2009 in Review

Wow, lots of things have happened for us in 2009, we'd love to share some highs and lows.

Highs

K Got a new job

S began homeschooling

J turned 1

A started reading

Gr. Grams turned 80 we all went for a visit

K Lost 50 lbs

Grams retired...WOO HOO

Took out the wall between the kitchen and the living area and like it.

A completed her first year of Ballet and had a smashing recital

All S's siblings got together at Thanksgiving, it was fun.

Our small group multiplied and we are leading one of the groups.

NEW COUCHES (whoot whoot)

We did a serious purging of our closets. HA HA should i put this...

ALL OUR CHILDREN are OUT of OUR room!!!!! (Huge)

K-Made some awesome new friends at work.

Had a great Christmas with family.

Got to be in a blizzard and build snowmen for Christmas.

Celebrated NINE YRS of MARRIAGE!!

Found out we are expecting a baby.

S-got to spend more time with some other stay at home moms.

Girls went to Co-op.

K-ran first ever 5K and completed it without dying.

Made our little display shelf of gramas antique fiesta that you don't want to eat off of.

S-has books arranged by color in the living room.

Did Love and Respect series, ya'll should check it out.

Experienced more freedom in several areas.

Lows

Termite invasion

Ant invasion

An invasion from something I refuse to name

Plumbing issues (chuckle...not)

Said goodbye to our three chickens Lucy, Lexi and Lu Lu Leghorn

Accidentally ripped apart the garage door.

I'm sure there's more but who wants to dwell right?!! :-)

So...on to a new year, a new decade, and many other news I hope.

Happy New Year from this familyoffoxes to yours...

Good will to all...

Our family frequents the local re-sale store that is a nationwide retailer.  Can you tell I'm trying to not say their name.  We have no beefs with our local store, we love it, we go there often, as any store they do have issues with getting sizes in the right places and mens vs. womens clothing, at least from the mans point of view.

Anyway, we love to visit this store in other cities when we are visiting or passing through.  So since we're visiting my in-laws in the big big city, we thought we would check out a couple of theirs.  YACK, these are under a different management, and they have decided to organize their clothing by color, so instead of organizing by size, its by color.  So if i want a blue long sleeve shirt, i have to look through 37 different shirts to see if they have my size.  Not cool.  The other thing is they wanted 19.99 for a no name pair of black dress shoes.  What is up with the prices?  Ok, I used to sell mens shoes and womens shoes, this was years ago, but I'm pretty sure that most of the top brands are still up at the top.  I don't want to drop names on here, anyway...

Nonetheless I have to say that I was very frustrated and disappointed and just sharing.  So i appreciate our local hmm hmm "re-saler" should we call them...even more now, i guess i'll have to talk to the manager the next time we go in.

I did finally find a pair of shoes, not for 19.99, they were 6.99, and a brand that i sold at the high end department store i used to work at.  There is one more store I think we might give it a try, I'll just have to brace myself for the worst.

A funny thing that we noticed at one of the stores, in the housewares section they had 7 George Foreman grills sitting on the shelf, side by side, different sizes, shapes and colors, I almost took a picture to share, we thought it was so funny...

Merry Christmas!!!

Wow, we headed to my parents house and for the first time in 40 years there was a blizzard. Nice, so the girls had so much fun in the snow, it was awesome, cold... but awesome. Here are some pics to share.

So of course we didn't plan for snow, or in this case a blizzard, and had to run to walmart, in the blizzard I might add, and grab some "snow" gear, thank goodness for walmart, there goes this month's budget...

We did try the local Goodwill and found some boots for S, but she was the only one that benefited from that store.


I decided to shovel the driveway because we had to push the car to get it in and I wasn't sure when the snow was going to melt and I didn't want my parentals to have to face that by themselves...so at first we were just clearing, but when we came accross the 2inch thick slabs of ice I just couldn't cast them off, we had to do something with them.




