The Ducks

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T14:47:00.001-06:00

Praising the Lord that with the new year will come a new life. Little Duck #5 should be arriving some time in July! Happy New Year!

Fall 2011

2011-12-16T20:10:00.005-06:00

By my absence, you can only assume that life has been full around here.

We've thanked the Lord for the abundance He has given to us.

We've celebrated 7 years of married bliss.

We've refreshed our wedding vows with a simple, lovely ceremony on the beach and celebrated with a night away at the beach.

We've grown a lot in 7 years, in more ways than one!

We've hunted the perfect tree, prepared for the coming of the Savior

and today snapped some pictures of a little guy who is becoming a big guy.

On top of all of that excitement we have had our daily fullness of school and cleaning, time with friends, celebrating friend's new little blessings and a fresh cut for O.

It has been a wonderful and full fall.

I've been crafting....

2011-10-13T11:52:00.003-05:00

I've been crafting. Our front door has had a makeover. Albert did the painting and I made the wreath. Take a peek:

Here is a close up of the wreath. It is made out of a styrafoam wreath form and fabric scraps. What could be more simple?

Doesn't it look cool from behind? This is what I get to see from inside.

I saw this: and tried to recreate it.

Here is a close up.

I actually finished this one today, but have not taken another picture. It is hanging over the drapes in O's room and is really pretty. I am very happy with how it turned out.

Who could resist that sweet face?

Road trip

2011-09-11T18:10:00.003-05:00

Well, as I am sure you can guess, we have been busy.

This summer was a big one for us! We had twin cousins born in May, Albert turned 30 in June, Carson turned 1 in August and Canon turned 5 in August. To celebrate all of this, we headed out on a big road trip. We knew it would be a lot of hours in the car, but you just don't know what those hours feel like until you've sat through them. I was able to move around the most and my legs were aching by the end! So, anyway, our adventure brought us to Dallas. There we visited Albert's uncle, aunt and cousins,

my cousin, and her husband and kiddos

and Albert's sister. Our time there was SO encouraging. We loved every minute and were off to a great start on our journey.

Next we headed a tinge north to OKC. It was so exciting to be back! We drove through the base and saw our old home. The one that we brought three little ducks home to. The home where we grew so much in our faith in the Lord. The home that I couldn't wait to leave, but cried as we pulled out of the driveway. I almost cried driving by that day. I was happy to see that little house on the prairie. From the base we hurried to visit our dear friends. The Ks are more like family than friends. Mrs. K is the one who has taught me everything I know about homemaking. I love her so dearly and have truly missed our face time. Our kiddos hit it off and played beautifully together. The time was entirely too short. The next morning was our fellowship with our previous body of believers. It was so neat to be back and I cried a few times. It just felt like we were home, and I didn't realize how much I missed those people. Albert did the children's message while our littles roamed the platform. :{ We had dinner with my Sunday school teacher and soaked up their mentorship and love. I really did not realize how much I missed the prairie.

From there we spent a night in Salina, KS and surprised Albert's parents with an early arrival the next morning in CO. Our time there was short, but full. We spent a couple of days playing at the grandparent's and Albert and I squeezed in a date. We camped in Estes Park, went hiking and horseback riding. Grandpa saw a bear, but we missed it.We had a photo shoot with all 8 cousins, 5 and under. We had such a fun filled time. I know I am missing a lot of details, but we spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful weather and playing.

On our way home we headed back to Dallas for the Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate C and CJ's birthdays. We had a blast. We just spent one night, but were able to play in the water park the day we got there and the day we left. I think that was just long enough for the age of our littles.

We decided after playing in the water park on the last day that we were ready to be home. So, my awesome husband drank a little coffee and brought us on home. I was so happy to sleep in our bed that night, not have to be in the car the next day, and be at home for the boy's birthdays.

So, now that a month has passed since our over 50 hours in the car, even more has happened. We were home for two weeks before heading to Georgia for a Navs conference. It was great, as is expected, and we left very encouraged and refocused on the vision. They didn't have childcare this time, so I was able to get a lot of time with the other moms and the littles were able to play, play, play.

Since then we have picked up a cold and are trying to figure out how to do school with a relaxed mentality.

Whew, it's been a busy month and a half!

June and July

2011-07-22T20:17:00.002-05:00

Well, we've been busy again! Between blueberry picking, friends visiting, weddings, a pending road trip, a night away, a couple of dates and a couple of big birthdays coming up, it has been a packed summer!

The picture above was before a wedding. The big boys were ring bearers. The groom and groomsmen were in military dress uniforms, so it was fitting for the boys to wear the groom's work uniform. Everyone got a big hit out of their flightsuits and they did a great job of not behaving in a way that drew attention to themselves. It was a beautiful wedding and so fun to celebrate. I have never left a wedding feeling as excited for the couple as I did at this one. It was truly amazing!

Some of our friends from flight school stopped in on their loop out west. We haven't seen them in over a year and a half, so it was really great to touch base again!

The Red team came down to house hunt and spent the day with us. We are so excited to have them living close by before the end of summer. We were neighbors in OKC and our boys get along great. Hopefully the friendship will endure more than one playdate!

War painting has happened some, though not nearly as much as the boys would like.

Sword fighting on nature walks.

A fun find one morning. Did you know a dog can pick up a turtle? That was a little scary! He is not a new pet, but was fun to watch for a morning.

This beauty took place within a couple of ours from being home from our night away. Toothpaste doesn't wash off very easily! But she did smell great.

This little guy isn't walking yet, but enjoys pulling up on something and standing for several seconds. His biggest brother picked out this awesome outfit the other day and I had to capture it. CJ will really appreciate his brother's fashion sense when he's older!

Kindergarten plan

2011-06-05T16:34:00.003-05:00

One friend asked what curriculum I am using for Kindergarten, so I thought I'd share my plan with all of you. I actually spent way longer than I meant to mulling this over. I am really excited about starting Tap.estry of Grace, but I want to wait another year. We've used Son.light for P3/4 and P4/5. It has been really great, but I just wasn't for sure about their Kindergarten. I'm not sure why, I just didn't love it. So, after figuring out a few different approaches and what I think will be enjoyable for my boys, while also being relaxed and purposeful, I came up with this. I'm not going to pull everything together again. It is taking a lot more work and well, I just don't have endless hours to set up my own teacher's manual. It is fun for one year, but I don't want to do the whole thing again.

Math: Saxon 1

We used Saxon K last year and it was great. C learned a ton and I want to keep this ball rolling. Albert and I are both pretty strong in math, so this is a great option for us right now.

Bible: The Child's Story Bible

This was given to us when B was born and is listed in several different curriculum that I am interested in. It is excellent!

The Big Book of Questions and Answers

I am planning to use this like a catechism, doing two lessons/week.

Navigator's Topical Memory system

This is our plan for scripture memory. C and I have already memorized the first 12 verses. We will both start on B pack and B will start on A pack. Is that confusing?

Science:

Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book K

The Burgess Bird Book For Children

Fun with Nature

More Fun with Nature

We are reading one small section of these. We'll work through one book at a time and take walks (hopefully daily) to search for the things we read about and just enjoy God's creation.

Music:

Mozart

Beethoven

Bach

I have one book on each of these and I am going to order one CD of each. We will listen as we do chores and prep lunch. I will switch to the next one after 12 weeks.

Art:

Da Vinci

Van Gogh

Monet

I have a coffee table book of Monet, along with a book about each. I am planning to buy a print or two of each of these greats and display them around our house. I also have a couple of books about teaching children art. I'm not totally sure about the details of this, but yeah, at least I have some good tools!

Read aloud:

I am reading the Little House on the Prairie collection during lunch.

My Father's Dragon 3 book series

Aesop's Fables for Children

A Child's Garden of Verses

The Biggest Bear

Dolphin Treasure

Miss Rumphius

Dolphin Adventure

Mary on Horseback

Thy Friend, Obadiah

Boxcar Children

Winnie the Pooh

Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales

James Herriot's Treasury for Children

Fables

Imogene's Antlers

I am planning to find some more books for reading aloud. We love new books and I think we will get through these pretty quickly.

Handwriting:

Cursive First

Reading:

Spell to Write and Read

We will work on phonograms this year. I am planning to really work on reading next year, after I become more familiar with the program.

Poetry:

A Light in the Attic

Winnie the Pooh

The Llama Who Had No Pajama

B will be doing Son.light P3/4, work on counting in rote and recognizing letters by sound.

We will also work on Habits and Handicrafts as recommended by Charlotte Mason approach. The big thing that I want to be intentional about is spending time observing and enjoying being outdoors. This is bigger to me than crafts. I think we are going to do all of our table work first thing in the morning, then read outside going straight into a nature walk, bike riding and play. We'll see when I get my house clean, but my children should be learning a lot and stretching their little minds.

First day is tomorrow. Pray for us!

May

2011-06-04T16:56:00.004-05:00

So, I meant to post a few times in May, but obviously that didn't happen. We went to a Navigator's conference over Mother's Day weekend. Everyone grew a little taller and a little faster.

B asked to go for a walk every single day. On the days that we did not go for a walk he said, "I'm sorry that we didn't go for a walk today mommy, will you porgib (forgive) me?" Such a sweetie!

When I told O to put her hand down, she did this. It makes me smile!

I have a picture of my dad running behind me and we have a picture of Albert's sister running behind him, so excited that C is part of the club! He also asks for walks often, but none of us can keep up with him now!

CJ has cut two teeth, though there aren't any pictures of them..... He loves the beach and has taken two naps while being held in the water. He is such a quiet baby when he's outside, he just loves it!

It has certainly been hot enough for sprinklers and simply living in the water! I guess our cold front is long gone. So much for a cooler summer.

Here is our Mother's Day photo, taken the week after mother's day. No one was really in a photogenic mood when we got home from the conference. We did have a nice time celebrating the next weekend though. I just love these little crazies!

The end of myself

2011-05-04T16:09:00.003-05:00

Well, April has come and gone without a peep from me. Well, I have made a lot of peeps, but none on this blog. Life is busy as usual, but the Lord has really been teaching me a lot. I'll get to that in a minute.

We wrapped up pre-school the beginning of April. I have ordered all of our Kindergarten books and C and I are very excited to get going. I am planning to work out a "formal" schedule next week. B asks to do school almost daily. He wants to learn new things too. O just wants to be involved. With all of the interest from the middle two, I have moved all of our school stuff into our dining room china cabinet. It is the perfect storage space. Hopefully I'll put some pretty fabric in the doors where the glass is soon. I think that would look prettier than all of the clutter.

B has learned how to ride the running bike and asks for a walk every morning. He has done 2+ miles several times and loves the special time with Daddy.

We went strawberry picking with some friends one day and brought home over 64 pounds. The picking was a little easier than we thought and we were a little zealous. Now we have a freezer shelf full of strawberries for smoothies and a dozen or more jars of homemade strawberry jam. I even learned to can! It's so easy!!

We defrosted our deep freezer and moved it inside. It is so orderly right now. Hopefully I will type up my list and print it off before we use a bunch of stuff and it's wrong!

We celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus with our church family and my family. Albert led the Children's message at church by going through most of the resurrection eggs. Everyone really enjoyed it. We had dinner and an egg hunt at my sister's house and it was so fun! I love celebrating the various parts of Jesus' life with our children. It's so fun when they start to know the story and are able to tell us!

Yesterday was our last day of M.OPS. God provided an opportunity for me to share exactly what He has been teaching me with another mom. I feel a little uncomfortable sharing something as encouragement for someone while I am still learning it. I don't want to sound like I've arrived, but I do want to share what the Lord is teaching me with others.

Also at M.OPS I won the on-time basket! We receive a ticket if we have our children dropped off and ourselves signed in by 9:30. Yesterday we were just moving a little slow and about halfway to M.OPS I realized that I would probably be late. Instead of feeling anxious and like I need to speed or heard my children around, I took a deep breath and decided it was ok. It wasn't like I was going to win anyway. Skip to the best part. I signed in 45 seconds before the cut off and I won the second basket! It was full of yummy smelling body wash and foot scrub, some pretty nail polish that I think I'll enjoy this winter. It felt like a real mother's day gift. How exciting!

Today we went to a Blue Angels practice show. It was really cool. They were flying over the sea wall, so we were able to set up our blanket on the grass and watch comfortably. I think it was about 60 degrees with a steady breeze. We brought our breakfast and were actually early for an 8:30 show! Afterwards we played at a great park on base and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

During rest time, when no one was resting, I sewed up three pairs of these pants. B received some for his birthday, so he didn't need any. We are going on a short trip this weekend and I thought they would be the perfect travel pants. I'll toss them in the was tomorrow and they'll be ready to go. If you need some quick, comfy pants for your littles, these are great. To make them shorter for O and CJ, I just measured the length with another pair of their pants that I like the length of, added about another inch and a half or so and cut it off. These are play and travel pants, so they don't really need to be measured.

And now for what I've been learning.

For the last 8 months I have felt stretched. CJ has been an excellent baby, but I just haven't felt like I've been rolling through life smoothly. I guess I've felt like I was riding a bicycle and making it go, but very awkward and uncomfortably. Something has been very hard. It hasn't been my children. It hasn't been my marriage. There haven't been any obvious factors, I just have felt off. For eight months. I have searched book after book and friend after friend for what I need to do differently, how to organize my life so that it runs more smoothly, anything to help. Life will smooth out for a week or so and I may even muster up enough courage and energy to leave the house for several hours, then I feel overwhelmed and stretched again.

My pastor's wife has been coming over once a week or so for the last few months. A couple of weeks ago she said "Motherhood is a high calling." I thought about this and questioned it until the next time I saw her. Then I asked, "Does it say in the Bible that motherhood is a high calling? Are you sure it is? I just haven't been feeling it." The Lord and T have given me several things to chew on in response, maybe one or more of these will help you.

Start everyday thanking the Lord. Before you even get out of bed, thank the Lord.
In all things give thanks. When your (my) children are hanging on my legs and crying over their hunger, thank the Lord for their strong lungs and ability to communicate. Thank Him for providing for us. The pretty and the ugly, in all things thank Jesus.
My joy has to come from Jesus, not from my children's obedience or my husband.
The reason that I am so overwhelmed is because I am at the end of myself. The request being made of me daily are more than I can handle. I can't keep everything going in my own strength. My own strength has run out. This is exactly where God wants me to be. Being at the end of myself has reminded me that my only hope is in the Lord. I am having to figure that out daily.

So what do I do when I'm at the end of myself, I'm hoping in the Lord and there is still a list of things to do and four demanding little people? Go to the Lord in prayer. My Sunday school teacher in OK called them "arrow prayers". I've prayed in the morning, "Lord, go before me and fight the battle of disobedience. I know the battle is already won against my children's sinfulness. Thank You for going before me into this day."

Another thing that offers hope:

I've been reading through "Voices of the True Woman Movement". It is excellent. The chapter I read this week is talking about Hannah and Samuel. The author mentions that one of Hannah's prayers may have been, "Lord, I don't know the future, but I know that You hold the future." This has brought me so much peace. I can't really explain it, but it has calmed my soul as I know it is true.

So, I am praising the Lord that I have had more joy and peace in the last week than I have in the last few months and I hope you will too! Praise the Lord!

March Happenings

2011-03-31T16:06:00.002-05:00

This month has been nothing short of exciting and full!

This little guy turned 7 months old and is sitting up like a champ! He is successfully traveling forwards and enjoys riding in the front of the stroller for walks. Any time outside is fun for him, but he really loves crawling/scooting off of the blanket and eating grass! I've given him food off of the spoon a couple of times and he pretty much hates it, so all of this chub is just from nursing! Also, he has slept through the night the last couple of nights! So big!

B is riding his running bike with excellence. We went for a walk today and he was gliding all over the place.

Here's the whole gang at the park on Sunday.

C was a ring bearer in a wedding this weekend. He did great! He had to walk down the aisle by himself and I was so nervous! He looked so handsome, yet so little in his tux. I think it is really good for me to see him as a little guy every once in a while.

O turned 2 last week! Where has the time gone? I made her a strawberry cake and put some strawberry juice in the butter cream icing. I could have eaten the whole thing! I am so thankful for her and the excitement she adds to our life!

Here she is on her last day as a one year old.

In other news we have one more week of school and I have been searching out materials for next year. I think I am going to type up my own teacher's guide. It will take a lot of work this year, but I'll be able to use it for four years. I may do a post about what I'll be using, but I am waiting for a friend's opinion on everything first. It is really exciting though and I can't wait to place my order!

2011-03-05T11:29:00.002-06:00

Doesn't this basket look like fun. Hoping to win it for O's birthday which is just around the corner! Happy winning!

February at a glance

2011-02-28T14:01:00.003-06:00

Well, it's been a busy month again. Out of four weekends in February, our family was split in some way for three of them. That is more apart time then we've had in the last year! I am tired and ready to just hang out at home, wrap up school and enjoy this beautiful untimely weather. I planted some bulbs last week and can hardly wait for them to come up, but it should still be cold outside. We all had a little sunburn last week. Isn't it winter?? The flies are back already. Now, I know it's too early for that. We are really enjoying the beautiful weather, but it does seem a month or so early. What does this mean for summer??

Enough talking, here are the troops.

Albert received an award for "Flight Instructor of the Year." He and I were invited to a formal banquet. We had a great time and a delicious meal and left all four littles with a babysitter. It was a BIG night!!

CJ's latest adventures are sitting up, rolling all over the floor, spinning on his belly and trying to army crawl to the nearest toy. He is so fun and makes all of us smile so so much!

C is a crazy as ever. We are down to the last six weeks of Kindergarten. He is enjoying it and learning a ton. Last week we had an assessment of how high he can count. With a tinge of help he counted to 130! More exciting than that is how easily he is memorizing scripture and growing in his love and leadership of his younger siblings.

B is our silly boy. This picture is not what he usually looks like, but it depicts him perfectly. He is also memorizing scripture but needs a bit more assistance and likes to add in extra words like "poop". "Our Father in heaven, poop." I do correct him on this and am trying to teach him to show respect to the word of God, but it does make me laugh on the inside. He is just silly 99% of the time and so enjoyable!

O is the princess around here. She and I have started having weekly or bi-weekly tea parties. The boys participated in the first couple, and they are invited if they are around. Last week the 3 big boys (Albert, C and B) were on a "boy's trip" and CJ was sleeping. I thought that would be a great time for a girl's only tea-party. Instead of having tea we had m&ms while sitting on the floor. O scooped black beans and played while I read "The Princess and the Kiss" and the first part of "God's Wisdom for Little Girls". I really enjoyed our time together and hope to make this a weekly special time.

So big! CJ is 6 months old already! This is the crown I made for everyone back in December. Not sure if I ever posted a picture.

Matching Js from the Auntie A.

Our lives are full these days and I wouldn't trade it. I am finding the most contentment through being at home managing the troops and seeking time with the Lord. March is already feeling full and it hasn't even begun yet! I am thankful February is drawing to a close though, it was just way more busy than my liking.

Plan: revised

2011-01-23T14:29:00.003-06:00

I have been thinking and praying a lot about this blog. Not just blogging, but time on the Internet, f.acebook, surfing. All things computer related. It has taken me a long time to transition into having four little ones. I have asked several friends, countless times, for tips and any glimmer of guidance they might have. I recently purchased "Organized Simplicity" and "Large Family Logistics." After reading a portion of both of them I have felt convicted over killing time on the computer. I mean, I need to be able to mentally check out a little each day, but why not do something profitable rather than hide in my bathroom with my phone and check the face.book status of all these people I never talk to? If I were truly concerned about them, I would write them an e-mail or call them. I am just wasting time and being nosey. For me, this is sinful and I must change. I first felt convicted to get off of face.book. I have been tossing it around, hoping that was not what I really heard, but I think it is. If I don't respond to the small acts of obedience the Lord calls me to, will I hear Him on the big ones?

I have also felt challenged with this blog. I have a lot that I'd really like to write and I would love to have all of these followers and comments, but it just isn't me. At M.OPS this month we made a journal. I am the girl who started probably 20 journals as a young girl and never wrote much. I am now using the back for a prayer journal and slowly filling up all of those mostly empty journals. But this journal, I feel led to write the happenings of my children. The things I would blog about, but I don't want the negative feedback. I can be completely honest and write whatever I want. And, when my children are older, they will have a journal (hopefully several) documenting their childhood, written by their mother's hand. It's a noble ambition and I hope I follow through.

So, my new plan is to post pictures of the children around the third week each month, that's when all of their birthdays are; 18, 19, 22, 22. And an undetailed update on the happenings of the Ducks. We have a large amount of family who live far from us, and I want to be better about sharing pictures with them. I hope the three of you who read this understand and still love us. It isn't you, it's me! I just can't manage my time with the computer zapping it all away!

In Christ,

Robin

Book List

2011-01-09T10:52:00.002-06:00

Here is my book list for 2011 so far:

Finish: Ginger Plowman's Don't Make Me Count to Three

Martha Peace's The Faithful Parent: A Biblical Guide to Raising a Family

Terri Maxwell's Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit

Voddie Baucham's Family Driven Faith

Julie Ann Barnhill's She's Gonna Blow! I'm not actually sure yet if this one is on the list or not. I have started it, but I might put it away without finishing it.

