I wonder what God thinks about little kids pretending to be Jesus crucified. I think the Easter story really stuck with my 3-year-old this year. We used the “Resurrection Eggs” every night for less than two weeks and she still tells me the Easter story. I’m so glad that she is hiding these stories in her heart.

My oldest girl was proudly nursing her baby doll the other day. I must be doing a good job of being discreet because her brother said that the milk was from her belly. Close but not quite! I am a little bit surprised this hasn’t happened before.

My son said, “Well, you don’t have to be so rude!” When I said that I couldn’t stand someone. Parenting fail. . . James and I both laughed out loud. What made even better was when he scolded James for laughing.

The kids break out their costumes and it is not rare to have a penguin or a chicken running around. The chicken was rather upset when Daddy said that if it didn’t lay an egg it was going to be cooked for dinner. It started “laying” all kinds of random things, including a tomato and a dinosaur. I wish it would lay golden eggs! That would be a special chicken! Robin Hood, who VERY often is confused with Batman’s sidekick, and even Superman made appearances. I called into question Superman’s hero status due to the number of times I had to help him tie on his cape!

Isabel used a pair of toy tweezers to work on James.  She would just touch  his finger or his toes, but over and over James yelled “Ouch!” and she giggled and squealed in delight.

Isabel put a bracelet in a lunch tote that we use just for playing and she pretended to leave. She went around the living room and gave everyone a pat on the head or a pat on the arm and said, “Bye, bye,” with a wave and a smile.  She walked into the kitchen and then come back and repeat the process over again.

I went to close one of the kitchen drawer and accidentally pitched two of Isabel’s finger. (That girl is always under foot!) Eliana proceeded to tell me “You’re fired!” Just to make sure I understood she explained, “Fired means you don’t work here any more.”  She might think she is the boss but I am glad that she is not my boss.

These are just a few examples of yesterday’s entertainment.

It’s time for another photo comparison and a confession. I don’t think these kids will be able to deny that they are siblings!  You can click on the photo above to look at a bigger version. I wonder if you can tell these kids apart!  These are photos of each of my kids around 4 months old while they are playing in the Exersaucer. (For those of you who don’t know what an Exersaucer is, it’s an activity center for babies with a seat that swivels 360 degrees.) I’m impressed that our Exersaucer has made it through being used by four kids already.

I confess I have gotten my kids’ baby photos mixed up before. I thought I was looking at one kid’s baby photos when it was another one of my babies! It makes me very thankful that my photos are digital and that the files have dates on them. Back in days of film and prints I would have to write on the prints or negative sleeves to know when they were taken. You can probably guess how much time I would have for that now! I love these kids and I love comparing their photos. They make  Mommy smile.

I was listening to a sermon online and the pastor was speaking about gratitude and how it can’t be based on our circumstances. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the ups and downs of life. Every single day people face all kinds of hardships. The loss of a family member. Sickness. The loss of a job.  The loss of a baby. The loss of a relationship. On the flip side, every single day people experience all kinds of joys. Time spent with family and friends. Spring break. A new home. Hitting the gym. Laughter.  A new baby. A new job. A wedding.  These are just some examples from my Facebook news feed!

While singing to the boys at bedtime the other night, I noticed a sticker on the snout of my son’s piggy bank. It was 1 Thessalonians 5:18. I looked up the verse and found some good advice for all of life’s ups and downs. This is verses 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” I pray that whether you are up or down and even if you are some where in between you can keep rejoicing, praying and giving thanks.

*Warning* Skip the following paragraph if vomit stories make you ill.

There was one night one kid was standing beside me upset and crying. The next thing I know he started coughing. He gagged, and threw up pink flavored water and mucous all over his little sister’s shirt and pants, while she was sitting on the floor in front of him minding her own business. She instantly started yelling, crying, wildly flailing her arms and kicking her legs. He told his sister, “Sorry,” in the most pitiful voice ever. She did not come back with her usual carefree “That’s okay, accidents happen.” I must confess that I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. It was like a scene out of a movie. After the initial shock and horror was over,  I was able to calm my daughter down and give her a bath, and my husband helped my son clean up the floor.