 So it started as a small little igloo for one person maybe...then it expanded in to a princess ice castle, just about 4X8 ish.  Cousin C and Papa even got in on the building.  Anyway, it was fun and we got the driveway cleared which made for easy loading the next morning.





The thought did cross my mind that we could shape the snow on the outside of the walls to look like stones, and had it been at our house, I might have actually gone there, but it wasn't and we were leaving the next morning so...

Settting Up the Christmas Tree

Christmas is one of my FAVORITE TIMES of the year. We've had this tree since before we were married (we both worked at Dillards) so we got it for a real deal and the ornaments too. The ornaments you see are really glass and most have survived even with three children, they have a fun story.

One of our dearest friends had an adopted grandfather that gave her a bunch of his wifes glass ornaments that she had collected from over the years.  One Christmas, she re-gifted a bunch of them to us, they were mostly glass hearts with a few other things represented in the bunch. 

Then sometime later I found the same glass hearts at a garage sale, still wrapped up in the box, fun times, so we ended up with a bunch of hearts and we have just added to them over several years.  We have a family friend that sends us an ornament every year from Mikasa, Waterford or Lenox, it is usually a cross.  We love them, they are so beautiful, I tried to capture my favorite one up close. 

Then we decided it need some color, so the balls and icicles came.  I'm rethinking the icicles this year though.

We usually enjoy our Christmas Tree well in to the new year.

Thankfulness

Ok, so if you read this blog at all, and I'm not counting that anyone is, yes, I'm cheating, I am working on past blog posts, that I wanted to do at the time but I didn't, so confession...this is one of those.

We have a tradition at our house, it started when we were getting married, we put up the Christmas Tree on November 1st.  Then every day we wrote down something we were thankful for on an index card and placed it on the tree.  Sometimes we would do more than one.  And if any guests came over we invited them to write what they were thankful for on the tree as well.  Since we were getting married that first year, we had lots of guests come through and lots of them took us up on our offer to write down something they were thankful for.  What fun that was.  We may still have the cards in one of the Christmas boxes, we did save them for a while.  When our first child, "A" came into our lives that next year, i don't think the thankful tree made it up and it has taken on different forms over the years, but this year i think we found a happy mix, a thankful tree that doesn't take up a lot of space, has room for writing down what you're thankful for and makes for a nice display, what do you think?

"O" caught me taking pics and decided she needed to be in them.  :-)

Sigh...

This is what happens when your middle child sneaks dry oatmeal for a snack...and then leaves it hidden for the baby to find.

No wonder I can't get anything done...

It's been a while...

I know!

But hopefully this video will make it up to you!!
Sorry its sideways....

She is eating...kinda

Well as some of you may know my babies don't eat! Well they eat, but just from the breast. Neither "A" nor "O" ate baby food. They would gag something awful, and just had no interest until they were about a year old.

But "J" is showing a bit of promise... I made banana the other day and today I made carrot baby food so I thought I would let you in on the exciting times

of feeding an adorable 6 month old baby girl!!!

STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!

You may think I am addressing myself in an effort to loose the baby weight...although that would be good, I am actually addressing my second, who I affectionately call Little Bit.

It started with the serious call from my oldest,"Mommy!!! "O" is feeding the baby....

cookie dough!"

YES!!

Cookie Dough!!

She got the stand mixer bowl out of the fridge and was eating it in the living room. Yes she did somehow walk past me (I swear I am not negligent!) and had sweetly piled a handful of cookie dough on the rug in front of "J". I will admit it.

I freaked out.

I mean she is six months old. Salmonella and milk products are a lot scarier then. SO, no despite everyone asking, I did not get a picture of chocolate dribbling down my babies face or the fists full of mushy raw cookie dough.

Sigh.

Really I just heaved a big sigh thinking of it.

Yes, she had consequences.

No, it did not prevent another escapade.

Later she found the can of icing that had been hiding in the back of the fridge from

who knows when.

Yes, she had consequences.

No, it did not prevent another escapade.

I found her head in the fridge and asked in that Mommy threatening voice,"'O', Are you eating icing?!"

