Hot MamaJama

Happy Birthday to me!

2012-01-11T22:27:00.002-07:00

I love having my birthday.
Really, I try to be mature about it, but I just love it & look forward to it.
I want to tell everyone I see or talk to that day that it's my birthday. I know that's what 8 year olds do, but still!
So today I had breakfast brought to me in bed. Then my 3 older kids brought their breakfast in my bed too & we all hung out & ate & talked. Then we had mostly a normal day with a few breaks.
We took a break to play some musical chairs blindfolded. I'm mature enough to know I'd get hurt doing that, so I was in charge of the music. But then it was just plain musical chairs & I joined in.
Later in the day we all played some Wii together.
Then we went to church & I got sang to and saw my wonderful friends.
We went shopping and bought me a new kitchen faucet (a fancy one!).
When we finally got home after 9pm, we ate the delicious dump cake that my daughter had made me and I blew out my candle after my wonderful family sang to me.
The Lord is so awesome and blesses me more than I can say!

Back to the Grindstone!

2012-01-09T11:56:00.003-07:00

After a fantastic and amazingly blessed Christmas break,
we start school up again today.
I also am starting on my kitchen renovation. I'm so excited about the fresher looking kitchen I hope to have in a week.
As for the school, not so excited, but it's something that needs done and is good to get back into a routine.
That means I had to make a menu again. I made a menu for 2 weeks and now have my grocery list made (already bought the chicken & beef on sale at Safeway last night though). Don't really enjoy grocery shopping, let alone with 4 kids, but it's just part of life. :-)
I thought I'd post my menus just for fun...

Monday -

Breakfast: banana muffins & protein bar

Lunch: Fish sticks, carrots & chips

Dinner: meatloaf, broccoli & bread.

Tuesday

Breakfast: granola bars

Lunch: sandwiches

Dinner: Hamburgers (Pickles & chips)

Wednesday - (Happy Birthday Mommy)

Breakfast: Kids are in charge of it! (they already told me they wanted to bring me breakfast in bed)

Lunch: Mac & Cheese, hot dogs & apple

Dinner: French Dip sandwiches & green drink

Thursday

Breakfast: cereal

Lunch: tuna & crackers

Dinner: sandwiches

Friday

Breakfast: sausage & smoothie

Lunch: 3-2-1

Ø 6 chips

Ø 5 Pepperonis

Ø 4 apple pieces

Ø 3 pecans

Ø 2 kind words

Ø 1 Candy

Dinner: pizza

Monday

Breakfast: pancakes

Lunch: cheese crisp & tomato soup

Dinner: Chicken Ceasar Salad

Tuesday

Breakfast: cereal

Lunch: sandwiches

Dinner: Baked Penne Casserole (with Garlic Bread)

Wednesday

Breakfast: toast & sausage

Lunch: ravioli

Dinner: egg burritos

Thursday

Breakfast: oatmeal

Lunch: 3-2-1 Lunch:

Ø 6 chips

Ø 5 pinches of sunflower seeds

Ø 4 pieces of chicken

Ø 3 apples slices

Ø 2 slices of cheese

Ø 1 candy

Dinner: sandwiches

Friday

Breakfast: Sweetrolls

Lunch:Leftovers

Dinner: At Uncle Philip & Aunt Teddi’s house

Fun Friday Field Trip

2011-11-25T22:20:00.011-07:00

Reid Park Zoo...bright & early this morning!

Grandma & Grandpa joined us!

And Tim got to go...that's always better on field trips! (I just love my parents in the background of this picture holding hands...too cute)

Animals were seen, played in & fed!

A picnic at the park and a stroll through the rose garden and we were headed back to CG!

Vegas - it's a wrap!

2011-11-20T21:07:00.007-07:00

Saturday the 5th we had a big get together at my parents house...on our way there we stopped at a yard sale in my parents neighborhood. We ended up buying a very cool porch swing.

We all got to enjoy it Saturday, but we haven't gotten it from parents backyard to our porch yet...someday we will I guess.

So Sunday we made it to Vegas. There's so much to see and everything is larger than life. So big and bright and so much going on all the time! Wow.
We had a blast...we always go around acting silly when we're without the kids & don't have to be the responsible ones. :-)

In M&M World I posed with the yellow M&M which we all know is a peanut M&M, which we also all know are the best kind!

We watched a 3D M&M movie...we acted shocked for some reason with the 3-D glasses on.

Then we headed over to Coke World and ordered "Cokes Around the World".
Which is 16 various Coca-Cola products from lots of different countries.

We all sat around sharing them (in a sanitary fashion). Some were good, some were different & ONE was absolutely disgusting!
Quite the experience, sitting around cracking up laughing with another couple and drinking Coke from around the world.

The Venetian was absolutely awesome. They all gave me a hard time since I've actually been to Venice & rode in a real Gondola. But it was so cool, with a mini Grand Canal running through the hotel and the ceiling looking like the sky and street performers all around.

One more highlight was the Bellagio fountains. I think that we caught the show of them 4 times!

The Stratosphere was very cool...had a great view. Unfortunately it was too windy for the ride that we wanted to ride on top to be open.

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum was quite the optical illusion!

We rode a roller coaster inside Circus Circus and then were almost attacked by a verocious dinosaur! (See, we get to be all care-free and do stupid stuff when we don't have our kids with us!)

Well it was an exhausting and fun trip, full of memories, experiences and bonding.

I can now cross Las Vegas off my Bucket List.

DeWitt Ranch Pumpkin Patch Fun

2011-10-14T17:44:00.004-07:00

I like the fall.
Of course Friday didn't feel much like fall. It was very warm (might have reached 100).
But it was the day my sister & Mom & I had all planned to go to do a fall activity!

Dawson had a great time! We all did, but he seemed to just revel in the animals and hay & outdoors!

Ella really enjoyed herself, despite the fact that we spent her entire nap time outside in the sun! It took her awhile to warm up to riding a pony, but once she did, she must have ridden one about 6 times or more!

Family Memories

2011-09-30T13:28:00.007-07:00

It's totally weird & unexpected, but the 4 day vacation up to Show Low was one of our best vacations ever! Even Tim said that was true for him. It was nothing spectacular, just good, clean fun!

Relaxing, yet not boring. Fun, yet not busy.

And the kids all behaved & got along...maybe that's what made it awesome!
Plus the fact that we hadn't done too much as a family for a year due to Tim's hospitalizations, sicknesses & lack of vacation time left.

We went to a very fancy restaurant. Savannah had been learning in school about etiquette in a place like this, so she was able to practice it & keep the boys in line. This place also had a live band out back, so afterwards we went out there & sat around the fire and danced a little.

We all played frisbee golf. Tim grilled our dinners while I sat on the porch & read. The kids played games outside. Tim joined them in several hide-and-go-seek games, which they thought was cool. He did some pretty impressive hiding.

We fed the ducks and had a picnic.

We spent a whole morning going to antique stores & little boutique shops. The people looked worried when we'd show up with 4 small children, but they always commented when we left what a wonderful, beautiful family we had, etc. We bought little things at each store. At The Candle Factory each kids got to pick out their own small candle. That is after they smelled every single one in the whole store!

We hiked the the Mogollon Rim. We hiked to a little pond, where the boys all had to throw stuff in for awhile. We even did a night hike in the woods...though they thought that was a little spooky.

We slept in & played cards & read books.

The last day we were at the cabin, eating breakfast, Tim asked each kid what their favorite thing had been.
Savannah said, "Washing dishes while Answering Bible Trivia questions from Dad"

Dawson said, "Going to The Burley Bear store and taking a night hike"

Hunter said, "Playing Frisbee Golf"

Mission accomplished, Great memories made!

Random posting

2011-09-02T16:33:00.002-07:00

My time to reminisce about Dawson.

2011-08-20T22:31:00.007-07:00

No matter what I do, my children just keep getting older! I tell them they aren't allowed to. I don't give them big parties. Nothing works. :-0

I so vividly remember the first days with him in our family. Savannah & Hunter were thrilled to
have a baby in our house.

My little thumb sucker.

