American Flag Toast

This flag toast has been circling the internet and I thought we would give it a try =). We put strawberry jelly on first and then added the fruit =)

 Okay the "stars" are on the wrong side must be the camera flip!

The boys loved them =)Where is Joshua in the picture....He is always wondering off with sticky hands.....

Rachel's first Pigtails! :Learning to do bi-racial girls hair

 Our children are just all mixed up and have different hair types.My dad is from Honduras and has a fro if he doesn't keep it super short, I wish I had a pic of it! My mom has super stringy thin hair. My hair is pretty nice I think not too thick not too thin....easily managed. Chris has really nice wavy hair but he has to put lots of oil gel stuff on it and wear a wave cap at night. That is just too much work for me! I was secretly hoping our first girl would have finer hair like Christian but she came out with hardly any hair at all!

Here is Rachel with my dad last year in Virginia.....I almost thought she was born without the DNA for hair....lol =) Just kidding!

 Now that it is growing in it is super tight curls. It was starting to get matted in the back and I didn't want to start dumping chemicals into her hair so I was so excited to find this Organic Olive Oil Smooth-n-Hold Pudding at WalMart =)

 Isn't she just so cute with Pig Tails ?!

and the back is still curly but can be combed though after applying the pudding =)

I am hoping to be an expert hair doer by the time Rachel is 6 or 7 hair twists and all! =)

Not a Good Time to have your AC Break!

Sunny

Hi 99°RealFeel® 105°

Day

• NNE at 7 mph
• Gusts: 13 mph

Sunny, record-tying heat and humid

• Max UV Index: 9 (very high)
• Thunderstorm Probability: 24%
• Amount of Precipitation: 0.00 in
• Amount of Rain: 0.00 in

On Friday afternoon I was feeling a little warm. I walked past our thermostat and saw it at 80. I thought maybe one of the kids touched it. Even though I have never seen any of my kids touch it before.....Then hours later it didn't change the temperature. Chris went outside to check on the unit. One of the cords had frozen over with ice.  First he called a repair company and they were going to charge $50 just to come and look at it. Then I remembered our home came with a one year home warranty. Chris cancelled the first appointment and made one through the HSA warranty company! In the mean time I checked the weather for the weekend since the repair guy couldn't come until Monday. It was going to be really really really hot! 

Chris decided he was going to try and fix something with a screw driver...until he heard a loud voice say, "Put the screw driver down and step away from the Air Conditioner!"

I couldn't stand the thought of sitting in a hot house with 4 kids all weekend! Especially since I promised all the bus riders waffles and bacon after church!  Then I remembered my neighbor across the street told me her hubby used to work for an AC company. She sent her hubby over to save the day and added some freon to cool our house down. Today the repair guy came and found a leak in the system so we are going to get a new one for the cost of the deductible and disposal of old unit a total of $160. That is a whole lot better than $2,600 for a new unit and install without the warranty! Praise the Lord for his provision!

Travelling Solo with Small Children

I have soooo forgotten what it is like to travel or even go to the grocery store with all 4 of my kids since Chris came home from Afghanistan 10 months ago! Since we share a car to save  $, when I go to the store it is with Chris or just me and Rachel while Chris watches the boys! Well Chris had a business meeting for 4 days in Ohio and his plane took off 3.5 hours away from home in ST. LOUIS. The rent- a-car was going to cost $156 each way! Chris did not want us to drive 7 hours in one day twice in a week. So spur of the moment I said why don't we all just come and stay in a hotel and drive back the next day =). We got ready super fast and headed to ST. Louis with our puppy too =).
I forgot all the comments you get when you have all your kids with you =). Here are some of my all time favorite comments from strangers

1) "Boy, you have got your hands full. "

2) "That's why they have Birth Control."

3) "You are done right?"

4) "You finally got your girl!"

5) "Are they twins?"

6) "Are they triplets?"

7) "Are they all yours?"

8) "That looks like a nightmare."

9) "You have got a cart full!"

AND MY FAVORITE OF ALL TO HEAR IS...............

10) "Your beautiful children are so well behaved!"

 Rachel jumping on the hotel bed.

 Free buffet dinner.

 Swimming time!

 Buffet Breakfast!

 We had 2 hours to kill after checkout before Chris' plane came back. It was super hot outside and so I wanted to go somewhere Brownley could come too! 

 We spent over an hour in Petsmart! We got Brownley a tag and a T shirt!

Poor Brownley was more tired than I was at the end of our trip!

Happy Father's Day 2012!

