Give me 5

Max is 5 years old on May 20th!!!

We had such a fun day!!!

I have kind of banned friend birthday bashes this year.....birthday partied out last year. Because we don't have family around for a big family party I feel the need to have a big friend thing. Although we have had some successful, fun times they are a lot of work and seem to make our family and this day stressful (O.K. me stressful and irritable, thus every one else!)

SO, this year I am trying to focus on making the person feel loved and important to our family....simply....

We started off with everyone singing and serving Max breakfast in bed!!! He didn't really get into the breakfast part....I think he ate one sausage and pured syrup on his pancake BUT he did respond WELL. He got out of bed and hugged every one saying thanks to each and then said group hug. It was really nice.....

Then we opened presents at about 7:30 AM. I knew everyone except him would be off to school and he would just be home all day asking to open them if I made him wait. I took the girls to school a little bit late so they could play a few rounds of his new WII game with him.....
I love the look on his face in the picture above.
Like he is trying to peek in and get surprised!!!
In the evening Max got to play in his 1st T-Ball game.....
When we got there they were handing out shirts and hats. We thought it was cool that his shirt was #5 just like him!!! We made sure we were ALL there cheering for him!!!
We ate from the concession stands, a novelty for us......
When we got home and everyone was cleaned up, we read two new stories he got for his birthday starring Max the duck, and tucked the little 5 year old in with his new stuffed animal duck "Max"

We Love him! He is such a little fire ball. He certainly adds "ALOT" to our family:)

A Happy Mothers Day for Me!!!

5 little sweetpeas!

Thunderation!

As for me....I'll be doing laundry this week to catch up....I have 3 more of these, this is a laundry basket under here!!!!

Wow....I am not sure what they will call this storm....Tornado? Flat wind? What ever they choose, it was frightening! The damage was not as severe as the tornados typically leave behind but this was so wide spread. So many people with out power and trees down every where. At our house we were with out power for 4 days. Some of our friends and neighbors are still without.

In the picture of Lauren's car, in which she was DRIVING home from seminary during the worst of the storm, (while we all sat in the dark basement).........you can see the splattering of leaves. They are all over everything, like a blender full of cilantro that exploded! I was so worried for her. She just pulled over and sat as she couldn't see. I drove by the spot where she had pulled over later in the day and saw debris and branches all over......

The tree down in front of our house became the neighborhood play ground with the kids out of school for the day. Max was out there, literally ALL DAY! Fun stuff! It is amazing to see the root system and layers of dirt that come up when a big tree comes down. We lost three others in the back.

AYELET TYLER BLISS

my little lovie. 6 months old. She is such a little gift to our family!

Lauren, Olivia, and Josie!

Welcome Spring!

thisisatest