding the night before to get the wavy look for church-
not quite perfected yet:)

Emma Grace's scary face-we love it

Luke and Emma Grace being silly-what you cant really tell is that Emma Grace is squeezing the stuffing out of Luke-so he's making a squeezed out face

At our photo shoot in the fall-Luke, as all 4 year old boys do, loves bathroom humor-you can tell what he's doing-gross!

Baby Lauren got some of PawPaw's birthday cake

Mmmmmmhhhhhhh!

Our Christmas Card pic-not perfect-but close enough!!

Emma Grace wearing Mommy's glasses

Pretty Princess

Emma Grace's hair all pretty for church

Fall Fest pics

Well, we made it thru another halloween unscathed-well, we do have some residual face paint from last night-but other than that.......

We had a great time-we went to Steven's work for a luncheon where everyone-even the grown ups were dressed up, then we came home and took a big nap-then we got re-dressed & make-uped and left for the fall festival at church-we stayed there a few hours-winning candy-dancing & jumping on the inflatables-then we left for MawMaw & PawPaw's where we met up with a few of our cousins and went trick-or treating for the first time-it was super fun!! The weather was PERFECT, and the kids really enjoyed themselves!

Here are some pictures from last night-if you can't tell-Luke-of course-was a power ranger, Emma Grace was Tinker bell(we lost her wings somewhere in the preceeding weeks), and Baby Lauren was a Bumble Bee-she actually did really good with not messing with her costume!

We're so happy it's fall and we can wear our cool winter stuff!

We're so happy we'll even hug each other-madness!

Beautiful Tinkerbell

See my pretty makeup like Mommy

The whole Trick or Treating Gang

Mid trick-or-treating

I know, I know-I am a terrible mother-but she seemed so sad without any candy of her own

And look how happy she is now!
We're half way done

All done, and back to MawMaw's to sort candy

Happy Fall Ya'll!!!

Okay-I know it has been a really long time again since I posted last, but it takes about an hour to upload photos with this new internet we have, and when you have 3 kids running around all the time-rarely do I have the time-but I will try to do better:)
Things around here have been great. It's finally gotten cold here, which I love-it makes me feel a little at home ( I grew up in Seattle). The kids seem to like it too, they have loved putting on their gloves & coats to go play outside. Luke, of course, has power ranger gloves-silliness!Grandpa & Granny (my dad & stepmom) came a few weeks ago, and we had a great time. I, unfortunately, did not use the camera as much as I should have-and have no pictures of the kids with their grandparents. Granny did take some pictures-so when I get a copy, I will post them.We are still having a GREAT time in our new house, and I still don't have pictures to put up-but I promise I will soon. We love having our own space again-and a yard to play in-it's fantabulous!! We definately feel at home here-it's a perfect first home for us-and by first home, I mean the first home that we can say is ours-not the church's.

Here are some new pics-Enjoy!

We went to the city park by where Steven works-it's fabulous! We try to go have a picnic with Daddy at least once a month. If you can see behind Luke-the caterpillar is a set of money bars/ladder type thing that you climb on-Luke climbed the whole thing by himself-people at the park were impressed by my mighty 4 year old!

Queen of the Jungle Gym

Daddy helping Emma Grace on the Monkey Bars

Emma Grace looking like a big girl with her headband on.

Picture of the kids with their outfits Granny & Grandpa gave them (Halloween)

Emma Grace and her buddy Evan at Luke's birthday party

Oh my goodness----Luke is OBSESSED with power rangers!

Emma Grace is excited for Daddy to get home

Baby Lauren after eating prunes!

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday (Emma Grace now has a full body rash from the hay:(