Parental Oopsies

I found these on Awkward Family Photos and I can relate to these oopsies.  I've done a few of my own.  Aren't we supposed to protect?  We usually do but... the other night at church I was holding the baby carrier and I couldn't see little Ashley so I was turning around with the carrier Caleb was in and saying "Ashley? Ashley?"  THONK.  "Oh, there you are."  I felt like bad as I bent down to give her a hug.  I didn't know she was right under the carrier and I thonked her in the head with it trying to find her. 

Or I've done the one where I am coming in from the garage where my washine machine is and I open the door right into one of my kids as I'm carrying in laundry.  They have quickly learned to just stay clear of the door and I have learned to open the door SLOWLY.  I've just taken too many pictures where there is an egg on my kids' head.

Whoa, What Have I Started?

Being that my 11 year anniversary is in two days I started looking through old pictures.  The first one was just a month before I got pregnant with my first.  I guess I didn't need those "pills" after all.  The one where I am holding my nephew, I was newly pregnant with my first.  I was totally tripping out right there.  Not on drugs.  Haha.  I mean I just couldn't believe I was going to be a parent.  In fact I didn't really believe it till I brought my baby home for the first time and walked through my front door.  I'm surprised I didn't faint I was so shocked from it all. I think the killer for me was being woken up every 2-3 hours in the night.  Wowza.  My husband said I looked like a zombie and I would cry a lot.  Yeah, the reason was because I was just to figure out what in the world I was doing and being that I never really took care of babies before, this was like rocket science for me.  Just trying to change a diaper without getting peed on seemed like I needed courses on it.  We were only married for 11 months when I got pregnant.  Someone told me that I had no need to worry.  It takes several months, even up to a year, to get pregnant after going off of birth control pills. Yeah.  Ummm.... it took me 2 weeks.  Wake up!  You're a mommy!  Having children was the best thing that could of ever happened to me, aside from giving my heart to Christ.  Talk about my selfishess nature having to be beaten right out of me.  I felt emotionally black and blue.  I grew up and it didn't happen over night.  Noooo.... Every day I had to die to my flesh.  It doesn't mean I didn't love my little baby!  I just liked my freedom and wasn't ready to give it all up.  Not to worry, I got over it because 3 months after I had Chaz, baby number two was on his way.

Can you say BUSY?

Ever since I've had Caleb, I can't describe to you how busy I've been!  Well, maybe I can.  You know how nursing is.  It takes lots of time!  So with homeschooling, nursing, laundry, dishes, meals, etc., I just have such a hard time finding time to blog.  That's what I love to do most!  Should I start blogging on the toilet!  Ha!  Just kidding.  Don't worry about that vision in your head.  If you look under this post, I posted pictures we took on Sunday for our Christmas photo.  Don't worry, those won't all be on my Christmas card.  LOL.  We just had so much fun taking pictures that we didn't quit!  They all came out so beautiful.  I don't like myself in them because of my weight gain from having baby but OH WELL.  I am getting gym membership soon because this is gonna drive me nuts.  I HATE gaining weight and won't tolerate it.  Now that I'm only 30, the weight doesn't melt off as easy every time I have a baby. Needless to say, I hope to have a few years in between before I have another baby if I have another one.  What's funny is that on Sunday, when we chose to get pictures by the lake, there were other families there with the same idea.  It was hard not getting each other in the back ground.

Our Christmas Pics 2009!

THANKSgiving 2009!

Thanksgiving turned out wonderful, even though I peeled some of my fingertip skin off with a potato peeler. It's so hard to type right now with a big bandage on it! LOL. Anyway, so it was gonna be at my house but ended up over at my mom's house. We were gonna have a guy from Kenya over but he couldn't make it. I made two pumpkin pies the night before and then the next morning I made two pecan pies. Then sweet potato casserole which is just so yummy. :D Oh, and mashed potatoes too. So, when we were ready we headed over and had a nice time together and gloriously ate tons of calories.  Ahem.   Then we headed to the park with the kids and my dad and his dog. It was such a gorgeous day! We all played and visited till sunset.  Here is a nice and normal picture of us. 

Here's our real selves. Haha.

Charles holding Caleb

Sitting around the table. Caleb is over in the carrier sleeping. :)

Ivy, in the picture, is helping me make pecan pies. She loooooves to bake! Hmmm...maybe she'll take over for me eventually. Oh, such a dream.

Binky Buddies

Ashley understands why Caleb needs his binky. She still loves hers and I never wanted my kids to have binky's after the age of 1 and here Ashley is 2 years old.  Oops.  Well,so now I have to binky babies. 

 

Anyhow, it's been so crazy here. I haven't blogged much since I've been doing so much deep cleaning and it seems I have so much more! How do you people keep up? I can do a lot of surface cleaning but it has been so tough to do more than that at times. I did a double take when I saw how bad my floor boards were. So I cleaned that. Then I realized my cupboards were crying for a cleaning so I did that. I'm almost afraid to ask my bathtub how he's doing. Saturday we worked in the backyard for 4 hours and also raking up all the dead grass and such. Sheesh la weezers. I'm not a natural organizer nor phenomonal cleaner so I never understand how people can always keep their house perfect. My sister is like that, she's so talented. So I guess everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. My weakness happens to annoy me very much.

So on to more encouraging subjects. While at the doctors office to have my son checked out, he started to pick his nose after the doctor walked out. I tried telling him (at least a hundred times) that it's impolite to do that in front of people. I also tell him that's how you can get sick. You have germs on your hands. It falls onto deaf ears. So the next time I saw him do it, I made him drop down and give me 20 push ups. That got his attention. Haha. I don't care where we are, in the store or at home. If he starts doing that, I making him drop and give 20. Today we were in the backyard playing relay races and he did it again as a habit and I made him give me 20 pushups right there in the grass. He's starting to pay more attention. It works.

