sigh...

We went for a walk today in the beautiful sunshine. Our favorite place to go is the track. The kids can climb on the bleachers and then we walk around the field and look at the chickens at the other end. Today there were many walkers (mostly of the older variety). I had just ushered all 6 kids to the other side of the track when an older man stopped me and said

"You must be babysitting."

I looked at him and said "Nope, they are all mine."

To which he replied, "You've got to be kidding. You look so young."

I know I should be flattered but I'm not, at least not yet. Give me 20 years. I'm happy with my 35 years and am proud I have had 6 kids in that time. Can I say I'm looking forward to wrinkles? Or maybe when I get them, I won't like them so much. Oh well, for now I guess I will just keep fielding these questions (which happens every time I'm with all the kids.)

uhhh.....

We were on a walk the other day and the little ones found some neat sticks that were hooked shaped. They proceeded to run and yell and pretend they were superheroes.

Ellie: "Super Hookers to the rescue!!"

Me: "What? Um...err...um...I don't think you should call yourselves that."

Ellie: "Why Mommy?"

Me: "Um...err..um.. Just don't. How about, I don't know."

I didn't know what to say and no one else could think of a suggestion. So I just had to quash any yelling of hookers and suggest "hooks" which Grae told me didn't sound good.

Oh boy.

my little man

This sweet little boy constantly amazes me. Not only is he incredibly smart, has a great memory but he's showing how much he loves God.

Today he came into my bedroom while I was printing labels and said "Mommy?"

"Yes Grae."

"I was upstairs in Maddie's bedroom and I saw an iPhone laying on her table and I played with it. I'm sorry."

"Uhhh..."

"And I'm telling the truth."

"Okay, Grae." Then I reached for him to give him a hug but he by the look in his eye, he thought I was going to do something else. He looked relieved when I just squeezed him and told him thank you for telling me and to not play with it again unless he asks first.

"Okay Mommy!"

I then heard him go back up the stairs and tell Ellie, "Mommy said thank you." "No I didn't get a spanking, I told the truth."

So cute and I thank God for my little boy.

this little girl

This little girl who looks all sweet and innocent is going to drive me to the mad house. I decided that after Christmas, when she's 2 1/2 years old, that we would start potty training (or potty learning to the more enlightened). All of her other siblings, except the talented and gifted Ellie who potty trained at 2, used the big kids potty at that age.

But then she started wanting to use the potty and did successfully for a few days. Then she didn't want to. Then she did. Then didn't. Then did. Get my drift. Now it's a resounding "no, I don't want to." So back to my original idea to wait until after Christmas. I bought a really cute training underwear pattern (that snaps off in case of a major accident) so I think I'll make some and give them to her for Christmas. Yes, underwear for Christmas, I know.

Our Thanksgiving was really fun. We were invited to our good friends house who happen to have 10 kids and several of those kids happen to be my kids best friends. We arrived at 2:00 pm and didn't leave until 10:30 pm and would have stayed longer if it wasn't for our little ones being so exhausted. The three older girls stayed the night much to their delight.

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. There is nothing like sitting around the table after a good meal and talking about everything and anything. As the evening gets later and you get more tired, the talking turns to silliness and memories and inside jokes are made. So thanks "B" family, we had a great time! And thanks for our new Julian Smith addiction. :)

impossible

It is almost impossible to get a picture of all 6 kids and have them looking at me AND smiling. I think I got one and am putting it on some Christmas cards but the photos at the top are definitely not card material. Funny - but no.

spiderman

Grae has discovered how to climb the wall and wanted me to take a picture of him doing it. Please excuse the quality. It was raining here and I struggled to get enough light in the room without using the flash.

what my daughter made me...

I needed something for my mantle and I like fresh flowers but wow, can that get expensive. My 14 year old taught herself origami flower making so I commissioned her to make me a vase full.

They are lovely and go perfectly with my new old mirror that I will show soon.

(the rocks in the picture were put there by 6 year old Ellie. She really wants them somewhere).

regency

The girls were invited to a costume party a few weeks ago and requested to be Eleanor and Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility. We started by watching the new version put out by the BBC and then went to Joanns for fabric. Lauren found a great purple striped fabric and Maddie went with a bright and cheerful pink with a print for the underlayer.

The dresses went together pretty quickly after I did a test bodice with muslin. I'm glad I did as Maddie's dress needed some tweaking.

This was taken a few minutes before they left for the party. I made them purses out of wool interlock and lace scraps.








I love the backs of the regency gowns.






They had lots of fun and hope to be able to wear the dresses sometime soon.

bikes

So this has been a great summer of firsts for us. I took all 6 kids for a week of camping all by myself. Ava had 13 horse back riding lessons. Ellie lost her first teeth and Lauren had braces put on hers. The older girls are taking piano lessons, will learn to swim in a few weeks and they taught themselves to ride bikes.



Up until 3 years ago, we lived in apartments. There was nowhere to ride or store bikes so the girls never learned how to ride. A great friend gave us a bike and in the course of one weekend, they were off and riding just fine. We took them to our Goodwill Outlet store and found 3 almost brand new bikes; one for Lauren, one for Maddie and one for Ellie. Ava kept the gifted bike.



We were just about to buy Ellie training wheels when she surprised us by riding all by herself. They are having a ball and we go nightly to the school behind our house and ride, ride, ride. Grae and Molly spend the time playing on the playground.



This has been a very busy and expensive summer, and fall is shaping up to be the same way. We'll replace horse riding lessons with girls choir and bike riding with tearing up the upstairs. We're crazy.

Oh and our house appraisal went through fine. We needed to get $220,000 and the appraiser valued our house at $259,000. Wow! We bought the house for $185,000 three years ago so we were happy! This house has a lot of our blood, sweat and tears in it and we love it.

I finished Grae and Molly's quilts and I will show them later. Love picking fabrics for the quilts - sewing them, not so much. I found it boring sewing straight lines but the free motion quilting was fun. I made many errors but you can't tell without really staring at it so that's good! Well, off to sew diapers.

overheard

I was sitting on the couch with Grae and Ellie and we were discussing the divine and human nature of Jesus. Sounds academic doesn't it.

Grae: "Did Jesus have a nose?"

Me: "Yes, he was a man."

Grae: "Does God have a nose?"

Me: "No, God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like we do. Jesus has a body."

Grae: "Did Jesus have hair?"

Me: "Yes, he had hair and wore clothes and he even went poop and potty."

Grae: "Jesus didn't go poop!"

Me: "Yes he did, he was a man. He probably even threw up when his tummy hurt."

Ellie: "Did baby Jesus wear a diaper?"

Me: "Yes, probably."

Grae: "Did he wear a Bum Genius?"

Me: "Um, no. They weren't invented back then."

Grae: "Did he wear a pocket diaper?"

Ellie: "Grae, he probably wore cloth diapers like Mommy makes."

Me: "Well Ellie, they didn't have bamboo velour then. Maybe he had some of linen?"

Grae: "Did Jesus have eyebrows.."

Here we go again...

superman

Grae drew this and Brian put it on his work computer. I think it's super cute. He's always drawing super heroes.



I'll have some before and after pictures of my desk and the kids room soon!

overheard

Grae: "Do I look like a pastor?"

Me: "No."

Grae: "Well then do I look like a ninja?"

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

Grae: "Do I look fat?"

Ava: "No."

Grae: "But I want to look fat-tastic."

Ava: "Uh, I think you mean fantastic."

Grae: "Oh, yeah."

going on

Since it's much too hot to go outside and do anything but sweat, we're staying inside and trying to find stuff to do. This mainly consists of me looking around and seeing how filthy our house is. When did my carpets get so dirty? Why are the baseboards so dusty? Seriously is it to much to ask anyone to vacuum the blinds? The kids are really loving this and look forward every morning to see what new chores we will do that day. I caught Ava googling "African rain dance" yesterday so the deep cleaning would stop. (not really).

I did sew some clothes for Molly yesterday. She loves them. The little pink dress was supposed to be up for sale but she wouldn't give it up. So I made another one to sell.



Here's when I told her to smile:


Brian picked up the new Wii Sports Resort so we'll be doing that this afternoon.

I have to get ready to take Lauren to the orthodontist as one of her brackets fell off while eating cereal. She now knows to not eat cereal. Lauren just got her braces on two weeks ago. Grae thinks they are cool and even put some silver Christmas tree beads over his mouth to show Lauren that he had braces too.

