Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Holy Kiddos....

June has been the month of... kids, starting with the newest kids in our family:




























Our "inside" cat gave birth to five kittens! It has been so fun watching her be a good mommy and watching the babies develop. If anyone is interested in an addition to the family, we can fix you up!



The other exciting kid we've had around is... Jarom. Jarom is my friend Shana's little boy and I watched him for a week while his Dad was in California. I forget how much work it is running after a little one, but we had plenty of giggles in the process. The kids had a great time with him and were great "big" brothers and sisters!








On top of all this excitement, we've had several friends over for play dates. It has helped the summer to zoom by and the kids have been having a great time.



Our guests this day were Houston and Ivey! I got out a brand new loaf of bread, a new jar of applesauce and a brand new bag of chips. I was shocked that seven sandwiches about wiped out the loaf of bread and there wasn't anything left of the other items, either! I don't know how my Sister-in-law feeds her crew of nine kids!!






Our next adventure is leaving this week for Valdosta, GA! We are camping and seeing as it was 105 degrees here this week, I'm sure it will be sweltering in South Georgia! Looking forward to fun with the family!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Facebook, why hast thou forsaken me?

My last post was March... and it's all Facebook's fault! It is so easy to add a picture and a line to Facebook. Then when I think about my BLOG I feel like it's redundant to comment about the same things I've mentioned on Facebook... ugh. My kids have been very disappointed in this dilemma and since I started this BLOG for them, I'm committed to do better!


The other day I took note of the random activities going on about the house:

Kaylee was helping me cook,





Owen was busy vacuuming up a trail of ants that had gotten into the house,





Griffin was busy learning a new skill on the computer,





And even Lilly was busy feeding her new babies,




So let's see... the only person missing was McKay. What productive thing was she up to??














Dressing up and putting on my makeup,




Our garden has been giving us a lot of enjoyment. Kaylee has especially been interested in the green beans. We got our first batch large enough for a meal and Kaylee helped me pick the beans, snap them and cook them... the only problem, she doesn't like the taste of them! She had high hopes that they wouldn't taste like the ones from the can... after two bites, she decided they are still yucky! The rest of the family fought over the last helping!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The McKay Snitch Project

The girls and the boys each got a video camera for Christmas this year. They were constantly wanting to borrow mine and I was usually a bit leary about doing this. They love to create a script and then act it out. Fun, creative entertainment.

I never realized how handy these video cameras would become.

Today, McKay was outside trying to play with her brothers. She must have come running inside at least a half dozen times to say "The boys are being bad", "The boys hit me", "The boys are being mean to me". Finally, she came from her room and said "I know what I'll do. I'm going to take my camera outside and try to video tape them and catch them being mean to me!" I thought, smart girl... but figured the boys would be smarter and figure out what she was up to.

After several minutes, McKay came running inside and said "I did it! I got proof! I even caught Griffin saying the F word"... well, my heart skipped a bit (he said what??) and I couldn't wait to get through supper to come and look at the proof she had acquired. Here it is...

I thought it was hilarious how she got close up footage of her face (Blair Witch Project) and then kept cutting her eyes to the side. I was also very relieved to find out what the real F word was that Griffin said... We always call McKay our little northerner, so in case you couldn't tell the F word was... fart. (Faught as McKay says)... We don't like this nasty little word floating around at our house, but considering other F words I was imagining, I'll let this one slide.

Good, clean Sunday Fun!!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Snow Day

There's something magical about a first snowfall of the season, especially when it happens in the South! The first few snowflakes began to fall on Friday afternoon. The boys were out "hunting" for some "winter" game.


By 4:00 pm it was really starting to come down. I saw Owen running toward the house, head upward catching snowflakes on his tongue.




Kaylee just "thought" it was cold. She hadn't seen anything yet...


The kids were so excited to be able to share the snow day with Chloe. The snow was just starting to stick...


My TRUE southern fella. Doesn't everyone grill on snow days? Real men don't need sleeves.


After a yummy supper of grilled hamburgers, I assumed the kids would have been content to stay inside, warm up and watch the snow from the window... boy was I wrong. Round two:









Finally frozen fingers, pink cheeks and wet heads came in to warm up with some hot cocoa.