I have to say, Dawson is just so full of life & personality & odd thoughts & sayings. He's very imaginative and thoughtful & caring and the next minute he's pestering someone out of their mind! He's unpredictable most of the time. He will always find the loop-hole to the rule & find a way to do something naughty that there wasn't a rule made up for yet. He makes me want to pull my hair out most days...but it's that passion that makes me crazy about him too.

Last night we went to Rustler's Rooste for dinner with my in-laws to celebrate.

Today we did some gift opening and Dawson just loved the wooden swords we got him, paired with the mask & cape that Savannah got him.

My little man

2011-07-27T21:24:00.005-07:00

Today we did what Hunter wanted instead of a birthday party...we went to the public pool! Complete with slide, diving boards & rock wall (pictures to follow at the end of this post).

Since Hunter has turned 8 (Sunday) he has ripped up his big toenail on a tire full of cement (blood oozing out of it on all sides), had his finger smashed between a baseball & baseball bat and then majorly gashing his head open in need of stitches or glue! I don't know that he's going to make it to 9 years old at this rate!

Some of you may know that I don't deal with these types of things well. The good Lord knows as well and so since Tim has been gone through all of this He blessed me with a mother that was with us each time (except the finger thing, but there was no blood).

The gashed head turned into an even funnier story because I had my mom help me super glue his gash closed (which we've done before on the forehead & even got the idea from a dr. and it works just as well as when we took him into urgent care & the dr. there glued him up). But it's much harder with hair all around.
So anyway, I asked my mom to help hold the wound closed on either side while I put the super glue on & spread it (my pointy tip was glued shut). Then my mom didn't realize to move her finger in time and ended up with her finger superglued to Hunter's head. For quite awhile both of them were painfully trying to be separated. My Dad finally found a box cutter & was able to cut the hair (& my mom's finger a bit) to get them apart. I might have taken pictures of any of this if I hadn't just gotten out of the shower & was walking around with a towel on.

Now for the pictures of the fun part of the day!

.

Hunter's Birthday

2011-07-24T08:13:00.007-07:00

Our First day with 6 kids and no Daddy. And it's Hunter's 8th Birthday!

Pancakes & sausage for breakfast. Sunday School & Church. Pizza for lunch. Some nap time. Games. Birthday time! Back to church. Home and in bed.

My parents came over and joined in the fun!

And they bought him a Pogo stick for his birthday.

I love how in both of these pictures he has his tongue sticking out. He's been practicing quite a bit. It's alot harder than it looks!

We all enjoyed the root beer floats!

Here is Hunter after reading the card that Corwyn made for him. He so thoroughly enjoyed it and I just love his genuine smile. All this from reading a card from his 8 year old cousin that says he is his best cousin & he loves him! Hunter will be so embarrassed in another 8 years! Ha!

We got him duel rubber-band pistols!

The most precious picture (okay I took like 5 of them because they were so cute together). More root beer floats being enjoyed...by the young & the old.

1 year ago...(part 2)

2011-06-16T15:04:00.005-07:00

from Tim's perspective...

Starting 12 months ago, Clarinda broke her arm, while at the same time we had a 6-month old that she was nursing.

Then, in October, I got a once-in-a-lifetime fluke case of pancreatitis, a disease caused most frequently from severe alcoholism. And not only did I get pancreatitis, I got a severe, life-threatening case. I was in the hospital for 8 days. And, just for fun, all of this happened while both sets of parents were out of town on vacation.

Then, in December, I got a second once-in-a-lifetime fluke case of pancreatitis. This time wasn't as bad, and I only stayed in the hospital 6 days.

Then, in January, we found out my gall bladder had developed microscopic gall stones (which couldn't be seen by CT, MRI, X-Ray, or ultrasound, all of which had been done on me), and that some of that had just so happened to dislodge and travel down into my bile ducts, where they clogged said ducts, causing the pancreatitis. A fluke incident, if you will. To top it off, there was a 3% chance that I could develop pseudocysts from my pancreatitis, and I developed two. Said pseudocysts then started acting up in December, which is what caused the second hospital stay, which was not in fact pancreatitis, it just looked like it at the time.

So, later that month, I underwent surgery to have my gall bladder removed and both pseaduocysts set up to drain permanently into my digestive tract. I was in the hospital 7 days, including the Super Bowl (but hey, I WAS in the party room, so at least there's that).

In February, while recovering from said abdominal surgery, I developed bronchitis, leading to lots of deep coughing, which is pretty much the worst thing that a person can go through after just having abdominal surgery.

In March, after my recovery wasn't going as well as planned (I was still losing weight, at one point down 47 lbs from first being admitted in October), it was discovered that I had developed a pair of abscesses in my retroperitoneal. After being sent straight to the hospital, it was discovered that one abscess was responding to antibiotics, but the other was not, so I had to have a JP drain inserted in my back. After analyzing what was coming out of the abscess, it turns out that the abscess was totally unrelated to my surgery, so it was just a fluke. I was only in the hospital 12 days this time, but I got to go home with the drain still installed. At this point I was up to 34 days in the hospital.

In April, while Clarinda was trying to get her birth control prescription renewed, the pharmacy was unable to get in touch with the doctor for over a week. When they finally did get everything worked out, no one told her, so she went a month without birth control pills. No big deal, since I was in the hospital for part of that time, then recovering. Well, due to fluke circumstances, we ended up pregnant.

Later that month, as it became time to stop taking my antibiotics and pain killers (the drain was gone by now), I found that my body had become addicted, so I had to detox from pain killers over a 2 week period.

Then, this month, during an ultrasound, we found out that we lost the baby.

And all the time, I just keep thinking, "Hey, Job had it worse."

1 year ago... (part 1)

2011-06-16T14:50:00.006-07:00

June 21st, 2010 (Monday) - I was playing softball & had a fluke run in with the catcher at home plate in the 1st inning and ended up with a broken right arm.
I played the rest of the game, holding it to my side, thinking it was just a sprain or something. I even caught 2 pop-fly's with my good glove hand. Needless to say, Tim wasn't very happy when I came home & he had to take me up to the hospital and verify it was broken. (the bone in my elbow, that is very tricky to heal correctly, due to the movement needed in the joint & running down the arm to the hand)
I had 4 children at home to care for, one of which was 6 months old & nursing. Oh the joy. Praise the Lord for a very helpful 8 year old daughter that could hold/lift/carry the baby. I had to have someone help me put my contacts in every morning & even put my hair up for me.
But the Lord was gracious and what was supposed to take 6 weeks in a cast to heal & 6 weeks of physical therapy to get back to par were all done & over in 3 weeks. I only missed 1 softball game!
And looking forward to my double-header tonight at 8pm!

Good to be back!

2011-05-13T18:42:00.006-07:00

So it's been about 7 months since we've had our normal evening rough-housing with Tim & the kids. Between all his hospitalizations & pains & surgery, etc. it's been hard for him to be down on the floor & playing with the kids.
Needless to say the kids have missed it tremendously.
This week Tim has been feeling so much better & has his regular energy level back.
Ella hasn't been in on this rough-housing before, but she was all up into it today!
Here she backed her way onto his lap while he's trying to get the older kids.

Then while they had him pinned down, Ella climbed right on top of him.
And she started poking him in his mouth & nose & ears. It was hilarious!

At this point she just walked right up to him, lifted his shirt & started tickling his belly.

After alot of that she was tuckered out & had to take a break. Too cute, I could just eat her up!

While she was just hanging out she noticed the camera & started giving me her cheesy smile. Man that girl has a lot of teeth!

Ella carried Tim's shoes & her shoes & put them together. I thought this picture was just adorable.

Here I'm telling Ella she has to sit in the chair, not on the arm of it, so she's giving me her pouty face.
Savannah was one happy/contented girl to have Daddy back to his normal playful self!

All in all we had a great "normal" evening. Which hasn't been normal lately. The play was followed up by banana pudding & watching Wipeout together.
Praise the Lord.
I just love my husband and he's such a great father! I am so blessed with this wonderful house full!

It's been awhile...

2011-04-27T14:41:00.004-07:00

I haven't posted all about my adorable Ella in quite some time.
But today we had several cute moments that I caught on camera.
First was her "blanket time". Where she has to stay & play on her blanket for 10 minutes (we're moving up to longer times as we go). I usually have her do this in the morning while I'm schooling with the other kids. She likes to push the limits & hang off her blanket. :-)

She had her first watermelon of the season.
Apparently she likes it.
Then I asked her if she could smile for the camera! What a cheeseball!