During this storm of sickness I have found several things that make me thankful. I’m thankful for my washer and dryer, even though I loathe doing laundry for my family of seven. I don’t know how many times I have had to do an extra load of laundry to wash sheets because of someone throwing up in their bed, or having an accident. I can’t imagine not having a washer and dryer with sick kids. I’m thankful that our doctor, who has eight kids of his own, was so understanding when I kept calling to request antibiotics. I’m thankful for the healing power of breast milk, which I ended up using on a couple of the kids when they had pink eye. I’m also thankful for disinfecting wipes and spray to help me combat the germs!  I’m thankful that my baby sleeps through the night when it seems like a different kid wakes up in the middle of the night every night!

The latest victim is yours truly with a nasty tummy bug.  You know that near-death and completely drained of all energy feeling that you get when you haven’t eaten anything all day long?  That is how I felt yesterday. Thank God today has been a much better day!

There have been days when I felt like I was at the end of my rope and that if one more kid got sick that I would lose it.  Now we are sharing colds.

I know God loves us and cares for us. My prayer tonight is, “Lord, come quickly and heal my family.  Protect us from all nasty germs! Surely we can’t be sick forever and this too shall pass. Thank you in advance for what you are going to do. Amen.”  I am confident that He is listening to my prayers and the prayers of those who will pray with me for my family!

In my mind I really did think about telling James to put the stroller in the back of the van. I just didn’t do it. We got within 2 minutes of the mall when I realized my mistake and I was less than thrilled about the idea of carrying the baby around in her car seat. We ended up going to two other stores instead of the mall.

James had a hole in one of his socks, but instead of telling him so I told him, “You have a sock in your hole.”

My phone rang the other day and I tried to flip my phone open. I haven’t had a flip phone in years.

More than once, (I’m too embarrassed to say how many times) I have put the jelly away in the cabinet instead of the refrigerator and the next day I had to convince very disappointed children to eat something else instead of, “Peanut Butter Jelly Time.”

I went to the grocery store and got all the way to the checkout before I realized that I did not have my wallet. Thankfully the store is only a few minutes away and they held my groceries for me while I went home to get my wallet.

Sometimes my mom comes over to stay with my kids so I can go to the grocery store. I pick up a few things for her while I’m out and I almost always manage to forget one thing. This wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that she gives me a list EVERY single time!

I called the doctor to make an appointment. After asking my daughter’s name the receptionist asked for her birth date. I said it was 12/21/2012. I was really embarrassed when the receptionist asked if could it be 2011. I tried to blame it on the time of day.

Heating a cup of milk in the microwave:
Step 1. Get a cup out of the cabinet.
Step 2. Pour milk into the cup.
Step 3. Press the 30 second quick-start button 3 times.
Step 4. Walk away.
When I came back into the kitchen my cup of cold milk was sitting on the stove top because I completely forgot to put my cup into the microwave.

On my birthday last year someone asked me how old I am and I had to do the math!

I sent one of my helpers to the bathroom to get the baby wipes box. He came back and said that he couldn’t find the wipes. They were right at my feet and my foot was touching the box!

Maybe it is because of sleep-deprivation. Maybe it’s hormonal imbalance. Maybe it is evidence that I try to do too many things at one time! Maybe it’s all the kids that I have! I know that I am not getting any younger and I hate to think about the things that I will end up doing or not doing because I can’t think straight. Whatever combination of causes there are for, “Mommy brain” I know I have it. I am trying to deal with it by laughing at myself. If I don’t laugh I might cry and sometimes I do cry.

Do you or someone you know suffer from “Mommy Brain?”

This year on Valentine’s Day I want to tell the world . . . I love my husband James with all my heart!

Here’s a photo of him that I absolutely love.

No, I didn’t get him an Angry Bird’s pig for Valentine’s Day. This photo is from Andy’s recent birthday party and we were cracking up at how excited Andy was about this gift.

Let me list some of the many other reasons why I love James.