We finished putting the pergo floor down in Grae and Molly's room and I took pictures accidently deleted them off my camera. I'm going to try to recover the images today and will post pictures. The difference is amazing!

sad day

Today is a sad day for me. My little Mr. man Grae is turning 4. No way. He's growing up and I don't like it. He is just a joy to everyone in the house. Really.

He's a sweet and affectionate boy who likes to leap off the highest object in the room and then exclaim "I'm alright Mommy." or "Mom" as he's taken to call me as apparently that is more manly.

Grae thinks everyone likes him and I mean everyone in the world. He is at that stage where he thinks out loud, to the embarrassment of anyone around. For example, we had a nice lady come to look at a piece of furniture we were selling on Craigslist. Grae ran into the room and then quickly ran out again. He told his sisters that he was disappointed because he thought the lady would be pretty. But he added that she was wearing a pretty dress.

He's excited to be growing up and wants to learn to ride a bike this year, and climb walls like Spiderman and fly like Superman and fly an airplane, and.....

Here's what his dad bought him. Notice that the kid was talking at the time. He talks all the time.



They are watching Wall-E right now as I'm about to go paint his bedroom. No school today, we've declared Grae's birthday to be a school holiday. Yay!

Happy Birthday Grae-man. We all love you so much.

art class

The saying "those who can't do, teach" aptly applies to me today. We decided to add art to our school schedule. I feel it is very important to create and be creative just as our Creator is.

I lack drawing skills so we picked up this book Drawing with Children" from our favorite book store, Exodus Books . It takes you step by step and builds skills so the kids can be confident in their drawing.

One thing the book stresses, and I wholeheartedly agree with, is to buy good quality supplies. Fortunately we have an art store in downtown Hillsboro and were able to purchase our supplies there.



Our lesson today was following directions and then envisioning what you wanted to draw. For example: using a broad tip marker, draw one line from a border to another border. Then draw three circles on the line.


Not all members were so keen on the idea. I bought Grae and Molly washable markers.



Grae: "Mommy does this look like an elf?"
Me: "Yes, Grae. Good job!"
Grae: "It's not an elf."
Me: "Oh, then why did you ask?"
Grae: "Because, it's Laura from Little House on the Prairie."
Me: "Okay Grae."

ellie and a bird

I made this dress for Ellie for her birthday. It's good to be a sewing mama.

The dress is very wrinkled from the car ride to and from church.







And this is what we found in our backyard.


Isn't he cute? It's a baby Blue Jay. He was on the ground behind our swing and we weren't sure where he belonged. Brian put him back in the tree after Lauren discovered another baby Jay on the branch. This kids wanted to keep him but we told them the bird belonged outside and would probably die if we tried to raise it.

Then they asked for a dog ;)

grae

So Grae was playing with his Playmobil's with Lauren the other day. Lauren's playmobil was the pretty princess in need of rescuing and Grae's the brave knight.

"Help, help me, oh brave knight." said pretty princess.

"No, I need to rescue someone prettier." said the not so gallant knight.

We're so proud.

---------------------------------------------------



Grae walked into my office and laid his head down on the chair beside me. He looked sleepy and I told him to go take a nap in my bed.

"I'm not tired." he said.

I beg to differ.

my prodigy

hamburgers

Ava and I discovered an amazing baking blog and poured over it for about 1 hour. She decided she must make these.

Oh my were they good. I don't like cake as a general rule but love brownies. So I forced myself to try one and ended up eating two. They are low carb...yes they are...look at that burger.

Please excuse my photo skills. They pale in comparison to Bakerella.



The girl who made them.

happy birthday

Today is Molly's birthday. She's 2 (or 3 if you ask her).



I must admit that when I found out I was having another girl, I was depressed. I really wanted another boy. However, Molly is pretty fun. She's a firecracker and loud. Boy can that girl yell.

She currently has an obsession with babies. She would have 400 dolls if we let her. She is also fond of calling all children under the age of 6 "babies" and tries to take care of them. They ususally run away from her.

She's extremely shy around other people but at home she bosses everyone around. It's pretty cute actually (unless you are the one being bossed I suppose).

Ellie adores her and Grae likes playing with her as well. I'm glad that God decided to give her to us.

Happy Birthday Moll-o.

Grae & his Mii

growing up...

Ellie had two loose teeth. I know, how can she be old enough for that. She'll be 6 next week but still...

We were at the grocery store last night when she showed me her tooth was about to fall out. I was a little alarmed and told her to shut her mouth and to not pull it out right there. Since our tradition is to let the newly toothless person pick out whichever ice cream they fancied, we made our way to that isle. She chose Chocolate Brownie. Good choice I think.

After we put the groceries away, I gave Ellie the thumbs up to yank out her tooth. She was a little squeamish so her Dad came to the rescue. There was much rejoicing. I'm not sure if the enthusiasm was for Ellie or the ice cream. Since I'm working out and low carbing I brushed my teeth before the ice cream was served so I wouldn't be tempted. Worked great!


In all her glory. Sorry for the blood.

--------------------------------------------
In other news, Grae (aka Spiderman, aka Peter Parker, aka Ironman) made an astute observation the other day. He remarked to his sisters that he had better go potty now because "it is hard to climb walls holding your p3nis." Well said young man.

tired

I don't know how Grae slept through piano lessons but he did. He fell asleep on the couch which is right next to the piano. Oh yeah, we bought a used piano for $200. The girls are taking lessons once a week.

horses

Ava had the amazing opportunity to go see the Lipizzanner Stallions in McMinville last night. Dave and Melba took their granddaughter Lizzie and invited Ava to go with them. Dave & Melba are like grandparents to my kids so it was extra special for her.

Anyway, Ava could hardly contain her excitement and paced all day. She didn't get home until 11:30 pm that night but still had a smile on her face. She LOVED it and I loved that she loved it. There was a lot of love going around ;)

dirt

Fun....

overheard...

I gave Graedon a box of Pop Tarts and told him to go outside and share. As he was running out the door, I said "Don't eat the whole box."

He stopped, turned around and gave me a quizzical look and then said "Why would I eat the box? I won't eat the box." Then he ran off.

playing

Playing on a sunny day building a Playmobil farmers market.




Grae doing his own thing with his new Zoobs.

breakfast

overheard....

Maddie came to tell me this about Grae. She made him some hot cocoa that was way to hot for him and burned his tonque. A little later, she offered to make him some tea but he replied. "No way. You make hot things. You are the hottest cook ever." She got a kick out of that.

Molly still has her pronouns mixed up but it is very cute. We will say "Daddy hold you?" and she will reply "No Mommy hold you." Or if one of her siblings is chasing her around, she'll leap into my lap and say "Save her." Love it.

Grae also replaces the word "my" in sentences with "mine." Like "Mine arm hurts." I know he'll outgrow it but I love it for now.

catching up...

Well that was one of the worst viruses of my life. Knocked me out for a week and a half. I took about 2 naps a day and felt so dizzy after the fever left. But here I am, a whole week without a nap! I'll re-start lifting weights on Monday and resuming my walks. I'm ready. Brian got me some lifting gloves for my birthday and I can't wait to try them out.

It's been so nice here weatherwise that we've spent a lot of time outside. I decided to get some new pics of the kids playing in the backyard. Grae kept asking me to take his picture while he was swinging on his Spiderman rope. Then I had to take a picture of him on the tire swing. He kept asking "did you get me?" and demanding to see proof on the camera.

Notice the outfit he wanted to wear...










I tried to get a picture with just Ellie wearing the outfit I made her but Molly had to get in on the action too.




Brian has interviewed with a shipbuilding company and we're waiting to hear if they will hire him. He just received a call for a job interview at the Sheriff's office this Tuesday. He would be a data analyst. This would be a great job as he could walk there. So we're hoping these lead to good things. He's been searching for work for 6 months now. I can't believe it's been that long!

Tomorrow is Easter and for the first time we bought the kids Easter presents. We haven't bought the kids anything since Christmas so it was fun to shop. They will be opening them tonight after dinner and chores. We bought Grae and Ellie some busy things they can do at church tomorrow hence the reason they are opening them tonight. I can't wait!

Well I hope to keep this updated a little more often. We'll see.

what we've been up to...

