Adventures

I love so many things about this photograph. I love the flat pumpkin that Miss E named Joe last fall. It was the one and only pumpkin that grew on our vine last year and we have had fun watching it decay. I love the baby’s bare feet because she completely hates wearing shoes. I love the purple sweatshirt over lime green t-shirt. I love the one pink sock and one gray and purple sock. I love that one little lock of Mr A’s hair that will not lay down. Mostly I love that these little people belong to me.

You never know what will happen in a days adventure. I had them all sit on the front step of our house because some one locked us out of the house after they went in to use the restroom. The identity of the offender still has yet to be disclosed. We waited on my parents to come and let us back into the house. It was a super nice day and I had left one of the living room windows opened. I’m convinced that I could have gotten one of the kids into the window if my parents had not been available to let us back into the house.

Babies Don’t Keep

I found a Lego creation on a shelf in my bedroom before bed time. When I took it back to the boys’ room they informed me that they had built it for their Daddy.  They told me that it’s a tank with a German flag on it. We talked about how Lego creations are not meant to last forever and A said “We should take a picture of it. That way we can keep it.”

You’d think his Mommy was a photographer or something. I definitely think of photographs as a way to “keep” something.

Andy turned 7 today, and I once again I am reminded that kids don’t “keep.” It seems like just yesterday I met him for the very first time. My little boy isn’t a baby any more, but I am so thankful that I took these photos of him to I can remember his first days and months.

I love this quote by Ruth Hamilton:

Cleaning and scrubbing will wait ’till tomorrow, but children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs! Dust go to sleep! I’m rocking my baby. Babies don’t keep.

He’s growing up. He loves Star Wars and Angry Birds. He is very inquisitive and  wants to know everything about the world around him. He loves to read. He’s caring and kind-hearted. He’s the best big brother ever. It’s okay that babies don’t keep, but I wish they wouldn’t grow up so quickly. 

It’s Snowing! Christmas is Coming!

It isn’t snowing in Muncie, Indiana but it is snowing on my blog. It is just another reminder that Christmas is almost here. At church been hard at work on the Christmas program that I helped to write and direct. “Holy Night Bible Trivia” is a game show about the real meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ left heaven to be born as a baby, so that he could live and walk among us. He died and rose from the dead so that we could have our sins forgiven and live forever. Since I became a mom I have really thought a lot about this baby Jesus and how much love it must have taken for God to send his child to the world. That is a lot of love!

Immanuel means God with us. God is with us even now.  Let me count the ways that He is with me. We had several friends travel an hour or more to surprise my husband for his birthday. We celebrated on my girls turning four and another turning one with family. My macbook is alive thanks to my friend. Most of my kids and my husband are on the mend after fighting sickness and I have yet to be sick. My baby is fussy and feverish but she is resting peacefully for now. I have tons of laundry to wash and put away, but this morning my two boys worked together to put their own laundry away. Our Christmas program is only a week away but it is coming together quite nicely.  Just in the past couple weeks I have done 3 different photography or Photoshop jobs. I found out a camera is on it’s way to me from Hawaii so that I can use it to trade up for a new set of camera equipment. My dad came to church three services in a row. I won $25 off a canvas gallery print and a 12 pack of Coke.  Friends of ours gave us a 4 gallon bucket of Tide!  I am almost done with my Christmas shopping.  It has been raining and not snowing here in Indiana, but I am sure that will change, because the weather here is constantly changing. The list goes on and on and Christmas isn’t even here yet!  God is here indeed and I am thankful for all of the blessings he has given to me and my family.

When I Grow Up

It all started when Andy asked, “Do you think I will be a paleontologist when I grow up?” He watches a lot of the PBS show “Dinosaur Train.” I told him that he can be a paleontologist if he wants to, but he might change him mind when he gets older.  He started to get upset and protested, “I don’t want to change my mind!” I started sharing with him all the things that I wanted to be when I was growing up.  Several light bulbs went on in my head as I was sharing my list of all the things that what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I wanted to be a teacher. I have been a teacher; A day care teacher. A Sunday School teacher. Being a mom is the toughest and yet the most rewarding teaching job EVER!

