Darren and Becky!!!

Jared and I were blessed to be a part of a beautiful wedding joining two precious friends. The creativity flowing from this wedding was abundant.

The decor was breathtaking

every little detail was thoughtfully prepared

Beautiful sign was a gift from the groom to his bride

This table made me tear up, beautiful

The venue was breathtaking

The couple, so in love

The decorations, perfection!

My husband asking his daughter to dance, priceless

Congratulations Darren and Becky!  Thank you so very much for allowing us to be a part of such a special day.  We pray for many many many years of happiness.

Need You Now

Loving this song, Loving how God reminds us that we are not alone. We all have a story to tell. The biggest lie Satan convinces us of is that we are alone.


How many times have you heard me cry out, God please take this...



God I need you now

Please stay, stay right beside me with every step I take.

Graham Ryker Is 7!!

**I scheduled this to post on the 16th.  Not sure why it didn't**

March and April bring big changes in our home.  Mom, then Anneliese, Now Graham, and soon Elijah.

Our tiny weirdo is 7 today!  That is unreal.  He had such a rough beginning and just a few weeks after his birth my dad passed and this little man brought so much comfort to me.  His bright smile and silly spirit brought light and smiles in a very dark time.  I will always be grateful to God that he gave us Graham at exactly the right time.

From this:

To This:

Our goofy little boy has had us giggling from the beginning.  Love you Graham Ryker!  I can so see you being the next Tim Hawkins, making people laugh til their sides hurt.

Happy Birthday Anneliese!!!

Our tiny girl is 4 today.

Wow, how is that possible?

She asked for a Ninja Turtle cake, of course....

We had a birthday part for "the littles" on Sunday.  They had so much fun, and we had a house full.  19 in all between my mom, the Altics, and the Rice clan. 

I remember when...

I love you baby girl, when God brought you to our family He made all our dreams come true!

They Have No Idea

This morning brought tears and frustration.

I let the kids sleep in until 9 due to the time change.

I was up before 7 since we have Gage today so I went to work on the kids' school tubs.  I sorted, cleaned, rearranged and then pulled their school for the day and wrote down all their instructions.  They each had a nice little organized pile waiting for them as the came upstairs.

Brennan came up first.  He was tired but pretty agreeable.

Elijah was next.  He had the scowl that beats all scowls accompanied by tears streaming down his face.  It took some coercing, but I finally figured out what was wrong.  He thought it was terrible that he had just woke up and had to do school immediately.  He had no time to play or watch TV.

While still dealing with Elijah's meltdown, Tanner wanders up.  He immediately says, everyone else is having Spring Break this week.  Why do we have school?!  "Everyone" is apparently his cousins.  I told him I have considered taking a Monday and Friday off for a long weekend but we aren't taking a full week because I want summer!  I would rather end the year a week early.  So then he looks at his list of work.  He read ahead in his History and Science and has already finished the text books for this year.  So you can imagine his frustration when he saw them listed in the "To Do" list.  He has struggled with the Chapter check ups and obviously hasn't had great retention.  So we're starting the books over.  We have a good 40 lessons left and he thought if he rushed through he could basically have 1/2 days for the rest of the year.  Cue the water works, now two of the four are crying.

Graham comes to the table and immediately starts complaining of neck pain, arm pain, foot pain, dry throat, anything that can get him time away from school.  He's in 1st grade so his schooling takes a hour at the most start to finish.  Now 3 out of 4 are crying.

I am seriously considering a week following the public school schedule.  At 9 am (the time they woke up, not when they started school mind you), while they are crying, all the other kids have been up for hours and at school for one hour.  My kids complete all their subjects/work in 3-4 hours.  They spend a large percentage of the day playing.  They play video games, Legos, watch TV, do chores, play outside, run errands, walk the Legends etc.

I'm not sure how I would do it, but I believe waking them up in the wee hours of the morning to shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and show up at the table by 8am may do the trick.  

36...37?

Monday was my birthday. 

This is the first birthday I didn't really even think about until it came. 

No great plans, no expectations. 

I am looking forward to the littles birthdays.  Anneliese is 4 on the 12th and Graham is 7 on the 16th.

Sunday I talked to H.B. who shares my birth date and couldn't even remember if I turned 36 or 37.  I had to think about it for a few seconds before I remembered it is 36.  I'm exactly twice his age. 