'No Homework' Contract

Finally! I agree! I mean, if kids are in school 7 hours a day at the minimum, why are they given soooo much homework? This never made sense to me. Kids need down time too after such a long day. So add in chores at home and that's a pretty taxing day. I don't really like the schools ruling my life to where they not only have my kids all morning and afternoon, but that they'd also have my kids work at night? I mean, good grief. I wish I had thought of this when my kids were in school.

Boy, Santa Is Early!

When we visited the Bass Pro Shop the other night, we were suprised about Santa being there. I was caught off guard because I would have dressed my kids up and put little Caleb in an elf suit. That would have been so cute! I was planning on cutting the boy's hair that night too. Oh well, so here is Ivy with Santa. She thought it was great even though Santa was early this year. By the way, my kids don't believe in Santa but they still have fun seeing and talking to the man! LOL

Here is Ivy and Ashley below. Ashley didn't like it one bit but I thought it was a great pic anyway for memories. :D

Little Caleb has been good in his 7 weeks of life so he'll be getting presents this year.  Haha.

The boys with Santa.  Chaz, my oldest (far right), was embarrassed at first but then with his brothers by his side he was happy to be near the guy.  He's in that really self conscience stage.  He thinks everyone is staring at him.  lol.

I'm kind of surprised (maybe) that Christmas is all over the place. Whatever happened to celebrating Thanksgiving?  Is it being fazed out or is it my imagination?  Thanksgiving is an important day, at least to Christians.  I love Thanksgiving and all that it stands for!  So we don't decorate till December first for Christmas.  Everyone is different though.  :D  Oh well.  The kids still had fun shaking Santa's hand before Thanksgiving.  LOL.

Winter Wonderland at Bass Pro Shop

We took the kids to another kid's night at the Bass Pro Shop and was planning on doing a scavenger hunt. Instead we found out Santa was there and they had new and fun stuff to do. So the kids had fun in the winter wonderland area. The kids got pictures with Santa and even Baby Caleb did. My kids don't believe in Santa but they still liked getting pics with him. :) I ended up running into another mommy who has 7 kids and we chatted for a bit about birth control. JUST KIDDING! No, we talked about homeschooling, blessings of kids, how spaced apart they are, etc. We talked while our kids waited in line to do rock climbing. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do but that's okay! We'll save it for a different night.

The kids and I below:

Ivy kept finding (fake) presents under the tree and was just so excited about it!

Ivy thinks she's getting this for Christmas (below).  Ahem, I think not.

Ryan rock climbing!

Kyle is rock climbing below.  See the pretty girls in the tutus?  So cute!  They are sisters with 5 other siblings.  :D

In Hindsight...

...I shouldn't have got that veil. Oh well. Whoa, hot guy alert! Who is that skinny chick with my man? That can't be me. That girl wore a size 3 and couldn't put weight on even if she tried. Well, having kids fixed that problem. I want that problem back though.

Today, my kids really gave me a run for my money in the homeschooling department. It is super hard for them to concentrate sometimes and that is frustrating for them and me. When my husband came home in the afternoon I was needing a break badly. I was in the middle of making lunch and he said "why don't you go take a bath and read a book?" I was like "really?" I was just wondering though if he knew how to make the cheese crisps. Those are my husband's favorite but the only thing he can really make is a bowl of Ramen in the microwave. Haha. :D When I got in the bath I heard a knock on the door. It was my husband and he said "Um, babe? HOw do you make a cheese crisp?" LOL. I told him and I felt a little bad I wasn't making it myself but he said "No problem, babe!" Ahhhhh.....it was hard to get out of that bathtub. Then he headed back to work and I continued homeschooling. My kitchen was torn apart because we went through and cleaned all the cupboards out so it's taken me a couple of days to wash every single dish and pot and put it all back.

By the time I was finished with the boys (homeschooling) at 4pm and working more on the kitchen, I had a terrible headache and was just so exhausted. By the time my husband got home, I was ready to head for bed. When he walked in the door he told me I should go take a nap and he'll take care of things. I knooooow though that this meant dinner would be later because my husband doesn't cook! :D I laid down and totally crashed at 5pm. I could have slept through till the next morning I was so tired but I got up knowing everyone was hungry. We had dinner at 8:30pm which is way late for us because usually our kids are in bed by that time and sleeping. My husband, who has a major big heart, played with the kids for another hour and a half while I nursed Caleb and then cleaned up. Oh, thank goodness for someone who has compassion and happens to be mine. Whoo-wee.

I'm up putting the kitchen back together while the kids are sleeping because it's just so much easier and Mr. Caleb is awake with me. Together we are yawning but hopefully heading for bed soon. Nursing always makes me tired so usually I just fight through it. Luckily I have a bestfriend/husband who has a big heart and gives me a rest when I need it most. :D You rock, Charles! I can tell you that he knows how to make a cheese crisp now. Yesssss.

Now I Remember Why We Got Rid Of Our Game Systems!

Now I remember why we got rid of the Wii game system. I remember when our boys had the Wii and whenever we asked them if they wanted to go to the park or somewhere fun, they didn't want to. They loved playing the Wii instead. I mean, they figured if they can play baseball on the Wii then why would they need to go to the park and play? It's been nice doing real things again besides fake boxing and fake baseball. LOL. So we've been getting out with them and taking to more places that don't cost money such as the park or the good ol' fashion library.  Below is Ivy on her rollar blades. 

Below is Ryan on his rollar blades tossing his soccer ball in the air.  Chaz is behind him trying to ride his little brother's bike.  LOL.