See Molly there. That is a sick girl. We all had the fever, cough, sneeze thing last week but Molly got it the worst. Poor girl had a 102-103 degree fever for 6 DAYS! We almost took her to the ER but decided to wait it out. She wouldn't drink so every 10 minutes we fed her a couple of dropperfuls of juice. She was on expectorant, Tylenol, Motrin, lavender steam showers and lots of fluid. Her fever finally broke when we were going to take her to the doctor. I thought she might have had a secondary infection but nope, just a nasty virus. She's better now and back to bossing everyone around.

Well Ellie just said a weird thing. "Mommy, sometimes when I sit down my head feels big and I feel like I have dots all over my face."

Okay. I just smiled and said "Really?". That satisfied her.

No job for Brian yet. He's made the second cut for a job he's probably not qualified for but hey at least they looked at his resume. We're starting our new business, Miss Label, very soon. Maybe we'll be so busy at that he won't have to go back to work! That would be great. Well as long as he stayed in the back room and didn't bother us much during the day.

Well off to clean up Molly. She is a complete mess from dinner.

what?

This little boy just ran up to me and thrust a cup in my face. He then said "Mommy, can you fill this with fresh milk from our cow?"

"What cow, we don't have a cow."

"Yes we do, come see."

So I followed Graedon to a drawing of a cow on the door. (It's a chalkboard door so it's okay to draw on).

"Here it is!" he said proudly.

I asked him how I was going to get milk from that cow to which he explained that I needed to get milk from the "fridgerator." He may have slowly passed his hands over his eyes in an effort to keep his patience with me. 3 year olds.

a big thank you...

God has truly been blessing us lately. Here is Molly & Grae with their mouths stuffed with heart candy. Someone left us a basket of goodies at church that included a gas gift card, a mall gift card, wine, heart candy, cocoa, pudding, pencils, marshmellows and homemade banana bread. We don't know who did it but if you read this blog: THANK YOU! It sure lifted our day.

Brian's parents gave us some money as well as, get this, Kettle chips, chocolate milk, eggs, ham and a bunch of fruit. We've been enjoying this break from soups, beans and rice. I've been stuffing my face with chips and loving every minute ;) I feel like I can go back to the grindstone with renewed vigor. Thank you God.

I've also taken a break from sewing diapers to sew dresses for Ellie and Molly. So far I've got two done for Ellie and one for Molly. I have plans for more but need to go back to sewing diapers on Monday. It feels so good to create something again!

armor

Here's mister man demostrating the armor of God verse for his sisters. He tried to sneak a little Spiderman in but I nixed it.



Eph 6:10-17 (NIV) ...Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

No job for Brian yet but he's bound to get a job eventually right? We're dropping health insurance for our family in 5 days. It's $200 a month, which is pretty cheap but I would rather buy groceries. There is only so many beans and rice a person can eat in a week ;)

We have a long list of things that we want when Brian gets a job. I want Burgerville. Grae wants a Spiderman shirt. The girls want a meal of Kettle chips, ham, special cheese and hot cocoa, otherwise known as Sunday night special (thanks to the Shubins for the inspiration). I have to admit that sounds really, really good. I can not resist chips.

Anyway off to sew and try not to think about tasty, crunchy chips. Yummmmm.....

The sun will come out tomorrow...

Hey we had sun! So we bundled up and went to the park. I'm thinking Brian had the most fun. He let loose and burned up some energy teeter-tottering and racing Grae on the motorcycles. Here they are in no particular order.

So cool

I never had these when I went to the dentist as a child.


She was watching the Disney Channel.

new loves

From pirates to Spiderman

Overheard at my house....

Grae: "Daddy, you're old. We should sell you and get a new one."

Bri: "Thanks Grae."

Me: laughing. "I should blog that."

Grae: "Yes, blog it, blog it. But don't take a picture of my right now."

What am I creating?

Arctic Blast 2008 pictures

Really, a white Christmas is so overrated. I always thought it would be so cozy but when you have rear wheel drive, no snow tires and no chains, it's not so fun! We never finished our Christmas shopping, most of our Christmas plans were cancelled and we couldn't go anywhere. However, when we finally accepted that fact, we had fun.

I haven't seen a foot of snow in Hillsboro for a very long time! Grae looked out the window yesterday and said "Daddy, I see grass!". Yay for melting!

An update from Ava

Ava wrote this and typed it out. I just copied and pasted it here. (picture by Rebecca of Catchlights NW

DADDY: Daddy is the first one on the list. He is interested in Gardening and Composting, He sorts out arguments without yelling, He chops firewood for us, and He glues broken figures back together, and is a great Dad.

MOMMY: Mommy is an excellent Mother. She cleans the house AND washes the dishes on Sunday so that we don’t have to; she makes Dinner, Runs a Cloth Diaper Business,
Does Computer work, Laundry, and keeps the whole House happy…

LAUREN: Lauren is probably the toughest one to get a Christmas Present for. Last year I got her a Pom-Pom maker, and this year…? Lauren is mainly around Her Family, but is kept busy with all of the Journals that she shares with Her Friends! Lauren likes Reading, Origami, Knitting, And Jewelry Making. I think that she would make a good Editor. Someday.

MADDIE: Maddie shares a room with me. She likes Knitting, Dogs, And LORD OF THE RINGS which she can’t wait to watch on DVD when she turns twelve!

ME (A.K.A Ava): I like Horses and Cake, And Cookies to Bake, Dancing, And Books by Marguerite Henry, Toasted Marshmallows, And Friends and Family. A few weeks ago I learned how to Sign the whole Alphabet in ASL (American Sign Language).

ELLIE: Loves Dogs, but is afraid of them. She likes to bake and wants a Lemon Tree for her Birthday. She also has quite the sweet tooth!

GRAEDON: Is an Adventurer-Tree Climber- Pirate-Robin Hood-Knight-Brown Sugar Boy. He pronounces `Barack Obama` like `Broko Bama` and is learning to say `Please`
And `Thank You`.

MOLLY: The cutest, sweetest little family member of all! She is one year old , good at walking, Jumping a little , learning to talk, keeping her mother up all night , and bossing her sisters and brother in her cute little voice.

Puberty stinks...

So first off, Brian got his job back as of this past Monday. We're glad for the paycheck again! We did just fine financially using our savings and cutting back and ended up with some money left in savings.

So I was just thinking of how I couldn't wait until my girls were older. I could carry on a conversation with them, they would be helpful around the house, blah, blah, blah. Well the girls are older. Lauren is 13 and Maddie is 12 (almost). OH MY GOODNESS!! I didn't factor in hormones. Man oh man. Surely I wasn't like this at that age.

They both get sooooo moody and snap at each other and their siblings. They don't dare snap at me. Fortunately Lauren only gets grumpy for about a week but it's a whole 'nother ball game with Maddie. When she was a toddler, we nicknamed her "Moody Joy". Her name is Maddie Joy but really Moody was more appropriate. She seemed to outgrow it but it's back with a vengence. It's really true that teenagers (much as I HATE that word) are like toddlers. When asked to do something that she doesn't "feel" like doing, Lauren slowly closes her eyes as if to say "my patience is wearing thin, lady." She does do the chore and does get reprimanded for the eye closing.

Most of the time they are okay to be around so that's good. We are studying Beauty & the Pig in school. Excellent book on true beauty as described in the Bible. Beauty in speech as well as action. They have many opportunities to practice patience and kind speech with 5 other kids around all the time.

So anyway, my vent is over. Boy each stage of raising kids presents new challenges and just when you think you've got it down. Keeps me humble I guess ;)

*Edited to add: Don't type a vent post when you yourself are going through PMS. Things seem so much worse than they really are ;)

Presidents

Me: "Hey Grae - who's our president?" I'm expecting he has no idea.

Grae: "George Bush."

Me (after I picked my jaw off the floor): "Who's our next President?"

Grae: "John McCain."

Me: "Nope, I wish. Do you remember who won....Barack...

Grae: "Brocko Bama."

Brian: "Barack Hussein Obama."

Grae" "Oh yeah, Brock Insane Obama. That's right."

hee-hee

For I am the Pirate King!

No, I'm not going to say much about the election. God has seen fit to put Nobama in charge for His (God's) own glory and who am I to say that was wrong? Praise God for His wisdom and power even when I don't understand.