To which she replied, "NO! Mushrooms." She likes raw mushrooms, so I am OK with that. But as she closed the door she said, "I just dipping dem in icin..."

YUCK!

SO I look and sure enough there are little bits of black mushroom entrails in the icing can.

That was right before "K" came home. So we were through with escapades for the day.

But today we started over and this time I took pictures.

I came out from putting the baby down to "O" crying, "I got it in my eye, it hurts it hurts!!" So I rushed around the corner to find her in the pantry with the bag of Splenda tipped over. Yes it spilled all over her face. So I grabbed the camera on the way to the bathroom to wash out her eyes and off her face. She was hurting, but not enough to stop licking as much as she could off her mouth and wherever her tongue could reach!!

She did not like me taking her picture!

Yes, there were consequences.
Will it prevent another escapade, we will see...

Faith of a Child

Well my ear has been bothering me. Its been clogged and I haven't been able to hear out of it...not good when you've got a baby crying in the other room.

So tonight as :A" was heading to bed, she informed me that I needed to go to the ear doctor.

Flash back to Sunday. Our pastor, mentioned during his sermon that we often use God as back up when option 1 doesn't work out. He used a headache as an example. Those in more desperate situations don't have other options. When they have a headache they pray first and hope and expect an answer to their prayer for healing, and usually see it! Then there are those of us, with so many advantages and options. We have a headache, we reach for the Tylenol. Tylenol doesn't work we each for more. That doesn't work we cry "Oh Lord heal my headache!!"

Pastor challenged us to make God the first option!

Now back to tonight. I told "A", "Well honey why don't you pray for mommy's ear."

She asked why and I said, "Cause God is big and able to heal and doesn't cost any money!!"

She got shy and wanted me to help her so this is what we said:

Me: "Dear Jesus"

"A": "Dear Jesus"

Me: "Please make Mommy's ear all better"

"A": "Please make Mommy's ear all better"

Me: "In Jesus Name"

"A": "In JeSUS NAME"

I put that in all caps because that is what it sounded like to me! It suddenly became really loud!! I told "A" that God heard her prayer! She was so giddy! She kept covering her mouth and giggling. I explained to her that now she knew God really hears her prayer cause he answered one! So she literally, immediately prayed for her white, medium sized, fluffy, poodle dog that is a girl, and comes with a collar with the name sally written on it. In Jesus name amen. Whew.

yeah.

Can't fault her with non-specific prayers!

I guess now we will learn the lesson of how God doesn't always answer our prayers right away.

Unless there's something I don't know Lord!....

Things To Come...

I really enjoy spring time. After fall, spring is my favorite season! Partly because we might have a few days of pleasant weather before the inevitable 4 month long heat wave called summer here in central Texas, and partly because of the promise of things to come!!

We have a garden so spring just screams new life to me, and sinse we live in Texas we have been able to enjoy the fruits of our labor through winter here.

See thIs worn out broccoli!

We didnt even collect the last of it florets and it will give us more I am sure.

The spinach the girls have been enjoying, in fact, for lunch today!

Now on to the promise of things to come!

Here we have beautiful blossoms that will be growing into peaches! We are very excited because there are lots of blooms!!

Arent they so pretty and delicate looking!

This is my Valentines day present:

Lemon trees! I drink lemon water all day long. I lurve it!

And I love the smell of lemons...breathing in, breathing out...imagining the smell...mmm.

Thirst is overcomming me!!

These little buds are the beggining of lemons....YAY!

Now we finally have some strawberries growing. This has been a two year process of getting one or two random little bitty strawberries that we always have to cut in half ( we must share you know!)...ugh. But these are looking promising!We also have blue berry and black berry planted. We will see how they do! We planted some grapes along the fence so I am really excited to see how that goes!

The veggies are just in the beggininnig phases but here is some corn we planted, We just planted a little and then we will plant more later so it will last us longer!Here is our surprise! We put the pumpkins we carved for halloween out to watch them decompose.