I wanted to be a Mommy. I always thought I’d have 2 kids. TWO! In case you don’t know, I have 5 kids!

I wanted to be a veterinarian. Okay, I have never actually been a vet but I did a short stint as an assistant at a local Vet’s office.

I wanted to be a pediatrician. Does the name Dr. Mom ring a bell? If years of experience count toward a PhD then I am pretty sure I can cross pediatrician off my list.

I wanted to be a missionary to runaways after going on a mission trip to Alaska and meeting teenage runaways.  I used to have a full-time job working with teenage runaways.

I wanted to be a photographer. I am a photographer. Check out my photography blog for some of my latest work.

I don’t know why I had not thought of this before but I’ve done or am currently doing every single thing I ever wanted to do! It is absolutely amazing to realize that God knew all the things that I wanted to do and he made a way for me to do them. I wonder what else I will be when I grow up.

Psalm 37:4 says,

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 

My Birthday

I don’t remember how many times my kids said, “Happy Birthday Mommy!” My birthday was a good day, not because it was a perfect day, but because it was my day. I woke up to smiles, hugs, and kisses! My sister came over and brought two of my nephews and a birthday cake. My wonderful husband went to the grocery store and he made lunch and dinner.  I took some photos and I even let the kids take turns taking a few photos, so that I could remember my birthday.  (Andy was so proud that his other sister was also in our photo, too bad it was only the back of her head!) We watched the movie Ratatouille. One of my nephews made me a rocket! In my 33 years I can’t say that I’ve ever gotten a rocket for my birthday, let alone a rocket that says Aunt Michelle on it!

I took the kids outside and it was a little bit of a fiasco because no one wanted to get together for a photo of everyone together a the baby cried every time I tried to put her down, and then one kid was dragging his sister by the arm through the grass.  One kid didn’t want to go inside so I suggested she hold her brother’s hand. It was super sweet because that made her come running, because she loves holding her big brother’s hand! One kid is the most happy-go-lucky soul that I know. All the world can be chaos and he can sit back and relax. He gets that from his Dad!

Some parts of my birthday were not much fun. There was another blue streamer incident. (I promise I do not feed my child Smurfs!) We had our daily arguments about cleaning up toys. We had a talk about why we don’t say, “We need to get rid of her,” when we talk about our sibling. I figured out the hard way that there are more than a few things that I should not say out loud to my children because they will repeat what I say.  I still had to take out the trash, vacuum the living room, and do some laundry. Even when it wasn’t fun I was still able to find joy in the day!  In looking through photos from my birthday I found a few other photos that I have been meaning to post. I hope you can find something to enjoy and to be thankful for each and every day . . . especially on your birthday. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Random Ramblings

What is wrong with people? These days I seem to have a running list of people who drive me absolutely crazy. I have decided that instead of trying to figure out what is wrong with people that I really just need to pray for them. They need to be loved the same as everyone else needs to be loved. That whole “love your neighbor” commandment, that is pretty hard when it comes to people who are hard to love. God loves everyone. You reading this sentence right now, God loves Y-O-U.

I love that school is out for the summer. We trying to get into a grove of getting out and about, but we have had a set back of sickness yet again. I keep joking that James has the plague, but he has been sick for more than a month. For now it seems he just has a cold. Every single one of the kids has gotten the cold as well, but everyone is on the mend.  I feel a little congested and a little more tired, but I will not give in to being sick. Mom’s never have time to be sick.

I finally added photos to my digital photo frame. It has been 2 years. I was shocked at myself. It is totally unlike me to neglect photos. I recently updated photo frames for two family members but I had not touched my own frame. It was lots of fun to sit with Isabel and look through the photos.  She thinks very baby photo is Danielle and that every photo of Eliana when she was younger is a photo of herself. The funny thing is that most of the time she recognizes the photos of her big brothers even the ones from when they were younger.

I’m taking on a few more jobs these days. Vacation Bible School at my church is this week and I’m teaching the Bible Story class. I’ve also gone back to teaching in Kids Church. It used to be that I didn’t have any of my own kids when I taught. That is definitely not the case any more.

Life is good. Thanks for reading my random ramblings.

The Siblings

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.

