Sleeping in church

Miss C fell asleep in my arms during the church service, as she usually does. Then Miss J climbed on my lap to cuddle and fell asleep too! It was just too sweet to have them both in my arms sleeping!

4H day

We received a phone call on Saturday morning from a friend letting us know there was some 4H fun happening at our local fair ground that the kids may enjoy. Since Rob had been so sweet to set aside that day for me to get some sewing projects done, he took five of the kids and just left me with Miss C!

From all reports I've heard they had a great time checking out the animals! They got to see goats, pigs, cows, and sheep! I hear that some of them got to touch them and it looks like Miss E had fun helping to feed a goat!

 

I'm thinking 4H is in our not-so-distant-future! Miss E would love to have larger animals, but until we get some land she may have to settle for chickens at our next assignment. (we can't have chickens here, or we would already have them!) The other kids would enjoy having animals too, and the responsibility would be good for them, but around here Miss E is the "animal person".

As for me, I was able to get a few projects finished up! I finished a cute cup cake apron that I had cut out nearly a year ago, and made some baby gifts too. I can't post pictures yet since I have not sent the gifts out and I want them to be a surprise! ;) I'll post those pictures later.

Good job Mr. M!

One of the boys got this puzzle for Christmas, and I know it has been played with and messed with a bit since then, but Mr. M worked it on his own the other night! I don't think it took him very long either.

Big Girl!

Miss J is getting to be such a big girl! We've spent the last week and a half working on potty training. She had been ready for quite some time, but a new baby sister, holidays, and a broken washing machine pushed potty training way down on the "to do list". She has done a very good job, besides being a bit dramatic, but what else should I expect from a red head?

She has already had a few days with no accidents, has stayed dry for most nap times and has even stayed dry a couple of nights! Woo Hoo! Can you tell I'm a happy mom? I think this is the earliest any of my kids have potty trained. Good job Miss J!

Another GREAT gift!

Rob had my blog printed up too!!!!! LOL! He had ordered it before I received the other one! I am so blessed to have two people who love me so much to both do this for me! Both copies are wonderful gifts and both will be enjoyed by all of us! Thanks Rob, I LOVE it!

piggy toes and sister hugs!

Just when I thought Miss C had grown out of the Moses basket Miss J decided there was room in there for her too! She had a great time doing "piggy toes" with Miss C. The two of them had a fun time and had some great laughs together.

Miss J loves to cuddle and play with Miss E. Miss E is so happy to have little sisters and takes every chance she can to enjoy them! These girls are just so sweet together!

I'm a Ham!

Rob got his Ham radio license a few months ago and has been eager to get some more Hams in the house. The older kids are so excited about this too, so it looks like it will end up being a bit of a family hobby. Rob has been reading with the kids and testing them so they can get their licenses and call their friends that already have licenses. I've been listening along and doing practice tests too, that way I'll be able to help the kids when Rob is not around.

Today I went with Miss E and Mr. R to take our tests. Mr. R did not even come close to passing, but he had not really expected to pass so he was okay with that (he has been working very hard, but it is quite a bit to learn.), he did have a good time though! Miss E only missed by one point, they even let her take the test again since she was so close, but she missed again by one point (they used two different tests). I passed. So, I guess I'm a Ham now.

This was a great experience for Miss E and Mr. R. They were encouraged by friends they already knew as well as men and women in the local radio club that know Rob (and just other Hams that were there and happy to see more children taking an interest). The men running the test were so kind with the kids when letting them know they had not passed, and greatly encouraged them to keep studying so that next time they could pass. It was so nice that they were made to feel welcome and wanted. I think that when they do pass they will feel a great sense of accomplishment in having earned their licenses! They will get the chance to test again in a couple of months.

Kitchen day!

We've switched around the kitchen day "chores" in the last few weeks and everyone is enjoying the new arrangement!

Mr. R is starting to make banana bread on his own and has made two wonderful double batches so far. He is a bit messy, but he is good at cleaning up after himself too, so thats not too bad. Once he gets really good with this recipe he will move on to other quick breads and eventually yeast breads.