It was very intersting to our girls. We put them in the empty planter we hadn't used last summer. Well guess what we have growing!!??

Pumpkin! What a neat lesson for the girls to learn: that ultimatEly death leads to life!

Hmmm... all of creation does point to heaven doesn't it!?

So as we prepare for the commemoration of our Saviors death and then resurection, all I have to do is look outside to be reminded of the promise of things to come!

7 Little Things That Make Me Disproportionatly Happy!

Heather at Want What You Have posted this and I love it!

We all need to think of these things especially when we get in the habit of thinking of the things that bother us, which, ahem...would never be me!

1. When My husband really really smiles, which is rarely caught on camera cause those are always posed. But this smile comes with an awesome laugh that anyone who knows him would recognize. In fact it has happened that someone heard him the next aisle over in a grocery store and came looking for him. It is the best and no matter how I am feeling it evokes at least a smile, if not a full laugh!

This is K when we were dating and is the closest I could find to the real thing!

2. When I use my creative juices to make something! I love making things, whether it's an outfit for one of my girls or decorative letters or something educational like -- I love it! I feel so accomplished and like I have done something useful and beautiful which is the best feeling ever!

This is the easter dresses I made for the girls out of womens skirts. One was a quarter at a garage sale then I found the matching one at goodwill for like 4.00 which is more than I normally pay but it matched! I was so pleased with how they turned oit!

3. Baby kisses. I love having a baby that I can kiss all over! I love love love baby kisses! And now she is getting big enough to give me baby kisses by grabbing my hair on either side of my face and pulling me toward her and usually my nose ends up somewhere close to her mouth and she just laughs...oh makes me want to wake her up just so I can get some!!! Well. Almost...

This is actually "A".

4. "O"s antics. Although these antics can sometimes drive me up the wall... most of the time they provide great laugh therapy which I need! There is nothing like seeing her look sideways out of her big blue eyes because she knows she is doing something that will make me laugh.

5. Serious conversations with "A". I love discovering how deep she thinks.
Whether it about how she will marry daddy when she grows up so she never has to leave our family, or the eggs that are inside her that will grow to be babies someday (yes I told her that casually one day when she asked how babies get inside...we even looked up pics! How did I know how wonderful she would think that was!) or whether it is about the house in heaven that Jesus is preparing for us: "Will it have pictures on the wall too? Will we need a fridge? Will we drive cars? Will there be a grocery store?" These moments of quiet conversations with her are like medicine for my sometimes weary mommy soul!

6. Finding bargains! I have to agree with Heather on this one! I LOVE finding bargains! I love when we find something we have been wanting at a garage sale for chump change!

Little things like a barbie watch that "A" had been asking for everytime we walked past the watch section at walmart: Garage sale for a quarter.

Nice Tommy Hillfiger shirts for "K" to wear to work: garage sale for fifty cents.

Ceramic Hair straightener I had been longing for: $19.99 with a $10 off coupon to be used on my next shopping trip to Walgreens. (and it works well, I tried it as soon as I got home!) YIPEE!!

7.The family routines we have made.

-Like sittting outside on a blanket in the cool evening while "K" plays his gutair and sings worship songs. We really do this and I love it!

-Like "A" asking every night at dinner, "What was your favorite part of today?" And we all answer in a particular order too!

-Like the silly songs we have made up for almost every routine or phrase we have to say repeatedly:

"Its Night night time, Night night time..."

"The only thing that goes in your mouth is food and drink..."

Well I was singing them as I typed but it doesnt translate well....

My Two Cents

So we don't watch much TV and yet I am surprised at how much negative coverage I have heard and read about the mother of octuplets.
And it irks me.
So I thought I would give my two cents.
The reason it bothers me is because I feel it is another attack on life...and I will tell you why.
Sure we may not agree with her choices.
Sure we may think she is irresponsible.
We may think she is a little off her rocker...
But would the media be giving such a hard time to a woman who seemed as equally irresponsible, crazy and made repeated mistakes resulting in 14 consecutive abortions!
NO!
Because it was her choice, and after all, we live in a pro-choice nation and she may have made bad choices but she has the right to terminate her pregnancies if she wants to...

