Divide & Conquer

Hello again! I know, long time no real post about the children. Well, minus some pictures (to be added tomorrow) the kids are doing well. Going a little stir crazy every now and again (I'm not super awesome about getting them out in the snow), but overall good.

So divide and conquer is what is happening in our house. With the coming of #4 it made us think of how we need to rearrange some sleeping arrangements to make subsequent room for another child. We have 3 small bedrooms upstairs. Kiersten and Isaiah share a room, Katie girl has the middle and then the other room was being used as the computer/catch all room (being generous with saying catch all).

We had decided we needed to move Isaiah out to the computer room (and the computer goes to the basement...not finished as it is more a cellar type basement) and the girls' stay where they are for now. Then come June when little Miss Katie turns 2 we'll add her to Kiersten's room and the baby goes in the baby room. :)

It was time to separate Isaiah and Kiersten. Bedtime was frequently becoming a headache as they mess around constantly. He gets out of bed and she directs from her bed...so as never to be caught herself. Oh, we always knew who the real mastermind was. So each night it is, "Isaiah, stay in bed!" and "Kiersten, don't you say a word to him!". The constant battle wears on a person as Isaiah is not a quick learner where discipline is concerned.

So this week has been the week of doing and not just chatting about moving children around. Since my Beloved was off for the week he needed something to keep him busy and I needed a go to man to get the job started. A win, win situation. Beloved moved everything out, which was a task in and of itself and arranged things downstairs. He made it nice and easy to go in there today and get a fresh coat of light blue paint on the walls. He even took the children away for the afternoon just so that I could paint without one or more of them crying at the door the entire time I was in there. That was a real treat!

I'll post pictures on the 'morrow of the newly painted (and of the kids!), empty room that will soon occupy the Biggest Man.

Oh and Happy and Blessed 2010 to you are yours! Sending love and blessings your way. :)

MIA

Sorry for delay in posting lately. I just haven't been feeling all that well (due to baby #4) and just in general have been in a little funk. Not sure if that is pregnancy related or not. :) For my sake, and because this is in all likely hood our last, let's just say it is pregnancy related, shall we? (My Beloved and I had an agreement the day we married that we would be done by the time he was 40...and that is fast approaching! That and I am keen on having an even # of children (don't ask, I have no logical reason), so four it is.)

So we are doing fine, no sickness or flu. Mom is just being a pill.

We, that is my Beloved and I, have been busy the last few weeks getting our Christmas goodies made. He carried more of the work as I don't like doing cut-out cookies and wasn't feeling so hot. I have to say my man is a good one. :) Anyhow, 6 of the 7 tins were shipped yesterday (needed 1 last address) which was a huge relief to me and it cleared out my house immensely of all those stored up goodies!

Ah, it really didn't matter that they were around. Sweets and I are not agreeing with one another so well at this stage in the game. So whereas in the past when I packed the tins up it was 1 for that family and 2 for me...this year it all went to family. Lucky ducks. :)

Now if I can get our family to get a picture taken, have Christmas cards (at my current pace will have to be just New Year's cards) made up, addressed and sent out. On top of that I have still not finished shopping for anyone of my children nor my husband. Which is completely silly since each child gets 3 gifts. I have ideas for everyone but just haven't made all the purchases...so that is at least something. :)

On a brighter note I will post pictures of my lovies soon (sorry for not doing so sooner Mom!). That'll cheer a person up...seeing those sweet faces. K, blessings to all.

Memorial Stones

Stones set up to remember the faithfulness of God. Oh, how many times the Israelites witnessed something awesome, saw their God show himself to be powerful and mighty. One specific time after displaying his power God told Joshua to take 12 rocks, once each for the twelve tribes of Israel, and set them up as a place of remembrance (Joshua 4:1-9). So any time their children saw them and asked they would remember what God had done.

This week (really it was last week- I am SO on top of things) at church we are talking with our kids about remembering times God has come through for us in times of need. I have shared with Kiersten, and I’ll do so again this week, about how God came through big time for my Beloved and I at the time of her birth.

You see, we were in the process of moving. The problem was the new jobs insurance wasn’t going to kick in until a full two weeks after Kiersten was due. Thankfully the old insurance was good for a month from the last day of employment. (Isn’t that a huge blessing right there?) This meant that while my Beloved went to another state, nearly 1,000 miles away, I was to remain behind and wait. Family was 70 miles or so away from the hospital and so I stayed with a wonderful friend as the time drew near.

We had known going into the summer that there was a huge possibility my Beloved would not make it back in time, once alerted, to be there for the birth of our first child. So what did we do? We prayed. Day in and day out we prayed.

My Beloved scheduled a flight up the week before I was due and could stay with me 5 days or so and then needed to return as school would be starting. We went to my weekly exam and just shared our concerns and asked what we could do. The doctor wasn’t for it but said they could induce me at the end of the week if I wanted. I just needed to show up at the hospital the night she would be on call.