 Happy Father's Day everyone! Here is my daddy! Yes I know what you are thinking....he doesn't look like my dad or even related to me...lol. His name is Jose David Flores-Lopez. I would love to tell you that he is a godly man and raised me with Gods standards, but he is not saved. I am in no way dishonoring him and I am thankful for the times that he was there. He came to America some 30 years ago as an illegal immigrant from Honduras in the back of a trunk. He soon after married my mom and started work in construction. He is 53 now and still working construction. I do miss him and pray for him just about daily to be saved! My sister and I have given him gospel tracts and witnessed to him for  the last several years but he just doesn't think he is a bad person. It breaks my heart because Jesus did not come to call the righteous but SINNERS to REPENTANCE! Please pray for my dad on this fathers day =)

Yes that is me with blonde hair.....I used to think I was Britney Spears......thank God he saved my soul and changed my music I listen to now!

How to Remove the Hard drive from an HP Desktop

Anyone who has been in the military knows that the contracted movers are not always successful at transporting your household goods undamaged! Our last move back in October resulted in some damage to several items totaling to $1,491! One of the damaged items was our HP desktop computer and monitor. Apparently the truck driver said they drove through Hurricane Irene. Praise the Lord we were fully reimbursed 2 weeks ago! One of the neighbor children asked for the broken computer to try and work on. Mind you this particular child has told me how he is going to jump different backyards to escape the police.....with that being said I agreed under the condition I would take the hard drive out =)

 Of course I have never removed a hard drive before. I honestly didn't even know what it looked like inside of the CPU. Can you take a guess and figure out where I learned about hard drive removal....? You to the Tube....lol =) Some one once told me Youtube is a dangerous place....I never got it though....

 This was fun for all my boys I gave everyone a screw driver and we located the hard drive.

 We began unscrewing many things including the fan to get to the hard drive.
After about an hour of unscrewing and pulling we found there was a button on the hard drive box that you push down to pop the hard drive out and it even had a picture of it right on the box.....

Then finally success!

Good Bye Gold Pt. 2

 Since the front light fixtures came out so pretty with a little spray paint.....it made the other gold things stand out more! I am not too sure why I really hate gold so much....I think it is too shiny. I don't have the same issue with brushed nickle or chrome....

 This porch light was not as cooperative as the other two. The glass didn't seem to come off any which way I tried to slide it out! 

 Painters tape to the rescue!

Looks brand new right?

 This door thingy screwed right off!

 I just used plain brown on this and not the oil rubbed bronze.

 Now it matches our welcome mat!

 The gold numbers had to go too! We bent these up pretty bad and so we bought new numbers at Wal Mart for $1.27 each.

And the door bell got spray painted too! I forgot to get the before picture, but it was a dingy creamy yellow color. Rachel is mad because she tried to come outside with me but she was not dressed very modestly for outside ....lol =)

Since we are outside I wanted to show off my lily getting ready to bloom! The others got attacked mid stem by Joshua and will not be blooming this year =(

And now there is no more Gold on the outside of our house! Now if only we could get our grass to grow back after Chris went a little nuts with the Weed Be Gone!

Family Photos 2012

On one of my morning jogs interpreted by a garage sale I met a really nice woman named Rebecca, she was a jack of all trades, she babysits, sells pampered Chef, makes hair bows, skirts and has recently started a photography business =). I got her info and we hooked up for a photo shoot 2 Saturdays ago. It was really hot out and my son Christian got a tummy ache out of the blue and could barely stand up! However Rebecca still managed to get some good pictures =) 

On the way there everyone was sleeping but Rachel...that is never a good thing when you want your children's cooperation!

Brownley came with us too, but he wasn't into taking pictures too much.

Rebecca found a shady spot and began working her magic on my sleepy hot kids!

I love my husband!

 Christian trying his best to smile while keeping his eyes opened!

 I asked Rebbecca to do the blue "color pop" so it will match when I paint one of my living room walls blue!

 This would have been an even better photo if atleast one of the kids would have smiled!

 Christian collapsed on the floor....lol.

 Joshua is such a camera ham when he wants to be!

 I took a photo by myself so Chris can carry it around =)

 Cute idea by Rebecca to have them "reading".

 Noah looks just like his daddy!

Rachel would not crack a smile!

and it was over at this point!

Rebecca has a photography blog at Road of Life Photography and I would highly recommend her if you are looking for a good photographer in the Springfield, Missouri area. She is a Christian and cheaper than Walmart =)

http://roadoflifephotographybybeckyw.blogspot.com/