A Picnic Supper

It was a beautiful day outside, so I decided to surprise the kids with a picnic supper.  I let them watch some t.v. while I made quesadillas. The trick to a picnic supper is to eat something that is not too messy.  I snuck out the back door and put my hubby’s old Batman blanket in the grass. When everything was ready I had everyone get their socks and shoes on.  They all began asking over and over where we were going.  Andy protested that he didn’t want to go anywhere saying that he wanted to stay home. We got out the front door and they started to go out of the gate. They gave me the funniest looks when I told them to stop! Andy started complaining as soon as I told them to go to the back yard, but he quickly changed his tune when he saw the blanket and I said the word “picnic!” Our quesadillas were wrapped in foil. Our salsa and sour cream were in Tupperware containers. I had a bag of Golden Oreos. Everyone had their own cup with a lid. I put individual servings of ice cream in Tupperware containers in a bucket of ice but the ice cream melted before we had a chance to eat it. I couldn’t get Isabel to sit down for very long so she ate after we went back inside. I think Danielle enjoyed her first picnic!

30 weeks, 65 days to grow!

 

Here are a few photos from my 30-week photo shoot taken by Andy, who is almost 6. I almost never like photos of myself, but looking at these photos that made me smile.  First of all, I am tickled by the fact that Andy loves taking photos. He is still practicing (I did crop most of these photos), but he really enjoys it. It has been fun teaching him about photography. Secondly, I love growing a baby. All the pregnancy woes are worth it because I have another baby to love! I wear my baby bump proudly! 

I’m teaching Andy about angles and perspective. He wanted the yellow tree in the background so I told him to lie down in the grass.

 

Andy told me to do a karate chop and waited patiently for me to comply. I’m not sure how well karate and pregnancy go together!

Fun Times and a Name Reveal

James left for work the other day and five minutes later Joshua handed me a nail that was as long as the palm of my hand!  I have no idea where he got it or what it belongs to!  A few minutes after that  I discovered that the back of Eliana’s pants were soaked from her diaper leaking.

There were three baskets of clean laundry needed to be put away. Two were folded and one was not. Isabel decided to be a big helper and roll one of the baskets around and take clothes out of the basket. Of course she chose a basket of already folded laundry!

The “middles” have been eating second breakfast almost every day (just like good little Hobbits). They want to eat with their big brother before he is off to school, but they are hungry again 3 hours later and 10 a.m. is really too early to give them lunch.

The little one has a new habit of napping during meals so I end up sitting at the table with her for another meal well after her siblings and I have finished eating. I’m torn between enjoying a meal without feeding her and disliking having to sit at the table for extra time.

I spent all of my $100 Amazon gift card from Huggies. I ordered a set of plush Angry Birds that make noise! Each kid picked a color and Isabel ended up carrying around 2. They love the Angry Birds! I also ordered some “bongo buckets,” for toy storage and a big alligator “bongo bucket” for laundry. As soon as the alligator to the kids wanted put dirt they clothes in the bucket and pretended that he said “Thank you for lunch!”  The other two purchases that I made were stitch witchery and a box of diapers. I figured that we should use free money for fun and for things we need!

I woke up at 3 a.m. to find Joshua starring at me with his head on my pillow while he stood next to my bed. He informed me that he went potty in his pants. Not only did he startle me but I was not happy and he kept saying, “Sorry Mommy.”  Almost as soon as I got back into bed Isabel started crying. It was almost 5 before I got back to sleep again. When my alarm went off at 7 I was in the middle of dreaming. It is always exhausting to me to be awakened from a dream! To put it into perspective very soon I’ll have a newborn waking me up to nurse every couple of hours, so I’m not going to complain too much.

We have Eliana and Isabel. The new baby’s name is Danielle. You might notice that we like using “el” names. I can’t believe there are only 78 days until Danielle’s birthday! The time goes by so quickly and I’m going to try to enjoy each and every day while preparing for her arrival.

Joshua loves to make up songs and he sang one for me this morning. The only words were, Go Mommy! Go Mommy! Go Mommy Go! Go Mommy Go!” What did I do to deserve such cheers?  I helped him button his pants. It’s nice to feel loved and appreciated.