New Year's Trip

I'll write the post about our trip to Dead Horse Ranch and Flagstaff later. For now, enjoy the pictures! Snow in AZ!:)

Catching Up

We have a lot of catching up to do! This was Josiah's first Christmas. He was so excited! We decorated early this year and let kids have a part in everything. We took rides around our neighborhood to look at the lights and finished those rides with a hot chocolate before bed. They loved the lights and always had to compare them to our own house and light display. They'd say, "That one's WAY better than ours!". I guess Scott has his work cut out for him next year when he does our lights!:) I was in the throws of my first trimester and feeling not so wonderful. I was tired and got sick in addition to the "morning" sickness I've had really bad this time. I spent Christmas Eve on the couch with fever while Scott headed off to church with all five kids. I really hated to miss that but I didn't have the energy to get dressed. I just felt miserable so I laid on the couch and watched Rick Warren's Christmas message on Fox. It was nice to have that quiet time to reflect on Jesus and to get perspective before the craziness of Christmas Day came. Our normal tradition of church and a Chinese food dinner was passed up this year. I don't even remember what we had for dinner Christmas Eve. I was out of commission this time around, Scott even did the baking Christmas Eve night! I think he got to bed around 2:30 am after he assembled everything and got out their "big" presents. What a guy! Noah kept waking up and at some point, I think around 3 am, he started waking everyone up to open presents. We sent him back to bed and the little kids fell back asleep without incident thankfully. They finally got up around 6:30 am and were so excited that they weren't sent back to bed! They had a great time opening gifts and loved what they got. Josiah was a pro at opening presents. He loved it! At one point, he saw the Thomas the Train box and got so excited. He was in a frenzy to open it. When he finally got it open he said, "Taadaa!". Really precious. He loves Thomas! He was thrilled with his train table and plays with it all the time. Jack got Spike the Dinosaur. He went nuts about that. I hated to buy that thing, thinking he'd only play with it for a few days and then it would lose it's appeal, but he still loves it! Kaia loved her pink leapster and it is being used a lot! Luke got a bike again this year. He's our bike collector. Last year a retro stingray, this year the BMX style mongoose. He likes all the styles! He takes such good care of them that they still look new. Noah got the RC car he was begging us for. I can't tell who likes it more, Scott or Noah! One really sweet thing- Luke, who just pulls at my heart and always has, wrote the sweetest and saddest note to Santa. We always leave a note with the cookies and milk. Luke's note said, "Dear Santa, I know I haven't been good this year but I'm getting four presents. Could you please bring me my big present?" I saved it but can't remember everything else it said. How sad is that! He's such a good boy, I don't know where he gets this stuff! I guess from my threats the week before Christmas that warned them that Santa doesn't bring presents to kids who don't behave !:) Hey, what can I say, the boys were fighting and driving me crazy! I won't do that again!

We were able to see my brother Logan who is home from Iraq. That was great! I really miss him being around. He's such a sweet guy. He took Noah and Luke bird hunting. They still talk about going hunting with their Uncle Logan. They were laughing about how funny he is just the other day. We had all whole family together for a pre-Christmas dinner with Logan and his wife, Jen. It was so nice. We spent Christmas Day with Scott's family and had a great time as well. We really are reminded of how blessed we are to have each one of you! It was a wonderful Christmas and we love having our family around to share it with!

Here we grow again...

Okay, here's some news for those of you who don't know. We're expanding yet again.This is the last one I promise! We're very excited to be going down this road again after so many years. I feel totally out of practice but I'm sure it will come back to me quickly! Best of all, we get to add another sweet little one to our family!

Happy Halloween

Here's some pictures of the kids at Halloween. Noah was a "nerd", Luke was Optimus Prime, Jack was a Jedi, Kaia was Tinkerbell and Josiah was Thomas. They had so much fun and Josiah wasn't scared at all. He was a social little guy. Kaia hated any scary decorations and hung back with me at those houses. Noah's pneumonia kept him tired and so we retired early after only going around the block. Poor kid! He's all healed now and his latest chest x-ray shows that his lung is clear. Great news there! Anyway, here they are!

Catch of the Day

Here's some pictures from our latest camping trip. The kids had a great time camping and were

quite good at fishing! Everyone caught a fish, except Josiah. He had more fun throwing rocks into the lake and reeling in his line over and over again, much to his brothers' dismay. Kaia caught one of the bigger fish and was not going to go near it until daddy offered to put himself between her and the fish. She caught that thing on her little Barbie fishing pole. She did great!

You Can't Keep A Good Man Down!

Jack is doing very well adapting to life in a cast. He went from refusing to walk on it to running everywhere! Today I caught him riding around on his scooter like no one's business. I guess it's true, you can't keep a good man down! One thing is for sure, this cast is going to have some mighty fine surprises in store for the person who takes it off. It STINKS! Yuck! Jack just laughs when I tell him that! :)

OVERWHELMED

Overwhelmed...that's me today. Yesterday, Jack decided to scale our pantry shelves in search of cookies. He missed the fact that the object of his desire was on the bottom shelf, not the tip top shelf! I came running when I heard the wailing start and found him crumpled on the floor in pain. In a flash I had myself and the three little kids dressed and in the car headed to the big boys' school. A few more minutes and we were off to the urgent care for x-rays. So there I am, on my cell phone trying to figure out which urgent care facility was covered by our insurance. Turns out there are only three that they cover and none of them are close to home! They also informed me that we'd have a $75 co-pay and anything that the urgent care did, x-rays included, we would be responsible for up to our $2000 deductible. WHY DO WE HAVE INSURANCE AGAIN??? Between Scott's employer, who is SO generous and pays the big amount, and us they are getting over $1000 a month, not to mention what his employer has to pay for the privilege of getting the coverage for everyone! On top of that we have co-pays and now a $2000 deductible!! WOW!

