This is what Asher and I do after the kiddos are tucked snugly in bed. :)

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There is a reality to my situation. The reality is that I have five children ages 7 and under. So I have realized that because of this reality I cannot maintain a sparkly house all by myself. My realtor told me that she wants to see my house sparkle before she puts it on the market. I purposely chose a realtor who is a "shark" as my mom would call her. She is highly ambitious and a go-getter. She set a high price for my house but in turn she is expecting a lot out of me. At first I was real gung-ho and I knew it was going to be tough, but I was going to make cleaning and prepping the house my first priority. Now reality has set in though. I have five children, the majority being still small, I am a slow cleaner, and my husband (the fast cleaner) is getting ready to graduate from dental school, so he has not been around much to help me. He has not gotten home before nine this week and one night it was midnight. So Asher is stressed worrying about whether or not he will graduate on time (I am sure he will, most dental students go through this), and I was overly anxious about getting my house ready to sell.

I was completely wearing myself out trying to get as much done as possible in a very short amount of time. I was grouchy with my children and our diet was suffering horribly. I did not want to make a mess in my kitchen or reserve the time it would take to make something healthy so I was resorting to eating out almost every day. Then I asked myself, "Why am I doing this?" Answer, to possibly have a buyer before we move. I decided that it is not worth it. Judy, my realtor mentioned in passing that the first little while that a house first comes on the market is the most important. So I want those few days to be when our house is empty. That we can paint with the furniture gone and we can have the new carpet already installed. When I was looking at houses I looked a quite a few of them and only one had the furniture still inside. So I am sure it will be fine. One other reason that I wanted to put it on the market early was because somebody told me that houses sell faster when the furniture is still there because it makes it easier for buyers to envision their own stuff in the house. But I will have to have buyers with creativity and vision.

Today was the first day that I have had the idea of waiting solidly in place and it has been so much more peaceful. I have a better attitude and I can focus on being kind to my children and having consistent discipline with Bethany.

The great thing though is that I have gotten alot of my work already out of the way.

Easter!

This year for Easter we went to Kyle and Betsy's house for our celebrations. Betsy spent the whole morning, starting at 4:30 a.m., cooking for us. It was spectacular. There was mashed potatoes, ham, cheese noodles, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole and that is not even half of it. Michelle cooked and my mom brought stuff too so let's just say there was plenty of food. I brought easter eggs filled with trail mix and pistachio nuts. I started that last year and I love the new tradition because I don't care how much of it that they eat. With sugar I have to monitor that they don't eat too much because they will eat all they can and get a tummy ache, but with nuts they stop when they are pleasantly satisfied and they don't feel deprived.

Unfortunately I did not get any pictures inside but as soon as the egg hunt started I grabbed my camera and headed outside.

The girls love the egg hunt. It is one tradition that I always did every year and we have never missed it either.

I love that face.

I realize now that I mostly followed my little ones around because they are so cute when they are small. Plus I have pictures of my older ones at Easter, but this was Bethany's first real hunt.

This was Kyle helping Bethany.

Papa and Caylee are searching for eggs.

What a sweet doggy. That is Becket (or maybe Emma), Joe and Michelle's dogs.

How sweet!

After the hunt the guys and Betsy took turns tossing the ball around. They started to get a little rowdy though as you can see in the picture down below. It looks like all three guys are trying to catch the same ball but actually Asher is trying to knock it out of their hands. Good times, good times.

So Asher and I were on our way to Witchita Falls for a quick visit when we stopped in back of this truck. Is it just us or is this a really bad business slogan? Service Unexcelled. That could be taken in a way that is positive but it also sounds to us like they have never excelled themselves. What do you think?

March 15 some of the guys from Bible study came over to help Asher fix the fence. I was so glad that got done. There has been a tree pushing in down for probably about a year and I kept telling Asher but let's just say it was not a his biggest priority. Well, we had a fairly big storm with strong winds and our poor little fence was no match for it. It stayed there on the ground until it finally got warm enough for Asher to go out and fix it. While Asher and Mike were out buying some fence panels Joe and Jake helped Caylee learn another lesson on batting. This time she did much better and she practiced enough to where she could hit most of the balls. Those guys are so patient. They are going to make great dads.


Sorry this is such a bad picture. It is the only one I took of all the guys so I just decided to post it anyway. We had a lunch break I went to Taco Bell and got a massive amount of soft tacos. That is what they wanted and it was easier than taking seperate orders.

My mom is helping me out with school so I get to spend more time with my little ones doing preschool. Macy is getting very good at her shapes and colors. She is also getting pretty good at recognizing numbers and letters when she sees them written. She is coming along so well. I think this was the day that my van was in the shop getting a check-up so I stayed a home with the little ones while my mom took the girls to her house to do school. That was really nice because I got to spend all morning playing with them without distractions or feeling like I was supposed to be doing something else. I tend to have the problem that every time I sit down to relax or play with the children I feel like I have something more productive that I could be doing. That is why I don't blog very much.

March 1 we decided to have a family expedition. We all voyaged on over to a back field on the campus of First Southern Baptist Church of Del City, the church we used to attend. I knew about this field from Caylee's soccer days. There are no immediate tall surrounding structures so the wind is quite blustery. I figured it would be the perfect spot and it was. It took Asher a few minutes to figure out the mechanics of this particular kite, but he had it up and going in no time.

















It was hard to tell for a while who was having more fun with the kite, Asher or the girls.


Caylee is helping while Daddy straightens out the kite.

Now it is Caylee's turn.



We had an unofficial school lesson on aerodynamics. The kids were learning science and had no idea.



Natalie asked if she could take pictures while I was flying the kite and I granted permission so we get to see a little of the world through her eyes.









There was a lot of dirt and grass pictures.

I thought this one was creative.













Even Macy got a turn. Asher can be a bit over dramatic at times. After kite flying we all went to Braums and had a light lunch with ice cream. We really try to limit sugar for our children so this was a rare family treat. I do think we appreciate it more since it does not happen that often.

These are pretty old pictures. A few weeks ago Asher spent a little quality time with the girls in the backyard teaching them to hit baseballs. Yes, it is sad but this was their first time really getting any practice with a bat and ball. Caylee did well for her first time because she hit a few, but there was a lot that she missed too.

A couple of weeks ago the weather was just starting to turn nice so I took all the girls to the park after dance. They loved it. We hardly ever go to the park because between our front and backyard and the Wynn's there is lots for the kids to play with. Plus there is always lots of children to play with in the nieghborhood.

I don't know if it is going to show up but the first part of the time that we were there the sky was a spectacular blue. It just felt so nice to be outside after being cooped up all winter.