Now to our Pirate King. Grae dressed up like the Pirate King from the movie version of Pirates of Penzance. He got out my boots and strutted around. Strutted isn't the best word, more like hobbled.

Sorry for the grainy pictures. I bumped the ISO up because it was so dark in there.




"Do pirate kings do this when they need to go potty?"


Oh and no work for Brian yet, but not for lack of trying.

Look at my guns...

Grae: "Hey Mommy, look at my guns." He pulled up his shirt sleeve.

I admit I was a little shocked to hear this. Since when did he start calling his muscles "guns". And where did he hear this from?

Then I remembered a little present Grandpa B sent him.







Tattoos and a jolly roger do rag. He loves both.

Well sort of...

Ellie: "Daddy, what's your favorite type of fruit?"

Dad: "Ummm, blackberries."

Ellie: "Mommy, what's your favorite type of fruit?"

Me: "Strawberries."

Ellie: "Grae, what's your favorite type of fruit?"

Grae: "Ummm, schoop (soup)."

Ellie: "Soup isn't a fruit."

Grae: "Uh-huh, I had it one time and it was good."

Our little garden....

You can not believe how excited I was when I saw these...



Our first potatoes! I wanted to grow potatoes so we cut up a yukon gold we bought from the store and planted each piece in each corner of the box. I can not believe they actually produced anything. Those potatoes were from one plant.



Grae had to inspect each one with his "scope".


We're also growing blueberries, carrots, tomatoes, grapes, squash, eggplant, pumpkins, cranberries, elderberries, plums, pears, and various cut flowers.

Here is a carrot that Maddie pulled up. Why they can't wait until they are ready, I don't know!



It's red on the outside but orange in the middle.


Molly was in charge of washing everything.


I wish we had enough space to raise some chickens. I would love farm fresh eggs everyday!

We did it!

Well we made it last week on $7.00 and we ate well. By Sunday night I had to get creative with the meal but it was still good. The best thing was we didn't use our credit card although it was tempting. I can't wait to get 6 mth emergency fund going and we will cut up the card!

More Graedon!

Grae fell down on his bottom the other day and I heard him say "Ouch, I hurt my feelings."

We were talking about tatoos and how one of my relatives has one. Grae didn't think this was a good idea and told me the God had a pressure washer and could wash it off. He has a thing for pressure washers ever since he saw Brian washing the house.

Molly is 14 mths old and is starting to say some words we can actually recognize! She says: Daddy, bye, cracker, snack, na-na (for nursing), ama (when she want's something), Mama, Ellie, Aba (Ava), Grae-Grae, baby, cheers (we touch cups together), nana (banana), gookie (cookie), Tin-Tin (for the book), Gah (God), ay-n (amen), mm-mm (food) and more I'm sure. I love this age!

We are over halfway done painting the house and it's only the weather that is stopping us. Either it's too hot to paint or raining. I can't wait until it's over.

Well, I'm off to make dinner now. My least favorite chore of the day. Maybe I can convince one of the girls to do it. We'll see.

Wowsa....

You HAVE to see these pictures Rebecca of CatchlightsNW took of my kids. There are many, many more that she took and is currently editing. I can't wait to see them.

She is sooo talented and so very nice. My girls loved her and had fun.



You can see more of them on her blog...http://catchlightsnw.com/blog/. Scroll down one post or if you are like me, look at every single post.

If you're in the Portland/SW Washington area, I would highly suggest you book a session with her. Did I mention how talented she is?

the schoolroom

We cleaned up the schoolroom today so I could finally get pictures. Of course it doesn't look like this now. ;)

Here is the view from the stairs.


And from the otherside in the hallway.




And standing in front of the sliding glass door.


The chair I recovered in Michael Miller Dick and Jane fabric.


I love these curtains. I took yellow polka dot quilters fabric and bleached it to a mellow yellow and then used the back side to further mellow it out.


The kitchen that Brian built for Ellie and Grae. Molly plays with it everyday.


View going up the stairs. This is the kids gallery. It's just clipboards that we covered with decorative paper.


And there you go.

Fun outside...

We're prepping to paint the house this week (or we were when it decided to rain for the first time in months). I was taking a break and thought I would take pictures of the kids playing.



Ava's a little big for the slide.


I asked Grae if I could take his picture and he said I could take a picture of his Crocs. I really wanted a picture of his hair.


Extreme close up of Molly.


Ellie in her new dress.




The other girls being "boring" according to Ava.

Not a threat....

I noticed Grae had a penny in his mouth. I quickly went to him and told him to spit it out. He did.

Me: "Don't put money in your mouth. You might swallow it and it could get stuck in your throat. Or it will end up in your tummy and you would have to poop it out and that might hurt. Do you want to poop out pennies?"

Grae looked at the ground for a minute and then up at me with a big smile on his face.

Grae: "Yes."

Oh great, I'd better guard the change jar.

My pirate is 3

My sweet little boy is 3. I love him so much that everyday I want to just eat him up. When I tell him this, he just tells me I can eat his arm and then he can have a hook.

So what did my birthday boy want? Let's see if you can guess....yep, a pirate ship, a pirate cake, a pirate shirt, oh and a Spiderman shirt. He has no idea who Spiderman is except that his colors are red and blue.

Brian took the morning off and escorted Grae, Ellie and Ava to the Children' Museum. The even rode Max all the way there and back(our lightrail tram thing). When they arrived home, it was Grae's naptime. Then the fun began. Ava and I decorated his pirate hat cake. Maddie actually made the cake but the recipe she used made the cake crumbly. So Ava and I did the best we could and it was delicious but not very pretty.



He was thrilled and kept opening the refrigerator to see it. Like 20 times an hour. After dinner couldn't come fast enough for him.

Look at that face:


He ended up with a pirate sword and knight shield from Brian, an amazing pirate birthday card (with $15 in it) from Grandpa B and 3 birthday spankings from me. We haven't a clue where the shield ended up, the sword isn't far from him and the pirate birthday card goes under his pillow at night.

Happy Birthday Grae - please stop growing up.

We don't like Bratz

Overheard at our house:

Grae to Ellie: "Put down my pirate sword down or I'll get you a Bratz doll for your birfday."

Ellie promptly dropped it. She may have shuddered at the notion of owning one of those nasty looking dolls.

Hey, it's July!

Wow, it's July and my last blog post was June, oops. This will probably be a totally random blog post as I'll just type as I think.


First, Molly is walking! There's nothing cuter than a baby walking with their hands up in the air for balance, a big smile on their face and a staggering step. She loves this new freedom. She thinks she's quite the big girl! I do have a video of her first steps and maybe I'll get that posted later.

Graedon is such a good boy. Just yesterday I gave him a pop tart (I know but they were on sale) and I reached back in the package to give Ellie one. I turned to hand it to Ellie when I noticed that Grae had split his in half and gave one half to Ellie. So sweet. Molly has a runny nose right now and I was looking for a "snot" rag. Grae piped up, "I have one." He got it out and wiped Molly's nose for me!

He is sure to tell us if a boy hits one of his sisters, he will protect them and hit the boy and tell him to leave his sister alone. That's my boy! However he does embellish the story sometimes and tells me that he will have a flaming pirate sword and will run after the bad boy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a completely unrelated note, what's up with this? I admit that I think sposies are gross now but this is one of the most disgusting things I have seen. You change the pad at the back but leave the diaper on. Pampers claims that the moisture is pulled to the back leaving the front stay dry. How? Magic? There has to be some urine soaked in the front. I'm going to buy some stock in Desitin as this is sure to give babies/toddlers even more diaper rash. Do you know that ever since Molly has been in cloth, she has not had one diaper rash? I'm sure it's because her skin can breathe in the cotton or bamboo and we change her right after she wets.

Anyway, they are trying to promote this as a quick thing to do. Hey you don't even have to look or interact with your child to change their diapers. Wohoo! I don't know about you and your baby but Molly and I have fun at diaper changes. I sing to her, play short games and give her lots of kisses. Okay, done with that rant. ;)

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We've been having fun in school lately. I really enjoy teaching the girls. (we do school year round so no summer break). Our science curriculum is really good. It's Apologia and the Exploring Creation series. Very comprehensive but understandable. I love doing the experiments with the girls. The best thing is that it acknowledges God as creator. Very important to us as we do not seek to seperate God from our studies. That would be impossible as God made 2+2=4, as well as ordered history, made all things, created language, laws of science, etc.

