31...

colors of paint!  The brother in laws arrived and Preston gave me an early Birthday present.  We're kind of funny that way.  Some of us are really early, some right on time and some are given with Christmas presents:).  We started of the day with some delicious Applesauce pancakes.  One of these days we'll make the apple cider syrup too. There was a lot of excitement and a lot of noise!  Here's the quiet version with pictures...

Kiersten with Nana and the Polar bear travel buddy.

Preston reading some hilarious western books for kids.

Kiersten riding Polar.

Garrison holding Penguin, the other travel buddy., wearing his Sask Roughriders jersey and holding his moose spit soap:).

Caleb wearing his soccer jersey and holding his dog team drool soap:).

This will help to give me more variety with what I can paint.

Kiersten thought these jars were the best. 

He sang her to sleep:).

My first painting with the new colors.

Lego with Uncle Kirk!

We found this one held together with a marshmallow.

Devotions-Saul chases David.(Elyssia is one of the discontented that joined David).

Caleb was the distressed one that joined David.

Hiding behind the cave.

The messenger tells Saul where they are.

Hiding in the cave...

Shhhh...

Saul taking a nap in the cave.

David is advised to do away with Saul, but says no.

He cut off a piece of his garment.

Holding it up, Saul shows repentance.

Saul taking a nap from chasing David again.

David and his "men" take his spear and water jug.

On top of the mountain showing Saul what they took.

  The kids were really crazy to start off with, probably because they had a bigger audience, but it was really good once they settled down.  For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.  I would never have imagined myself eating tomato soup, but I've come to enjoy dipping my grilled cheese in it:).  For supper we had homemade Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken, cabbage rolls, braided bread and a delicious chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. 
  It's 4 minutes to 8 and all the kids are asleep.  There's family to visit with, so I'll sign off for now.

All work and...

very little play, make for a mama that didn't make the favorites list.  We spent the majority of the day preparing the house for our family to visit.  The kids like to have really clean rooms, they just don't like all the work it takes to get it that way:).  I'm continually amazed at how quickly it goes from "spotless" to total chaos.  I'm sure there will be times when the kids are grown that I think about how it was nice to be busy, but today I think, "I should have stopped for tea, cookies and an hour's worth of snuggles and book reading".  So thankful that this isn't my everyday reality:).  I didn't even stop to take pictures, so I must've been too busy.  I'll probably make up for it while the family is here. 
  The kids were sure happy to see Nana and Grandad arrive.  They love hopping around in the bags that hold their sleeping bags and seeing what books and cookies Nana has brought for them to enjoy.  I was surprised that they didn't put up more of a fuss over bedtime, but it has been a pretty long day.  I imagine there will be a lot of noise tomorrow when they wake up to find the Uncles here too:).
   The only other thing of note was that I gave Scott a haircut after supper tonight.  The attachment clip broke but I was still able to do okay with the boys.  Scott, on the other hand, ended up with one spot a little close to the head. I didn't cut him, but I'm thankful that he has a little while for it to grow out before pictures:).  I'm not sure if I'll post a pic of it.  I think that I did it once before when I first started doing his hair, but the clip is pretty safe.  Anyway, he had a LOT of hair on the floor when I was done.  I can't remember when I cut it last, but I think it was before Christmas!  I don't usually go that long, but what can I say?  We got busy...
  So, it's after 10 and the guys haven't arrived yet.  I think I'll head to bed and read awhile.  Have a great weekend everyone!

The to do list is getting smaller, kinda...

Well, today we got a bit more cleaned and a couple more things checked off our to do list.  We had more time to do play dough and some experimental cooking/baking.  The wonderful helpers were back today.  Our first task was the much needed cleaning of the microwave.  I should probably have this on my weekly to do list, but we're doing our pre-spring cleaning and we'll probably do it at least 2 more times before spring is over:).  The constant activity makes for a lot of extra clean up, but most of it is worth it.  We had another photo shoot and the extra sunlight allowed me to capture their eyes, without the annoying red.  Here are some of my favorites:

Tired of pictures Caleb?

If you enlarge, you can see the real blue color of their eyes.

Nice shadows from the sun.

Talking about something...

Ahhhhh...

What's that?

Awww...

Kisses are nice!

He adores her.

He's looking soooo big here.

He's started kissing the back of her hand like a gentleman, not sure where he saw it.

She's kissing him back:).

Love these faces.

So handsome, so busy...

Aha!  The clean microwave.

The kids wish the microwave could live someplace else.

Silly

Intense

Thoughtful

Funny

I'm sooo scared:).

My first time to make strawberry shortcake.(the cake part) Delicious!

Devotions-David plays his harp for Saul.

An angry Saul throws his spear, which looks suspiciously like a hockey stick.

Jonathan comes and befriends David.

Friends

Well, that's all for today.  We're expecting family tomorrow, so I'd better get a good night's sleep in order to be energetic for tomorrow's final cleaning!  Another week coming to an end...