Well, we mulled and prayed about inducing. But it just didn’t sit right with us. No matter what spin we put on it it just seemed like we were trying to yank control back from the very God who created this child. It became a control issue for us and not waiting and trusting in God’s perfect timing. So several days before the end of the week we had come to peace with just waiting on God’s timing.

Would you believe my water broke the very evening I would have been induced had we so chosen! Isn’t that just God? So a few hours later our sweet Kiersten girl entered the world to see both her Mom and Dad there. My Beloved was with us about 24 hours and then we drove him to the airport to head back to our new home alone.

Did God ever come through for us in our hour of need and show us just how much He cares for us or what?

We remember, Lord. Kiersten is one of our memorial stones. We haven’t forgotten and we thank you and praise you today for what you did in our yesterday.

Shore

Otherwise known as sure. That is a frequent response we get from Isaiah. Not yes or ok but shore.

                “Isaiah, are you handsome?” – “Shore am.”

                “Do you love to play with your Hotwheels®?” – “Shore do.”

                “Would you like some milk?” – “Shore would.”

 So recently my Beloved was messing with Isaiah, fully aware of the responses he was going to receive. It went something like this:

                “Hey Buddy, how old is Dad?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Dad is 32.” (So far from the truth, but what does
                the Biggest Man know?)

                “Shore are.”

                “How old is Mom?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Mom is 40.”

                “Shore is!”

Well, let’s just say Isaiah is a sweetie but if he were 18 his bags would be out on the porch so he could hit the road! 40?! When Dad is only 32?! I suppose I am being too hard on the little guy. It is really his father that is the culprit. My Beloved does like to try to minimize our age difference, 6 ½ years, to his favor. He just can’t win as he is rounding up to 40 and I’ll be rounding to 30 for some time yet. So Isaiah is safe. For now. As for my Beloved? Don’t you worry, he’ll get his! :)

Pray tell...

what is that smell?

When you have small children in your house still in diapers there is many an assortment of smells that come and go in the house. Heck, it isn't only the little ones that you worry about with regard to smell. But I won't go there. However, this morning I claim full responsibility for the smell that still lingers even after lunch.

What was it?

Burnt toast.

I think I am seriously lucky it didn't start on fire. Note to self the left side of the toaster is a bit out of whack. On a setting of 2 1/2 it burnt my toast to a crisp and filled my kitchen with smoke. It is a dual toaster and there must be some kind of relationship like Jack Sprat and his wife. One side of the toaster burns on a 2 1/2 setting and the other pops back up in 30 seconds as if toasted on 2 1/2 setting. Who knows the mind of a toaster? :)

Either way I smelt the burnt smell on myself after we had left the house. I wonder if those other ladies in Jazzercise did too. Or if they just thought, "That girl is literally smokin'!" :) (That might have been true if I hadn't come off like I couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time. I honestly just could not get coordinated.) So it was a morning of mishaps and secret smiles. Ah well, what are Thursday's for if not to make you smile? Have a wonderful day!

Halloween

We had a fun night. The two oldest headed out with Dad to canvas the neighborhood and the littlest one stayed with me. It was just a tad bit too windy and chilly to send her out. BUT that doesn't mean she wasn't dressed up!

Kiersten was Thumbelina, the Biggest Man a dragon and the feisty one was a pixie fairy - or something to that effect. You know you have a girl's girl when she must wear a crown (even though it didn't come with the costume) in order to complete the outfit. :)

The picture above is before they went out and then below is after they came home. You can see Isaiah's red cheeks. They were only out for about 40 minutes or so but still came home with more than enough candy. This picture makes me laugh because of Katie's not amused look.

This other picture captures the smile but not the costume. Ahhh, now you see the method to my madness!!! Oh, and it also shows her holding what is now the love of her life - Dora the Explorer. She has fallen hook, line and sinker for Dora.

And lastly, what would Halloween be around here without a little pumpkin decorating? The kids' seem to thoroughly enjoy painting the silly faces and such on their pumpkins...which will have to suite them for more than some time as they are no where near old enough to carve. So any carving of the pumpkins seen was done by my Beloved. We purposefully grabbed some seriously large pumpkins so that he could harvest the seeds from inside and bake them up for a tasty treat.

All in all we had a lovely night. Our church did get us thinking about ways to be more creative to minister to the families that literally come knocking at our door. This year they had bags full of joke cards (You know, like what do you call a pair of spiders who just got married?  Newlywebs.) to give out with the candy. They also had the churches address and phone # on the bottom. There were suggestions of preparing chili, hot chocolate or cider to hand out to the adults as they walked around with their kids. Definitely something we'll be doing next year! Hope you had a safe and fun Halloween too! :)

Rain, Rain....

go away come again some other day! Well, it isn't exactly the rain I need to go away. I'll take some rain. But would the clouds please leave for at least 24 hours? I NEED SOME SUN!