I'm going to be adding an art series to our school program but I need to find a time to squeeze it in. The following may not seem like a lot but it takes all morning to get through. We don't do these all on the same day.

Right now we're doing (with links):
Saxon math 65 (Maddie and Ava)
Saxon 76 (Lauren)
Student Writing Intensive Group B (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)
Exploring Astronomy (Maddie & Ava)
Apologia General Science (Lauren)
Proverbs study (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)
Catechisms (all kids)
Veritas Press History: Ancient Greece and Rome
Beginning reading/writing (Ellie)
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)

Will be adding back Shurley Grammar 7
Lauren will be starting Traditional Logic

We just finished a world geography course and will be adding in a poetry course. There is so much more that I want to do but it's so hard with Grae, Ellie and Molly awake and roaming the house, lol.

Okay so this post was totally random and I've had to get up 4 times to tell the girls to be quiet so Grae can sleep. Off to make Bri and I some dinner or at least to dish up the low carb cheesecake ;)

Happy Birthday Molly!

Yes, Molly is one. We made it and we both survived the first year. I'll let you in on a little secret. I don't really enjoy the first 6 mths after having a baby. Don't get me wrong, I love my children dearly from the first moment I lay eyes on them (even before), and woe to anyone that comes between me and my chillin's, but if they could come out already sitting and smiling and not crying so much in the evenings, I would be set. (was that the longest run on sentence ever?)

Anyway, Molly had a few strikes against her from the get go. First, I didn't even want to be pregnant (oops) and second I wanted another boy. It's a great thing she was a great baby and being cute doesn't hurt.

So what's Molly doing now? Well she's not walking yet. I'm not sure why. All of my kids have walked by 11 months (10 months for Ellie) and certainly by their first birthday. She takes steps and she walks holding on to our hand but chooses to sit down and crawl.

She is finally wanting to eat table food but still loves to nurse. She'll say "nigh, nigh, na" when she wants to nurse. Translation: nigh-night nurse. As in what she does at nap/bedtime or anytime really. I'm loathe to wean her as it helps me lose weight. But the day will come in the next few months. I'll milk it for all it's worth (pun intended).

Here's her favorite spring pastime, having Ellie pick her peas, open them up and feed them to her.






Notice how tiny they are! The kids can't wait until they are big and plump.


Grae wanted me to take his picture. He's a knight wearing a pirate shirt.


Molly ate her birthday banana We have to call everthing that they eat on their birthday the "birthday" this and that.


And birthday tearing the couch apart playing (which they do every.single.day).


Ava made her a banana bread cake which was promptly devoured by the kids. I think Molly got a piece. We didn't get Molly anything for her birthday (bad parents). Well we did make a rather large payment to the van to help get it payed off. She rides in comfort and in semi-style so there you go.

I'm really looking forward to this year with Molly. I can't imagine life here without her. She's really fun and really, really fun to kiss and cuddle. Happy Birthday Miss Molly Kate.

A thing I never thought I would say...

To Grae:

"Don't stick bagels in between your toes."

and then even worse...

"Don't eat bagels with your feet."

What things have you said that you never thought you would have too?

Back from vacation!

We spent all last week at the beach (Garibaldi) for our church's annual Family Camp. Just picture: sleeping in nice cabins, two bathrooms (we have one bathroom here so it was a luxury, lol), all meals provided for (fresh bread at every meal), nothing to do all day except pretty much what we wanted. They did have scheduled activities for the kids. This was Grae and Molly's first family camp and they did very well.

Can you believe I didn't get any pictures? I take that back, I did get some pics in the cabin while we were waiting for the breakfast bell to ring. Want to see them?

A regular sight.


So was this. "Can I have a juice box, pleeeeease."


Molly trying to get into my lap as I was backing up trying to take her picture. Yes that is Grae's pirate sword next to her. We wouldn't dare leave it at home.


Ava following her.


Grae wanting to eat pirate cereal (Captain Crunch.)


And my big accomplishment. I cloth diapered the whole time we were there! Wohoo!




It was a very fun trip but we were so tired when we got home. We actually skipped church on Sunday and slept on and off all day. I'm caught up on the laundry so that's nice. Oh and I lost a pound while I was there. I really watched the carbs and tried to drink plenty of water. Plus we had to walk everywhere. So now to start saving $$ for next year!

Oh my...

So my last post was about how we just got over head colds and then we were hit with the stomach flu. Monday night Brian complained of his stomach hurting and within a few hours Maddie and Lauren were throwing up. The next day was Ellie's turn followed by Graedon, Molly and Ava. I was feeling pretty proud that I didn't get it when Thursday came along and I got it.

The funny (or not so funny) thing is about 20 families in our church got the same thing at the same time. Thankfully the bug is short lived and we're all feeling much better. I lost 2.5 pounds in 1 day! Not a great way to lose weight and I'm sure it will come back when I feel up to eating.

---------------------------
On another note, in an effort to remember the cute things my children say, here's one by Graedon.

We were watching the Pirates of Penzance again and the song was "how pitiful his tale, how rare his beauty...." in reference to a particularly handsome pirate with a sad story. This is repeated several times.

Graedon turned to me and said "Mommy?".

"Yes."

"Pirates don't have tails."

I had to stop and think for a moment and then agreed with him. I'm sure he didn't understand what I found so funny.

My family...

Feeling better. Last week we dealt with: viral bronchitis (Molly & Graedon), high fevers, headaches, massive head congestion, coughing and some vomiting. Should this happen in late May? I don't think so. I was certain we had left the cold/flu season behind.

Saturday was a nice day so we all went outside. None of us had much energy but Brian felt strongly that we had to get our tomatoes/zuchinni and eggplants in the ground. He wanted to divide the garden boxes by making some new boxes. And who better to help than Ellie.





She did like any self respecting carpenter would do and hit her finger.


She decided to go join Molly in the dirt.


Earlier in the week Grae was climbing in the playhouse and fell. He banged his eye pretty well but didn't seem to torn up about it. A few days after that event, the whole bottom of his eye turned black and blue. I just now got a picture of it and you can barely see it. His first black eye!


Lauren was doing what she always does.


I'm not sure what Maddie and Ava were doing. I think Ava was sleeping on the couch as she had a bad headache.

Here's Molly. Boy that kid loves being outside. I broke out my 50mm lens for these shots (I love that lens).

Bamboo velour diaper pinning tutorial

Starring the ever lovable and cute Molly.

My Boy...

"Mommy, can I marry you?"


"No Grae, I'm already married to Daddy."


"Did he hug you and marry you and kiss you like a princess?"


"Yes, something like that."

Imaginations

I came across this scene the other day....



Me: "I wonder what she's holding?"

Ellie: "Maybe it's a dead parrot."

Me: "It's not a dead parrot."

Grae: "It's a gun."

Me: "It's not a gun. She looks sad so maybe she was supposed to go to the ball but the evil stepmother wouldn't let her."

Ellie: "Yeah and now she's feeding her bird poison."

Me: "What? What shows have you been watching?"

Ellie: "None, but we could watch Cinderella 3 if you let us."

Grae: "No, let's watch 3 dog dalmation dog (101 Dalmations)."

Me: "We're not watching any movies or shows. Go play, do something fun."

And you know what? They actually did!



I love it when they play together!

An hour with Molly

Molly doesn't walk yet but she gets around very well. She has taken to exploring all over and opening any doors that she can find.

We start in the dining room:


After I said "Molly".


Next to the school room where she wanted to "help" with folding socks. These were all nice and organized before she got a hold of them.


Then reading a book.




I'm not so much trouble, mom. Look at this face...

Graedon's world...

Lauren: "Grae, do you want a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch?"

Grae: "No, I want a boy-ed cheese sandwich." He pronounces "girl", "grill."

later on...

Grae: "Oh look, it's boy-ing!" (instead of grilling).

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One of our Westminster Shorter catechism question/answers is "Who wrote the Bible?". The correct answer is "Chosen men who wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."

Graedon knows this but the "chosen men" part is abstract for him. Who are they? Sometimes they are bad guys, as in, the "chosen men" did it. The other day they were the Presidents of the United States. Grae got out our children's encyclopedia and saw a couple of pages that listed portraits of all the Presidents. He told Maddie, "look chosen men." Well I guess they are. We believe God chooses Presidents so in a way they are chosen. Just not the chosen men who wrote the Bible!