The octomom as she has been called (even thought she has 14 children not just 8) I guarantee you was given the option to "reduce" when it was discovered she had multiple babies growing inside her, but she didn't. She chose life.
We do live in a pro-choice nation after all.
So.
That's why it irks.
My two cents, that's all!

Sisterly Love

I took this photo in the middle of the night last night, hence the off-centered aim!

I couldn't see where I was aiming!

The flash makes it look like its the middle of the day but it wasn't!

Aren't they sweet!

Aaahhh sisterly love!

Can I Do It?

I hear this question all the time, and if I am on top of things I say yes. If I am feeling rushed and not living in the moment I say no and something along the lines of "Please leave the kitchen (or where ever) so Mommy can get this done." And that is a lost teaching moment!

Annelise was cracking eggs into bowl, scrambling them in the frying pan by 18 months. She watered the yard with Daddy and helped with yard work...like really. She did.

Unfortunately, Olivia did not have the same experience. With the addition of another child I lived less in the moment and more in the future. By that I mean I was thinking of all the things that NEED to be done, of all the things I HADN'T done, instead of being there in that spot when she wanted to crack an egg, or wanted a hug, or needed a prayer said, or wanted to see if she could do it...

***Oh Lord, how much have we lost in all areas when we wast mind space thinking of what is to be done or hasn't been done...

Martha welcomed Him into her home.
She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word.
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."
But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;
but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10: 38-42***

Although I have tried to foster independence in most areas of their lives: they dressed themselves and put their own shoes on by the time they were 2, they usually help in some way with all the cooking...so YAY I have done somethings right!!! There are many things I had intended to do as a young mother with just one, that have slipped to the wayside as 2 more came along...


But I have been re-inspired!


As many of you know, we plan to home school and I have been rereading about Maria Montessori and her education philosophy. One of her famous quotes is that a child says "Help me to do it myself".


I love it!

One of the first activities she advocates for young children are called practical life activities. What does that mean? Real life activities you would do in ... real life!


So as a mom who feels always behind, why do I not offer more "practical life" !?


Folding, washing tables, dusting, washing dishes, setting the table. These activities are introduced to toddlers in a Montessori environment.


Having work to do makes children feel like they are contributing to the family, and an important member because of it. These activities are often repeated over and over by the child because they have a need to master it, and the repetition helps build concentration in the meantime.


So the other day I set up a dish washing station right next to the kitchen. I have a dishpan full of warm soapy water, a smaller bowl of cold water to rinse and a towel to dry. They LOVE it! And I don't have to clean up their breakfast dishes!!

***Lord help me to sit at your feet, the only thing that is necessary, and not be distracted and worried about so many things. And when my children sit at my feet, help me to see that they are needing to be taught...and I can't teach them well unless I am at your feet!***

"A" Wrote A Story

"A" drew a picture and then asked me to write down her story. So this is what she said word for word!

Once upon a time, there were two little birds sitting in a tree. One was a big one, one was a little one.There was a little girl named Marrissa who loved birds. She loved big ones, little ones, pretty ones, all kinds of birds. She had a brother named Sam.

One day Marrissa called her parents. She said, "Mom! Dad! Come look at these pretty birds I found!" So Marrissa's parents and her brother came outside and looked at the tree but didn't see the birds. So Marrissa said, "Look kind of to the left and then to the left." And then her parents finally saw the pretty birds.

Sam still couldn't see them. So Marrissa said to her brother, " Look kind of to the left and then to the right!" And then Sam SAW THE BIRDS!

He said, "Sister, come see what I did! I put them in a box for you!" So Marrissa's parents bought her a big, pretty cage for the birds.

They moved the birds out of the box into the cage. They gave them food, water and lots of love.The family lived happily ever after with their pet birds.