Okay, I'm off topic now. Anyway, I love having five kids, I love everything about a big family, except being in a doctor's office with five kids! That was not fun and I got so sick of being told, "Wow, you have your hands full. Are they all yours?" I wanted to say and think I did actually say, "No kidding!" to the first point and "Yep, all mine!" to the second. Kaia starts her whining and crying over any perceived infraction in an effort to steal the show from her brother with the broken foot. She does not like to share the spotlight! Josiah is climbing the walls and all five are making noise and I'm about to go crazy! Finally, two hours later, we were done and Jack was sporting a splint that he did not like one little bit! Fast forward to today...I just really wanted some help, any help! I had a 10 am appointment, kids to get to school, early release at 11am for parent-teacher conferences and the boys' conferences at 1 and 1:30 pm. I had also committed to babysitting for a friend which I had to graciously back out of. I decided to skip the few hours of school in an effort to alleviate the problematic pick-up scenario. So off I went again with all five to another doctor's office. AHHH!!! I pleaded, I threatened, I bribed. Kaia still screamed bloody murder when Josiah took her sticker, Josiah still ran around the waiting room, still laid in the middle of the floor and refused to move. He is into everything! The Kleenex, the magazines, you name it, he finds it. Kaia's screaming won't be put off or bargained with so I pull out the cell phone and dial Daddy. "NO! I'llbegood,I'llbegood, Ipromise!" she says in a flurry of words all the while her voice is rising again. DEEP BREATH. Turn off the faucet on the stream of expletives running through my mind and tell myself, "We'll make it, it's okay. We won't be making the
5 o'clock news today, nope, I'm determined to ignore the stares of every pair of eyes in the waiting room!" I felt a little nuts to be having a running monologue with myself in my head but I was not in good form today! We got to the back where they put the casts on, and bless this man's heart, he broke out video games and a dose of good humor! Love that man! Ahhh, calm, again. Finally, Dad showed up like a knight in shining armor and kept them calm while we waited for Jack's cast. Out the door, load 'em up and push 'em through the drive thru...again. Ignore the fat and ever expanding butt and stomach, there's no time for healthy choices today! In the line I wait and I wait. I try to get out of five hysterical kids which "Happy" meal they want, maybe it will do the trick and the "happy" will rub off on us! After a few minutes, no one came over the speaker to take our order and I wasn't in the mood or in my right mind so off I went right on past the drive thru window and then the crying in the back got even louder! "I'mhungry!Whydidyoudothat?You'resomeanmom!" More streams of words all running together. I love motherhood. We finally did get some lunch but in a family this size, not everyone is happy at the same time and I ruffled some feathers by going with the majority vote for Jack in the Box. Oh well. Run home, unload, eat and load 'em up again for parent-teacher conferences. Oh just lovely. I have to take five cranky, tired kids to a PT conference. What a wonderful way to end the day!! I'm running late, Jack doesn't want to wear just one shoe and freaks out so I opt for just a sock. He won't walk anyway and is riding everywhere in the stroller. Once we get to the school, however, he decides he HAS to have that shoe. He won't get out of the car and is screaming bloody murder in the parking lot. I swear it's a wonder I haven't been hauled in for questioning! Luke starts, Kaia starts and I've just had it. We make it 10 minutes late. They are crazy, loud, whiny and in terrible need of a nap. We go to the second conference and more of the same but even worse. In this conference I get a not so good report on my wonderful son's behavior all the while trying to carry on a conversation over crying and laughing preschoolers. Kaia was laughing, the boys crying. Josiah wanted to run free in the class, investigating every item he could find so I restrained him to my lap. He was not happy. Jack was just mad that he had to be there. He was tired and his foot hurt. It was awful.

I came home apologized and for my bad behavior and quickly put the three littles to bed. I called my darling husband and had a good cry. Very good to cry sometimes! Crying is like the release valve when the pressure is too much. I hate days like this. Days when I know I've blown it big time. Been too harsh, said awful things and thought even worse. Days when I don't see any Christ in me. Days I'd like to declare as a "Do Over!". Wish that worked. I don't know why the Lord has blessed me with these kids on days like this. I swear I'm no good at this parenting job. The responsibility is huge and there is no option for failure. Days like this remind me that I need more of Him and less of me. They point me to the One I've been neglecting and the fact that He still loves me even after a day like this. This realization breaks me- in a good way. So, now I'm overwhelmed not by the day's events, but by the awesome love of my God. Overwhelmed by how far I fall and how far He had to reach to redeem me. Overwhelmed by His goodness and His grace. Tomorrow's a new day, thank goodness for that!