Molly again

Molly is 9 months old and finally getting fun. She's getting past the helpless-carry-me-around-all -day stage. She's an explorer and figured out she can climb the stairs. Her leg is always kicking up to climb anything.

She's still nursing full time and isn't that interested in food. She'll eat crackers or whatever her sisters are having but then wants down to crawl.

Molly loves sleeping with us at night. She goes to bed in her crib (which is at the foot of our bed) around 8:00 pm. We sneak in there, walking in slow motion around 10:30 pm. Oh so quietly do we pull the covers back and slowly slide into bed. Up pops Molly's head. She looks at us like "excuse me, didn't you forget something?" I'll nurse her and slide her up between us. She turns and grabs my pillowcase and swings her arm behind her to touch her Dad's arm and falls asleep. It's really cute but slightly annoying. At least she's not a bed hog and pretty much stays where she's at.


Here she is giving the impish look that we love.


Trying to get up on the chair.

I don't know what to title this...

So we had our gas hot water heater installed last week, a Rheem 50 gallon. Beauty isn't it. The guy that came out to install it asked if we bought the house 2 years ago in January. Uh - yes we did, why? He told me that he and his wife looked at our house and make an offer but the offer right before theirs was accepted. Oh that would be us! Gulp - was he bitter? Is he going to rig the water heater to let noxious and deadly gas permeate the house and kill us? Nope - he was great and spent 6 hours installing it. Works perfectly and we aren't dead. Yay! No more electric water heater and no more paying PGE (our energy company known by me as Pretty Greedy Energy) to suck our checking account dry heating water.


The one thing I can't resist. I really don't like ice cream but when we have this in the house, I don't stop until I feel so sick. Why do we have it in our house? Ava and I went grocery shopping and we were coming close to the ice cream aisle. I jokingly told Ava that we could get some ice cream as long as they had Tillamook Mudslide and only if it was on sale. The particular grocery store doesn't carry mudslide all the time so I thought I was safe. Uh-no. Not only did they have it but it was on sale for under $3.00. So I put it in the cart, got home and ate way to much.


Ellie is our genius. She's 4 and already reading and writing. I teach her the phonograms and help her to write the letters correctly and the girls quiz her and write words for her to read. She loves it and I love the help. Now we find little notes all over the house from her. Some make sense and some don't but it's cute.


Maddie giving me a taste of my own medicine. I made her delete the pics she took ;)

Graedon loves to talk about anatomy. He talks in a matter of fact way as Brian and I are trying not to laugh. The other day I was teaching school when Ellie ran in to the school room and yelled "Graedon's going potty standing up, he's spraying everywhere!" Maddie got there first and grabbed a towel, while I firmly told Grae that he will not stand up to go potty again. He kept saying "I'm just like Daddy, right?" So that explains why he said to me the other day "I stand up and hold my *blank* (edited so people searching for the word don't come here, but you get the drift) and go potty just like Daddy does." Spraying down the toilet isn't the worst he's done lately. He tried to go poop standing up as well. I'll spare you the picture of little nuggets flying everywhere.

Tonight he tried to convince me that God will give him "breastfeeders" when he gets older. I repeatedly told him no, only moms have them. He didn't buy it and gently patted me on the shoulder like he was sorry I wasn't as wise as he.

Learning a foreign language....

Brian decided that the girls needed to learn a foreign language. Neither of us know any (unless you count abbreviations on forums). I took 3 years of Spanish but still only remember my numbers, the alphabet and a few misc. words.

However, just because we don't know something doesn't stop us from trying, faking or making something up.

Brian: "I'm going to teach you some phrases in another language."

Girls: "Okay." Why they didn't ask which language, I don't know.

Brian: "Repeat after me....Owha tador kiam..."

Girls: "Owha tador kiam."

Brian: "Good, now faster."

Girls: "Ohwa tador kiam...Daddy!" said with much rolling of the eyes.

Well, we tried.

Back from the dead..

Well, it looks like we'll live. I wasn't so sure a few days ago. This virus is nasty and we're still pretty tired from it. In fact, around lunch time I gave Molly to Lauren because my eyes were burning. I laid on the couch and 20 minutes later woke up. Oops! I actually got the sewing machine out and worked on making diapers while the girls watched Pirates of Penzance. Have you seen that movie? Totally cheesy but enjoyable.


A sign we need to go to Disneyland? Is God using chocolate chips to tell us something? The only way we would get to Disneyland is if someone gave us some money as all of ours is currently spoken for.

The weather is starting to warm up and sometimes we see sun. With the nicer weather comes the familiar pull of home renovation. Currently I'm working on painting our tv stand, recovering some lamp shades, making school room curtains, recovering the school room chairs & peg boards and trying to save some money for a new school room rug. We're going to go with the Flor system as you can wash each square fabric tile and put it back down.


I'm also working on expanding my diaper sewing business. I've had 3 offers from stores that want to carry my products and everytime I list some on Hyena Cart, they sell out in less than a minute. My friend Bev is sewing some diapers for me and I asked another lady from my church to help out as well. Then I got sick and everything came to a halt. But since I care about life again, back to work, lol. Brian has all these crazy ideas about what I need to do, but he always does, and I largely ignore them. Not being disrespectful here, I promise. It's just when you live with an idea guy, you can't possibly implement them all. I take the good ones and just nod politely to the rest.

Anyway, Molly is trying her best to eat every single thing off the floor so I better go vacuum her mouth out. I'm kidding. Well sort of, I should probably see what's in there though.

Eat a lime

We took the kids to the Children's Musuem for a pirate party. The reason we went was Captain Bogg & Salty, the kids first pirate concert. We listen to the cd almost everyday and I actually enjoy it. Here's a link to their site and music video.



I had to make Grae a pirate outfit so I started two days before. I made the shirt and appliqued Yar on it. I also made his pirate hat and pants. The pants are sailor style with buttons on the sides. Buttons that Graedon picked out and made sure I sewed on.



Here are some pics from the museum that Lauren took.







Graedon's favorite, the crocodile from Peter Pan ;)



This is before the concert. No pictures turned out during the concert because of poor lighting.



He was really excited by the concert and fell asleep several times. After the concert he met Captain Bogg and shook "hooks" with him. He wanted to stay and chat but we had to get Brian to work.

It was fun and exhausting. Grae and Molly took really long afternoon naps that day which was my favorite part.

Nice boy...

After tonights dinner and I got out the "nice" chocolate to split with all the family. Graedon and I were in the living room and the rest of the family were in the school room. I carefully broke up 6 pieces and asked Graedon if he would go hand them out.

His response..."no, I'm not a nice boy." He wanted all the chocolate for himself!

He did hand them out, stuffed his chocolate in his mouth and then came back to ask for more. Who do you think got another piece when no one else did?

Sometimes I struggle...

I noticed that lately when I sit around on the floor and watch my kids play, I feel a slight resentment. Like I should be doing something better with my life. Like I'm just wasting time and could be doing the laundry, sewing, working on my websites.

I didn't feel this way when my first 3 were small. I sat around with them and played and didn't think twice about it. I also didn't have 3 business to run, a house to clean and homeschooling to do.

Nevertheless, I tell myself that I'm a stay at home mom for a reason. I don't want someone else raising my kids. I don't want to miss the firsts. I would miss my kids and do enjoy being around them all day (for the most part). They are so creative and make me so proud everyday. But I also feel happy to have my businesses. To chat with other moms with the same interests and feel like I'm providing some great services, whether to help spotlight work at home children's clothing designers or make some super squishy diapers, it's important to me.

I guess I just need to focus on the fact that my kids are only small for such a short time and I want to enjoy them. To not get upset when I'm laying on the floor and they are crawling and jumping all over me and I have other "work" to do. To stop and watch the beautiful children God gave me. I know I will want these days back when they are all grown up.

So there...my struggle put into words. I already feel better and ready to face tomorrow. I hope it's sunny and we can go for a walk together. Who cares about the laundry ;) it won't go anywhere.

Things I love...

I love the girls working together - and even better when cookies are in my future.


I love when Ava plays with Ellie - I'm not so sure that Ellie loves it.


I love that my little boy is growing up - but I'm sad too.