Mr. M needs to improve his reading skills before he can do any cooking on his own, but he was happy to help Miss E make chocolate chip cookies for Daddy in the morning. I'm thinking I may not be mixing up many more batches of cookies in the future, these two did a great job and had so much fun while they were at it! I'm happy to pass the job on to them, and I think they will be happy to take it!

Miss E is now in charge of cooking dinner on Thursdays. I don't do any of it, though I'm there to supervise and answer questions. She loves planning the menu and cooking up meals that make her Daddy so happy! I love that this frees me up to do some cooking to fill my freezer on kitchen day without ending the day wiped out. I'm so proud of what a good little cook she is getting to be!

Saint Patrick's day

We've been quite busy here this week, so I'm just now getting around to posting, but we had a fun Saint Patrick's Day!

Mr. M was making breakfast and wanted to make green oatmeal. I'll spare you the pictures (I didn't really take any), but it did not look that great.

We had some fun treats through the day like green milk shakes, Irish soda bread, and green kool-aid (fished out of the kitchen junk drawer by Mr. M). Dinner was fun for some of us, we made Reuben sandwiches! Miss E was the only kid that was excited about it, but the others choked it down since it was AWANA night and they wanted their treats there!

A thoughtful gift

A dear friend recently had this made up for me!

It's my blog, in print! I had mentioned how the kids love reading it and that I was thinking of having it printed out so they would always have it to read even if it did get lost in "cyber space" some day.

She had it ALL printed out. Even the time stamps since it is funny to see the times I was up in the middle of the night posting during my pregnancy! It was so special to me that she thought to do this for me, and took the time and effort to get it done! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

St. Patrick's day early

A friend of Miss E's was doing a fund raiser for her 4H club in the form of selling tickets to a dinner their group was putting on. We had a great time at the dinner listening to the kids play Irish music, enjoying the good food, and the fellowship!

Miss J loved getting all of the yummy strawberry icing off of the VERY yummy strawberry cake!

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe....

When we got to the park we were going to this week-end we saw this great big shoe with an old lady in the window! I just had to get a picture with my kids there! Thank goodness I don't feel like that poor old lady that didn't know what to do with her kids (or maybe someone just THOUGHT she had too many kids and couldn't possibly know what to do with them)! The kids don't know that nursery rhyme though, so they did not see the humor in the pose, but were happy to get their picture taken anyway!

The kids had a great time exploring the park with their grandparents. They were able to see characters from several children's stories, fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Mostly they enjoyed the little rides and the climbing structures.

There were also some animals there that the kids enjoyed

checking out. Miss J LOVED the little bunny and spent about 10 minutes watching it! She was so cute! That was her favorite part of the park.

 

Fun with Grandparents

We took the kids up to visit Rob's parents this week-end. We started off the visit by meeting them for ice cream on our way into town. The kids mostly picked bright colors, and their faces reflected their choices most of the day. Miss J chose chocolate and after a while she realized that my pink peppermint ice cream would mix nicely with hers to make an even better flavor!

Once we got to their house the kids spent hours playing outside in the fun backyard before it rained for the rest of our time at their house. Grandad had set up the train track in the living room so along with all of the other fun toys in the house the kids were happy to play inside!

Our plan was to go to a fun park not too far away on our last day there, but there were some worries that we would be rained out. The morning it was time to head out was a wonderful sunny day so we were able to go to the park (thats for another post though).

The kids had a fun time visiting and spending some special time with their grandparents, and enjoyed their week-end!

The pig hunt

Rob had been looking forward to this hunt for a while now, and it had been delayed once because of weather. I think it would have been delayed again had the weather man done a better job forecasting the weather!

The kids all cheered as they saw daddy coming out of the hills on the other side of the lake and ran to greet him. Even Miss J was excited yelling "Daddy! Pig! Hot dog! Me! Boom Boom!" -hot dog is how she says sausage- They had fun checking out all of the pigs that were brought in (there were three men hunting)

The kids were looking forward to this hunt just as much or more than their daddy. He was begged by more than one child to please let him/her go with him on the hunt! They had to settle for being there when he brought the pigs in and watch them get skinned. Don't worry, they were not at all upset at seeing the dead pigs or watching them get skinned. They were so proud of their daddy, and thought it was so cool to be in on the action!