Wendy Horger Alsup's Practical Theology for Women

Pam Forster's Instructions in Righteousness

I am sure more books will be added throughout the year, and hopefully I can check some off! My goal is one chapter a day. So far so good!

What are you reading this year?

On Order

2011-01-09T10:27:00.003-06:00

After that last post I promptly scrubbed the kitchen floor, some of it with a toothbrush and some with a rag, cooked dinner and folded and put away that mountain of laundry! The floor is dirty again, but it was clean for a couple of hours!

I just ordered two books. I can hardly wait for them to get here! One is Large Family Logistics. It is sort of a text book on how to operate a large family. Just the title has me thinking. Are we a large family? How many children makes a large family. I've come to decide this:

1-2 children = small family

3-5 children = medium family

6+ children = large family

This is my own personal breakdown, so please please do not take offense if you do not agree. Having four children has opened the door to me finding several other families who have four children. It is much more common then I once thought. At first I thought our shock factor was having four children, but now I think it is the time span. I never have been the sort of person who likes to do something for shock value, but it can be fun to see people's reaction to my littles if my perspective is right.

This has been a VERY full week for us. Monday we did school, went to Jo.Ann's and I made a floor quilt for CJ. Just doing school and going to the store is HUGE! for us. Tuesday we went to M.OPS and the commissary. I packed a lunch and we ate it in the mini before we left M.OPS. Then I gave the older three a lollipop to suck on while we walked around. It went really well. We had several people comment on us, but one lady stuck out in my mind and I hope I never forget her. As we were coming down the peanut butter aisle, near the end of the trip, she clapped quietly a couple of times and said "you're doing good". She just warmed my heart and was an encouragement to me.

The second book I ordered is Organized Simplicity. I wish I could just look at these books and have all of the knowledge soak into my brain! I just don't think I can read them fast enough! With the beginning of the year, I have been cleaning out like a mad woman. Clothes are the main target. We have VERY loving and generous grandparents and all of the children walked away with a mound of new clothes. After washing everything, buying more hangers, and hanging it all up, I felt completely overwhelmed. It was just too much. The boy's closet was full wall to wall and O's closet was 3/4 full for one very small person. I called my dear friend, K, and asked her to give me some numbers. She also has four small children and does an excellent job of pursuing simplicity. (She's the one who told me about this book.) Her suggestion was 2 options for church, one outfit for each day of the week and one extra. I decided I would break it into seasons. I haven't gotten them completely down to 10 summer shirts and 10 winter shirts, but I have cut their clothing down by almost half. It is embarrassing the bags of clothes we have to give away and I think for us, it came to the point of being sinful. I feel so much freer having cleaned out so much! I know cleaning out our clothing is a continual process, but one big purge feels so good! The children weren't the only ones to shed a few pounds of cloth, I went through my closet too. Wow, I think I could clothe another woman with what I pulled out. Albert and I are hoping to get our clothes down to one dresser and our closet and we have an entire shelf in our closet that is empty. I'm sure we still have a ways to go in simplifying, but this is a start!

The Rest of The Story......

2011-01-04T15:29:00.002-06:00

After my sweet friend L's comment on my last post and K's response this morning at M.OPS, I feel obligated to confess the rest of the story.

In order for me to accomplish a single craft, all other activities must stop. I have hardly cooked dinner for the last three weeks. A couple of times we ate with my parents, (Christmas and New Years). We ate out a few times (way more than normal) and I stretched what we already had for as long as possible. We ordered pizza for B's birthday and I think we ate it for about 4 days! I have touched a broom maybe once in the last three weeks. The bathrooms, let's not even go there! I have kept the laundry washed, but have been terrible about folding it and putting it away. In fact, a nice huge stack is waiting for me right now.

So please do not feel anything about yourself because of my last post. I am just so excited to have something accomplished along with feeding my children and brushing my teeth, that I had to share it with you.

I have had a terrible time adjusting to four little ones. Two felt hard, but was still manageable. O came in without a hitch. CJ has been a wonderful baby, but it just has taken me four months to feel like I can buy groceries when I need to without activating the entire fleet! I am still trying to figure out when to clean our house. (Don't look at my floors!!!!) And when to make important phone calls without sitting my big littles in front of the television. I just hate doing that. There is always something to be working on and I am thankful for these little tokens of accomplishment. It may be another six months before I have any other crafts to share! I hope not though since O's birthday is just around the corner!

Spare Time

2011-01-03T21:05:00.006-06:00

Also known as: Time when I should do something productive, but choose to do something creative instead. After snapping pics of all the things I've made recently, I realized that I've squeezed in more craftiness than I realized. And I just remembered that I forgot one item. Maybe it will come later.

So, here's what I've been up to:

I made the hat on the left using the one on the right as a pattern. It's a little big, but it works and was a pretty quick sew!

B Turned 3 in December. Once I found the pattern for this cape, I could not resist making it for him! The boys play "Narnia" daily and he needed a King Edmond cape for his adventures.

All of my littles will have these pants by spring, but B received them for his birthday. They are really big and roomy. Perfect for wild boy play and another super easy sew!

^I saw the birthday banner, above, on Made by Rae and thought it would be a fun way to celebrate B and make our home a little birthdayish along with all of the Christmas decor. I sewed the felt together, but I think Rae hot glued hers. I am hoping this banner will last for several birthdays!

v I just thought this picture was really cute and had to share it with you!

^ I don't have a picture of the finished product, but these are crayons that I melted down, let harden and turned into heart shaped crayons. I first saw this here. They are going to be a gift for O for her second birthday.

O received her stick horse, Strawberry, for Christmas. She is the only one who was given a toy from us this year. I make each of them a horse for the Christmas they are closest to two years old. I had Albert make the stick shorter for her and she loves it! The littles were galloping around the house this afternoon. A very inexpensive and quick sew and so much fun!

My mom taught my how to knit and this is my first project. Please do not look too closely as I think there is an error on every row, but I did enjoy it and hope to get better with time and practice.

My second knit is a snowball. It is not as round as it looks in this picture, but it is very soft and perfect for throwing at each other. I think I will make a few more so we can have "real" snowball fights. This is as good as it gets in the south!

This is my latest project. I started and finished it today. That is amazing these days!

It's a floor quilt for CJ. This is half of it.

I saw the fabric on the back (the stripes) at JoAnn's and really wanted to use it on something. CJ loves to be with people, but he really likes to be on the floor these days. We have M.OPS tomorrow and I usually keep him with me. I thought a nice big, colorful blanket would be a great thing for him to hang out on. And here it is! This is the first quilt that I have been creative with and quilted entirely on my own. I am really excited about it and hope it holds up through it's first wash. That is the true test of it's usefulness!

Last, but not least, I've been growing these littles. They sure are getting big!

So, what have you been up to?

Shredded

2010-12-28T12:00:00.003-06:00

At the encouragement of my four year old, I started Jillian Micheal's 30 Day Shred again today. I was already thinking about starting this up again. I actually have quite a list of things I'd like to do on a regular basis. But, my plan was to start things up after the first of the year. I have this personal rule about starting new things on Monday. If things start to fall apart during the week, we start fresh on Monday. If the house is a mess and our chores have gone to pot, we start again on Monday. All potty training endeavors, toddler bed transitions, pacifier weanings and get yourself to sleep trainings have begun on Monday. You get the idea.

I am planning to begin the book "31 Days of Praise" in January. I have read everything up to the actual day to day breakdown, so that I will be able to get to the meat on the first day, which will probably be January 3rd. I am planning on reading a chapter a day from my stack of books. "Don't Make Me Count to 3" is top on the stack. It is hilarious so far and full of biblical truth and real life mothering situations. I can't wait to read the next chapter! I have great plans to order all of the appropriate pictures for C, B, O and CJ's baby books and get them caught up. One per month. I should be able to manage that, right? (insert eye roll here) And I was planning to do the "30 day shred" starting the beginning of January. Something about 30 days of working out and 31 days of praise seemed like a good structure for January.

But I did not discuss the plan with the 4 year old and I couldn't resist Ginger Plowman's book for another day. So, yesterday I started reading a chapter a day and read two chapters. Maybe I actually will finish a book this year! (2011 that is) This morning C asked repeatedly if he could watch the work out girl with me. I changed clothes and put the DVD in. I even brought out some weights for both of us to use. It was really fun to see C trying to do the moves. He got tired right about the same time I did, but he sat down and I grunted through to the end. I must admit that I do not use the weights every time I'm supposed to. And with a one year old crawling onto my back while I am doing cheater push-ups, well, I don't think I did all that I was supposed to do. Then there was that cardio block where I was supposed to be doing jump rope and said one year old stood in front of my holding on to my quads. That's tricky. So, I may not have gotten the full workout that Jillian and The.Biggest Loser hope people will receive, but my arms and legs are burning already and I am really hoping I'll be able to move tomorrow.

On a more cheerful note, I did feel a bit stronger today then I did the last time I started the 30 day shred. I was able to use the weights more and I did every move for at least 3/4 of the time. :) Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it long enough to try out the 2nd and 3rd level workouts and notice more strength in myself.

Some other things to come in the new year, well, I guess they are really things that are going to go in the new year. At least for a month or so. We are going to attempt to fast from movies and dessert. I feel like we have over indulged in both of these over the last month. Movies have been the attention holder while I have worked on gifts for B's birthday and any other thing I wanted to work on without littles underfoot. Desserts have been excessive for probably the last year. In OKC, we just didn't have dessert much. Since moving south, we have dessert ever Thursday after Navigators. Then we've started going to the Chapel on Sunday evenings and we have dessert. Then there's dessert for Albert and me after our Leader's study on Friday night. Never mind the extra Christmas goodies that we should have given away more of, B's birthday cake and the tasty cake that our neighbor gave us for Christmas. Yes, you could go into a sugar coma at our house! My plan is to eat everything, then cut off all desserts at once. Maybe I will at least try to stay dessert free until the next birthday rolls around. That would probably work for my waistline!

All of the plans are really fun and fairly easy for me to come up with. It's the self discipline and perseverance that I really struggle with. I feel like my energy and will power are both strong for about a week, then I'm just tired and and hungry for sugar. I guess the real question with all of this is "What does the Lord want me to do? Not to do?" Hopefully those will be the things I really pursue and stick with!

...

2010-12-18T11:11:00.002-06:00

I am still here. Our internet has not been working this week, but life has still been happening. More to come!

At A Glance

2010-12-10T22:36:00.002-06:00

Our week at a glance:

Sunday: O wears red tennis shoes with Christmas outfit because black shoes can't be found. CJ wears booties to keep his socks on, Albert asks if they are girl's.

Monday: Container of glitter spilled on the wood floor while I am seeking a little rest time.

Tuesday: MOPS and Above Rubies

Wednesday: Broken glass in the office. O gets a piece of glass stuck in her toe.

Thursday: No mozzarella cheese for homemade pizza. OCF/Navigator's Christmas party. My white elephant gift- a reindeer that poops jelly beans. Thank the Lord someone had mercy on me and took it!

Friday: Bean bags thrown at the window. Two broken ornaments. C singes hair (smoke coming up from head) and nearly sets his head on fire.

I am taking a deep breath and trusting that the Lord is shaping me to be more like HIM through this roller coaster of a week.

So, what does your week look like at a glance?

Celebrate!

2010-12-09T14:58:00.002-06:00

Imagine that. I've already missed a day. I know, you are completely disappointed. Our Internet completely died after I posted Tuesday night and was gone until this morning. Old house wiring is so fun! :)

Tuesday night I had the privilege of hosting my second Above Rubies get together. It was so encouraging and rejuvenating. The title comes from Proverbs 31:10. The KJV reads

"Who can find a virtuous woman?

For her price is far above rubies."

Try again

2010-12-07T18:28:00.004-06:00

Many times since I've started this blog, I've thought it would be fun to write a post every day. Obviously I have not had much success since it has been nearly a month since my last post and about a month since my post before that. So here I am again, no reminders please!

The days have been full, as they always are. Today we had MOPS. I have several back post that I hope to write about on days that are less than exciting, but today was exciting enough. Have you ever had a day when your first thoughts are, "We just need to get this one thing done." Then, as time goes on you might think, "well, maybe I can squeeze in this errand since we'll be out anyway." "Oh and I need some things for that dish I'm supposed to bring Thursday night, maybe we'll stop by the grocery store too." That was me this morning. My minimum requirement (set by myself) was to leave for MOPS at 8:40. This gave me a 10 minute buffer for leaving on time and should allow me to leave early. CJ nursed around 6:30, so I just went ahead and got him dressed rather than laying him down again. The boys were up at 7:00, so I dressed them right away. At one point every one's teeth were brushed and shoes were on, so I checked the time, 8:20. Wow, we had plenty of time until we needed to leave. I packed some snacks and started moving everyone to the mini. I ran back inside to change CJ's diaper, then buckled him into the mini. I ran in again to grab O's mini bag of diapers and such. I remembered that I did have my wallet, so we left the driveway, 8:49, still in my time window for being on time. About 5 minutes down the road I realized that I did not have our checkbook. I needed to pay for Christmas shirts today. Time hack: 9:00. I turned around as quickly as I could, made it back to the house by 9:04 and back to the spot we turned around at by 9:10. Not bad, but there was no way we'd be on time. I had to couch myself through, "it is better to be late than get a speeding ticket or kill yourself in a car accident. Forget about the drawing and drive the speed limit and relax." My self talk worked pretty well, so I did a time hack when I reached the single lane construction; 9:20. If I only had to get myself there on time, I might be able to make it for the drawing, but there was no way I was going to be able to drive 6 miles and check 3 children into their classes and be on time. And I wasn't, but we had a good morning (except for that part where CJ pooped all over himself and had to wear the ugly diaper bag outfit and totally squash any image I was trying to portray) and I was able to stay calm and refrain from treating my children like cattle. Move, hurry up, this way guys.

Our speaker spoke perfectly about my life. Her title was Live, Laugh, Love. The Lord whispered to me, back in OKC to live life with my children rather than just survive. This pops into my mind almost daily. Laugh. This is something that I don't do nearly enough and I am often challenged with. It isn't that there isn't a lot happening that I can laugh over, it is simply that I don't. Usually I become frustrated at the childish act rather than laughing. Love. This is a journey that I feel like always has room for improvement. One of the things she pointed out was that even terribly abused children love their parents and will fight to stay with them. I am still chewing on this. I feel like my responsibility as a parent to show my children how the Father loves them is crucial. Maybe my asking their forgiveness, talk and physical affection is what is really penetrating them. I don't think their faithful love for me gives me the leeway to act in a way that is unloving to them though. To be honest, I wish she linked love directly to how God loves us. To how Christ is the example that I am to follow as a parent. He was sacrificial, steadfast, faithful, forgiving, discipler. I am to love my children in this same way. Now that is something that I can work towards.

So BIG!

2010-11-30T20:44:00.001-06:00

This picture was taken over Halloween weekend, but I thought you would enjoy seeing it! More soon!

Potty Training Round 3

2010-10-27T14:14:00.002-05:00

Yep, I'm at it again. Due to B just now really being trained, an article that I read a couple of weeks ago and a book that a friend loaned me, I am working on training O. She is doing surprisingly well. Yesterday was her first real day in undies. She had two full accidents, but still went on the toilet. Then she started figuring out how to control her bladder and would wet a little, then still go on the toilet. I put her in a diaper for dinner so that we could sit there and eat for a while and she just went in her diaper. I don't think I'll do that again. Today we have been going to the bathroom every 10-15 minutes. She has only wet two pairs of undies and neither time was big enough to have any mess other than a change of undies! Woohoo! Progress! She wore the same undies for about three hours before nap time and is sleeping in a cloth pull up now.

With thinking about potty training for the last couple of days, I decided to read the book on loan. It is interesting. I was really hoping it would have some tips towards bowel movement training. I have never heard any great advice towards training a child to have a BM on the toilet. This book was no better than the rest. It offers all sorts of guidelines to train a child on how to pull their pants down, urinate, pull their pants up and clean up, but no tips on how to teach your little girl to wipe or have a bm in the toilet. We will press on.

This book (which I can't think of the name of) has a copyright of 1974. It is really interesting to see how pediatric recommendations have changed since then. There are a couple of things that humored me. One is that they always refer to the child as "he". This doesn't bother me at all. We have done that with each pregnancy that we did not find out the sex of the baby. The Bible refers to everyone in the masculine. It's not a big deal. In present day articles they switch the gender back and forth by paragraph or bullet points. If it is an article on potty training for example, each tip will switch between he/she. Another thing that is interesting about this book is that it encourages giving your child a lot of their favorite drinks to promote the need to go. O has only really had water, milk, apple juice and cranberry juice, should I buy some special juice to encourage the drinking? The final thing that is way different is the insistence on giving them snacks as a reward. A pediatrician would NEVER tell you to bribe a child with food these days! In fact, I have been told the opposite, "Don't use food as an incentive."

With the rate of obesity in our country juice and snacks/candy are not encouraged and often looked down upon. I have tried to limit our juice and candy consumption. O has been given juice to help with her regularity, but the boys only get it on occasion from Daddy. Candy is a truly special and rare treat. Today I decided that I would reward O with a little tiny candy for having dry undies and to encourage the boys to encourage her, they would get a piece as well. The first two times were great. Everyone was excited to get this piece of candy that is smaller than a s.kittle. Later we were getting ready for lunch and the boys confessed that they ate all of the special candy, they were all gone. Yep, that's why I ration it out! They would eat every single piece if I gave them free range. I suppose they don't need the bribery to keep their undies dry any more and they won't be receiving any more special treats for a few days!

Happy toilet training!

Big C hits the Big 4!

2010-10-27T13:43:00.002-05:00

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but someone turned 4 years old around here! Yeah, it was two months ago, but it is still worth celebrating in the bloggy world.

C turned 4 the day after CJ was born, August 19th. Almost the entire day of the 18th, I was replaying in my mind what that day was like four years ago. I remember the doctor's appointment, the ultra-sound, hearing that the baby was likely to be about 8 lbs 11 oz. Feeling shock and hope that they were wrong. They were wrong, he was 9 lbs! I remember the doctor telling us that he would like to induce me right then, but there wasn't a room so we would have to come back at midnight. I remember feeling the need to clean everything in our home. We ate pizza with friends and they helped me clean. I felt nervous, frantic and in a hurry. I had no idea what was coming. I remember that Albert got a little bit of sleep, but I could not sleep at all. I was so excited. I remember the IV and the back labor and my water breaking and thinking I would have back pain for the rest of my life. I remember begging for relief and just wanting the pain to stop. I remember the doctor saying we would need a cesarean section. I remember the phone ringing and Albert answering. I remember feeling so mentally checked out. It never crossed my mind that I would need to have surgery for my baby to be delivered. I remember Albert saying "It's a boy!" I remember the doctor delivering C and making guesses at how big how big he was. I remember being in shock that they were guessing my baby was 8.5 to 9 lbs. I remember seeing this huge hand unfold as C reached up while on the warmer. It was so out of body, yet so amazing.

These four years seem to have gone so quickly. They have been full. We've had three more babies since C. Not a single one of their stories is like his. He truly is their BIG big brother. What an amazing brother he is growing into. C has started to orchestrate play and look for opportunities to help O and CJ. He loves to wrestle and sword fight with B and often tries to teach B his memory verses at meal times. Just today C was cheering and starting a parade to celebrate O's dry panties and success on the toilet.

C wasn't our only baby for long. On our first Mother's Day we found out that he would be a big brother. Just seven months later that came to fruition. He hasn't seemed to mind at all and loves being the leader of the pack.

I am so thankful the Lord saw fit to give us a strong, joyful leader as our firstborn son. Praise the Lord!

War Paint

2010-10-17T15:30:00.004-05:00

I promised this post a while ago, but just uploaded the pictures today.

I often wrestle with wanting to let my littles do something really fun and making the time to do it. So one day, a few weeks ago, we set out for finger painting. The kids needed a bath, it was warm out and we had all of our school work done with plenty of time before lunch. I put the boys in their swim suits. O wore a white onesie with paint on it from who knows when

and CJ had just nursed.

The three big littles started painting on paper on the sidewalk.

Then C got a little paint on his hand and asked if he could paint himself, I obliged. That's why they were wearing their swim suits anyway!

Then C asked if he could paint B. We both agreed.

Then the boys proceeded to chase each other around the yard with paint brushes and request specific colors for their war paint. They fought a good battle until I came after them with the hose. :)

I really should seek to put more fun in our days!

Chocolate for breakfast

2010-09-21T13:14:00.000-05:00

Yep, we had chocolate for breakfast this morning and I am completely guilt free! Ok, so it wasn't just straight chocolate, we had banana spice muffins with mini chocolate chips in them. Want to know the whole scoop on why I don't have any guilt? There was a lot of hidden nutrition in our breakfast this morning!

Secrets revealed:

Banana spice muffins:

Made with fresh milled flour. This adds about 23 more nutrients than regular all-purpose flour.
I used sucanat rather than white or brown sugar. The recipe called for 3/4 cup of each, so I just put in 1 1/2 cups of sucanat.
I accidently left out the eggs. That makes them lower in cholesterol, right?