I have never thought not seeing sunlight for days affected my mood. Was I ever wrong.

Having been born and raised in one of the sunniest states in the Union, Colorado, (Ok, so it wasn't a state when there was a Union. But that saying just flows so well, don't you think?) I hadn't come to appreciate how incredibly spoiled I was.

Until today.

Sweet mother of mystery was I ever being surly! I was snapping at every little thing and as I was sitting there doing my Bible study (Isn't that nice, doing my study and snapping like a turtle at my children?!!) when I had to ask myself, "What in the world is your problem, girl?!" You know how you just know you are being ornery and then it occurs to you to ask what might be the root of all the trouble. Yep, that is right where I found myself this very afternoon.

No sun. I have hardly seen any sun for a decent length of time in at least the past week, if not a little longer. It is grating on my very nerves…all this gloominess.

So if you would, Lord, see fit to move those clouds away, I would be ever so very grateful. (My children would too!)

Such a sweetie

I’ll admit I do complain from time to time about the Biggest Man. I mean, the child does cry more than any 3 other children I know! It has become his automatic response. His manipulative tool. You ask him to help pick-up, he cries. You ask him to get his socks and shoes on, he cries. His coat on? Tears. You see where this is leading.

The point is that even though the incessant crying/whining really does grate on my nerves (and yes, I am trying to break him of the habit. Any tips? Helpful suggestions?) he is the sweetest little boy I know. He just seems to be a natural encourager or positive person. That seems like such a contradiction, I know.

When he isn’t crying/whining he can be seen galloping about. The child doesn’t walk he gallops. He has this little hop thing he does smiling as he goes. It is absolutely precious, I tell you.

And the comments that come out of his mouth. After Daddy prayed over dinner one evening he quickly said, “That was good prayin’, Dad.”

When he came down so early one morning I hadn’t finished working out (Not a constant thing…why I joined Jazzercise, but I am getting sidetracked) he watched me finish. I had about 10 minutes left on the tape. When I finished he said, “That was good exercising, Mom.”

He is just completely sweet like that.

And as for being gracious…well, aside from not being gracious with his Hotwheels or rather letting Katie even touch them, he has a forgiving spirit. He might still be whimpering from an offense a sibling has rendered (we’ll use no names so as to protect the innocent, or not so innocent as the case may be) and when apologized to he immediately responds, “That’s alright.” It is as good as done. He won’t be bringing things back up again.

He is just so precious in his little boy ways. He is so different from the girls, but in a refreshing boy kind of way. Know what I mean?

I think I am in love. Let me rephrase that, I know I am in love. I mean who can resist that sweet face with those long eyelashes?!

Extravagant

I have to say extravagant isn't a word I often hear or see. Not many things have what it takes to be described as extravagant. I heard it used recently in a song (I'll share the song in just one minute) and I have to say I honestly don't think there was a more appropriate word to use.

What was it being used to describe? God's love for us.

Puts tears in my eyes and a smile on my face.

Let me share...Your Love is Extravagant by Casting Crowns

Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate
I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place
Your love is extravagant

Chorus:
Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again

Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known; You considered me a friend

Capture my heart again
Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate

If you'd like to take a listen to it please go here. I highly recommend the sound with the words (What can I say, I am a bit partial to a the mandolin that plays in the background)...but the words in and of themselves speak right to my heart.

Sometimes I get bogged down by me and my stuff. I, for whatever crazy reason, forget that God is sooooo much bigger than me and all that comes with me. I also let lies come in and whisper to my heart that I am not all that lovable. And as true as that may be...it isn't about me, but rather it is about Him. See the truth is He loved me before time began and will until the end of time. Why? Because I am His. He created me in His image.

One of my favorite verses is Zephaniah 3:17.

The LORD your God is with you,

he is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love,

he will rejoice over you with singing

Why would He, on even my ugliest day, take delight in me and rejoice over me with singing?

I'll tell you why, because His love is extravagant. :) That is some serious and most wonderful TRUTH.

Laughable

Sometimes I just crack myself up. And not always in a good way. Ever been there? (We won't discuss how many times this happens a day.)

So here is what has me baffled by myself at the moment.

We recently took a trip out to see my family. My mom is currently working for a contractor overseas in Iraq. So right away you are thinking IRAQ?! Right. Not a pretty place or a safe place to be just now whether you are in the military or not.

Do you know what has had me worried? Her travel home. Her commercial flights home to the states.

Is that not ridiculous? I just couldn't believe how silly and naive I had let myself become! All so I didn't really have to contemplate where she was and how much danger she could be in on a daily basis.

What has changed between then and now to make me see how silly my previous worries were?