 

one year ago

One year ago my Papa passed away. The last time I had seen him was about a year before when we were in town for Miss J's dedication. I remember feeling so blessed that he was able to meet her since he had been in the hospital with heart problems just days after she was born. I miss him!

Playing at the ranch

We had the chance to go out to the ranch yesterday and we had so much fun! Rob was pig hunting (more on that in another post), so I took the kids out later in the morning to play and then cheer for Daddy when he brought his pig in later.

 

The kids had a great time visiting the animals and exploring. Our friend has a calf and it was a big treat for Miss E to get to pet it. All of the kids enjoyed checking out the new sheep and then

saying "hi" to one of the horses.

The day was supposed to be a nice day with about a 30% chance of rain later in the day. Well, the weather man was wrong. It rained most of the time we were out there, but we still had a good time. Miss J however, was not crazy about being wet and muddy.

The boys had a great time running around and building some sort of structure down by the lake. They also spent quite a bit of time jumping in mud puddles. It did not seem to bother them a bit that their pants were soaking wet and they were all muddy. Boy am I glad my washing machine is working!

 

Miss C spent most of the time cuddling with me or in her car seat keeping warm. This trip to the ranch was not the most fun for her, but maybe next time we are out there she will enjoy looking at the animals too!

Mr. M's new bike

Mr. M has been wanting a larger bike for a little while now so it was quite the answer to prayer when we saw this bike at the bargain fair this week-end! What a blessing it was for him to find this one, and for only $15!

sewing project

Miss E and I have been working on a sewing project off and on for the last couple of weeks in anticipation of our "birthday season" that was coming up. Miss J was hanging around with us, it will be no time before she can help with sewing too! We got it done just in time for Rob's birthday! The letters did not show up very well in the picture, but they are there!

Miss E did most of the cutting and sewing on the little flags while I worked on the letters. The birthday banner came together fairly quickly and easily, and we had a good time working on it together.

 

Just thought I'd throw in a cute picture of our happy little baby.

Happy Birthday!

It was Rob's birthday this week and we all had a great time celebrating! For birthdays around here the birthday boy or girl gets to pick all of the foods for the day, and it was no different for Rob! He opened his gifts after Bible reading in the morning and then we had a yummy breakfast of fried eggs, bacon and croissants. We all picked him up to take him to taco bell for lunch, and then dropped him off back at work. For dinner we had lasagna, sausages, and rosemary olive oil bread, YUM! He made his dessert request extra easy for me, he wanted an eclair cake. Mr. M helped me make that. What a fun day!

The kids were a bit concerned that Daddy did not have enough candles. We told them that Daddy was just getting too old for that, that would be A LOT of candles. Once that was pointed out they all agreed that one would be best. LOL! Mr. M had fun lighting the candle though!

Rolling

Miss C has been working on this for weeks, getting onto her side regularly. Yesterday she did it, she rolled over! She has also been rotating herself on her blanket, so once she get the hang of rolling over she will be getting a bit mobile. Ah, the time just flies by so fast!

Miss C is such a sweet happy baby. She loves to be in the middle of everything, watching what we are all doing and being held and talked to. She gives out the biggest smiles and has started laughing and cooing at us. She is such a joy!

My Hero

My washing machine has been broken for over a month.

I have six kids, including two that WERE in cloth diapers.

Rob brought the parts home to fix the washer today.

He fixed it!

I Cried.

Did I mention it had been broken for a month?

Now for the whole story----

As soon as the machine broke Rob got to work figuring out what was wrong and how to fix it. He even talked to a repair guy to verify his findings and then he ordered the part. Just a couple of days later the part arrived! We were so excited, it was supposed to take two weeks to get the part! It didn't work.

Rob got right back to work figuring out what to try next-- it was going to be expensive-- in the mean time I wrote an e-mail to the manufacturer. They responded with a request for more information on the washer and the problem. Rob took over from there and did some quick negotiating to get them to pay for the parts!

The parts arrived today! Then came the bad news, my heart sank as the woman told me that labor (including taking my machine to their shop) would be $300-$400! I nearly cried as I told her I would talk to my husband and get back to her. Once again Rob negotiated and came home with the parts to do the repair himself. In about 15 minutes my machine was working. That was when I really did cry!

I'm so happy to have a working washing machine again! Thanks Rob!