Smoothies:

3 handfuls of spinach
1 c raw milk
about 1 cup yogurt
handful frozen strawberries
handful frozen pineapple
banana
1-2 T raw honey

The littles had no idea they were getting so many nutrients in their tasty breakfast. They have been very adverse to just about everything besides bread and fruit. Dinner is a constant battle to just eat the tiny bit of food that I put on their plates. And veggies, let's not go there! I have been semi-desperate to get something besides sugar into their little bodies. A while ago a friend posted about green smoothies, so I started putting spinach in ours. You can't even taste it! My littles don't know what a "regular" smoothie should look like, so they don't have any trouble with green and they slurp it down. To make our smoothies a little more fun I saved the huge straws from P.anera Bread, cut two of them in half and they are the perfect size for our I.KEA smoothie cups!

Another friend recently loaned and taught me how to use her juicer. I may seem as though I am from the dark ages, but I had never heard of juicing before. So I was a little nervous. L juices only veggies for her family. Everyone drinks 1/4 cup or more each morning and then she doesn't have to stress over them not finishing their veggies later in the day. Yesterday I snuck this one in on my littles. I have to admit that I was very nervous about juicing. I didn't have a recipe to start with and I just couldn't imagine the flavors and what they would taste like together. I had the juicer sitting on my counter for over a week before I tried it, the result wasn't too bad though. The tip L gave me was "If you don't like the flavor, add another apple." OK, so here's what I did:

- 7 carrots

- 1 apple

- 3 radishes

All L gave me to go on was that she uses carrots and whatever other veggies she wants. I never eat radishes, so for some reason I thought this would be a great way to get their nutrients into my body. I couldn't taste them at all. I think I'll use more next time though since three radishes equaled about .6 radish per person. I don't think that's a serving! :) Later yesterday I found some recipes and I am really excited to try one of them tomorrow.

My plan (written in pencil) is to juice on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and to make smoothies Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This may change to all juicing as cooler weather comes. We won't always have the smoothies with breakfast, but they are a great way to fill our bellies and have an energy boost.

Another food adventure I plan to take soon is these Lactation cookies. Have you ever heard of them? I was checking out at E.vermans on Sunday, wearing CJ in my sling, and the lady in front of me asked if I was nursing and if I'd ever heard of these cookies. I looked them up that evening and I will be picking up the ingredients the next time I am shopping. I have had to work to keep my milk supply up with the last three from about 5 months on, I'll keep you posted on if they work or not!

Homeschooling

2010-09-10T15:55:00.000-05:00

We are just wrapping up our 9th week of homeschool pre-school so I thought I'd give you an idea of what it is looking like for us.

This year we are using S.onlight. I used their P3/4 program last year and we LOVED the books. I started last year just to start giving some structure to our day and to start initiating myself into how I would homeschool and accomplish everything else during the day. This program is very laid back. The stories are broken down into trimesters and every story has an optional activity to go along with it. As an excited first time homeschool mom, I immediately went through the books and marked each story with an orange, pink or blue piece of post-it so that I could quickly tell which trimester the story was meant for. The stories became longer and had fewer pictures as the trimesters came. C loved the stories and the handful of activities that we did.

So we have moved up to the P4/5 program for this year. C just turned 4, so we could use either program. I was looking for a little more structure and just wanted to move forward. Also, I have been debating (in my mind) since C was born when I would start him in school. Will I start him when he first turns 5 or wait until he turns 6? Will it be better for him to be 17 when he graduates or almost 19? I am still not sure about this. I can see the benefit of both. Thus, we are homeschooling and I have the flexibility to start Kindergarten work and drag it out as long as we need to or cover the material twice or whatever he needs. I am excited about being able to teach him as he is ready and move at the right pace for him. Timing for Kindergarten is the number one reason I ordered the P3/4 and P4/5 programs. I want to get a good feel for C's willingness to sit and listen to stories and answer questions about them. So far things are going great!

We started right after the 4th of July and our only "vacation" was the first full week after I came home from the hospital with CJ. My goal was to get a good schedule going and have a bit of school done before baby came so that I could take off as much time as I needed and not have to mirror up school years. So far we have completed a complete weeks worth of school each week (minus 1). We have gone into Saturday a time or two and this week we did 2adays for 2 days because of Albert being home on Monday and MOPS on Tuesday. So I guess that's an admittance of my need to work on our schedule, but here is roughly what our week looks like:

Monday and Wednesday: Bible, story books, science, activity work page and math.

Tuesday and Thursday: Bible, story books, science and activity work page. I have been going grocery shopping on Tuesdays as well. Now that CJ is here we have been enlisting the help of friends to make the shopping a bit less crazy. This can't go on forever, so I am trying to figure out how I can get it all done.

Friday: one story book, social studies, activity page and math. This is our light day. If we are going to play with friends, this is the day. If I am going to clean the house, this is the day.

Here is a V.E.R.Y. rough idea of what a typical Monday looks like:

7:00-8:00 Breakfast

8:00-9:00 dress, brush teeth, pick up rooms, unload dishwasher, start laundry or switch the loads over. If there is still time I'll squeeze in another chore, getting dressed shouldn't take us a full hour, but it's amazing how slow we move!

9:00-10:00 O plays in her room and we tackle school. She's been crawling up on her bed and taking a nap, so I make sure to wake her up at 10! My big goal here is to get math done while she is occupied, we just can't seem to focus when she's walking around.

11:00-12:00 Free play or craft time. Yesterday we finger painted but that is a whole post on it's own!

12:00-1:00 Lunch (again, this shouldn't take a full hour, but we are slow on the transition and very slow to eat)

1:00-3:00 Mandatory nap time

I am not claiming to have things down to a science, but I am really happy with how everything is going. It would probably be nice for me to work dusting, cleaning the bathrooms and scrubbing the kitchen floor in there somewhere, but I will squeeze those in on Friday mornings for now.

Labor Day

2010-09-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

In anticipation of Labor Day, I have been calculating my hours and weight for the last few days. I wish I could say this was an original idea, but it's not. I read it somewhere last year on or around Labor Day. I love it though! So, here are my stats:

I have labored for 19.5 hours.

Delivered 30 lbs 14 oz worth of baby.

So, how about you? What are your stats for this Labor Day 2010?

C: 9 lbs Labored for 6 hours before he was born via c-section.

B: 7 lbs 2 oz Labor: 4.5 hrs

O: 7 lbs 9 oz Labor: 4.5 hrs

CJ: 7 lbs 3 oz Labor: 4.5 hrs

3 little Ducks went swimming one day....

2010-08-25T15:26:00.000-05:00

3 little Ducks went swimming one day,

Over the river and far away,

Mother Duck said "quack, quack, quack, quack"

4 little Ducks came swimming back!

Life always happens between posts, but this has been an exceptionally exciting 3 weeksish! In the time since my last post Paddle has arrived! We have a new bouncing baby boy and we are all loving him so much. Here's the story of his arrival:

Wednesday, August 18

2:15 a.m. I wake up to a contraction. I went to the bathroom, then started timing. They were about 7 minutes apart. I stayed in bed, watching the clock for an hour. They continued, so I got up to get some water. I was hoping to let Albert sleep as long as possible, I know how intense these things become. When I left to get water, he thought one of the boys were sneaking into our room, so he came to check on me. (We are both very jumpy over contractions since our last two came so quickly.) I told him that I was having contractions every 7 minutes for the last hour. He told me to call my mom and we started getting ready for the hospital. I'm not sure what time we got to the hospital, but everything was starting to settle down. By the time the nurse checked me, I knew I wasn't in "real" labor. We were both a little disappointed. Our last three arrivals have come after little to no sleep, we were so excited to have had almost a full nights rest before labor began! The nurses told us to walk the halls until my mid-wife came to do her rounds. Upon her arrival it was official that I was not in labor and I could cancel my appointment for later that morning. Albert and I squeezed in a quick trip to P@nera for breakfast, then headed home. We enjoyed the hours to just be together, walk and talk, but we were both a little disappointed.

9:00 Albert heads in to work and my mom goes to work, nothing has changed.

Nap time: I have a couple of noticeable contractions.

4:00-5:00 While talking to L on the phone, I have a couple of sharp contractions that I have to stop talking for. Albert called at 5:00 to say he was on his way home. I was wanting him to come home, it was perfect timing. I loaded the littles up and we walked down the street once, then back to the house. I had a few strong contractions while we were walking. Albert got home at 5:30 and instantly knew I was in labor. My mom came over again and by 6:30 we were on our way to the hospital. My contractions were about 5 minutes apart. On the way into the Emergency Room, I stopped to get through a contractions and a lady walking by shouted, "Congratulations" then I heard laughing. I'm still not totally sure what that was about, but it was distracting and I would recommend any readers to do that if they see a woman in labor!

7:00ish I was checked into another labor room. All of the nurses were still there from when we left in the morning. I had a terrible time getting comfortable and this time when I was checked I was 6-7 cm dilated. Much better than the 1 I received earlier that morning. I moved to the labor tub and was able to feel some relief. My nurse was great. She suggested a variety of things to try to relieve pain and just helped me labor. This was a first for me and such a blessing! I stayed in the tub for 30 minutes or so, then started feeling the urge to push. I was complete when I got out. I would guess it was about 8:30 by now.

Once I was out of the tub and checked, I asked J to break my water. My back was killing me. The contractions were manageable, but my back pain was so great. Paddle's head was turned sideways, so with every contraction he was pushing on my tailbone. It felt like I could feel my tailbone going out and in with each push. This is not an incentive to push! At one point I asked "How are we going to get this baby out?" I really just wanted someone to pull him out. I was ready to be done. Praise the Lord, I pushed with two to three contractions and Paddle was born. Albert said, "It's a boy." J said, "Well, he surprised all of us!" J, the baby nurse and I all thought it was a girl. What a blessing to have another little boy!

Paddle weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and was 18 3/4 in. long. He swallowed a bit of fluid during birth, but cleared it all out within about 30 minutes.

Widdle, Waddle and Piddle love Paddle very much. They have all adjusted beautifully and I really could not ask for a better adjustment on their part to a new little Duck. Widdle can't stop talking about how cute Paddle is. He and Waddle argue over who gets to hold him. Piddle is often begging for a turn with her baby brother.

**************

Widdle has also has some excitement in his life as he turned 4 on the 19th. In some ways I cannot believe he is 4 years old and in other ways he seems to be so grown up. He just looks like a little boy these days. His birth story is quite different from his baby brother's, but a miracle guided by the Lord nonetheless. It is just amazing to me how the birth of each child has revealed so much to me about the character and provision of the Lord. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily craziness of having many littles and forget what a gift and miracle each of their lives are.

I feel so much love for my littles these days. I hope to remember each snuggle, each hug, each kiss, each beg for holding their brother, every little thing. I know this time will go by quickly and my arms will long to hold them, so for now we are treasuring the moments and trying to slow them down.

Baby Thoughts

2010-08-06T21:06:00.000-05:00

With my due date being roughly a month away, I can't help but almost constantly calculate when this little one might arrive. This is a very fun guessing game for me. I seriously think about it almost daily now. Though, I don't have to do the figuring, I know the dates by heart almost. So, here are the facts and my estimation.......

If Paddle comes on Big Big brother Widdle's timeline, he or she will be born on September 11. To be honest, this is one of the days I've blacklisted. I just feel a tinge weird about the baby being born on September 11 and would rather almost any other day.

If Paddle comes on Big Brother Waddle's timeline, he or she will be born on August 16th. This is fine with me. If the baby did come then, we would have plenty of time (idealy) to make it home for Widdle's 4th birthday. Also, it would kind of be fun to have four under four for a few days.

If Paddle comes on Big Sister Piddle's timeline, he or she will be born on August 13th. That is next Friday. One week from today. I'm not that ready to go and I don't particularly want the baby to come on Friday the 13th. It's not a blacklisted day, but not a favorite. Piddle's timeline was crazy though, and I am still not convinced that she was as early as the doctors thought she was. I keep mentioning that the baby could come as early as next Friday, but I am not expecting anything until the 16th(ish) or later.

The wrench in the figures is Widdle's birthday. His birthday is the 19th of August. I don't think it would be terrible, but I just don't really want the baby to share a birthday with Widdle. I love birthdays and I want each of them to have their own special day. A day that I can think about the days leading up to their very first birthday and well, I just don't want to have to split that time. Even now I am daily thinking about how I thought Widdle would never come out. I can picture myself walking around T@rget looking for castor oil and the pharmacist begging me not to use it. And here he is almost four years old. Those last weeks seemed so long, and the last 4 years seem to have gone so quickly. I could cry..... but I won't. At least not right now. I still have two weeks.

Here's the other thing. I've been reading "The Birth Book" by Dr. and Mrs. Sears. It is an excellent resource just over flowing with information about birth and tips to help with labor. I so wish I had studied it exactly four years ago! Any who, with knowing how big our babies can be, I am really hoping this baby comes a little early. The dates I really like, with no real significance other than that I think they sound like nice birth dates, are Aug. 22nd or Sept 2nd. August 22nd would put three of our four children's birthdays on the same date. Also, it's a Sunday, so people would be easily available to help out with our littles. I'm not sure why I like September 2nd, I just like the sound of it. So, with reading this book and previous experience and all of that, I know that having your membranes swept is one way to move labor into action. I asked my midwife about this and she said that she would do it only if I asked and no earlier than 37 weeks. *Let me just add here that while I would like this baby to come early, my number one objective is for the baby to be healthy. If that means I carry him/her until the middle of September, I may be stinky and sweaty, but I will do it. I do not and will not (within my control) risk the health of this baby over wanting him/her to be smaller. And by smaller I mean smaller than 9 lbs. Preferably in the 7s somewhere.* With Waddle I had my membranes swept just a few days before 37 weeks, since Widdle was late and the sweeping never did anything for him, and he was born that night. Blah blah blah, with all of that, I will be 37 weeks and have an appointment on that day, the day before Widdle's birthday. Looking back over my own experience, that would have Paddle being born on Widdle's birthday, the very thing I am hoping to avoid! Though, if I moved my appointment to Widdle's birthday, the baby may come the next day, but I don't want to be at the doctor's office on his birthday either. I am not really worried about any of this timing, it's just a fun, silly thing for me to think about. It passes the time and helps me drown out all of the noise around me.

All of that to say, I am excited for this little one's arrival. Sometimes I am torn over the convenience of scheduling a c-section or induction, which are both options for me, but I know the ease of going into labor on my own and the benefits for the baby. While it is more chaotic for the rest of us, it is best and I can and can't wait for it to happen!

Another list

2010-08-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

I am still here and still pregnant. I guess that takes away one excuse for such a delay. To be honest, I just don't know what to talk about on this thing! Here are a couple of funny things and other that have been heard and happening around our little pond:

I recently switched all of the clothing around for the boys. I had to take every single long sleeved item out of Widdle's closet and dresser because he kept wearing them. He wore a long sleeve button down shirt with a vest to church no less that 6 times, even in this crazy heat. So, with the shirts gone, he is forced to pick something else. He was excited to see a new blue and white striped shirt and wore it the first Sunday available. After getting dressed he asked me, "Mommy, can I wear this when I marry Chadleigh?" I replied, "Well, I think you look very handsome and that would make a nice wedding outfit, but it would probably be best to ask her what she thinks."
Widdle said "Will Chadleigh have babies in her belly when we get married?" Me, "I hope not when you get married, but maybe after you are married if the Lord wills it. How many babies would you like to have?" Widdle, "A brother, a sister, a brother and a sister. LOTS of babies!!" I hope the Lord does bless him with lots of babies, even if he doesn't end up marrying Chadleigh!
Waddle told me (at the dinner table) "Mommy, don't take your shirt off!" I replied, "Don't worry buddy, mama will not be taking her shirt off in front of you, especially at the table."

Not so funny, but good things that have happened:

My pre-registration for the hospital arrived in the mail yesterday or the day before, I haven't looked at it yet, but at least I have it!
Our sibling shirts arrived and have been washed and dried, ready for wearing! I think I mentioned these before, but I just have to shamelessly plug them again. These are THE cutest sibling shirts I have found and I have done a lot of looking! I ordered the baby one with a big blue bird, medium blue bird, medium-small pink bird and a tiny green bird, underneath it just says "baby". Once Paddle arrives I will re-order his/her shirt, but the others will continue to have a tiny green bird on theirs. Receiving this package in the mail escalated my excitement over our little one's arrival!
The boys are moved into their new room. We are doing a room shuffle to prep for the baby. This house is truly a blessing from the Lord. And I am thankful for it. When we first looked at it I had everyone placed and purposed each room, now that we have lived here for several months, I am repurposing rooms and trying to figure out ways to make everything work more efficiently. Maybe there's a bit of nesting happening too. Who knows! With that, the office/school room has been combined and is in the room that most families would use as a formal living room, right inside the front door. Except that it's always a mess, I love this room. The office originally was in our 3rd bedroom. When the office moved, that room became our guest room. The thing is, Piddle was sweating to death in the 2nd bedroom, which is on the corner of the house, and the guest room was always nice and cool. We could have just moved Piddle from the 2nd bedroom to the 3rd, but that would be too easy and I am a chronic furniture re-arranger and I'm nesting. So, the turquoise 3rd bedroom was painted red, the new bunk beds were partially disassembled and the boys happily relocated. They love their "news room" as Waddle calls it. With their move the other red bedroom, bedroom 1, had to be repainted. Albert took care of that last weekend. There is a bit of touch up left and the outlets need to be replaced, but it is functioning well enough for my nesting to relax. Piddle has switched to the new crib, the toddler bed is in place and I moved her dresser in yesterday. I was hoping to transition her to the toddler bed this weekend, but I don't want her to be able to play with outlets that aren't covered, so she has a little more time in her comfort zone. At least with the toddler bed she can use the same mattress and I am hoping that helps her. A couple of newborn outfits are hanging in her closet and half of the dresser has been cleared out. The second bedroom needs to be painted still. But, thanks to our dear friends, we have a queen size guest bed set up and ready for sleeping on in there. I also have the original crib, a changing table and glider in that room. It will be the newborn nursery/guest room for a little while. I am thinking I'll pull out the changing table and glider when we have guest and put the baby in our room then. After the baby is sleeping moderately well, he or she will move into Piddles room. Hopefully her need for sleep will rub off on the baby!
I will be shifting the car seats around tomorrow and vacuuming out the buffet in prep for a ride home with the whole gang.

Everything is pretty well ready to go, I just have to cook this baby a little longer and wait for the Lord's timing!

Sorry for the break.....

2010-07-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

It seems that I am not a great writer, or great thinker these days, and thus the blog is left to gather dust...... along with every other project that I have ever started that is an ongoing thing. This blog makes me think of those little digital pets that were popular (at least with me and my sister) in the early 90's. Mine died. Not much has changed for me. If something does not make noise or in some other way demand attention, it will not be fed or cared for..... hence the stack of folded, clean laundry sitting on my dresser and the poor maintenance of this blog. But, you will be happy to know that my littles have been bathed, fed and changed in the recent past. :)

In other news, life is moving right along. I am 31 weeks and set up our hospital tour for next Tuesday. We do not want a repeat of Waddle's delivery. If you'll recall, we were planning to visit the hospital Saturday morning, drive by and see how to do everything. Well, I went into labor Friday night, only the Emergency entrance was open and we had no idea where we were trying to get to. I recently visited a friend at the hospital that I will be delivering at, so I at least know where our final destination is. I was talking to Albert about the tour yesterday and we both feel it is very important to figure out where we park and go in if I am in labor "after hours." Our first three were born at 8:05 a.m., 1:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. They like to party all night!

(This pic was taken over a month ago, just pretend this is still what I look like. )

The baby is moving like crazy and often feels like he/she is doing a headstand and keeping his/her balance on my ribs....... not the most comfortable thing ever, but it's temporary. My midwife recommended that I read "The Birth Book." I so wish I had heard of this book while I was pregnant with Widdle. I have been so clueless all along. I already feel much more educated for this birth and I would HIGHLY recommend this book to any lady who is expecting a baby. It is excellent.

Widdle is doing well. I can't believe he will be four years old next month. We have started his pre-school curriculum and he always asks to read more stories. I thought he would like the manipulative for math more than he is showing interest at this point. My main goal is to teach him to be considerate and thoughtful towards others, everything else he learns is just icing on the cake! It seems the Holy Spirit is working on his heart and it is a great joy to see. We still have a lot of hard days, but the fruit is showing and we could not be more joyful!

Waddle is half-way working on being potty trained. He does not seem to be very concerned with it and I am too distracted to keep potty time at the front of my mind. I think we will work with the timer next week and see what happens. Every morning I pray for more energy and the ability to accomplish the things the Lord has set for me, all I can gather is that the Lord is not extremely worried about Waddle's ability to potty on the toilet and keep his undies dry. Thankfully I have been able to relax and just roll with this. Waddle is extremely interested in babies these days. He is the most interested in our baby and wants to take it out. I wish it were that easy. He will be a wonderful big big brother and I suspect he will have a very special bond with this baby.