Charles is hanging out near Caleb in the stroller.  Kyle is still trying to get a hang of the rollar blades.  It's so funny to watch him!

Ashley and Charles watching boys play baseball. What you don't see is after I took this picture, I went to go skate with Ivy to the restrooms.  I fell flat on my butt so hard that I just laid there on the ground for awhile.  My butt really hurt but my pride was hurt too because of the stares I got.  ha ha.

Baking Fun!

I love to bake more than cooking. Not sure why but it's always been that way. Tonight after I laid the kids down I baked some Pecan Pie an pumpkin pie. However, the pumpkin pie below was baked by my son Chaz! He even mesured out all the ingredients and everything. It was delicious!!! Anyway, some were asking for the Pecan Pie recipe and just in case I ever lose it, I can reference it from here. The picture just doesn't do it justice for how delicious it really is. Ohhh man. I had some tonight. Just a little too much.

The Best Pecan Pie!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Ingredients:

1 cup light brown sugar 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar 1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in MELTED butter, Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar and the flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla and pecans.

2. Pour into an unbaked 9 inch pie shell. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then REDUCE temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until done.

Cramping My Style

My Aunt Joy and Uncle Lloyd drive around the US and so when they drop into our city, we always love a visit. Plus, I love my dear Aunt Joy and my awesome Uncle Lloyd. Uncle Lloyd is hilarious! Plus he's just a teddy bear. He put up with a 3 week trip along the coast with me while I was a teen. You didn't know me as a teen (Hyper!) or my best friend I traveled with. So they are winners in my book. Uncle Lloyd just thinks he's a survivor but I say it was one fun trip. (By the way, those who don't get why the picture says "check my grill", it means teeth. I learned that from my nephews. I'm not really that cool).

Below: I look like the Jolly Green Giant next to my Aunt. It's kind of like when I stood next to my friend in a wedding who was (and still is) really beautiful.  When I stood next to her for a picture, I looked like a burn victim in comparison. Aunt Joy in the picture below makes me look like a giant and I'm only 5'5".

Below: my dad on the left.

Sooooooo, after church I went to the grocery store, even though it was late, and picked out stuff for meals.  I don't really like going to the store.  I'm happy once I'm finally there but I'm even happier when it's all over with.  Tonight I had my two older boys and baby Caleb and I met my mom there. We shopped together so that was nice.  :)  Anyhow, after walking in heels for a couple of hours, by the time I walked to my car my feet were so sore!  As I was loading my groceries, my foot started to cramp.  It was a really bad one.  I took my shoes off and tried walking to get the cramp to go away.  It was NOT working and it was so painful!  I started jumping up and down and then running around the van.  I did this for 10 minutes with people walking by me.  Not to mention that my van was parked in the very front parking spot right by the front door where people could see me.  I'm sure they were wondering who this weird lady was that was dressed in church clothes hopping up and down and running around the van. (Maybe they thought I was having my own revival in my head). I was a tad embarrassed.  But, hey, my kids embarrass me all the time anyway so I guess it's not a big deal.  You know, like when they see a guy with a white beard and yell out that they found God.  Things like that.  Or when they ask a guy with a bald head why he has broken hair.  So, me looking crazy in the parking lot just fits our family profile anyway.

God Gave Me A Break With Ryan

Ryan has seriously been a big helper to me. It's not that I ask him, he just likes to help out. He reminds me of my big sister Tammy who was always like a little mommy. Just has a big heart. Ryan saw the look on my face yesterday when I looked around the room sad, because of kids making a freaking mess and he went and started picking up.  I was sad because with having them do their "jurisdictions" twice a day, they are still not realizing what huge messes they make. 

In this picture, Ryan  is working on his homeschooling while holding Caleb for a few minutes. Caleb looooooves to be held.  He does not like laying flat on his back.

Later, I asked Ryan to read a book and then I asked him if he wanted to read to his siblings and he loved it. He ran to the couch to sit and read with them.  Ryan may be easier for me but he tends to easily go along with the flow.  He's a people pleaser and he notices people watching him.  He can be easily influenced it seems.  I have to be careful with him.  I know better not to just expect him to help me out with his brothers and sisters.  I don't want to abuse that.  I also know that kids like that can harbor feelings inside of them until they blow.  That's Ryan.  He'll just start really acting out all of a sudden and he'll be emotional.  Then I know he needs some personal time and some good cuddles.  He's a good kid. 

We Heart Library Nights And Other Updates

Every other Tuesday night we all go to the library. The one we go to is really rockin'! We've always loved it but now there is a lot of construction going on to build on even more in the kid's area. I love the cafe there. It's just like a Starbucks. They have a huge children's area with computers for kids, a toddler area where moms can read while their tots play with toys. Just really cool. It's pretty huge and sooo family friendly with a nursing and changing room for babies. So we really look forward to that. (Not the diaper changes. We look forward to getting books.)

Above: Charles is so cute holding baby Caleb! Hee hee.....

Chaz found a book on making paper airplanes so he was sooo excited. Then Ryan found a book on how to make things, like castles, from recycle stuff. So when he got home, he had fun pulling out cereal boxes, empty toilet paper rolls, etc. to make himself a castle! Then they were having airplane contests all day. They are starting to realize how resourceful the library really can be!

My daughter Ashley loves the toddler area since it's so hard to keep her still! Makes it easier for mommy to pick out her books or visit the cafe while dad is with them.

Above: Here is proof right here that weirdness runs in our veins in this family. If my son putting a baby sock on his ear isn't proof enough, then I don't know what is.

SO OTHER NEWS!