Listening to the kids

2011-03-26T12:01:00.006-07:00

I wanted to share some of the funny things my kids say along the way of life. This is just a few of them. They crack me up most everyday with something they come up with.
Enjoy:

On our way to the fair, we pass some dairies. Savannah starts saying how smelly it is, Hunter sniffs the air & then says, "I'm too old to smell the cows now".

On our way to the hospital to see Tim, Savannah asks if Daddy is in the same room as last time & I reply "No". She then says, "Oh good, a new adventure!".

One morning at breakfast, Dawson says to me, "Could you be a nice lady & get me a cup?"

While I'm making dinner, Hunter comes up & asks, "what's that smell?".
"onions" I answered.
"Well, it hurts my brain" replies Hunter

One morning I woke up to the smell of coffee (which is unusual) and come to find out Savannah had made me a cup of a coffee with just the right amount of creamer in it and everything. Then Savannah says "mom, do you know why I made you coffee?"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I love you", she replied.

On the way home from Soccer practice, Dawson says, "Mom, instead of Dawson, could you name me Marcus?"

One morning we're sitting on the couch & Dawson inquires "Mom, why do bad men never come to our house?" I mean really, I was quite speechless as to how to answer that one.

Happy Birthday Savannah

2011-03-13T15:44:00.003-07:00

Savannah turns 9 as time marches on.

Instead of the traditional cake & ice cream, we did ice cream sundaes with ALL the toppings! Savannah loves ice cream, just like her father. Here they are all making them.

We got Savannah this cool new game...Twister. Savannah hadn't ever heard of it before & it quickly has become one of her favorites & was a hit at her little party.

Me & my baby girl. We're both getting so much older....where did the time go?

Hunter picked out Apples to Apples Junior for her, which also worked well as a party game for her & her girlfriends. I even had a good time playing with them. I'm enjoying birthday parties more now, the older they get.
She has such a great smile. And she got a little sun that morning. :-)

Surprise!

2011-02-12T22:47:00.006-07:00

So my friends & family threw me the most amazing Surprise Birthday party ever!
I turned 30 & boy was I shocked by this party. I had absolutely no suspicions whatsoever.

And I got the gift of getting to go skydiving with my dad. Have to schedule that soon.

Randomness

2011-01-13T21:15:00.001-07:00

Ella's First Birthday

2011-01-11T14:35:00.004-07:00

It's always going to be hard to figure out when to cram a birthday party for this girl into our schedules. Poor thing.

Well this year it was January 2nd & we just had a few family members over to have some brownies & ice cream. Ella was all the entertainment we needed. She enjoyed all the attention & took each new toy or book around to the people to show them & show off. The toys with music were great as she would stand in the middle of everyone & just sway & dance for them. What a ham!
Aunt Teddi made the perfect little cake for her...a ladybug! Ella enjoyed daintily picking off each purple spot on it's body & then eating the whole piece of cake that was the head.

A Merry Christmas recap

2010-12-26T16:26:00.005-07:00

Let's just get it out of the way...Ella is one of the cutest Christmas children ever (since Jesus, I'm sure he was the cutest!) (grin)

And it's incredible how every one of her uncles just eats her up & will make a fool of themselves to make her smile.

Uncle Justin
Uncle Charles (reading to her, of course I would expect nothing less from an English major)
Uncle Jeremiah

And finally, Uncle Philip! (I love the look she's giving him here)

She gets those cute photogenic genes naturally...(eg. My sister & I)
(or...Tim & I)
(Then again, there are the non-blood relatives being photogenic as well...lovely sisters-in-law)
I LOVE this picture of my honey & my baby!

Oh & one of my gifts was EA Active 2 - a workout program for the Wii. Yeah!

Hunter was thrilled with his light sabers.Savannah is loving her look-alike American Girl Doll

Dawson was so excited to get a Toy Story puzzle & Buzz SpaceShip.
And there are lots of pictures of the kids GIVING gifts to others as well, which they thoroughly enjoyed just as much!

A month of adventure

2010-12-19T20:25:00.004-07:00

Whew, what a crazy last month we've had.
So many amazing things happening, along with some bizarre happenings, learning experiences & everlasting memories.
With Tim's truck going out on us the 3rd & him going back in the hospital December 6th for 7 days.
I was extremely blessed by so many WONDERFULLY generous people in many different ways, including helping out with the kids while I went back & forth visiting Tim.
Meals were brought, surprise checks came in the mail. Many people prayed & God just did some miraculous providing (& sometimes even fun) stuff in our lives.

The truck got fixed for less than we had expected.

We still got to get together with friends to make Christmas treats. I got Christmas cards out. Gifts were bought or made & school got completed for the year.

Savannah nailed it at her piano recital...unfortunately I did not remember the video camera. But Tim did get discharged just a couple hours before, so he was able to make it. (Hallelujah)

I backed over Savannah's bike and another was provided for her within days! (Very cool)

Dawson was chased & bit by a pit bull on a bike ride that we attempted. Now he's for sure freaked out about dogs. (It could have been much worse, not even a Dr. visit was needed)

Ella perfected how to use her cute smile against me. And to cheer me up too. So grateful for the head-on-the-shoulder, arms-around-the-neck snuggles she still freely pours upon me!
We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on the 18th. The ENTIRE family made it.
And today I got a wonderful picture of my 2 girls, both smiling from ear to ear. That's just a little mama blessing for me! Just warms my heart & brings a smile to my face.
And the matching dresses were just a fluke happening that was yet one more neat joy in my life. (Thank you Jesus for that fun!)

Thanksgiving weekend

2010-11-28T21:48:00.003-07:00

It was such a beautifully sunny day on Thanksgiving.

I just have to say that I love my in-laws. They're so great.
We were with them ALL day of Thanksgiving. first we packed a lunch & had a picnic at a nearby park. Then we all played wiffle ball. It was so much fun. Even Tim, who still seems to be recovering from pancreatitis really got into it. Tim's Dad, who had surgery a week prior to this (gall bladder removed) and his finger chewed up in a bandsaw 2 days prior to this, was pitching & batting & loving it. Tim's sister & brother-in-law & their kids were there, to make it a pretty decent game.
The whole family was involved. The 2 babies were our outfielders.

Savannah was getting batting lessons from Grampsies.

Hunter was one of our strongest batters I think.
Ella was quite amused by all of us running & yelling in front of her.
After that we did go home & get to cooking the traditional turkey dinner for us & some friends that came over.

Friday we spent the day at my sister's house. No pictures from that, since we were all just too busy relaxing. :-)

Saturday was spent at home putting up our Christmas tree & other decorations. Dawson is totally enamored with it all. He seems to not remember any of this from last year. It's so neat to see it all through his eyes with excitement. He just can't wait now for his stocking to be filled & presents to be under the tree. He asked us Sunday, if Christmas was tomorrow. So cute.

We actually have so many stockings, that Tim took down ours & evenly spaced the kids' on either side of our Jesus stocking. Looks much better now & us old folks don't need a stocking full of stuff anyway. :-)

All weekend Ella was really polishing up her walking & so starting Monday, she is officially a walker & doesn't crawl after she falls down. It's so cute.
Oh & she has figured out what the camera is & that she should smile at it. She must get her photogenic personality from her mother, I'm sure!

Family Life...

2010-10-20T15:28:00.005-07:00

Thank God for bringing opposite people together in marriage. I hate science. So,
Tim does science with the kids....here they were making some sort of molecules I think.
He's so good at teaching them & with the hands-on stuff. They're doing Chemistry this year (Holy Cow, huh!?)

Ella is a big goofball. She's the highlight of my day & everyone else's day too, that happens to get to see her. I love to see her developing her personality. She claps, when we all say Yay! Or when Hunter is clapping for his favorite football team, she happily joins in. She stands on her head, over & over, just because she can & we all laugh at her when she does it. She also, follows anyone she can down the hall & into the bathroom. This is her, checking to see if Savannah actually closed the door all the way.
Then, she just waited & went int when Savannah came out so she could get in there.