Monday morning I had sweet Gage at 7am.  I opened the door and he yells, "Happy Birt-day!"  His sweet mom, Mindy D, brought me gluten free brownies.  Seriously, I haven't ever known anyone quite like her.  Always concerned and loving and aware of everyone's needs.  Thank you, you made my day.

The rest of the morning went pretty much ordinary.  I started on some laundry only to hear a thunking in the dryer.  Curious, I pulled out a pair of jeans only to find Tanner's iPod touch.  The iPod he saved a year for and handles like a new born kitten.  It was a terrible mistake on both our parts.  He is so responsible and careful.  I did a load of jeans and didn't check the pockets.

I told him and he was devastated.  Not wanting to upset me, he sat at the table quietly as tears poured down his face.  UGH! I immediately got online and researched what to do to give us the best odds of it working again.  I placed it in a bag of rice with silica packets from our vitamins.  I placed it on a heating pad for 2 days.  We didn't try to turn it on.  I read turning it on wet could fry the mother board.  But I washed AND dried it.  Today was two days of "drying out" and today I plugged it in and against all odds it works.  Not a single glitch.  Jared and I both said, "Praise God!"  His mercies are new every morning.  I am so thankful our little man didn't lose something he worked so hard to earn.

Papa ended up coming over Monday evening so we could go to dinner and a movie.  It was a great uneventful birthday.  Jared and I chatted about our lives together and how much we've changed over the years.  So thankful for where God has us.  Thankful for our church, for our family, for our friends, for our home.  What is there to be anxious or upset about turning 36 or 37? 

God is good! 

Goings On

I have not been on here in forever!  Please forgive me for my vaca.  It has been a very busy, sick month.

-Our first face of braces has happened.  Brennan was attacked last week and while he's whiny, it's fun to see his face/mouth change.  Jared and I do not have dental/orthodontic insurance and are so thankful to Bulliegh Orthodontics for being so incredibly flexible and helpful.  It means a lot to me that we show love in this way to our kids.  While it's definitely not a necessity, I always wished I had had better dental care and I don't want them to have the same insecurities. 

Cannot believe how fast he's becoming a man

-I have been making my own laundry soap for a while now, something I swore I would never do.  I have always made the liquid form.  It's crazy cheap and effective, very important with the shear amount of laundry we do.  I have found, thank you Alisa, a recipe that I far prefer.  It's dry, only takes a tablespoon and $20 last 9/10 months.  You read that right!  We got the recipe from over at How Does She.  The first batch I made I did not include the scented crystals.  I really kinda miss the Gain scent that I was obsessed with so I decided to go ahead and throw them in this go round.  OH MY WORD!!!  I love love love it.  My whole house smells amazing and it works wonders on stinky boy clothes.  I used some bar soap that I happened to have on hand and I am just in love with the smell combo.

I highly recommend following How Does She's recipe and use this bar soap and these crystals.  It's awesome!!  Also I highly recommend dumping all the ingredients into a large trash bag to mix.  There's a lot of fine powder that wafts around the room otherwise.

-It snowed.  A lot.  Then it snowed some more.  I am the snow grinch.  While I love it and think it's pretty, I would rather drink bleach than let my kids go out in it.  The clean up is soo not worth it when they refuse to be out there more than 3 minutes.  The other day Brennan and Tanner were out front shoveling the drive so I went out back with the younger three and the dogs.  It's shocking how much longer they are willing to be out there when Brennan is not "accidentally hurting" them (seriously a blog worthy topic on it's own).  They played for over a hour!  Our kids love Funniest Home Videos and we watch it every week, that's why I asked Anneliese to introduce the host.

-We have been blessed with "Baby Gage" This week.  He is a doll and keeps us giggling.  He parrots everything you say.  We've had him saying, "Hey babe!  Okie Dokie Smokie, Hellllooooo Boyz!!!!!"  He thinks I'm hilarious, who doesn't love that?!  He tells me constantly that I'm "so funny!"  You cannot deny this kids' adorable factor.

-With all this sickness I acquired my very first sinus infection.  To those of you who have dealt with these on any kind of regular basis my heart breaks for you.  The misery is unmatched.  I seriously would rather go through labor and delivery again drug free than have another sinus infection.  The days and days of inescapable pain matched with fatigue, yet the inability to sleep, is just cruel and unusual punishment.  I am 4 days in with an antibiotic.  While I am not 100% just yet, I am so much better that I don't mind the lingering nasal congestion.  I have at least one nostril clear and functioning, that's like Christmas!