I am so switching my 3rd grader's homeschooling program to SOS.  "SOS" truly is the word.  What he does now is extremely boring, beyond measure.  It can't hold his attention.  I have to work with him for so long that it's getting harder to help everyone get their work done every day.  I found out, especially from the Duggar site, that Switched On Schoolhouse is great for this reason. Not only that but I'm in love with the idea that they get a course in The Bible.  Neato!  It costs a good amount but I've heard a lot of great stuff about it.  :) 

OTHER NEWS.  Is it possible that anyone might have more hyper kids than mine?  I mean, sheesh.....

Late Pumpkin Carving

I know, Homeschool and etc! We are late! Ha ha. What happened was that my already busy brain was getting ready for Halloween and trying to figure out where we were gonna (safely) go. In the rush of it all, I was bummed when I realized that we hadn't carved pumpkins yet. I had already bought one from the store so I can make pumpkin pie. We went to the store and all the pumpkins were sold out. Everywhere! All we could find was little ones. Poor guys! So they each picked one out. Since only the boys had one, I let Ivy pick out what I was gonna carve on the big one. That's why it's a cat. :D So we had fun anyway. If we found more pumpkins, we'd have a round two. This is always so fun!

Cushion's True Purpose

I've had some few crazy moments in my house. Sometimes I really have to mull things over in my mind as to what is okay and what's not. For example. It's not like my kids can leave the house anytime and ride their bikes alone. Most play is at home and there is only so much to do. (Although I can think of plenty) They have fun playing together but I've learned that you can't let boys get bored or........ well, fill in the rest. :) Ohhh, I could give sooo many examples. It's hard for me to let the boys take the cushions off the couch to build their fort. I like my nice clean living room! I also like my plant to stay where it's supposed to be. I have to admit though, that's a cool fort. You can't see it in the picture but the inside has two rooms. The next day, (they have to return the couch cushions to the couch by 5pm everyday), they rebuilt it but added a door made of cardboard. They put a whole in it and stuck a toy gun out of it. Now they had protection. From who? Not sure but I bet there was no girls allowed. Besides, the girls kept knocking it down. 

Ryan (second picture) wants you to see the girl he built with legos.  She's even carrying a handbag.

Chaz (third picture) built the cross on the hill. They forever wanted me to save their creations but I told them that we don't have a ton of legos and this would lead to disgruntled kids who want to play with more than 5 legos.  They were happy that I'd at least take their picture and blog about it. 

Ivy (fourth picture) is looking serious because she wants you guys to all think she is doing "school" by building with legos.  That's her serious face while her little sister is trying to figure out how headphones fit on the head.  Can you see Ryan laughing in the background?  Hilarious!

Ashley (fifth picture) figured out the headphones.  She may not be able to hear what's going through the headphones but, by golly, she'll get it through osmosis.

Halloween at Schnepf Farms

For Halloween we weren't really sure about trick or treating. Besides, so many people don't participate anymore so it's been hard to find neighborhoods to go to. We can't in ours and no one is getting involved anyway. So in the end we decided to have a safe Halloween at the farm! They had so, so, so much to do. Roller coasters, which I rode at least 20 times, bumblebee ride, airplane ride, trick or treating, pumpkin patches, corn maze, pumpkin launch, pig races, BBQ with country band, hay rides, pony rides, flying swings, etc. Best of all, everyone was in costume. It was a lot of fun! I put the slideshow of pics at the top of my blog for you to view. We stayed as late as we could and ended the night sitting on hay stacks around a fire. It was a nice ending to a crazy and fun night! Since the kids didn't get too much candy, we weren't really trying, the next day we headed to the store to get 1/2 price candy. I told the kids to all grab one bag, including Charles and I. When we got home I mixed all the candy together and equally distributed into each kid's bag. One thing we forgot to do this year was buy 8 pumpkins and carve one for each of us! We were so bummed and by the time we got to the store the next day, all the pumpkins were sold out. So we just have one which was the one I was gonna use for pumpkin pie. We are going to go ahead and carve it. Boy, I am behind this year!

My Little Pumpkin

That is my mom with the Donald Duck voice talking to Caleb. He looks so serious! Ha ha.

Anyhow, we had so much fun for Halloween. We visited a big farm that puts on festivities for holidays. They had a Halloween event for families complete with rides, shows, and trick or treating. It was fun and safe, which we loved. :D I'm putting together all the pics and stuff so I can share.

On to other things. Garsh, I've been sooo busy! I want another computer soooooooooo bad for homeschooling so that I can have time to go more in depth with each of them. Some of their work is in workbooks and some on the computer. Because they all have to share, it makes it take soooo much longer for everything. I hate, hate, hate getting behind on the house. I like to have an orderly house (I'm not talking perfection because that would drive me nuts...I'm not a perfectionist by a long shot). I just mean where kids don't throw their clothes everywhere but in the dirty hamper, dishes get washed, and the laundry isn't piled way over. Things like that. I don't like getting behind. Since homeschooling takes so much time, it's even more important to me to keep up on the house so that there is some order. Do you know what I mean? Of course mommies know what I mean. :) I'm not a super organizer so when I create something that helps us stay organized, y'all better stick to it, ya hear? Ahem....

