Hello All! My friend Crispy at The Peters Peapod posted information about Jelly Telly on her blog. I went to check it out this morning and I am so excited about it. It was created by Phil Vischer the creator of VeggiTales, which we love!!!! It is just launching and you can get a free month long subscription when you sign up for a membership. Jelly Telly is a family friendly, CHRISTIAN, education and entertainment site for kids. YAHOO!! I am all over this!! The subscription fee after the trial month is $2.99 a month. That is less than a single video rental. They will have new videos often, possibly daily and a movie on the weekends. In the explanation of what Jelly Telly is, Phil Vischer speaks of them employing Christian film makers. That is exciting to me as an aunt to four boys in St. Louis who are gifted entertainers, filmmakers and Christians!!! Parker, you gotta check this out!!!!! I could see you working there someday : ) Please go and sign up for the free trial and let them know what you think. The Bunch will be there often. I know I can trust this site to be in addition to what we are teaching our children about our faith in Jesus. Have a great day~ Crystal

I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I would post a few musings:





First of all, we had a wonderful Spring Break and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I had with all of us together. Crazy Bounce was a blast! We also went to the movies to see "Horton Hears a Who". We tried to fly kites one day, this resulted in a lot of running, and very little "flying", but good exercise for all!





Crystal is nominated for mother of the year award. She proved her devotion to her children a couple of weeks ago. The temperature finally broke above freezing and the sun peaked out. Crystal took everyone to the playground and literally broke off chunks of ice with her bare hands of the playground equipment so her kids could play safely. Obviously, this was primarily devotion, but a touch of cabin fever thrown in. I was on baby duty. Crystal and the older three stormed the playground, but Hope needed a nap, so I stayed with her in the van. I believe in leading by example, so I reclined the seat and showed her how napping is properly done.

Some things don't transcend gender lines, as we experienced today. We were in Subway having lunch when a bride-to-be came in. She was in regular clothes, but her hair and make-up were all done up and she was wearing a long white veil. This delighted our girls and they couldn't stop looking at her. As she was leaving, she walked right by our table and the girls both said, "You look beautiful!" Of course, the bride lit up and thanked them. Crystal and I affirmed them for being nice and encouraging. Well, as we were praising them, a random man entered though the door and Luke shouted, "You look handsome!" I can't quite describe the look the man, clearly coming off the worksite, gave in response to a three year old's compliment. Crystal certainly couldn't describe it either, as she melted in embarrassment, as evidenced by her face turning bright red. We are constantly telling Luke he needs to talk louder, as he often mumbles. Why did he have to heed our advise at that time?

Hello All! Tonight was another Briden family movie night : ) Tonight we watched Enchanted, it was cute. It had some adult themes for our six and under audience, but most of it went right over there heads. We have been checking all movies on Plugged In. It is very helpful when you are unsure of a movie's content. Some of our friends may say a movie was family friendly, but the kids may be much older than ours. Thank you to Uncle Rick and Aunt Kristin for the great gift of popcorn, gummy candy and a Blockbuster gift card. It all went to good use and we had a great family time.

I took Luke with me to Blockbuster to have Mommy and son bonding time. He was allowed to pick out one chocolate candy to share with his sisters. He picked out Whoppers. I told him Daddy's Granddad, Granddad Little, really loved Whoppers. So we got them in honor of Granddad Little. As we came home I told Luke, "tell Daddy that we got the Whoppers in honor of Granddad Little." he said " O.K., Mom" We made it in and he saw Daddy right away and shared with him "We got the Whoopers Daddy for Granddad Chicken Little." We all got a good laugh out of that : )

Next movie night is , Water Horse. Have good night!!!

Hello All! We have a new tradition we are starting. It is "Family Movie Night". We all watch a movie together and have a snack. The kids get their pillows and blankets and lay on the family room floor. Tonight we watched Milo and Otis. It is a cute show and young family friendly. The kids look forward now to this special night as it has become rare for us to watch television at night during the school week. Grace of course loved the movie as it has cats and kittens in it. She loves all things cats : ) Luke liked that there was a waterfall in the movie. Faith loved the action as she is a women of action.

On a side note, Kelly and girls went to the Symphony today. The girls school went to a local children's symphony for a field trip. They dressed in pretty dresses and got to ride the school bus to a large auditorium were the program was performed.
The girls loved going with Daddy, he is a great date : ) But all three got car sick(or bus sick) as they were in the back of the bus for the ride. Altogether they loved it. Have a great weekend!! Love, Crystal

Hello All! Well we had a great time celebrating Kelly's B-day, 37! Can you believe it! He was 28 when we met. Wow, time flies when you are young and in love. O.K. so we are not as young as we once were : ) Kelly's nurse, Barb, came over to babysit the Briden trio so we could go out to dinner and a movie. It was great! We went to see the movie "Amazing Grace". We went t the 6:00pm show. It was nice because we were the only two in the theatre. I cried, big suprise. SO it was nice to be alone : )

After the movie we went to Logan's steakhouse. It was a good treat and we only had to cut our own food. So it is always a speciall treat to eat just the two of us!!

Please pray for me as I have given in to a bad cold, YUCK! So I am off to bed : ) Thank you God for creating Kelly! All my Love, Crystal

Hello to all who are reading this. Which from the large number of posts is one person, my sister. The kids, my mother in law, Vera, and I went to see Charlotte's Web today. It was cute and classic. The animations were very well done. Especially Charlotte, the spider was so cool looking. It was a fun diversion today as we still have no news from Kelly. I am praying for an email conveying all is O.K. But I am trusting God and praying for safety for he and the mini-team he is with, Mike and Megan from West Texas.

The kids are now mentioning several times a day how they miss Daddy. Interestingly enough they have taken to climbing on me at meal times after they finish eating. Which is usually something reserved only for Daddy as he eats. I guess they have to climb someone. I think I may even be jealous of the lack of snuggling and climbing attention I am receiving now upon Kelly's return. O.K., maybe it will take me awhile to get to feel jealous. First I need to remind myself all three of our little ones aren't attached to me : ) Merry Christmas and have a great Friday night- Crystal