Piddle is sweet and sour. She makes us laugh all the time. She is walking everywhere and just learned how to go down the two steps that lead from our laundry room to our play room. Unlike every little boy that I know, she had decided that sitting down and scooting her bottom to the edge of the step is the safest and best way to move to the lower step. Our boys have always flipped over to their bellies, dangled their legs over and kicked until the felt the step. For the longest time Piddle would just stand at the top of the step and half whine, half grunt, looking for someone to rescue her. Widdle has been very happy to help. Now she can handle it, though she still looks around for an assistant. On Father's day she learned how to give "nucks." She has finally learned how to say "please" in sign language and how to knock on the door. I love seeing them figure out how to communicate and function in the world around them.

Albert took the boys to CO for a few days last week and they had a blast. Widdle has said several times that he wants to go back. Waddle will give me a little pouty face and say, "I leave you, I miss you." Today when he said this I replied, "it's ok though, you came back to me" and his face lit up. That warmed my heart a bit. While in CO they went horseback riding to breakfast and seem to have had a blast. I have heard about R.J. (Waddle and Papaw's horse) more than anything else from the trip.

Piddle and I had girl's time at home. She inherited a sleepy head from her mama and we both enjoyed sleeping in, taking naps and going to bed early. I had high hopes for getting a lot of things done in prep for the baby and the only real thing that was accomplished was resting up for the boy's return..... I work better when everyone is at home anyway. :}

I think that's the short overview of our last month. Maybe I'll be a little more with it in the next 5-9 weeks leading up to baby Duck 4's arrival, or we could just call him/her Paddle.

*That's a lie, after looking through the pictures and pulling these out, I see that we have been up to quite a bit more. We have gone blueberry picking several times and have about 20 lbs in our freezer. Hopefully we'll pick more next year, but I am just a little over it for this year. The boys had a BLAST shooting off fireworks in our front yard. We also enjoyed the show the city put on on the 4th of July. I just never get tired of fireworks! We hosted my mom's surprise 50th birthday party. I was certain she had an idea of what was going on, but she was totally shocked and I think it turned out great. The littles and I went to see the Blue Angel's practice show. That is another thing that I never get tired of seeing. I hope to go again next week. I had my hair cut short again. My dear cousin came to a beach near us and we were able to hang out with her and her sweet family for an evening.... before the oil hit. We had a very special time and I wish it could happen more often. OK, I think that's a better summary for now.

Just for you

2010-06-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Summer!

It's about that time

2010-05-11T15:37:00.000-05:00

No, it isn't baby time yet, but it certainly is time for me to start hashing out my to-do list. Or should I call it a "Dream List." I think my list is a tad too extensive to actually be completed before BabyDuck4's arrival, but we shall see.

- Paint all of the walls in our house. We are making an effort towards this, but I think we need to be a tad more focused on getting it done.

- Buy the boys new bunk beds and sell the ones they have. Anyone looking for a twin/full bunk bed? If so, we have a great one!

- Transition Piddle to a toddler bed. This won't happen until the boys have new beds and she is climbing a bit better. She just doesn't seem quite as capable for the transition as the boys were. We still have time though.

- Potty train Waddle. Do you think I can will him to be potty trained? We've been lazily working at this for months and with neither of us being focused, it is very hit or miss. I just want him to wake up one day and tell me when he needs to go potty and poop. I do not want to have three littles in diapers!

- Buy new car seats. With the frequency of my nephew traveling the city with us, we need to be able to fit the maximum number of children into the space we have.

- Pick a boy name and a girl name for our baby. Right now we pretty much have nothing. Neither of us are in love with any of the names on the table........ This one is mandatory!

- Stock pile meals. This one is also mandatory. I hope we don't have to feed ourselves for a while after the baby arrives, but you just never know and it is better to be prepared.

- Figure out how I will handle day to day life with a newborn and three littles getting into everything.... This one may be a "learn as we go" thing.

I feel pretty relaxed about things at this point. Of course, I do have quite a while to go. Albert and I are taking a little mini-vacation soon and the bed transition can really begin after that. Everything else (pretty much) is just things I'd like to do, except for the car seat. We gave ours to some friends and do not have a car seat for the baby. But I am sure all that needs to be done will be done before D day!

19 weeks

2010-04-14T14:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm almost 19 weeks, tomorrow I will be. Things are going smoothly so far. I haven't had any sickness, a tinge of nausea, but nothing to complain or really think about. I seem to have a bigger belly in the evening than in the morning and it seems bigger when I'm sitting down rather than standing. I feel like I'm still not showing enough for anyone to really notice, depending on what I wear. I have felt the baby move a tiny bit the last three days, but nothing like I seem to remember from my other three pregnancies. Will all three of them I knew I felt a baby move during week 16. This leaves me a little concerned and ready for our ultrasound, which is on the 21st. Hopefully the baby will be moving around like a little wild person!

Widdle is certain we are having a boy. When asked what we should name a girl he first says, "we need a boy too." His name options are Aniken Luke Skywalker or Tinkerbell. According to him if there is a Tinkerbell there will also be an Aniken...... we shall see, though I doubt either of those names will be used. He can call the baby whatever he likes though.

Waddle is sure that he has a boy in his belly. "Waddle" is what he thinks the name should be. While he speaks clearly, I'm not sure he gets it yet. He will though.

Piddle could care less as long as she is held on demand and gets plenty of Mama and Daddy love. I am trying to teach her to be gentle (a hard thing to learn with two big brothers for an example) and she is oh so close to walking. Her latest thing is walking around with one hand on the cabinet or furniture. It is only a matter of time. I think we are going to leave her rear-facing in her car-seat until she is two years old, or I loose my mind trying to buckle two babies in backwards...... whichever comes first. Right now she is still too tiny to face forwards anyway, so it isn't an issue and she doesn't know what she's missing. She is enjoying her bed more these days. It is one of the only places I allow her to have her paci and therefore, she goes in willingly and looks longingly at the crib when I pick her up. She has mixed emotions about telling her paci night-night and watching me put it in the drawer. I think A LOT of tears will come before sleep once it is totally gone.

I think this gives you a good idea of what's going on in baby news and baby prep at our house. Have any guesses what the sex of the baby will be?? Feel free to leave it in the comments along with a birth date and weight. Here are some tips to help you form a guess:

Widdle was 9 lbs two days late

Waddle was 7 lbs 2 oz three weeks early

Piddle was 7 lbs 9 oz nearly four weeks early

My due date is Sept 9. I've had two dreams that this baby is a boy and one dream that the baby was a girl and we introduced her to someone by the name we have chosen. That leads me to think it's either a boy or a girl! HA!

Feel free to leave a boy name idea too. That's always fun!

Brain Purge

2010-04-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

It seems that a lot has been going on and not much at all around here. Here's the run down on what's up with the Ducks:

- I read an amazing book that I HIGHLY recommend. It is called "Treasuring God in Our Traditions" by Noel Piper. I think every Christian and especially every Christian woman should invest a bit of time in this book. I only wish I had read it sooner, like while I was single, so that we could have started intentional traditions from the beginning. Also, the spaghetti recipe in the book is delicious! I made it last night for some friends and none of us could get enough. We are going to try out the Breakfast Cake for Easter and the Chocolate Eclair cake next week. Does that have your interest sparked yet?? Give the book a shot, it's amazing!

- We met with a midwife out in town last week. I really like her. She seems to be a MUCH better fit than the doctor I was given through the base. I tried to mentally just stick it out with the doctor I was given, but I just couldn't relax about her and decided to switch. I'm really glad I did! Our ultrasound is scheduled for April 21st and at this moment we are not finding out the sex. Hopefully I will be able to stay strong!

- My belly has semi-popped out. No, you won't be seeing any pictures. If you want to see it, come visit me, though you still won't see much of it. I'm not sure if I'm smaller this time or if I've collected a variety of clothing that flexes with my mid-section. Either way I can still were several of my non-pregnant clothes and a few pair of pants. No maternity clothes yet!! I think that's pretty good for a fourth pregnancy within four years! :)

- We have a 16 year old girl staying with us for 5-6 weeks. Some friends of ours are traveling around the country to raise support for going on staff with Navigators and their daughter was hoping to stay in town and take care of her horse. The first option fell through and at the last minute God laid it on our hearts that our home would be perfect. We are less than two miles from her horse and we have the space. She is a great help and I'm thinking she should just stay here until about Christmas!

- Upon moving M in, we set up our guest room. It isn't totally complete. (That would be nearly impossible since we found out she was coming Sunday morning, picked her up Sunday afternoon and attempted to organize the room for her after church!) But, it is a work in progress and at least the work has started! Since we painted the office two weekends or so ago, we were able to easily move the bookshelves into the office. Albert put the frame together for the full sized mattress that was on the floor, the boy's trampoline is now gone. And we found a use for the three drawer plastic thing that was sitting in our room empty. I think it still needs a fresh coat or two of paint, but it's perfect for a 16 year old girl and we actually have a quilt that goes great with it. It's just right for now.

- God has provided us with a temporary second vehicle. There is a whole huge story behind this (and if there's enough interest I might share it) but we have been using one car for about the last 8 months and for about a year before Piddle was born. Upon moving to the beach, we were hoping to have Albert's Papaw's truck. The addition has taken longer than we expected and we were needing another vehicle. Albert shopped Craigslist and looked at several trucks, none seemed right. Then, a guy from our Bible study offered his truck. It is perfect. Our friend bought a new car and wanted to give his truck to someone or sell it, but he felt that it wasn't worth enough to sell it and it wasn't in good enough shape to gift to someone. So, it is on loan to us until it dies or he moves. Whichever comes first! Hallelujah! For April, we also have M's dad's truck. He wants to make sure it is still running and asked us to drive it. So, for this month we have three vehicles to choose from. God is so good!

Little Lady

2010-04-01T13:37:00.001-05:00

A little lady around here turned 1 last week.

Unfortunately she felt horrible and ran a low-grade fever all week. She did enjoy her cake, but it was hard to get a smile out of her. I can't believe Piddle is 1. In some ways it seems like she has always been a part of my life and in other ways the time seems to have flown by. I really enjoy reflecting back on the day each child was born on their birthdays. Piddle's was no different. In hindsight I am still so thankful that Albert was able to make it home in time to see our sweet baby girl enter this world. I wish I drank more water leading up to her delivery, maybe she wouldn't have had to spend a few hours in the NICU. I still remember asking Albert, "So, is it a girl?" Then laughing and asking, "What's her name??" I am so thankful Piddle is a part of our lives. I'm just not sure our family would be as well rounded if she weren't in it. Happy Birthday (10 days late) sweet girl. I love you!

Family Fun

2010-03-17T14:25:00.001-05:00

We had a GREAT family day on Saturday. My parents met us down town at the McGuire's St. Pattie's day run, along with about 10,000 other people.

Albert left the house a little after six to pick up all of our packets. Upon arriving he realized that we totally blanked on the whole "green" thing and asked me to bring a green shirt along for him. I obliged and dressed the littles accordingly. We left the house a little after seven. Mom and Dad pushed our trio in two strollers so that Albert and I could run. My 10 year old brother ran with me. We had a GREAT time. We enjoyed talking about all of the costumes, breathing, and trying to pass people without picking up speed. After the run we enjoyed some Irish stew (C@ambell's beef stew) and hanging out. The boys all went up on the double decker bus and we continued to comment on what everyone was wearing. Maybe we'll dress up a bit more next year. After the run, we came back to our house and started the painting project. I can't wait to have the whole house done, but for now I am satisfied with the foyer and office. They look great and very fresh. For dinner, my sister and nephew came over for some brisket. We were all about to pass out by then and turned in early. We sure did have a special time together though!

Unique

2010-03-17T14:17:00.001-05:00

We like "different" things. Some of the things around our little pond that make us feel "cool" or "different" are:

- having a lot of littles all close together in age. We are finding more families with a lot of littles, but our's seem to be closer together in age, or younger at this pointe. We love this!

- using cloth diapers

- nursing in public {modestly of course, but it isn't done by every woman}

- baby wearing. This is becoming more popular, but still has a ways to go with the daddies, not at our house though!

- our stroller. We think it's totally cool and really enjoy telling others about it.

- our theology. While we want everyone to love Jesus and worship Him in all that they do, a lot don't.

- Widdle's running bike.

- our new bike seat.

Albert found this bike seat yesterday and just "had" to buy it. We went for a ride last night and Waddle loved being so close to Daddy and having such a special seat. We think it would be a head turner if I could ride farther than 3 miles!

Resurrection Party

2010-03-17T13:55:00.000-05:00

At the encouragement of a dear friend, I hosted my first Resurrection Party today. It wasn't very big or fancy and I really hope more people will be able to come next year, but we had a great time. The culture has influenced holidays so much that I think it is easy to forget what we are celebrating. So, today we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the true meaning of Easter. I only did two specific activities and the rest was just free play and visiting. It turned out great. Once our friends were here, we read through the Resurrection Eggs. I found these last year for about $10 at a bookstore in town. The kids LOVED it. I was impressed with their attention span. They all took turns opening the eggs and we talked about the tricky words in the story. Next was snack time. I was going to make a resurrection cake that walked us through Jesus's death and resurrection again, but I could not find a good picture to go off of. I did find the directions for a cross cake though, so I made it instead. It was really easy and tasty!

I decided to make a tomb out of the extra piece and used a R1tz cracker as the rock for the kids to roll away and see that the tomb was empty.

Widdle ate the cracker and now it just looks like a doorway, oh well. We had a great time and really enjoyed the special time with my sister and our friends, the M girls!

Jeans

2010-03-02T14:07:00.000-06:00

I would be willing to bet that jeans are a girl's second least favorite thing to shop for. They are for me at least. First would be swim wear- yuck! I took care of that last summer though and shouldn't have to update it again for at least a couple of summers. Considering it won't get any use this summer, it will still be brand new next summer!

Jeans were the mission for last night. I have three pair of the exact same style jean that are all out of style now. I bought the first two pair in the store before Widdle was born. The third pair was ordered off the Internet either before or after Waddle, I can't remember. The first two pair were "regular" length, which is about 6 inches too long for me. One pair is practically brand new because they are so long and hardly worn. The second pair, I cut off to the "right" length, then they unraveled a bit and now are only the "right" length after I've worn them for a day and they've stretched out. They are great for rolling up to capri length though. The third pair were my "nice" jeans. You know, the jeans that are to unraveled or worn, they looked decent with ballet flats, flip-flops, just about anything. Well, apparently I've started being a lot harder on my jeans. In the last three years I've worn a hole in the right knee of three pair of jeans. The last two holes came over the last month.

Last week I was going to write about how I was totally out of style with my jeans and that my last good pair were one good floor cleaning, owie kiss, toy clean-up away from a hole in the knee. Well, I am too late and they have fallen apart. I am now completely out of style. At some point, I think while I was pregnant with Widdle, they stopped selling my jeans in the store, I could only get them on-line. That was fine, I knew my size and shipping was cheaper than the stress counseling I would need for going to the mall for one pair of jeans. (just kidding) But I'd rather save the gas and order anyway. After Waddle was born, they were still available on-line. Now, after Piddle and a hard winter on my knees, when I am desperate for a new pair, they are totally unavailable and I am completely out of style. So, with no other option, we went jean shopping last night.

When we were in CO, b/p (before pregnancy), I did a little jean shopping. Albert and I went to G@p and I found a cut that I really liked, but they didn't have my length. Length is almost as important as waist size for me! So we left, jeanless. Yesterday I had a coupon for The L1mited, so I thought we'd shop around before heading to G@p, where I was pretty sure I'd find what I was looking for. The first three stores we went in were totally trendy, NOT me. I can not wear and refuse to try on the skinny jean. And jeans that are called leggings mean nothing to me. Almost every pair fit in my waist and hips (which is a miracle in itself) but the cut of the leg was just crazy. Some were snug to the bottom of me knee, then flared out. One pair looked like I was ready for a flood whether they were rolled down or up. It was just one thing after another. We headed into Dill@rd's and found that nothing in the Juniors department appealed to me, so we headed up to the Ladies. With great anticipation I tried on some of Reb@'s jeans. She always looks so classy and stylish. The moment I fastened them, I felt like this. I took them off immediately! The first time I felt like this was when I went into @E and asked the sales girl about my jeans and if they started selling them in the store again. She replied, "No, but if you are looking for a mid-rise jean, we have these that are a little higher." We left immediately and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

So last night I tried on pair after pair and was starting to wonder if the problem was me, the jeans, my old jeans what? I certainly wasn't comfortable in new jeans that are stiff and snug. My jeans haven't fit like that in at least two years. I had one thing in mind and I wasn't finding it anywhere. Finally we headed over to G@p and they had my exact size. It was so exciting! They fit great, though I am 12 1/2 weeks along. They were comfortable from the beginning and just fit exactly how I want my jeans to fit. My sweet husband bought me two pair. I should be set for the next 2-4 years!! Yeah!!

Meet Little Quack

2010-02-17T13:42:00.000-06:00

Yes, we have been thinking about having another little one.

Yes, we have been thinking it would be soon.

Yes, we knew we were pregnant when we started looking into adoption.

Yes, it's going to be a long, hot summer.

Yes, I know some of you have just been waiting for the news as the timing is later then it was with our last two.

God's timing is good and we are excited for "Little Quack" to join our family sometime in September.

Fresh

2010-02-07T09:28:00.000-06:00

Since moving back to the beach I have often struggled with the way I look. Of course I don't look the way I did before. I've had three children and walked through more than a couple of situations where I could feel the wrinkles setting in. I just can't have the fresh face of a 20 year old any more. When I lived here before I had long curly hair, but it just doesn't curl the same now. So, after about a year and a half or more of growing my hair out, it is time for it to go. If you've seen me recently, you know that my hair is pretty long. It hangs down my back, nearly to my waist.

Well, it did, until yesterday. I've been planning and "working" on growing my hair out to donate a ponytail to Locks of Love or Pantene. A couple of factors led to now being the time to chop it off.

1. It was long enough. LoL wants 10 inches. I never officially measured, but if they can't use it, they can throw it away, it had to go! Pantene wants 8 inches.

2. Every time I nursed Piddle, she was getting poked in the eye by my hair.

3. While nursing, Piddle would pull my hair and wrap herself up in it.

4. Some days my hair would just look crazy.

Since we are back at the beach, my trusted "hair girl" is in town! Every time I have come here for vacation, I have had her cut my hair. She did my hair for my wedding and is reliable and always great. Plus I enjoy the conversation. So, last Friday I was ready to cut my hair off myself, and I gave her a call. She couldn't get me in until yesterday. My hair pretty much stayed in a pony-tail or bun all week. I was done. Yesterday I was nervous to get all of my hair cut off. I have had short hair before and this "hair girl" has cut my hair short a couple of times and it always looks good and I am able to maintain it later, but I just was nervous. Plus, my hair looked really awful. (No, there aren't any pictures of me with really horrible hair, sorry.) In order to be able to use the donated hair, it can't have any product in it. This means no mousse, no gel, no hairspray....... these three things are what hold my curls together.

I walked out of the salon looking and feeling much better about my presentation. I feel like I look my age, in a great way! I feel comfortable. And, I think I will be able to maintain this cute cut and if not, I'll wear a ball cap for a while!

What do you think?

Edited to add:

I forgot to mention my family's responses. Widdle came running to the door when I opened it screaming, "MAMA!!!" As soon as he saw me he started walking backwards and said "What happened? Why is your hair like that?" I asked him if he liked it to which he responded while rubbing his neck, "I like it like this."

Waddle could care less.

Piddle came right to me but would not smile. She hasn't been feeling well, but I think she was uncertain of what happened to her mama.

Albert really likes it. Out of the blue he'll say, I really like your hair. Hopefully I can duplicate how it looks now!

Meet the flock

2010-02-04T18:01:00.000-06:00

With turning this blog back to public access, I thought some nicknames for the littles would be good for their protection. I'm pretty sure everyone who reads at this point knows our family personally, but you just never know. So, if you are having trouble figuring out who in the world I am talking about, check out my side-bar. The pictures are labeled there. And FYI the names are coming from Lauren Thompson's "Little Quack's Hide and Seek". Don't they just fit us perfectly? Enjoy the confusion.

Funny!!

2010-02-03T17:22:00.000-06:00

I was browsing the blogs that I love today and ran across this post: sling. I nearly died laughing. I do love my babies and I love the sling. I don't have a ring sling, but I've made a couple of knock-off Hotslings. They work well enough for me for right now. This evening Albert was showing the boys several videos of guys drumming and everyone was enjoying themselves when I remembered the music video in Courtney's post. So I showed it to them. Now, there is a bit of suggestive dancing, but being done by a mama wearing a baby, it just looses it's edge. Albert was nearly tearing up he was laughing so much. He and Big C just left to pick up dinner and Albert was humming, "If you love 'em then you shoulda puta sling on 'em." Now that is something funny to hear coming out of your husband!

Nick Name

2010-02-03T14:43:00.000-06:00

I just told Widdle that I was going through all of the old post and changing his name to a nick name. He whimpered and said, "I don't want my name to be Nick, I want it to be 'Widdle'." Ha, that boy keeps me laughing!