Boys, are such a unique creation! (this, of course, coming from a woman!) Gotta love 'em I say.
I cherish my girls too though.

Fun Comparisons

2010-09-30T15:07:00.005-07:00

Here are 2 pictures of each of my kids. I considered putting them up & seeing if you any of you readers could identify which was which, but decided that might be too hard. :-)
Let me know which ones you think look the most alike. Have fun!

Ella

Savannah

Hunter

Dawson

A little Music & a little Excercise Never hurt anyone!

2010-09-24T19:24:00.001-07:00

Phone Pictures

2010-09-23T13:33:00.003-07:00

I downloaded an app called Retro Camera for my phone. So I was messing around with the different things it can do.
Savannah & Ella were sitting out on the front porch so I tried these. I like the colored one the best.
Here is Hunter playing in the water. This one is quite interesting.

And Ella exploring by the front screen door.
The one I took of Dawson didn't come out, he was standing in the shade & it was too dark.

Crazy Bedhead

2010-09-22T10:56:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, I gave Ella a bath & then put her right to bed.
When I got her up, she had this crazy bedhead going on.
Which is just so funny, because her hair is so fine & straight it usually just lays down with no problem.
And every picture I take of her with my phone is blurry, because she literally never stays still!

Toothless

2010-09-14T09:34:00.003-07:00

Savannah now has lost both her front teeth.
Luckily she'll probably have them back by Christmas, so she won't have get to say that's all she wants for Christmas. :-)

Just so darn cute

2010-09-07T22:24:00.003-07:00

I can't stop loving this picture. It's actually my computer background right now, staring me down & I just want to go in & get her & eat her up!
Even when she's in the bath & looks like a drowned rat, she's adorable!

Random Nonsense

2010-08-29T23:40:00.006-07:00

I bought Ella a cute little shirt on clearance at Target last week. It was just so her, what could I do?!
It's very true that everyone loves her.
She's getting so big! She loves to be walked around holding her hands. Tonight I was trying to get video of her, because she can totally just stand by herself & then tries to take a step toward where she's going, but falls flat on her face. But then she just giggles, like she was doing some sort of trick the whole time.

It's been 2 weeks now that we've been in school.
Here is what my stuff looked like before we started & I was sorting through all my curriculum & organizing each kids pile of subjects & my answer keys, etc. Whew!
And look at those cute chubby legs!

Oh & Savannah is a big goofball.

Tim's dresser after I cleared it off & put back up his picture frames. From left to right:
Me & him, Savannah age 1, Tim holding Hunter at 1 year, Tim holding Dawson at 1 year, Tim holding Ella at 6 months. I think it's cool. Sorry the picture is like crooked. I think if you click on the picture though it will get bigger so you can see them all better.

And that is my quick blog for today! Up for next blog session is Dawson's birthday!

August Randomness

2010-08-12T14:30:00.002-07:00

I just needed to get another post up of our lives before we delve into school starting Monday.

Ella doing her favorite thing...feeding herself.

Me, doing my favorite thing...socializing.

Savannah taking a picture of herself with a big gaping hole in her mouth!

Kids playing in the torrential downpour that we had here 2 weeks ago.

Cherri (My niece) doing her favorite thing...holding Ella.

Me doing Internet friends favorite thing...posting pictures of Ella.

Still growing & changing

2010-07-31T20:04:00.005-07:00

Ella really enjoys blueberries. She also enjoys cheesepuffs afterward. What a combination.
Hunter is such a great big brother. He held Ella like this for a little while the other day when she was so tired & getting cranky, but she had to wait for her room for a few more minutes.
And don't tell anyone, but he actually lets Dawson wins things sometimes, just to be nice. :-)

Savannah is so excited she has lost her first top front tooth! Her smile is now cuter than ever!

Growing up some more.

2010-07-22T14:04:00.005-07:00

We each should all be growing up everyday.
We should be growing in the knowledge & grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have been working through a little book called Learning and Living God's Word - How to Study the Bible.
Yes, it seems like I've done this in Sunday School classes, church services, other devotions, etc.
But for some reason this one seems clearer. Plus it gives you a hands on activity for every single step of the way. So it makes sure you do it yourself, not just read about how to do it.
So yesterday, I was knee-deep in our Strong's Exhaustive concordance for the first time ever. I know, shocking - I should have been in there lots of times before.
It was actually quite exhilarating. One of those moments that you think "Why don't I do this more often", but you know in reality it was a lot of work to haul that book out & look up words & then find the number in the back in the dictionary, etc. But well worth it.

Moving on - Hunter is growing up physically, He turns 7 this Saturday.
We had a small party for him at Peter Piper Pizza on Tuesday.
Thank you to Aunt Teddi for the Wii Remote cakes. Hunter got to eat the Power Button, so he was thrilled. (boys are strange beings I've decided)

He was quite diligent at creating his own pizza (with KJ there to oversee him of course). I don't know that Hunter would know what to do without someone looking over his shoulder anyway. :-)

And really, who doesn't like pizza?!

And on the same subject of growing up - of course our baby is growing so fast. Ella is amazingly "older" than her age.

Here is Ella riding on the little carousel ride at Peter Piper.

And then she is crawling all over & in nursery was half way up the slide.
She's quite proud of her new accomplishments!
Ella even experienced her first father's day this year.

Then there's Dawson...

He grew a little in knowledge of what kind of trouble you get into when you draw across your forehead with a black marker. :-) We got to call him uni-brow for a little while anyway.

Savannah is getting stronger, since Ella is getting heavier. :-) Ella literally lights up as soon as she sees Savannah anytime, day or night. They are going to have a great bond I hope!

Busy life...oh yeah & Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-06T10:27:00.004-07:00

So I broke my right arm playing softball a couple weeks ago. It makes life interesting, to say the least. For example, this post is being typed by pecking at the keyboard with my left hand. So it will be short & sweet.

Here are Tim & I enjoying watching the 4th of July fireworks redneck style. In the back of his truck with the grill. :-)
I do love that man! He goes to work all day, comes home & has to help do all the stuff I couldn't all day 1-handed, take care of the kids (tie the shoes, button the pants, change the diapers), help serve us all dinner, get the baby ready for bed & handed to me, then help me shower & dress for bed & fall into a bed that I'm hogging with my splinted arm! Not to mention that he has things of his own to get done somewhere in there.

Baby Fun!

2010-06-15T19:51:00.004-07:00

Pictures galore of our irresistably cute baby. People that see her all the time say how they could just eat her up. Well I get to!

She's such a happy baby too.

And here is her new thing with sticking her tongue out & smiling at the same time. I think it's because she can feel her bottom teeth.

Savannah put a pair of her baby doll glasses on Ella. She thought it was funny that we were all laughing at her.
I thought this one was a good view of her 2 tiny bottom teeth too.

Milestones too soon.

2010-05-26T13:08:00.005-07:00

Let's start with last week when Ella ate her first baby cereal. And this week she had her first baby food, which was a smashed up avocado.

So today I'm marking Ella as officially mobile.
Here is where she was laid to play on her blanket with her toys.

Here is where she was less than 5 minutes later.
So now I have to be constantly picking up & vacuuming. The older kids are having to learn a whole new set of rules, such as: No playing UNO on the ground unless you like a baby showing up to drool on your cards. No doing beads on the coffee table or floor, due to the likelihood they will get dropped & Ella will try to eat them.

And finally, my baby that will be 5 months old on Friday has her first tooth!
One of her bottom teeth is fully cut & visible & feelable & the other is right on the verge of both. So by tomorrow I"m sure she'll have 2 bottom teeth poking up. Crazy! I say this, because my oldest 2 kids got their first tooth at 8 1/2 months old & Dawson got his first tooth at 10 1/2 months. So I was not expecting this yet! Besides the fact that she has been a perfectly happy baby, no fever, no fussiness, nothing! Who teethes like that?!

Favorite Pictures from May

2010-05-18T15:28:00.004-07:00

Here is Dawson & I riding the Ferris wheel.

Here is Savannah & I at the beach.

Here is Hunter in front of a sign he thought was so very funny.

At the Bailey's house there was a white couch that I just happened to set Ella on while she was wearing a white onesie. Too cute!
One picture would not suffice for this much cuteness.
Me & Ella on the beach...she loves to be outside.