The End

I did no prompting except for the birds in the cage thing. I asked her if the birds would be sad to be in a cage and she replied that Marrissa would be sad to let them go. I told her Marrissa could look at them every time she went outside to play...but apparently that wasn't good enough cause she ignored my prompting and continued with the story as she imagined it!

Also we don't know a Marrissa or a Sam.

And the picture she drew is soo cute. It even has a family dog, a squirrel in the tree and and the brother is sticking out his tongue (how does she know that's what brothers do!)and there is an airplane flying over the parents that she is disappointed with. She asked that I teach her how to draw airplanes!...

I know I am her mother and therefore think everything she does is stupendous so bear with me!!

Can You Tell Who's Who?

Obviously the Date on the last one might give it away!

But the first one is Olivia, the second is Julia and the third is Annelise!

Don't we make cute babies!!!

Do You Know What Today Is The Anniversary Of?

Today is the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
Today marks 36 years of legal abortion.
The number of lives killed since then is too staggering to even wrap my brain around.
Many assume that this stance, pro-life, is one of religious roots. Of course there is obviously a faith based root to believing killing a human life is wrong, which is why murder is against the law as well. But I believe that anyone who values human life can see the depth of injustice that is called abortion.
No one argues that the aborted fetus was alive. Look an any medical text book. The cells are multiplying and the life is growing. It is alive.
Not only is it alive it is a human life.
We are horrified at accounts of others choosing death for an innocent being. There was a recent news report of Al Qaeda strapping unknowing people with bombs only to detonate them in a crowded place, those unknowing innocents were people with down syndrome. Shocking isn't it? Horrifying even. But everyday human life that has been diagnosed with such a disability is ended at someone elses will.
Then there is the tragedy referred to as the Holocaust. An unthinkable amount of human lives were killed at someone elses whim; actually he had a very calculated and deliberate strategy to wipe out a whole race. Did you know that African American babies are aborted at 3 times the rate of white babies? Did you know abortion clinics are strategically placed in poorer neighborhoods or neighborhoods that are predominately black?
Lets look at the current situation in Uganda. Children are being recruited as solders and sex slaves by General intent on achieving more power and rule. We are moved ti tears and rightly so when we think of all the children who's lived have been lost or negatively impacted because of one mans ambition. And yet one of the most voiced concerned in having an unwanted baby is the fact that this baby would hinder its mother from achieving what she could. Is the ambition and hope for one life worth the cost of another?
We watch in horror when the news reports of a mother killing her children, and yet...
men are charged with 2 murder when his pregnant wife is killed.
Is it the wantedness of a child that makes its life worth saving? Would it then be appropriate to murder the unwanted child given up for adoption? Of course not.
These "medical procedures" have been disguised as such, when in reality they are what they are: the killing of an inconvenient, unwanted, or disabled innocent life.
I could argue against many of the points pro-abortionists make but I will leave the numbers to speak for themselves:
6 million killed in the holocaust
unknown killed in the longest lasting war in Africa, but at least 2 million have been affected
4,000 a day in US and 130,000 worldwide EVERYDAY killed by abortion

http://abort73.com/

And... she is Rolling!!

Well I have other posts I needed to do to get this blog up to date...mainly Olivia's birthday, but I had to post this!

Julia just turned 4 months old on the 7th and she is officially rolling! She's quick too! I tried to get progress pics but she is too quick!!

So here are the pics of her rolling! My parents warned me that she may be more active than Olivia...watch out!!

Here she is on her back...

Arrgg..she is trying to roll...

Almost...almoooost..

And she made it! Even with big sister excitedly crawing around her!!

yes she has a stain on her outfit but it's not fresh and too cute so we wear it at home!

Heres my big girl on her belly like no big deal!

I have to say that later she did several in a row and ended up where the girls are! Could it be that my just turned 4 months old baby is already trying to travel!

It is exciting, but in the same instant sad. In one moment I lost my baby baby! Now she is moble. And on time flies from here!