I'm going public

2010-02-03T13:53:00.000-06:00

So, I opened this blog back up to the general public. I am a tad nervous about it. You just never know who might find you and who is lurking. I know that God is sovereign and if I use a bit of wisdom and caution, He will protect me and my children. With that, I hope that some newbies find this blog and see a glimpse of HIM while they are here. It would probably help if I wrote a bit more often and talked more about HIM....... I'll have to work on that. Until then, keep reading and maybe leave a comment or two to remind me that I am not talking to myself!

4HIM,

Robin

Haiti

2010-01-17T15:14:00.001-06:00

This is the subject on every one's mind and much like 9-11 I feel the need to record my thoughts and memories surrounding this event.

I was shocked Wednesday afternoon when I sat down at the computer to check my e-mail and Y@hoo had a news story about a magnitude-7 earthquake hitting Haiti the day before. How had I missed this? I mean, I don't watch the news but surely I should have heard about this somewhere, from someone sooner than 24 hours after. I quickly read the article and sat here in awe. My thoughts flowed something like this:

-Where is Haiti?

-What can I do to help?

-I wonder what the adoption situation is with Haiti, maybe that is where God is leading us. I am sure the number of orphans will increase greatly with this disaster and the need for families will be great.

I quickly found a website for Haiti adoptions, looked at the beautiful children and found the list of qualifications. I was devastated to find that we are not now and will never be qualified to adopt a precious Haitian child.

-We must work towards helping in another way.

I am still seeking out other ways to help. We have heard a ton about donations and making sure to donate to a legitimate organization, that is in the works. With the possibility of adopting one of these orphans being non-existent for us, I am feeling burdened to pray for these people. I ask that you would pray with me.

Yesterday I was at my parent's house and turned on the news for a few minutes. The reporter stated that Haitians claim that 80% are Catholic, 15% are Protestant and 100% are Vudu. I do not claim to be a great scholar on Vudu beliefs, but I am certain that these beliefs canNOT overlap. Devil worship and Jesus worship cannot co-exist.

Please pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal Himself and that these people would find hope in the only source of hope, Jesus Christ. If you are planning to make a donation, maybe find an organization that will bring all of the supplies these people desperately need, food, water, medical supplies and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without Christ it doesn't matter what their lives are like on this earth. Rich or poor, sick or healthy, injured or strong; No Jesus means eternity apart from Him. So, let's pray together for this country.

Green Eggs and Ham

2010-01-17T15:03:00.000-06:00

The other morning I felt like a farm mama. It was very fun and lifted my spirits for the day. My MIL gave me an awesome apron for Christmas. It is black with white polka dots and white trim and a white "R" on the pocket. I have been trying to remember to wear it whenever I'm cooking, baking or grinding wheat. The trouble is remembering to take it off when we sit down to eat or someone needs some diaper/bathroom clean up. Oh well!

The other morning I remembered to put it on before preparing our eggs. Upon grabbing the egg carton I noticed the green eggs and nervously thought we would try them out for breakfast.

My mom found a lady who sells farm fresh eggs in our area. She has a couple of chickens that lay green eggs and they are supposed to be lower in cholesterol.

So, I scrambled them up with cheese and turkey, since I didn't have any ham, and we ate green eggs and "ham" for breakfast. It was pretty much just fun in my own mind, but it made me smile all day. By the way, there was a tad bit of a difference in the flavor, but they were great!

Yes, I will eat them in the rain and I will eat them on a train and I will eat them with a Gus and I will eat them on a bus. I do like green eggs and ham, I like them, I like them Sam-I-am!

Note: I will try to get a couple of pictures of my two amazing aprons!

Christmas Vacation

2010-01-17T14:19:00.000-06:00

For Christmas this year we flew out to the mountains. The kids loved playing in the snow......well, Widdle did. Waddle seemed to feel a bit like the little brother on "A Christmas Story." He fell down several times and would just wine until someone came to pick him up. He did enjoy sledding down the hill and riding the tire swing though. Piddle enjoyed watching the crazy boys and didn't mind the snow suit too much.

Widdle and Cousin1 had a G.R.E.A.T. time playing in the snow. Cousin1 taught Widdle all of his tricks. They ate lots of snow, made snow angels, rode on the sled while Albert pulled them up and down the hill, threw snow balls and chased each other around. Those boys really got along great.

We were thankful to be in town when our cousin Cousin3 was dedicated to the Lord. Everyone but Stacy made it for the special occasion. Cousin3 and Piddle are 10 days apart, they enjoyed each other this visit but will really have a good time the next time we see them!

Sorry that this picture is sideways, but it is too cute to leave out. We had to round out our vacation with a trip to have pictures done. Granny gave all of the cousins these cute Js and we had to capture the cuteness. Though, it was a challenge!

Aside from all of the boys getting the stomach bug we had a great time and felt so blessed to be with family for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord. We hope you had a Merry Christmas as well.

Happy Birthday Waddle!

2010-01-17T14:05:00.000-06:00

Waddle turned 2 on December 22nd and with all the crazy that comes with traveling and Christmas, along with my lack of blogging, my little guy did not get a post to celebrate his life. So here it is!

Waddle, you are a perfect addition to our family. Your sweet disposition and exciting sense of humor add laughter and life to our days. Your vocabulary and imagination are taking off and you surprise me with something new almost every day. Right now you LOVE your cowboy boots and who doesn't? You look so cute in them. I am so thankful that God saw fit to give us a little boy to help our first little boy be more tender and protect our little girl. You are a wonderful big brother and an awesome little brother. You are a pretty good cousin too! I am so excited for the journey that God has laid out for you. I can hardly wait to see the road that our Lord has known from the beggining of time, roll out in front of you. May He reveal Himself to you and use you for His glory and the furthering of His kingdom. I love you buddy!

Jumping on the bed

2010-01-11T14:25:00.000-06:00

Waddle has a black eye.

For Christmas the boys received a collection of books about the 5 little monkeys. One of the stories entails jumping on the bed. I'm sure you know the song even if you haven't seen the cute pictures to go with it. Well, in our house there is one bed that is available for jumping on. It has always been Widdle's bed. Which ever bed he has slept in (except for the crib) has been available for jumping. Right now he is sleeping in the single bed that goes with our bunk beds. It has rails almost all the way around it. The other day the boys were jumping when Waddle "fell" and landed his head perfectly on the headboard. He hit the railing with the outside corner of his left eye. Thank the Lord, it did not bleed. But, it did bruise right away. On Saturday I took him to have his two year old pictures done and noticed that it was starting to heal. Some of the pictures really made his eye look yellow. Yesterday afternoon it started to look red across his entire eye lid and some yuck was coming out of it. This morning his eye was matted shut, but has been cleaner throughout the day. I'm not sure if he got an infection while rubbing his eye or what is going on. The eye ball is fine, it is the lid and area around that is reddish/pink and a bit of yuck coming out.

After this incident, when Waddle began to cry, Widdle said "Call the doctor." We had been singing while they were jumping and we maybe got a tad carried away with it all. I suppose we won't have monkeys jumping on the bed much around here anymore.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T13:53:00.001-06:00

I think I am the worst blogger around. A lot is always going on around here, but I just am not sure that it's all that exciting. I do want to take note of the daily happenings though. I know that I can not remember the exciting or daily parts of my life and so writing about them here is going better than all of the millions of journals I've tried to keep.

On the 16th of December we headed to Colorado. Flying out of New Orleans makes for a cheaper flight, but a longer day. After a 3 hour drive we entertained ourselves in the airport for a couple of hours before wrestling three littles in three seats for a three hour flight. The kids did great! We found a little, round table with little stools around it right by the runway and set up camp. The boys LOVED watching all of the planes take off and land. They chased each other around the table for a L.O.N.G. time and squeezed in a bit of wrestling. Piddle army crawled around the dirty airport floor..... I know, I probably shouldn't have let her, but I couldn't hold her still for so many hours right before boarding a plane-that she would have to be still on. The boys were totally excited to board the plane. Widdle had his own seat while Waddle and Piddle were lap babies. This meant that Albert and I could not sit together. The rule is that you can only have one lap baby per section of seats because of the number of oxygen masks. So, we sat across the aisle from each other with a gentleman sitting next to Albert and we tried to gently talk to each other across this poor guy. When people were looking for seats I felt as though I had a contagious disease. There were two empty seats next to me and no one seemed to want them. After a while a gentleman who resembled Santa Clause, sat by the window. The middle seat remained empty. Yeah!! Waddle and Piddle took naps on the plane and we ended up shifting Waddle to my empty seat so that Widdle could go potty. Side note: we packed all of our stuff in 2 suitcases! This was a proud moment for me, the excessive/extreme over packer!

While in Colorado we went to Cousin1's school program and had dinner with Albert's siblings. Within a couple of days all of my boys had a bad stomach bug. Waddle was sick on his birthday and so he stayed in his Js all day. I don't think it bothered him. We pushed back The Duck's Christmas celebration to Saturday. It felt a bit weird to not do anything special on Christmas day, but it was nice for everyone to feel well when we did celebrate together. Before Christmas we had a big snow. We got about 8 inches over 36 hours or so. It was nice and powdery and Widdle loved playing in it. Waddle wasn't quite as mobile as he'd like to be and reminded me of the little brother in "A Christmas Story." Piddle liked being outside, but did not particularly enjoy that face plant into the snow. :( After a few days the boys built a snow man and we visited the Denver Zoo Lights before trucking back home. Albert and I did squeeze in a trip to Centara for shopping and we were able to see "Blind Side." (Excellent movie!) We traveled home with 4 bags. That was a bit of a challenge. The funniest part was when we were weaving through the line to check in and several people told us that we need one more child. Maybe they thought that would make us completely crazy. Any who, we managed to make it through the airport with the boys carrying their backpacks, Albert had a backpack, I wore Piddle in her carrier and carried the diaper bag. I think it was about as light as we could go.

We are glad to be home and celebrated Christmas with my family last night. Part of me feels like we should be planning a day to take down all of our Christmas decor and part of me feels like we just put it up. Maybe we'll take it down next weekend!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and I will try to update better this year!

Christmas Crafts

2009-12-03T13:27:00.000-06:00

I love Christmas. I am especially excited this year to build the anticipation of our Savior, Jesus Christ's birth in my littles. We have been talking about it several times daily since Thanksgiving. Now that Widdle is older, he is being bombarded with Santa and I really want him (along with Waddle and Piddle) to know and celebrate the true reason for Christmas. I have felt conviction recently on just celebrating all holidays the way I always have and the way the whole country does. Since settling back into the south, some friends have spark my curiosity and left me unsettled about my laid back approach. I feel like we should know the meaning behind and have purpose in every symbol we display. This has left me with a lot of work and questions.

We got here right after going trick-or-treating on Halloween. Upon these convictions, we plan to celebrate Reformation Day next year. October 31st is the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 thesis to the church door. It is because of his labors that we have a bible that we can read in our home today. We plan to watch the movie "Luther" and develop some other fun family things to make the day special and remind us of specifics that we believe in and are thankful for.

On Thanksgiving Albert read a journal entry from William Bradford. This reminded us of the real reason a day of thanks was established. We were each given 5 beans and gave an item of thanks for each bean. When the Pilgrims first came to America their daily rations were often as little as five kernels of corn.

So, now that Christmas is here I am questioning everything. What about the tree? What's the meaning behind stockings? Should we throw out all of the "Santa" hats? Let me just tell you that there is a lot to dig through. We are keeping the tree and the stockings, though I think we will get a real, fir tree next year, but the Santa hats are going. Back to being purposeful and building anticipation, December is here! I feel like I have 24 days to really be intentional on focusing on Jesus and making things to help the kids think about Jesus and baking things to give to others and so on. So, we've been crafting. I hate crafts. I can not even cut in a straight line. I keep hoping that the boys will do a craft in Sunday school or something so that I can have those keepsake hand prints and other fun things, but they haven't yet. So, that leaves me. Widdle could generally care less about coloring, cutting or any thing else related to an organized project. He did have patience the other day while I turned cardboard and Christmas ribbon into the armor of God, but that's about all he can handle. Waddle would like to scribble on everything and cut E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. into tiny pieces. This includes clothing, hair, paper, the Christmas tree..... pretty much anything he can reach he thinks is good for being cut. Piddle just wants to grab something and eat it. So, I avoid crafts, until now. While decorating for Christmas I found that the brick above our fireplace was very bare. It needs a wreath or something. Then the idea came, "What about those hand print wreaths? That's a keepsake and decoration." Little did I know how many hand prints are involved in making one of these little beauties and how little effort is put in by the littles. But it was worth it. Though I did much of the work, the boys added their own excitement. Widdle got the little film case of glitter out and while pouring the WHOLE thing on the floor asked, "Mama, what's this for?" I'm pretty sure my head popped off and flew backwards at this point. (Side note: if you ever receive a gift from a child with glitter on it, go ahead and pray for their teacher. They must be crazy to willingly use glitter!) Glitter, to me, is an outside only craft. Widdle also managed to mix some more play dough which I've decided is a lost cause and I will surrender my efforts to keep the play dough in it's correct container. Waddle was cutting every scrap I dropped. Thankfully I managed to keep all of the hand prints clear of his scissors. Piddle woke up mid-project and tracing her hands is a task! Her fat little fingers squish together when I tried to flatten her hand out on the paper. As I was cutting out her hand prints her fingers got narrower and narrower, but they are close. So, for all of this effort and fun I now have three beautiful little wreaths that are taped to my back door because I can't get them to stick to the brick. But I love them and they make me smile and think of glitter each time I see them.

By the way, here's a little history on the wreath. I'll have to share this with the boys.

Evergreen plants, such as holly, ivy and pine, which stay green all year, have long been used to create holiday wreaths. Such greens as holly, ivy, and mistletoe have special meaning since they not only stay green, they bear fruit during the harsh winter months. Anciently people symbolized these plants to represent the promise of new or everlasting life. The people of northern Europe and the Romans decorated their homes with evergreen boughs during their winter festivals. Sprigs of holly would also be exchanged as tokens of good will for the coming new year.

Second craft:

Today we decorated our Charlie Brown Christmas tree with homemade ornaments. The boys and I flipped through a Christmas craft book and picked out a couple of shapes we liked. Widdle like the cat face and I liked the star. Waddle and I did all of the cutting. And Widdle hung things on the tree. After all of the ornaments were made, Widdle and I made a chain. I am still shocked that he did so well with it. I cut the strips and got some tape. I showed him how to link a couple of them together and he took off. He did about 10 links on his own and my eyes were bugging out of my head all the while. He NEVER does a craft. I worked quickly so that I would be nearly done when he became board with it and he loved it. He helped me wrap it around the tree then stuck a sword in it. I'm not totally sure, but I think he has decided that the chain is the Christmas tree's armor. At least it won't cry if it's hit too hard and nothing on it can break!

Check back for pics of our crafts!

Never run out of this!

2009-12-03T13:16:00.000-06:00

A while back the littles and I were grocery shopping and I was telling Widdle how important it will be for him to go grocery shopping for his wife. I like to talk to the littles about what fruit and veggies should look like. Widdle often helps me pick our apples and bananas. As we headed to the toiletry aisle I told Widdle that you can never have too much toilet paper. If you go grocery shopping for your wife, just go ahead and pick it up. It doesn't go bad and you'll use it eventually.

Now that Albert has checked in at work, he is doing our grocery shopping. He drives past 7 or more grocery and super centers and we only have one car. While I do enjoy going to W@l-mart at 6:30 on Saturday morning, it is nice to save ourselves a little gas and Albert hit the stores on his way home. This week he went to the store and found everything on the list. He called about a couple of things, but I should have been more specific. He did great. I was struggling BIG time with giving up control over the buying of the food, but he was totally calm about it. And I am thankful.

The trouble came this morning when I quickly realized that I hadn't put everything on the list. You guessed it, toilet paper was not on the list and therefore it could not be picked up. When I go grocery shopping I glance down each aisle and try to visualize the items on the aisle, what I have at home and the quantity remaining. The last time I went I remember thinking about the TP and thinking, "Oh, we have plenty. I think we have an open pack in each bathroom." Well, it appears that I was right. We had an open, well used pack in each bathroom and today I can see the cardboard roll in each bathroom. I do not have a vehicle and I don't know my neighbors well enough and I'd be embarrassed to haul me three littles over and ask for a roll. This predicament has been making me laugh and drink little all day!

I almost did this to us when we were moving. We had about a week left and an almost full roll in each bathroom so I packed the rest. As the rolls got thinner and thinner with a few days to go, I realized I should buy some more. Rather, I realized that I shouldn't have packed the rest. Obviously I need to do some figuring on how long it takes us to go through a roll of toilet paper. My ideal timeline of usage seems to be off!

Hiding Spot

2009-11-16T16:34:00.000-06:00

If your child comes up to you with a sucker unwrapped and asks if he can have it, investigate where the sucker came from.

Widdle did this the other day and I told him that he may have it, but not to unwrap a sucker again before being given permission to eat it. Later I went into the play room and noticed Waddle had two suckers with gum in the middle and was clanking them together. I took them away and noticed the pumpkin full of candy, turning slightly I noticed the guitar had something sticky on it. I bent down to clean it off and noticed a whole stash of candy wrappers. I started cleaning them out and could not believe how many pieces of candy had been consumed. While digging out the wrappers Albert came in and we quickly discussed the consequences. We determined that no candy or dessert for a month was a good punishment. Does that seem harsh? Here's the list of what all I found:

tootsie roll (the long ones)

two suckers

sugar daddy

taffy wrapper

box of nerds

After eating all of this is when he asked me for another sucker! I am still a bit in shock over his genius, sneaky, manipulative, selfish, sinful depravity. He did not have to be taught how to steal and hid something that he really wanted. Thankfully he did not get sick, but he will be learning this lesson for a while.

It is easy to laugh when I think of this situation and when I tell it to others. One parenting book that I have read encourages parents to look at the heart motive or attitude behind the sin. It is easy to discipline and teach children not to take candy without asking and not to hid something that they have done that they know is wrong, the difficulty comes in trying to penetrate their hearts with the truth of the Gospel and helping them to change. Praying for their heart's desire to change and trusting God to do the changing is hard. It has been difficult for me to give up the control that I never had. So, while Widdle is learning not to steal treats and missing out on dessert, I am learning to trust Christ to change his heart and release the desire to force him to submit. I think this lesson will be life long and worth while.

Unpacked

2009-11-16T16:05:00.000-06:00

I unpacked the last box yesterday!!! Albert still has one box to go and we have a lot of things to hang on the walls, but all of the boxes that I am responsible for are empty!!! Now the real cleaning will begin.

Here's the re-cap. We got on the interstate around 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 2nd. I would prefer to have left around 3:00 a.m., so I felt a little late all day and had to keep reminding myself that the drive would take all day and into the night. And it did! The drive went pretty well and we arrived at roughly 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. The drive was pretty uneventful. Widdle L.O.V.E.D. riding in the big truck with his Papaw and Waddle was just fine riding in the Mini (what I call our van! Ha!) Piddle just hung out except for during the three minutes that I drove, she screamed bloody murder then. We stopped several times for gas and food and potty breaks, took one wrong turn in New Orleans which was a tad scary and rolled on in. I was so excited when we pulled up to our house that I could hardly sleep the rest of the morning.

We woke around 6:30 or 7, got dressed and headed to Cr@cker Barrel. Within minutes of receiving our drinks Widdle spilled his on the floor. Moments later Waddle broke a plate on the floor. I was quickly reminded of why we don't go out to eat much. We came back to the house and the guys got ready to unload the truck and trailer. I took the kids up to my mom's school for a quick hello, then headed to the grocery store. No, I did not have a list. BIG mistake! I am not a fan of W@l-mart anyway, but it is dreadful if you don't have a list!!! We walked around aimlessly for a while, grabbed a couple of things and headed back to the house. When we arrived the truck was unloaded and the house was full of boxes. I felt a tad overwhelmed at the amount of work that was waiting for me. A dear friend blessed us with lunch and my mom brought dinner over and the unpacking began. Most of the boxes were out by Thursday. We went to a Bible study that we were a part of when we were here before. And the last 6-10 boxes sat.

Saturday I went to W@l-mart with a list around 6:30 a.m. which is a great time to go! Later my mom and I took the kiddos to the Arts Festival downtown and gave Albert some time to just unpack and work on whatever he wanted to without having to re-direct the littles.

Sunday we tried our first church, though we have actually tried two others while visiting over the last year. It was good, but we don't want to stop looking and just go with the first one that seems to be a good fit.

Monday we prepared for a hurricane and the boxes sat. I also started to get sick.

Wednesday my friend from high-school came by and the rest of the week is a bit of a blur. Albert helped me get some rest and took care of the littles quite a bit. Friday morning we bought Waddle a little toddler bed.

Saturday we went to the Blue Angle's Homecoming show. It was amazing and well worth the LONG walk from the car and the energy it took to keep 3 littles and a kid occupied for hours. It felt like a welcome back party for us!

Sunday we did church at home. I was feeling better, but Waddle spiked a fever at bed time Saturday night. After church, while the littles napped and Albert worked with my dad, I unpacked the last boxes!

We are not totally settled in as there is a ton of cleaning still to do, along with painting and putting all of that stuff away instead of on any flat surface that I can find. But it is starting to feel like home. I guess that's a long/brief update on what we've been up to.

