My Birthday

On July 9th, I had my 38th (38th!!) birthday. I must confess.....it's getting a bit harder to 'celebrate' being almost 40 :) Not that 40 is a bad thing. It's just strange. I don't feel my age.

Several times in the past few years, I've noticed little girls running around in tiaras. Meaning, they wear them for playing dress up or for their birthday. I've even seen women wearing them at a nearby downtown-type festival. I guess it was 'ladies night' and one of the stores gave out tiaras for a special prize. Anyway, I've never had a tiara!

Until now! Mark gave me one for my birthday :) It looks almost like this picture. I should have shown you the picture he took of me with the kids...but I haven't downloaded it off my camera just yet. Now I have my very own tiara. I have NO idea when I will wear it! I guess I can for each birthday....maybe again for a costume party of some sort.

Mark is the best husband I could ever ask for. He's absolutely perfect for me. And yes, he spoils me a little (okay...a LOT). Thank you Lord for giving me the best gift EVER--my husband!

Our Family Mural

A few weeks ago, I had the kids make a 'family mural' of sorts. I took brown packaging paper and rolled it out onto the sidewalk and I painted lines to divide the paper into sections. We called the kids outside and put them to work.


It was interesting to watch them....Mark and I have 7 children together and we like to see how they interact with one another, especially when we do a group project. The two littlest boys went down to the far end of the paper, the youngest girl took the biggest space/division she could find, one middle son took, well, the middle....the two oldest were next to him and the other middle son stayed close to Mark and I (we shared the last space...the one you can see clearly in the picture! If you click on the pic, I believe you will see all of it better!).

It is so amazing how well our children get along....I mean, sure, there are times when some aren't getting along so well...or there is the occasional bicker. Honestly though, God has blessed us with some really great kids!


Being in a stepfamily is a challenge.....in fact, there are moments of complete chaos! There are also times, like the time we made making a mural, that we work together as a family. Sure, it's a non-traditional, crazy-at-times, family with 7 children....but we do alright I think. I'm pretty sure we are one of the best stepfamilies I've ever met :)

-Bethany :)