The day before she was set to come home someone she worked with day in and day out was killed. It was tragic and unexpected. The whole incident has really touched a chord with me. You want to know what touched me even more? What my mom did in the aftermath. You want to know what kind of woman my mom is? Unbelievably strong in ways I cannot begin to comprehend.

See, this co-worker of hers also had family in the area working. As you can most certainly understand they wanted to travel home with, escort, their beloved family member back to the states. There are so many details between here and there that have to be taken care of in order to make such things possible. Who declined their flight home to stay and make sure each step of the way this family was taken care of? My mom. She followed their every move and was always one or more steps ahead of them making calls and arranging as many details as she could to see that the family stayed with the body the whole way home. It was only after she had taken them as far as was in her control that she then put herself back on the list so she could come home for a little R&R.

I love you, Mom. And I so appreciate your strength of character. I can only imagine how much what you did meant to the family. Maybe they don't even really know all you did. But I know and I don't think I'll soon forget. I imagine you won't either. Hope your time home was truly a respite from the day to day grind and that it was also full of rest! :)

I won't be taking your safety for granted anymore, that much is for certain and for sure. I won't worry myself sick either, but instead allow my knees to hit the carpet and my heart to give it over the One who has always had you in the palm of His hand.

A Fun Game

I found this game at a wonderful educatoional shop. I went over somewhat desperate to find something that would be fun and math oriented. You see Kiersten is at the stage where she is doing flash cards and it is making her dislike math. The problem is the flash cards, or rather the memorization of simple math facts, are a must. There is no way around learning this - she simply has to.

And that is how Sleeping Queens came to be a family game at our house. Even Isaiah plays it, with a little assistance of course. Now, it is math oriented but it doesn't do me much good in the way of helping with the flash card situation. It just helps me make math itself look fun and like it is a good thing to know.

I will say I have seen some improvement in her times test…just knowing the answer instead of counting. That doesn’t mean the game has had anything to do with that. It is just fun to play.

She still dreads flash cards but hopefully she remembers math can be fun and knowing how to do it can help you win. Winning in her book is tops (she gets that competitive nature from her Dad, in case you were wondering.)  : )

If you have any helpful alternatives to flash cards or in addition to them, by all means share the wealth!

Not Me Monday

Well, it has been a while since I have participated but there have been a few goodies I feel the need to share. Unlike past times this one is ALL about me. This is something that was started by MckMama over at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/. You can stop on over there and get a few more laughs as you read what others have also NOT been up to.

So, without further ado this is what I have NOT, I repeat not done recently.

I don’t always but I do try to hang my laundry out on the clothes line in the summer. Why not take advantage of the wind and warm sunshine to dry my clothes for me? As an added bonus there is some straightening out of clothes as they hang. Not the usual crinkles that result from sitting in my hamper for who knows how many days after I pulled them out of the dryer.

Anyhow, last week I put clothes out on the line during the day, of course meaning to take them off later that night or early the next morning. Night and day come and go. Clothes are still on the line.

Night and day come and go another 2 times until I finally DID NOT manage to take them off. I mean honestly, who leaves their clothes hanging on the line not one, not two, but three days?!

You want to know the completely ironic part? THEY WEREN”T DRY! Is that not ridiculous? I still had to throw them in the dryer for a short while. (I don’t suppose their not being dry had anything to do with the fact that it had been an especially dewy few mornings and humidity was up.)

As a side note can I just say I am thankful we live on the end of a dead end street and that that corner of the house is where my line is placed? Can you imagine what my neighbors would have thought or even said to me had they seen my clothes out there for 3 days? The older lady 2 doors down would have been fit to be tied if she only knew! That woman’s clothes are on the line by 8 am at the latest and well off the line before my Beloved returns from work at 4. She would ask, as my husband jokes every now and again, “What does that woman do all day? Honestly!”

In other news I HAVE NOT been justifying my inhaling of my Beloved’s homemade salsa from the fresh tomatoes out of his garden as my daily intake of vegetables. It is completely laughable to think anyone would justify vegetable intake with salsa they are eating with chips, isn’t it? Yeah, I thought so too. Can’t blame me for trying can you? Ah, well it hasn’t deterred my salsa consumption, if you were going to ask. How is one to resist fresh homemade salsa, I ask you? It is seasonal. (You like that justification? I find that one especially hilarious. :)  )

And as a result of said salsa consumption I DID NOT attend a Jazzercise class and then contemplate joining!

Now that we are all shaking our heads and grinning, I think I’ll head off. Have a wonderful week!

Fever Ridden

It is the middle of the night, or half way through the middle of the night, and I am waiting for Katie to fall back asleep. I get a little ornery when I just fall back asleep only to be immediately awakened by her. So I thought it would be better to wait a half hour or so before hitting the hay.

