Little Cuties After Bath

I love how they are playing together now. It's so cute! This is them just after a bath and they are cuddling to get warm.

Sick Babies

My poor kids have been so sick. I finally took them into Urgent Care last night. It was so packed full because sicknesses are really going around right now. For the last week, Chaz has been complaining that he can't hear out of his left ear. I have to talk loud to him. His ear doesn't hurt at all but the nurse called to say both his ears were just flaming red. Ashley, I thought, had a cold she wasn't getting over. Then she started having fevers. Ivy hasn't been wanting to eat and now she's got fevers. My husband Charles got the flu twice and he's still sick. So, off I went to a children's urgent care with 3 of the kids in tow. It was so packed! It took an hour to just sign them in. Lots of sick kids. Finally, we got seen and we actually had a good time giggling together while the doctor listened to all of their chests. They thought it was so funny. Ashley, my one year old, kept mad dogging the doctor. She always does that to strangers. So we found out that Chaz's major hearing loss is due to a bad ear infection. He's had absolutely no pain so we didn't even know he was going through that. He has it in both ears. Ivy has a throat infection. Ashley has bronchitis and she got a breathing treatment while we were there. I had to hold it on her because she was screaming and trying to pull the mask off. All together we got 7 prescriptions for them and so I'm having to keep track of their doses on a chart so it doesn't get confusing. As soon as Charles gets some of his projects out, he's gonna go in too to see if he can get come antibiotics so he can get better too. He's got a deadline so he's been working on them even though he's been real sick. :( I definitely won't be in church tomorrow so I can keep Ashley in bed and well rested. I will have to reschedule my nursery duty I was supposed to have for church.

Can You Help Me With My Pee Pee Dog?

Little Casanova here has potty training issues. I bought those potty training pads you can kind of see in picture in corner. He will go potty on it but he won't go poopy. It is driving me nuts. He's waiting to go on carpet. He never potties on carpet. Just takes a nice big dump or too. (Sorry to be vulgar. It's just getting on my nerves). We've tried leading him back to his potty pad. We've tried putting his poopy on the pad so he knows where it goes. We've tried putting him outside. But he waits till he gets back inside and then heads for the carpet for poopy or heads to his potty pad for pee. Arghhhh! Someone give me some advice!

Messing with Electrical Fun Stuff

I love installing things like this. It's like a puzzle. It's only more of a puzzle when you're setting it up for double switches. It's a lot easier since I've done all 7 in our house. I got sick of just having an ugly light in our breakfast room. (That reminds me Mrs. C, that's our breakfast room so so our big "formal dining table" is actually in our living room area) Our breakfast room is next to the kitchen (like you see in picture) and it's where we sit when we're just all hanging out different things or we're just snacking. Of course at first when I start to take down and mess with this stuff, I get nervous thinking, "the power better totally be off to this stuff". I never just trust how things are labeled with the breaker. I always test it. No one needs a toasted mommy around here.

Little Drummer Girl

Ashley always likes to climb up here and "Jam" on the kid's drums. You can see her really going at it on one of the pictures. LOL. Who says only boys play drums? Well, I PREFER she plays like flute or guitar but you never know. Just please, don't play the tuba in band. This is what practice at home would sound like. "Bum, bum, bum, bum....bu,bu,bu bum, bum...." for like two hours straight.

Front facing or Rear facing? Car seat safety TRUE STORY

This is really good to watch

Long Time Friend Comes For Visit

Ohhh, you know how it is when you have a long time friend you haven't seen in years, and they want to come and see you, see your kids, and just see how you are doing. Heidi is a friend I met when I was sixteen. She has seen me go through a lot (you know, trouble teen years) and and so she saw me way before I was married. She knew I always wanted a little girl named Ashley Rose. She knew my hopes and dreams for a family someday. I saw her go through hard times and heartbreaks. Well, we lost contact and the last time she saw me was 8 years ago when I just had Chaz. So imagine her seeing me now with 5 kids! LOL. She loved visiting and even came with us to Wednesday night church service. It was great seeing her again and the kids really loved her. (Ryan especially liked hiding behind chairs and then scaring her). Daisy (our Great Dane) kept trying to sneak in the house to nuzzle her because she liked Heidi.

Crazy Family Trampoline

I was sooo tired today so I went to crash in my bed. When I woke up later I noticed Charles wasn't working in his office but I could hear kids playing in the backyard. I looked out the window and Charles was sitting on the trampoline trying to help Ashley get over her fear of it. He held her the whole time and didn't let the kids jump to hard so she wouldn't freak. That's why in the pics she is clinging to daddy. So cute. It's pretty warm right now where I live so she is happy in her cute little diaper. :D Anyhow, I was in such a rush to take pics I didn't put it on the "outdoor" setting so I didn't get to get clear shots. It was such a cute way to wake up hearing the kids playing and seeing daddy out there with them too. I'm so lucky.

Ashley's Favorite Picture (Time Flies)

My Grandma found this picture for me of a mommy with her baby. I really it and so I hung it just above their changing table since I spend a good time there changing diapers. It reminds me how short my time is with them at this age and to always appreciate it. Well, when I go to lay Ashley on the changing table, she just wants to stand there and say "baby, mommy". As soon as I'm done changing her, she'll pop up, point at the picture and say "baby", "mommy". It's so cute. :D

Women's Battle

"And best of all, as the highest portraiture of Jesus, try to forgive your enemies, as He did; and let those sublime words of your Master, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," always ring in your ears. Forgive, as you hope to be forgiven. Heap coals of fire on the head of your foe by your kindness to him. Good for evil, recollect, is godlike. Be godlike, then; and in all ways and by all means, so live that all may say of you, "He has been with Jesus." -Charles Spurgeon

This is definitely something I have to work on myself. I used to so easily forgive! In a lot of ways, I still do. It's just when you befriend someone and they betray you more than once, it hurts deep down. Then when you see them again, you wonder. Are they smiling at me to my face because they genuinely want to? Or are they smiling at me and thinking something evil in their heart? I know there is a point of forgiving but not necessarily taking them in as a close friend again. I want to go beyond that. I want to see them, be able to say hello with a smile, and truly mean it. To not harbor a darkness in my heart toward them.

