Delights my heart and brings me great joy

6, 4, 2

These three little girls are so sweet and cute and fun together (at least today, right now). They spend a lot of time together, without supervision, because I spend a lot of time in the school room with the older kids during the day. These three can make the biggest messes you have ever seen in one room - and then struggle the rest of the day to clean it up. These three can be so creative and imaginative. I watched them yesterday as they played together outside. I watched them this morning as they pretended together in the living room. It was so delightful and I had to smile as I listened to them - even the littlest as she spouted off how she was afraid of the snakes in her bed and she was so scared, but then a little while later she was the queen of the guardians of gahoole. I love these girls with all my heart and wish I would figure out how to be a better mother for them, teaching and guiding them with more patience and tenderness. I just had to treasure this moment - for the moments seem to pass me by.

Building creativity

They love to have me take pictures of their creations.

I love to see their cute little faces smiling!

Not sure what's up with the bow.

Growing and on the move

She is still growing and getting so strong.

Trying to stand on her own!

Mommy!

Not quite ready to walk on her own, but so close.

RoseMarie loves it!

Well, I guess it only makes sense but she loves ice cream and ice cream cones. What a special treat and she just really enjoyed it! I love the way she's holding it, eating it, enjoying it and everything!

Another budding artist

Is it a left handed thing or what? She is my third left handed kid and she loves to draw and color and anything creative. I love to watch her try to do new things and it's so fun to see what she comes up with. Today she is trying to copy animals out of the book and she is having so much fun!

Really full day

I am not sure why we had pancakes this morning but

someone made me this special one!

And it was delicious with strawberries and whipped cream!

Xiomara made muffins,

but she forgot the flour.

Oops!

Biology project for Benjamin - awesome cells.

Injured butterfly becomes a wonderful experience for all of us.

What fun - bath time for baby and Emily is a big helper!

She loves the water,

and hates getting out of the water.

Dining room project

Kevin is working on redoing one of the exam rooms at the office. The flooring that he used was nice and easy so he just decided that today (9/1) was the day to redo our dining room floor. So here are a few before pictures... The sub floor was causing the sticky tiles to get worn and pop and crack.

We pulled it all up and took it outside. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned the floor. It is uneven and some of the boards are very warped. We should have put a new sub-floor on first, but that would have taken more time and money and we were just ready to put the new floor down, so that's what we did.

And it looks amazing! It truly changes the look of the room but I think we will have issues with the floor because we didn't put the sub-floor on. Oh well.

I decided I wanted the walls yellow so that's what I did. Kevin was gone so I just stayed up late to do two coats of yellow paint. Unfortunately, it probably needs a third coat and I need to paint the trim and ceiling - but the walls took all my time so I couldn't get to those yet. The doors also need to be painted, so we'll see how long it takes me to get around to those.

Marissa cleaned the light fixture pieces because they were so dirty. They sure look nice when they are cleaned up.

I eventually let the older girls help. They were thrilled and excited to be part of the project.

The mostly finished project! (9/8) New wall paint and floor and I love my dining room. How fun to have a little change in our lives and we just love it!

(May 18, 2019 Note: We did this project all backwards. We needed to sand all the trim woodwork down before doing the floor. We needed to paint the ceiling, trim, walls and so forth before we did the floor. It is really hard to want to finish this project so it still isn't done.)