Why are we up in the middle of the night? I hear you ask. Fever. Not just any fever but one that registered 103.2 on the ear thermometer. I had already given her some Motrin and was waiting to see if it would kick in. When I took her temperature again and got that number I just whispered, "Would you like to take a bath?" Up came my sweet little girl and away we went to cool down.

Like the other two kids, whenever I have had to pull them out of bed due to higher temperatures that are making me nervous, she enjoys and is a doll when taking middle of the night baths. She was all smiles and played for about a half hour in the water. You would never have known it was 2 am or that she had a raging fever. What a blessing that they have all taken this abuse from me with a smile!

This has been a battle in our house for 12 days and counting. It was 12 days ago Katie started getting fevers and diarrhea. Her fevers stopped within a few days, but not the diarrhea. Two days later Isaiah threw-up, just the one time, and then his fevers went off and on for 5 days. The diarrhea still ongoing. We went to the doctor on Thursday and all was fine. No fevers. No red ears. No temperatures. Just diarrhea. She said with this stomach bug that it seems to last a week and then take a week for their little bodies to recoup.

Well, here we are just a few short days later and Katie and Kiersten (always the last child to fall sick- definitely has the strongest immunity system of all 3) broke out in fevers. What is going on? Time will tell. So tomorrow, for the second week in a row, the kids will stay home from church.

We are hoping this all passes within the next few days as we are set to take an out-of-state road trip at the end of the week. Diarrhea and long car trips do not make for a nice combination. Would you pray with me that this bugs passes? And if you have any advice or helpful tips, please, do tell!

A little lisp...

and the intended meaning of something gets a new twist. Isaiah was making me giggle this morning because he was singing the Geography Songs Kiersten has been learning. The last 2 weeks or so we have been doing the Middle East. So the song goes:

The Middle East has Israel, Iran, Iraq

Bahrain, and Yemen, Kuwait,

Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar,

United Arab Emirates

Island of Cyprus,

Jordan and Lebannon

Turkey and Syria too

15 countries of Southwest Asia

Muslims, Christians and Jews

The tune is quite catchy so one can't help but sing along. We even sing it when there is no music. In fact this weekend when Isaiah went shopping with me to Walmart we thought it was a good time to practice. :) So this morning it was no surprise he belted this song out out of nowhere during breakfast. However, as I listened carefully what I heard at the end was..."Christians, Muslims and Juice!"

Ah, that sweet little boy speech impediment/lisp type thing he still has going on. So funny and cute. It makes me smile just thinking about him singing it. Not a bad way to begin the day, if I do say so myself. :)

Kites on the Lakeshore

Labor Day weekend just seemed to be busy from beginning to end. But it was Saturday that was the highlight of the weekend. We had planned on attending the local kite festival just as we did last year. Only this year my sister-in-law and her kids were going to drive up and come with us. Well, it ended up being my sister-in-law, her 3 kids, my in-laws, and then my brother-in-law and his son. The more the merrier, right? Right.

The whole kite festival was planned around letting the 2 cousins, Kiersten and Leah, have a sleepover together. That was one of Kiersten’s birthday type ‘gifts’. Since we live an hour and a half apart it takes a bit of coordinating…that and school had already begun for both girls. It was super fun for all. And would you believe it, the girls even slept! :)

Anyhow, back to the kite festival. It was a beautiful day and the lakeshore was swarmed with a multitude of people. It is more about letting the kids get wet and have fun in the lake then the kites really. This year more so than last. The day was beautiful…but there wasn’t that much wind coming off of the lake. So the kites were sparse where the laughter and fun wasn’t.

Here are a few of the kites we did see in the air. The colors are always so beautiful!

As a good wife I felt I just simply had to get a decent picture of Bucky the Badger.

The only downside to the day was I thought I had let Katie drown. When I told you that girl was a handful I was not kidding. I swear she has 12 legs and 12 arms. So what happened? We were all playing in the sand the water and Katie was right beside me. I stopped to take a ‘quick’ picture of the sand fort the bigger kids had been working on and when I put my camera down Katie was no where to be found. I immediately yelled something to my Beloved even while I was turning around to the water and moving my feet around to feel for her little body. (The water wasn’t clear so even a foot deep and you couldn’t see the bottom of the lake.) Oh the terror! Then my Beloved spied the little bugger who had walked right under his nose to head back towards another little girls floating ducky that she simply could not get out of her head.

Can I just say how relieved and thankful I was right there and then? Then I lost it. I tried hard to keep the emotions at bay but still had to turn myself around for a few moments to get it together. That moment came back to me throughout the day, especially as I was helping my Katie girl up the ladder steps and down the slide once we were back home. It was horrible and not unlike this time some months ago.