Today is February 11th so I read Proverbs 11th correspond with the day. This was in the chapter.

12. "It is foolish to belittle one's neighbor; a sensible person keeps quiet. 13. A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence."

Verse 12 is a struggle for me but not verse 13. I never tell a friend's secret unless I thought it was common knowledge and not a secret by accident. Then I feel like a turd. But... The first verse, I think can be a common problem amongst women at times. That is one of the hardest things for women. It seems in order to feed our self esteem, we have to look down on others and find something to belittle them. It's an ugly game women play. That verse spoke to my heart and so I thought I'd share it. :)

Who's Laying an Egg Now? (Note added)

I was busy feeding the chickens and noticed that Ashley, who was playing next to me, was missing. I

started calling her name. I looked over and there she was. Sitting in the hen house. Ghetto hen house it may be but we just bought the plans to build two of these hen houses by Chick Chalet for them. Two of them will hold 24 hens together so it's what we need. We are saving up for the cost of the materials. So these Ameraucanas will just have to be happy with their tiny apartment. Oh! Sadie, my Buff Cochin started laying again. It's warm enough so that was awesome. Of course little Ivy, my 3 year old, said "Mommy, can I hold the egg and take it to the fridge?". I told her yes, and not to wash it (because it'll spoil faster) and just put in the fridge. I guess it didn't make it there because I found a cracked egg. LOL.

*Note added 1 hour later: It's pouring rain and I just had to go rescue more my poor chickens! If you look at the blog I just posted, you'll see that my hen house is too small for them but we're building another one. I had to go out there, get soaking wet, so I could pack them all together like sardines to make sure they are warm. Poor guys! One of the silly chickens was shivering on TOP of the hen house rather than inside. The ducks were practically wading around in the flood. Maybe I'll rename the hen house "The Ark".

My Favorite Family

I picked up this book (The Duggars: 20 and Counting) the other day because this is a family I really adore, admire,and wish to model my life after. Um, I'm not saying I'm gonna have that many kids (I'm no super mommy!) , but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it either! It's completely biblical. Only the world says otherwise. One thing to live by that really helps me. If the media is for it, you know to run to your bible and find the truth instead. If the media is against it, you might want to check out why. I've learned that Hollywood isn't exactly who I want to model my life after. It's scary. So this book has all kinds of great organizing ideas, and neat ways to do things that I never thought of before. I was reading the book again this morning and read how Michelle recommended a book called "The 15 Minute Organizer" by Emilie Barnes. I was wondering how I'd be able to get a hold of that book since it is an older book. As I was walking into church, the pastor's wife (who's name is Michele coincidentally) walked up to me and told me she'd like to give me a book. Guess what it was called? The 15 Minute Organizer by Emilie Barnes. I couldn't believe it! I thanked her and was just in awe as I went to go sit down for church to start. Wow! God knows the desires of our heart. This is the book I need because it gives ideas for moms that are busy at home and don't have the time to just organize all day, every day, till it's finished. I'm excited about both books! Even if you don't have 18 kids, the Duggar book has amazing ideas on running a houseful successfully and more importantly, biblically. I found both those books real cheap on Amazon.

Kid's Club

We all headed to the mall for the Kid's Club that they hold there once a week. We had to take Ivy's neighbor friend as well. :) Of course, what's a mall day without having makeovers at the makeup stand? I bought the make up as well. That is my friend Michele getting some makeup and giving her daughter a kiss. :D We loved her eye shadow so she had to buy it. I've been going to these kids club since Chaz was born almost 9 years ago. One thing I didn't know though! When you are a Kids Club member, you get discounts in the food court (20%) and they ride the carousel for free. Awesommmmeee..... that's what Charles and I said because those are $3 a pop and with 5 kids, well, that adds up fast. We had a lot of fun that day and I think we are gonna keep going to those. I think every other week though instead of every week. :P Can you believe Ivy's pose in that hat picture? LOL. I told her to tilt her head down and look up at me and she got it in a second. Couldn't believe it. I didn't even show her what I meant. What a poser. Oh yeah, we all went into one of the stores and we had fun trying on hats with the girls and just eye shopping.

Fortelling of My Future

Is this any indication of what the future will be like with my girls? On the phone all the time? Hmmm... every time I turn the corner, there is Ashley, picking up the phone and carrying on a conversation. In her own language. Man, should I just order a second line now? No, never mind. I don't like the phone. When it rings, I'm like "goodness gracious,who is it now"????

Harvesting Parsley

I finally had to go out to my garden and harvest the parsley before it took over. I have so much just from one seed that was planted that I had to seperate it in three sections, rinse, and hang upside down to dry so I can store it for use. I wish I could do that with my cilantro but those re much better fresh. I couldn't believe how big the jalepenos had gotten since I last checked! Awesome! The tomatoes are taking over. I think I'm gonna have to have a whole seperate area for them next time. I have big tomatoes but I don't really care for the cherry tomatoes that I planted. I don't like to eat them so it was more just to watch how they grow kind of thing. :) Kind of like watching She Bubba, my cornish chicken. She has no other purpose but for meat because they are terrible egg layers. She will only lay one egg a week. I want to sell her but she became my friend and I just know she is gonna end up on someone's plate. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that!! It's just, I'd rather by my meat already dead at the supermarket.