Several weeks ago we had a friend come and help us wire our house for the use of a generator. Steve and I giggled as we "gave" each other the generator for Christmas (welcome to the country). I had asked Steve before the snow fell if he thought we should get some gas for the generator and he didn't really think it was going to be necessary. Just as everyone settled in for the night, we lost power. In the dark and heavy snowfall, he tried to get both vehicles out of the driveway to go get gas at the corner station. Luckily he had his truck because the vans wouldn't budge. He came back with gas and had us powered up in no time. Steve and I were even able to watch TV during the outage. Here's as far as the van would move...


We awoke to the beauty that is only capable through God's hands...


First winter in our new home, christened with virgin snow.


We trekked down to our friends house who have a steep hill for sledding, but the snow was too powdery for sledding.


It was thrilling to watch Griffin and his deep awe of the events of this storm. He kept asking me about the weather reports and if the temp was dropping. He kept coming up with hypothetical situations that would allow the snow to stay longer. After dark, he asked if he could sit on the porch and watch the snow. I had to let him because I remember doing the same thing when I lived in Springville, Utah. I sat on the porch, in the dark and sang "You Light Up My Life" over and over. I hope the memories of this stay with him just as mine have.


I love this picture of McKay. She looks like a beautiful snow bunny.


Even the pets got into the action. I was surprised that the cats wanted anything to do with the snow, but I couldn't keep them inside.


Sophie should have been born a sled dog. She LOVED the snow. She kept romping through it, eating it and digging in it.


And what's a snow day without several snowball fights? It's all fun and games until...


There actually were several casualties. Owen got hit on the face with a snowball and lost the lens to his glasses. The girls got hit in the face several times by their brothers and were not too happy. I got hit in the eye and broke my brand new glasses. It was an expensive day.

It was sad to see the snow start to melt so quickly, but even Owen came in cold and wet saying "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kinda ready for the snow to be gone".

Friday, January 29, 2010

Longing...?



The girls brought me a "song" they wrote and this is how it went:
I wish I had a brother, to push me on the swing
or when I get tired or hungry, he'll be there for me.
I wish upon a star. I'll make my dream come true.
He'll be like a baby brother even though he's not.
I'll never leave home without him, until he dies
then I'll wish upon another little star -
I wish I had a brother.
I said "well, you have TWO brothers" they looked at me very seriously and said,
"that's not the kind of brothers we want".

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Who really Cares??

So, I've had several people request photos of the house. I've been postponing it because it seems strange to post pictures like "here look at my house". Since the requests, nay the demands :) keep coming... here are a few of my favorite places in our new home:

Master Closet... Steve is already about to run out of room. I told him he better not start creeping over on my side :) We came from a house that had tiny closets and so my clothes weren't even IN our bedroom. It is soo nice to be able to open a door and have all of my clothes right there. It's my favorite room in the house.

Pantry. My quality of life has greatly improved with this pantry. I can access all of my large and awkward appliances that were never used before because they were too much of a pain to get to.
I finally have room for all of my food storage. Our builder thought we were some kind of nuts when we explained the size of pantry we wanted. He kept trying to downsize it and finally we told him "We believe that in case there is a situation that we can't get to the store or the store shelves are bare... we want to be self-sufficient" imagine the blank stare we received. I should have gone with my friend Lori's explanation "It's our Costco room". We used to have food storage literally in every room of our other house, including the master bedroom shower stall. Not having this issue any longer makes the pantry my favorite room of the house. (Did I already say that?)


Dining area

Kitchen

Craft Nook


Computer Nook

Master Bathroom


Master Bathroom


Kid's Bathroom


Guest Bathroom

Random Christmas Fun


McKay enjoying her Baby Alive.


What a good Mommy, What a BAD Toy!





Kaylee using her Knitting machine, trying to Knit a scarf...



"What is it, I don't think it's a scarf." (Doesn't she look cute in her Snuggy? I think the Snuggy was all four kids favorite gift.)



It's not a scarf, it's a... a... hat, yeah that's right, A HAT!