I love Lost (Ben & Locke are my favorite characters) and love that it's on tonight!


I love seeing Brian's car in the driveway because that means he's home and things feel whole again.

Happy Valentines Day.

Me and my Molly (at almost 8 mths old)

Uh-oh, I've been spotted.


Here she comes (she can crawl now).


Sitting in my lap and trying to grab the camera strap.

What we got in the mail today...

Yay! We got a package. I wonder what's in it.


Shredded newspaper?


A cloth bag?


Let's open the bag...


Red worms! I put them in an old Lego box.


Grae wasn't too sure about them and especially when his sister told him to touch them.


The worms are currently in my mud room and will have a permanent home outside in our compost box.

Ummm, okay?

They called it Bahamas.

Hi

This greeted me when I went to get some ice cubes from the freezer. 6 Playmobil people stuck in the ice and apparently on a Disneyland ride.

Anyway, we spent all day Saturday fighting Molly's 104 degree fever. Tylenol and Advil weren't making a dent in it. From 11 pm until 4 am, Molly cried and didn't seem to know where she was. She only wanted to be held so we took turns. Finally Sunday morning came and we decided to call our doctor. 104 seemed rather high. She told us to take Molly to the ER as she didn't have any other symptoms except the fever. Off we went.

They checked her out and decided to do a Urinary Tract Infection test. This involves putting a plasic bag on her to catch her pee. Fun stuff. After 1 hour with only a few drops, I grabbed Graedon and said "let's pray". So we prayed. "Dear Jesus, please help Molly to go potty. Open the flood gates so we can go home. Amen". Grae said a hearty "amen" and then started yelling, "Molly go potty, Molly go potty." :)

She did go potty and four hours later we were released and told it was probably viral and not a UTI or kidney infection. They told us to double the dose of tylenol and advil and that finally brought her fever down. In fact, it broke that night and now she's cool and back to normal.

I'm getting ready to write some posts about cloth diapering. Like Cloth Diapering 101. From what is a prefold to how do I wash wool....and all in pictures, lol. Stayed tuned.

What are you talking about?

I have no idea, but you sure are cute.

What happens during school...

I was teaching school at the dining room table a few days this week as our school room was getting moulding and new blue paint. It's done now (note to self: take pics) but wanted to show you what the house looks like when Grae is left to his own devices.


I have my computer and printer out as I was doing some cloth diaper shipping. He didnt touch those. But I do notice that Ellie's prized christmas doll from Grandpa B is thrown to the ground. Grae's pirate sword is laying nearby...hmm.

Here's where I found him. Looking outside. He built a pirate ship. Looks like a row of chairs to me, but he was insistent is was his ship. He did clean up his mess (well most of it. I think he talked Maddie into "helping" him)

Our morning in pictures...

This is my third blog post in one day!


Molly in her pirate 'kerchief.


Ellie is Mary and is holding baby Jesus.


Graedon is a superhero. Not sure how that fits in with the pirate, Mary, baby Jesus theme.


And look who's trying to crawl at 6 mths!


Scar face. We don't know how he got this and neither does he.

11 things about Maddie....

Happy 11th birthday Maddie Joy. Here are 11 things I observed about you.

Maddie with her birthday present, Vmigo the handheld virtual dog game, that she hasn't put down all day.

1. You are patient and kind.
2. You would be an excellent vegetarian, well if you could skip the veggies and just eat bread and sugar.
3. You love your freckles and blue eyes and are happy you look like me.
4. You figure out electronics and video games faster than any of us.
5. You just want to help everyone even if they don't want your help and kick and scream for you to leave them alone.
6. Any chance you get, you pick up Graedon and sometimes he even pretends he's a baby so you will snuggle him closer.
7. When you were born we wondered why we named you Madeline Joy as you were always crying but when you were 6 mths old you became our sunshine. We had you convinced your name was Maddie Joy Sunshine.
8. You love dogs as long as they aren't real or you have to take care of them.
9. You have a very difficult time waiting for anything.
10. You're becoming a great cook and make some mean chocolate chip cookies.
11. The family would not be the same without you.

He gets anything he wants...

Grae has me wrapped around his finger. I guess I better admit it. That boy just melts my heart. Look at that face (two posts down). We went grocery shopping tonight and passed by the candy aisle. Candy was not on my list. Grae casually mentioned wanting some and then said that "sisters would like it". Since he was so philanthropic about it I bought a bag. I would not have done that with the girls. (for the record, he also wanted donuts and I said no.)

I don't let him get away with being disobedient or disrespectful but the little things like a cookie before lunch somehow slips past me ;)

Guess who's getting a tooth?

Too cute...

Really a little busy...

I'm so busy right now, along with the rest of you! Tonight is the church Christmas play and all the girls are in it. That means 4 costumes! Just finishing up Ellie's today. Ava was an angel last year and so Ellie will be wearing Ava's old costume. I just need to shorten it and we'll be good to go.

Lauren is leaving after the play to spend the weekend with two of her best friends. They go to our church so she'll be delivered to us on Sunday. What will it be like without her for 2 days? We'll see!

My laptop screen died and we thought it would be $400 to fix it (as the local fix it shop told Brian), however we found a brand new one on eBay for $158 shipped. It should be here on Tuesday. Brian can install it.

So I had better get to Ellie's costume while Molly is sleeping. You know the minute I sit down to sew she'll wake up ;)

Another overheard at my house...

Grae is passionate about clementines. He eats about 6 of them a day.

Maddie: "Grae, it's breakfast time."
Grae: "No, it's lemontime (clementine)".

We also listen to him talk about paki. We have no idea who or what paki is. One day he's a puppet that lives outside in a paki house and now he's on cookie dough. I wish we knew what on earth Grae is talking about. 2 year olds are sooo fun!

Overheard at our house....

Ellie: "Daddy, do you like cream cheese?"
Brian: "On occasion."
Ellie: "No, do you like it on toast?"

See what we've been up too.

Come check out the photo tutorials my daughters have been doing for Journal Modiste's Handmade Holidays!

http://www.journalmodiste.com/index.cfm?page=tutorials.

Also I'm starting a new venture/business: http://www.pbellie.com

Still a pirate...

Grae is still obsessed with pirates. Every boat he sees is a pirate ship. Anyone who carries a sword is a pirate. He even knows the term scallywag. Here he is talking to me about Captain Hook and fighting or something.

I'm teaching Ellie and Grae the Westminster Shorter Catechism (kid friendly version) and one question is "Who is God". The correct answer is "God is a Spirit and doesn't have a body like men." Grae answered Captain Hook. Now I'm hoping in his little 2 year old mind that he meant, God is in control and not God is an evil villian who wears a peg leg and a hook.

We also prayed. He was to repeat after me. I start: "Dear Jesus, thank you that I.." He repeats: "Dear Jesus, thank you that eyepatch..." I couldn't even finish I was laughing so hard.

Now pirates aren't the most wholesome thing for Grae to get attached too. We'll gradually try to encourage him to explore acutal heros but for now it's just fun!

Ask and you shall receive

Maddie asked Graedon (2 yrs) what he wanted for lunch, to which he relpied "no."

So Ava made him this:

Glasses

Both Ava and Lauren need reading glasses. Guess how much I had to pay? $200? Nope. $100? Nope. $50? Nope. I paid $20 each for them. Insurance came through this time!

Lauren and the Dr. picked out her glasses. Ava and I picked out hers. Ava really wanted purple frames but they didn't have any. This is the closest we got. Green with some purple in them.

Oh and I never call them four eyes in school, 'cause you know, that would be immature. Ahem...

A poop day....

Wool knit longies by Brandy's Boutique

So most days lately are what I would term "bad". I think it is because my expectations of what I want to accomplish are too high and when I don't get through my list, I feel defeated. When all Molly wants to do all day is be held, it's frustrating to me. It shouldn't be, afterall I'm a stay at home mom so I can be with the kids. But still...

On Friday Molly decided to poop. She's a once a week pooper and boy did she save it up. I had just put her new wool longies on her so of course she would have to blow out. I have to hand wash the wool (which I actually like) but it takes the wool pants about 3 days to dry.

Anyway, I didn't know she was going to poop when I put them on her. She had a cloth diaper prefold on underneath, no diaper cover. I was watching the kids eat their lunch when I heard Molly make these strange choking sounds. She was in my lap at the time and I turned her around to see what was wrong. Nothing. She made them again and then I heard the first of what was about 5 explosions. I'm thinking, "uh-oh, hope the prefold holds."