Oh and while I was sick we were battling fleas. The dogs have not been in the house at all, but it seems that Albert brought some in after working in the yard. So we have been trying to get the fleas out of our brand new carpet! It has been a bit of a pain, but I think we are almost there. I am sure that more things have happened over the last two weeks, but this will do for now!

Moving Tips

2009-11-01T15:37:00.000-06:00

While loading up our things the last couple of days I have learned several tips that might help you the next time you move.

- Have every single item in a box before your friends come to help load the truck. Do not stop packing because you are tired, just keep going!

- Sell as much as you can before you start packing. You would rather have extra space and less stuff than need a trailer behind your huge truck!

- Eat all of the food in your freezer/fridge a week or more before the move. This way you won't feel obligated to eat what is in the fridge the day before you turn your house in/sell.

- Take a deep breath and submit when your dh recommends throwing something away rather than packing it. This is hard, but good.

- Do all of the laundry before the move and make sure to put it all somewhere before friends get there to load the truck.

- While clearing out the bathrooms to make packing easier, go ahead and pack the personal items so that dh's co-workers do not have to move them and you feel embarrassed.

- Try to keep your children on a good sleep schedule the week leading up to the trip, this should help the trip go more smoothly.

If you follow these tips, you might have a pretty painless experience. Otherwise, you might feel a bit like I do right now! The kids have taken VERY late naps the last three days. They have stayed up over an hour late at night and last night the two littlest slept terribly. I'm not really sure that Piddle slept at all. Right this moment all three are sleeping in the hotel bed right beside me. I am hoping this lack of sleep will lead to a lot of sleep in the car. And, about the personal items, Yeah, I did that. I could feel my face turning red as I frantically tried to figure out how to stop what I was doing and quickly remove the embarrassment. The laundry, yep, I did that too. I heard my father-in-law say "how about the washer and dryer next." So, I quickly ran to the dryer and pulled out all of the cloth diapers. We used the clothes for padding in various boxes. Unpacking should be a blast! No, we didn't sell/throw out enough stuff before the move, so we will be the dorks pulling a U-h@ul trailer behind a Pen5ke truck. I will be getting rid of more upon unpacking! At this point I hope we never have to move again. That is inevitable though. Maybe next time we'll just rent two trucks!

Visiting

2009-10-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

In the last few weeks before our big move, we have been trying to visit all of our close friends around the area. Kim and her trio came down a couple of weeks ago and spent the day with us

We met Kim and Chris when we were in pilot training. She and I met at the gym every morning around 6:30 for about a month before she was due with her first son. I will never forget the second morning that she was a no-show and Luke arrived. We have been blessed with many more memorable moments and I treasure her friendship. I'm so thankful for her willingness to come for a visit and the great times we have had together. Our families have grown quite a bit since we first met!

Last Saturday we traveled a little ways and visited a couple of other families. One family used to live right down the street from us. We first met them when we bought our dog, Piper, from them. We watched Pipen, Piper's mom, a few times for them and really enjoyed their friendship. They are now at the training base just north of us.

Next up were the Ss. We first met Travis and Lisa when we were in pilot training. They were in the same small group as the Rs and us. I am thoroughly enjoyed their friendship and wish we had more time together. Our kiddos really got along well and we loved getting to see their new home. Our baby girls are just 3 weeks apart in age. Neither of us were due in March, yet both of us delivered then! What a special family.

Last but not least is a local family. We spent quite a bit of time together while I was pregnant with Piddle and teaching a couple of dance classes in their attic, but we haven't had much time together recently. On Tuesday we went over to the K's and spent the whole day with them. Kerstin has not me immeasurable things about house keeping, home making, modesty, biblical worldview, parenting, wifedom, the list is endless. I am so thankful for her friendship and her family's love of our family. They are the only ones who visited us in the hospital after every single one of our babies were born. I hope the miles do not weaken our friendship. Some of these pics are old, but they will do.

These two little girls are two little mamas in training! They love Piddle and are great helpers will all three of my kiddos.

These are our two youngest boys helping us bake bread. Josiah and Widdle are birds of a feather.

All of these families have been such a blessing to me and my family. I hope they need a trip to the beach and we are able to visit with each other along the journey God has for us.

The gang's all here

2009-10-22T21:56:00.001-05:00

While I was cooking dinner and talking on the phone tonight, Widdle entertained himself. I am still in shock. He and Waddle usually stand within 3 inches of me every moment that I am in the kitchen. When dinner was just about done, Widdle came in and asked Waddle to come and see what he made. To my surprise he built this "house".The green pillow and the one underneath is are tool boxes and the smaller pillow on the right is the door to the house. On the left side of the toolbox is the back yard. He was very proud of this creation and I was quite impressed myself!
After all of the birthday pics I had to try a picture of my trio. I haven't tried one in a while and none of my previous attempts turned out very well. I got this picture in one shot! Maybe they each need a little something to play with in order for them to look at the camera, but I am glad all of their eyes are looking in the right direction. Don't they look like fun? I sure do love these little ones.

22 months old

2009-10-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

This little guy......

is 22 months old today. I really cannot believe how fast the time has gone. He is developing such a fun personality. He love to be silly and try to jump. He love playing peek-a-boo and grabbing Daddy's hat. He enjoys wrestling, being tickled, helping me cook and tasting anything that comes from the kitchen. Waddle is such a fun member of our family. I cannot imagine our family without him. Widdle loves to protect and bully him. Piddle loves to laugh at him and enjoys his protection. We all laugh daily because of our sweet Waddle.

I can't help but think of the day he was born. I laughed within seconds of his birth. What a joy and a blessing he has been in my life. Happy 22 month birthday Waddle!

7 months old

2009-10-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

This little lady is 7 months old today.

She is doing all sorts of things. Piddle can roll all over the living room. She prefers to have another person in sight. She can sit up for a short while. She LOVES watching her brothers and really enjoys when they play with her. She likes the dogs. She has her Daddy wrapped around her little tiny pinky. She does not like baby food.

Piddle is such a joy and I am so thankful to have her in our family. I can not believe she is 7 months old already. When her birthday rolls around, I always think of the day before and the day she was born. What an adventure. I am so thankful that God saw fit for our boys to learn how to protect and treat a lady by giving them a sister. What a blessing she is!

Social Saturday

2009-10-07T13:35:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have tried to hang out with us at all over the last three years, you know that we are not the most social. Albert has been gone more then half the time we have been in OKC and his time at home has been very protected. Last Saturday we had ourselves a bit of a social marathon! Around 8:30 Albert went for a bike ride with one of our newer neighbors, T. They got back around 9:40. Around 10:00 the fire trucks drove by for their annual Fire Truck Parade to kick off fire safety week. We were looking forward to this parade all week and all morning! At 10:30 Piddle and I went to the farmer's market with T's wife, J. We girls got home around 1:30 and Albert reminded me that some other friends were coming over at 2:00. M and A along with baby A visited for about an hour and a half, then headed off. T and J came over around 6:00 for dinner. T had to do some work stuff and left at 7:30. J hung out with us until nearly 10:00. I know that some of you are in shock that we were up that late..... We are trying to maximize our time left in the mid-west. We had a fun, full day!

Waddle

2009-09-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Waddle doesn't have too many new things going on. His vocabulary is increasing daily. He tries to say about half of the words I ask him to say and sometimes he repeats something out of the blue. He only says one syllable from most words, but he is learning. He makes us laugh all. the. time. I hope these pictures make you laugh too!

^He is trying to say "cheese"

^After Widdle took pictures holding up three fingers, Waddle wanted you to know how old he is!

^Have you ever seen a cuter guy in cowboy boots? He will either be Woody or Rex for halloween.

Someone turned 3 around here

2009-09-15T14:57:00.000-05:00

Having a three year old in the house is a little crazy. I can hardly believe that it was nearly four years ago that I found out I was pregnant. While I was changing Widdle's age ticker over I nearly cried at the idea of him being on his way to four, so I decided that I just think of him as just turning 3 for as long as I can!

Widdle is such a sweet boy and brings so much love, joy and laughter to our home. He always has a song to sing and rarely knows all of the words. (just like his mama) Some of his favorite things these days are jumping on the bed, eating lollipops, riding his bike or tricycle, wrestling his daddy, playing peek-a-boo with Piddle, tickling Waddle and Piddle, helping me cook.

Upon turning three, Widdle has picked up some new responsibilities around the house. He now puts all of the utensils away, brings me and helps empty the small trash cans, sets the table, wipes off the table, puts his clothes away, "makes" his bed and sounds the "poop" alarm in the back yard. He is working hard and playing hard. Just the way a boy should be!

I'll have to tell you about this cake another time. Ugh!

Roll Over Beethoven

2009-09-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

Piddle has had a couple of adventures over the last week. She tried oatmeal for the first time. Her review seems to be that she thinks is silly for a little while, then yucky. She wasn't quite sure what to think of the first bite, then she would squeal with delight as the spoon came towards her. After 5-10 bites she was done. She has hardly eaten any cereal since. I've tried her a couple of times, but she seems to be fine without it. To be honest, it's a little easier to care for her without the cereal. I will be more persistent with it shortly though.

Piddle's other new trick is rolling over. Last night she decided that she could get her arm out and she could travel around our small living room. She was content for an hour or more to just roll around on the floor and check out what everyone else was up to. She can put her paci back in her mouth and being able to roll over helps her find it. Hopefully this new skill will benefit us during the night!

Our little lady is very strong and will probably be sitting up soon. I can hardly wait!

Eye Surgery

2009-09-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

Widdle had Strabismus surgery yesterday. (I finally learned the word!) We have noticed his eyes alternating drifting out for a while. I have taken him to several doctor's appointments, we patched his eyes for a couple of months and the drifting and heavy blinking picked up greatly over the last several weeks. With the move coming up and Widdle getting older, we felt we should go ahead with the surgery. Albert's mom came in to watch the littles and Albert and I took Widdle to the surgery. I don't know what we would have done without Granny being her. She is such a huge blessing. When we first got to the surgery center everyone was pretty relaxed. Widdle was excited to see Dr. T. He always gets to play a lot of games with him. He had no idea what was really coming. We talked to him about the surgery a little, but he is too young to understand "they are going to cut the muscle off of your eye and move it back a little. This will help your eyes." While we did tell him that, he just couldn't be expected to really get it, so he was happy to be there. There was another little boy in the waiting room waiting for his brother. This gave Widdle a little playmate while we waited. When his name was called, Widdle chased the nurse back to the pre-op room. He was a great sport through all of the pre-op procedures. The nurse told him that his temperature and heart rate were perfect. He enjoyed wearing the silly gown and the grippy socks. He sat in Albert's lap for all of the little tests and my stomach twisted. I just didn't really know what was coming. Dr. T came in and gave us an idea of what to expect and how to care for him after the surgery. The anesthesiologist came in and briefly told us what would happen. Then a sweet nurse let Widdle ride in a wagon and off he went.

I said "I love you" about ten times and teared up. I am still thankful that I did not break down into tears as they pulled him away...... that came later. The whole time we were sitting in pre-op I questioned if it was too late to cancel the surgery. Was this really what he needed? Along with every other question imaginable flooded my mind. As soon as they took him back we went out to the waiting room. Albert went to get breakfast and I read a bit. I felt OK. Once Albert got back I checked the time and started getting anxious. About 15 or 20 min. later the nurse called us into the consultation room and we waited for the doctor. Dr. T came in and said Widdle did great. He hoped right up on the table and played all of their games, got a little nervous as he drifted off to sleep, but it went well. Everything looked as he expected and our little guy should be waking up soon. Now, he might be angry and if he is they will call you back quickly.

They called us back quick. I was certain that our little guy would be laid back and groggy. Boy was I wrong! This was the beginning of the worst part for me. I did not have a clear picture of what "angry" looked like on my little boy until I saw the nurse restraining his arms and him screaming his desire to rub his eyes. Even we could not settle him. Albert held him and held one arm down while I held the other arm and tried to sooth him. I felt terribly helpless. Widdle screamed and cried and begged me to let him rub his eyes. He didn't want anything to touch him and he really only wanted his daddy. He held his eyes shut tight. I cried, he cried, we were a mess. After two doses of morphine Widdle calmed down a bit. Just enough that the nurse felt that getting him home was our best option. She took the IV out....... that was bad, then took us over to another area. I offered Widdle some apple juice and crackers. He held one cracker for a couple of hours and ate another cracker. Once he calmed down enough to drink the apple juice, he sucked it down. By now it was about 11:00 a.m. He had not had anything to drink or eat since 8:00 p.m. the night before. After 5 or 10 minutes we left. Albert rode in the back to keep Widdle from rubbing his eyes. He only tried to open his eyes a couple of times. This seemed to only frustrate him more. He rested to rest of the day and had a couple of fits of discomfort. Albert went to T@rget to pick up a couple of things. We gave Widdle acetaminophen and ibuprofen all afternoon and evening. It seemed we were able to keep the pain and discomfort under control. Widdle slept on the couch and Albert slept on the floor beside the couch.

This morning we had a different child in our home. He woke up happy and was able to see a lot better. He was not so sensitive to the light. He ate breakfast and wanted to play. My heart took a deep breath and we enjoyed the morning. We all went to the post-op appointment and Dr. T said our little man looked great. He has a slight over correction, but hopefully this will even out over the next 4 weeks. We have another appointment then and hopefully we will only need re-checks every 6 months or so after that.

I am so thankful that my God knows how things will go long before they happen. He knew long before Widdle was born that he would undergo this surgery. He also knew long, long ago, way before I was a mother, that I would question every decision I made for my children. He gave me the greatest gift of my Savior, Jesus Christ and the peace and comfort that can only comes from Him. God has also blessed me with an amazing husband who has learned how to take the reins when I need help the most. What an amazing God we serve.

Labor Day

2009-09-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

This phrase takes on a whole new meaning when you've labored a child! Every day has a large dose of "labor" thrown into it. A friend posted a link to another ladies blog and she laid out the number of hours and pounds of human she's labored. I laughed and thought I should figure up my stats. They won't be too great since Waddle had a speed delivery, but here they are:

Hours in labor: 23 (6 for Widdle before a c-section, 4 for Waddle- first contraction to deliver..... don't be jealous! :) and about 13 for Piddle, I think I was only in active labor for about 4-5 hours with her though)

Pounds of human: 23 lb 10 oz.

So, what are your stats? I know some of you will blow me out of the water with the hours in labor. To be honest, I'd rather have the least number of hours! Happy Labor Day.

Blog Pause

2009-09-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

It has been just over a month since my last post and the delay has been for several reasons. One big reason my posts have been so scarce is a war within. I really want to be totally honest and raw with people and especially our Christian friends. I just don't think this is the place for that though. I'd rather talk and split the wounds open in person, on the phone or through an e-mail. But I have a hard time holding back the whole truth when I'm typing. I'd just rather not hide things, but not everyone who reads this blog REALLY knows me. So some of the things I write might not come across right or give a wrong picture of what I really mean. I guess the war is that I feel like I need to keep it pretty surface, but I don't really want to.

We've also been extremely busy! In the last month we've gone on two short trips and one LONG trip. We also have a trip planned for September, one possible trip for October and a move November 2nd. For a family that almost never travels, we've been on the road a lot!

When we went to Florida, our long trip, we found an amazing house. We work out the details and have a contract pending on it. We are hoping my mom and dad will be able to close on the house a week early and have the carpet replaced before we get there. It would be a much easier and quicker job without all of our stuff in the house!

I will try to keep up better over the next few months. I feel like we will have A LOT going on through Christmas, then things should taper off. We'll just have to see. In my sunday school lesson I've been studying idleness and have been greatly convicted. Though I often have something to do, I am not sure that I am always doing the thing I should be doing. With that, I am off to take the clothes out of the dryer and put a new load in.

In Christ,

Robin

Thankful to be at home

2009-07-31T15:28:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to be a mama. When asked, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I would always come up with a different answer. It seemed that I needed to put something down, but none of them really fit. I'd say I wanted to be a dance teacher or a school teacher, maybe a nurse. Maybe I'd try my hand at the business world, though I knew nothing about it and had zero interest..... it seemed like a good response. But I've always wanted to be a mama. Even when I went to college I didn't have a goal in mind. I was certainly working on my Mrs. and switched majors 4+ times in 2.5 years at a junior college. Yeah, I didn't know where I was going with all of those classes. Albert and I started dating after my third semester in college. At that point I was pursuing Elementary Education. It is still something I am interested in. I switched my major one final time to "General." Exciting huh? I could use all of my credits and graduate a semester early. I finished my associates about two weeks after we got married. I finished teaching dance the next semester and headed out to Oklahoma. Since Albert was in training, we both thought a part-time job would be good. So, I worked at 0ld Navy. It was a good pass time. We talked about me staying at home with our kiddos before we were even married. Or maybe it was something that we just always agreed on and never really discussed. I'm not sure. Either way, I really wanted a baby when training was coming to an end. I was five months pregnant when we moved and have been at home ever since. I love this job.

There have been several times that I have felt bad or weird about staying at home. I've been asked, "Do you work? Outside of the home I mean." Or, "What's your degree in?" One friend told me that I could finish my degree on-line through a great program she was doing. I just don't feel like that's for me. I'm not against having a degree and maybe one day I'll go back to school, but at this point it's not on my "Bucket List."

A couple of weeks ago I felt that God was really assuring me that this is where He wants me to be. On a Wednesday night Albert called and asked if I could take care of a friend from the squadron's little boy the next day. I watched him before and knew it would be a bit of a challenge, but how could I say no to a friend in need? The little boy came over and all of the boys had a great time. About lunch time I was waiting for Albert to call (There was a chance we'd get to see him for about 30 minutes) when the doorbell rang. I answered and it was a dear friend who used to live right down the street. They have moved about an hour and a half north and we have not seen them in over a year. What a blessing a surprise to have her and her two little boys visit. We welcomed them in and had a 4 month old little girl and boys ages 1,2,3,4 and 5 play for about a half hour. Albert called right after T and her boys got here and we both decided it would be best to visit with them. We had a great time and tried to catch up as much as you can with all of those little rascals running around, 30 minutes and over a year worth of missed time. It was an awesome day.

None of my cleaning was done and the house looked a bit more like a toy store or daycare center than I'd like, but I feel like we were really able to share the love of Jesus. If I worked away from the home, our family would not have been able to help a friend and I would have missed the opportunity to visit with an old friend. God is really showing me the many ways to be hospitable and use our home for His purposes. What a blessing!

The Movies

2009-07-31T15:19:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you all sit around wondering what a day with the Ducks is really like. Ha! Well sometimes, in the middle of a situation a movie line will run through my mind. (I wish I memorized scripture as easily as I do a catchy movie line.) Here are a couple examples. You can think of us when your kiddos watch these movies and you hear the line or see the scene.

"All the animals are going mad!" -Finding Nemo

No, my kids are not animals, but sometimes I alter this line and it applies.

"Honey, it's time to intervene!" -The Incredibles

Ahh, this one runs through my mind ALL THE TIME when Albert is gone. We are not incredible, but a lot of their super powers fit us. I'm not sure what Olivia's personality will be like, so she is Jack Jack. Boaz is our very quiet observer. He likes to think about things and work with his hands, he gets to be Violet. (Only the really cute boy version!) Canon is our little fire ball. He's Dash. Albert can sweep in and save the day, of course he's Mr. Incredible! And I only wish I could be more flexible. If I could just reach out and grab a kid while I'm sitting in the chair nursing, a lot of tears would be spared.

My mind is drawing a blank, hum, this isn't the first time! So, I'll have to share the other sections of movies with you as they come back to mind.

A Little Boring

2009-07-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

I am happy to announce that the dog has left us alone and Albert's t-shirt quilt has consumed the last several days. I am sending it off to be professionally quilted this week and will post some pictures once I get it back. We have really just been filling time until Albert gets back. I have had a couple of thoughts bouncing around in my brain though. Hopefully I'll fill you in on those tomorrow.

Romeo and Juliet

2009-07-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

I've posting quite a bit about the dogs around this joint, and this post will continue that exciting side of our lives! I know, you've been waiting for another post about my crazy dogs. Well, look no further, it is here!

On Wednesday my neighbor came over and informed me that there was a brown dog in my yard. I had not noticed the dog, so I quickly ran to the back window. Piper is in heat, so I do not want other dogs around her, especially not male, fully in-tact dogs! So, I went out back and tried to see his tag and get him out of the yard. He ran off quickly. It did not take us long to learn that this dog can climb fences and create a gap under the fence without digging a hole. Yes, this is a problem! So, we never could get the dog to come close enough for long enough to see his tag and call his owner, and eventually he wondered off. Only after marking his territory, my backyard!

Friday, the boys and I are sitting at the table eating breakfast, when Canon informs me that Piper is in Emma's yard. Emma is our neighbor's dog. Piper only goes over there when the gate is open, and we always keep it shut and locked, unless we are outside playing with our neighbors. Again, I rush to the back door to figure out what's going on. The gate was open, or so I thought, but I couldn't see the actual gate. What it perfectly in-line with the fence post? I was confused. So, I went outside to investigate. The gate had been lifted completely off it's hinges and was laying in my neighbor's yard! After further investigation I realized that an animal squeezed through the gate, going under the mesh fencing and over the frame. It must have gotten a little stuck and lifted it's back end up. The gate was about 10 ft. into my neighbor's yard.