Flu Worries

With so much talk about sicknesses going around, I'm so nervous! I can't help it. I have a newborn in the house and 5 other little ones. I have a bad cold right now. My husband was laughing earlier because I've had tissue stuck up my nose while walking around because I was tired having to run and get tissue. Sometimes I just do things for the funny factor too. Ha ha. I'm weird like that. I heard that I missed out on a great revival night at church. Argh! I haven't put baby Caleb in the nursery yet because he is 4 weeks old. I've just been keeping him with me during service. There is a little newborn at church that is in the hospital right now with a fever. So sad. :( I have seriously got to realize that prayer is powerful. Soooo many times I worry and worry and worry and I forget to give it to God. I am reading (I'm such a bookworm) the book "The Power Of A Praying Parent". It's a great book! I'm realizing how much I need God. She was saying in there how we need to give it to God in prayer and let Him do the heavy lifting. It's true! Last night, because I drank 3 cups of coffee, I couldn't sleep and so I stayed up reading and writing out a prayer list for my kids. I don't want to just give general prayers all the time. "Oh God, protect my kids, keep them safe, and help them to want to serve you." Details!! Need details. So, I started writing down issues of things with each kid so I can remember to pray for them in more detail. God cares about the details you know. Why, oh, why do I always forget how powerful prayer is. I CAN'T get so busy that I leave God out of my days. I am scared about all the flu talk I've been hearing. I can do my best to try and protect everyone in my house but I need to also pray for God's protection. How can I forget about the Creator of the universe? This world offers sooooo many distractions. Sometimes I feel like I have to take a whip and beat down my flesh. I don't mean literally guuyyyys! That would be....really....weird. I mean having to die to my "flesh" daily. Argh. It's such a new battle every day.

So THAT'S What Forgiveness Means

We are having revival this week at church through Thursday. I am so happy because I need it so bad. Sunday service really spoke to me. He preached on forgiveness. Now I've heard tons of sermons on this. I don't think I ever really understood real forgiveness. When someone would hurt me badly, I would think "I forgive them" but then I still would be angry towards them in my actions. True forgiveness is taking the hit without hitting back. That is totally new for me. Not too long ago I had a friend that ripped me up one side and down the other. Totally broke my heart. I was so shocked that I responded badly back to her. I didn't call names or anything but I defended myself and was harsh. The next time this happened to me from a different person, I didn't get angry or become harsh back. I just told that person that they broke my heart and really hurt my feelings. I took the hit. I didn't sin in my anger. I regretted so much the first incident because now I was just as guilty. The second incident, I took the hit. Instead I prayed for that person. Both broke my heart. Only one I responded right about. Guess which one I lost a lot of sleep over? The one where I was being a bad example of a Christian. I should have taken the hit. Sometimes we can be tested. Unsaved people are watching us. Some truly have that longing to have what we have. I would be sad if I became a stumbling block to that person because I sinned in my anger towards them. Jesus might say, "would you take the hit for me?" No matter how much we may dislike that person, they have a soul and Jesus loves them. Hell is not something I wish on ANY enemy of mine. Ever. This Virginia has come a long way is watching my words and controlling my tongue, but I still have LOTS to learn and many more tests and lessons in this life. I pray that my heart is soft towards God's tugging on my heart. That he can still convict me and my heart respond. My flesh may want to pull me away from God with all it's strength, but my spirit longs to be in His presence and have my heart right before Him.

Talking To Myself Again...

I'm up late writing out thank you cards to all my friends who gave me gifts for Caleb. Wow! I've been given gifts from 30 people total! I'm so overwhelmed by their giving.

In these last few months, through crisis' that I've had with friends and family, I've learned some things. Still learning for that matter. Good friends don't come easy. There will be many women that are quick to give you their opinions but it's the one that loves you for who you are and will save their opinions for the ones that truly matter. I've learned that all moms pretty much think they are the ones doing it right and everyone else that doesn't it differently needs to get with it. Ha ha. Speaking of. You guys MUST read Real Moms (Exploding the Myths of Motherhood). Wow! GREAT book and just really liberated me in so many way. Ahem. Onward. Good friends don't necessarily have to think JUST like you. I have learned some scary things. A friend can totally disagree with EVERYTHING about you but they sometimes hold it in and never say. Now that's scary to me. I don't like the beat around the bush thing. I would rather like to know what they think, period. I don't like fake friendships. Then again, someone always saying what they think is scary too. LOL.

I've learned some scary things about ME in the process and somethings I've needed to change. I've learned to pick my battles. If I'm always disagreeing with someone over trivial things, they won't listen to me when it really, really matters. Sometimes we can just have an argumentative spirit. I've learned to stop being so judgemental. I will stand up for what's moral and right. I will warn a friend when I see them heading down a dangerous path. Always. (What kind of friend would I be otherwise?) But I don't need to tell them that I don't agree with what time they put their kids down to bed. Ha ha! Putting your mommy opinions onto other moms.... well, you are just asking for it! Have fun, be a friend! (I'm talking to myself here). My family can be very confrontational at times and that's where I got it. I know because my husband told me. So, I'm learning to relax, enjoy my friends, and not have to always be so stinking opinionated. (I just think it in my head). Mwahahahaha!

Okay, enough of exposing myself. Sigh. Night guys. I just finished the cards to my great mommy friends. :D

P.S. You friends who gave me diapers as a gift, you just KNOW what a mom needs!!! You're awesome!

P.P.S He got some stinking cute outfits too. Sooooo adorable.

My Little Elf Goes To Church

Last Sunday pastor had little Caleb Joseph dedicated at church. I was super nervous having to go up by ourselves in front of everyone but we did it! Yes! It was hard. This is our sixth time having a baby dedicated and I still get nervous. You know what it more retarded? I sing on the platform for song service and for a wedding(s). Yet, it freaks me out to go up to have my baby dedicated in front of everyone. When we walked up to the stage, pastor said "Looks like Caleb is all dressed up for church looking like a... a.. well, like a little elf." We all laughed! It was true! He had little pants on with monkeys on the booties and a striped long sleeve shirt with a hat. So he's my little elf now.

I always envision this scenario where as I am walking down off the stage, I trip and fall, the crowd gasps, and I drop my little baby. It's like a nightmare I have all the way up till the baby is dedicated.
So after the dedication was actually over, not only was I happy he was dedicated to the Lord, I was relieved (and Caleb I'm sure) that I didn't fall and trip on my face. Hoot, hoot!