Finally the choking noise stopped and was replaced with a smile. She must be done. I go and peel off her pants and notice yellow mustardy poop EVERYWHERE...on her longies, on her legs, up her back. This was no runny poop but thick peanutbutter poop. Too much information? Yeah well at least I didn't take a picture.

I decided instead of using all my cloth wipes that I would get most of it off and hose her off in the tub. Problem is that is was past Graedon's naptime and he was bouncing off the walls. Well, it couldn't be avoided, he would have to wait 10 minutes. I started the bath water and put Molly in her bath seat. Graedon showed up and started peeling off his clothes and before I could tell him no, he jumped in the tub. Oh man...the water was turning a pale yellow from the leftover poop and I didn't want Grae in there. Oh, it gets better. Grae gets a very serious look on his face and says he went potty. AHHHHHH....so I drain the tub, run some fresh water, finish up the bath, get them dressed, put Grae down for his nap, feed Molly, put her to bed and try to figure out if I was going to laugh or cry. I called Brian and he laughed for me.

Hey I haven't blogged in awhile so it may as well be about poop, eh?

Hardly time to write....

Hey, I'm alive, tired but alive. Let's see what's been going on. Graedon's sick, Molly's sick. Gradeon is grouchy, Molly is grouchy. We went up to the church nursery to play after the service was over and I think that was a mistake. I used to take Ellie and Grae up there and every Wednesday they would have the sniffles. I forgot and did it last Sunday and now Grae and Molly have full blown nasal congestion. Ugh...

Ava and Lauren both have reading glasses now. I'll get a picture of them sporting their four-eyes. Brian went in and bought new glasses but thankfully his prescription didn't change. No change in 5 years is great!

Ellie used the word 'realistically' in a sentence correctly which surprised me greatly. She is more than ready to start learning to read but I keep putting it off. I can barely keep up with the girls school work. Ava wants to teach her so I think I'll let her start introducing the phonograms to her.

The girls are taking over more of the dinner preparation. Last night Lauren made the beef-barley soup and Maddie made the bread (in the bread maker). I didn't have to do anything, which was good because I was dealing with a sick Molly.

Ava claimed she had short term memory loss in school and then she answered a question twice. I told her she just said that and she replied, "oh I forgot". ;)

I've been getting up at 6:30ish a.m. and going for a 1.5 mile walk around the neighborhood. I'm enjoying it very much. It's nice not to have to carry someone or push a stroller. And I get to spy on all the neighbors remodeling projects.

The girls and I got out all of their fall clothes this week and made a count of who needs what. Ellie has two dresses. Oops. So I'm going to sit down and make a plan of mix and match outfits I can sew. Ava ended up with all of Maddie's clothes and Maddie ended up with a few of Lauren's clothes. So I need to go shopping for Lauren. She is almost as tall as I am and doesn't fit into girl clothes anymore. It's a struggle to find modest clothing for a 12 year old.

Speaking of Lauren, she attended a 6.5 hour Red Cross babysitter's course on Saturday. It was the first time she was gone by herself for that long. Brian dropped her off (it's 5 minutes away) and it was weird not to see Lauren walk in the door. She loved it and we're looking into more classes she can take.

Well Molly is screaming now so I'll go attend to her.

Miss Molly Blue

Molly at 14 weeks.

Oh and just in case you're wondering what Brian brought home for my worst morning ever...no chocolate...no fabric....no paint samples....but dinner!

Yeah!

Guess who got a shoutout at Kiddlins today?

Yep, Molly and I!



http://www.kiddlins.com/

That kind of day...

Have you ever had that kind of day...the day where nothing goes right and it's only 12:00 pm and you have the worst headache of your life?

Where 4 of your 6 kids have spent the morning crying and/or throwing tantrums until you want to walk out the door and not come back for hours. Where one boy wants chocolate and you are more than willing to give some to him just so that he will be quiet for two seconds so you can teach some science to the girls but he won't say please and just keeps demanding it over and over again. First you try to ignore his tantrum, then move on to spankings, all the while trying to keep Molly happy and quiet. Finally after 1 1/2 hours of crying about various things (sorry you finished reading that book and there are no more pages to look at) I stuff said boy with chicken nugget dinosaurs and send him outside.

Meanwhile Molly wants to take a nap but won't settle down so we walk and walk while teaching mixed whole numbers and improper fractions, pausing long enough to switch shoulders because an arm is very likely to fall off it's so tired of holding a 14lb chunk.

Just when you think it might be quiet so you can go gulp down some wine water, your oldest (who rarely cries) is crying because she just started a new math book and doesn't understand the problems. What she is really crying about is that this new math book will take her longer to finish the problems and more brain power, hence she doesn't like it. You tell her to suck it up and get cracking because life is about work and isn't fun so get used to it. Okay well you didn't really tell her that. You really said something encouraging and told her if she needed help to just ask.

Now it is quiet, 2 advil are down the pipe, Molly is asleep, Grae & Ellie are playing outside, it is t-minus 5 minutes until the boy's naptime and things are looking up. Maybe your husband will read this post and bring home something special for you tonight, maybe something involving chocolate or fabric or paint samples? I'm just saying...

Ava

Lauren found a broken cd during school. She showed one half of it to her sisters. Ava, being a nitwit witty, said "Oh no, now only half the songs will play."

She sure makes life fun around here.

Would would Alice wear?

Our eBay sewing group, the Clovergirls, decided to do a Wonderland launch. Since I can't make costumes (I'm really not creative enough), I did a What Would Alice Wear On A Fall Day Before Going Down The Rabbit Hole For Her Long Adventure outfit.



You can check out more pics here: My auction...

My pink princess

A new gown on eBay. I made the hat and it about killed me. I probably went through a yard of fabric just testing it out, lol.



Link:
http://tinyurl.com/yuea25

What I've been up to...

Just got back from Maddie's vision screening and she doesn't need glasses. To say she is relieved is an understatement. She's thrilled. Lauren went in for her screening last week and we found out she needs prescription reading glasses. Fortunately our insurance covers hardware up to $250 so we won't have to pay anything out of pocket. Ava's screening is Thursday so we'll see what she needs.

Molly is 3 months old now and I really need to get some pictures of her. Hopefully by the end of this week. That girl will be crawling by the times she's 5 mths. I can't leave her on the bed alone or she will scoot herself right off.

Oh and a big hooray. I just paid off two of our 5 medical bills! It feel so great. 3 more to go (and they are the bigger ones). I thought I ran out of things to sell on eBay but then I find a box here or there will stuff we don't need.

I was sewing on Saturday while Molly took her long nap and Grae, Maddie and Brian were running errands. There is a soccer field pretty much right behind our house and I could hear a girls soccer game. The parents were cheering, the referee's whistle blowing, the coaches, well, coaching. One thing that bothered me though was a male coach (at least I think he was the coach), yelling at the girls. I don't mean encouraging, "go get 'em" yelling but borderline abusive yelling. It really upset me.

I played sports when I was a kid. Basketball, baseball and softball. I know the excitement that a coach feels during a game but since when did it become okay for a man to yell at girls like that? Why didn't the parents step in and tell him to cool off? What kind of example does it set for the kids? Well, it's just a game, he's really nice in real life...NO I don't buy it. If it was just a game, why act like it is the most important thing in the world? I hope he doesn't act that way at home with his wife and daughters. Get a life coach.

Update on cloth diapering

I.LOVE.IT!!! I am really enjoying cloth diapering Molly. We use prefolds, a Snappi and a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap during the day. During her long nap I also stuff a Cotton Babies microfleece insert.

Still using disposables at night but that will change when I get my fleece soaker, the Stacinator, great name ;) It should come this week. Lauren is also going to knit Molly some wool longies, like these, to wear at night over her prefold. Aren't they cute?!

I'm so glad we aren't putting disposables on her all day. I like knowing that we can just wash her diapers and not have to throw them away. I also like that she wears cotton and not chemicals on her bottom. I'm going to be switching Graedon over to cloth soon. Maybe it will help him to potty train faster if he feels the wetness. I'm not so excited about changing his poopy diapers. Yuck. But at least it is only once a day and I can put a flushable liner in it.k