Vacation Recap: Day 4

2010-05-18T15:12:00.006-07:00

We stayed at my cousins house & had a wonderfully fun & relaxing day.

We rode the carousel on Balboa Island
as well as the Ferris wheel. It was such a beautiful day & the view was just fantastic!

We walked to the end of the pier & had milkshakes at Ruby's.
Me & Teri.
The water was very interesting.

We went back to the beach in the afternoon dressed for water.
And the boys made lots of things in the sand.

Tim & Savannah got pretty far out there.
Dawson stayed with "miss Teri" up on shore most of the time. Teri also was so kind as to keep Ella for awhile.

We then headed back to the Bailey's house & enjoyed their wonderful pool. Steve even heated it for us.
Here is Hunter starting in the inside the house part of the pool & swimming through the underwater tunnel to the outside part of the pool.
We all thought that was absolutely the coolest thing!

Vacation Recap: Day 3

2010-05-17T17:54:00.004-07:00

Our 2nd day at Sea World.

The touch pools are always fun. Hunter is holding a sea star.

We pet the bat rays again!

The Atlantis ride was a big hit, and though you get a little wet each time I think that the kids rode it like 4 times each day.
We did take time to feed the dolphins this day.
And yes we did see the Shamu show each day. The first day the kids talked Tim into sitting in row 3 of the soak zone, but were a little smarter the 2nd day.

All of us in front of the Shamu Bug.Oh & don't forget the adorable baby that we toted around all day!

Vacation Recap: Day 2

2010-05-13T20:53:00.006-07:00

Our First Day at Sea World.We got someone to take our picture in the Polar Bear ice caves.

This is how Ella saw most of our vacation!

While the kids played in the toy area, Tim & I got to be together for a few moments. :-)
I always make him take these kind of pictures with me.
There were some teacup-like rides there, so Tim got to make them all dizzy. And the weird part is that they LIKED it!

I stuck to the less spinny rides.
We, of course, saw the Sea Lion show (both days)And we were foolish enough to ride the water ride.
We got soaked & were freezing!

The kids pet the bat rays. Here Dawson had just touched it & pulled his hand back up.

We had plenty to eat, as is always good on vacation. But I just thought this was too funny. Dawson has a piece of pizza in one hand & a piece of watermelon in the other. And he was actually going back & forth between the 2 of them.

Vacation Recap: Day 1

2010-05-10T15:59:00.003-07:00

It was a busy but fun last week.
We left Sunday morning to begin our vacation adventure.
We stopped by my sisters' church in Phoenix & enjoyed a good sermon, food & fellowship.
Then we headed out on the long drive to San Diego.
The kids did very well & it is so nice to have an older child to sit by the baby & give her a bottle, or pacifier or entertain her. That was nice! What a great big sister Savannah is to Ella.

Hotels are always a fun adventure I think. Savannah particularly enjoyed that our beds were made everyday that we came back.
Legoland
My review is 4 stars, but only for ages up to about 10 years old. After that, the stars start dropping off. :-)
There are places for the little kids to play with legos while a parent waits in line.

They also allow children over 48 inches (Savannah is in this group) to take smaller kids (Dawson & sometimes Hunter) on rides. There are lots of rides geared toward the younger kids & they really enjoy the freedom of riding by themselves.
It also was not very busy and those that were there, were families with young kids and no weirdos like at the bigger theme parks.

Awana End of Year Ceremonies!

2010-04-30T20:34:00.004-07:00

Yeah - Awana is over!

I'm so glad that my kids have a great place that they enjoy & encourages them to learn God's Word.

Hunter and his 3 amigos! I kind of feel bad for him though, because all 3 of these boys are promoting to T&T and he has one more year of Sparks.

Anyway, Savannah is about to move into T & T (sniff, sniff!) She got her Sparky plaque and a certificate for extra credit verses (192 verses, including the entire book of Philippians). She will certainly keep those T & T leaders searching for extra work for her, like she did the Sparks leaders.

Hunter got a 2nd book ribbon as well as a certificate (and some pins) stating his extra credit verses (111 verses).

Dawson got his 1st year cubbie bear award. A Full-size (person in a costume) Cubbie Bear & Sparky were at our awards ceremony for the kids to see & Dawson was scared to death of them. It was really kind of funny. He's such a tough boy normally & then he saw Cubbie & immediately wanted held & wouldn't let go of me.

Ella did pretty good too...thanks to her Aunt Crystal!

Isn't it Summer Time Yet?

2010-04-19T17:08:00.005-07:00

Ella's first swimsuit

Yup, had to get a picture of that adorable ruffle-butt!

The kids all got new swimsuits & goggles for Easter. They're very excited to use them.
So, since we don't have a pool & I think it's a tad bit early for swimming....we made it work.

Easter With The Penicks

2010-04-07T11:56:00.004-07:00

I just love Easter. Celebrating Christ's resurrection is just so awesome. Praise Jesus!

I also thoroughly enjoy getting together with family and counting my many blessings.

We got together with my family on Saturday before & as you can see, Ella was a big hit!

Volleyball was another hit. We must have played 5+ games. Some of us have a little sunburn to prove it. :-)

Precious Ella pictures - just a few of my favorites

2010-03-16T14:49:00.004-07:00

I love having a new baby to take pictures of.
And girls are especially fun with the hair bands & barrettes & dresses, etc.

Grand Prix 2010

2010-02-28T09:32:00.005-07:00

It was the Penick's year at the Grand Prix! Finally!

We've been doing the cars with the kids in the Grand Prix for 5 years now and this is thier first time ever to win anything. And they all 3 got a trophy!

Both Hunter & Dawson were in the final championship race for Cubbies/Sparks Division.
Hunter came in first place overall & Dawson got 3rd.
Savannah won first place in Novelty Design.
She made a keyboard/piano. And she actually did most all of the work. Mr. Brunette cut it out & I drew the black keys with a sharpie, the rest was all her. She even used a ruler & measured evenly & then drew the lines for the white keys. She used the tip of a pen dipped in paint to do the buttons.

Here are all the Cubbie/Sparks winners. You can see all 3 of my kids as well as a niece & a nephew. (Archie Won 2nd place in both speed & in Car Design. Mary Jane won 2nd place in Novelty Design)
Here is Dawson's Sword car. He painted the whole thing by himself. Luckily the bottom was seperate & then I taped each end of the sword while he painted the other.

Here is the fast yellow slug bug that Hunter made. He did it all himself as well & wasn't in it for design at all. :-)Here is a picture of the Philip Rakoci family & Penick family that were there. Lots of trophies & ribbons here.

I don't know if you'll be able to view the video, but I will also post it on facebook.
Hunter was so full of enthusiasm for all the races & for all the winners.

A Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T14:03:00.003-07:00

We all had a restful, worshipful Valentine's day.

Tim & I got new Droid phones for each other for Valentine's Day. (That's what we're claiming anyway)
My sweetheart & my phone. :-)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-10T12:06:00.001-07:00

And baseball begins again

2010-02-05T14:29:00.004-07:00

Hunter is in Coach pitch baseball this year.

We had a fly-by during his opening ceremonies.

He was so embarrassed that we were all yelling his name & cheering for him, he wouldn't even look at us. :-)
Hunter did pretty well batting. Such a big change from hitting it off a Tee.
And here he is on the pitchers mound. I thought it was so cute, he's doing all the stuff the big-leaguers do. :-)

You knew I couldn't post without a picture of out adorable baby.
Ella loves to go in her car seat...she's waiting to be taken to Hunter's first game.

Ella's Baby Shower (only a few weeks late)

2010-02-04T14:37:00.003-07:00

Better late than never, I say!

It was a great baby shower, thrown by my dearest friend Jennifer Brown, and added to by my mom & sister.And here's what all the fuss was about! The newest Penick Princess!

There were lots of interesting & fun games!

And of course baby girl stuff is just darn adorable, so the gifts were awesome!

Teddi, was incredible with the 2 cakes she made (even with being sick). The cute buggy cake on the right had the best whipped cream frosting ever!

Thanks everyone!