Spiritual Leader Of The Home by Mark Gungor

Wow, This video just was liberating for me. In the beginning, I kind of flipped because of something he said. You have to listen to it ALL the way through. I promise, it's a good video and really makes sense.

The Nothing Box

Wow, have these days been busy! I'm need to look for a curriculum that makes it more possibe for me to homeschool 3 boys without working such long hours. As of right now, it take about 8 hours a day which I don't mind, but I like to keep up on house chores and stuff like that. So far, I'm mainly cleaning at night and only maintenence in the day. Gosh, I have to say though. I LOVE BEING BUSY!!! This great book I'm reading called Real Moms, Exploding The Myths Of Motherhood talks about this. It was saying that the difference between a lot of moms, whether or not they want a large family, is how busy they like to be. That is a good point. Most women of course love kids but you have to like also being busy, or at least not minding it, in order to have a larger family. I was busy with two kids. Just in a different way. The dynamic changes. (Potty breaks are still just as short. No more reading on the toilet since I had even one kid). Now, I'm just busy in all kinds of ways. It's a good thing women can multitask or it'd be impossible. That is probably why guys say, "Honey, how do you do it?" They have compartments in their brain. When they are at their job, they pull out the "Job Box". Then they put it away when they are done. They have the Kids Box. The Wife Box. They even have a Nothing Box. What?? No fair! I want a nothing box! Our brains aren't wired that way. We have wires all over the place and everything just connects everywhere. We can just multitask like crazy! Okay, we've been watching marriage videos during Sunday School at church. They are just awesome. I'm so glad he explained the Nothing Box. That's why when you say "Honey, what are you thinking about?" They say, "Nothing." Hmmm.... "Yeah right, Hon! You have to be thinking about something!" Lucky guys. I want a nothing box.

When some of the women were walking around my mom grabbed them for a photo. So it's not all of them. I'm on the far left. :)

My diaper bag I love that has Caleb's name on it.

Caleb's Babyshower

Hi guys! Here some pics of the babyshower we had tonight for Caleb. It was so great having my friends there. (P.S. Kristy I saw you and kept trying to get your attention to say hi). Thanks for coming to all my friends. You totally blessed me and I loved our time fellowshipping together! You are all so fun. :D Also to Kristine, my mom, and Cindy for putting it together. I so did not even expect a babyshower and you gave me one. Wow! I count my blessing having such great friends in my life.

My wittle, wittle peanut!!! Ohhhhh! So squishy cute.

You can't see it but my friend Cindy, next to me, had this diaper bag ordered with Caleb's name etched big on the front. So cute! I love the dark colors too.

Everyone eating. They made some really yummy mexican food and even sent lots home with me. I'm sure gonna have fun eating tomorrow....

Starting to open up gifts. This was just such a huge blessing since I had no baby boy clothes. I got blessed with lots of diapers and wipes also.

Above is my friend Cheryl and I with baby Caleb.

Nana with Caleb!

Let's Clear This One Up

Here is Ivy at one year old and then at 4. Boy has time flown!!! I can't believe it! She has the same eyes. :) Captures my heart.

I have to share this with you. The other night my husband was reading the bible to the kids and was explaining what slavery was to the kids. Then one of them said, "Is mom our slave?" What??? Ha ha. Nooooooo! They see how mommy works a lot, cleans, does laundry, cooks. So in their little minds, from what daddy explained, that sounded like a slave. I'm glad I have them doing chores with me everyday! I don't mind my part at all. The cooking, laundry, homeschooling, and cleaning. It sure does help when they do their part though, even as small as it is. With them all pitching in, it makes for a great team. I still can't believe they asked that question though. Oh phooey. Ha ha.

Kid's Week Off... Party Time!

On Monday, I woke up, grabbed my coffee and walked into the living room to start my day with the kids. My husband said, "What are you doing?" I told him we were starting our day homeschooling. He said, "On my week off?" Ummm... so we took the week off. As you can see in the pics of Kyle doing a workbook last week, he is so happy to not being working on it at all this week. Sometimes I wonder how they are able to concentrate when they hear their siblings in the other room doing something really fun like trying to figure out how to make a slide from the top bunk in their room. (I'm still trying to figure out which little kid found the stapler and put about 100 staples in their wall by their bed....hmmm... well, it's in the girl's room so most likely it was princess #1. Ivy is a suspect so far).

Tonight my husband took my two older boys to Howie's Game Shack for a late nighter. We don't have games at home anymore so Charles takes them out to play games every now and then. It's so late yet I know Chaz and Ryan are in heaven. Since the younger four kids (dang, did I just say that?) were at home with me, I did special things for them. Every now and then Ivy would check out the window to see if the boys were back. Then at one point she started crying saying she missed them and missed her daddy. I let them stay up late, gave them a late night snack, candy, even ice cream and now they are asleep on the couch. They said they were gonna wait up but they are both crashed. So cute.

Ducks In A Row

This is how I find the kid's bathroom sink about 70% of the day. Just for fun I empty it every time I pass to see how quickly it will get refilled again.

This post is for my friend KRISTY!!! You know who you are my sweet friend. I never talk really personal in my blog because I get weirdos who go on here and make odd comments.

