Catching Up - Thanksgiving

I know Christmas is past and I haven't even posted pictures about our Thanksgiving trip to Michigan and Illinois. We had a wonderful time. It was well worth the long road trip. We first went to visit Jaime's aunt and uncle in Holland, MI. There was snow, which the kids enjoyed. Being that we live in Arkansas, it's possible that is the only snow they will get all winter. We'll see, I guess. Here are some pictures from Michigan.

After a few days of fun in Holland we drove down and around Lake Michigan to my sisters house in Libertyville, IL. These first few pictures are posted just because I think they are cute!

This is a picture of my grandma with 6 of her 7 great-grandchildren.

These next few pictures are from our day down in Chicago.

We also went to Millenium park to see the Chrome Bean. I thought I had pictures from that but I can't find them. If you're ever in Chicago I recommend going to see it. It was really neat!

Pay-It-Forward

I recently won a pay-it-forward giveaway from my dear friend, Elizabeth. Thanks girlie!!! I will enjoy every moment of my whatever-I-want-to-get-and-eat/drink-it-all-by-myself Sonic item. So, since I won I now get to bless three of my readers with something. Since it's so close to Christmas and I don't have a lot of time on my hands to get creative I'm going to keep it simple and give something close to my heart - coffee! I will give a $5 Starbucks gift card to three people. All you need to do is leave me a comment by Christmas day of what your favorite Starbucks drink is and agree to keep this going. You don't need to spend a lot of money. It can be anything. Be creative if you want. Just agree to bless three of your readers! Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you!

Redneck Fun!

Oh the fun that can be had on a Saturday afternoon!

(Just in case you can't tell...David is watching Jaime's shot through binoculars, the diaper box is FULL of hickory nuts for the sling shot, and on the ground are golf clubs and a bow and arrows. Thankfully all children were asleep during this activity.)

I just had to share...

...this story about my kids. I have finally stopped laughing enough to be able to sit and write it down. After lunch today I put Megan and Joshua in the tub for, what should have been, a quick bath. Sofia likes to be entertained so I strapped her in her seat and put her in the bathroom as well to watch them. Since all three were "contained" I decided to dust and sweep both of the kids rooms real quick. I was almost done when I started hearing hysterical crying coming from the bathroom. I heard both Megan and Joshua's voices so I determined no one was in serious harm but ran to see what it was all about. When I got in there I nearly fell over with laughter. There were brown chunks everywhere. Joshua pooped in the tub!!! He and Megan were both so upset about it and their shreaking cries upset Sofia as well, so all three were crying! I ran to get my phone and call Jaime. When he answered all he heard was hysteria for the first few minutes until I could stop laughing enough to talk. When I told him what happened he joined me in the laughter.

Ahhh, life with three kids. Gotta love it!


This is an after-the-poop shot.

It's been a while

I know it's been a while since my last post. I, like my friend Holly, have about 10 posts in my head but haven't had the chance to get them on here. Mostly due to the fact that I wanted to include pictures but couldn't until yesterday. Jaime reinstalled windows on the computer recently and just yesterday he installed the software needed to get the pictures from the camera to the computer. So now I can add pictures. Yahoo!

Much has been happening around here. Two weeks ago today, Sofia (and Bekah) turned 4 months old. A week ago yesterday, Joshua turned two. Yesterday was Sara and David Leiffer's 6th anniversary. And today is Jaime's 32nd birthday!!! This year November has been (and will continue to be) a full month. On Saturday we are heading north. First to visit Jaime's aunt and uncle in Holland, MI then down and around Lake Michigan to spend a few days with my sister and brother-in-law.

As time (and children) permit, I will try to post more about all these different events that have been happening around our house.

What can you do this holiday season?

As the weather turns colder and the leaves begin to fall, I'm reminded each day that Christmas is just around the corner. Almost as a constant these days are my thoughts of what to buy my kids for Christmas gifts. What do they need? What do they wish for? Nothing of any great value comes to mind. We, as a family, have so much. God has blessed us greatly. We would be buying things just for the point of buying things. Which brings me to my point of this post. Should I even buy much or anything at all for my kids this year?

I love the idea, that has become popular among many ministry organizations, such as CAM or Samaritan's Purse, to "buy" gifts for others around the world, often times in place of buying something for your own friends and family. Although I have never participated in something like this, each year I have the desire to do so, as I see the enormous need around the world. Instead of buying my son a new toy car why couldn't I buy a soccer ball for kids who have not one toy. Or instead of buying my new baby another cute outfit, that money could be used to buy blankets for a cold family or milk for hungry kids. I'm sure my 5 year old would love the idea of knowing she helped poor Honduran children have a healthy meal at school. It would be something that would impress on her so much more than another doll to add the collection of 20 or so we already have. Wouldn't your husband just love fish or a llama this christmas? Or how about a bridge, some water or a floor for your in-laws?