Even after that the day still went well. The kids played fairly well with one another all afternoon. We enjoyed a scrumptious lunch together, some laughs and play time. I even managed to snap a rare photo of my Beloved's folks with the grandchildren present. If you knew my mother-in-law you would know what a feat it is to get her to pose in any picture without much arm wrestling! :) I know you are wondering...if push came to shove, yes, I could take her! :)

Hope your weekend was filled with laughter and fun family memories.

So Polite

My Beloved and I have had a few good laughs over things the Biggest Man has said the last few days.

A few nights ago Isaiah chose to go upstairs rather than eat his dinner. He was simply having none of it and I wasn't making him anything else. So up he went. I left him there for about 30 minutes and then went to check and see how he was doing. We were hanging out for a short while when my Beloved came up with the Katie girl (who had been crying/screaming at the gate at the bottom of the stairs once she became hip to where I went to).

Isaiah had already asked me to help him set up this car loop-de-loop thing he has when they came up. We were all only in the room maybe 5 minutes when he pipes up and says, "Mom & Dad could you please take Katie and go downstairs?" Or it was, "Dad & Mom could you please get out of my room and go back downstairs?" You get the gist. He said it in the politest manner.

We both completely understood the whole unspoken conversation he really just had that said, "Look here you two I just had Mom set-up my loop-de-loop and Katie is going to ruin it. So would you mind taking her and yourselves (since she only goes if you go) and head back downstairs? Please? I love you and all...but cars are serious business."

We exchanged a grin, picked up Katie and headed back downstairs.

Then today we were out on the driveway with Isaiah and he was riding his bike. When he gets one wheel caught up on the grass he can pedal but the wheel just spins in midair. We were telling him, as we have a few times before, to jump off and move his bike off the grass and he can be on his way again. So this happens, the wheel on the grass, and he is just sitting there pedaling but going nowhere. Then he says to us, "That's O.K. I am just exercising."

Oh, how both my Beloved and I were tickled with that comment! The grin and chuckle were a nice way to begin our family filled busy Saturday which you'll be hearing about soon.

Hope you had a blessed and safe Labor Day weekend! :)

So cute and yet...

such an incredible handful! My goodness my Katie girl is keeping me on my toes and somewhat exhausting me. That child is into everything known to man. Don't let that sweet little face lure you in. It is a trick I tell you, a trick!

Oh, don't get me wrong Katie is adorable and can be so sweet. But man oh man, is she ever a little spit fire and a Nosey Nancy. Right now she is causing me a multitude of headaches on the Nosey Nancy end of things. We have started school and she is so distracting. Like her sister she is a natural climber. I have alluded to this in the past.

Well, she can climb onto the dining room chairs and get to the main table now where she is frequently found trying to get her knee up and over or literally crawling across it so she can get into her 'highchair' (chair that attaches and hangs from table-no legs). You can see where this is leading when I tell you that is where Kiersten and I do 90% of school time.

Katie is up there trying to grab Kiersten's book, rip the paper of one thing or another and just generally causing a lot of mayhem and madness where none is welcome. I tell you it is hard enough to get Kiersten to focus while the others get to play that Katie is adding a whole other dimension I am just not appreciating.

Today in an effort to restrain little Miss Nosey Pants I had to put a gate up between the kitchen and dining room and bring up the fold out table. That way Kiersten could work in the kitchen without sister sally climbing all over and onto her and her school work. Good grief!

See that little grin? The minx one, as we call it. It just screams I am a handful and up to no good. Now if only all her antics end up in my losing some weight....

Misbehaving in Church

I bet you all thought this post was going to be about one of the children. Ah, but it is...well, kind of. My biggest child, a.k.a. my Beloved, was rather naughty in church this morning. He sent me into a fit of giggles from which it took me several minutes to recover. It certainly didn't help that I was a bit tired...made it worse in fact.

So what did he do that was so naughty? you ask. I have to give a little preface. If any of you have ever seen one episode of Max & Ruby you'll know the expression to which I am referring. You see Ruby is the older sister, the older BOSSY sister. There are several instances in which she either makes a suggestion to change Max's original idea or in which she simply says, "No, Max." When she says these things to him or does something he simply doesn't care for Max's otherwise perky ears flatten down the back of his head and he gets 'side eyes'. The face just screams, "I am so not amused by you right now."

My beloved must have been doing something this morning in service that required the 'side eyes' from me. After receiving said 'side eyes' in his little kiddy artist skills he drew me a picture of a bunny with flattened ears and side eyes on his bulletin. The art work and implied meaning just sent me over the edge! I cannot tell you how long it took me to gain full control over myself...but it was several minutes. I even had to take my arm away from behind him as his shoulders started shaking which sent me into another set of giggles!

It was terribly naughty and I only wished his mother lived closer so that she could have set him straight once we arrived home. He is a bit old to be taken over the knee...but I was tempted! :)

Belated Birthday Girl

Kiersten celebrated her 7th birthday last week and I am late in getting some pictures of her up. (The tardiness might become the norm for posting as we started school this week!) It is cute because she is missing both her top and bottom left tooth so even though she is no longer little she still has that sweet little girl look.