Old Video of Savannah

2010-01-19T20:17:00.002-07:00

Okay I found this today & decided it was just too cute to keep to myself!
here is Savannah singing happy Birthday to her dad, her cousins, her aunt & 2 of her uncles.

She is 2 1/2 years old!

Baby Smiles

2010-01-19T18:59:00.004-07:00

Can you believe that she started smiling at me at 2 weeks old? So now that she's 3 weeks old I finally caught it on camera.It must be a lot of work to get those cheeks up too. :-)

All my other kids were quite a bit older before they smiled. Maybe she'll be an extra happy, smiley child.
Dawson was 7 weeks old before I saw one. But now we know why...he's just such a serious child.Here is the first smile of Dawson's that I got on camera

multi-tasking comes natural

2010-01-18T11:01:00.003-07:00

For girls, multi-tasking just comes natural they say.
I'm going to have to agree.
Savannah wanted to hold Ella who was slightly cranky so I said she could hold her while I cleared the table from breakfast.
I walked in to find Savannah playing a little hand-held electronic game while holding Ella who had fallen fast asleep on her sisters lap.
What sweetness!

Baby's First Bath

2010-01-14T18:00:00.003-07:00

So I gave Ella her first official bath on Tuesday.
She didn't like it very much.
These pictures are all taken kind of at a weird angle, Savannah must have some of her Grandma's photographer genes.

Precious tiny digits

2010-01-12T15:01:00.002-07:00

This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband.

Thanks for making my birthday wonderful.
Thanks for taking such great pictures that I treasure.
I love you Tim!

Oh The Games of Spades We Play

2010-01-11T14:13:00.007-07:00

For years now my sister & brother-in-law have been playing the card game of Spades with Tim & I, on each occasion we can.
When we get together we play & talk & laugh & make lots of very fun memories!
We have a tradition that every new year's eve we go to their house & stay up until midnight & then me & my sister climb into bed together while the men stay up long & goof off.
Well January 1st of 2009, I decided to keep track of how many games we play & who wins each time.
The Final tally for 2009 (which included the last game that ended at 11pm, Dec 31st, 2009) was the guys winning 11 games & the girls winning 9 games.
So we played 20 games of Spades in a 12 month period!
So this year (as of Jan 11th) we have already played twice & the girls have won both times.
Here's to another great year of fun!

Camera fun.

2010-01-06T13:59:00.003-07:00

Dawson actually looks happy to be with her, since all the other pictures we take he has a weird look on his face, like "what do I do with this baby?".

For Christmas we gave Savannah her own digital camera. She absolutely loves it & actually takes pretty good pictures.
Her & her cousins have all had fun with the camera & their babies. Well my mom & sister also had fun with our camera & babies...Ella really is in there somewhere. :-)

The kids are getting more comfortable with Ella & Savannah is quite adept at holding her & posing with her, etc.

Hunter is a little less comfortable, but doesn't ask to hold her as much as Savannah does, so he doesn't get quite as much practice.
And I had to put this pictures, because nothing can melt a woman's heart like seeing her husband bonding with his little daughter!

Baby Pool Results

2010-01-06T10:55:00.002-07:00

In all the categories here are the winners...

Closest to when she would be born:
Missy, she was only off by 6 hours & 7 minutes.

Closest to weight:
Missy Martinez & Mandy Malmgren both put 9lb, 2oz, which was only 12 oz. off

Closest to length:
Whoever put their name as Ella Grace & Gary Cyphers both were right on at 21 inches.

Closest to labor length:
Floyce Webber was only off by 1 hour 40 minutes.

Overall winner with the most things close (points added up, etc.) was Missy Martinez.

Thanks for the fun everyone!

Welcome Baby Ella! (Lots of Pictures)

2010-01-01T18:08:00.007-07:00

The new addition to our family has been a big hit!Ella Grace Penick brings with her a very exciting story of her swift entrance into the world.
The short version is that I had a few contractions in the night around 1:45am that woke me up & then I dozed back off. Nothing major. Until 2:05am I felt my water break at the same moment I had a VERY hard contraction. I woke Tim & he jumped up to start putting in the calls. At this point I was having hard contractions every 7 minutes.
My parents arrived (My dad to stay with the other kids & my mom to go with us) at 2:20am. We then were on our way to Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa. On the way my contractions jumped up to about 2 to 3 minutes apart. We wheeled into the hospital at about 3:20am. They put me on a triage bed to wheel me to a room & right there is where Ella was born at 3:25am.
All 9lb. 14oz of her self!
There were lots of nurses rushing around & an ER Dr. catching the baby! Yes that means no pain meds, no IV & maybe some yelling. :-)

Now we're an even number, 6 in our family. Wow, that number seems so much bigger to me than what we have.

We all just adore the new little princess in our midst! Her eyes are a promising blue color at the moment.
Savannah has done nothing but talk about getting a sister for months now! Finally the moment has arrived & Ella will never lack arms to hold her. :-)
The fun, colorful girl clothes are being put to good use.
The 4 siblings are still getting used to each other.

Christmas goodies

2009-12-22T18:33:00.003-07:00

The older two kids got to dip pretzels in some white chocolate to make some Christmas goodies. That's as far as got this year.

Once they finished that, Dawson made a mess of his own kind. He was trying to open our tin of popcorn & ended up dumping it all over the floor. So he got to clean that up for awhile. I think it went: put 2 in the bowl & one in his mouth.

The kids did great in our church program. Savannah was a pure white Christmas candle & said her part perfectly.
Hunter also quoted his Bible verse perfectly & Dawson mostly just played with his candle.
Here are my 2 matching boys this last Sunday. They are wearing suit coats that my mom made for my brother way back when.
Merry Christmas!

Homeschool Christmas program

2009-12-14T13:27:00.003-07:00

I enjoy this time of year with all the festivities and programs. The kids all did a splendid job singing Christmas carols.
Savannah read a Bible verse for it.
Dawson even held his electric candle so great as they marched up the aisle singing Oh Come All Ye Faithful.
I'm looking forward to the kids program this Sunday at church now.

Christmas fun with kids begins

2009-12-09T11:31:00.006-07:00

Last Saturday Savannah was in a ballet recital...

then she also rode on a float from our church in the Light Parade.

I really enjoyed the parade & the there were lots of friends & family sitting with us & talking & laughing. It was awesome!

This coming weekend, we have our homeschool Christmas party, which the kids are all singing in as well as Savannah's piano recital & Hunter's first time to play offeratory at church. I'm so excited!

Christmas Decorations

2009-12-01T17:03:00.003-07:00

The stockings have all been hung in the Penick household.
We do have an extra one for little Ella, but apparently no stocking hanger.
Oh well, she'll never miss it.
I have a whole year to get another mantle hook.
Of course, our mantle doesn't look long enough to fit many more stockings...hmmm...maybe we should move into a different house before next Christmas! (Good excuse right?)

Tim put the angel on the tree & then we all went to town decorating!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Movie Night

2009-11-18T13:43:00.003-07:00

Once in awhile Tim likes to have movie night with the kids.
So last night we had one and we watched the movie UP!
The kids were very into it & even Dawson at 3 years old couldn't take his eyes off it the entire time.
We were at an intense moment in the story and both boys had to be snuggled up to Dad (you know the big strong one that can save you from the bad guys or dogs).
I just love this picture of all my guys. All of them in their jammies & everything.

Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

2009-11-04T17:13:00.003-07:00

So Tim turned 30 now. He's so mature these days! ha ha!

With kids around you don't even have to take out your own candles. What a deal!

So the night before his actual birthday me & the kids gave him our gifts...they just couldn't wait any longer for him to open them!
And yes that book came straight off his Amazon wishlist. And no I don't really think he's an idiot!

Tim's parents and us all went out to dinner at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant.

32 weeks will do it to ya!

2009-11-02T14:11:00.004-07:00

Wowzer, I look like I swallowed a huge egg or something!

Prego picture - week 29

2009-10-15T10:08:00.003-07:00

Okay, once again, an update on the belly pictures.
Don't mind the weird face I'm making.
Hunter was the photographer & was asking something I think.

Lovin' storage tubs!

2009-10-10T15:12:00.003-07:00

Okay so my project this week was to organize the boys' closet. It was just stuffed full of loose clothes & lots of little boxes of different size clothes, etc.