I'm reading this fantastic book called Real Moms (Exploding the myths of motherhood) by Elisa Morgan. It talks about how everyone has this mold we fit Motherhood into. What we think a good mother should be. It's true. Most of us give ourselves a hard time about it. Some moms having nothing better to do so they go around telling people they are no good moms. That they don't think that person fits into their perfect mold of what they think a good mother is. I let my kids push all my furniture in the living room around to makes army bases when other people think that's a disrespectful thing to teach kids. I let my monkeys jump on their bed because I liked jumping on my bed when I was little. They are not gonna break it for goodness sakes unless they are one of the video game kids who eat junk food all day and never get any exercise. Some people think that is dangerous. I've had family get on me because I don't follow my kids around the house all day to check up on them. Of course I watch my kids. I check on them all the time (seriously though) and constantly keep my ears peeled. I don't follow them around the house though. That would be weird. I HAVE to check on my kids. I have VERY energetic kids who like to try new things all the time. Just last week all three of my boys got eye injuries. Thankfully all of them are okay. One still has a black eye and the other one has a big red mark on the white of his eye. BOTH did it to themselves. Chaz banged his head on his bunkbed at night and Ryan banged his on his desk at school (homeschool enrichment class). Kyle got hit by a flying kid's plastic hanger. I hide my scissors on the fridge, even the kid's ones, because Ivy likes to cut up all the books in the house. She even offered to cut her own hair for me. Thankfully she asked me first. Since she was so insistent she'd do a great job, I hid the scissors in case she wanted to go ahead and try. I homeschool my kids not because I'm this incredible mom but because I have really crappy and low rated schools in my area. NOTHING good for miles around. There was one that was pretty good but for personal reasons, I had to pull them out. One of them was that they have no good special ed courses for my son and did not treat him well. So, therefore I'm homeschooling. I basically take what teachers would give them at school and we do it at home. I don't come up with all my own stuff. It's a curriculum laid out for me. Being that I'm not an incredibly organized, tree hugging, animal rescuing, organic growing, perfect looking mom.... homeschooling does not come natural to me. I love them though and therefore I sacrifice 6-8 hours every day to work with them. That's not including all my other work around the house. I thought I was done with Algebra! I ditched that class in school along with Geography. Did you know that I didn't know Paris was in France? I thought they were two separate countries until a dear friend enlightened me. I had no idea. That's embarrassing my friends. I ditched a lot of my freshman year of high school until I became a Christian later that year. Then I was cramming for all the tests, hoping that God would help me to pass. (I aced one of them by the way.) :D I had to retake my Freshman English course in my sophomore year because I was kicked out of that class the first time around. Thankfully I gave my heart to Christ, ran into that teacher several years later and had an opportunity to apologize to her about the name I called her in front of the class. She forgave me. :) So it's good I'm having to homeschool my kids. My teachers would only laugh if they could see me now. I was the kid in second grade who climbed on her desk and started singing her little heart out in front of the class. When there was a substitute in the class that day, one of first things they would do when they walked in was ask who Jenny was. The teacher would always give them a note to watch out for me. I wasn't a bad kid, just a major class clown who like to organize things such as having all the kids switch desks and be a different kid for a day since the substitute didn't know any better. Now that I'm a mom, I think sometimes God is up there with a BIG HUGE Grin watching me. I know mom, I heard you say it a hundred times. "You just wait and see. I hope you have kids just like you." :D I STILL love it! It's okay mom. Grandma told me she said the same thing to you. Hee hee....

The Great Outdoors...Indoors

If you notice the picture of Ryan with the bear, Ryan is picking the bear's nose. That's my kid for you. That's a real stuffed bear.

This week my husband has off so we were picking some activities to do with the kids throughout the week. We discovered that Bass Pro Shop has a Kids Night with all kinds of cool stuff such as rock climbing, archery, shooting range, scavenger hunt, prizes, etc. I can't remember them all. So we headed there and it was fun! I think we will visit once every other month and add it to our list of fun family places to visit.

While we were there we decided to stop in at the fudge shop and get a soda and a coffee. Well, the coffee was kind of cold so we let the lady know. She grumpily answered "you'll have to wait 20 minutes". She didn't even stop what she was doing to go make some fresh coffee. I said, "I think instead I'll just get my money back." She ignored me and kept cleaning while we were standing there. My husband said "excuse me." Still no response. I could see that my husband was upset so I said we should just go talk to a manager. We let her know what happened and she apologized, gave us a $20 gift card and went to talk to the lady about what she did. We kept our cool with the lady but I'm so shocked how mean she was.

Living Room Tents!

I promised I would show pictures of how my living room transforms in between my kid's two chore times. They have to always fix it by 4pm (used to be 5pm). I think daddy should be able to come home from work to a house where the couch can be sat on. Ha ha. The kids move the couches around and all the blankets are taken off the beds except mine. They make their tents, girls vs. boys, and play. It's so cute. I'm not gonna freak. I used to want my living room to stay clean but that is so not practical. I mean, I homeschool so they are home all day. They have fun using their imagination. In the bottom picture you can see baby Caleb in the swing up on the table and Kyle is working on English or Math. It's a wonder he can concentrate yet he does. I'm so amazed at how well my kids read. It always shocks me when they are reading their bible out loud. I ask "you can read that???" Wowzers.

My Love Hate Relationship With Fridays

I love Fridays because its the day my 3 older boys go to school for their enrichment classes. The only thing is even though we have two vans, we are only able to drive one for now so we have to get up at 5:30am just to drop Charles off, come back home for about an hour, then take boys to school in the morning, go pick Charles back up (he has a split shift in the day), go home or run some errands with him. Take him back to work, run an errand or sit in van for an hour and a half till it's time to get boys and then run right back to pick up Charles again from work. What was different this time was that Charles had a bus trip to take some kids some where. I had just got home after picking boys up from school and he said if I want I can come visit. Visit my honey bear??? Of course. :) I miss him during the day, the times we're apart. He wasn't gonna be back till late at night. So we got back in the van and headed to see daddy. We didn't get back home till 11:30pm so we are just pooped. I actually didn't go home today at all except for just a half hour. So from 5:30am till 11:30pm, we were pretty much gone from home. So, so very pooped! It's a great day to run errands and the boys love their classes, but it's also the most tiring day of the week.