So... we each can ask ourselves, "What can I do?" or the bigger question "What SHOULD I do?"

What would Jesus do?

School

Megan has completed her first quarter of kindergarten and her teacher said she's doing great. I believe that's true because she already learned everything they're doing when she was in preschool. I think she's bored at school and incredibly tired from the long days. (She's at school 7 hours a day. That's 35 hours a week!) So, Jaime and I have decided we'd like to have her home more, while she's still interested in being home with us, and I'm going to begin homeschooling her. I'm a little nervous but excited. God has been teaching me to cherish these moments I have with my kids, because all too soon, they will be gone and I will wish I had them back. By recommendation from a friend, I bought an internet based phonics program for her to use. She has already done two of the lessons and LOVED them. This morning before heading out the door to school she asked if she could do one more really quick. You can go here to take a look at it. There is also a link on the right column of my blog. I will keep you updated as to how things are going with homeschool.

Family visitors

This past weekend was craft fair weekend in NWA. My grandma, Aunt Linda, and Uncle Hal came down to visit us and do some crafting. They had not seen the kids for a little over a year and this was their first time to meet Sofia. We all had a wonderful time together. Here is a picture of gram, holding Sofia, and Aunt Linda, holding Joshua. Megan had already gone to school, so she missed out on the pictures.

Rainbow

This is what we saw out our window one evening right after dinner!

Pumpkin Patch

A few weeks ago we went to a pumpkin patch with our community group from church. We all had a great time together. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon.

Three Months Old

Has it really been three months already? The time has gone by so quickly. Sofia started out as a somewhat difficult baby. Much more difficult than my first two. But, thankfully, she is doing so much better now and we are having so much fun with her. She's smiling a ton and we all just love that!



My cousing Kristen came over today and, of course, brought her camera. We got pictures of the girls together. What cuties!



Rebekah is a bit stronger than Sofia and she likes being on her tummy. Sofia HATES it!!! When I look at this picture I think Bekah is looking at Sofia wishing she could say, "Come on girl, hold that head up! Quit suckin' on my blankie!"

Sick Day

For the past few weeks a not-so-fun cold has been making its way through our household. Megan is the last to get it. Monday morning she ended up in our bed saying her ear was hurting, which, of course, means ear infection. Later that afternoon we were at the pediatrician's office. Throughout the day yesterday she was showing signs of feeling a little bit worse. This morning she was coughing more and wasn't acting like she was all that well. So, I made the decision to have a "sick day". I think my husband was less than thrilled about the idea of keeping her home but he didn't say not to. The way I see it, she's only in kindergarten, she hasn't learned anything new...yet, and the more we push her to keep going the longer it will take to get over this cold.

I was glad I made the decision to keep her home when at 11:00am she was laying on the living room floor saying, "I'm tired, mommy." Those of you who know Megan, know that is a rarity for her. She is like the energizer bunny. She just keeps going and going and going and... well, you get the picture.



It's almost 3:00pm and we are all still in our pj's. It has been a fun day at home chillin' with my kiddos.

A beautiful day in the Ozarks!

Yesterday we spent some time working around the house but decided to get out and have some fun in the afternoon. It was such a beautiful day! We first headed out toward Garfield, AR to see the view of the Ozarks and Beaver Lake from Whitney Mountain Lodge.






After our visit to the lodge we drove around the area a little bit. Then headed toward a pick-your-own raspberry farm. The kids had a great time picking raspberries. I think they ate more than they picked!






Once we got home and got everyone bathed and in bed, I made some raspberry sauce which Jaime and I enjoyed over some vanilla ice cream. Then this morning we all had french toast topped with raspberries and raspberry sauce and vanilla yogurt topped with raspberries. Yum!

Cloth Diapers

So, some of you already know that I have been using cloth diapers with Sofia. Those of you who didn't know this are probably going...WHAT!!! Yes. It's true. I use cloth diapers and I love it! I did a lot of research on the internet to learn as much as I could about this whole concept and, in the process, fell in love with the idea. After doing some reading and more reading and more reading about the different types of diapers I decided this is what I was willing to try. The bumGenius 3.0. It's a one-size diaper, which means that you can adjust the size as your baby grows, so there's no need to buy more diapers over the 3 years or so your child is in diapers.



I found a store in Fayetteville that sold these diapers and bought one. At almost $20 a piece I didn't want to buy more than one until I was sure I would really stick with it. I eventually ordered 6 more from this website, with plans to buy about 5 more, for a total of 12. I think that should be a good amount to have for Sofia. Unfortunately, Joshua is too big. I can get them on him but he gets so mad. He is a big boy and the diaper is too tight around his chubby thighs.