James loves to laugh! He makes me laugh, I make him laugh, our kids laugh at us, and our kids make us laugh.  Laughter fills our house on a regular basis.  Laughter and love go hand in hand!

He is my very best friend on this Earth.

We can talk about anything and everything. Before either of us saw the other as a potential spouse we spent hours talking about things. More than 10 years later we still keep the lines of communication open!

James  is the most selfless and caring person I know. He will go out of his way to help me and to help others.

We have the same philosophy about life and love.

We share a love for God and a passion to serve God.

We are so much better at growing and maturing in our faith because we do it together!

He works hard to provide for the needs of our family.

We share a brood of wonderful little people.

We aren’t perfect, but we are perfect for each other.

I hope that today you are able to show the ones that you love how much you care about them!

After Andy’s front tooth fell out this week his smile made James and I laugh out loud. He had lost his two bottom front teeth already, but it was not terribly noticeable when he smiled.  This guy is doing great in school and we’re so proud of how he is learning and growing.

Joshua has been between wanting to be totally independent and still wanting help with everything.  One minute he is telling us that he doesn’t need our help brushing his teeth and the next minute he is asking if we can help him put on his shoes or cover him up.  He loves his baby sister and he asks multiple times a day if I can take a picture of him holding Danielle. Miss Danielle is already 7 weeks old.  It seems like it was just a few days ago that we brought her home from the hospital.  She is holding her head up more. She’s starting to smile. She’s outgrowing her newborns clothes and diapers. She’s sleeping for longer stretches at night. Her eyes are still blue and her dark hair is growing back in.  She has a little cry with a minute or two pause before the next cry which tells me that she not too upset.  It’s a little bit like getting an early warning before she gets really upset. Usually the problem is that she needs  a diaper change, a new bib or she’s hungry. Sometimes she is just bored and wants a change of scenery.  With each one of the kids it seems that they grow and change much more quickly than their siblings before them.

Isabel has been adjusting to not being the baby in the house.  She’s been cutting 6 teeth at once, four of which are molars.  Before I realized she was teething actually took her to the doctor because she was drinking all the time and I thought she might be diabetic!  Her vocabulary is growing daily and she constantly amazes us with the words that she says. We still affectionately (most of the time) call her “Baby-zilla,” because of her tendency to destroy things, to take things that don’t belong to her, and to cause general messes where ever she goes. Sometimes I put her into the playpen instead of Danielle to give everyone a break from her!

Miss Eliana is as sassy as ever.  She gets frustrated easily and wears her heart on her sleeve.  She is progressing nicely with being potty trained.  Her expanding collection of stuffed animals has caused her to fall out of bed more than once.  If you have any ideas, suggestions or stories to help us convince her to move her toys off of her bed they are more than welcome!  She cries and cries even if we move her animals to the foot of her bed.  She wants all of them and she is absolutely broken-hearted if we put them into the toy buckets that we have just for animals.

Today Eliana said to me, “You got a lot of kids!” I responded by saying, “Yes, 5 kids is a lot!”  I will be the first one to confess that I get overwhelmed sometimes, but my kids are a tremendous blessing to me! While the kids grow and change, so do I.

What’s more fun than being awakened from a dream-filled sleep by a crying 1-year-old and a crying 5-week-old baby? Putting the 1-year old in your bed and then changing and nursing the five-week-old

What’s more fun than being awakened from a dream-filled sleep by a crying 1-year-old and a crying 5-week-old baby, putting the one-year old in your bed and changing and nursing the five-week-old? Having the five-week-old super soak herself and you in spit-up so that an outfit change is required for both you and the baby.

What’s more fun than being awakened from a dream-filled sleep at 2:30 in the morning by a crying 1-year-old and a 5-week-old baby, putting the one-year old in your bed, changing and nursing the five-week-old, being super-soaked and changing outfits? The fact that at 4 a.m. the 5-week-old is finally asleep again but I’m wide awake and typing this blog.

Now it’s time to get the 1-year-old back into her own bed! Seven o’clock is fast approaching!