She didn't have her own birthday party this year but rather she shared the family (my Beloved's side of the family) party with her older cousin Jacob. Even though the party was joint the cakes were not. :) Jacob had his ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen and Kiersten her Littlest Pet Shop cake. It was the best of both worlds.

Her big gift from us was a new bike. She had formerly been the owner of a little Dora 12" bike. See, at that start of the summer she still needed training wheels but wanted a bigger bike. I gave her the big NO because she needed to learn to ride 2 wheels on the little one before I would let her loose on the big bike. Well, that became her motivation to learn and was I ever hounded after she mastered riding with no training wheels! Sweet mother of mystery! She asked me that first afternoon she did it if we could go to Walmart when my Beloved came home and get a bigger bike. I mentioned garage sales and she was like so when are we leaving? It was hilarious and a good lesson in patience. I don't think the patience part stuck...but we tried. :)

Other than that she still is in love with all things animal. Don't let that Barbie up top fool you. If Barbie wasn't coming with the puppies there would be no interest in Barbie. :) So Littlest Pet Shop things ruled the day as did a sweet little pink pig she wanted because we had recently read Charlotte's Web. She named the little guy Wilbur too. :)

I am smiling reading my post as all the the gifts I mentioned have no picture! :) Well, you get the point...she had a good birthday and was spoiled. Not rotten, mind you, but spoiled nonetheless. Happy 7th Birthday Dearest Kiersten Girl. Birthday Blessings to you! We love you dearly.

Take 2

Last month I had pictures of Katie taken along with pictures of the 3 of them. As I was with Katie I am a bit behind in getting yearly pictures done of the other 2. Since we have to drive 40 miles or so to get pictures done at JC Penny's my Beloved wanted to know why I didn't do them all at once. Well, there were financial reasons as well as just general crowd control reasons. I know you are thinking 3 little people...how hard can they be? Let's just say while I need to focus on picking which pictures I like my back is turned and we all know where that leads...trouble! But I digress. :)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves once again. Enjoy!

I had to laugh about how picture days go because we had enjoyed the early afternoon with some sweet friends at an indoor play area. My two came away completely sweaty and needing baths. Isaiah managed to grab that little scratch along the right side of his face and Kiersten acquired a few new bruises along her shins. Only on picture days can they accumulate marks on their bodies faster than imaginable. I should know better by now, shouldn't I? :) Ah well, things turned out cute despite the battle scars they both were displaying. I am confident it had nothing to do with a little bribery of a sweet treat if they followed directions and obeyed! :)

My Boy

My boy. My boy loves cars. Always has and will for some time yet. And not just any cars... Hot wheels cars. So when we went to State Fair and wandered into the Machine Shed and found this...

he was in heaven! Oh, how excited he was. This set up had to be 10 tables long at least. Jam packed and lined with cars, trucks, semis, you name it it was on that table.

He toured the table once with Dad and then I took him around. After we rounded one end to go up the other I had to make it clear to him this was the last time. He could have spent hours in that area and been so happy and content.

They also had another section in the Machine Shed of larger scale farm equipment, trucks and such. He also thought that was neat. What can I say? The boys loves cars. :) Just looking at all this different types of machines and cars is alright... but what say we take one of those babies for a spin?

And that is just what he did! :)

State Fair was more than just the Big Yellow Slide to Isaiah this year. It was cars. That puts State Fair on a higher level in his estimation...I can't even begin to tell you. He was in little boy heaven and it was fun to see and let him enjoy.


My boy.

(P.S. Did I mention my car loving boy can cry more than any 10 kids I know? No? No mention of that, huh? Well, we'll say that for another day! :) For now just enjoy that sweet smile and those chocolate brown eyes with the longest eyelashes ever.)

State Fair

Well, no summer in our family would be complete without a trip to State Fair. This has become somewhat of a family tradition (as my Beloved told the reporter when he interviewed him at the Fair). We go mainly to see the animals...so always around the 1st weekend the Fair opens.

In the Discovery Barn where all the new born animals are we saw...

There were also these newborn cows, twins if you can imagine! Their names...Favre & Vick (little shady on that second name.)

We don't do the Midway, never have. But since we don't do that we do let the kids pick one thing they can 'ride'. Kiersten's ride of choice...

the pony ride.

Isaiah boy prefers what we call the Big Yellow Slide. Although you can clearly see it is yellow and green. I don't know if that has always been so or if at one time it was solid yellow. Hmmm, I'll have to ask my Beloved that one.