Maybe now you're wondering what I liked about it so much. There are several reasons. (1) Disposable diapers are so expensive! Research shows that over the coarse of a childs lifetime in diapers a family will spend between $1500 - 2000 in diapers compared to about $300 or so (depending on the type of diaper you purchase) in cloth diapers. (2) Environmental reasons. Disposable diapers take years and years to decompose. I like knowing I can do my part, albeit small, to help the environment. (3) Health reasons. There are so many chemicals used in disposable diapers to make them so absorbant. I feel it's better to have cloth around such a sensitive area of my baby's body instead of all the chemicals that are in disposable diapers.



Here are a few pictures of Sofia in her bumGenius diapers! What a cutie!!!

If you have ever considered using cloth diapers I would encourage you to give it a try. If you want to go super cheap, it can be as hard as it's reputation says but it doesn't have to be! Cloth diapers have come a LONG way from when our mom's and grandma's used them. If you are interested here is some more information about cloth diapers. Give it a read. I'm so glad I did!

I am thankful for...

...Big Momma shopping carts at Wal-mart!!!

Patient and Productive

I did not have the greatest start to this day. Sofia woke up hungry at 4:45. I drug myself out of bed and nursed her. She nursed well for about 30 minutes or so. Afterward, she was sleeping in my arms (or so I thought) so I put her back in her crib. Then the trouble began! I was already back in bed with the blankets pulled up over me. And just in the moment I was able to get into that comfortable "ahhhh!!!" position... Sofia started fussing. I let her fuss for a minute or two because I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed again, but I finally got up. I didn't want her to wake up Joshua. I went into her room and she had her eyes wide open. Immediately I thought, "Great! There goes the rest of my sleep." I changed her diaper. She doesn't like being poopy. I rocked her. Burped her. Tried nursing her a little more. Held her in every position possible. But she just was not happy. So I figured, if I'm going to be awake with her I might as well be comfortable. So, we climbed in my bed, which made her MAD!!! By this point she is crying pretty hard. Jaime tried holding her, bouncing her, giving her gas drops, etc. Nothing worked!

At 6:15 she was still crying and now Joshua was up. So I went to the kitchen to make coffee. This was definately a lets-make-twice-as-much-coffee-as-normal kind of morning. By this time I needed to get Megan up to start getting ready for kindergarten. So, I put Sofia in her bouncy chair, which she generally hates being in, but I had to help Megan and take care of Joshua too. Now she is all out screaming! But, while Megan and Joshua were eating breakfast, she FINALLY fell asleep. From the pure, total exhaustion of the previous 2 hours she fell asleep. Ahhhh! The house was more or less quiet!

A while later Jaime and Megan were out the door on their way to work and school. Joshua was playing with cars and I was drinking some coffee. Sofia was still sleeping. Around 9:00 Joshua went down for his morning nap and Sofia was still sleeping! Now, the house was really quiet.

While all of this was going on I kept thinking, I'm tired and frustrated. I just want to be lazy and do nothing today. Normally on a day like today that's what I would do... nothing but the minimal to survive! But that still small voice in my head told me that's not the best use of my time. So, my prayer for this day is to be patient and productive. "Lord, help me make this day the best it can be. Despite the fact that I'm as tired and frustrate as can be, I have a job to do. Help me do it well!"

Cars

Apparently, Joshua thought Sofia needed to play with some cars while she was taking a nap in the swing this morning.

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Megan's first day of Kindergarten. We loaded the whole family up in the minivan to take her this morning. She was a little nervous but also very excited.

We helped her find her classroom and when she saw her teacher, Mrs. Conner, Megan gave her a big hug. (Megan met her teacher at a "meet and greet" event the previous Thursday.)

She found her name on the table and sat down to play with blocks. She seemed completely comfortable being there and hardly noticed when we left.

When I picked her up in the afternoon, I was excited to hear what she did all day. She told me she learned how to walk in a straight line and drink out of the water fountain. Exciting stuff!!! My prayer for her as she begins this new part of her life is that she will develope a lifelong love of learning that never goes away.

Demolition Derby

Jaime and Joshua went to a demolition derby on Saturday with our friends David and Ryan. It looks like they all had a great time!

Megan is Five!!!

It's hard to image that Megan is 5! How has that many years gone by already? Jaime and I were talking about our first moments and days with her. Wasn't that just yesterday? It sure feels like it!

She has been a joy to have in our lives. She is a sweet little girl. She loves her little brother and sister so much. She's really into dance and music. I'm hoping to enroll her in ballet this fall. She loves playing with friends too! Her first day of kindergarten is on Monday, August 18th.

We had her birthday party at JumpZone in Bentonville, AR on August 8th. She invited several friends to celebrate with her. Lita (Jaime's mom) and Chichi (my sister Lisa) were able to make it from out of town. Here are some pictures from her special day!