I got all the loose clothes taken care of & these 6 boxes of clothes....

turned into these 2 plastic tubs of clothes.Much better.

I went through all the clothes & got all that I need to fit in the tubs & will donate the rest. As well as I got out the boys' next set of winter clothes, since it is starting to cool down at least a little bit here.

I think I'm going to slow down on projects now. My tummy is really getting in the way of movement, so bending & lifting is harder, etc.
Plus, I'm running out of steam. But that's okay because I'm content with how much I've gotten done in the last month or so & will be ready for the Holiday's & Baby Ella.

My Ballerina

2009-10-02T17:33:00.002-07:00

I took these today at Savannah's Ballet lessons. I can't wait to post more after her big show in December. I'm sure she'll be much more poised with a cute preforming outfit. :-)

Here she is with her instructor.

She is very serious about her twirling!

Boys Room Project

2009-09-23T09:31:00.003-07:00

Well I started Sunday & finished late last night. Whew, I'm glad that is done.

I painted white to cover the color that was there & then painted over the colored walls with the same color, to get all the nicks & to make it brighter (you could see streaks through the paint, since I only did 1 coat last time).

Then I rearranged the furniture & washed & rehung the wall decorations. Of course vacuuming & dusting everything along the way.

While everything was a mess & being moved, I also decided to go through & organize all their toys. We threw out about half of a big garbage bag full of broken/unneeded toys & general trash.

Here is before. The wall had been fixed from the boys slamming the doorknob through it. Now we have 2 different kinds of door stops on the door as a safety measure.

Notice Dawson had girly flower sheets on his bed before.
The white brightened up the walls (& the whole room).
The new toy corner with organized shelves.
And now Dawson has very boyish Sports sheets on the bed.

Project Goal Update

2009-09-17T16:14:00.002-07:00

So this week my goal was to go through & organize my shelves of school curriculum, tapes, toys, etc.
I accomplished it!

It went well & of course once again I have plenty more room than I did before. I got rid of a few things (a stack of papers, that I have no idea why I had put them in there in the first place), even some curriculum books I knew I wouldn't use.
And organized, so now I have nice neat piles of next semesters school books as well as some of next year's school books (especially for Dawson, since I already have all the preschool stuff).
No pictures this time, I just wasn't motivated enough to take them I guess. :-)

But today I did buy the paint for the boys' room.
So that is next weeks project...paint & rearrange/redo the boys' room. I'm so excited!

Oh I also bought some Rubbermaid storage tubs at Target today (they were clearanced for $2.48!), so after the boys' room project I have scheduled the boys' closet project which will be putting 6 boxes of boys clothes into 2 Rubbermaid containers....we'll see how that goes.

Normal picnicing

2009-09-15T16:51:00.003-07:00

We just got a play house from my sister & her family. Tim put it together Saturday & the kids have really enjoyed it.

So today I decided they could have a picnic in their nice little playhouse. I made them sandwiches & got some grapes ready along with bottles of water.

Out the door they went for their picnic.

I, being the concerned mother that I am (ha ha) went out to check on them after awhile.

Well, they all were sitting ON the playhouse eating.

Why can my children not just be like other normal children & eat INSIDE the playhouse?

The scary part is, it probably was the 3 year old's idea anyway.
Well, I love them to death & am so proud of their brave spirits!

Project Goal

2009-09-09T14:36:00.003-07:00

I had set myself a goal, of one "big" (for me) project per week, since school has started.

Now, I'm thinking of moving it to one every other week. :-)

My first one was the girls room (complete with curtains & painting, etc.) & that was a success.

My second one was going through, re-organizing & cleaning our huge bookshelf/cupboard thing in the living room.

I'm used to these kinds of things getting done yearly when I move to my next house, but that isn't happening in this case. I've never lived anywhere as a married woman this long. We'll have been in this house for 3 years come November.
And man, the shelves get dusty & cluttered & things pile up & stuff doesn't get gone through & thrown away.

So my shelf was a disaster & well you probably get the idea.

I must have thrown out 2 whole trash bags of "stuff". As well as dusted off about 12 full ounces of plain dust from each shelf & it's components.

So now, I can actually find things, they're clean & look, what's that there on the bottom right? A completely empty shelf! Woohoo! I'll find something to put there, don't worry.

I feel so accomplished. It's so nice to see result from my work.

Next project in queue is the shelves in the fish tank stand. that's mostly play things (like play-doh & bubbles, etc) & school curriculum (tapes, books, construction paper, etc).

Wish me luck!

Girls room.

2009-08-30T17:05:00.005-07:00

It's done for now.

Savannah was so excited to help paint. She did a great job too. It helps that she is detail oriented & good at staying within lines.

So now here is the new bedroom look.

And Tim even got the baby's changing table put together & in the room.Ella's first piece of furniture is up & in place.

Last week Savannah & I went to a place called Bisque It! where you get to pick a piece of ceramic to paint & then they fire it for you. We went & picked it up today & she even put it up herself. I don't know if you can read it says Savannah on top & Ella on the bottom.

Picture time!

2009-08-30T15:19:00.004-07:00

Okay here's one for Debbi.
She wanted to see a belly picture.
I'm 22 weeks along. Just over half way. :-)

Then of course the photographers had to have their pictures taken.

Happy Birthday to my Baby!

2009-08-25T14:16:00.006-07:00

Okay so Dawson will even tell you himself that he's not a baby. He's a big boy!
But for now he's my baby, until little Ella shows herself anyway.

I'm feeling like such an awful mom because I always post about the kids birthdays & here it is already 5 days past Dawson's 3rd birthday & I haven't said a word about it.

So here it goes...

He blew out all 3 of his candles in one blow.

And was very happy with himself about it.
We opened presents in the morning before Tim left for work, hence him still being in his pajamas.
Tim & I got him this car race track with the shake n' go cars.
Savannah bought him this big red ball. Which as you can tell, he just loves.
Hunter picked this foam sword for him.

The Saturday after his birthday we went out to Rustler's Rooste with Tim's family to celebrate Dawson's & Brynne's (Tim's sister) birthdays.

So he got to open more gifts in the back of Uncle Justin's truck.

All the kids enjoyed the slide down to the dining room of the restaurant.
Brynne got to wear a cowboy hat while everyone sang to her.
Dawson got his cowboy hat and tried to blow out his candle.

Dawson & his Gramps. I'm thinking we may have an idea of what he'll look like when he grows up, huh. :-)
There was a big fountain on the way out of the restaurant area which we stopped to look at.

Find the bright spots in your Monday

2009-08-24T09:03:00.002-07:00

It's only 9am & it's already been a crazy day & I'm already behind.

But as I was correcting some of the kids schoolwork (which was supposed to be done over the weekend by Tim & I), I came across something I thought was neat.

In the kids History & Geography book they were learning about communities & community helpers. The question was "If you could be a community helper, which would you rather be & why?"
Hunter: Fireman, because I like to fight stuff.
Savannah: Teacher, because I want to teach child's about God.

I love that I'm the teacher that gets to see this stuff! :-)

All in a Day's Work!

2009-08-22T20:52:00.003-07:00

Tim took apart Savannah's bunkbed & put it in the boys' room & then took apart their bunk bed & put it in Savannah's room A little switcheroo for when the baby comes.

Here is the bed that Savannah had as of this morning.

And here's her bed by the afternoon. See all that extra room underneath for her bookcase & dollhouse.

Then there was the issue of her closet...one of the doors has been broken since we moved in & the other just sat there open taking up space in the room.

So we got rid of the doors & took one of her old bedspreats & made her some closet curtains.
She loves it & it makes more of her closet accessible to hang baby clothes in. :-)There will be more decorating in all the kids' rooms in the coming weeks.
I want to get most all of the preparing for baby ready before the holidays hit, so I can still spend the time with the kids doing fun holiday things.

Baby Question Answered!

2009-07-31T13:08:00.004-07:00

Baby Girl Ella would like to say hi!

We were so excited that we could (after much prodding) get the baby to show us it's gender!

Our perfect little girl. Ultrasound is showing the due date now as Dec. 26th. Aaahh, my holidays may get a little stressful! :-)

Here is a 3D picture. Pretty cool.