Today, I am visiting with neighbors who live on the street behind us when the base police come by. After a couple of minutes, I see the dog run behind their backyard. Then the police come by a couple more times. Eventually they stop and ask us if we've seen the dog. I told him that we had and that they would not be able to bait him in. He likes my dogs, but he doesn't like people. While walking home (with my dogs in-tow) I find the dog again. By this point I am angry. I do not want to have to worry about this dog. We have not spade Piper yet because I'd like her to have one litter of puppies with a specific dog in Pensacola. I do NOT want her to have puppies with this mutt! Granted, they would be cute, he's looking at me through my back door right now and he has a very sweet face, but who wants a 65 lb. mutt??? I think I'd have a hard time giving those puppies away and I just don't want to deal with it. Plus, I should be able to let my own dog in my own back yard without having to worry about someone else's dog harassing her. I get a little frustrated just typing this out. I just don't want to worry about this dog. I don't want him to go to the pound and be put down and I don't want him to get my dog pregnant. I really wish his owners would have kept him on a lead in the yard. Do they even know or care that he's missing? He had a tag and collar last week when we first met him, but he has lost it since then. He has now been in or around my yard for the last 3 hours. I called the police after chasing him out of the yard once and him coming back. They came out and saw him. My neighbor was in the process of running him out of the yard when the police showed up, but he ran off. Rather, he ran just out of sight. It's easy for him to hide in the dark. He is back now. I have the porch light on and he keeps asking to get in. He seems very friendly, but shows aggression when my neighbor and I tell him that he's not getting what he wants. Ugh, I don't know what to do. We're going to hang out in the backyard most of the day tomorrow and give the police a call if/when he comes around. Maybe I'll lose the rest of my baby weight by spending the day in 100+ temps. HA!

I told Albert that they are like Romeo and Juliet, the forbidden love. Piper would be happy to entertain his ideas, but I can assure you that will NOT be happening! Until she is done being "available" I will have to go outside and supervise the yard every time she is out. Doesn't that sound like fun? Please, please tell me if you have any other suggestions. I'd really like to spare this dogs life, and I'm hoping he's micro-chipped, but I can't have an aggressive dog hanging around two houses that have 3 dogs and 7 kids between them!

**Edited to add: I tried to take a picture of the dog looking through the door. Of course the flash caused some trouble. After three shots the guilty party thought he did not want to be photographed and he went out of the yard, under the fence. Maybe he won't come back.....

Random

2009-07-10T17:06:00.001-05:00

* Dog poop is easier to scoop when it has been over 100 degrees for a couple of days in a row. It was so hot earlier that our temperature gage just had dash marks (--) instead of a temp and it's in the shade!

*Boaz is officially considering riding the potty training train. He pottied in the toilet 3 times yesterday and we celebrated with an official "Potty Party". Well, it's not that official, but I did call Canon in to cheer with me!

*I just looked at the pics of my kiddos on the side of my blog. I think I need to update these. They made me sweat just looking at them. It's a little too hot for pictures of kids in winter coats and lined pants.

We can survive

2009-07-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago the fam and I loaded in the van and headed slightly south to buy me a new pair of walking/running shoes. Since Albert was with us, I didn't bother to bring my cell phone. He is the one who calls me the most and I'd rather not be on the phone with someone else when he is around. Our time together is short, so I try to stay focused. So, I Googled the store a day or two before we went, checked out the map and knew the general idea of where we were going. Once we got down there, we could not seem to find the place. We drove down the road to the left of the interstate until we reached housing developments. Then, we turned around and headed down the right side of the interstate. We drove around a couple of shopping centers. I started wondering if I'd gotten the street right. I asked Albert for his phone and thought I could at least look up the address and possibly call the place to find out where they were. Only, his battery was dead! I sort of panicked. We don't have a phone, we don't know where we're going, there aren't pay phones and phone books on the corner of any of these gas stations. Will we ever find the place??? Finally I asked Albert to pull over and I would run into the H@allmark store and ask to borrow their phone book and phone. He put the van in park and I grabbed the handle of the van to find a phone book in our van! I started laughing immediately. I quickly searched and found that our little shop was listed. The street signs around here have the block number listed on them, so we were able to find our way. The shop was tucked back in the one part of the strip mall that we did not drive by. I was so excited that we were still able to find our way though our phones were out of commission.

Then......

On Sunday I put my phone on silent and brought it into church with me. I almost NEVER put my phone on silent or bring it into church. But, my watch battery has been dead for a long time and no one will help me take the back off to replace the battery and I knew Olivia would need to eat and I wanted to know what time it was when I fed her...... So, I put the phone on silent and brought it in. After Sunday School I loaded everyone into the van and dropped my wallet and phone over the seat. I heard my phone hit something hard and knew it was not in the seat. I finished buckling everyone in and got in myself. I didn't see the phone. I backed out of the parking spot and saw that it was not on the ground. It had to be in the van somewhere. So, I headed home. I quickly brought the kiddos inside and got them down for their naps, then headed back out to look for my phone. I couldn't find it. So, I came in and did a little reading and headed out again. I repeated this process at least five times. Each time I was hoping to have a fresh perspective and look in that one spot that I had not looked the time before. No success. After a few hours I messaged one of the college kids from church and asked him to swing by the church to make sure it wasn't in the parking lot. It wasn't. I prayed and prayed that I would find my phone. Since it was on silent, I knew I wouldn't hear it even if it did ring and I searched everywhere. I considered going for a drive and driving up and down hills hoping it would slide out from wherever it was hiding. Thankfully my SS teacher, the college kids mom, suggested calling the phone. I could have done this, but we don't have a land line. I thought about asking a neighbor to call, but I'd have to walk over with all three kids, ask them to call blah blah blah. It would take a bit of work. Thankfully my SS teacher was willing to call. I messaged her son on facebook and we set up a time. I quickly ran out to the van and heard the phone vibrating! I was so relieved to find it! The phone dropped into the pocket on the side of the door and was leaning just perfectly so that I could not see it. It was totally a God thing for me to have found it. The phone was in the pocket with the ice scraper that I had taken out to drop over the seat and see how the phone might have bounced. I know I looked almost exactly where the phone was.

I think God intended this to be a lesson in humility for me. I have a very hard time asking for help and admitting that I need help. Relying on others is not enjoyable for me. I am thankful that I was forced into this situation and my dear friends were able and willing to help. God is so good and I'm back in touch!

The Van

2009-06-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

Sunday afternoon the kiddos and I headed out the door to pick up a couple of groceries. Just leaving the house on a Sunday afternoon puts me a little out of my element. I hardly ever go anywhere besides church on Sunday, also I try to do all of my errands during the week and in the morning. As we were all herding out the door I glanced at the van and noticed a "small" scrape on the front left corner. My breath left me and my brain started racing. Who did I hit? When did I hit someone? Did someone hit me? Is there a poor victim out there wondering who damaged there car and was so rude to leave without leaving a note? Feeling like a completely incompetent driver, I pulled into the parking lot and picked a spot with no one else around. Only to find that the commissary was closed. I missed it by 20 minutes. Thank the Lord I noticed before I got everyone out of the van! That probably would have been reason to cry. Then my nerves went crazy as I though "Great, now I have to drive more." The whole time we were out I was trying to think of how I had to have turned to have hit someone. When had I parked like that? I had to have been turning right into a parking spot, or backing out to the right, or someone else turned left around me and scraped me. I could not place the incident. Then, I was also thinking of how in the world I was going to blurt this gently out to Albert. I hate having to tell him of my mistakes when he is gone......... and when he is home for that matter! So, the next time I talked to him I had to bring it up. "Ok, I just have to blurt this out because I have no idea how to introduce the topic gently........ I have no idea how this happened, but I seem to have hit someone. I feel awful. I don't know if there is a victim driving around wondering what jerk hit him or when I hit someone, but there's a small scrape on the van...... It just scraped the paint off and there's some tan paint on the van. I just can't think of when it happened." Albert calmly questions, "tan paint? Did you hit the house?" Ding Ding Ding The lights are flashing and bells are going off! Yes, I hit the house! I feel ridiculous, but at least I know when it happened and that I only damaged our vehicle.

Last Monday I was running out to get a birthday present and Albert's car was parked behind me. I knew it would be tight, but I thought I could squeeze out. (I get in these same predicaments with my body, maybe I don't have a clear view of things.) I had to pull forward and back up several times. I knew I got close to the pole once, but I had no idea that I scraped the bumper against it. And now you know yet another reason why I do not enjoy driving.

3 months old!

2009-06-23T15:28:00.000-05:00

Olivia turned 3 months old yesterday. At some pointe last week I decided that Olivia would be 3 months old this Tuesday and did not realize I was a day off until I looked at our clock this morning and it said "6/23". I double checked it and everything says today is the 23rd except for my own mind. So, I do not have any pictures from yesterday to share with you, but I have some good ones of our little lady nonetheless. I had a good cry yesterday thinking of how quickly the time is going and how little it seems that I am able to cuddle her. The time is just going too quickly.

Tips for Parents

2009-06-23T15:03:00.000-05:00

This tip comes from Albert. I wish I could remember exactly how he said it, though I'm sure you'll get a good laugh anyway!

If your child can pronounce the "B" sound, but cannot pronounce the "BR" sound it is not a good idea to use the word "britches" for pants. It is safer to refer to them as pants, shorts, or bottoms. Your child is certain to think "britches" is a fun word to say and will repeat it several times while leaving out the "r" all the while. This does result in a little laugh, but would not be appropriate anywhere outside of the home.

Walking Comments

2009-06-19T14:35:00.000-05:00

I mentioned before that we get all sorts of comments while venturing around town. Most of them come while I am on a walk and have the four legged creatures in tow. Recently we have gotten a couple of comments that made me laugh or left me slightly confused. I suppose these three men were trying to be witty or original. Some succeeded, some did not. Enjoy!

- "That's quite an operation you've got there!" This came from a man riding his bike who looked a bit awkward and cumbersome himself. I just laughed.

- "Congratulations! I know it takes a lot to get out here." This one truly felt like a complement and it made me smile on the outside and the inside.

- "You've got your own parade with you." I'm not sure how to respond to this one.

Have no fear, I am still hearing daily that I've got my hands full, but these have made for a fun change of pace.

Air Force Runner's Tip of the Day

2009-06-19T14:32:00.001-05:00

When running with your buddy and you see a woman with a stroller and two dogs coming towards you, you have two options:

1. Drop back behind your friend for a few moments until you pass each other or

2. Swing out to the right of the woman and stroller and dogs while your buddy goes around the left side of her.

It may seem obvious to you (the reader) that the best choice is to drop back and pass on the left. Not everyone shares this view. Thankfully we did not have a collision this morning, but I have been walking a dog who tripped someone in the past because they chose option 2. Let's just all shake our heads together and remember to PASS ON THE LEFT!!!

Getting Older

2009-06-17T17:10:00.000-05:00

Albert and I celebrated our birthdays last week. Well, there wasn't much celebrating as he worked 12 hours on his birthday and 14 hours on my birthday, or visa-versa...... I can't remember now. Either way, we are older now and have had a variety of ailments ever since the occasions.

Albert has suffered with a pinched nerve or something similar in his back. It actually made him med-down for a few days. Then he slammed his knee into the wall on accident two days ago and the pain seems to be lingering longer then it should. Yesterday he had a tightness/weird pain in his chest.

I have had some very strange situations with my gut. I'm not really sure what the problem is. I'm trying a lactose free diet and am now at the end of the second full day. Can I just say that I miss cheese and milk! And granola with yogurt!! I hope lactose is not the problem, but I seem to be a bit better. Until this morning. The pack and I went for a walk and my gut was feeling a little off, but that's been the norm the last few weeks. So, we finished up the walk and came home, fed the girls their breakfast, fed Olivia and I started feeling worse. I laid on the floor for a few minutes and felt like I could push through. We headed to the park and I thought I'd just sit in the shade and watch the boys..... which I never do! After about ten minutes I told Canon we were going to leave soon. He assured me that I would feel better at the park. About two minutes later I asked him to put his helmet on, we had to go. Boaz was not so convinced that I was feeling horrible and he wandered around a bit more. I pushed the stroller over to him and realized that I did not have time to get home before getting sick. So, if you are at the park that we always go to and notice a bit of throw up in the grass, don't be grossed out, you've been warned. I felt a bit better after throwing up and we made it home. The boys watched movies the rest of the morning. Thankfully Albert was able to make it home for lunch and put the boys down for their naps. They finished up a movie after naps and Albert was home again. Currently they are playing in a new pool in the back yard and I am starting to feel a bit better and a bit more social. I can pretty well handle anyone being sick besides myself. I feel like the work load piles up and the house sort of starts falling apart...... Please pray that I am better soon and that I can have real dairy without my belly going crazy.

A Tale of Two Tails: The back door

2009-06-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

This just makes me laugh and I must share it with you. We have a glass door on the back of our house. Our backdoor is off of the living room and straight in front of the couch. This means that I am looking out of this door most of the day while the dogs are looking in. I could clean this door everyday and it would still be covered in hand prints, nose prints, slobber and footprints. It just stays dirty. The weather has been so nice recently that I have been leaving the dogs out most of the day. Ivory thinks this is great when their is a squirrel to chase or someone walking by to bark at. If neither of those activities are available, she wants inside. Now, neither of our dogs ask to come inside in a normal, calm manor. They start out calm, Ebony will paw at the door with one paw a couple of times, or Ivory will give a single bark. They might try this a couple of times before they switch to "frantic" mode. In "frantic" mode both girls loose their minds. Ebony will jump, put all four feet on the door and push off. Ivory will stand with her front feet on the door and sort of hop. Both girls have deemed the door very dirty and will then look under their own smudge to see if anyone notices them and is coming to the rescue. It's as if they are looking in to see if they were loud enough or if they should try again. Maybe I should clean the door and all of the jumping and standing would stop........ I doubt it.

Ebony and Ivory: A Tale of Two Tails

2009-05-24T14:51:00.000-05:00

The dogs around here are crazy, and in my mind I've written several posts about them. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I've actually typed out about these two girls. I'm sure the story of their lives could be compared to Marley & Me, it's at least as humorous!

The sub-title for today is: The Walk

I will refer to them as Ebony and Ivory to protect the innocent, or slightly unintelligent.

Ivory came to us from a home where she was not walked much. I walked her when she was about a year and a half old and the entire time I was thinking, "If I trip this dog will drag me down the road until she is tired." She pulled like a man pulling a semi-truck on the strongest man competitions! Now that Ivory is four years old, one would think she is starting to calm down. But, you'd be wrong! One of my stipulations for bringing her to out home was that the previous owner, my mom, would send a gentle lead for each girl with us. Now, this device does help, but it is not a solve all.

Ebony used to think walks were for her to explore the world around her. With another owner, they might be. But with me, they are to sweat, drop pounds and wear the dog out. Unfortunately I am tired WAY before she is. The gentle lead has worked beautifully on Ebony. The first time I strapped it on her, she froze and waited for my lead. She keeps the leash loose the whole walk and only rebels when she needs to take a "pit stop." She is a pleasure to walk while on her lead.

Ivory is a better walker on her lead, but still a maniac. I have determined that her enthusiasm is due to a lack of exercise in her younger years and a zeal for a good workout. If she's going for a walk, she wants to get the most out of it. There's no wasting steps for this girl. In fact, she gets a double workout. While walking, she insist on looking to the left ever 3-4 seconds. She starts panting the moment I open the drawer that her leash is in. Once it's strapped on her tongue is hanging out. Remember, this is no small dog and neither is her tongue. It swells and produces more saliva as we walk. So, when she looks to the left, her big fat tongue is hanging out and she slides it across the victim's head and touches the front of my right leg. I have given the victim (or child in the back seat) a hat to protect their head, and this seems to help. But, as I get hotter and stickier, this tongue feels grosser and grosser. (Is that a word?) Anyway, it just grosses me out! Along with slobbering all over me and the victim, Ivory runs to the front of the stroller, then behind me. I keep her on a short leash, so I'm not sure how she does this. I have kicked her in the heel one second, then have her head by my back side the next. In brief, she runs back and forth beside the stroller while we walk for 2 miles. This is an enthusiastic dog! Once we get home she drinks about a gallon of water and passes out for a while. Ebony is not even tired! I have to change shorts and the victim gets their head washed off. Oh yes, we are the circus!

We're turning heads

2009-05-24T14:36:00.000-05:00

We are certainly turning heads these days. Not in a "wow, that's a hot mama" sort of way, but more of a "look at that circus" sort of way! We usually get at least one "you've got your hands full" per walk. The other day we got our first ever "HOLY COW!" I laughed out loud at that one! I mean, I know we look crazy, but I have got to get some exercise! So, I'll give you a mental picture. Maybe one day I'll get someone to take a picture of the circus that walks the path around here, until then you'll have to use your imagination. Picture this: I have both boys buckled into the stroller. Olivia is worn in a carrier on my front and the two big dogs are leashed together and on the right side of the stroller. The other day I thought I'd let Olivia sleep in the stroller and carried Boaz on my back in my Mai Tei. This gave me a double work out and caused some curious looks. We passed one couple twice before they noticed the third child. I'm not sure if they were missing Olivia or Boaz, but they said I had my hands full after our first in counter and seemed in a state of confusion or shock after realizing there was another little hiding. Again, I laughed.

I laugh to keep from crying on some days. One time I was already crying when a bystander through their two cents at me. Most of the time I can just laugh it off, but each comment seems like a tiny pin prick into my heart. Is there something wrong with having your hands full, or more than full of these little blessings? I mean, the dogs through an extra twist in the combo, and we probably are crazy for having two big dogs while we have three little kids, but they are part of the family and aren't going anywhere. It's the comments about the three littles that make my heart sad. I love them so much and I want people (read: all the outspoken people around us) to love them too and see the mightiness of my God through these littles.

I'm not going to lie, my hands are more than full. I have two hands and three children. Do the math! But, isn't this work worth it? There's so much more purpose in a house full of littles and a sink full of dirty dishes and a dryer full of clothes than there is in a desk full of papers. I've heard women say they feel like they are not contributing to society by staying at home and feel the need to get back in the workforce, aren't we training the workers of tomorrow? I'm trading one worker now for three (or more) workers in the future. That's a pretty important work.

Crafting

2009-05-13T14:48:00.001-05:00

You have not heard much from me over the last few weeks because of our visitors and because I've been crafting! Sewing really. A friend mentioned recently that she loved her Mai Tei. Then, another friend mentioned a Mei Tai and I just had to check them out. Looking at the price, I thought I'd try to make one. So, while Mom was here, we went to Hancocks several times and eventually came up with this:

Then, Mom thought she'd like one to carry Kylar around in when she watches him. (Kylar is my sister's little boy) So, we went back to Hancocks and picked out this material. We also got some material for a Daddy Mei Tai, but you'll have to wait until Albert's birthday to see his. Here is my mom's Mei Tai:

Before making either of the Mei Tais, I tried my hand at a sling. This was easy and tricky at the same time. I found a couple of websites that gave me all of the dimensions and how-to's for wearing, but I can't quite figure out how to put a liner in it and reinforce the seam. So, it's a bit patchy on the inside, but it works great for snuggling Olivia and taking care of every one else.

She is out like a light within moments of being dropped in!

A couple of months ago a friend mentioned a height chart that her MOPs group did. I made a chart a while ago, but it was pretty plain. Since we know we are moving soon and will move again at some pointe, I want to be able to take the markings with us. So, this is what the Granny's and I came up with.

This says "Grow" but the ribbon is covering the "w". I went ahead and put all of the stickers on the board so that it is ready for however many kids we have. The stickers are scrapbooking boarders. Granny Duck discovered that one!

This is Olivia's quilt. I'm not sure if I've posted it before. The colors from the stickers on the height chart match it perfectly. I think we will paint her room either a light light pink or neutral like the rest of the house (in my mind at least).

Here's the last thing I've tried out. I have never french braided my hair until last week. I've done it a couple of times now and this "hair style" seems to work great for me! It keeps my hair out of my eyes and I don't have to fix it or mess with it throughout the day. My shoulders feel like they are on fire by the time I get to the second braid, but it works out. It's not perfect, but it feels like an accomplishment!

The past few weeks

2009-05-13T13:59:00.001-05:00

For those of you who stop by just for the pictures, today is your lucky day! I finally found the camera cord and uploaded a small glimpse of the craziness around here. Enjoy!

Boaz's big brother bike finally arrived. So, the boys helped me put it together and each tried it out. None of the pieces have fallen off yet, so I think we did a pretty good job. Boaz still needs a little practice, but he's enjoying it!

Canon has been doing an awesome job on his bike as well. He can run and pick up his feet for a moment and only falls when distracted by something else. We have managed to go to the park a couple of times without any distractions and a smooth ride!

^ I just had to share this picture. Isn't he a cutie?? I love summer and it looks like the littles do too!

^I think we are in monsoon season around here. We have had rain or clouds everyday for the last two weeks. So, while my mom was here, and it wasn't lightening, I suited the boys and myself up and headed outside to splash in the puddles. This is obviously something we need to do more often because the boys were not really sure what to do in the rain! It was a bit of a chore to get everyone, including the four legged creatures, cleaned up, but we had a really fun time!