Anyhow, this is not a slide for the faint of heart as you catch air on the way down. It is a little scary...the speed...losing contact with the slide for a few moments....but it is also a blast. Just ask my two men. :)

The kids did really well considering it was fairly warm. That freshly squeezed lemonade is what pulled us through! Well, that and Dippin' Dots ice cream. :)

That Katie girl didn't get to ride on any rides but she did see a fair amount of animals. So many in fact that she became overwhelmed to the point of sleep!

What a trooper!

I have more State Fair pictures, but they mostly have to do with the biggest man so I'll save those for a post tomorrow. Have a blessed day. :)

Baby cute

Hey, I am needing some help. I am wanting a new look...not necessary but just thought I would try a few out and see what you all think. I have 6 templates I liked and just wasn't sure which one I should go with or if I should just stick with what I had before (navy blue with dots background).

So I am imploring you to give your opinion. :)

I will change the template each day...so if you could comment on which you like when it appears I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!!!

Ironing

So as a rule ironing is not my favorite nor my most often completed chore. I won't tell you how many years it has been since I have seen the bottom of the ironing basket. Yes, I said years. Ironing is one step bellow dusting. I know, where did my mother go wrong?! :) (Honestly, it wouldn't have been bad if a few more of her housekeeping skills had rubbed off and stuck.)

Anyhow, I was folding laundry yesterday and I came upon several articles of clothing that needed to go to the ironing basket. I looked over at my husband and said, "Don't you know that once I iron something you are not to wear it? It is merely to hang in our closet as eye candy! You know, so the closet looks good and shows off my good wifery skills?"

Sheesh! Do I have to tell him everything? :)

Good sport that he is he gives me a few days notice (usually) when he needs something ironed for work. He knows where I am weak. We have an understanding.

So, the time draws near where I need to put on a good movie, set up the ironing board, turn that iron on and get busy! But it won't be tonight... :)

Wild Olive Tee's for Kids!

Hey friends, just letting you all know that Wild Olive will be starting their kids line this month. And before you ask, yes, they are doing another give-a-way and so I am shamelessly advertising for them again in the hopes of winning! :)

Last time I blogged about Wild Olive Tees it was another give-a-way and it was also the promotion of the charity Until Journey's End. This time the charity focus is on Love Without Boundaries. This organization is out to take care of children who are orphaned or impoverished in China. If this is something that touches a chord with you their site has all sorts of ways to get involved and tell you more of what they are all about. It is awesome that in kicking off their kids tees Wild Olive is supporting a charity that is out to help kids. :) It works.

I do have to say that I did purchase an Unfolding t-shirt when last I wrote about this company on my blog. The shirt is wonderful and I just appreciate that I am wearing God's Word on my very body for anyone and everyone to see and take in. It blesses me and is a silent testimony and witness. Go Jesus!!!

Flown the Coop

Last week I mentioned a guest who was temporarily visiting the house. Today that guest has literally flown the coop!

That's right our caterpillar hatched from his chrysalis this morning. I have to say he was a cheeky little bugger....doing everything in secret. He formed his chrysalis in private and then had the gall to hatch when no one was looking! We feed him, provide him a nice warm home...and this is how he repays us? Honestly.

What is funny is Kiersten had asked me just this morning how much longer I thought it might take before he hatched. My beloved had mentioned some butterflies can take up to 2 weeks so I told her it could be another couple of days. An hour or so later I get a call from a dear friend and as we are chatting I looked at the cage and something didn't look quite right. He had hatched!

I know, I know cut to the chase and tell you...did we have a moth or a butterfly?! We had a butterfly. :)

Well to be honest I thought we had a moth on our hands as he wasn't all that spectacular to look at. See what I mean?

He's all plain and brown lookin'. When I first saw him his wings had to have been still a little wet because he appeared much more black than brown. (And yes, I really took these pictures of our Hermie as we let him go in the backyard. He decided to show me the love I was complaining about a few paragraphs before of not receiving and pose for pictures. :) What a guy, huh?)

However, what I hadn't fully seen inside Hermie willing showed me outside...that is the inside of his wings.

Behold, Hermie the beautiful butterfly! He is what is called a Gray Comma Butterfly. I simply love the shape of his wings and the color only shows off how beautiful he really is.

I have to say I am always in awe of how the Lord created things just so. This butterfly has two different colors to his wings. The outside brown plain coloring is a means of protecting the butterfly from predators, such as birds. When Hermie lands on a piece of wood he easily blends in and is lost to the eye.

However when he opens his wings he shows what a magnificent Creator God is while displaying his beauty. Awesome.

Well, as house guests go Hermie was well behaved, if a little rude (You know, everything done in secret). He was quiet, not very demanding, kept to himself, not very messy (although he did eat himself out of house and home!) and just generally a model guest. That being said I let the kids know we can do this again anytime because I thought it was beyond fun.

I'll take another uninvited house guest anytime-that is the furry crawling kind!