Fun new game

2009-07-27T11:13:00.003-07:00

Hunter got a game called Hyper Dash for his birthday & we've all been enjoying it.
Today Dawson got to join in the fun & I thought he was just too cute. Of course at the beginning of the video he sees the camera & stops to smile, but then he continues on.

The hand held device tells you which color target to hit. As the levels go on they say the number that is on each target or how many times to hit each one. It's pretty fun and you can set the targets up close together or all over the house & yard, etc.

10 Tips to a good birthday party!

2009-07-25T21:05:00.007-07:00

1. Absolutely no monkeying around!

2. It's okay to be a little wild at a party!

3. Act your age!
4. Everyone's presents & presence makes the party better.

5. Let loose & live a little!

6. Create memories together.
7. Show those birthday boy muscles off to the world!

8. Don't take yourself (or the carousel) to seriously.

9. Don't judge others on how they have fun!

10. Make your wish count!

Birthday Fun!

2009-07-24T21:44:00.002-07:00

So Cold Stone has become part of our families birthday traditions.

The birthday person gets a free ice cream so we all take advantage of it!

Tim especially! :-) He does love his ice cream...but yes him & I shared that big bowl of yumminess!

My 3 kids are such goofballs! I just love them to bits!

I love to see the boys getting along & sharing tastes with each other.

We took my parents along with us & they enjoyed watching the kids & Hunter's crown that was too big for him, seemed to fit Grandpa well.

This was before the ice cream when Hunter opened some presents.
Tomorrow it's off to Jeepers for more Birthday fun so I'm sure that will be another exciting post.

10 years of wedded bliss!

2009-07-16T12:11:00.007-07:00

Okay so maybe all 10 years haven't always been full of bliss, but I still get to experience it now & then which is what counts and makes it all worth it!

10 Pictures to Celebrate 10 years of marriage!

1998 - The year I met Tim. He actually came to the homeschool prom (though not as my date). That night I started to see how much there was to love about him (including how good he looked in a Tux).

July 17th, 1999 - The happiest day of my life! I love this picture because one of the first things that drew me to Tim was how much he made me laugh. And still to this day he keeps me in stitches!

2000 - Our First year as Counselors together at Awana camp. We made a great team working together (and we still do)!

2002 - Proud parents as we dote on our first child!

2004 - My how we doubled the joy in such a short time!

2005 - This is Christmas, the day we told Tim's parents that we were expecting our third child! What fun.
2006 - The Family picture just keeps getting bigger.

2007 - We still love spending time relaxing together. Here we are on Lake Pleasant.

2008 - Celebrating 9 years together, by staying home alone, doing nothing together.

2009 - When we went a cruise for honeymoon we always said we'd do it again. I'm so happy that for our 10th anniversary we stayed true to our dream. We had the best time together!

18 days & counting

2009-07-13T13:27:00.004-07:00

July 31st is when we get to have the ultrasound to find out if we're having a boy or a girl!
So for us I think the votes go:

Tim - Doesn't really care, but would totally be fine having more boys
Me - Ready for pink again!
Savannah - REALLY wants a sister!
Hunter - Goes back & forth, but usually will say a girl
Dawson - Boy!

So I put up a poll on the sidebar of my blog so everyone can have a little fun guessing.

Here's what we've seen of the baby so far....(Tim took the picture & is a goofball for it!)

Weekend Out of the Heat

2009-07-13T09:13:00.005-07:00

We spent the weekend at my parents 1 room cabin with 11 people. The 7 kids slept in the 1 room & us 4 adults slept on pull-out couches in the living room.

The Weather was pretty nice up in Show Low. We even had a storm roll in Friday night with loud thunder & pouring rain.

We did get a family walk in the forest. The kids loved exploring everything.
I enjoyed relaxing on the porch more than the walking through the forest.

The kids all had a good time going to the pond.

On Saturday Tim took my sisters kids & 1 of ours all the way to the Mogollon Rim.

4th of July

2009-07-08T16:00:00.005-07:00

For us it was a big family birthday celebration as well as Independence Day. We had a pool party at my sisters & everyone in my family was there at some point in time throughout the day.

Here's me & my sister-in-law Teddi, cooling off in the pool.

These were the birthday people (2 of my nieces are actually missing from the picture),
Dawson was very happy to see his bat & ball as he unwrapped it.
Hunter was being so great & reading the board book to the 2 year olds.
Hunter has a great happy face when he sees that he got Chinese Checkers!
Dawson couldn't join in any of the water fun, so I took pity on him.
Hunter in mid-swing.
Candice & Crystal, my sister & sister-in-law.

After dinner we headed over to a park to await fireworks.
Here's Dawson standing on Grandpa's hands.

Hunter on Grandpa's hands (or more falling off of his hands).
Frisbee was a big hit. Whether as a game or a hat it doesn't matter.
Hunter & my dad lounging.
Savannah playing frisbee.
Tim playing frisbee.And finally the long-awaited fireworks!

Another boy, another head laceration.

2009-07-03T20:52:00.004-07:00

Friday we got to take Dawson to urgent care with a large cut on his forehead. Very similar to Hunter's cut at almost 2 years old, but bigger, deeper & bloodier.

Dawson (& the older 2 kids) were dancing around in the front room when Dawson took a spin and then a fall & hit his head on the little rocking chair. It wasn’t a sharp corner but the gash is like over an inch long & was deep. As he ran down the hall to us he was dripping blood onto the carpet. It was more blood than I’ve ever seen in my life. His face & eye & clothes & hair were covered in like 20 seconds flat. Crazy.

So we spent all morning in urgent care & he got his big cut glued together. I had to throw out my shirt & Dawson's clothes & of course the towel we held on his head to get to urgent care. Good thing that Tim was here though. I started crying & about to hyperventilate (hey give me a break I'm pregnant & emotional!). Savannah said her tummy hurt every time she came back to bring us something we needed. Tim said he felt nauseous, but was okay, which is pretty good since he was the only one actually cleaning & looking at the gash. Hunter just stayed way far away from any of it, hiding in the living room. Dawson was the only calm one of us. I think he’s the only one that could manage to work in the medical field in our family.

Circus Fun!

2009-06-29T09:29:00.003-07:00

Amazing tricks were seen!
The kids loved the circus!
Everyone's favorite was the elephants.

A goofy hat came with the cotton candy.
We had really good seats too. lower level 13th row!
Over a 2 hour show & Dawson never made a noise (other than ask a couple times when the elephants were coming back out). :-)

Just for Fun!

2009-06-25T15:45:00.002-07:00

Dawson wanted to wear his bicycle helmet at dinner time when we had nachos!
He's so funny.

Better late than never

2009-06-16T17:16:00.006-07:00

We (me & the kids) took a trip up to my parents cabin in the white mountains 2 weeks ago.
We had such a great relaxing & refreshing time. It was very cool there.

Here's a picture of "the pond".
Along one of the roads we walked to get to the pond there were some horses by the fence. The kids loved to feed them.
That's all Dawson talks about now.

Savannah was also picking some wild flowers to give to Grandma & the horses thought they looked tasty. I love here that Savannah is being so protective of them, giving the horse "the eye".
And so we fished...and fished...and fished some more...But we still didn't catch anything.
Here Dawson and I are patiently waiting for them to catch something!
So then it was time to just have some fun.

Hunter is so fast!

Here they are being goofy on the cabin porch.

Tagged

2009-05-31T15:48:00.003-07:00

Debbi at The Joys of Two Boys tagged me in a post.

So I had to:
1. Open the 4th picture folder on my computer.
2. Open the 4th picture and post it on my blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same

So here's the picture
It is from March 2006. Look how little Savannah was! Anyway, we were doing a charity walk thing through the Phoenix Zoo and it's Savannah on the left, my niece Kayleigh in the middle & my mom on the right. It was a nice day to walk around the zoo.

So now I'm tagging:

Elizabeth at Family of Three
Owen at WildThoughts
Callie at The Flying Penguin

I'm breaking the rules & only tagging 3 people, sorry.

Not bad for a 7 year old!

2009-05-17T22:52:00.003-07:00

I'm so proud of my girl.

Savannah did a great job at her piano recital today.

With only 1 year of lessons under her belt too! Enjoy!