I believe this is Olivia's 5 week picture. This is another outfit that was mine when I was a baby. Isn't she a sweety??

^We had such a special time with all of the Granny's in town. Left to Right: Albert's mom, Becky, Albert's Aunt and honorary Granny, Karla, and my mom, Cindy. I am still retraining the damage they did. :)

^Boaz was trying to eat the ladybug container and was enjoying them crawl around in the cup.

^Canon was not so thrilled to hold the cup, but looked pretty handsome!

^Sorry that Olivia is standing on her head. She was snuggled into the back of the stroller and slept through the whole thing! She did look cute though!

^We had a fun time seeing our friends and fell apart shortly after this was taken!

Ladybug Release

2009-05-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

So much has been going on around here that I hardly know where to begin at filling you in. Here's a quick run-down. Albert left on a deployment about 2 weeks ago. My mom flew in the same day to meet Olivia and hang out with the boys. A week later my mom-in-law and her sister-in-law flew in to meet Olivia and hang out with the boys. A couple of days later, mom left. Then the in-laws left, and now we are lonely. We had an awesome time with all of the visitors. I did a couple of sewing projects and we all laughed a ton. These three ladies are my best helpers aside from Albert. They do everything they can to help our house run more smoothly.

Right now we are trying to figure out how to operate on our own again. I have been battling some behavior issues and presently feel like a complete failure. With Albert being home for two months and having visitors at our house for about two weeks, it has been a while since I was the only adult around. I'd rather have two adults around! This job is hard!!!

Today I took the kiddos to the Myriad Gardens for the ladybug release. It was pretty fun. It was a little crowded for my liking, but the plants were beautiful. Each child was given a small container with 10-20 ladybugs in it, then we were to release them onto the plants. Canon was a little creaped out by the bugs, so he gave me his container. Boaz thought he'd try to eat them. I released all of the ladybugs and was a little creaped out myself by them crawling on me. It makes my skin crawl a bit just thinking about it! We had a good time though and were able to see some friends that we hardly ever see. One thing that made me laugh was that everyone was wearing something with bugs on it. Ok, I partook in this as well. Olivia had a cute ladybug skirt and shirt on and Boaz wore a romper with bugs on it. Canon didn't have any bugs for show today. One lady had a lady bug purse and nearly every little girl had ladybugs on her outfit somewhere. It just made me laugh that all of the moms thought a like!

After the ladybug adventures, we headed to McDonald's for lunch before taking Boaz to the doctor. I'm not sure if the boys have ever had MD's before, so this was somewhat of a treat....... a totally bad for you treat. It was more a matter of convenience. We drove through and ate in the parking garage of the doctor's office. Boaz is still fighting an ear infection. He had one when Olivia was born and I'm not sure if it's ever cleared up completely. I took him in last week to discover the right ear is infected, it seems to be in the same situation today. Hopefully his little ears will clear up soon.

This afternoon we were able to play outside again. I'm not sure how I'll handle the humidity of Pensacola. It has rained pretty much every day for the last week or so, except yesterday and today. So, we just had to get outside. Yesterday morning was very muggy, but the afternoon was just warm. Today was muggy and damp the whole day. The air just feels damp. I'm not sure how well I'll handle that 24/7 but I'm sure I'll manage it better than the Oklahoma wind!

I think that's about all the rambling I have for now. Quick update on Olivia, she slept from 9:00-3:45 last night, woke up once and slept until 7:00 this morning! Maybe we aren't far from sleeping all night!

Still here

2009-05-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

We are still here! We have had family in town the last week and a half and have hardly had a spare moment. I will share our adventures later. Just want to let you know that we are still here and still crazy!

This is how we do it: Cloth

2009-04-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

I have recently read a few posts on cloth diapers and a few friends have asked how we do them, so I thought I'd write it out here. I am trying to implement the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mentality and godly stewardship of our resources way of thinking into our home. So I guess we could call it "Go Green for God". Or, that's what we're trying to do at least. Here are a few examples of what we've been doing:

Cloth Diapers: Before Canon was born a friend of mine mentioned using cloth diapers. I thought the idea was horrible! Then, another friend actually used cloth diapers. She showed us how easy they were and how cheap they were and we were hooked! So, this is what we've done. I ordered 36 pre-fold diapers along with 6 covers for our little babies. I have since acquired 6 more covers and 6 smaller covers. I use the smallest ones as soon as the umbilical cord fall off. These last up to 10 lbs. My next size goes from 9-14 lbs. The pre-folds that I have in this size last until my kids are about 16 lbs. When my babies are solely nursing or on formula, I can put their diapers straight in the pail or straight in the washing machine. When they start solid foods I shake the poop into the toilet or rinse it out in the toilet. While pregnant, there were several diapers that I wanted to just throw away, but persevere! Ok, so after the 36 small pre-folds and 12 covers, we move to 24 large pre-folds with 6 covers. At night I use pocket diapers. I have 10 of these, I think. These are very easy to use. I would use them all of the time except for the cost. I acquired more pocket diapers when Boaz was born and I had two in diapers. So the 36, 12, 24 and 6 are the amounts recommended for one child, but they work for two children as well. At one pointe I did 3 loads a week, but now I wash twice a week. For washing, I dump the diapers in, then wash them on hot with a cold rinse. On my old machine I did a pre-soak cycle and sometimes I still do. In the spring and summer I hang my diapers out to dry, this makes them very white and very stiff. They still work great though. Otherwise I just dry them in the dryer withOUT a dryer sheet. Dryer sheets put a coating on the diapers that can irritate the skin. Some accessories that have made our diapering easier are cloth wipes, wet bags and cloth diaper pail liners. I have 3-4 dozen wipes. My MIL bought a dozen, then made the rest. They are just 8x8 pieces of cloth with a zig-zag stitch around the edge. I fold the wipes in half, stick them in a wipes bucket, put some liquid soap, tea tree oil and water in a cup and pour it over the wipes. Then, I add enough water to make them as damp as I like. The wipes can be thrown in the pail with the diapers and washed and dried exactly the same. The wet bags are cloth bags with a plastic coated liner (similar to a rain coat) and a zipper. They come in a few different sizes. The medium ones work best for us. I keep one in the diaper bag at all times. Canon has a small one in his backpack for accidents in his undies. When I use these, I dump the diaper in the pail, then throw the bag in. I have a couple that are hang dry only, other wise I dry them with the diapers. I have maybe 6 bags. We are not out very much, so 2-3 would probably suffice. I have 2 diaper pail liners. This is perfect for my wash cycle. One is in the wash while the other is in the pail. The liner is a plastic coated cloth with an elastic top. I use a trash can with a pop-up lid for my diaper pail and keep it in the bathroom. It doesn't smell unless it is open. I also use a dish bucket for transporting diapers from the bedroom to the pail. I often wipe out both the pail and bucket. I think that's all, just let me know if you have any questions. With this we are reducing our waste and our expenses.
Tissues: This might seem even more over the top, but oh well. We have been using our burp rags as "nose wipes" or "snot rags". With two little boys, and now a little girl, it seems that we never have a time when every one's nose is dry. So, instead of going through a box of tissues a day, we designate the "snot rags" in the morning and use one for each little all day long, then throw it in the dirty clothes basket in the evening.
Cloth napkins: When Albert and I first got married I thought these were just for "fancy" occasions. Now they are for every day use.
Cloth nursing pads: This might really turn us into tree huggers, but it works for me. When Canon was first born I was using disposable diapers, disposable nursing pads and disposable pads. Our trash was over flowing every day. I found that disposable nursing pads were another way to cut down on trash. They do have to be changed out more frequently, but I'd rather change my shirt than have the nursing pad burst and have to clean up those little absorbent things. These are washed on cold and hung up to dry. A dozen or so of these is a reasonable amount.

That is a pretty good start on what we have done to reduce and reuse. What are some things you are doing to "Go Green for God"?

4 weeks old

2009-04-21T11:08:00.000-05:00

(This was my dress when I was a baby)

I know, I know, I'm late. I thought about this post all day on Sunday and even took pictures of Olivia, but the day slipped by without a word. Then, yesterday I thought about being late and needing to post, and yet I did not. So, here we are today! Hope you enjoy!

Olivia's fourth week was pretty good. The weather was a little up and down, so we were in and out. Almost any day that we can get outside is good. We ventured out for our second walk as the circus. I'm not sure if I've explained the scene before, so I'll give you a glimpse today. When we go for walks, it's a little crazy. The boys ride in the stroller, which is a type of tandem double. I wear Olivia in my front pack carrier and one dog walks on each side of the stroller. I have tried several times to have Cheyenne walk on the right side of the stroller with Piper, but she is a left side walker. So, as you can imagine, we take up the whole path. People must pass us at their own risk. (Apparently my little sweety does not want to be talked about, as she has been crying since I started typing!) The people who probably get the best laugh at our walk are all of those driving by. I just can't help but wonder what they are thinking when they see my little circus on parade. Anyway, this walk went really well. Not a single bathroom break for the dogs and the kiddos relaxed and enjoyed the fresh air. I even got a bit of exercise and was not sore the next day. We did venture out for a walk the week before and I was sore for three days. There is a reason they put boundaries on exercise after having a baby!

I'm not sure what else we did last week, but a few discoveries have been made. Olivia seems to be regularly irregular with her BMs. She had one on Friday, then nothing on Saturday. Well, it seemed that she was storing everything up for a giant explosion Sunday morning. I just have to say that I'm glad Albert bit the bullet on that one! So, then there was one BM Sunday morning and the next one was Monday evening. Most newborns poop several times a day and they are much smaller. My pediatrician friend says this irregularity is ok and her daughter is also regularly irregular. I must admit that I enjoy changing wet diapers much more than dirty ones, but one giant one is quite a task!

Oh, and we attempted a photo session on Saturday. I need a little extra deodorant for these endeavors! That might be TMI, but I really have to work at things like this. I was hoping to get individuals of all of the littles, a good group picture and a picture of Olivia and Albert's arm. Everything turned out great except for our special Daddy picture. So, they will have another Daddy/daughter session this week. Maybe in our next house I'll set up one black backdrop and one white backdrop and do my own pictures. It has to be less stressful! Well, we did manage to get some good ones and thankfully the store has an excellent military discount, so though it is stressful, I will probably go back.......

This was Olivia's first week in cloth diapers. It went pretty well. It's a little tricky to get the cover snug enough around her thighs and I don't really know when to change her since she's not pooping all the time, typically I change my newborns when they poop. Overall I enjoy cloth diapers much more than disposable. I have been having trouble with getting the wipe caught on the Velcro of the disposables and it has been a pain. So, I'm glad the pretty well be done with that. Now if I can just remember to change her frequently.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos from the last week. Hope you enjoy.

The day before Easter we went to the zoo. Olivia slept the whole time, with a bit of a break for some lunch. The boys had a great time. Boaz took a bit of a nap, but Canon was ready to go the whole time! We packed a lunch and played at the playground before heading home. Canon slept on the way home, then both boys thought their cat-naps were sufficient for the day.

Later that afternoon our next door neighbor set up an Easter egg hunt for the boys. Canon had a great time picking up all of the eggs. He shared a couple with Boaz. Bo was more interested in the neighbor's dog, Shelby. We had a fun time though.

Here's our trio on Easter morning. It was cold and raining, so Olivia didn't get to wear a pretty dress. Maybe next year! (I'm not sure why this is underlined, just ignore it!) We did have a fun time teaching Canon the true meaning of Easter. In order to teach the boys the true reason for Easter, that Jesus is ALIVE, we played with Resurrection Eggs and made Resurrection rolls. I have a couple of other ideas that will be implemented next year, but this was pretty good for the attention span of a 2 year old little boy. Though, when asked what the real meaning of Easter is, Canon shouts "to save the life!" I think that will work!

And, just for your enjoyment, here is a picture that I like and one of the last ones of me pregnant with Olivia. Enjoy!

3 weeks old

2009-04-12T16:33:00.001-05:00

Olivia's third week was quite full! She was supposed to have a weight check on Thursday, but we went on Tuesday because we were already out. I am happy to report that she weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. on Tuesday. So, as of right now there is no concern for her weight gain. She has been nursing well and sleeping pretty well. She seems to have trouble burping at about 4:00 every morning. Maybe I'm the one having trouble waking up enough to burp her. Either way, we spend about an hour trying to settle her back into a good sleep. She did sleep for 6 hours one night this week. That was very exciting.

Let me see if I can recap our week. Albert went back to work on Monday. Monday was spent at home enjoying each other's company........ ha! And trying to figure out how I am going to keep up with my normal tasks while tending to three littles. Tuesday was very full. Canon had an eye appointment at 9:30 a.m. We managed to make it to Target and the gas station and still arrive 15 minutes early. That was quite exciting. We determined to just observe his eyes for the next 6 months and recheck him in October. Then, we headed over to the pediatrician's office. After getting Olivia's weight checked, we headed home for lunch. After dinner our dear friends came over to meet Olivia. We always enjoy spending time with them and introducing our sweet girl to our friends. Wednesday was spent at home and we went up to church for dinner. Thursday and Friday were spent at home. On Thursday I revisited "Managers of Their Homes" and developed a new schedule for our little brood. So Friday I was anxious to put it into action. Our Friday was fantastic. We accomplished so much. Saturday was spent enjoying each other and the beautiful weather at the zoo.

Olivia is such a sweet baby. She just rolls with the punches for the most part. She has been wanting to be held a bit more in the morning. And, she's awake for about 1 1/2 hours in the morning and again in the evening. Otherwise she's just sleeping and eating and snuggling!

Two nights ago

2009-04-11T07:22:00.000-05:00

Thursday night around 8:00 we received a phone call from Albert's squadron wondering if we were safe. Safe from what? we wondered. The girl on the other end informed us that a city that marries up to the base was on fire. WHAT? We turned on the news immediately and found a huge wild fire about 5 miles east of us. Apparently it started burning around 2:00 pm. At the time we started tuning in, they estimated 50-100 homes completely engulfed in flames. The fires were so hot and so numerous that the fire department had to just stand by and watch them burn. It was too windy to use helicopters and the water buckets, then night swept in. I'm not sure of the number of homes that were burned, or the final survey of the damage, but yesterday the news reported that these fires were set intentionally by a few teenagers. This fire stretched 10 miles and completely destroyed everything in it's path. My jaw dropped when I heard that it was started on purpose.

I don't have any deep thoughts to share on the matter, just sadness for the families and thankfulness for God's grace. This is what we all deserve because of our sin, remember Sodom and Gomorrah? Yet God sees fit to save us from completely destroying ourselves. What an amazing God we serve!

2 weeks old

2009-04-05T20:43:00.000-05:00

2 weeks old

Our little sweety is two weeks old today. This week has been a bit less eventful, but still out of the ordinary. Albert was down with the flu for 3 days. That wasn't fun for him or the rest of us. The boys had a VERY hard time staying away from him. I'm not sure how much rest he got, but eventually his fever broke and he was able to interact a bit more. Hopefully this week will be full of everything except illness!

Olivia took her first trip to the grocery store. She slept the whole time and the few people who got to peek at her thought she was a cutie. One lady, upon hearing that Olivia was my third, loudly asked me if we were done or if we were going to wait a while for the next one. I'm still not sure why people feel these are appropriate questions.

Here's our most recent family picture.

And here is Canon's latest adventure. While Albert way laying in bed, Canon went in our room to go potty. While sitting on the toilet, Albert hears "I'm sorry Daddy." Albert went in to find his watch sunk in a toilet of pee. We have had several good laughs over this, and Albert gave his watch several good washings.

Update

2009-04-04T21:03:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are all well again! More tomorrow.

Crazy Days

2009-04-01T20:58:00.000-05:00

Are we going to have a dull moment again in our lives??? At this point, my answer is "no". We seem to be running into one thing after another. Boaz and Olivia had well baby check ups yesterday morning. The good news is that Boaz is doing well. His lungs were as clear as a whistle and his ear is getting better. He weighed in at 23 lbs and is 31 1/2 inches long or tall. The bad news is that Olivia has not gained any weight in a week. Last Wednesday when I took her to the doctor, the nurse in training said Olivia weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. Later the same day a home health care nurse weighed her and she weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. The same nurse weighed her with the same scale the next day and said her weight was 7 lbs 4 oz. At the doctor's office yesterday, she weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. Our doctor said she should be gaining an ounce a day. So, I will be bringing her back for a weight check next Thursday. Until then, I am nursing her, then giving her an ounce or so of milk in a bottle. She is so sleepy that feeding her at all is a task. Most of the time I have to wake her up at the three hour point. This is no easy task either! She'll nurse pretty well for a little bit, then she's out! The good thing about a bottle is that I can push it in her mouth with a bit more force. She tries to hold her gums together, but eventually I get it in and she drinks about half of it. Please pray that her weight is up a healthy amount next week.

Along with the littles having trouble, Albert has the flu. On Monday we found out that Boaz had the flu. His blood was drawn on Friday, so he was much better by the time we found out. Albert seemed to start coming down with it on Monday and has been in bed the last two days. I can only guess that this is what I had when Olivia was born. Hopefully all of our energy will be restored quickly, I'm not sure how much longer we can hang on in these conditions!

1 week old

2009-03-29T21:14:00.000-05:00

I can't believe Olivia is a week old already. This has been one of the busiest weeks of my life and it has flown by. We started out the week with our baby girl being in the NICU and completely exhausted. Monday Albert's dad left. Tuesday Olivia and I came home. Wednesday Olivia had a doctor's appointment and later that day was put on the bili lights. Thursday Olivia had a blood draw and was taken off of the lights. Friday Boaz had a doctor's appointment and began nebulizer treatments. Saturday it snowed! In addition to all of this, I have been sick and now Albert is feeling a little under the weather. Hopefully this week will be a little slower.

We did venture out to the park today. It was pretty windy, but 65 degrees. I could not stay in the house any longer! Canon rode his new bike and did an awesome job. We won't be able to keep up with him before too long.

A couple of other events that squeezed their way into our week: we moved the pack n' play into our room. I never thought I'd let a baby sleep in our room. Our house is just so small that that seems to be the best place for her. It hasn't been too bad, since she's a pretty good sleeper, but hopefully Boaz will be ready for the big boy bed soon and she can transition into the crib. Our other exciting event is that we made it to the Just Between Friends sale. When Olivia was born on Sunday, I thought the sale was totally out. But, by Saturday, we were looking for somewhere to walk around. So, we headed out to the fair grounds for about 45 minutes just before the sale ended. Everything was pretty well picked over, but we did find a couple of good deals. There shouldn't be anything stopping us from shopping this fall though!

Here's our week in pictures:

^Nurse Bobbie, our NICU nurse who worked so hard to get Olivia out!

^Boaz's nebulizer mask.

^Canon enjoying Daddy being home so much!

My three little ones!

Daily Digest 3

2009-03-28T14:42:00.000-05:00

Things are starting to settle in around here. I am feeling a lot better and did not even have a coughing fit when I went to bed last night. I don't think I sound like I just woke up any more either. So, that is nice. My uterus is contracting back down to size and about 6 of the cramps hurt so bad last night that I thought about calling the doctor. It was really painful. This morning Albert asked if I was worried there was another baby in there. I said no, that I was worried it was a different organ besides my uterus and something was wrong. Those few in a row did keep me up, but thankfully they went away. My abdomen is hurting from coughing so much, but maybe I'll have great abs again soon! I'm finding that I need to pump to help me function well and this morning I pumped for 15 minutes and got 9 ounces! I always feel like pumping is a competition and gives me great excitement when I'm able to pump so much. Just off of that one "pump session" I could feed Olivia for 4 1/2 feedings or 12 hours! Isn't it amazing that God made our bodies work this way???

Olivia is doing great! We have been given another "easy" baby. I'm sure her dark side will come out as soon as I post this, but she is a little sweety. She's on a pretty good three hour rotation. She only stays awake a little bit during the day. At night she sputters a bit, nurses for like 2 minutes and is back asleep for another three hour stretch. This morning all of us slept until about 7:40 a.m. That is unheard of in the House of Duck, and especially with a newborn! I guess we just all really needed the rest.

Boaz is getting much better! This is such a relief. He didn't even fight Albert to do his nebulizer treatment this morning. He just sat their calmly and enjoyed the smokey medicine. He has decided that we are trying to take his nose off when we wipe the boogers away, but hopefully he will relax about this again soon. This morning he was playing, laughing, walking around and eating again. It's awesome to have our little boy back! I don't know if everyone is like this, but when my kiddos are sick for a couple of days, I forget what they are like normally and think these battles will continue forever. I love the change back to normal!

Canon is great! He has a lot of energy pinned up. Between traveling back and forth to the hospital and crazy winter weather, he has not had much outside play time. This time is critical for my boys. We just all get along better when we can get a little energy out outside. Canon is doing well though. He and Daddy have been having some extra wrestling sessions and we've watched just about every movie we own. Hopefully our movie marathon will subside soon and we can head back outside.

I think that covers us. Albert is still doing great. He has had some special bonding with the boys due to the weather and illness and we both think this week at home has been a real blessing!