Isn't this the cutest pic. Little Caleb is going to learn to be a deep sleeper being he has to sleep with all the noise around him in the day! haha.

Busy, Busy Days

Wow! With little Caleb here, the days have been so incredibly busy. I'm learning to appreciate my days and stop worrying about having the clean house. Boy, that's one aspect that changed for me. I've worked so hard on being more organized and keeping things nice that I'm having to now worry about not being so picky about it. I don't worry very much about the kid's bedrooms, I just like the main functioning areas to be nice. STILL, I've decided that we don't have to worry about keeping it perfect and lets just have fun learning and playing in between the two chore times. You should see my living room right now. There are tents all over the place.

In this picture, Kyle came into the room and had the funny idea to pull his shirt up on his head to make this cool mask. Ha ha. Hey, maybe we don't need to worry about a Halloween costume this year for Kyle. We'll just have him walk around like that. LOL. Just kidding. My kids already have their costumes for Halloween.

Going on with the original subject. Now that I'm nursing Caleb every couple of hours and changing his little butt diapers, the days have just been flying for me. Homeschooling has been tougher and visiting my friend's blogs has been even harder. I'm thinking I need to start homeschooling much earlier in the day. Today I woke up with my little snugglebug nursing, it was 6:30am. I realized I should get up for the day but having this little cutie snuggled up to me made it impossible. I dozed off awhile longer in bliss. In our busyness, I love it. I remember the days before I had kids. I would wake up, go to work for most of the day, come home and make dinner, and do different stuff at night. My life wasn't all that exciting. Now, I get to play in tents with my kids! Have different reasons to walk around Toys R Us. Change little cute butt diapers. haha. So cute. Play Candyland or Swords and Gunners with the kids. Make mud mania for the kids outside. Plan a fun family night for every week. There's no way I'd want to go to work and miss all this!

I will get back to my blogging friends soon! I miss sitting down with hot cocoa and seeing how everyone is doing. :D

Teaching Kids about God

Teaching Kids about God is a neat book I picked up at the library. I generally only like to buy my books because I love having a library. I'm a major book worm and I tend to reread my books several times over. I looked it up on Amazon and they have them real cheap which is why I gave you the link.

I would think it would be obvious about how to teach our kids about God. I checked the book out just to read it anyway. Some things that popped out to me though that I hadn't thought of. We can talk to our kids about God, but sometimes the best time to talk to them is through a situation. Make prayers with a little one simple. For example with a child learning to potty in the toilet. "Dear God, thank You for loving me. Help me go potty in the potty and sleep well." This prayer connects with them because it deals with their concerns and is short and simple enough for them to grasp. It changes with the ages of course through their situations. Also, we talk a lot about God's love but they learn about God's love THROUGH us rather than just what we say with our mouths about God. That really made me think. Anyway, just some thoughts I've been having about the subject.

To me, the most important thing I could ever, ever do in this life is care about souls. First of all, the little souls that are in my care. Also of course with people I meet. If all I do is raise my kids to be decent human beings who grow up to get a good job, get married, have kids, retire, and die... then what have I achieved? The bible says, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his own soul?" I don't homeschool my kids because I'm picky about a curriculum and how my sons learn their math. I do it because I saw how the school was training my kids in other ways that were NOT desirable. After Obama was elected president, can you believe the school called me because they wanted to know what I was teaching my kids about Obama? They heard my kids say that Obama was for babies being killed (in their mommy's tummy). The school questioned me about it and I said back to them, "Well, is that a lie?" Then the kids told their teacher that Obama is not a good president but they will pray he won't get hurt. The school asked me if we are telling our kids that we want Obama to get killed. Nooooo, we are not saying that. Good president or bad (in our view), we always pray for our presidents. Our kids remember when we prayed for Bush's safety and for God's blessing. I told them that my kids were just talking about how they don't want Obama to get hurt. Even though we don't agree with his views. Anyway, why are they questioning my little kids in an office and calling me at home? We always pray for our presidents. No, we never encourage weird thoughts of wanting people to get hurt. That is just plain WRONG. The bible says to pray for our enemies. So that's what we do. Even people in our lives that have hurt us. We always pray for them. Anyway, I said all that to say, I think it was creepy how the school seems to be getting more and more in the way of parent's personal training with their kids. Bringing in people (behind parent's back) to explain homosexuality or about sex. Why does a kindergartner need to know about sex? Why open up their minds to something at such a young age? So, that's why my kids are home with me. I know some people are lucky to have great schools where stuff like this doesn't happen. I have none around me at all and I did long searches. So, I made life so much tougher for myself but it's worth the sacrifice. After all, kids grow up WAY too fast!!! Sheesh. I love having them home with me. Even IF the house doesn't stay as clean.

Funny Large Family Comebacks

While in an elevator today someone asked me "My, your hands are full!" I hear it a hundred times. Wherever I go. A lady standing next to me then asks, "Are they all yours??!!" Because I didn't want to be rude and say "Nooo, I just picked up a few along the road and took them with me", I just said "yes". "Dang!" she responded. We were just all quiet in response to her. My husband I get weary of always responding to these kinds of questions. It just depends on the attitude of how they are asking. Sometimes people are just curious. Just for fun I googled "Large Family Comebacks". I laughed so hard with some of these. :) I would have to add one or two to this list. (I put the link to the Funny Comebacks site below).

"My, your hands are full!"

My answer: "Yeah, and yours look empty!"

Or

"Yeah, I guess some people just aren't as blessed as we are."

http://www.plomp.com/largefam/comebacks.htm